The desolation was palpable as Mary Macdonald navigated the skeletal remains of an abandoned supermarket. The air, thick with unsettling silence seemed to be all that remained of this once vibrant world. The apocalypse did this, with the help of horrors of what you become when you catch the sickness that ended the world. Lily Evans stumbled into her path; a wounded figure desperate for help. Little did they know, their lives would be changed for the better.
“Hold on Lily, we’ll find something to help you.” Mary’s voice cut through the oppressive stillness of the world as she cradled her new friend in her blood-stained arms.
“I never thought I’d actually find someone.” Lily’s voice said through the silence, carried with disbelief as she fought for her life. This chance encounter marked the fragile beginning of a companionship destined to end in a terrible outcome.
Nobody knew how the apocalypse started, but they know how its ending. Abandoned supermarkets, houses and restaurants. Cars everywhere, owners gone. Overgrown grass, covering most buildings. This nightmare been happening for three years, and it’s a never-ending chapter in the story of life.
The after effects of the virus, if caught, ended in catastrophic endings. The ending has long lanky arms, sunken cheeks, eyes long gone, replaced by the rotten flesh behind. Skin as grey and wrinkly as a rotten avocado skin, straw-like hair, talons for fingers, and razor-sharp teeth with a long tongue covered in spikes. Their mouth, spread wide up to their cheek bones, as if it was cut. If one bites you, you turn into it. There’s no cure, and transformation time is different for everyone.
They make no noise, except when gurgling their last victims’ blood in their mouth, sign their ready to pounce onto the next. They’re from children’s nightmares, ones that haunt you forever. And what is even scarier is that no one knows how they came to be, as well as knowing that you will certainly become one.
When they turn some poor soul, they grow a part of that person on their body. Their hair, the blood in their veins, their DNA, and even the silhouette of their recent victim.
As days turned into weeks, Lily’s wounds gradually began to heal. And along those weeks, their friendship became something more. It became love. Together, they stumble upon an abandoned cottage- a weathered sanctuary standing in shadows from over grown trees.
“This place could be our haven, Mary. Just you and me, away from the outside world.” Lily expressed a tentative hope as they ventured into the shelter.
Yet, beneath the surface of their sanctuary walls, a secret cast a shadow on their fragile refuge. Mary, burdened with unspoken fears, concealed the ominous symptoms of an unexplained virus that had taken hold.
Weeks unfolded with the cottage’s delightful walls, and Lily sensed a subtle shift in Mary. Their shared dialogue, once fluid and comforting, became punctuated by moments of hesitation.
“Mary, talk to me. Somethings not right.” Lily’s concern cut through the air as the walls of their cottage seemed to close in.
Mary, wrestling with an irreversible burden, found it increasingly challenging to maintain the façade of normalcy. She couldn’t keep going like this. The spoken language between them became heavy with unspoken truths, and Mary can’t keep going, and Lily was starting to realise that.
Lily returned from a hunt, to find Mary in a state of ethereal transition. The cottage, now tinged with an other worldly transformation that defies all laws of natural order, seemed to seem like a grave, instead of a haven. The walls hollow with melancholy.
“What’s wrong, Mary! Talk to me!” Lily’s desperation echoed through the silence as she witnessed a metamorphosis that defied the mortal realm, the defied the walls of their love. Lily was an old cardigan under someone’s bed, and Mary put her on and said she was her favourite.
Mary, awakening from a slumber, she let out a dialogue that resonated with a depth of emotion beyond the earthly plane, “I love you, Lily. I always will.”
Lily’s heart dropped with realisation.
“Mary…Why didn’t you tell me?” Lily asked, voice sunken with hurt and scaredness. But it was too late. Mary had been hiding her transition, and she was half way through. It was easy to see now. Her eyes, once a safe place she got lost in often, held no thought or emotion. Heavy eye bags, even though she’s been getting perfect sleep. What once was thick, shining hair is now thinning, clumping together. She started to smell, but Lily couldn’t see this before. She was blinded by love.
“Please, Lily. Take away my pain. Don’t let me turn.” Mary pleaded to a crying Lily. “Please”, Mary argued quietly, “for me.”
“Oh Mary…Who would’ve thought, I’d be holding you in my arms, wounded.” Lily tried to joke, but it didn’t work. All she got in response was a soft whimper from Mary. “I’ll try.” Lily whispered, even though her heart said no.
Lily wondered, what if Mary never found her? She’d be dead by now. What if Lily never found Mary? She’d be going through his ugly transformation all alone. Lily didn’t want to do it, but what else could she do? Mary saved her, and it was only right for Lily to save Mary. This happenstance was circulating around Lily’s mind, but that didn’t stop her from acting upon Mary’s final words.
Mary smiled – which turned into a grimace – at Lily’s words. Mary nodded at her, sign to take her life. Sunken with sorrow, Lily complied, and reached for her pocket knife with shaking hands. Lily sobbed even harder, nearly yelling, as Mary closed her eyes, ready for what’s about to come.
Lily did it slowly, her hands not complying to her needs, but she did it. For Mary, she tells herself.
With Mary gone Lily faced a world devoted to their love. The walls of the cottage echoed with the emptiness of her grief, each creak and rustle a haunting reminder of a love that once was. Lily’s heart was screaming from the crypt it had been locked in, awaiting for Mary’s return. Mary used to be the flannel to her November flush, but the single thread of gold tying them together snapped. The Fates deciding Mary’s long-awaited ending. Lily was left with a land crestfallen with their love. Their illicit affair being tangled with this grief-stained world.
“I can’t do this alone, Mary.” Lily’s voice cracked as she confessed to the shadows. Her voice carrying the weight of a solitude she never anticipated. Oh, how could she be so naïve. Neither of them were going to survive this, yet the labyrinth of her mind convinced herself they would be in this together. How wrong she was.
Grief became a silent companion over the days. Lily’s still haunted by Mary’s tragedy. Each corner of this house held a piece of both of them, haunted, now they’re all just a distant memory.
“Our love was a symphony, Mary, and now I’m left with the echoes.” Lily said to the dark.
Lily couldn’t take it. It’s been weeks after she lost her Mary to that god-awful virus, and she wasn’t getting over her any time soon. Lily hadn’t even touched the knife since that day, it was burdened with sadness she couldn’t handle. But she was holding it now, ready to reunite with her lover once more.
She slashed her left wrist first, crimson blood pouring from the deep cut. Lily cried out in unspeakable pain, but it didn’t stop her. She did the right one next, switching the blade to her left hand. She shakily did the next one, hissing through her teeth as the thickness dripped onto her shirt, a burgundy stain spreading. She didn’t want to stop, she pressed harder. She didn’t want to be alone anymore. She needed the eyes she got lost in, the hair that was soft to the touch, the shoulder she could always cry on. The scarlet lips she used to call home.
She thought this as she got dizzy, sitting down on the couch she once hid away from the world with Mary. As she lay down, she fell asleep. Her recent actions catching up to her.
“Lily…?” A soft familiar voice echoed in the dark abyss. Their love was singing again, and released an incandescent glow over the dark. Their gold thread was being tied back together, thicker.