Old, dead demons still wander the countryside

This article is archived, and is no longer part of Vekllei canon.

She met herself out by the shrine, many summers ago. At first she didn’t know what it was — she thought it might be a spirit, or — and she caught herself in the thought, because she was only half a child — a little part of her wondered if it was a manifestation of God, or Christ, come to help solve her problems. The idea was ridiculous. She believed it was just a forest spirit, and this was probably its shrine.

The copy emerged out of the bushes, and she stared at herself. It moved like she did; clumsy and ungraceful. She apologised for disturbing it, and presented her food offering.

As she watched it approach, a knot caught in her stomach. The thing was looking right at her. The food was ignored. She recoiled and frowned at it.

‘What are you?’ she asked, or something to that effect. ‘An angel? I’m not dying. Are you a psychopomp? I’m not gonna kill myself, so you don’t need to be here.’

It kept on walking over, and she noticed the skin of the copy had faded like an old photograph.

‘Did you hear me? I don’t need your help.’

Such was her first and only direct encounter with a ganger, an old form of demon that has been driven out long ago from here through industry and agriculture.

They come from the place spirits go to die, and so they carry diseases and misfortune their shoulders. When they take the form of folk out here, they act as an ‘idol’, in a sense, to worship the self — they feed off the bad thoughts of wanderers, take control of good memories, and manifest them physically to feed.

In seeing a copy of themselves, many people mistake it for a vision, or a spiritual epiphany. They will destroy themselves if they accept it. Tzipora is not such a fool — and she’s out here to leave those good memories far behind her, where they belong. She swings, drawing blood punching at herself, and the apparition disappears. The morning after, she wakes up with blood soaked through her pillow, and a nasty nosebleed.

Let me know if you have any questions! Just a quick sketch but I like my horror.