Dead Heart

by Leila Drake

Level 19 - Lizzie

The name of the place was Silverpine Forest. It's always been kind of dark in there with the tall trees and the hills. There was a lot of wildlife and you could go fishing on the edge.

Now there was a time when you could live off trading because Silverpine was on the route to the capital city, Lordaeron.

Okay, okay, enough Geography, here's what happened:

One day the woman whose name was Lizzy and who lived at the trading post halfway to the Gilnean Wall went out to pick some berries and when she came back there was a visitor waiting for her.

It was her brother. He'd been studying in Lordaeron. Magic, they taught it there. Yes, humans can do magic, too. He stayed with her for a while because times were getting a bit rough. People were talking of a plague spreading and so he'd decided to stay away from the city for a while. It was a trading post after all so people always came by and they didn't have to starve or anything.

Except they didn't know that part of the crops from the country had been infected with a potion that spread the plague. And they bought flour that was made from that wheat.

Exactly, he got sick. His sister didn't for some reason, not right away, but then she started seeing... strange things. Like shades walking around in the forest, especially when it got dark. And she had to go there to find food that wasn't infected with her brother being sick in bed and all.

So on one day when she returned, he was gone without a trace. Lizzy went around the hut to see if maybe he had gone to the stream to their fishing spot but he wasn't there either.

Then the shades came back.

But this time it wasn't just the shades and the fog. The air stank. Really bad, like rotten flesh.

- - -

You okay, Fluttershy? All right, fine; I'll continue.

- - -

So there is this smell and Lizzy thinks, 'I gotta get back to the hut, maybe my brother is already back', and she starts running.

She keeps running faster and faster because the shades start chasing after her. She can hear groans and the rustling of leaves and metal cutting the bark of the trees.

Lizzy runs as fast as she can but the shadows keep getting closer and when she's just about to reach the hut and open the door, she turns her head around.

The fog has cleared but the shadows are still there. And Lizzy can see that they are not actually shadows but people. Dead people. They stare at her with empty eyes and stretch out their arms to grab her.

And when they grab her and raise their blades she recognizes one of them: The one right at the front is her brother.

No, that's it.

- - -

Fine, I'll tell the rest, too. This is usually the moment when you stop, you know.

Okay, we wouldn't want anyone to piss themselves, I guess... Sorry, Fluttershy, I didn't mean it like that...

- - -

So Lizzy died and when she did, her soul rose from her body and looked around. She watched her brother kneel down at her body and cry and the other dead drop their weapons. They are confused and angry but they are not angry at her.

You see, they had been enchanted to do that and just after she died the curse had been lifted.

Yeah, you could say that, Applejack, some coincidence.

No, really, it was.

Shut up, Rainbow Dash.

Well, the dead wanted to go home but knew they couldn't anymore. Some went to reclaim the capital city, others roamed the land, eternal wanderers. Some went to the northern continent to take revenge on the one who had caused the curse.

Her brother stayed at the hut for some days, buried her body and mourned her.

After three days, he decided to go back to the city. When he went to her grave for the last time, he could see a reflection in the stream that was nearby. And when he looked into it, he could see the image of Lizzy. He was surprised and excited and scared - but when he looked again it was gone.

Nobody ever entered the hut again... I think it got burned down a while later.

They say that her spirit still haunts the Silverpine Forest... and when you go to the stream you might catch an image of her trying to run away from the shadows.

Author's Note:

Short chapter is short, I know.

Priest was not talking about arcane magic so it didn't have to be Dalaran. ^__^

Comments

[RazorWing_GB]

Ghost stories, tee-hee! :-)