Lost Library of Absolute Fucking Horror (Whumptober 2024)

DAY 19: When Memories Snow

THEME: Blood Trail
PROMPTS: Abandoned Cabin/ One Way Out/ "Is anyone in there?"
PROMPTS USED: Abandoned Cabin/ "Is anyone in there?"
SUMMARY: Tsukasa treks across a snowstorm, desperate to find a source of heat amidst the biting, winter cold.

WARNINGS: N/A??? I dont even know what this is honesty i just fucking wrote it or some shit
————

Cold.

Cold, it was so cold.

Tsukasa shivered, his teeth shattering. He could barely feel his body, everything felt numb.

He was angry at it. He was frustrated that his body wouldn't cooperate with his mind. It was like there were two of them- his body, and his mind. Two separate beings, forced to work together.

And Tsukasa hated it. He hated his body. He hated the shell he was forced to possess, the corpse he lived in.

He just had to find a fire.

The last one had been.. in a cave. A strange one, he'd think. There were crystals- and even though Tsukasa couldn't break them so he could keep a tiny piece- they were pretty. And it was the only cave that Tsukasa had seen crystals in. If he could, he wanted to go back.

His main goal was to find a flint and steel- or a lighter- a match, or anything that could make fire. Then, Tsukasa wouldn't have to run around this endless snowstorm just to find any source of warmth.

He didn't know what got himself here in the first place. He wasn't sure how it happened. Or what came before. His memories had been buried underground, lost amongst the layers upon layers of snow that piled on top of itself day in and day out.

In fact, Tsukasa couldn't even tell when was day and night. There was no sun- the dull, grey clouds obscured every inch of the sky in sight. But all he knew was that it got even darker when the non-existent moon was out.

If Tsukasa thought hard enough, he could remember a faint vision. The indistinct memory of a dark, inky sky. Specks of white twinkling, shining amongst the shadows, and a single, large, glowing moon in the center of it all, faintly beaming.

An outstretched hand, reaching towards the crescent. Never to be touched. So close, and yet, so far.

Balling up fists. As if imagining that the moon was there, captured, secured tightly inside the palm of his hand.

Then, he let go.

And his arm dropped down, laying limp at his side.

The moon.

Shining in the darkness. A beacon of light within the pitch-black nothingness of the night sky.

Tsukasa shook the memory away. He wondered when he would find his moon. Perhaps, a long time ago, he did have one. Perhaps he was the moon, perhaps there was even a brighter, warmer sun.

But no.

There was nothing. Tsukasa couldn't recall.

If he ever made his way out of here, though... maybe then Tsukasa could try. Right now, he had to focus on surviving and escaping this place. Because somehow, no matter how far he walked.. the forest just kept on going. The sky kept on snowing. It was like this place stretched out for eternity- as if it was never-ending.

How strange.

A few times, though, Tsukasa managed to come across a few strange instances. He couldn't remember what happened exactly all that clearly- but he faintly remembered having to do some sort of weird task to get a warm enough coat from.. someone. Or something. Tsukasa forgot what the thing even looked like, but it sure as hell spoke to him.