The Laughing Corpse
1130 Words
"AGH!" Sevrin screamed as his bones shifted, jaw snapping into place. Pain ripped through him — worse than ever. He'd never been awake for this part. Until now. His vision cleared, and with it came the weight of every nerve screaming. When it passed, he staggered to his feet.
"Movin' quick this time, are we?" Maeve scoffed beside him.
"Shut up," he muttered, marching toward the nearest house.
"What? That's no way to talk to your wife." Her tone dripped with mock offense.
Sevrin froze. His voice tore out of him, raw and ragged.
"Let's get one thing straight. You are not my wife. Maeve wasn't even my wife — she was my fiancée! You're a f*****g parasite. A plague I carved into myself 'cause I can't accept she's gone." He pointed at her trembling outline, veins standing out in his neck as his voice rose.
"I was the prodigy! The genius! The man meant to change the goddamn Empire!" Spit flew from his lips as he shouted, turning in circles at the gawking windows. "And here I am, screaming at my own grief. My own failure! f**k!"
Curtains twitched. Doors cracked open. A mother pulled her child back inside.
Sevrin stomped toward the nearest door. A man stood there, a shotgun shaking in his grip.
"Son..." the man stammered, voice trembling.
Sevrin's eyes went wild. "I'm not your son."
He lunged.
BOOM.
He awoke. The pain was sharper this time, jagged like glass scraping his insides. He wheezed a laugh through clenched teeth.
"Every f*****g time it gets worse." He dragged himself toward the rushing river on the town's edge. The water churned, black with jagged rocks beneath.
"Then stop," Maeve whispered, her voice almost kind.
"Shut your mouth, parasite." He stared into the current, teeth bared. Maybe this one will stick.
He leapt.
Darkness.
He woke again, laughter bubbling up like bile. His body still ached, but the sound tore out anyway. "Ha...hah... f**k it."
He stumbled to a tree, climbed until the branches bowed beneath his weight, and sat swaying above the town. The wind cut cold against his face.
"Quite the view," he muttered.
"There are plenty of other views to see," Maeve murmured from below.
"Not for me." His grin widened. Maybe falling's easier.
He slid off the branch.
Silence.
"Here we go." He groans as he sits up.
"Just stay there." Maeve slightly pleads.
"Don't go getting soft on me, bitch." Sevrin chuckles as he forces himself up. He walks back into town, and sees some guards at the edge playing cards.
"HEY FUCKERS!" He yells at them. He begins running towards them.
"What the f**k?" One of the guards says. They unsheathe their swords and prepare. But he stops right before them.
"Scared ya." His laugh was so loud it felt like the sky itself would split.
"What the f**k is wrong with this guy?" They all stand uneasy, their swords begin lowering.
"Never let your guard down, guys." Sevrin is now in front of one guard. He grabs the sword and stabs himself in the stomach with it.
"Hey!" The guard yells as he catches Sevrin before he falls.
"Hahahahahahahahahahahahah-" Sevrin's hysterical laughter is interrupted by blood pooling his mouth.
"We need a medic—!" The guard begins saying.
The End.
"Ugh." Sevrin rolls over instead of getting up.
"Finally done with this madness?" Maeve says, laying next to him.
"Shut it." He closes his eyes, and falls asleep.
Sevrin wakes up with pains in his stomach.
"Agh." He grunts as he sits up.
"You're starving." Maeve says.
"How long was I out?"
"f**k if I know." Maeve chuckles.
"f**k it." He says, laying back down.
Void.
"IS THERE NO f*****g LIMIT?!" Sevrin screams, forcing himself up. He walks up to the wall on the outskirts of town and begins smashing his head against it. Blood splatters all over the wall, the only audible sound in the distance is his head being bashed against the wall. Bones break, and eventually-
Oblivion.
"I'm tired." Sevrin groans again as he gets up.
"Then rest. Or go break yourself again, Sev. I'll watch." Maeve spits. Sevrin stares at the hallucination as it refuses to look back at him.
"f**k you." He mutters as he begins walking again.
"No, f**k you." She snaps back.
"Shut up."
"No, you shut up."
"Get the f**k out of my head!" He yells.
"You control me. You made me. You get me out of your head." Sevrin looks back at her. She looks at him. For the first time since everything started, Sevrin actually felt like he was looking at Maeve.
"God damnit, I really am losing my mind." He mutters as he continues walking.
"Stop! Let me go!" A woman yells from the outskirts of the town. Sevrin glances over. There are two guys pinning a woman to the wall.
"Gonna play hero?" Maeve chuckles.
"Great way to die, no?" Sevrin chuckles back as he walks towards them.
"Hey, gentlemen!" Sevrin shouts when he's closer.
"What the hell? Why is there a naked guy here?" The two guys let go of her to look at Sevrin. The woman takes off the second she's free. They both look back and see.
"f**k! You made us lose our toy!" The taller of the two masked men says. They both pull out small knives.
"Oops. My bad." Sevrin laughs. He begins running towards them, still laughing. He grabs the tall ones blade, as if on instinct. He sticks it into the shorter one's throat.
"Oops. My bad." Sevrin repeats, looking into the eyes of the last man standing. The sound of blood pouring out of the throat of the other man is the only thing audible in that moment. His gurgling filling the silence that would have been in the outskirts of the old southern town. Sevrin raises his fist and begins punching the last man. Fist raining down just like Palin had once done to him. Laughter intermixing with the sound of the dying man next to him. Blood fills his nose.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" Sevrin feels as though he currently has no control, but he doesn't mind it. Eventually, Sevrin stops with his fist held high, blood has soaked the man's clothes, and his breathing had stopped long ago.
"You killed them, congrats." Maeve spits.
"They deserved it." Sevrin scoffs back as he stands, wiping the blood on his hands on his bare legs.
"You'll tell yourself that until the day you rot." Maeve looks away.
"This is some f*****g joke." Palin's voice can be heard from behind Sevrin. Sevrin looks back to see Palin, a couple other guards, and the girl that just escaped. Palin is holding a flintlock pistol in his hand.
"You've got to be f*****g kiddin-"
Emptiness.
- Writer
