The Root (Fantasy/Sci-fi/Horror 1412 words)
I am reposting this edited version of the sotry i posted a few days ago. Partially to show i took the advice given and ran with it and partially to show off some of the additions. That in mind if youve read it before or are just now checking it out i hope you like it and even if you read it before the edited version had quite alot that has changed from the first edit i put on here. Please give criticism or tell me what you though and i look forward to communicating with you in the comments.
“ You know it's odd to think back on my first encounter with it. The excitement I felt when I saw that shooting star light up the night sky for just that slightest moment. It hadn't been dark for long and my father was just getting home. I remember asking him if he saw it too and asking him to come check it out with me. I remember being so damned excited that the exhaustion my father clearly wore from work that day didn't matter to me at all. He said he would come with me to check it out because he knew I would've gone on my own if he didn't.
I wish I had never taken him there, I wish that stupid thing never came out of the sky. We went to see it and as we got closer you could see it fairly clearly, it looked like nothing you would expect to survive falling all the way to earth. It was just a big old nasty root ball looking thing.
Of course, like the young dumb over curious kid I was I wanted to touch it. My dad knew that it was a bad idea and warned me not to but of course I didn’t listen. First I poked it with a stick I picked up on the outside edges of the surprisingly small crater it left when it crashed into the ground. Then of course I touched it, I had to, or so I thought. It was warm, but not fell from the sky warm. It should have burned me or even been smoldering but it wasn't. It was just warm, maybe a little steamy? I honestly don't remember that part very well. It was sort of slimy and similar to some trees if you strip off their bark.
Before I got the chance to touch much more of it though my dad pulled me away and he told me that he wanted me to step back towards the edge of the crater stating he didn't know why but he had an uneasy feeling in his gut. Now I knew my dad well enough to know that if he says something about his gut I should listen, we always trust our gut, unfortunately mine hadn't developed yet or so he used to joke. Trusting his gut is what made the next choice he made a little odd though I still dont know why he did it. For some reason he chose to touch it himself, no stick, no testing, just skin to “Root Ball” and unlike when I touched it and it didn't react. This thing swallowed him or at least that's the best way I can describe it.”
I sighed heavily in an attempt to maintain composure while tears began welling up in my eyes.
“Two little rootlike arms burst out from the root ball grabbing him faster than my eyes or his muscles could even react and before either of us knew it he was pulled into that thing. He was gone just like that. The man who raised me, who was only there due to my childish whims, was gone in an instant.
I absolutely lost my shit and panicked. First I tried in vain to punch that dumb root ball until it let him go. Then I tried beating it with a stick. It didn't even react while I sat there beating on it. While I yelled out and cried, begging for it to let him go. When it finally set in that nothing was going to happen I ran as fast as I could home.”
I sat for a moment silently crying while Sam let me regain some semblance of composure while I vented.
“I had to, I had to find safety. I have never been so scared in my life, so alone, I ran the better part of a couple of miles at a pace no child should ever be able to maintain. I don't know why I thought this was a good idea at the time but I hid in a little hideaway my father had built into our house for me in case any intruders should come to the house. I hid there until I fell asleep I assume after the panic died down and I crashed from the adrenaline dump. It was just him and I there, I didn't have any siblings and unfortunately my mother passed shortly after my birth.”
“ I remember waking up to hearing the front door close the same way it has every day for as long as I can remember and I wondered if it could be him yu know. Maybe I had another nightmare, I probably had a nightmare. Nothing I saw made any sense to me. So I, maybe foolishly, crawled out of that little hiding spot my father built, to see, and there he was, like nothing happened, not a scratch on him. Home at the same time he is every morning after picking up some eggs from the neighbors.”
“I remember running over and jumping on him and hugging him in a way I always should have but never did. I remember him catching me and spinning a little to slow my momentum and him hugging me back so tightly and asking me if I had another nightmare. I remember confessing my “nightmare” to him and him comforting me about it, him telling me he loved me and that everything would be alright, him kissing my forehead like he did every time really anything happened.”
“It truly breaks my heart to think about the fact that my father was likely already gone, and it was likely, no not likely, it was entirely my fault. He would have never been there had I not asked him to be.” I quickly wiped my face
“Now you stop that Root you know if it hadn't happened to your dad or you it would've happened to someone else” Sam Said as the eggs on the pan popped grease all over the wood stove. For a moment we sat in silence mostly because I knew Sam was right. It wasn't my fault, it just sucks that it happened in the first place and that my father is gone.
It's been more than a decade now and not a day goes by that I don't miss him. After a fairly brief moment Sam spoke up again and asked “The eggs are almost done, do you think you can eat right now?” I responded “You know me I'll never pass up a meal especially not eggs and rice, it reminds me too much of everything before all of this”.
A little bit of salt on a couple of eggs fried in butter placed on top of some freshly cooked rice just felt like home to me. As usual the meal he cooked is perfect. I took my first bite and absolutely savored it. Before too long I had my entire bowl empty and ended up getting the hiccups from eating it too fast. I can't think of very many things more miserable than getting the hiccups and not knowing how to get rid of them. “ I hear you can drink something to help with the hiccups" Sam chimed. Sam tried to take a bite of his rice and eggs and nearly lost it. He tends to dislike something about rice and eggs but he makes it for me when he knows I'm not doing so hot emotionally. “I don't know why you try to eat it if you know you can't stomach it” I said to which he promptly struggled to swallow what he had and passed me what was left on his plate. “I don't know,” He said “I keep trying to understand why you like them so much but no matter how i prepare them they just feel slimey like curdled milk”
One of these days I'm going to have to make sure Sam knows how much I appreciate him and how far he's come with me since we left our home town to get away from them. He's really the only person I've got now and I can't believe it took the snatchers taking over for us to actually get to know one another. We grew up around one another but always seemed to have something going on or someone else around and never took the time to interact outside of when we had to.