The Whisp and the Shadow

I was sitting on a rock upon the mountain, looking down into the valley. I could see the city, flickering in the flames that caused it to crumble under its weakened body. Even from here, I could hear the timbers falling. The creak, snap, and thud each beam made as it hit the ground; the last of its life consumed.

The crowd behind me was solemn. The newly formed refugees, a mere fraction of what the city once contained, gazed at the haunting scene. They would leave this place haunted by the knowledge that their deceased remained abandoned, and those trapped underneath were left to a death sentence. All that was left in their possession were the clothes upon their backs. We had nothing.

I could see the cemetery from here too, and I couldn't help but feel that it was laughing at us. Now its grasp could bleed out from the walls that confined it; the walls that we carefully maintained by sealing cracks and keeping tidy. Now, no longer would it be maintained, and the dead were to be found in every nook and cranny of the ruins; its property marking all corners of our dying streets.

Rocks clattered down the side of the mountain, and the group hurried to move on and leave it all behind. They called after me, but I ignored them and eventually, they must have decided I wasn't worth the risk of returning, for silence had descended upon the skies, disturbed only by the soothing crackle of the warm fire.

I have lived in this city all my life. I knew of nothing beyond it. It was my home, and I hated it. Abhorred it with every ounce of my being. Life had given up on this place long ago - the trees left only as skeletons, and not a bird to cry. The cemetery knew this, that was why it was laughing now. We had tried for years to confine it to its cage, keep death and loss otherwise hidden and bound, but it found a crack and rushed out with a vengeance, angry at its imprisonment, and took revenge. All those it was due to collect, it now had. Those that had left, it would come and find. I was happy to wait upon this rock and gaze into its eyes as it came for me. For this city had died long ago and trying to live was futile.

It was time the people realised that.

Emily Miller

Quiz Answers

1. Golf

2. Buffalo

3. Hoops

4. Blue

5. Medibank

6. Red/Pink

7. Lime

8. Rigor Mortis

9. Ace Ventura

10. Orphiocordyceps unilateralis (or cordyceps)

11. Din, Nayru, Farore

12. New South Wales

13. Bardock

14. 3 (Nepal, Vatican City, Switzerland)

15. Neptune and Uranus

16. From 19791981

17. Everything Everywhere all at Once

18. A mirage

19. Maltese

Shitzu

20. Hard pass