Short Story Collection

Taunts from the Void

There was originally eleven of us. We're not sure what happened to four of us. We met at the bridge. It was an old stone bridge that used to connect the two sides of a city that formed around a river. Now it is the only part of the city that remains. Well, not the only part exactly. There are records and stories past from person to person, but the bridge is the only proof that anything once existed here

We were called the scouts. We were supposed to examine the ruins and find out where the city went and why the bridge still stands. I was the last to arrive. It was just before sundown and we were told to stay near our torches when the light disappears. Our leader, they called him the surveyor, was supposed to stay at the bridge the whole time and make sure that our torches didn't go out overnight. After the trip we were all exhausted and passed out without complaint.

In the morning the surveyor was gone. He and three other scouts were missing and unaccounted for. They made me the new surveyor, presumably because I looked the oldest. I stayed behind while the scouts finished the mission. I filled up our water supplies in the river below. It was my first real chance to examine the river. It gave off an otherworldly light that seemed to emanate from one point below the bridge. I don't remember stepping foot in the water, but I do remember being submerged. I swam towards the light while the river current tried to pull me further away. I prevailed, despite the deathless drowning, and found four torches bundled together in a circle. A taunting call that would pull me further from life.