After An Apple's Death

V. The Ground & The Stem

The ground was hard. Very hard. Of course, I survived but I got a few bruises. Bruises are something an Apple like me should never experience. Sadly, other Apples often think they are better than me, which is obviously not true, and they hurt me and give me bruises.

The ground was covered in green grass. It was very similar to the one in the World of Living Apples, but the grass here was brighter. I was tempted to look at it forever, but I remembered the pink creatures Leale spoke about, and decided to keep moving. I needed to find out how to communicate with the Living.

Mr. Apletre had once spoken about a ritual that Apples sometimes use to communicate with the Dead. It hadn't been used in more than an Apple Century, which is approximately one and a half Tree Centuries. He still had shown us how to do it, in case we ever needed it. Maybe that ritual would work the other way around too?

I tried to remember the ingredients. I may have been an amazing Apple, and I may be really smart, but I do not remember everything.
The first ingredient was...the stem of an Apple.

Now, the stem of an Apple is very hard to get, because if you cut your own, you are at very high risk of dying. If you find someone else to cut it for you, they are most likely to betray you and cut off the whole stem which makes you die as well. If you cut someone else's stem, you can either cut off the whole stem to kill the other Apple, or you can cut it off normally, but even with that last option, there's a chance that the other Apple dies.

I do not want to experiment with what happens after you die in the World of Dead Apples, and I do not want to kill someone else. That would just be cruel to myself, as their friends would see me as a rebel and cast me out.

They pretty much already did that, but I don't want it to happen again.

Mr. Apletre had also told us that most of these ingredients are very hard to get, as the people that have created this ritual did not want Apples to perform that ritual too often. Of course, the stem is very hard to get, but I don't remember the other ones so I can't say.

I hobbled around a bit, trying to get used to this world. Pretty much everything was the same, but that doesn't mean you don't need to get used to it.
I looked in the distance. Maybe I could find some eaten Apple that still had his stem. And there, far far away, I saw a tall pink creature covered in blue and green fabric. It was walking, slowly, but it was towards me.

I remembered what Leale said.
Run if they're not looking at you, if they are, you're dead.

I didn't think the creature could see me, so I ran as fast as I could towards a patch of tall grass, approximately 20 Apple Stems away. When I arrived there, I twirled around.

I bet I looked like I was dancing, but I was actually just trying to dig a hole. It didn't really work, so I ran around again until I found a little hole in the ground.

I sat inside that hole, tried to make it a bit deeper which obviously didn't work, and curled up in a ball. Apples already are in the form of a ball, so they cannot really curl up, but it was worth a try.
I could peek out of the hole, so I watched the creature walk towards me. I shuddered. I didn't want to be eaten.

With every step, the creature came closer and closer. With every step, my fear grew. I didn't want to know what happened if you died here.
Now the creature was right beside my hole. It stopped in sync with my heart and looked around.

Instead of having a stem on top of their head, it had something that quite looked like straw. I wondered if it was their replacement for a stem. It also was covered in blue and green layers, I couldn't really see its pink skin, except for on its face and some strange organs poking out of the torso.
In general, it was a very strange creature. It didn't look like an Apple at all.

Now the creature walked a bit further, and sat down. Apples cannot sit down, even though we try very often. It looked around, and said "Ahhhhh."

My brain was full of question marks. "Ah?" Was that the creature's language? With who was it communicating? Maybe the creatures can be invisible?
Whilst thinking, unconsciously I moved out of the hole and the grass rustled. I didn't expect that. In our dimension, that's not mine anymore, the grass doesn't rustle.

The creature, startled, turned around. Before it saw me, I ran and ran away, as quickly as I could. When I was more than 50 Apple Stems away, I looked back and saw the creature carefully searching the grass.

"Hahaha, it can't get me now" I laughed.

"An Apple? Here?" I heard a weak voice. It seemed to belong to an Apple. Maybe he was wounded. As I try to be a modest and helpful soul, I looked around for him.

"I'm right here", said the voice again.
I looked on the ground and there was a small Apple. He was half eaten, but still lived as his heart wasn't touched.
"Please help", he moaned.

"Me? Help you? Sorry, man, I can't help. I have no clue how to."

"You don't?" His head fell to the side, along with his whole body as for Apples, the head and body are deeply connected. "Then you can just kill me. Break my stem, I don't care. Do whatever."

"I...I can kill you? Take your stem?! Yes!" I squealed like a little female, and I admit I was pretty ashamed of it.

"It was a joke! Don't..."
But i already ran up to to him and ripped his stem out. His body went limp straight away and his eyes went blank.

I looked at the stem that I was holding, then looked at him, or what had been the Apple, and then back to my stem.
The realization dawned on me.
"I killed someone."

And strangely enough, that realization filled me with glee.

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A/N
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Hey people :)
Looks like Appel's kinda crazy O_o now I don't wonder anymore why they kicked him out of the Tree. I swear Appel decided himself that he would suddenly like killing. If you're a writer, do you know that point when your characters decide themselves what they want to say? That's what happened xD

I'd love to see your comments on his character development :) please vote as well if you liked the chapter. Both of this means a lot to me.
The music is Flight by Tristam & Braken. I realize that the beginning is overplayed in YouTube intros and such, but the rest is underrated, in my opinion at least :)

Next update on Friday, along with a review if you read them :)

Enjoy your life and don't die,
~Fourminette