Barbed tendrils shot out from where the pus-shit substance had been leaking, impaling Sunny's body and no doubt infecting it. This pain was not something that could be easily described—not without sounding like you were soft-headed and unable to relate with other people. Knives—no, razor wire—dug into his flesh. He was stabbed over and over, his very flesh being violated and torn apart on such a thorough level that Sunny almost let himself imagine he was dreaming all this, that this was a nightmare—on where he was in the body of a toy being thoroughly ripped apart and stripped down to his spiritual core.
"Go ahead, Sunny!" They said a voice that wasn't a voice, "Pretend like your dark half is a demon—a boogeyman in the closet! The latter would be thematically fitting, we think. Resist! RESIST THE DARKNESS, SUNNY!!! FIGHT IT!!!! IT'S NOT THE REAL YOU!!!!" Then, in a drastic tonal shift, they seemed to be mimicking a stereotypical tent Revivalist from the South. "LAWD, OH LAWDY MEH! BROTHAHS AND SISTAHS, THIS SIMPLEH WILL NOT DEW! FRIENDS, THIS BOY IS OVERCOME WITH DEMONS AND WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO DRIVE THESE SUHPENTS OUT! CAN AH GET AN AY-MAYEN?"
Cory, at the same time he heard their voices—Cory, Dad, Gary, and a dozen others he'd known throughout the years—some of them he only recognized vaguely— saying, "Amen," was struck with a lightning bolt of pain. He could hear his mother laughing at and taunting him.
"FOR HOW LONG WILL YOU CONTINUE TO LIVE IN DENIAL, SUNNY!? OH, WHAT'S THAT? NO, DON'T TRY AND LIE TO US, EVEN IN YOUR HEAD? THAT WON'T WORK. NOT ONLY ARE YOU IN DENIAL ABOUT BEING IN DENIAL, BUT YOU CONTINUE TO DENY YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO TRANSMUTE THE SHADOW! O, BUT DON'T WORRY. WE'RE MORE THAN HAPPY TO FEED YOUR DELUSION!"
Sunny had never realized he could be hurt so thoroughly. There was no part—no square inch—of him that wasn't fair game. When Sunny saw what they had in mind—the instrument through which they would enact his torment—Sunny realized what they were going to do to him. He pleaded for mercy, but heard only laughter—both that of his mom's and of theirs—in response. Such torture, in real-world time, lasted less than two minutes. But, here, within the plant-god's domain, two minutes was much longer than that—longer than you think.
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Sundew
Horror*Placeholder teSunny Swanson has had a rough go in life. A drifter and a heroin addict, he waits one night for a bus to skip town. However, after surviving an accidental overdose while waiting for his ride, he wakes up in a hospital bed. Sunny plots...
