Title: Unsmiling
Jul. 31st, 2024 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swirlsofpurple“Are you okay?” Alice calls. The man is just standing there, and this deep in the forest there’s a good chance he’s lost.
The man starts walking towards her. She freezes.
He’s wrong.
Run.
The word trills, insistent, from her gut. Alice can’t move.
He’s only thirty metres away from her now.
His features could be human, his eyes aren’t far apart enough to be considered disfigured, and she’s definitely known people with lips that thin. His paleness doesn’t stretch the imagination, nor does the length of his limbs. But the whole combination, some ancient part of her knows, is other.
Fuck, she’s staring. She averts her gaze slowly.
The being’s twenty metres away from her.
Alice needs to run. But what if this being is too fast, too strong. She can’t afford to provoke it. Her heart races. Run. Stay. Run. Stay. Run. Stay.
She stays.
Ten metres.
It smiles, wide. Its many teeth are sharp and long.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She’s going to be eaten. She turns to run, sees it in her periphery.
Five metres.
She trips, falls, curls up, squeezing her eyes shut.
*
A hand takes hers. It’s a child’s hand, small and sweet-sticky.
At a loss for what to do, she repeats, “Are you okay?”
“You’ve killed almost all of us,” the being says in a strange hiss-growl. It smiles again, showing teeth.
“I’m sorry that happened. But I didn’t. I swear I didn’t. Please don’t hurt me.”
“Your people. You.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“You will kill the rest of us.” And again the smile, the teeth.
“I can help you. Once the right people know about you, you can be classified as an endangered species: it will be against our law to hurt you.”
“Really?”
“Yes, come with me.” Alice tugs at their still joined hands.
The being stares at her. She waits, and wonders if she will be eaten after all.
“You genuinely believe this?”
“Yes. I know it will be hard. I’m willing to fight if you are.”
“I speak your tongue and you think I haven’t had this conversation before? It never ends well. This time will be no different.” The being smiles again.
Alice realizes that it isn’t really a smile; that smiles are their version of expressing sorrow.
“How can I help? I can try. What would you like me to do?”
“Leave. Leave, and do not return.”
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Date: 2024-07-31 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2024-08-01 09:01 pm (UTC)"You genuinely believe this?"
I chuckled reading that. To me the creature was asking, "Are you stupid?"
Loved the narration!
Great story!
Dan
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Date: 2024-08-03 03:39 pm (UTC)Thank you, glad you liked it :)
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Date: 2024-08-01 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2024-08-02 02:10 am (UTC)Though the being's voice must have been tricky. I remember when I used to read books to our kids, with voices. Anything too growly would eventually make me cough. You managed not to, though!
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Date: 2024-08-03 03:42 pm (UTC)Yeah, one of the reasons I kept the piece relatively short was so I would be able to pull it off without my voice straining.
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Date: 2024-08-02 05:32 am (UTC)Really loved this detail, and the timing of its reveal.
Great balance between creepy and melancholy in this piece. You built the tension and fear so well.
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Date: 2024-08-03 01:59 am (UTC)I hope so. For all our sakes. ❤❤❤
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Date: 2024-08-03 05:03 pm (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
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Date: 2024-08-03 06:45 pm (UTC)