Completed Senses

[Ari'Ellin]

82nd Fall

It was early, she wasn’t certain how early but it was definitely early. She could feel it. She hadn’t intended on waking up this early, but here she was lying in her bed, awake but keeping her eyes closed.

There was something on her face, and she didn’t dare open her eyes to look at what it was, fearful that something monstrous had managed to somehow sneak into her home and now meant to harm her. She couldn’t even remember exactly where she’d left her dagger or how far it could possibly be from her bed, and so she kept her eyes shut and tried to keep her breathing soft and even, like she was certain it had been before her awakening.

Deciding to pretend she was still asleep, Ari groaned slightly, trying to fake what she thought would be a normal sleeping sound, and rolled over slightly, only to feel something be knocked over, into the wall before an unhappy yowl sounded out throughout the cottage. Instantly Ari’s eyes opened and she sat bolt upright, glancing towards the grey cat that seemed to be scowling at her.

“Oh, Pebble. Sorry.” she mumbled, reaching out to stroke the small creature and frowning slightly as it attempted to bat her hand away before giving in and allowing her to stroke it’s smooth fur. “I forgot I had you...” she mumbled, still slightly sleep hazed as the cat continued to stare at her cautiously.

They sat like that for a while, the small grey cat being fairly calm and not try to move away from her hand anymore, although Ari was certain that the cat was just tolerating the closeness. Surely the small creature must have been still feeling apprehensive with her, and Ari’Ellin just wanted to spend time with the little thing. She wanted to help the cat become more comfortable with her and start to trust her.

Humming softly, Ari thought about what she could and soon she decided that she’d try to get the cat closer to her so it could get used to her scent.

Not wanting to have to leave her bed, Ari reach out her other hand and slid it under the cats body, raising it up awkwardly and tentatively as she didn’t want to hurt the small creature. She kept her movements slow and gentle as she used her hand to lift the cat off her bed, and as Pebble’s head seemed to jerk in shock, Ari’Ellin grimaced, a feeling of guilt running through.

“I don’t mean to scare you...” she said softly, watching the cat as she pulled her hand and the cat closer to her, until she was lightly holding the cat to her chest. She could feel the creature squirming slightly, and though she tried to keep holding Pebble, the small grey cat squirmed just enough to cause Ari to let go of her, not wanting to risk injuring the fragile little creature.

“Pebble...” she frowned slightly, a quiet murmur escaping her as she looked at the small cat as she jumped down from the bed and scampered across the floor, sniffing around the legs of her chair.

Word Count526 Words

[Ari'Ellin]

Sighing to herself, Ari’Ellin decided it was time to leave her bed and swung her legs over the edge of her bed. She took a few moments to just breathe before shaking her head and standing up, going to grab her water-skin and taking a sip of the water she’d gathered just before she went to sleep.

Then she walked over to her hearth, holding a hand out and frowning when she felt no heat coming from it. She’d have to find a way to start another fire without a flint and steel, although she wasn’t entirely certain that she could remember a way to do that.

Still somewhat hazed by her sleep with various limbs not wanting to move in the way that she was trying to make them, Ari’Ellin moved to the center of her home, sitting down with her legs stretched straight out in front of her, trying to stretch her muscles and help them realised that yes, she was awake, and yes, they’d have to start behaving normally again.

Inhaling deeply, Ari stretched her arms upwards before leaning forwards, trying to touch her toes but not quite succeeded, her fingertips falling an inch short of her toes. Still she tried to maintain that position and stretch out her back and arms ready to face the day. She held her position as long as she could, until something on her back caught her off guard and she instantly straightened up, looking behind her to see Pebble there.

A soft smile escaped and took over Ari’s features as she reached over with one finger to stroke the kitten, the kitten not fully purring but still not actively trying to run away from her and instead tolerating her affection and attention whilst it had nothing better to do.

Soon the cat left her though, running towards the door and nudging against it before looking back at Ari, almost expectantly. It was only a few moments before Pebble began to claw at the door, scratching it as though she was desperate to leave the house.

Suddenly Ari glanced around the room, seeing that the cat hadn’t left any messes in the night, and a moment of understanding flooded her. She grabbed the collar and leash and moved closer to the cat, holding up the collar and opening it before holding it out to the cat. Luckily for Ari’Ellin, it seemed that the collar hadn’t been anything entirely new, and Pebble instantly pushed her head through the collar, allowing Ari to tighten it slightly so that it wouldn’t fall off at all.

Then she fumbled with the leash and messily attached it to the collar. Then she opened the door, allowing the cat to run out into the garden, stopping to sniff some kind of weed before approaching the fence. Ari’Ellin avoided watching the cat to closely, instead just following after Pebble as the leash tightened every so often. The small cat seemed to enjoy exploring most of the garden before the cat stood still for more than a few moments.

Word Count511 Words

[Ari'Ellin]

Humming softly, she decided that the cat had been too silent and too quiet so far and she chose to look in the grey cats direction. Pebble was staring at the gate that lead into her garden, though Ari couldn’t see anything there. At first she shrugged it off, convincing herself that the cat had just heard a bird taking flight and fleeing the area.

Chuckling to herself, Ari’Ellin gently pulled on the leash, trying to break the focus that Pebble head so she could lead the cat back indoors. Instead the cat started hissing towards the gate and Ari furrowed her brow, frowning at the cat.

Quietly she walked closer to the grey cat and picked her up. The cat didn’t respond, instead just kept staring towards the gate before another hiss came from the small creature.

Ari’Ellin was certain that the cat was just seeing things and shaking her head she turned to start on her way into the house. It was then that she heard a deep and throaty laugh coming from what she guessed was the gate.

For a few moments the Konti froze in place, blinking as she tried to wonder what could have made that noise other than a person.

‘Perhaps some sort of bird? I don’t think there was anyone there?’ she thought to herself, before she slowly turned around. It was then that she saw them. A man who seemed to be made of smoke, his image flickering in and out of existence as he stood at the gate.

A ghost.

She had never really seen many ghosts in Lhavit, or in her life in general. The few that she had seen had been mournful and gentle, but this ghost didn’t seem to have the same qualities as the others that she had seen, and something about the ghost set her nerves on edge, especially the deep laugh it had given when she had intended on going back into her home.

Now she just wanted to take her cat inside to where she assumed it would be safer, but she didn’t want to take her attention away from the ghost.

Instead she started to walk backwards, her eyes still on the ghost as she shuffled backwards trying to find her way into her home but not wanting to take her eyes off the creature. It took a few moments before she felt the wall of her house and she started to move along the wall towards the door.

It was then that the ghost seemed to vanish suddenly, then reappear much closer, closing the distance between them in a blink of an eye and Ari’Ellin felt her eyes widen as she lost any sense of rationality. She turned and ran into her house, putting Pebble inside the small cage that she’d been using as a safe space for the cat, before her hand reached for her desk to grab her dagger, before running back to the door and doing her best to slam it shut.

Word Count503 Words

[Ari'Ellin]

Once she’d managed to slam the door shut and make sure that Pebble was safely in her cage, Ari stood facing the door, holding her dagger pointed at the wood, ready for if the ghost would somehow open it. Her mind was racing with thoughts and possibilities and her breathing was shallow and fast, to the point where she could feel herself growing dizzy.

Her stomach was growing more and more uncomfortable and she felt as though she was going to throw up as she stood her ground, watching the door and clutching her dagger tightly, unaware that the dagger probably wouldn’t be able to do all that much damage to the mostly incorporeal creature.

It didn’t take long for her door to be aggressively thrown open, clattering as it hit the wall next to it and started closing slightly before stopping still open, the ghost now stood it her doorway, still laughing as she kept her dagger pointed at the creature.

It didn’t make a point of moving, instead it stayed still, stood in the doorway as it stared at her. She tried taking a few steps to the side and watched as the ghosts eyes followed her where she moved. It was as though the ethereal being was toying with her, trying to force her to get closer to it, but she was determined not to do that. This was her home and she was going to stand her ground.

That was how her book being thrown across the room by some unseen forced took her by surprise. It hit her in the side and instantly she looked in the direction it had came from, only to see that nothing was there. That gave the ghost enough time to creep closer to her, lashing out with a materialised fist that caught Ari’Ellin in the stomach and elicited a gurgling groan of pain from her as she doubled over slightly.

She turned her attention back to the ghost again and started lashing out with her dagger, but to her horror the dagger moved through the ghost as though it was air. She knew she shouldn’t have been surprised, but now she was terrified. She had no clue what she should do to try to defeat the ghost. She had no skills that would help her to deal with the ghost.

Unable to do anything else she kept lashing out towards the ghost with her dagger, hoping that she would intimidate it somehow, and after a few moments of the ghost trying to hit her but not managing to, the ghost stepped out of her range.

Ari’Ellin watched the ghost still, before feeling something hit her in the side again, and she turned to see that it was her coat. She furrowed her brow in confusion, before her book was flung at her again and hit her other side.

In confusion again she looked to the ghost, realising that he seemed to be concentrating on something and must have been the cause of the moving objects.

Word Count506 Words

[Ari'Ellin]

It took her a few moments to gain her composure, her eyes locked on the ghost as she straightened herself up. She kept her eyes on the ethereal man, and he kept her eyes on her, and for the first time she actually looked at how the man looked. He was tall, but thing, with what would be sickly looking, pale skin and dull green, sunken in eyes that were shrouded in shadows cast by his brow bone, cheek bone, and his nose. His face looked gaunt and sickly, his cheeks sunken in and his throat so thin that his windpipe and small Adam’s apple stood out.

His exposed arms were covered in scratches and bruises, most notably around his elbow and his rest, and his legs were hidden beneath a pair of oversized, baggy beige pants that matched the ripped beige shirt that he wore, blood stains visible all across the shirt, a few of the rips exposing deep cuts into his flesh.

This appearance must be that of when he had died, or more so been killed. There was no way that he had inflicted those wounds himself, and they didn’t look like something that an animal would do. It looked like a weapon had perhaps done them.

“Why are you here?” she asked in Kontinese first, watching as the ghost didn’t respond before she tried again. “Why here?” she asked and the ghost shifted slightly.

“Why not here?” he responded. “It’s not far from where I lived, but those people aren’t home.” he said and a frown spread across Ari’s face.

“What want?” she asked and the ghost chuckled.

“I want to live again.” the man said before it rushed at her. This time the ghost rushed into her and she could feel something strange. It was as though something else was trying to take control of her body. Instantly she started trying to resist against it, flailing her limbs in one direction, as the force inside her forced them the other way.

She could feel herself growing tired quicker than she’d thought, but still she tried to fight against the foreign entity that was trying to move her.

The ghost had managed to get enough control of her body to take an awkward, clunky step forwards, and then another and another. Ari’Ellin kept trying to fight, finding that the ethereal creature had almost full control of her body and she was trapped inside her mind, just watching as the door got closer and closer.

The ghost had managed to get her outside of the door before stumbling and falling to the ground.

“Shit.” the voice was hers, but it wasn’t controlled by her, more seeming to be a word forced out by the ghost, unfamiliar with her own voice box.

The ghost attempted to use her body to stand up, before stumbling and falling again, seemingly rapidly losing control of her body before the ghost let go, leaving Ari’Ellin alone in her body as she knelt on the ground, her entire body aching with tiredness.

Word Count509 Words

[Ari'Ellin]

She looked to the ghost, watching him pass through the gate and seemingly continue on his way to find a different victim, possibly with a body that was more similar to what he had had.

Spending a few moments just breathing, Ari’Ellin tried to pick herself up from the floor, though as the ghost had done, she found herself stumbling and falling before she’d even got to her feet. She was exhausted, and every bone in her body just wanted her to rest and sleep, but her garden was not a good place to sleep and recover.

She gave up trying to stand again, and instead began crawling slowly. She used all the energy she could muster to drag herself again the floor and into her home. She didn’t even know if she’d have the energy to make it to her bed, but she was determined to make sure that her door was closed.

Once her whole body was in her house, she reached out with an arm and gripped the door, gently pushing it closed and then lying on the floor of her house, inhaling and exhaling as slowly as she could, just focusing on her breathing as she tried to make sure that she was there on her own and that nothing else had tried to invade her body as the ethereal man had done.

It wasn’t long before she was unable to keep her eyes open any longer and she let them drift shut. She felt fur brushing against her hand and she hummed softly, glad that her cat had decided to leave it’s cage and come to keep her company, and even more glad that the ghost had completely ignored the small grey cat.

“Pebble...” she managed to say softly, feeling the cat curling up against her before she herself drifted out of consciousness and fell asleep, the recent events of the attack from the ghost and it’s attempted possession of her replaying over and over in her dreams.

It wasn’t a pleasant sleep, instead it was one that made her wish for it to be over, and once she final woke with a jolt and sat bolt upright.

She was panting, and her house was dark. She could feel Pebble getting closer to her again, nuzzling against her before Ari wrapped her arms around the cat and pulled it onto her lap, cuddling the cat tightly but carefully as she felt a few tears falling from her eyes, her house no longer feeling as safe as she had always considered it.

Everything that she owned had been violated when the ghost had invaded her house and her body. Now she wanted to find somewhere that she could feel safe, but she also didn’t want to leave the house to go outside in fear that she could risk running into the ghost again. She didn’t want to experience the feeling of being trapped within the prison of her body again. She didn’t want any to try to take control of her ever again.

Word Count507 Words