The Inbetween

Read about a dark forest and the transformation Achlys finds within it

The Inbetween

There is a forest that everyone avoids. Many a tale is told about it. Stories of eldritch creatures, disappearing children and a vengeful god. The trees are ancient and grow big and tall. Their branches completely shut out the sky. No light ever reaches the cold, moist earth. The little plants that survive in the damp, heavy air are resilient and hostile. The forest itself is impossible to walk through, as if deliberately keeping out unwanted trespassers. Trunks of long dead trees, rotting leaves and thorny bushes cover the floor. The twigs of these bushes seem to reach out like a cursed crone’s hand, trying to grab onto bypassing beings. The air smells like decay and despair. A thick layer of wet moss covers the tree bark. Heavy, black clouds cover the sky above the forest. The rustling from critters flitting across the earth is one of the only sounds in this from hope abandoned place. All-knowing ravens sit in the branches, observing, judging. Now and then their eerie croak echoes through the forest. Poisonous berries are the only fruit growing here. In the nearby villages it is whispered, that the things surviving here are abominations of nature, cursed creatures coming from hell. A twig snaps and breaks the near complete silence. A few of the watchful ravens fly away to another tree. It is Achlys. They find this, of humans abandoned forest, peaceful. Often, they walk through this place, away from all the prying eyes and the irritating voices of the townsfolk. They venture deeper and deeper, where Achlys definitely would not, could not be found. Again, they step on something with a loud crack. As they look down it isn’t a twig. It is the skull of a deer. A long dead deer. The skeleton had been eaten clean by something in this forest. Achlys looks at the pearly white bones for a while. Noone will ever know how the deer had looked during its lifetime. They sigh in jealousy. Until death they won’t achieve that, won’t change how they are perceived. Their body will always tell their story. They reach a hand out towards the skull, caress it as if it were still alive. Their hand reaches into the mouth and slowly, carefully pulls out a tooth. Achlys reaches towards a vial hung around their neck and stores it in there. By now they had quite the collection of teeth. They walk on until they come across another dead thing. Weirdly it seems that it had not been touched by any animal. It is a fox, lying next to a moss-covered tree trunk. Achlys slowly takes a few steps closer to look at the corpse in more detail. Usually anything dead would be eaten up by the big, black birds that surely must be watching them right now. A heavy stench of rot and death fills their nose. There is something weird about this fox. Its limbs are distorted, the eyes completely white. Something is growing on it, out of it. Where it was growing the flesh is broken. It is some form of mushroom. None that Achlys is familiar with. And if someone knows about mushrooms it is them. They are fascinated by them. Being neither plant nor animal, mushrooms are their very own thing. Something Achlys strives to be. This mushroom has no defined form, is the colour of rotting flesh and reeks of dried blood. Achlys starts to think that this is what had killed the fox. They look at the cadaver again. It seems, in its weird position, with this strange growth all over it, very beautiful to Achlys. Its limbs were distorted and pointing in all the wrong directions. So different, so unearthly. They wish to look just as ethereal and not so normal, so unmistakeably human. They walk on over to the tree trunk, intending to sit down on its moss-covered bark to sketch the fox. On the way there they see another dead animal, a hare this time. And then another and another. All so mesmerizing distorted, covered in the strange fungi. They are, it seems, aligned around this tree trunk. All untouched by any of the other animals. A horrible, horrible thought strikes Achlys’ mind. They crouch down next to a dead raven. Slowly their hand reaches out and at the same time the mushroom appears to move towards them. Its tendrils greedily creeping closer towards the young person. Once Achlys touches it, it hurts. A stinging sensation runs through their entire body. It slowly wanders up their hand, changes it. Their fingers grow longer, their skin paler. The fingers begin to jolt into unnatural directions. As their bones break a snap echoes in the forest. They feel the mushroom tugging at their skin, breaking it in places and trying to enter their blood vessels. Achlys smiles. It is all so horribly beautiful. They mushroom suddenly presses against their lips, fills their mouth. One by one their teeth fall out of their mouth and land on the floor with a small thud. It feels freeing to them as if the teeth never belonged there to begin with. Then Achlys senses it fill their lungs. Somehow, they can still breath. The taste of blood fills their mouth. Their eyes wander over their body. Their legs now looking in the wrong direction, their arms unnaturally long. The mushroom breaks out of their throat, with a bursting sound. It should hurt, but it doesn’t. Finally, Achlys is able to breath freely. No blood flows from the wound. The fungi covers their neck, resembling a necklace. They grin. Achlys is so pretty now, so handsome. The most ethereal thing to exist. They fall backwards as their knees jolt in opposite directions. They stare at their chest as the fungi brutally erupts out of it, eating away at their flesh. The ravens start to circle over Achlys. Their croaks harmonize into a sinister song. Was it an ode to their change? Or a ballad to their newfound beauty? Something moves under their eyelid, pressing against their eyeball. It feels like worms creeping over their eyes. The mushrooms tendrils hold on to their eyes, turning them to the back of Achly’s head. The inside of their skull is the only thing they see now. They feel their heart beating an unsteady rhythm and burst. They laugh. A shrill, high-pitched laugh. The ecstatic sound of it bouncing of the trees and echoing throughout the entire forest. All animals in the forest run away at the sudden, almost horrific sound. At long last their breathing stops, and they fall perfectly into the circle between the fox and the hare. The damp earth on their skin is the only thing they can feel. Finally, finally they feel comfortable, accepted. They are becoming part of this haunted place, part of this awe inspiring everything that is the forest. Their corpse forever here, with an eery smile on its lips. At long last, Achlys knows what is so beautiful about the corpses around them, they were neither dead nor alive, but something in between, something dancing on the seam of worlds. Just like them now, here forever, eternally.

Reviews

[Joss Jeffrey]

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[PaulAnka]

I love your interesting and detailed story. It is very colorful and descriptive. Thank you for sharing this wonderful story! ❤️