Posted by Leif G.S. in Fiction, Flash Fiction, Short Short Story | 0 Comments
Dark Flash Fiction: All Hallows Eve
I found this dark flash fiction lurking in my files from my last blog, I figured it was time to share it with you all. I didn’t edit it much so please forgive any issues to the piece. Thanks for reading and enjoy!
“I am… I am dead?” The man asked meekly as he watched the undead hordes funneled through the murky mist and surrounded him like a flesh wall. However, that wasn’t the issue at hand for him as he witnessed his worst nightmares come to life. Standing a few feet away from him, a creature so vile and horrid it made him wretch instantly. One half rotted flesh and the most beautiful woman he had ever seen on the other, she looked at him as if he were a mere toy instead of a mortal soul slipping these bonds.
“Yes, you are. You are mine, as per our agreement.”
“I didn’t agree to this!”
“Foolish manikin, you all think that this has to do with you. The world revolves around you while you casually throw your lives away every day. I am here to take your soul to my realm to suffer for all eternity.”
“Are… Are you Satan?” The man reeled back slightly, recalling the bible study he was taught many years before. The gruesome figure shook her head with a chilly laugh, the rotten side squishing together like months old meat left to rot in the sun. She snapped her fingers and in an instant, a portal opened up behind her, allowing the room to become awash in a dull blue glow. The man skittered back a little further in terror before backing up into a rotting corpse who moaned at him once before the jaw snapped off and fell to the floor. The worst part was, even though he knew he shouldn’t feel it; he was cold. It was cold enough to see icicles form on the ceiling and even on the dead bodies surrounding him.
“Manikin, if I were Satan do you think I would come to you in this form by choice? No, I would be the angel of light your priests declared him to be. You only delay the inevitable, accept what fate the Norns have weaved for you and come with me.” Her ire could be felt deep within his soul, but he did everything that he could in order to delay what was coming to him. He took a few steps back and ran at the wall of rotting flesh in hopes of jumping over them and escaping, but as he leapt, he felt hands grab him and pull him back into the ring, slamming him hard to the ground with a sickening thud. The woman’s posture did not change, but her voice grew chilly with every word she uttered, “You are a fool; you expend my patience with this petty game.”
“I am a human; I have to try. I have to save my family!”
“Do you not think everyone else tried the same strategy, manikin? This is why my hordes are here to ensure that my quarry does not escape.” She casually glanced at her fingertips as if this were an everyday occurrence, much like the rain falling from the sky or a heart beating. He could no longer stand her disinterest and charged at her, thinking that he could knock her into the portal and have a fighting chance to get away. As he approached, she lifted her good arm and snapped her fingers, which made a large ice pillar to encase the soul. She frowned slightly, motioning with her rotten hand to the circle of undead, “Come, let us take this poor fool away before he mocks us any longer.”
The undead hordes enclosed around the man, who could be heard screaming from inside the ice. His terror filled shrieks were no match for their guttural moaning as they wrapped around the pillar and held tight. The man pleaded for his family to forgive him, but his cries were not heard by them as he disappeared into the cold portal towards a vast unknown. The Goddess of Death stood silently for a moment in front of the portal, looking at the physical form of the man who she had just harvested with a sick smile. “I took your chosen soul; you bitch. You will not have an Einheriar this day.”
Her head moved up and locked eyes with a brilliant figure of pure light, her wings splayed in frustration and anger as she leveled her golden spear at the goddess’s heart. They stood still for a moment, neither making a move that would be considered weakness before the goddess disappeared, winking out of existence along with her portal. Moments later, the figure she confronted evaporated, leaving behind one sole shimmering feather behind as evidence she was even there.
As the room was engulfed in dull natural moonlight, the quiet sobs could be heard starting as if a recording being sped up to its normal rate. Draped over the body of the recently slain man were his wife and two children who were mourning over him as the doors were being broken in. With each slam, the door fractured and ghoulish hands slipped through, moaning an unearthly sound that frightened them more. As the wife struggled to keep her children calm and collected, the body of her husband reanimated into a flesh craving creature and bit her on the neck, ripping away some of the flesh violently with an erratic spray of blood.
All was dark.
