Chapter 4: Chapter Two: Filth and Slime

Ouch, that hurt. That really really hurt.

Thankfully, the pain seems to be subsiding. 

That being said, what the heck happened?

That felt like growing pains on steroids.

And where am I now….?

I can tell that I’m not submerged underground. Well not fully at least.

Why can I tell? Well in part, due to that dirt sense. But mainly because I can see.

Yes, see as in perceiving visual information with a receptive organ. 

An organ I’m about ninety percent positive I didn't have just a little bit ago. 

Also, I seem to have almost three hundred and sixty degrees of visibility. 

That’s something I’m certain I wasn’t capable of before. 

Which begs the question, what the actual hell am I? 

Also, where the hell am I….I know I asked already but I feel like it's worthy of being repeated.

Looking around, I attempted to answer the second question first. I had a bit of apprehension about the first.

I seem to be in the center of what looks to be a vast ice land. 

Specifically, I think I'm in the middle of a frozen lake. Around me, there are what seems to be three rings of different ice formations, with each one elevating above the previous one. 

Behind the final ring, were several gray pillars, which seemed to be holding the ceiling above the rest of the structures. 

The place seemed to be extremely dark, with the only light coming from a small hole within the ceiling. For some reason, I could sense that I should have had difficulties seeing, but I had no issues at all.

Refocusing on the ring I found myself in, I began noticing something that might perturb a lot of people. Within the frozen solid lake, there were…well…bodies.

These bodies were…interesting to say the least.

From what I could see, there were several dozens of corpses. There were also several different assortments of body parts. These parts ranged from things like fingers, toes, and eyeballs, to things like torsos, decapitated heads, and full limbs.

There was a difference in how much the cadavers were engulfed by the frozen lake. Some were near the surface, with some parts sticking out, while others were submerged dozens of feet below it.

Now, I wasn’t a forensics or anatomy major when I was at school. However, I did watch a couple of detective shows and I read some fantasy books. 

That being said, it didn’t take a genius to realize that a lot of these bodies or parts of said bodies, were not human.

You are reading story A Blooming Soul at novel35.com

Some of the heads had horns jutting out from the foreheads. Some had sharp elongated ears. Others had ears more similar to other species I was familiar with. I could see what seemed to be gills on the necks of some others.

Hands were adorned with claws or webbed fingers. Tails were plentiful. There were even some wings scattered around.

The array of fantasy beings was definitely eye-opening and further solidified the correctness of    my incredibly impossible second hypothesis. 

However, the existence of these fairy tale creatures wasn't even the most interesting part. That would have to go to what they were doing.

Before I called them corpses, which is accurate…well…kinda. 

The truth is, they seemed to be in a perpetual state of…hmm. What's the word? Unrest. Unrest is the closest thing I can think of. Though, torture isn’t a bad alternative.

The bodies seemed to be dying and reviving over and over again.  It seemed like some sort of invisible force was ripping their lives away, and then forcefully stuffing that life back into them.

As they died, a filthy, slimy substance oozed out from their bodies. It appeared to be attempting to escape, but before it could sever the connection with their bodies, it was sucked back in. As soon as the slime completely entered the bodies, the corpses would revive. Then the cycle would start over, accompanied by the desperation of the souls and the bodies’ silent screams of agony.

Hmm. I guess that answers where I am. Cool. No pun intended. Moving on.

Now, onto what I am.

Using my newly acquired sight as well as the 360 range of vision that came along with it, I take a look at my body.

Starting from the base, I see that I was right. Within the gigantic frozen lake, was a tiny island, which I found myself semi submerged in. By my…roots. Hmm. No, those are definitely roots.

Moving my eyes above the appendages digging into the ground, I see a green stem. Totally expected that one. It is a really nice color though, a vibrant but light green.

Further up, jutting out of the aforementioned stem is some leaves. They were actually pretty nice looking. Super weird thing to say about some leaves but they were. They were lance-shaped and had a slightly darker tone of the green found on the stem.

Moving on up, we finally reached…the flower. Kind of anticlimactic, I know. Not really though. The flower itself was very pretty…why do I keep finding this stuff attractive? That’s weird. I’m a guy, we're not supposed to like flowers.

Well, whatever. The petals of the head were a deep purple, with the edge tipped in black.

Within the perianth, replacing the usual reproductive organs found, was an eye. A gleaming crimson eye devoid of a pupil. Well, that explains my sight.

How am I able to see my own eye? The answer to that is simple. The stem breaks off into three heads, with each having its own flower with a red eye in it.  

I have to admit it's a bit unnerving to look at yourself without the use of a mirror. Taking a glance at each of the flowers through the use of the other two, I noticed some slight differences. The edge of each set of flowers was a different color. Unlike the black I found on the first I looked at, the other two had their petals rimmed in a pure white and a pale yellow respectively. 

Wait, three heads? Three heads…a frozen lake with tormented souls… Giant pillars…

Is this what I think it is?

 

You can find story with these keywords: A Blooming Soul, Read A Blooming Soul, A Blooming Soul novel, A Blooming Soul book, A Blooming Soul story, A Blooming Soul full, A Blooming Soul Latest Chapter