The figure stretches, ancient joints popping as it shakes free the sleep of decades. It emerges into the nocturnal world of the city, neon light sparking in puddles outside 24 hour cafes and quiet laundromats. Laughter pours from the bars, and the figure turns away in irritation. The moan of the sickroom is its favourite song, not this outpouring of mirth.
It stalks through the city, claws clicking on the rain-slicked pavements, and heads towards the suburbs. The shades are drawn here, houses silent as their occupants sleep. The figure can smell the modern plagues of depression and anxiety, the long fingers of stress worming their way into even the most carefree of minds. It smiles.
Glowing wards bar several doorways, and the figure sulks in the street, glowering at its inability to cross these thresholds. It will return in a few more nights with some new illness to strike down these families. Yet more doorways remain as yet unbarred, and into these houses it skips with gleeful abandon. Its twin stalks the continent across the ocean, but it hasn’t had such free reign in this land for many years.
The figure probes bedrooms, visiting the young and old alike. It sprinkles its menace wherever it can, sneaking through windows and disappearing through air vents whenever an occupant stirs. They will wake in the morning, unaware of the danger in which they find themselves. They will carry the seeds of their own destruction far and wide, taking the figure’s dark message out into their community. Before long the first rashes will appear, accompanied by condemnation and panic.
The first fingers of dawn claw at the sky, and the figure disappears into the fabric of time and space. It has spread its perverse joy for now, an affliction it long thought defeated on these shores, and will return with more dark tidings before long.
Vaccinate! Nice creepy feel, and a good read considering recent resurgence of measles in parts of the world.
I’ve always been fascinated by the Four Horseman, particularly Pestilence.
Someone has a friend in the anti-vaxxers. 😛
I genuinely cannot see why you wouldn’t get a child vaccinated, if they were eligible for one.
This was wonderful, you could feel the corruption & the malignancy dripping from ever sentence.
“the figure can smell the modern plagues of depression and anxiety” – that was the real kicker line for me.
Wonderful stuff
I was in a bit of a mood when I wrote it!
Would that this were STILL barred from these shores!
Indeed. I am still disgusted that diseases once nigh on eradicated are making a comeback because of wholly, wilful ignorance.
A deliciously dark story, Icy.
I find the thought of any rife disease quite un-nerving, mankind is arrogant in it’s existence, but come the appropriate bug, and we could all succumb.
Wonderfully written, though inspired by a sad state of affairs.
Ah this may well be a story of fact soon if people don’t wise up eh! Vaccinate, vaccinate – creepy story Icy
Excellent job of blending a classic feel with a modern topic. I loved it, as usual. 🙂
Very on-topic, as already pointed out in the comments! But the other great part was how atmospheric the narration was. Nice work.
Creepy, creepy. So creepy! Loved it!
I really like the line “the first fingers of dawn claw at the sky” gives a sense of yearning. But in the end, only pain and suffering will be the reward.
Love the atmosphere you’ve captured in this. Nice work.