Gothic stories

The lungs eater or Luhis' Invi-sease

    It happends on a beautiful sunny day in Seoul on October 31st in 2022.
Luhis was sitting on his chair, playing video games, as usual. Even if the weather was perfect to hang out with some friends, Luhis didn't care. He hated going out and being surrounded by people, so going outside was like torture for him. In fact, he wasn't like that before. Before what, you may ask ? Before the covid pandemic which happened in 2020. This terrible period of time affected him very much. He was now scared of people not wearing masks, people who had a mask but were closer than 2 metres to him and finally he was scared of places where there were too many people. People, people, people, he was scared of people in general, now. Even kissing his parents was very difficult for him without being sure that they were negative in the covid test.

His parents, tried to help him as much as they could but every time they wanted to convince Luhis to go out, he refused. However, this time was different. One of Luhis' favourite days in the year, was Halloween, and before the pandemic, he liked to walk outside and ask for some sweets.

On this 31st of October Luhis' parents, finally persuaded him to celebrate this event with them. He loved his parents so much that this time, he accepted.

At the end of the afternoon, the family finally came out to celebrate in the street with many other people. Luhis was a little bit scared at the beginning because of the amount of people but he quickly forgot about his fear since his parents were by his side and since he had some fun. Soon, in the evening, there were more and more people in the streets. They were all a little bit drunk and seemed to be very happy to celebrate Halloween again after such a long time.

Finally, at around 9pm, there was a giant crowd and Luhis couldn't follow his parents. The thirteen year-old teenager finally got lost in the crowd and couldn't find his parents. He tried many times to get out of this throng but he failed. The little boy started panicking, his parents were probably far away so nobody could calm him down. He started to cry, desperate, he shouted his parents' names but that didn't help. His tiny little voice was not enough to exceed the huge sound level of the crowd. Around him people were all drunk and didn't care about anything. He started to suffocate and had difficulties breathing. A lot of people fainted and no one helped them. Finally, some time later, he found he parents, lying in the street. He tried to ask for some help, he called the police, the ambulance and even the firefighters but when they arrived it was too late.

Luhis' parents died on the 31st October 2022, suffocated by the crowd, they couldn't breathe and finally had a heart attack. They weren't the only ones, this night 154 people died of a heart attack during the event. It was a tragedy.

Luhis was now an orphan and lived at his aunt's house. Since his parents' death, he didn't speak once. At the beginning his aunt was very understanding, she allowed him to not go to the school, to be alone in his bedroom and didn't ask him anything. However, a few months later, things changed. One day, his aunt told him : "Luhis, sweety, it is difficult for me too ! You are a big boy, you're sixteen ! It is time to grow up a little bit and accept your parents' death ! I have given you enough time to mourn, now you need to go back to school and live like the other teenagers".

The problem was that Luhis wasn't a normal teenager, he saw his parents and other people die and couldn't do anything to help them. He was traumatised and his anxiety was stronger than ever. If in the past he had hated crowds, it was nothing compared to how he hated them now. He had the feeling that no one understood him, and his feeling was right.

This boy thought that he was the unluckiest person on this earth. His wide green eyes showed how much he was downcast and discouraged. The way he looked showed a lot of his introverted personality. He had beautiful black hair which covered his sad face. He wore always a black mask which hid his thin nose and his red pair of lips. He was very tall. He had wide shoulders and long arms. At the end of his arms he had little hands that he kept hidden in his pockets. Finally, since his parents died he was always wearing black clothes. Especially, he wore an oversized jumper with a pair of black cargo pants and black boots.

Every single day since he returned to school, was such torture. He was always nervous, at the bus station, in the metro, in the corridor and in the classroom. He didn't have friends, because he still didn't speak to anyone and tried to isolate himself as soon as possible to calm down. When he went back to home the only thing that he liked to do was drink alcohol near to a little fountain near his house to forget about his unhappiness. One day, he was so drunk that he started to speak to the fountain. He begged the fountain to give him the power to feel better in big crowds.

A few days later when his was in the bus to go to his school, he felt, once again, that he was uncomfortable. He needed more air. He heard at the back of the bus, two girls laughing. He thought that it was unfair that these girls had fun when he was suffering. He looked at them very badly and a few seconds later the two teenagers in the back passed out. People started to panic and tried to help them. During this time, Luhis was completely fine. For the first time in his life, since 31st October, he felt good in a bus. The most surprising thing was that he wasn't affected by the accident of the two girls. Instead, he was happy, that finally, he felt better.

A few days later, the news reported the death of the two young girls in the bus, revealing that they didn't have any lungs anymore and that it was the reason why they died. This mystery scared everyone; how could someone not have any lungs without being cut ? That was the big question...

After the incident in the bus, Luhis was feeling good for only a few days. After that he started to suffocate again during an event at his school. Again, he was losing his breath and he didn't feel good. Again, People around him were laughing and smiling and he was jealous of them. And again, a few people passed out and died because their lungs vanished. This phenomenon happened more and more often and Luhis finally understood that he causes the death of those people. He had now a superpower that no one had. He had the power to draw people's lungs if he didn't feel alright. When he realised it, he felt guilty and anxious so, he caused a lot more deaths. It became a hell loop...

One day, he was sitting in a train, and next him was sitting a little girl. She noticed that Luhis was nervous and very uncomfortable so she asked him : "Excuse me, do you have anxiety?". Luhis was surprised by the question and answered "I don't know. What is anxiety?". The little girl explained: "It is when you are scared of something very hard and it affects you very much. My mother says that if you need help and feel bad you should see a therapist and ask for some help ! This advice helped me many times !". Luhis was confused. " What's help? Don't you think it's better if find myself how to make myself feel better ?" He asked. "No, I don't think so. How do you know if this way is good for you ? Maybe this way make things worse for you and the others ...?" Said the girl innocently.

This was the day when Luhis realised that his new power was bad. The only way for him to feel better was killing people and that wasn't right. Many times he tried to ask for some help, but every time, people laughed at him and were saying that he was inventing a disease for himself that doesn't even exist. People didn't understand why he was scared of them.

One rainy and dark night, Luhis, was so desperate, so scared of everything, people, crowds and even himself. He was going crazy because of his fears and couldn't control himself. Finally, he tore out his own lungs and died of guilt and distress.

Luhis died as a monster but this monster maybe wouldn't have existed if society didn't underestimate his mental issues.

It is not because they didn't see his disease it was, that it wasn't real...

Anna'
The lung eater or Luhis' Invi-sease