This is my entry into the #finishthestory contest by @bananafish (please check out the post for further details on how to enter: @bananafish/finish-the-story-contest-week-44
The idea is simple: in 500 words or less you need to complete the story. This week the story is begun by @marcoriccardi…
And now here is my part (written in 497 words)
...that the corpse was not a corpse at all. The thing, rising from the river, lumbering towards him was made up of lots of tiny creatures that hissed and complained and shifted as they moved.
"What is this nonsense!" Mr. Renhe Ren said. Behind the not-corpse was the wise old man, followed by the entire village, who walked single file heads bowed.
The wise old man looked at him and to his surprise Mr. Renhe Ren saw he was no longer old, nor wise, nor was he strictly a man: he was a corpse. And so was everyone else.
"What is going on?" Mr. Renhe Ren cried.
The line of dead people marched past in silence. Mr. Renhe Ren followed as they marched along the river. He recognised his neighbours and friends - well former neighbours and friends - and he tried to speak to them, but they remained dead and silent.
He ran to the front of the parade. The many-creatured, hissing, shifting thing marched on, and Mr. Renhe Ren had to fling himself in front of the beast in an effort to halt its progress.
“Stop!” he commanded. The thing walked on. As it collided with him it fell apart into its many creatures and he shivered as he felt them crawl all over him before jumping off his back and coming together into the form of the walking corpse.
One of the little creatures did not jump down. About the size of his thumb the creature crawled up Mr. Renhe Ren’s beard and stared him in his eye.
To his surprise Mr. Renhe Ren found that he was looking at a smaller version of himself.
“What is the meaning of this?” he shouted.
“We are all your regrets, your procrastinations, your should bes, your should have dones, your petty hates and your jealousies.”
“Nonsense!” Mr. Renhe Ren said. And to his surprise the creature split into two.
“And your lack of faith!” said the new creature.
“But what has happened to the village?” Mr. Renhe Ren asked, staring at the line of his dead friends and neighbours as they stumbled past him.
“You have been sitting by the river for too long,” the creature said, sticking an arm all the way up Mr. Renhe Ren’s right nostril and pulling out a piece of what looked like brain. “They have all died.” The creature tore the piece of brain in two and shared it with his friend, both munching on the grey-green globule with gusto
“But,” Mr. Renhe Ren said, beginning to see he had been a little foolish. “There must be something I can do!” The little creatures stopped chewing and looked at him, with a smile on their faces. “Something I can change, to make this all alright?”
The creatures nodded and looked each other and then looked back at Mr. Renhe Ren. And then they shook their heads.
“No,” they said, together. “You only get one chance at life. And you wasted yours.”
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