Bones

Contest Entry for Suz-chan's contest, Bigger than You

inspiration picture at the bottom ^^

Thanks to all who have critiqued this! I so appreciate it!!

Bones

She walks the path, a hallway made of trees. Bare branches woven together, entwining together.

There is no light. But she knows where she is.

Her bare feet and gown scrape across the hard ground, bringing up small piles of dirty brown leaves. There is a faint silver glow ahead. She walks forward, attraction growing inside her.

The glow begins to take shape in front of her. Antlers, hoofs, an empty rib cage.

It is a skeleton. Bones.

The girl stops a few feet from it, hesitant to go any further. The creature paws the ground steadily, staring at her from an empty skull.

You are very near your destination.

The voice comes from all around her, from the tree branches above her head, the leaves below her feet. The very air she pulls into her lungs, and expels out through her mouth.

“I know,” she answers back.

Are you frightened?

“N-no,” she says.

The creature tilts its head.

Why do you lie, dear one?

“I’m not lying!” she insists, taking a step forward.

You lie, it says, and you are frightened. You lie because you are frightened. It surveys her once again. Do you wish to return whence you came?

The girl does not say anything to this. She swallows.

Do you wish to continue onward?

The girl opens her mouth, but no words come forth to explain for her. She shakes her head once. The creature steps forward, and at the same time a small animal steps out from behind a tree.

It, too, is made of bones.

It sits and looks up at her with empty eye sockets. It wraps its skeletal tail around its front legs, and opens its mouth in an empty yawn.

The girl stares at it, not horrified, but more intrigued.

The skeletal animal gets up a moment later and moves toward her, twining its fragile body around her ankles. She can feel the sharp points of its shoulders through the cloth of her gown.

This is a place no mortal can live¸ the creature tells her. You are meant to continue onward, to the next life. You are not meant to remain. It gestures its head toward the skeletal cat still rubbing against her legs. You would become as they are, made of naught but bones. You would not move onward, and you would not go back. You would remain here, forever.

The girl nods.

The creature takes a step forward, its hoofs stirring up leaves as the bare soles of her feet had. They rustle against the creature’s gleaming white fibula bone.

Why do you fear?

The girl’s legs begin to tremble. “Fear what?”

You are afraid to go forward. What is it there that you fear?

She brings her hands up to her chest, wringing and clutching them tightly. “I-I I’m scared of what’s there.”

What’s there?

She nods, her entire body shivering now. “I’m scared of where I’ll end up.”

Judgment. The creature states, lowering it’s head. You fear the judgment of He who controls.

She nods again.

“I don’t want to burn.”

So you would remain here, for all eternity, to avoid one simple decision?

The girl is silent for a moment. The creature stares at her with empty eyes.

“Yes, I would.”

The creature bounds forward and spears her in the middle with its antlers. She doubles up, a silver liquid bubbling up from her lips and running down her chin. She coughs. Long strands of her hair falls away from her scalp, slithering over the gleaming bones of the creature. The silver liquid begins to drip from her nostrils.

There is a dry, hissing sound. Great sheets of skin peels away from her body, crumbling to dust in a nonexistent wind. Her blood boils away, and her organs shrivel up and shrink. Her eyes roll from her skull like large, pale marbles, bouncing off the creature’s shoulders and dropping to the ground.

The silver liquid seeps from every inch of her bones now, pooling on the trailing fabric of her gown, dripping from her arms in long shimmery ropes.

The creature pulls away, a large beating organ on one of its antlers. Her heart.

It has been done. It states, and breaks apart.

She looks down at the pile of bones at her feet. Her gleaming white foot flashes out from under her gown and kicks them away.

The sound of her foot against the bones creates an odd symphony. The cat starts and bounds away, tail thrashing.

The sound is still music to her ears.

A noise distracts her. She looks over her shoulder, and sees someone approaching.

She would smile, if not for the grin already plastered on her features.

He comes closer and closer to the living skeleton that is the girl. He is frightened. She can see it on his face.

She picks up her gown in her frail hands, and goes to meet him.

You are very near your destination.

Her voice comes from everywhere. She relishes it.

Are you afraid?