{"id":2894,"date":"2015-10-28T14:00:01","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=2894"},"modified":"2018-05-07T16:35:49","modified_gmt":"2018-05-07T16:35:49","slug":"it-will-consume-you-by-miriam-a-averna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/it-will-consume-you-by-miriam-a-averna\/","title":{"rendered":"It Will Consume You By Miriam A Averna"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"probe\"<\/a>
Probe by Micheal Savas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It Will Consume You<\/h1>\n

By Miriam A Averna<\/p>\n

Even before I open my eyes, I feel its dark, malignant presence. It stands motionless in the corner of my bedroom. The air is cold but thick with a putrid stench that hits me in waves. I can feel its eyes boring into me. My mind is alert but my limbs are paralysed, fear rendering them so.<\/p>\n

What does it want from me?<\/p>\n

From the gloom, I can make out movement as it lifts a cloaked arm and extends a bony hand towards the bed. It slowly unfurls a finger, the joints cracking in the process. I continue to sense its hateful and unrelenting glare. Panic rises within me but I can do nothing but lie there. I am unable to move, consumed by terror.<\/p>\n

It begins its ritualistic infliction of pain on my wife. As it sucks her life force, I feel her shudder and sob by my side, never once awakening from her slumber. I am forced to endure this alone. The torture continues each night, persistent and with an increasing malevolence: I awake, it is there, pain is inflicted.<\/p>\n

There is no explanation and no logical way to stop this.<\/p>\n

My sleeping hours lessen as the nightly afflictions continue. In the daytime I feel its lingering omnipresence as my wife becomes weaker, paler, with each passing day. Our friends begin to worry for her, regarding me with accusatory eyes. I am not responsible for this, I tell them.<\/p>\n

But how can anyone believe that a creature I myself haven\u2019t observed in the clarity of day, is responsible for my wife\u2019s worsening physical condition?<\/p>\n

We struggle to interact as we once did. I am exhausted and her tears keep coming, a river of pain flowing before my very eyes. The connection we had before is long lost and continuing like this is futile.<\/p>\n

I see no other option and only one way in which the pain will cease for us both.<\/p>\n

The last night, before it has a chance to return, I wait for my wife to fall asleep and then kiss her goodbye. I take a deep breath. I grab my pillow and tightly place it over her beautiful face. Her body spasms for a minute and then finally it stills as she finds peace.<\/p>\n

With her gone, it does not return. Neither does the guilt of my misdemeanour.<\/p>\n

I no longer fear falling asleep, this prison cell is my haven, too small for sinister creatures to hide in.<\/p>\n

The increasing shadows on the ceiling perturb me however.<\/p>\n

I wonder if I can smoke them out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even before I open my eyes, I feel its dark, malignant presence. It stands motionless in the corner of my bedroom. The air is cold but thick with a putrid stench<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88,379,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-scary-stories","category-short-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2896,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894\/revisions\/2896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}