Challenge #00071: Eldritch

Use the sentence; ‘The darkness around her felt invaded, but that wasn’t new.’

Shayde slowed, listening to the pricking of her thumbs. The darkness around her felt invaded, but that was nothing new. It was a feeling usually reserved for shadow-jumping or travel Between.

But in the non-shadow world… it was something else.

Something wicked…

“I ken yer there. Out with it. What’re ye after?”

We seek… they whispered. Life.

“Ye cannae have mine. Or any close to me. Nor any close tae them and so on. This whole station’s Protected.”

We… want breath…

Ah. “Ye want tae live again?”

Yes…

“To make the better choices?”

Yes…

“To be wanted?”

YES!

The shadows around her gained shapes. Nightmares. Made from the sort of people who became nightmares. The wolf at the door. The ogre who used bones to make bread. The wicked step-parent. The cruel master.

“There’s a lab five floors up makin’ new lives,” she said. “Perfect for what ye say ye want. Repent, an’ get yerselves reborn.”

The shadows became ordinary shadows again. There was no danger of those souls coming back into a cogniscent form. The lab five floors up was making Augments for mentally disabled kids.

They would be wanted, oh yes. Wanted and loved. And kind. And useful. And making the only choices they were trained to do. To look after their child, to love their child, to guide them and feed them and make them be better.

A life of servitude, to weigh against their previous sins.

Served them right.

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