The Long Road into Night #10

On the 10^th day, this one realizes that you aren’t dead yet.  This still seems likely to be only a temporary thing.  If you wish otherwise, then this one might suggest that you… WAKE UP!

 

Your head is throbbing.  It feels like your brain is trying to leap free of your skull.  Slowly and painfully, you open your eyes.  The world you see is upside down, or rather you still are.  You can hear that woman’s scratchy voice.  It’s humming the most annoying of tunes, and that doesn’t help the pain in your head at all.  A low groan escapes your lips.

 

“So… you’re awake,” The woman said in surprise.  Then she steps into view for the first time.

 

Maybe “woman” was too much of a conclusion to jump to.  You believe human might not be too accurate as well.  This “woman’s” putrid green skin looked as if it were melting from her heavy set body.  Her nose was larger than your big toe, and the puss filled wart at the end of it, wasn’t much smaller.  To each side of this bulbous nose sat eyes of red, that almost glowed with hunger. 

 

“I wish not to be rude.  My name is Gelda,” the monstrous woman said.  Gelda smiled with the few teeth she had, and only a few of those were even pointing close to the direction they should.  “It has been so long, since I have had a guest for dinner,” she licked her lips. 

You then notice the large bubbling pot, wondering where it had come from, and how long you’d been out. 

“The one and his pet dog rarely allow me guests,” Gelda sneered.  At least she attempted a sneer.  Her melting flesh did not appear to be well attached, and slid free of the changing expression. 

“Oh, yes,” she bent over to pick something up.  “I almost forgot that you already met my last guest.”

Gelda held up the Femur bone and rib pieces that you had carried as weapons.  She slid one of the ribs under her nose for a sniff, and smiled beneath her melting skin.

“I remember him well,” Gelda reminisced.  She slowly walks over to the cauldron.  “He was a quiet one too, but he made an excellent stew.”  She tosses one of the ribs into the bubbling pot and begins a slow strut back toward you.  “A very excellent stew, the best I ever had,” she whispered wickedly, and a light cackle followed.

There are only 21 more days until Halloween.