WARNINGS: THIS CHAPTER INCLUDES GROTESQUE, GORY THEMES! PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN COST. DO NOT INTERACT IF THESE THEMES CAUSE SYMPTOMS OF MEDICAL MENTAL ISSUES OR ARE DISTURBING TO YOU!
SEPTEMBER 28TH - 5:32PM
Dear diary; hi! It's me, Ren.. again. Of course it's me again, this is MY diary. Anyways, today was okay. Made a friend! Well, kind of. I mean, I want him to be my friend, but I don't know how he feels about me. Well, I might as well start from the beginning…
***
7:12AM
As I walked into the library, the first thing I noticed was a huge bookshelf full of fantasy novels; my favorite! I floated over, my hand reaching up towards a large paperback novel with the spine actually having the design of a spine. I thought it looked cool. I flipped the book around in my hands, humming softly in content as I read the back:
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THE HARVEST OF BONE AND BRINE
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The gods didn't abandon the Sunken Valley. They rotted inside it.
For a thousand years, the Deep Church has kept the peace by offering a singular
sacrifice: every decade, a pure-blooded child is fed to the Weeping Mother, the
ancient, colossal entity chained beneath the cathedral depths. In exchange, her
weeping black blood flows through the city aqueducts, granting the priesthood
miraculous healing powers and immortal youth.
But the Mother has died, and her flesh is spoiling.
Kairo is an un-cleric, a disgraced holy surgeon whose job is to descend into the
pitch-black catacombs and carve out the gangrenous, living tumors from the
Mother's corpse before the rot poisons the city's water. It is a grueling,
agonizing task—the meat still screams, the parasites have grown to the size of
wolves, and the air itself liquefies human lungs.
When Kairo discovers a child's severed hand GROWING inside one of the excised
tumors, he realizes a terrifying truth: the Church isn't sacrificing children to
feed the beast. They are using the beast to stitch together something infinitely
worse. With the dead god's flesh mutating, the catacombs are overflowing, and a
tide of living, screaming marrow is about to consume the world above.
Kairo must plunge deeper into the viscera to stop the final ritual. But in a
world built on holy butchery, saving humanity means drowning it in blood.
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WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING
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* "A masterclass in visceral world-building. The body horror is exquisite,
dripping off the page in a beautiful, terrifying nightmare."
— GoreHound Reviews
* "Unrelentingly bleak and beautifully grotesque. Do not read this while eating."
— Dark Fantasy Monthly
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
==============================================================================================================
AN ANONYMOUS MANUSCRIPT
The text for The Harvest of Bone and Brine was discovered entirely by accident,
leaked onto an encrypted dark web server with no digital footprint, publisher,
or copyright details.
Like the chilling autobiographies written by real-world killers behind bars,
the graphic detail of the anatomical butchery and visceral rot suggests a creator
with a deeply disturbed, dangerous mind. The file was accompanied by a brief
text log stating that the manuscript was released with a singular intent: to
disgust, to breed paranoia, and to inflict permanent nightmares upon whoever
reads it.
The true identity of the author remains completely unknown.
==============================================================================================================
Huh, odd. Seemed neat, though! Horror fantasy was pretty cool, I read a lot of it when I was alive. I tucked the book under my arm, and floated around, looking for the table. I almost waved when I saw the library owner looking around, before remembering: he can't see me, I'm dead. Well, might as well go find a table somewhere.
7:34AM
A kid ran in while I was reading the chapters of the book. He was sobbing, and he made the library owner— Kieran, I overheard —look quite concerned. Must've been his kid. My eyes softened as I watched the boy tremble; I don't remember what they had said, I had zoned out. Eventually, Kieran sent the kid to the bathroom to clean up, and soon after another man walked in. He looked.. mean. Really mean. And kind of scary. That must've been who that kid was running from.
I sighed, and set the book down. I stood up quietly— not that anyone would hear —and began floating towards the bathroom where the kid went. I saw him leaned over the sink, his hands splashing cold water onto his face. I got a sudden intrusive thought to scare him. Hmm…
I grinned, and changed to my physical form of a rotting corpse— how my body looked when I had fully passed. The sound of my transformation was loud, sounding almost like a tiger's growl. I couldn't control the noise, it was just because atoms were being changed and formed and air was being forced to change into solids and liquids. As the growl sounded out, the kid looked towards me and let out a harrowing screech.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!"
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!"
I yelped as the kid screamed, and I quickly changed back to my usual physical form; how I looked when alive. Short, kind of lanky, a sandy blonde wolf cut, tannish skin, and a pretty flower dress that I liked.
"Jesus, you know how loud you are!? Calm down!" I ushered, my eyes widening. This kid was so loud..
"W-what the—? Who are you!? No, scratch that— WHAT are you!? How are you here!? How'd you change like that? What do you want from me!?" The kid's heartbeat was loud, pulsing against his chest in quick bursts. I wish I had a heartbeat like that.. but alas, I was dead. The kid seemed genuinely scared, so I stepped back, giving him some space to breathe.
"I'm Ren. A soul. I'm dead. Uh, sorry, I come to this library often since it was my favorite when I was alive. I saw you and I decided to check on you. I didn't mean to startle you, sorry.." My words were sincere. I really didn't mean to startle him like that, I just didn't know he would be so sensitive. I wasn't that used to talking to kids that seemed my age— well, my physical age.
"Wait, so how are you here if you're dead?" The kid said, bewildered. His form slumped slightly as the sudden adrenaline slowed, and his pulse wasn't as loud as before.
"I'm a transform soul. Transform souls are able to change their visibility and physical form. So uh.. I can be human. I can be a dog. I can be a bird! I can be whatever I want." I transformed into these creatures as I spoke them, although the bird was.. really messed up. Feathers torn and bloody, flesh peeling in bloody pieces, and bodily fluids dripping from my body. I made sure the only show the bird for a few seconds. "As you can see, some of these forms are.. messed up. I don't know why, or how, but it's really graphic. Well, anyways, what's your name, kid?"
The kid blinked, his face turning a sort of green. He glanced around, stepping away from me before murmuring out a name, "K-Kairo!" Then, he promptly fell to his knees and barfed, tears welling in his eyes. I yelped, and ran forward, holding the boy's hair out of his face so it didn't get caught in his bile. After a few moments, he was just dry heaving, so I felt good enough to step back. I looked at him in pity, my brows furrowed in concern.
"You okay, Kairo?" I asked, my voice quiet as I watched him pull away from the toilet. I grabbed a tuft of toilet paper and wiped his mouth, my movements gentle.
"Uh.. y-yeah.. sorry, I just.. really can't handle gory stuff like that."
"I'll be careful around you, then."
***
My hand hurts, now, so I'm going to stop writing. Anyways, the rest of it was just me and Kairo getting some food, we hang out in the library (which had gone eerily quiet and empty), and I took him to my home! He's sleeping right now, so I'll have to watch him. He looks pretty in his sleep…
—— REN ALDONER