Little Canis, was a mere pup to the pack. He was going to become an a true member of the pack as a lyncane. Tonight was suppose to represent that entrance. It was a shame though. Losing, unable to find his pack within the burning village.
He stood at the entrance as the hellfires emitting for it. Fear crept along his mind, playing with the hunger in him. He didn't want to, but he must, if it meant to find his pack. He charge on all fours and ran straight into the belly of the village. Canis tried to sniffed them out, but all there was burning, hot rotting flesh.
Bodies becoming charcoal, combining with crackling of the wood. Houses falling apart, oxygen being remove from his body, suffocating the air all around him. The ground burned his paws, leaving scabs on them. The echos of helpless decaying corpses cry throughout the night. Embers lick the midnight sky, dancing as it left nobody alive.
This is unbearable, he thought. It scary, no, horrifying. He couldn't take it much longer. The smell of his own burning flesh enter his mind, etching into his brain so he could never forget. The paint on his cheeks melting off, leaving permanent markings of it.
Finally, an exit from the hell the village had became. Canis burst and crashed into the cool, soothing earth. Oxygen refilling the emptiness that was placed into him. As cold winds warped itself around his body, chills run through him. His emotions collided at once. Coldness. Loneliness. Lost. Alone. Afraid. Dying.
Jolts of pain shoot everywhere in his body. Pieces of his skin were coming off, he could barly moved. Reduce to trembling in the cold night. Canis watched the fire and the smoke dancing in the sky. He blink his eyes slowly, wishing for anyone, or anything to help him.
Eyelids grew heavy ever second that passes by. He curled up and fell asleep to the burning village in the cold night.
Geoff and Naomi are dead, and they're depressed, but when Geoff's cat Bernie dies as well, they embark on a wild journey to find it in the underworld.
*****
When Geoff dies, alongside his girlfriend Naomi, they end up sharing an apartment in the Underworld as skeletons. But after a few years, Geoff starts suffering a mid-death crisis. What's the purpose of going through the motions as a skeleton if you can't really live? Then he gets word that his cat, Bernie, just died and he can collect him and bring him home! Geoff and Naomi hurry to get Bernie only to discover that, due to a clerical error, their cat has been lost. With the hunt for Bernie giving new purpose to Geoff's un-life, he and Naomi begin a quest to get back their cat. Battling skeleton pirates, climbing the sky ladder and facing off against the villain who took Bernie, Geoff is determined to find his purpose - or die a second time trying!
[[2018 Wattys Winner - The Originals]]
[[word count: 30,000-40,000 words]]