The Fall

Heavens be damned, another day of the streets smelling of putrid rotting corpses. I see another pile of bodies being dragged by the cascading wheels of the wooden wagon. Oh, how I despise the sound of the wheels on the cobble. My legs bounce off the wood panel beside my bed and I leap off to start the day, and what a day it has been so far. 

I push open the door into the street, the light from the suns blinding me as I first make contact with the cobblestone road. The sounds of the passer-bys get louder and louder; the crier screeching about something to do with a werewolf threat. Or was it vampires? You never really know here. More bodies pass by, this time I inspect them closer, my eyes widen at the discovery. Their corpses are completely pale. I've seen dead bodies before, but never like this. My stomach churns at the sight of their lifeless eyes just staring into my soul, or that's what it seemed like. 

"Outta the way, ye' damn pest," bellowed the gravesman. "can't ye' see I got dead to carry 'ere?"

What an absolutely terrible man, he doesn't see death as anything special anymore. How heartless. Wait... when was the last time I saw death as anything special either? Strange.

I shake my head and press on, my rags trail behind me as I breeze past the villagers in the area. Meats, wine, cheese, all manners of goods on sale in the market, especially during this scorching heat. I hand over two silver coins to the baker, my mother had requested some bread for dinner, and I never disappoint. I hurry back over to my house, I look around to see what else I can find in the area, still nothing, always nothing. Just the same old, same old. Until, my good old friend, Darius runs over. "Jeon, you damned curr!" he exhaled as he ran over.

"Darius! You foul oaf, how've you been?" Darius is great, he's my friend after-all.

"Oh, same old, same old. Y'know matter of fact, I found this strange building on the outskirts of town, it's locked tight, but there might be treasure." Darius truly had found a building I don't know about?

I knew this village like the back of my very hand.

Now this, I had to see. "Lead on then, Darius." 

We brush past the meandering roads and over past some shrubbery, past the walls of the village, as broken as they were. The grass grew longer as we carried on, it even started to change colour, it shifted from a verdant green to a copper bronze. Was that even possible? No one in this area can even use magic, much less to this effect. "I didn't see this grass before, Jeon." Darius seemed worried, his voice quivered slightly.

"We press on." I had to see this through. 

Once I passed the shrubbery, I had felt a force dragging me closer to that building. It was a dilapidated cottage, made of complete wood, out in the middle of nowhere. No other house, or amenity was in sight of it. And yet, my body keeps getting closer and closer, my hand fully stretched out while Darius stands back holding the bread I had bought.

"Jeon, come back!" I did not heed Darius' warnings, I do not think I could even if I wanted to. I had to know what was behind this door, even if it killed me.

My hand rests on the handle, sweat dripping heavily off my brow, I turn and push. The moment my eyes lay on the interior, I feel my eyes watering, my mouth dribbling, saliva? I pressed my free-hand up to my lips and stared at my fingers, blood. My eyes trail down looking down my entire body, it feels so cold. So terribly cold. The nerves in my fingers were rigid, I can't feel my legs anymore. My eyes water and I hear the dim sound of Darius screaming, before my vision fades I see a sharp object sticking out of my chest, I had been stabbed, impaled...

So this is how it all ends? Curiosity being my downfall, how cathartic... I'm sorry Darius. I'm sorry, mother. I'm so useless, so weak, can't even survive a stab wound. I'm sorry...

"Wake up." A serenading voice whispers in my ear.

"Wake up, reborn as one of my own."