Story and characters written and created by JustSomeNumbers
Richard wasn’t particularly clear on the full implications on full cellular, or potentially even molecular, regenerative properties on the human body. What was strange was that the capillary responses remained in disconnected tissue and nerve responses were not reflective of the state of biological health either. This wasn’t exactly what most people would call “thrilling” but for Richard something like this posed earth shattering direct opposition to everything he considered common medical fact. Not to mention the constant weirdly numb sensations he could only speculate was some sort of somatic symptom disorder the body he was moved into had. Which was another medical miracle by the way. The fact souls even exist re-contexutalizes not only the field of medicine, but cuts into question the notion of psychology. Suddenly the idea of ‘magic’ and ‘witchcraft’ seem worlds more plausible, questions surrounding the conception of life and Darwin's theory of evolution still maintain the best explanation of general macro-biology, but in terms of specifics this meant an entire new field of specialty needed to be created.
What is a soul? Can the soul…even be affected by biological function? The entire concept of medical death could be disrupted if I don’t fully get this… I feel… overwhelmed…
The other two strangers he was met with apparently came up with a fairly solid communications system- but it really just looked like a kid trying to play a more mature version of charades… It was also worth mentioning the Pink intimidating guy was somehow a lot less intimidating the more he got to know him. It was a bit weird at first, getting used to all this overwhelming change in his life. It felt a bit surreal moving from such a painfully continued slog to this overwhelming situation. Richard knew he needed to talk to a therapist as soon as he physically could- when he looked at his hands all he could see was the remnants of the rope. It gnawed at his thoughts if he lingered for too long on any particular thought. He felt a little more hopeful in himself whenever the other guy in blue showed up though. Usually he and blue tended to just relax and draw small ideas of either of their niches. It felt… cathartic… in a way. It was as if his cowardice and failure slowly got overshadowed by the relieving charm of simply being proud of the work you're involved in. Richard kept his movements small and his voice hushed in many of these encounters. He didn’t want to speak too loudly or draw too much ire from these nice people, it would just drag them down to his level. He was also too tired to move around most of the time. The room's walls felt like a container to protect himself, somewhere to cry in a corner where nobody could see the pitiful failure he was. Dread was commonplace in this room of disillusioned silence. He couldn’t put a finger on it but Richard could definitely point to a singular commonality between what he was experiencing and what he thought he could reasonably diagnose- but he didn’t want to admit it. He didn’t want to be more loathsome than he felt and certainly didn’t want to look like any of his thoughts.
Moving on the long journey away from wherever they all started from- not only did he take his life for granted, he took the readily available access to care facilities as an afterthought. He really wanted to speak to a therapist. It was generally healthy to talk about interpersonal feelings or potential emotional trauma to just work through it and fully process it, but the kicker was that Richard knew it well enough to tell he needed to do it correctly. It was an entirely different field of specialty- how was a general surgeon supposed to work with the complexities of survival, cognitive behavioral therapy, physical health and holistic preventative care planning for a body governed by three unique individuals. Richard let out a small chuckle at the thought. It was like some sort of medical college aptitude test question- you would never see a patient like this, but the process of working through as much information as you can show the examiner the way you think as a potential provider. Looking back on those early days as a medical student made Richard smile, it was stressful- but the workload kept him balanced. He had peers he could readily access and mentors Sitannia would usually sponsor. Here he had…nothing.
Richard was thinking about all of this and how he could possibly work through all this with a communications blockage when a booming repetitive thud started to slowly beat forward, inching closer and closer. Richard’s heart started to grow anxious with the beating sounds of something large coming in his direction- enough so to paralyze his thoughts as a large shadow lumbered into his peripheral view. It looked like some kind of large… bear? Richard stopped dead in his tracks.
Ohhhhh shit…. That's not good…
The large animal looked, upon closer observation, similar to a sittanian black bear. But that was about where the connections stopped. The animal was standing at minimum thirteen to fourteen feet tall, matted fur had striating patterns of deep black and shining grey. Parts of the magnificence of the animal showed an awestruck splendor of small shining bioluminescent pedipalps sitting in front of a smooth shining plate of what Richard assumed to be chitinous tissue. Four compound eyes each strangely colored distinctly from each other. Just under the eyes a large triangular mouth was extruding from some unseen underneath. While the fur coat on the exterior of the animal hinted at its mammalian nature- the split 6 legged creature before him confused and scared Richard to no end. Its compound eyes were colored red, black, white and yellow, each large enough to tell it was able and willing to search for small movements or details while being hidden behind the fact compound eyes are difficult to track. Richard couldn’t tell where it was looking, but knew it was watching every aspect of both him and his surroundings. It was more concerning that each “paw” the creature had seemingly acted in tandem with the movements of subtle adjustments in its head. While it’s fur acted to cover most of the surface area of its body, large open sores peered into the guttural organs of the creature. It was enough to make Richard nearly vomit in response to the undulating clear movements of gastro-intestinal tract- compounded further by the exposed muscle fibers and hidden openings. The openings themselves seemed to operate like ventilation holes, rhythmically letting out puffs of air warm enough to be seen as a pale foggy outline as it faded to the skies above.
What the fuck- what the fuck- what the FUCK. WHAT THE FUCK.
Richard started to nervously sweat as when the large creature came into his view, it stopped moving almost immediately. Small patches of anxious sweat started to form on Richard’s brow as the movements of the creature essentially were so still- the only reason he knew it was still alive was the continual venting of oxygen from the holes hidden by the fur coating. Richard didn’t want to move. He didn’t want to even breathe too heavy- the sight he saw before made him fear to even twitch. It was like watching a net casting spider prime its web- the only problem was Richard assumed its prey was him. It was a horrendous experience in itself, not knowing why the creature suddenly went completely still- even though Richard clearly knew it was still breathing, the tenseness of the situation started to quicken his already racing heartbeats. The small buildup of sweat started to build into droplets as his new body felt like it was about to pass out. As Richard stared into what he assumed was the head of the creature, only the slow falling of leaves around him confirmed that time didn’t stand still. He wanted to scream, but he was too afraid to do so.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Richard felt his legs start to shake, and as he gathered the courage to slowly step back- he felt compelled to keep his eyes on the creature.
Don’t move… don’t move… please dear god, don’t fucking move-
The only thoughts keeping him anchored in the idea this strange beast wouldn’t kill him after getting a miraculous second life was the notion of slowly backing to safety. As long as he didn’t make any sudden movements, and quietly slipped away he should be safe. He wanted to make sure behind him was clear of any other monsters- as he couldn’t understand why this horrifying monstrosity stopped so completely, but that would mean taking his eyes off him. And that thought alone filled Richard with a deep sense of anxiety.
ssssssSSSSSSSSNAAAAAAAP. ACCKKRARRCKHHCHhhhh.
The sound of a tree falling over made Richard jump and let out a small yelp, which caused him to force his hands to his mouth in an attempt to silence any potential sounds that would attract any attention. The creature, still as still as a statue, didn’t react in any capacity. Scared of what the hell happened behind him, and seeing as the creature in front of him hadn’t really reacted to anything- Richard snapped his neck behind him as quick as he could.
Oh thank god…
Richard didn’t hear any movements from the strange creature- or the booming steps before- so he quickly turned his head back to view the still standi-
…
The creature, which had until this point been as still as an art installation- not reacting to anything Richard or the environment around it, was somehow around a couple centimeters from his face and moving almost in slow motion towards him. Or was it slow motion? In reality- the creature was moving so unbelievably quickly Richard couldn’t fully process the images his eyes were physically communicating to him. A gaping maw housing rows of teeth covered his field of view, the smell of some sort of digestive enzyme and saliva didn’t even reach his noise until he could actually see down the throat of the creature.
The next moments were filled with the worst layers of fear and shock Richard would ever experience in the totality of his existence. As the creature engulfed his upper torso, a sharp ripping pain demanded his immediate attention. As he moved his eyes down to where he had been standing previously- the sight of his abdominal tract spilling out from his dorsal cavity. He screamed. He couldn’t hear himself scream as the forcible pain ripped any thoughts he had from his mind and began to process purely the thoughts of how much it hurt. Through the maw of the beast's mouth, peering through rows of teeth that started to incise his flesh and disconnect his tendons with crunches and loud snaps- the light from the outside wilderness was shut out and replaced with a wet blackness and the sounds of jerking flesh. Crying, Richard couldn’t do anything but yell harder, punctures to his lungs started to fill it with blood, ultimately causing him to gasp for air. As he desperately twisted around, trying to break off the bits of himself that got caught on the teeth that were scraping into him- he could only force more blood through his airways as they collapsed from the loss of pressure. His vision couldn’t hold anymore and he found himself losing consciousness.
By the time Richard realized he was still screaming in pain inside his room, he was able to regain control of his eyesight. Desperate and in indescribable pain, the sensations of his body being jerked around and thrashed were still ongoing and very real. The only difference was that he was now “safely” in the room he found himself in at the start of this deranged saga. He tried to move his muscles to get to the mirror in desperation. Maybe the others would understand what the hell was happening. Would have some way to stop this pain. Each heaving crawl was meant with an even more intense feeling of sinew being torn asunder from the inner lining of his stomach, or the tendons being snapped from the tension of his arm twisting off. Even when he looked at where he thought he felt the pain- only ever increasing yelps and cries and the pristine snow white skin were present. As intermittent gasps of air let Richard get a pitiful amount of relief through gritted teeth- spasms surrounding his entire body allowed him to slowly reach the base of the strange mirror, frantically he yelped at the mirror through gritted breath peering his focus to what he thought would be one of the rooms holding the strangely optimistic blue person or closed off person in pink.
To Richards astoundment, he saw not one room, but two separate rooms divided by some sort of fluctuating plane of existence. In both rooms, the blue and pink wisps were flailing on the ground in a flabberghasting display of pain. Richard felt devastated but did his absolute hardest to yelp for assistance, any squeaking sound of horror to get their attention. Surprisingly it worked. While the other two seemed to also be reacting to this hellish pain, they seemed to be able to wince through it and gather at the mirror, the blue person started distraughtingly saying something with a scared look in his eyes. The pink person was visibly angered but managed to at the very least seem composed enough to look like they were trying to analyze what was happening. Every ounce of strength Richard had was used to usher out a single world through gritted teeth and strenuous breaths and pouring tears. He managed to fumble the word through cries and yelps of pain as his body contorted to unhealthy positions and aggravating spasms.
“HeLLpPP!”
The wording itself was sloppy, it felt like a child crying through the words like they were completely unsure of what to do without their parental guidance. For some reason, whatever was affecting the three of them was affecting Richard the most. The other two clearly were in pain, but they could at the very least move around. Richard had lost all control of his bodily functions through the sheer and overwhelming sense of deep nauseating agony. All the other two could do was sit there and watch time pass. Tortuous seconds prolonged to hellish minutes, those hellish minutes turned to unprecedented laborious hours. By around what the one in pink tracked as two and a half weeks, they had completely recovered from the strange episode.
Richard wasn’t so lucky. The process of sitting on the floor flailing in excruciating limbo went on for a total of 3 months. At this point, through intricate notation between the person in blue and purple, and the ending of the unrelenting torment of whatever he just experienced. A note in morse code was shown against the window. Richard, sweating from the experience, slowly managed to force his sore muscles to gently hoist his upper body against the top of the drawers adjacent to the mirror. While he couldn’t make out all of the morse code, as some of the message was gibberish to him, he could make out a broken message- which he assumed came from the blue person.
Hello! It’s super…. Finished.. You're better! My…. Liam. The…Karla, who….scary one. Are….Okay?
Wincing and exhausted from the draining movements of flailing motions and in-ability to sleep, Richard forced a meek smile and lifted his thumb as high as he could. He could finally talk to the people he was stuck with for the rest of this horrifying adventure. Liam, the wispy blue presence- and Karla, the intimidating wispy figure. Apparently, the way these two figured out a common sense of symbology for communication was the findings of the same phrase in each of their “rooms”. The name, “Silas Vivens Infernum” was written on some piece of furniture in each room- which allowed the two to point at a specific symbol and assign its meaning. Richard didn’t know how, but evidently, that led to finding out some sort of assignment for meaning between a weirdly mixed morse code.
As a couple days passed by, the three conversed in broken sentences through piles of morse code. What was interesting was that Karla had apparently known the most comprehensive amount of morse code- and was who both Liam and Richard went to whenever they couldn’t make out incredibly important bits of information. One of the most dreaded pieces was the fact Richard had to communicate that they couldn’t seem to die.
