Lost Library of Absolute Fucking Horror (Whumptober 2024)

DAY 18: Run, Boy, Run

THEME: Revenge
PROMPTS: Unreliable Narrator/ Loss of Identity/ "I see what's mine and take it"
PROMPTS USED: Loss of Identity/ "I see what's mine and take it"
SUMMARY: The Shadows grow ever stronger in the dark. A trip from a boy full of bravery and confidence goes awry, and the next morning, all that is left is a rotting corpse, flies and maggots and insects eating away at his body.

A boy steps towards the body, fists clenched. In the corner of his eye, he spots it. The perpetrator.

A Shadow. A monstrous creature who will pay for taking the light away from the eyes of his beloved.

WARNINGS: Minor mention of blood, death

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I have been running.

For so long.

I have been running.

I can barely remember why I have been running.

Or what I have been running from.

Or how long I have to run.

But I have been running.

And I still am today.

I do not know if anything is after me.

My breaths are ragged and sharp. My feet are numb and I can barely feel.

I can barely think.

But there is no time to think; for I must run.

I must run.

Run, run, run. With no end in sight.

If I stop, even for a single second, I will die. I will be caught.

Surely, I will.

That must have been my reason for running this long.

Something is after me.

It will catch up if I do not run.

It will catch me if I stop.

It will kill me.

I cannot die.

I can not die.

I must live.

I have to live. 

And to live, I must run.

To live is to run; to run is to survive.

I must survive.

I do not know if there will be an end.

I do not know if there will be a way out.

I do not know how far behind it is.

Soot stains the ground with each step I take. A grimy, oozy residue amongst the infinite acres of grass and trees.

That is why I must run.

Because I leave a mark.

They will follow it.

They will find me.

And they will kill me.

That is why I must run.

Run from something I do not know.

Wind rushes past my ears. My body.

Through me.

Through my body.

I cannot tell what my body is. Not anymore.

I cannot feel my body. I cannot make out what it is.

I do not know if I am 'alive.'