#fragile yellow slime mold

[splatterkink]

Overdose

Horror. CW: Drugs, Overdose, Suicide.

Intestines look a lot more graphic and fragile in real life, shiny and fleshy. Shrivelled slightly, no longer fresh. They don’t tell you that there’s a thin layer of tissue keeping it all connected in the horror movies either. A foul smell seeping from the opening, dry retching coming from a burning throat. It had been a day, maybe a few. He didn’t know. They’d taken something, assumed it was heroin but clearly it had been laced. He was shaking, yellow slime finally escaped his throat and landed beside him, stomach acid was the only thing coming up now, the rancid smell of dried vomit wasn’t helping his nausea and pounding head. 

The drugs were still in his system, it was the source of the paranoia, why he hadn’t called for help when she overdosed, why he was still in the same room as her now leaking corpse. The plan was to get high, fuck, and come down again. She seized before he could even get her panties off, blood smeared from her nose and dried drool sticking her hair to her cheeks. Her eyes were still bloodshot and bulging from their sockets. She was staring at him, those eyes were forcing their way inside his fucking mind and he couldn’t stop himself, he was drugged up on who knows what and he just got angry. He didn’t like being stared at. So he took a knife and pushed it inside her stomach over and over again. A disgusting squelching noise, and then a hole had formed. Not very large, but large enough for her insides to have partially spilled out, surrounded by a vile, bubbly, yellow layer of fat. The same colour as the stomach acid he’d been coughing up since. 

He’d paced around, terrified of what he’d done, but hours of that had ended with him being too weak to stand. Curled up on the bed, inches away from the growing damp stain pooling under her corpse, the stench keeping him awake. He couldn’t look away. He was drenched in sweat, his hair stuck to his forehead and the skin on his arms raw and bleeding from paranoid scratching. He ached all over. Getting up, he stumbled out of the room and into the kitchen. Mold in the sink and bugs crawling across the counter, the room was barely lit and the smell of rotting fruit invaded his senses. He bent down by the sink, knees cracking loudly, as he reached under the countertop and grabbed his pistol. Holding it under his chin, his lips trembled and he used his free hand to wipe the snot dripping from his nose. Letting out a gross little choke, he pulled the trigger.

[green-algae]

Leocarpus fragilis, or fragile yellow slime mold, growing on a rotting log in Marin County, California. Images by John W. Wall.

[serviceforthenewarrivals-blog]

[amerelo]

Roots

The sun was about to rise when I woke up to the sound of the main door closing. A note was placed beside my bed, saying the usual: that I should take care of my 4 older brothers and that we should go to school. “It must be easy being my mother, always working and leaving everything to me, as if I had an obligation to take care of those big men or do anything.” I thought. 

Of course we did not go to high school that day, we preferred to stay with our neighbors; my brothers with their friends and I with my boyfriend and my best friend, who lived at the beginning of our street. 

 The people in the neighborhood were friendly, they had known each other for years, there were people of varying ages, houses whose flowery walls embellished and brightened the place. 

 Even though I wanted to, I was never far from my brothers, for they kept watching me, especially when I decided to be with my boyfriend, whose ugliness was a mockery of everyone in the street. This stopped, however, after his disappearance. The whole neighborhood was looking for him at first, but it was not long before the subject was left aside. Soon his house, which was located in front of mine, was abandoned by his family, who refused to make any changes to the furniture, nor did anyone have the courage to enter to steal something. 

The yellow stripes were still there, though it was believed that the police investigations had been suspended due to the lack of interest … Flowers no longer grew on the wall of the abandoned house; the mood of the neighborhood changed from happy to sad, but after a short period of time it was once again happy. “How is it possible that people have so quickly forgotten our neighbor’s disappearance?” I asked my best friend, who was eating cake sitting on a lounger on her porch while watching the boys’ soccer game. “Ah, you know how it is, right …” she replied in an indifferent tone, “it’s not even worth worrying about it anymore, his body must have already rotted somewhere far from here.” “ You think that someone murdered him ?! ” “ Yeah, maybe his parents. Who cares? Just get over it, you will find another boyfriend someday… a handsome one, I hope. ” In the afternoon, my brothers and I returned home, because our mother would arrive soon, however, when I opened the front door, I looked back and saw the abandoned house. 

 “Do you want to see what’s in there?” I asked, in a mysterious voice and a discreet smile. I did not wait for them to answer me, I ran across the street and entered the dark, fetid and sad house. I knew that my brothers would accompany me, for they never took their eyes off me, two of them even slept in the same room as me! We turned on our cell phone lanterns and started rummaging through the house. 

 “You’re crazy, you cannot do this!” - whispered the eldest brother. The other three just covered their noses and moved away the dusty objects of the room. I made a noise to frighten them and laughed, but then I heard a different noise, which echoed from somewhere and did not come from any of us. We walked slowly to my boyfriend’s room, but found nothing but a black slime on the bed and the floor. 

I left the room quietly as they were too busy investigating the source of that strange ooze, and headed out into the yard, where I noticed that a rotten smell intensified as I approached a wooden door facing the yard near some withered plants. Without further ado, I opened it quickly. I was startled when my older brother appeared behind me with his flashlight; together we saw that there was nothing but bats in there. We went home and talked a lot about it before bed. Our mother quarreled with us because we missed school again and said that she would not work the next day just to make sure it was the last time that we skipped school. At dawn, I heard the same noise I heard earlier in the abandoned house. My brother’s wide frightened eyes met mine. Such noise seemed to come from our room, but we did not have the courage to look for the source. It was then that I felt something wrap my arms around and spread to the rest of my body, making me remain motionless. It was like a hot, moist root that held me tightly against the bed and its ends pierced my body, penetrating my veins and entering my mouth. 

The intense pain I felt at the time made me faint and I only woke up a long time later, so it seemed, in a white room with incandescent lamps burning on the ceiling. One hand rested lightly on mine and I turned to see who it belonged to. 

 “I thought we’d never see each other again,” my boyfriend said, smiling. 

 “I died..?!” I asked him, calmly, already accepting my possible reality. 

 “Is that what you think? I feel pretty alive … ”- He laughed. I got out of bed without remembering how I got there. Memories were like old dreams, long forgotten and replaced by better ones. People there lived well, even though they looked sick. I was like that myself, with flaccid skin, pale and fragile; my bones were weak and I could barely walk. I noticed that most of the people there wore white overalls that molded themselves to the body, others were in black clothes that covered everything except their heads. 

People smiled, but it was as if they did not want to be there for real, but where would they go? It was an enclosed place, it was not known if it was day or if it was night. There were animals too, raised in large cages in an airy, cozy compartment. They behaved well, as well as people, although no one had full situational awareness. 

 Our food was served at a large table in the courtyard, where everyone met punctually at the bell. Only natural foods, well prepared, for all tastes. The tables and benches were all around a large tree, where everyone in white gathered to eat - and they ate very well, including me, but I noticed that those dressed in black did not touch the food, they only looked at us with serious countenances, never spoke to us or showed us any emotion. 

 Several activities were offered to us to feel happy and satisfied, such as painting, driving, playing, practicing sports, etc. The bell rang indicating that bedtime had come and we all went into a hallway full of doors, and on the wall next to each door there was an opening for the overalls. I noticed that my overalls had more volume and, as soon as I put it in the opening, it was completely sucked out. I noticed that naked people on my sides had holes all over their bodies, just like I did. I went through the door to be sanitized, put on a new overalls and went to sleep. 

 I dreamed that I was seeing my body along with several other bodies in a dark basement; my mouth was open and my eyes, white. Bats flew around and some of them were sucking my blood. Roots entered me as well as other people; the smell was unbearable. I woke up scared and rushed out to the door to do the hygiene, but this time I was still dressed. 

I could hear voices in the distance, I followed them down the empty corridor until I had a clearer view of what was happening in the courtyard, but I could not understand the conversation, because the people in black spoke to each other in an unknown language. At the huge table, red-smelling drinks and red-colored foods were on. People laughed and talked in the gloom under the tree as they feed themselves, and for the first time I could see that their teeth were sharp and their nails large; when they took a sip of that doughy drink or ate a piece of the “beetroot cake”, the veins of their necks grew protruding and darkened. I recoiled in horror during all the time that i was watching such thing. I returned immediately to my room and did not sleep until the bell rang for the breakfast. 

 As soon as I had the opportunity, I told my boyfriend everything I had experienced the night before. He did not believe it at first, but he also was very surprised that he had no memory of how he got there. 

 “The overalls we wear …” - I started, softly - “… probably absorbs our blood, and when we take them off, they get sucked and go to a warehouse where they prepare their food.” “Is it really?!” - He was surprised - “Wow, that makes perfect sense. I also feel that when I take off my clothes, it’s a bit heavier and bulky … But how are our bodies in that dark basement that you saw if we’re actually here? ” The bell rang again: Time to change the overalls for our recreation time. 

 I did not see my boyfriend after our patio conversation over breakfast. I spent the rest of the day observing people painting and carving random figures, until suddenly i was being carried by the arms by a man in black and then placed in a row where several people in white with confused looks expected something bad to happen. 

 A man approached us. He was handsome, tall, dressed in a red overcoat over his black suit and equally black eyes. Walking up and down the row, he looked deep into our eyes one by one, expressing no emotions. Reaching me, his brow furrowed and looked at the man in black who brought me, nodding his head. Several thoughts came to me at once, trying to figure out the reason why I was chosen. Did he see that I escaped at night? Did he realize that I was stressed or distrusted by the taste of my blood? How did he know it was me? Did he read my mind? Did he hear my racing heartbeat? The man in black held me tightly and dragged me along for a few yards when he was suddenly knocked over by a lioness. Several animals were running all around, an ostrich almost hit me; a giraffe ate the leaves of the courtyard tree in the distance; an elephant destroyed the furniture; Birds flew desperately looking for a way out; Coyotes tried to enter rooms; cheetahs ate people while the other animals of various species tried to find a place to protect themselves and live in freedom. People in white hid in higher places so they would not be targeted by predators, and black ones locked themselves in rooms. 

I could not see my boyfriend in the chaos, I believed that he was responsible for the release of the animals from their cages. The supposed vampire chief was calm, protected by his companions. They went into a little room and closed the door. I was hiding behind a counter that led into the kitchen near the patio. As soon as I felt a little more secure, I rushed as fast as I could to the door where the chief had come a few moments earlier … it was good that it was not locked. 

However, in the white room there was no furniture or any air outlet. It was empty. I kept looking for something to push or step on, thinking I would have some secret passageway, for there would be no other explanation for his sudden disappearance, or would there be? 

 After a few minutes, I began to feel short of breath. I tried to open the door, but there was no knob or any other way to open it inside, so I yelled for help until I could not. I sat on the floor, my vision already blurred. I saw that my skin slowly melted and turned a black slime in the same proportion as I lost consciousness … and so it happened until I returned to my true body in the gloom where the bats slept and the roots engulfed me. 

I tried to move, but I could not; the pain increased whenever I tried to speak or move. The smell of excrement, death, and blood was very strong. Tears streamed down my eyes as I looked at a beam of light through the shadows.