Unbecoming

Story of a Body Laid Bare

Finally.
Here it is.
My next story.
I’ve noticed that more and more of myself is seeping into my writing. This one made me uncomfortable - in a good way (I hope).

Come with me, on a journey that too many have taken.

If you’ve enjoyed it - please click “subscribe” at the end.
I am also very much open to feedback - let me know what you loved, what you hated, and most of all, what made you feel.

Let the spectre inhale the last breath you’ll ever take as his lips gently brush across yours. He doesn’t shrink from the rancid smell that emanates from your rotting teeth.

The vapour arising from them gets caught in the hair swaying in his nostrils, plucks at them, but he doesn’t mind.

He’s used to it.

You’ve been drinking again.
Fragments of a night gone wrong.
Shards of onyx spread through your memory.

Do not worry, my beloved. Move closer to him, grasp his back. You are not alone in this.

He shall carry you over to that other side that you’ve been longing for.

Never alone.

But first, he must… Yes. I can tell that you’re already aware of the process. You’ve done your research.
You’ve been thinking about going through with this for many months before you finally committed.

Snap.
Too much for your mind to handle.

The demon can taste those sins on your sweet lips; the acid they carry with them has left its trace.

Remnants of days gone by.
Beauty that once was, but now has faded.

Oh, your body is still admirable, but no, you don’t shine as bright anymore as once you did.

Tainted.

A moan of pleasure radiates from that part of the creature where his vocal chords would be, were he to be more successful in his attempts to pass for human.

Delicious, that embarrassment.
Cheeks that blush.
Crimson carpets laid out on your face.
Like freshly ground herbs.
Bringing out the deepest layers of what his taste buds truly long for.

His calloused fingers brush across your neck.

Arousing.
Tickling.

The skin so soft, but loose.

A turkey’s neck.

They travel down, quickly move over your chest.

Strident.

Until his claw catches in your navel.

Scratch.
Should’ve cleaned that more often.
Center of the body.
Filled with filth and shame.

Feel the barbs attached to him start cutting into your body.

Zig-zag motion.

Droplets of an unknown substance fall from his forehead and land on yours. Mingle with the sweat there.

Sawing away the upper layers of your skin.
Beta-keratin that digs beneath your hypo-dermis.
Flesh laid bare as he starts ripping.
Tearing.

His body thrusts forward.
A heavy weight leans on you as he peels away those layers that make you what others know of you.

A gasp.
Trying to mutate into one more breath as pain overrides your thoughts.

Like that adder you almost sawed apart with the blade of your lawn mower when you were a child you must shed your skin.

The beneath shall be all that remains of you.
Glistening in the moonlight, bare flesh.
Beauty that has faded.
Beauty that wants to return.
Futile.

The creature devours it all, both the stinging pain that is as gas washed ashore a blazing coast, and that pride in your mortal shell that almost drowned you.

Beautiful.
His for the taking.
Become what once you were.
Return to that primal cell that grew into a fully fledged human so many decades ago.

Ignore the talons of the revenant that grasp at those gentle hairs beneath your armpits.

Lovers that cherished them.
Blades that shave them.
Cut deeper.

Your visitor lays them on his lips to taste the memories they carry.

Nigh strong enough to make his black encrusted heart beat once more.

Give in to the pain, my beloved, and let go now of those memories.

Freedom is approaching.
Reach out your arms.
Welcome it in.
As free as you were when those now fading memories were imprinted into your DNA.
Wiped away.

The haunt adores you, loves you in that special way that you’ve always wanted to be loved.

For who you are deep within, in that deep well behind those walls you’ve built.
The castle is crumbling.

He begins to dig deeper.

Stroking your bone.

It is brittle under the pressure he applies, but let him caress it. Let him take in its wonder for just a little bit longer.

He can feel the youth that still lies there inside of you, but that too must be vapourized.

You know that, darling, don’t you?

Let him peel away those shreds of skin that are void of any pigmentation, and those that are too heavily pigmented for your liking.

A canvas.
Paint strokes made by an amateur.
You recoil from it.
Not of this world.
Too different.
Your skin is rotten with disease.
Peel the apple.

Hush. This is not the time for confessions.

Absolution.
Indulgence.

He is already at work, ridding you of those strips. Putting them into his maw. Watch as he swallows them whole. Not a single retch escapes from him.

Next up, those lines written there on your belly by too much weight.
And those scars from when they had to cut into you.
Like a child clumsily attempting to get to the sweet part of a citrus fruit.

Only the epidermis on face and scalp left now.

My beloved, you are brave.

The amount of suffering in your life has only enhanced the glimmer inside of your body.

And those wrinkles, I find them to be the most beautiful part of you.

Pain of the body to cleanse your soul.
Make you what they’ve always wanted you to be.
A deal, sealed along with your destiny when you called upon the haunt.

Unbreakable.
Too strong.

Stronger even than you are.

The price you’re paying is your whole self, for the being has no need for either goods or money. But isn’t it a small price to pay? For there is not much left of you.
You have given away most of who you are already.
Back when you were still alive.

A void approaches.
Empty vessel.

Lower your gaze, look down at your sinews. Those faint muscles that have grown weak from too little exercise.

The wraith is plucking at them.

He’s playing a melody. Listen as his ballad tells of your life. It merges swiftly with the lullaby that follows.

Raw.
Unblemished memories.
Turned to dust.

He will take all that you have given to him.

He will fertilize the herbs in his garden with what he steals from you, for to serve to the next person that calls upon him.

The end is nigh, he cannot bear your screams much longer.

His body slides upwards again.

Slimy as a snail.
Oozing in between your muscles.
Filling the membranes in between your bones.

See two of his three eyes stare at yours, the third one looking at your throat, as his incisors gnaw at your vocal chords.

No more words from you.
No more sounds.
Except for those leaking gases.

Not even the thump of your heart.
It shall cease to beat on its own.

You astound me. I can tell that the being is beginning to feel for you.

Let him hold your heart.

Lungs that are pushed aside.
Dangling there, outside of the cavity of your chest.
The rats can nibble at them later.
When all of this is over.

You are mistaken, my beloved. They did not take up too much room in your small chest.

Merely an illusion.
Caused by the hardship you have been choking on for all your life.
But that hardship.
It was meant for you.

He breaks apart the two walls of the chambers that embrace your cardiovascular system.

Pushes them together. Must merge. Must become one.
A beautiful gem.
A ruby.
A diamond, threaded with crimson veins.
Just one squeeze.
He knows how dear humans hold this useless organ that merely pumps.
Pumps.
Pumps.

Rip it out!

There, the juices are flowing freely now. Your body is shriveling.

More leaking.
Empty bowels.
Empty bladder.
A dry carcass, lying in a pool of all that you consumed.

One more step left in this process.
Then all of this shall be over.
Further up he must travel still.

The end is nigh.

Be brave now, for this is where the revenant shall learn all that he needs to know about you.

He is already beginning to shift.

Flimmering.
Changing.
Wearing your skin.
Your heart shining brightly from his chest.

The saliva that slithers down from his mouth, let him use that to wash away those sins.

Repent.

It leaks into the pores of your temples.

His hands.
So cold.
Resting there.
Beginning to push.
A crack.

A tongue that laps, bathes itself in the flood streaming from your cranium.

There.
You have satisfied him.
See the smile plastered on his true face as he digs with what might once have been fingers beneath the bone, white as chalk, that guards your brain.

A sound.
Gulping.
Swallowing it all.

You were brave, my beloved.

It is the most delectable meal the creature has ever had.

So much innocence.
Nothing to be ashamed of.
Not a sin.
You merely wished to be free.
Now you are.

Was it worth the pain?