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The Red Parade


Cars are still parked outside. If the rapture had happened, why was it unrecognizable? Why was the sky blue? Why did no one tell me? Do these things not announce themselves?

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Lyra loves doing things for her friends over the holidays. It takes a toll, though. But she'll get by.


Written for Franso for Jinglemas 2021. CW: This fic contains a very minor amount of indirect self-harm/body horror and some fairly minor bits of gore.

Preread by Lost and Aurora! Thanks!

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 8 )

Dark. I like it. Nice job! I mean who doesn’t want some self sacrifice for the holiday season, right?

Hoo boy. This was... this was a horror and a half alright. Really made me get goosebumps on my arms. And I'm wearing a sweater too. Like, damn. This was such a well-done job, Red, and I loved it! It's such a beautiful mash-up of the jolly mood of the holidays and the eery, wrong feeling of self-sacrifice for their loved ones, and the dissonance between these two moods excellently served to create a terrifying feeling. Once again, well done, and I hope to read more fics from you!

Title and story concept reminded me of the Carcass song "No Love Lost". That's pretty cool.

Poor Lyra…..

This is such good stuff.

On one hand, it's only once a year so her body heals and it's fine. Theoretically.

On the other hand...oh my god OW! And WHY?

This is good stuff and I'm so glad I read it.

Oh dang, that was some intense imagery. Since some of the commenters are taking the story literally, I'll mention that I interpreted it as metaphorical. Lyra has depression, possibly seasonal, but still feels the need to tear herself apart to keep her friends happy.

Good job, but I feel more is needed to really understand this story fully. For what specific reason can Lyra not stop herself from torturing herself to please others? Why does she have to go these lengths.

There's pieces missing that need to be there to make this story's grim nature make sense, and because of that, imo, this story doesn't make sense. It's not bad, it's actually very interesting and dark, but without reasoning behind Lyra's actions, and why she "cannot" stop herself from doing it, it's just incomplete and senseless.

I recommend going back and adding more to make it feel realistic and complete. Great and very disturbing idea, just bad execution in detail and reasoning.

Having major depression myself, I think I have a pretty good understand of what Lyra is feeling. When you’re down, it is painful to put on a show of strength for others. It can actually tear you up trying to put on that smile and to put forth the effort. Especially when you’ve lost someone close to you. Yeah, I noticed there’s no Bon Bon; the implications are horrifying.

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