Chapter Text
She had been laying in the woods for a long time. In the deep forest, time didn’t exist. Without any sun or stars to tell the passing of the days, she had no semblance of how long she had rested here, waiting for the moss and bugs to cover her.
Mafuyu was giving up. She had tried many times before to give up, but she had always failed. But here, hidden by trees and darkness, she could get lost. She would be lost, and her body never recovered, and she would finally be free.
She would not fail this time.
Her head was pounding, and her mouth was impossibly dry. Her stomach rumbled. Each breath felt painful against her cracked lips and aching lungs. Each blink felt arduous against her heavy eyelids.
She felt powerful. Oh-so in control for the first time in her entire life. Soon, the town crier would read a tragic message of her wandering too far from the path in the forest on her way from the foreign market, of how they found her body already decomposed to the bone, lying among the roots where even foxfire was scared to glow.
She sighed a long breath, letting her eyes close for a long moment. Not even the wind could reach her here.
So then what is that strange noise?
There was something like singing filtering through the branches, a soft melody playing just beyond her reach. Her ears twitched involuntarily toward the music, but she could pick up none of the words.
Her bones were laden with stone, but something about the song made her sit up, every once and a while, so she could hear just a little better. She didn’t know how long the music had been playing for. It would stop, for long breaks of time, but it would always begin again, and play for hours upon hours.
She never grew bored of the music. She wouldn’t say it interested her, not really, but it pulled her out of the swirling in her mind. It was… It soothed the coldness in her chest that threatened to choke her.
Mafuyu stood. She wanted to see where the music was coming from, before she laid down to rest for good. She needed to find the music. It felt like her last great task. One more thing to do, something to put her heart at ease and calm the last of her curiosities. She wanted to sleep with nothing burdening her, and this incessant music was ruining everything.
It seemed her coordination had already sunk into the soil. Her hooves slipped on layers of pine needles and roots, and she had to keep a hand out to catch herself as her head spun. She had never felt this lightheaded before. It had been wonderful when she was laying down, the way it made her skin buzz and her body feel far away, but now it made her nauseous beyond belief.
The music grew louder with each step she took. It only added to the pounding in her skull. She shut her eyes, letting the music guide her. She just had to see where it came from. She was so close. So close.
It was so dark. She couldn’t tell if her eyes were still closed. She felt like a fool, scrambling through the dark for a melody. The music probably wasn’t even real.
Give up. I want to give up. Why don’t I?
But she couldn’t. The song tugged at her heart. It warmed her. She had never felt warm before. She had to find it.
Inky black slowly faded into warm greys. She could make out blue, now, and purple. Colors. There was light, somewhere. She sped up subconsciously.
Then she slipped, crashing sideways onto the hard ground. She thought she cried out, and her head smacked against a root. She gasped in a sharp, cold breath of air. Black spots danced across her vision.
The music had stopped.
“No,” she whispered, trying to gather the strength to sit up again. “No, come back.” She couldn’t find it, staring uselessly at her limp arms. Where had her control gone? Why was she no longer satisfied with laying here?
It was ironic, wasn’t it? To find hope at the end, but to have been too slow in pursuing it. If she were different, it might’ve made her smile. It might’ve made her cry.
She felt nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
And then came the ghost.
She had never seen anything like it before. It had hair so long she could hear it touch along the ground, so impossibly white it seemed almost more like snowfall than hair. Its horns were dark in contrast, curving back and then to the sides. It was bone-thin, and Mafuyu couldn’t see its face in the dark. There was some sort of rope tied to one of its skinny ankles.
It must be death, Mafuyu thought, illogically. I’ve succeeded.
It knelt down in front of her, and it ran the back of one of its hands – cold hands, death, finally – against her cheek. It cooed at her, and took her hands and started to tug.
Mafuyu tried to stand again. She wanted to follow the ghost. She was meant to, right?
It was speaking to her. She couldn’t seem to make out any words. Everything took tremendous effort.
Was this the process of dying? Why was it so arduous? She was meant to be done with all this effort. She wanted it all to be over.
The ghost shifted its hands around her middle and pulled her up. Her head rested on its boney shoulder. She could feel it shaking underneath her.
“You have to walk. I can’t carry you,” it said to her. Its voice was soft and far-away, and each word came out slowly, like gentle waves washing upon the shore. They cleaned Mafuyu’s mind and left her feeling pleasant. She got her hooves under her, gripping the back of the ghost’s dress.
“That’s it,” the ghost encouraged, petting the back of her head. It started to walk, and she stumbled along with it, keeping her head hidden in its shoulder. “You’re going to be alright.”
She nodded. She trusted the ghost would lead her to the next life.
She didn’t know how long they walked for. She never once looked up, even as the trees began to thin and light reached her eyes even as she hid them. She didn’t look up until her hooves hit wood.
The ghost had taken her to some sort of house. It wasn’t very large, but it had multiple rooms. It moved her past a bedroom with a grey capric laying on the bed, pallid and corpse-like in appearance. It led her past another bedroom, filled with clutter. Then it brought her to a third bedroom, and led her over to the bed. “Lay down,” it said, helping guide her to sit. “Rest now.”
She thought again of that grey capric. This must be where the dead were brought to lay. She would sleep and wake anew in another life. She felt relief. It was over.
She lay down in the bed, and let the ghost pull the blankets up to her chin. It brushed her hair away from her face. She still couldn’t see its face well. Her vision was too blurred. Her face felt wet. “I’ll see you in the morning,” it said, cupping her cheek once more.
She closed her eyes and kept them closed long after the ghost left.