Aeru Online Stories

Tythra
M - 300 words

Third person, horror, realism undead, body horror

Summery: What a bad day at work this poor Blizzard Game Master will have

Monday, the 1st of January, 2032. Tythras first day working after the Christmas break. She walks into work, walking from her apartment downtown, to a Blizzard office in Ishria City, USA. The car park is deserted, oddly enough and as she walks through, she has a feeling, something is not quite right here. Tythra stops at the large glass doors of the office and looks around, no one is in sight. "Hm, maybe just a quiet day," she thinks to herself.

She walks into the office as normal and is bewildered at the fact there is no one in sight, not a single soul. The lights are off, the office is silent. She walks deeper into the office, up the stairs, her footsteps clanging on the metal stairs. Through the darkened and grave-like office she creeps.

The smell hits Tythra first, a sickly sweet and foul odour.

She gags at the smell, and thinks to herself What.. is that?"

Then she sees it... standing there facing away towards a turned off bank of computers and standing deathly still. Tythra walks slowly and quietly towards it and puts a hand on its shoulder, the flesh feels cold to the touch. It turns around, curious to see what touched it. "Not it" Tythra thinks. "Her."

The monster that stands before Tythra was once a fellow employee of Blizzard Entertainment, a fellow World of Warcraft Game Master. She is bloated with decay, hands and feet blackened with congealed blood, her eyes cloudy and her tongue protruding. Her skin, pale as the snow, and her button-up shirt and slacks were torn and dirty. Dark fluid has dried around her nose and mouth. Tythra recognizes her as Iris, another Blizzard Game Master.

Tythra breaths deeply and says to Iris, "What the fuck happened to you?

Caroline
K - 440 words

Third person, slice of life, Disney magic moment, cute

Summery: A cast members work is never done

The constant babble of the hive mind. The images, thoughts, emotions, and impressions  buzzing constantly.

A cast member is never alone.

Ugh Acie thought to herself while picking up rubbish on Main Street USA. Better pick all the rubbish up, keep the park clean. She passed a large fountain, walking along. She looks at a guest, briefly, they lock eyes, her cloudy, dead, eyes to his green eyes. He overlooks the odd colour of her eyes. She thought to herself: The sunlight is getting to me. She squints her eyes at the bright sunlight too bright she thinks. She brushes her long, curly dark brown hair over her shoulders and of the badge pinned to her left upper shoulder.

A image flashed across Acie’s mind, a child has dropped their ice cream and is crying loudly. A feeling of worry. A need to go help. She walks down Main Street USA, skilfully weaving between the crowds of guests. She beholds the sight, a small child crying loudly, tears running down her face. She walks to the child, who has her parents trying to confet her and Acie kneels down, putting a beaming smile on her face.

++Are you okay?++ she telepathically broadcasts to the nearby area so the child and her parents can hear her., moving her lips so it appears she is speaking. The child looks at Acie, her face streaked with tears. "Caroline dropped her ice cream." says the child's dad, looking downcast, but underneath that Acie senses annoyance with the Florida heat and the peak time crowds. ''++I am sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help?++'' Acie telepathically broadcasts.

The child reaches towards Acie’s costume and looks up at Acie with a expectant look on her face. The child's mom, a large lady of dark skin, dark eyes and even darker hair asks: "Please can you help make Caroline feel better."

(I guess making a Magic Moment for Caroline would be a good idea). She offers the Caroline a Mickey Mouse pin from her pin trading lanyard. Caroline slowly stops crying and looks out towards the offered pin, with a dark skinned hand, she reaches out for it. For a brief monument their hands, one dark brown and one light brown, with ghostly pale patches touch.

"Thank you", says Caroline's dad, a man with skin as brown as the child's mom and his hair in dreadlocks. Acie walks away, still smiling, glad to of made a guests day.

Another image of a lost toy flashes across Acie’s mind. There is a feeling of loss and sadness.

A cast members work is never done

Urban Exploring
T - 420 words

Third person, Dark Themes, horror, some blood implied

Summery: Well, maybe Urbexing in a Disney park is not the smartest idea

He turns a corner in the sterile, hospital like underground tunnels under the Disney park. In fount of him is a women facing away from him. She has long straight brown hair, cut in a simple style and is wearing the uniform of Tomorrowland. The woman is tall, with a slender, willowy build. She is rubbing her face with something soft looking. She turns towards him, having heard him. Her face having smeared thick makeup, underneath, a odd sight, her skin was pallid and bloodless, with veins showing clearly though almost see-though skin.

But it was her eyes that were .. wrong, they were cloudy and dull, the eyes of a dead woman. Looking into her eyes, he swears he senses an unnerving hunger. She smiles, showing her white teeth, with a shock, he saw her fangs, long, sharp, pointed canines. She sprints towards him, covering 50 metres in less then a second. he gasps in pain  as hands with slender fingers and long pointed, shiny nails grab him, leaving deep, raw gashes on his dark skin. He tries to struggle free but she is far too strong, in an inhuman way.

His screams echo off the spotless tunnels, towards him run more cast members, all pale and wan. Another grabs him with his inhumanly strong hands. His hands are cold and dry, just like hers. His head turns in panic towards the cast member and meets a face as pale as snow, with the dry skin pulled very tightly access the bones, in those cloudy eyes are an intense hunger just like in the female cast members eyes. The male cast member is wearing teal scrubs, an off duty uniform, he guesses. More cold hands grab him, and he desperately struggles to get free but the vampires are too strong.

He feels pain as first one, then many sets of fangs piece his neck. Quickly, he feels weaker and weaker as many months drink of his sweet blood, to them, the finest wine. The last thing he sees before it all goes dark is the ghoulish grins of the cast members. The cast members look towards the bloodless body. One sends an mental image of the body to a cleaner nearby who noticed the noise. The cast members then part ways, wiping blood off their faces to be "show ready",. The female Tomorrowland cast member goes back to wiping off her makeup and the male to the dressing room to put on new scrubs to replace his blood stained ones.

New Hire
++Awaken++

A dusky, ashen skinned body with curly black Afro hair stirs on the clean floor of the Undercity. Golden eyes open and dart around. A mind filled with a bombardment of sensations, images and thoughts, some of their own, many of others. Who am I. A slender hand with glassy claws reaches up to a face. A mouth with white teeth opens and closes. They feel something long and sharp on their lower lip. The hand reaches up to feel their longer canines.

What am I?. They look around the hospital like room that they are laying on the floor of. Where am I?. Their eyes dart lock upon the group of cast members standing around the dusky skinned person on the blue floor. Who are you people. A voice in their mind: ++Your new family++. The person looks around, in panic. A hand reaches out. A hand grasps onto a cold cast member arm. Cloudy eyes lock onto gold eyes. 'What is going on?

The cast member leans down, their face near the dusky skinned person's. ++Stand++. They sit up fluidly. They look down at themselves. They are wearing a formal top and black dress pants. They rise to their feet, slowly and awkwardly, like a newborn deer trying to stand. They stumble around clumsily. A pale brown hand with splotches grabs their arm to sturdy them.

They look around this unknown place. Their golden eyes widen. A cast member in an Fantasyland uniform walks to them. A light brown, almost golden hand proffers a paper cup. Inside the cup, a red liquid. ++Drink++. A hand lifts the cup towards a month. Red blood stains white fangs. What am I doing here?. ++Walk++. Supported by the arms of two cast members, they walk. Walking together with the cast members, their new family.

They walk down the cold corridors of the Undercity. Soon, a door, large metal door painted blue. A cast member unlocks the door with the keys they carried on them. Inside, a large room, full of metal bunks, three high. And people,. dressed in scrubs of varying colours, teal, grey, blue and more. Cloudy eyes look towards the ashen skinned one. Smiles and bombardment of images of greeting.

++Your new life starts here++.

Lifestock
T - Bloody parts - 420 words

Third person, Slice of life, Dark Themes, horror

Layla runs though the Livestock Section of Karel, a huge shanty town in the "Realm" as the people have starts to call it. Layla ran though the decaying, makeshift, dirty shacks and the rickety, dangerous walkways, shopping briefly to look up and down at the shanty town above and below. She pulls her hands around herself, clutching her dirty rags closer and she wrinkles her nose at the smell of dirt and human faeces.

She hears bootsteps behind her, looking around, two Guildmates walk abreast on the walkway behind he. They smell of raw meat. She hurries away from them, knowing the consequences of getting in their way as mere livestock for them. Her hand reaches for her livestock tag, a peice of metal handing from a collar made of some kinda blueish metal. She was taught to never try remove it or break it, otherwise there will be consequences.

She hurries on, as it is time for a check in and blood tests. She keeps moving, Soon, the centre the Guildmates use for this is in sight. She walks ojn the creaking planks and metal sheets, though the large, open and flat area, surrounded by makeshift walls. Layla joins one of the many lines of kids, ranging from 5 to 13 years old. They look down in anguish, knowing the nightmare will not end. The lines slowly moves forward, soon, she is at the fount of her line.

The Guildmate manning the line looks at her with dead eyes and a blank face and scans her tag with a scanning device and looks down at his tablet computer. Layla notices this Guildmate is missing his left leg. Layla steps forwards as the next livestock child steps forwards. Another Guildmate awaits Layla, this one with a blood draw kit in her left hand and a needle in her right hand. Her left arm from the shoulder down is a prosthetic, shiny and new.

Layla walks towards the Guildmate and stands still awaiting her blood draw. She gasps at the sharp scratch of the sharp needle puncturing her vein and looks away from the vial on the Guildmates needle filling with her blood. Soon, she is let go and Layla hurry back to her shack, along the rickety walkways and overhanging shacks and the filth.

She enters her shack and curls up under a ragged blanket on the hard, dirty floor and falls asleep, dreaming of a better tomorrow.

Processing Centre
T - Body horror - Horror - 420 words

Third person, Slice of life, forced dressing, flesh clothing, brainwashing, dark themes,

Summery: a day in a processing centre owned by the Immortals

The day was getting dark as the Imperturbable Guildmate walked to the werehouse at the edge of the town. The streets was dank and dirty, the grey, dirty, concrete, worn ashpat and sleek glass and metal buildings already being overtaken by the cyclopean stone halls of her Realm. The prodigious stones were dark grey and slick with blood. The glass and metal gives way to delicate, but huge, stone spires and halls. The Imperturbable Guildmate walks on, with only her job in mind.

She heeds not her fleshy robe moving around her body, nor the tenicale gloves on her hands not the organic boots on her feet. She walks on to the section of the stone halls of Her realm, where lines of people wait. All downcast and downtrodden, brokenly awaiting their fate. They shuffle forwards, eyes down to the ground. They fear the guildmates hovering over them, their hands to the sides, and lifeless red eyes watching for any sign of dissent.

She walks towards the front of the lines, with a row of chairs with guildmates on them, sitting with tablet computers in their hands. Their job is to demand the names of the people being processed and check them agist census records. She takes her place on a chair at the front of a line and picks up a worn tablet computer of her own. Her freshly bandaged missing right arm, that is gone from elbow down, does not pain her.

The line moves forwards., she demands the name of each person in the line and they move past her for conversion. More people, more names, this is her life now, as it has been for the last week. And will be... forever.

The Convertson
M - Nudity/forced stripping/body horror - Horror - 420 words

Second person, Guildmate TF, forced dressing, forced undressing, flesh clothing, brainwashing, dark themes,

Summery: You knew tonight was going to be a rather bad night... TW: forced nudity, slavery, mind control

You awaken. You remember. You scream.

In your mind, you scream and scream, for you are unable to speak.

You remember it being a dark cold winters night, the snow blanketing on the ground and the trees outside your house. It was a peaceful winters night, and you had just gone to bed, bringing your sheets over you and putting your head on the pillow. You heard the sounds of heavy booted feet (...Those horrid boots...) crunching on the snow outside. The boot-steps became louder and louder as the owners came closer to your house. The booted feet crunching on the snow though your garden. (Our lovely garden...)

You remember the back door being tried and then being opened. The booted footsteps coming closer and closer to your room. Right outside they stopped and you heard the doorknob being tried and then... the door opening. The beings (...four of them...) that stepped though were a bad dream. They was human, but humans you did not know. Three males and a female. All wearing hooded blue robes, the color of a dusk sky, on their feet was black boots with a small heel and on their hands, white gloves.

You felt, the robed four, silent but for the sound of their heavy boots and the sounds of robes brushing legs (...not cloth robes...) stride up to your bed and look at you, With warm, but rough and careless hands, they grabbed you by the arms and roughly and harshly dragged you out of bed. You struggled in the iron grip of the robed strangers, to no effect. They roughly dragged you down the stairs, banging you on each wooden step. You screamed but no one came. No one.

You were being dragged to a warehouse on the outside of town, the warehouse is dark and dingy. There was long lines of people, all downcast and downtrodden. Around them, the robed people kept watch and kept the lines moving. They hover around the line with their blank, expressionless faces and dead eyes. They drag you into the waiting line of people. The line keeps slowly moving forwards and you move along with it. The people are clearly resigned to their fates, besides two young boys, who rush at a female robed stranger and knock her over.

You soon see their flight does not go far as four of the strangers grab the two bogs and drag them back to the line. Soon, you are at the front of the line and face a male stranger with a tablet computer in his hand. You saw that, like the rest, his face was a expressionless mask and his red eyes was dead. (... His, eyes, red...). He stands to the side of the line unusually still. For the first tine, hearing one of these strangers speak, just one word, demanding your name. You say your name to him and you walk forwards past him to your fate.

You felt them dragging you away with rough hands to a strange rune circle, burning sigils glowing on the stone floor. There was more robed people there, about four dozen of those people. The ones dragging you roughly drag you towards the sigil circle and stop just short of it. Another one of the robed people, came up with a bundle in his arms and stopped next to the robed people holding you. Another four of the robed people came up to you, and then the unnamed robed man handled one of the woman the bundle.

You saw the robed woman opening the bundle, revealing a blue hooded robe, white gloves, black trousers, black heeled boots, all the same as the ones the strangers where wearing, but in the florescent lights, the clothing seemed shiny. The woman looked at you, with blank, dead, emotionless red eyes. The people holding you forced you to stand and with your arms wide as the other four marched slowly up to you. One of the four started roughly pulling your top off, forcefully forcing your arms out of the sleeves.

You remember struggling and resisting this forced stripping but the two holding your arms hold them in a vice grip, not letting go. The man then forced the top over your head and off you, leaving you topless. At the same time another tugged down on your trousers forcing them down to your ankles and then over your feet. The first man forced your underwear downwards as well, down past your knees, past your ankles and then forcefully lifted your feet to pull your trousers and underwear off over your bare feet.

You saw the other stranger, the female that forced your trousers off, leaving you naked then comes forwards with the tight black trousers and holds them open, you then saw why the strangers smelled of raw meat. Inside those tight black trousers, just the same as the strangers wore, slick, raw and red flesh, looking rather like a raw beef steak. Inside, you saw many small, fleshy tentacles, all wiggling and waiting for something.

You remember the woman that brought the "trousers" towards you and lowered them to your feet, she then forced your left foot into it, then your right. You felt the wet, slimy flesh suck at your feet and the tentacles bush your skin. The robed woman then forced the trousers up your legs, first past your shins, then past your knees, then your thighs, then your crotch and then up to your waist. All the wile, you heard slimy sucking noises and felt flesh upon skin (... That nasty flesh...)

You felt the tentacles burrow though your skin and a flash of pain in many places as they burrowred though your skin and flesh. Your thoughts was of pain and horror. She then brought forwards the blue robes, and lifted them over your head, you felt the wet, raw flesh inside. With a yank brought them down over your shoulders. She then forced your left arm into the robe sleeve, another, female, reaches into the sleeve and roughly grabs your hand and pulls it down the sleeve, you tried to struggle and resist, but your efforts was worthless.

You felt both do the same to your right arm, you having given up resisting. Then, they work together to pull the robe down your body, slowly, it slinks down the body. First, it passes the chest, then the waist, then the thighs, the kneehs and then it drops down to the ankles. You felt the tentacles burrow though your body, painfully violating you. The gloves are brought forwards, white flesh forced painfully onto your hands finger by finger, inch by inch. Again, the tentacles and the pain and the violation.

You felt them force the boots on your feet, first the left foot then the right, feeling flesh suck away at your skin. Again, again, the tentacles burrow,and you scream in your head. Them starts the ritual, and the pain, and the screaming whilst the others in the line watch on. You feel them raping your mind, wiping away first your feelings, never were you to feel sorrow,, fear or joy again, (No... what.. is... joy...) and then it wiped away your sense of pain and then your personality (What kinda person was we...) and then finally, your sense of self faded away. (Who where we?)

All replaced by a desire to serve Her. To do what She says and to follow Her will. You put up the hood of your robe, feeling flesh against your skin and walk away to join your fellow Guildmates.