Young Writers Society

Hev shrugged. "Alright."

He watched as the doctor fidgeted with a strange box.

"Okay, I'm turning it on now... Try to stay still." The doctor finished adjusting the box and tapped something on a screen.

Hev cringed as the box whirled. Why was it so loud? It seemed painfully unnecessary.

But soon enough, it projected an image of his bones on the screen. The broken bone in his arm. In a panic, he inspected his arm. Yep, there were still bones. So, how did a picture of things in his skin end up on the box like a camera obscura?

"That was quick, wasn't it?" The doctor smiled at Hev. "You can take off the vest now and move your arm." He turned to look at the screen.

Hev nodded. "Yeah, of course. I wasn't worried." He took off the vest, eyeing the doctor wairly.

"Hm." The doctor frowned at the screen.

Will gulped. "What is it? I-is something wrong?"

Hev cocked his head to the side. "Yes. Is there something terribly off?"

The doctor swiveled around to face Hev. "Your... your bones are..." He gulped. "Your bones are hollow."

Hev froze, slight horror growing in his chest. Of course, of course! He didn't expect the doctor to notice his bones, but that was before he revealed that Americans have bone mirrors.

He looked at Will, trying to express his anxiety on his face. This was not good. This was very not good.

Pren

When Pren came to again, he immediately wished he hadn't. The stench of the leftovers monster assaulted his nostrils, and his eyes watered from its intensity. He groaned and covered his mouth and nose with his t-shirt, then glanced up at Ki. "Smells like some weird kind of leftovers monster... Should we run?"

Ki had their sword drawn, eyes trained on the leftovers monster. "You can. I can handle this."

The stench was awful, but subterras weren't exactly known for their sense of smell. Besides, their sword could pierce anything—even sentient blob of foodstuff.

Pren gulped as he watched Ki stare down the leftovers monster. He wasn't particularly keen on getting attacked or eaten by a mass of rotting food (how would that even work?), but if Ki wasn't leaving, he wouldn't either... Dealing with a food monster was much better than being alone.

The monster squelched its way across the floor to the pair. It raised itself on milk carton and old orange peel legs and growled. A couple of cherry stems fluttered from its head to the floor, and Pren gagged.

Ki narrowed their eyes. "Do you think it's more animalistic or human in nature? It doesn't seem to speak, so more likely animalistic."

The monster scooped together the cherry stems with its snout(?), nose(?) and placed them back on its head.

“It looks like an animal…” Pren eyed the monster. “Maybe it’s defending its territory? Or does it know that we’re not from here?”

Once the leftovers monster had arranged the cherry stems back into a strange nest-shaped hat on its head, it growled again and lunged at the duo with a tentacle of old pasta. Pren jumped out of the way of a flying blob of tomato sauce.

Ki side-stepped, eyeing the trajectory of the rancid blob. “Whatever the reason is, I don’t think it appreciates us being here. It wouldn’t let us just leave.”

The monster attacked again, sending out another limb of squelching produce. Ki swung their sword through the mass. Most of the limb splattered on the ground, still reaching out for Ki’s legs.