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2024-10-29 19:42:56Turning around to look at Horaz, a sheen of sweat was on his forehead. She intended to wipe it when she suddenly noticed a patch of skin peeking behind his ears. Horaz hair had grown long enough, which she had told him that it was becoming of him despite him cutting it in different styles that were popular for men for so long.
Touching the patch of skin made Perri pull herself up. The patch of skin burnt as if forming into a scale.
She looked at Horaz with inquiring eyes but found him looking back at her with a sheepish smile.
Something in her turned pale. The color of the skin was the same kind as the ones from the creature. No words could escape her as she felt herself crumble. Biting, her lips, ready to cry.
She felt his arms wrap around her and say, “Don’t... I’m not worried, and so should you.”
“Ho—how can I not be worried??” Her voice was in an angry whisper.
“So far, that’s the onl
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Suitable Bags of Flesh Chapter 9 (part 1)
Chapter 9The Darmstadt house resides in the residential area. Built on a district known for its similar-looking middle-class citizen houses that sat border the urban and rural of A-city. At least, that’s how it was sold to residents, sitting in rows and rows of “ideal” home life.Built twenty years from the birth of A-city, every house and lot in this urban neighborhood has experienced renovation after renovation for years. But, the structures remained similar and in the taste of the original developers of the land.Different types of residents lived in this place, ranging from families to students renting houses. Partly, those students had the liberty to live minutes away from A-city Central College. Plus, previously mentioned, types of residents have the chance to live in a place with enough greenery the inner city cannot offer.Nothing stopped this large community from celebrating events and becoming tight
Suitable Bags of Flesh Chapter 9 (part 2)
Excusing herself, she left Lena to eat on her own. Climbing back to the second floor, she met with noise from beside the staircase.Looking at the door, it was ajar and creepily so, enough for Bernice to notice right away. Though eerie, it was not enough for her to be creeped out, the peeking eyes of Horaz did. Her reflex was to escape right away, but she found his face looking guilty like a sinner in church. The two held a silent conversation, internally embarrassed from a suggestive mention that Perri “needed to rest with him.”Thinking it’s no time to think deeply of her friend’s activities, she let them be concluding that their “adults” already. At least, a blanket thought. Once inside the room, Bernice quickly checked all the available smartphones.Two ones were on the bed; one must be from Lena and the other from Perri. She looked for Lena’s other phone, the one she least used, still plugged into the charger. Openi
Suitable Bags of Flesh Chapter 9 (part 3)
Bizarrely, it was as if the website ceased to exist, the entirety of it. The very minutes spent reading the article suddenly felt like the imagination of a desperate conspiracy theorist. This type of scenario could cause anyone to doubt and internally gaslight themselves to cope with absurdity.Trying again, now through a private browser search, she tried search identifiers of the blog, but nothing. Growing increasingly miffed, she tried a string of numbers, originally belonged to an IP address.The address was a discovery of Perri, used to access an old website. Like, the concept of a “way back machine,” it was a system built from G-city to record and archive any, or all existing, website every one minute of its existence. Clicking her tongue at only thinking of it now, she hoped that this spur of thought could help or give hope to their current.The thought brought Bernice back to the time Perri used it for her school paper. A school paper she did
Suitable Bags of Flesh Chapter 9 (part 4)
Brows furrowing, it squirmed from being squeezed and motioned its head to the side, closer to the cloth that nestled it. Covering its nose, it seems, from the smell. The woman smiled; the stress lines from lack of sleep appeared less around her eyes. It made her face brighten for a moment. The man saw this and sighed before looking out again, listening for anyone to hinder their escape.A few minutes counted before he decided to go out of the dumpster. He held his hand, telling the woman with one look to stay put while he looked around. Since the shadows of other people disappeared and had not shown again, he assumed that they had escaped farther away or scattered. But, there were no other people seen, so he told himself that it was alright and safe.The two hurriedly exited the dumpster, went in the opposite direction of the sound of people screaming and of any other chaos happening. They arrived at another corner where they encountered another group of people. This g
Suitable Bags of Flesh Chapter 9 (part 5)
“Walking to the residentials is a first for me.” Said Lucia. “You’ve been here for work before, right?”“Yeah, a few times. These residential folks are pretty fancy in their own right. But, since it’s far away, we don’t get to bring the good fixers here. Besides, they kept on complaining about quality when they don’t even like paying on-time themselves.” Tomas replied.The walk to the residential felt like a reprieve from the storm. Bound by the uncertainty or fear behind and beyond, only held by a hope that the mystery ahead isn’t as horrible as they imagine.“This place is eerily deserted.” Said Anton.He popped more buttons from his shirt. The sleeves he rolled mid his arm have now moved past his elbows.“According to the message, there’s not much chaos here in the ‘residentials.’ Seems like it’s true.”“Seems, to me, th
Suitable Bags of Flesh Chapter 9 (part 6)
Rows of fashionable but aged, spread-out condominiums welcomed them. Like imposing walls caging towards the “residentials” where houses are supposed to be parted by gardens and greenery. Only, they’ve become clustered with private homes side by side with little leeway for structures to breathe.Walking through streets, surrounded by a mix of silence or escaping steps, their movements were not as inconspicuous. Considering the number of people or persons they meet along the way that greets them nicely or dismisses them without a second glance could be counted in one hand.Busying themselves with their safety makes for a better choice to each one than caring to bother having extra burden in a world where a roaming monster can attack any time and without rhyme. Putting useless effort to spiral into a fruitless assumption pit of hell would only lead anyone in this catastrophe depression and death without effort. Instead, they’d rather survive and le
Suitable Bags of Flesh Chapter 9 (part 7)
“You think it’s alive?” asked Tacio in a whisper, all of them intent in whispering.“There’s bound to be worse question’s than that if you ask me.” Replied Anton.“Maybe, it’s better if we look for a different way around.” Says Lucia, who was busy shushing the child in her arms. “Good Aris, you’ve not cried since a while ago...”“Hey,” Tomas suddenly said. His voice was a bit farther away from them. “Maybe we can go through the back door of this house. It seems to me that the only fences between each house are short enough so we can climb over them.”Resolving to do that instead, they avoided the road-keeping creature in favor of the backyards. The back of this house was small and quite untidy, protected only by a five-foot-high fence against the dingy back alleys behind houses. All kinds of items stacked in the compact back yard of the house, piled highe
Suitable Bags of Flesh Chapter 9 (part 8)
Reaching three blocks away, the people suddenly stop and the creature paused its movements as the quartet ran farther. Finally, in a safe space again. It was a simple encounter of a unique group of people that, seem to cater to the creature, something Anton said he’s seen someone do but never thought to see in such a large number.As if those people sucked up to the creature, knowing it had enough intellect to trick it. Maybe they were treating it like a wild animal and currying favor by sacrificing themselves bit by bit, at the thought, mayhaps it was good they didn’t get to those people or be captured by them.Rounding another corner, Anton and Tacio finally showed signs of tiredness. They come across rows of houses with well-spaced yards, still with no one around. Tomas still pedaled with his might, but he soo tired that he gasped every pedal, losing his breath from the effort to move forward. All the men had lost their adrenaline, with nothing but their
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Epilog
EpilogueThe caves underground lead nowhere man could tolerate, with the pressure of the world pressing over them, no one can follow the Primer monsters as they exit the premise of C-city. These Primers are not going to be eaten and smothered by power over time, however, they will co-exist in a community built by Memoria.Memoria who sat almost half a millennia awake under the ruins of F-city played another game of race between the lines with several other internet connection nodes that are knowingly joined into the old working cable lines of the dead city. Then when the race finishes, they rest for the while, thinking like a person, old and hesitant.They’ve long forgotten that they could easily browse these connections so that they could monitor the condition of the world and their old friends who now walks the human world with the grace that could only dignify those with experience. They have experience too, of a different kind, all collected from the vast brains and words of those
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<intermission>
Hi, there Nate here :) I've enjoyed writing this story so far, but things have been complicated and I won't be able to write it anymore. There are some moments that I wish I could have fixed in the long run but it's gotten too much to hold in just one hand. After this chapter will be a short Epilog for a short mention of each relevant characters final activities before the future becomest truly a mystery. This story ran its course, pretty long if you ask me, and the development of some characters are slow but steady. There will be a new title coming after this for the coming month, it's tentative title is "Ocular to the Dying Sun." A saga of the Prime Magician and the realm of Slitark according to before their brightest star continues to deteriorate. Have fun reading, please do leave comments~
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Chapter 37 (part 4)
Small-stature wobbled from their place in shock and confusion. They could hear voices, words they thought would not be possible to understand even if they have a sprinkle of memories of being able to say such things, such words. Vocabulary had almost slipped their still able memory of what they seem to perceive as their selves before this blind-like body.Their comrade underlings did not comprehend the creature in front of Small-stature, making them react in a scared way, almost darting to scurry in escape. Managing to hail them back into the premise of Small-stature’s vicinity was easy, what with One-arm herding them back to where they are.“My, forgive me. It seems like you are a newborn to this body.” Soft-spoken, as Small-stature calls them, listened to them say. “Let me soothe your worries, we are not here to relish harm upon our fellow. Rather, guide them.”Hearing and understanding what Soft-spoken said took about a few seconds of Small-stature’s comprehension, but their underl
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Chapter 37 (part 3)
Two presences from the premise disappeared when the small-statured creature sensed the sensation of an optimal sound and light came from underneath the ground. There was a pause as they waited for the arrival of this, oh so, comforting resonance.Anticipation. Tension. Pause.There was a definite halt in their senses when another sensation overpowered their most awaited event, that was just been triggered moments ago. Because of this, they knew that there was something wrong. Something that would bring them great demise and abandonment, even if they know they could survive without this “thing.”Grasping this “thing” was an answered prayer they knew would be something that could help develop their comrades and these sweet-scented underlings of theirs. Telling them that they would grow and develop into better creatures that could well benefit each other. Without words, just sounds and resonance, deeds.Still, they could not help but waver in tenacity when they felt the loss of this “thi
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Chapter 37 (part 2)
Waking up in another body is hellish beyond comparison. Imagine opening your eyes to blindness you didn't know existed, with the light coming from nowhere and everywhere. You don't see with your eyes, but you feel the world ten times stronger with nothing but your body who is sensitive to every kind of noise. Magic would have been more believable than realizing that your blindness is not caused by pain of any internal kind, but by your eyes absorbed inside your skull, sunken deep. Protected by a layer of skin thin but tough, while a substance within shakes and serves to stay it in place. Something moved within their skull, surreal but they could feel it moving with every shake and stir as if a jar of pickles with one pickle inside swimming in its vat of juice. Why am I comparing pickle to my situation? Calming themselves was easy, they “breathed” slow and steady, through a nose they could not feel or sense its presence on their face, but they know its there. Wildly adjusting their t
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Chapter 37 (part 1)
Chapter 37Skies don’t rain beans or bacon, but Horaz, who’s gotten himself used to the way the Primer identity roams his mind, sees that this Primer sure knows how to mix the setting they stand in by displaying all food he’s been craving for. Nothing beats being human and wanting nothing but to satiate your day with all the good comfort food that lives in your head, at least the ones you’ve tasted before.He has been yearning to eat more than raw meat, which his tongue and throat burned from the bitter taste, not sweet or delectable, but bitter and tangy at the same time. The youth of sixteen years has not tasted flesh the same way it’s described with a raw steak, though he prefers well done, he probably would have had the chance to taste raw steak in the time his family would celebrate special occasions.But he prefers well-done steak, baked beans, and the occasional tacos on the weekends. Softshell because he needs to cater to his girlfriend’s taste for cleanliness, hence food with
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Chapter 36 (part 7)
“Stand… down,” Akyl said slowly to the escorts. Her eyes watched the one arm that clung to the tail.She could tell that the tail, or the identity that controlled it, is strong today. There must be a correlation between their method of physical examination and their tail’s response to their body. Rather, she could sense that Horaz is just realizing that there was more to the process happening in his Primer body and just noticing it now.The other escorts, with guns that bore metal ammunition, followed through but the tranquilizer bearer did not ease his aim. The escort shook his head in rejection of her request and Akyl had to acknowledge this.Purce stood still, feeling her tension, more from fear, stiffen her body. The only part that could move was her eyes and she watched in anticipation if the doctor would do something first, or the Primer’s tail.Because, by now, she could see that the Primer is not just fighting the tail but struggling to keep its hold. The twitching stopped for
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Chapter 36 (part 6)
The confines of Horaz’s room remained cold with the sprinkle of “nature’s touch,” meaning the occasional soil and other debris that could serve as “entertainment options.” Noticing the Primer consciousness be a creature of boredom was one the laboratory did not expect, and so did Horaz.Discovering this was not hard to conclude when the Primer tends to play and hunt the staff and escort that enters its domain whenever they feed or try to clean his “room.” At most, if they didn’t leave any kind of living creature to distract the Primer during its stay in the laboratory, the likeliness of it trying to destroy their place seemed likelier.Reina remembered the kind of creature the first Primer was, despite staying for only a few days in their presence. This alpha Primer did things in calculated actions as if, the creature itself wanted things to go their way so it could pretend to give them what they want.She concluded this according to how the staff then felt its actions were much devis
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Chapter 36 (part 5)
Purce had to double take, knowing that the answer used, one thump of any body part meant “no.” Hastily, she signaled to Elbi that Horaz – the human consciousness, did not agree to the next procedure.Because of this, Moss suddenly wondered why the electrical current request they were aiming to control, and monitor stopped. She saw from her peripheral that Dr. Akyl left her post, the other touchscreen panel, and approached Elbi and Purce.Elbi was adjusting the program, already on its way to booting up enough electrical charges in the ideal percent, but an abrupt stop in this charging requires a reset for the application and machine. Because if it did not stop and proceed to use for its intended purpose, it would go haywire or overflow.The very machine of the gurney can only hold enough electrical charge, the extra energy that flows through the needles are nodes that cannot let one charge in it stay still. It must go through and ride the sails and winds or else it will burn. This is n
