When Death is not Permanent | Contest Entry

First and foremost, I decided to enter Depixashet's Spooky Design Contest!

Now, I do have to warn y'all for gore, death, and overall horror but it's nothing too horrendously gruesome (in my opinion, at least).

As I was finishing up, a small backstory started forming in my head. So.... If you decide to keep yhis, Depix, then feel free to keep, change, or discard it altogether XD

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO ~

It was an accident, short and simple. After a dressage competition, the young woman was driving home with her family, horse trailer in tow. The pale mare was restless, seeming to whinny at every turn in the road. Honestly, it was wearing on the driver's -the woman's father- patience. But nothing seemed to help -- every time they stopped to check on her, the mare would pace. Once, they'd tried taking her out to walk around, and it helped calm her down... But it took all three people to get her back inside the trailer.

Needless to say, it was 𝙚𝙭𝙝𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜.

"I swear to god, if that damned filly doesn't stop her shrieking-"

The father didn't even get to finish his sentence. Not when a semi, going at far too fast of speed, rear-ended them. The mare's screams mixed with the humans.

Time seemed to freeze. In almost comically-slow motion, the woman turned to look towards the mare, her closet friend and confidant. The mare, Dove, met her gaze, and the woman would swear on her life that she saw a knowing, heartbreaking sense of despair in her blue eyes.

The woman's mouth opened, but the freeze melted, and everything was a blur.

When she woke in the hospital, she was met with the news she'd feared.

Dove, her loving, amazing mare, was dead.

For months, the woman grieved, holing up in her room, seldom venturing past her door. It took all her strength just to get out of bed in the morning, and sometimes, she didn't even get that far.

Had she not stumblef across a site, she probably would have remained in that hardly-living state.

It was a... Strange website. The format of it was nostalgic in a twisted way, looking similar to sites back in the early 2000's, with ugly green and purple colors and gray font to boot. Everything about it screamed 𝙤𝙛𝙛, but the woman was determined. After an hour of sifting through links, she finally was taken to one that led to a page. The background was black, the text a sickening white, but it gave her instructions.

A ritual.

She was hesitant, 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚 she was, but grief makes one foolish, and she decided to give it a shot. What did she have to lose, after all?

The answer? 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜.

As she stood before her beloved horse's grave, she took a shaky breath, raising the liquid to her lips. It smelled of death, and it stung her nose, but she had no choice. Though the faintest hints of cyanide were mixed in, she was assured by the text that she would not die. Her and the mare would be together again, alive, and things could go back to normal.

After whispering a few words, she downed the cup, wincing at the taste.

The minutes ticked on. Five... Ten... Twenty... And yet, nothing happened. Aside from dizziness and labored breath, nothing changed. No shine of light, no strike of lightning... Nothing.

Just as she was about to scream, to break down sobbing, black began to eat away at her vision. Her breathing became shallower and shallower, her head spinning and throbbing. Shaking fingers grasped at her hair as she pulled, pleading to anything and anyone for the pain to stop.

And then nothing.

And then everything.

With a gulp of air, the woman's eyes flew open, and she found herself on the ground, staring at the sky. Dawn was bleeding into the night, and she distantly wondered how long she'd been asleep. Had it all been a bad dream?

She chided herself, lamenting of how she could be foolish enough to have believed some 𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙘 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙡𝙡 would bring back her horse.

With an angry sigh, she rolled onto her side-

Only to meet her face. Skin pale with death, eyes glazed over, the woman stared at her lifeless body.

She screamed.

It wasn't human.

Eyes wide, she finally looked down at herself, and nearly vomited at the state she was in. Sable ivory champagne. One white ankle. Flesh torn to show muscle, still oozing blood.

She wore the body of her mare.

#pixhalloweenspecial