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The Fantastic Story of the Mushroom Demons

T.W. Rock

    Sometimes in rare instances the marching feet of modernization misses certain towns, certain peoples. This is the story of just such an occurrence. Gabon was like any other peaceful village cut off from civilization and thus dependant on the land for nourishment. Despite limited resources, the village had grown and grown in population till the townspeople had eaten all the plants and animals in the surrounding lands. They had eaten the rabbits, the deer, and the fish of the brook. They had eaten the fruits, the berries, the mushroom and the nuts.
    One day of no particular importance Günter, (one of the local villagers), hungry and tired was out scavenging for food and stumbled on a dark purple bulbous plant protruding from the ground. It was squishy like a mushroom yet unlike a mushroom did not sprout above ground. The plant instead grew just below the surface with only a small portion visible. With anxious curiosity he began to more closely examine this strange plant and as hunger will do to you sometimes, he decided to taste a small portion of the plant finding it to be tasty indeed. He dug feverously around the plant with the skill of a seasoned excavator.
    The plant was quite large, measuring about a foot long, and was not only purple in color but also orange, rust, red, blue and brown, each color interwoven with the others like knotted bread. He tasted the blue, and it was delicious, the red scrumptious, the orange succulent. It seemed the further down he dug the more delicious the plant became. Soon he had eaten his fill of the strange new plant and sat trying to figure what to do next. Should he dig it up and share with the villagers, or should he cover what is left back up and mark the spot to come back later for more? Greed overtook him and he hid his new treasure marking his small hunting map so as to find it again when hunger, like an angry dog gnawing at his insides would come again.
    He walked back to the village and put his hunting bow along the wall, took off his dirty worn leather shoes, and enjoyed the feeling of being full. It was not a feeling often experienced by any of the villagers living here. Outside the other hunters were slowly returning. Their feet scuffing the ground caused small clouds of dust and made it quite obvious they were unfruitful from their hunting expeditions. The daily ritual started as each hunter stood in line to register with the head of the village any food they had been able to find. One villager had found some wild vegetables but only three and not very large in size. Another found a small handful of nuts yet they were green and still not ripe. Günter quickly put back on his shoes to go out and get a closer look, curious if anyone else had stumbled upon the mushroom which he had. Unfortunately for the villagers but fortunately for Günter no one had.
    The many villagers looked up with sadness in their eyes, at the great and wise leader as he read the list of all that was found and one by one placed the items into a pot which was then carried away and a joint meal was prepared. Groans and sighs came from the villagers as they all seemed to realize that the amount of food found would again, as it had many times in the past, not be enough for everyone. Traditionally when this would happen a lottery was used to determine who would not be eating. Children and nursing mothers as well as the elderly or sick were excluded from this lottery. Günter had himself lost this lottery many times and sat sadly watching as others held their bowls of the warm soup, his stomach growling noisily.
    This time he thought to himself, this time it would not matter as he was already full and content. This thought made a smile creep across his face. He decided to go back to his hut and sleep while the others had their lottery. He would check the board later and as he predicted he was among those which would not eat this day.
    When the lottery had started it was only three or five that would not eat that day but as the village got larger so did the amount of losers and now the average number of non-eaters had doubled.
    In the next weeks Günter would return to his spot and to his surprise and amazement what he had eaten in the previously had somehow grown back. The more he would eat the more would be there days later. Günter then decided to test how much would actually grow. He cut a large portion of the plant off of the rest with his pocket knife and placed it in his satchel. He made sure nobody followed him and that he was not seen when returning to the village mushroom in tow. After he returned home he hid the satchel in one of his crude cabinets so that nobody could fine it.
    Dust and dirt spewed forth from the cupboard from years of neglect as the doors slowly creaked open. Days later he returned to the spot to check if the plant had grown and to his surprise it had not instead it had begun to rot where the knife had sliced. Disappointed he cut the rot off, returned home and stingily ate the amount in his satchel hiding in the cabinet. It seemed this was the key to making the plant grow. Somehow the plant knew whether he had eaten or not, and it would only grow if he had indeed eaten of it. Günter returned to the plant and noticed that the ground around where it grew had become soft and almost hollow like. He dug up a small bit of earth and to his amazement realized that the plant had grown in size to cover almost the whole clearing where he stood. The plant had grown from a small almost foot sized circle, to at least ten times that size. This easily could fill the villagers he thought, but unfortunately greed had again stepped in, why should he share it was his he had found it.
    Time trudged on and then one day, uncommon by no degree from the months previous, two female travelers came to this town. Both were hooded in black and wore strange chrome masks upon their faces. They were thin and compared to the ladies of the village quite tall, almost elfish in appearance. It was rumored they came to the village for sanctuary from hideous beasts which had burned their village and their faces explaining the masks they now wore. The story could never be substantiated however, as the girls never spoke.
    The two girls were welcomed and afforded a meager hut to stay in. Efforts were doubled in the salvaging for food for the two girls. Günter however kept his hoard to himself as had become common practice for him. He would leave early in the morning before the first hunting party had left and return through the back gate he had started unlocking the night before. His plan was working flawlessly. While the villagers would busy themselves finding food and turning whatever they found into an edible grey mush, Günter would quietly sit in his locked up hut gorging himself on the mushroom, savoring the juicy texture and bright, vibrant colors. Günter did participate in the hunting parties and tried to keep up the appearance of normality. He rarely put forth much effort when hunting, but because of the lack of food this was never taken notice of.
    The girls would work in the village but would not leave for fear that “those of strange colors” would capture them, so in the tradition of everyone earning their keep they would work in the safety of the village mending , sewing , tanning or just about any trade that someone would be willing to teach them. The two girls were always together, never leaving each other’s side. They were always together, be it working or sleeping one would not be seen without the other. This was thought to be curious, but was quickly dismissed.
    Günter slowly became more and more secluded as time went on, barely seen even for the lotteries. People began to notice that even when he did not lose the lottery, he barley came for his dinner. He became snappy with the rest of the villagers, beginning to suspect they were onto his scheme. He always looked over his shoulder and was ever vigilant that nobody was able to catch him in the immoral and illegal act of hording food. The village had always been a sharing atmosphere and here was Günter not only not sharing his treasure but not even acknowledging the fact that while others were going without when he had more than plenty.
    He had stumbled upon a renewable source of nourishment, and it was his and his alone to do with what he wished. Of all the eyes Günter felt upon him; he noticed that the two girls would watch him the most. They could be in the middle of any task and as soon as one masked face would catch sight of Günter the other almost instinctively would raise her head to watch till he was out of sight before returning to whatever task they had been doing. It was as if they saw something the other villagers could not.
    No matter how much of the strange mushroom Günter ate he never seemed to gain weight. This was a good thing as it kept suspicion off of him. He had become very moody and even his friend Davey had stopped calling on him for social events. The town elders had decided at one of the town meetings (of which Günter did not attend) that he was taken with some strange virus and thus explained the lack of appetite and strange behavior and the matter were closed. Many villagers in later days of starvation had showed similar symptoms and it was just something they had become accustomed to. Günter’s skin had started to have a greenish blue tinge to it, the green and blue portions of the mushroom being his favorite. It was not dark but noticeable in certain sunlight.
    One night while Günter was sneakily heading to the back gate to unlock it he noticed, standing at the gate, the two girls. This was very peculiar to Günter as he had never seen them there before. They were statues and made no motion to move or to allow Günter access to the locking mechanism. They just stood silent and stared straight ahead. Günter decided not to risk it and grumbling returned to his hut and chewed on what was left of the mushroom. The next night and for every night afterward they were there standing guard over the doors, which infuriated Günter. His stash was all but gone and he needed to replenish.
    The next day Günter decided to join the hunting party to their amazement. When they were deep in the forest he took leave of them silently and backtracked to the mushroom. He was just about to clear the thicket, his mouth watering with the thought of fresh mushroom when standing several feet ahead of him he not noticed the two girls. He was shocked. Could they know? He decided to act as if he had not seen them and continued down the path. He knew however, that they had seen him as they began to stare silently at him.
    He raised his bow acting as if he spotted a rabbit or squirrel and then made chase after the imaginary animal hoping to mislead the girls, circle around and make it to his mushroom without them watching. He hurried through the underbrush and around through the thick foliage. Twigs snapped underfoot and small branches slapped at his face. It was as if even the forest wanted to keep him away from the mushroom.
    After many minutes of traveling and becoming more and more agitated with thoughts of everyone being against him he came to the edge of the clearing. Peering around, he saw no sign of the girls. Quickly he jumped from the bush and hurried to the spot. He was just about to kneel down and begin digging when he heard a noise from behind him. He turned and standing, where that beloved mushroom was once, now stood the twin girls their chrome masks reflecting the ominous, expressionless faces.
    They were dressed in the same garments in which they arrived at the village so long ago, although they appeared to have never been worn at all. The girls stood hands at their sides like limp marionettes awaiting a string to be pulled animating their lifeless bodies. Only their heads seemed to be held up as they stare directly at Günter. He stood transfixed; his heart, like the sounds of the wooded area around the three, seemed to stop. A cold chill ran over his body like he had just fallen into the icy Pawnee River. Icy stabs ran from behind his hairy calves up the quill like hairs along his spine and radiated around to his fingertips and toes. The tan color left his body as if froze out and he became very pale.
    He knew the girls knew he was there and knew why he was there. They knew from the months of staying in his village how the village had suffered from starvation, knew how children had died, mal-nourished and underfed. Mothers had squandered and gone without to make sure little ones did not. They had seen the overwhelming joy when just a small potato patch had yielded enough for everyone, no matter how scarce an occurrence that was. Here was Günter eating all that he could gorge into himself, hiding and hording so that he may have more than everyone else, even more then he needed.
    Like someone had draped a sheet over him, sickness engulfed his entire body. He suddenly became ill. An overwhelming weakening of the knees was quickly followed by shortness of breath and nausea. Within seconds the nausea was too overpowering and in a violent expulsion, multicolored half digested vomit spewed from Günter’s mouth and nose. Streams of warm putrid bile strung from his lips slowly slipping from his now covered beard and falling with a small splash to the pond below. His eyes filled with tears as his stomach over and over eliminated everything onto the ground tightening and pushing as he wretched forward in pain.
    Wiping away the tears he looked down at the swirling slime filled pool to notice ...movement, tiny movements in the liquid like something was beneath it. As the liquid slowly sank into the ground he realized what it was. Small maggots, spread throughout the puke, were squirming feverously as they devoured the regurgitated mushroom and stomach acid. Half in horror and half in wonder he stared at the mounding mass at his feet till one small thought slowly slipped into his mind like smoke through the crack of a wall. Where did they come from? Were they inside his stomach this whole time? They must have been as he would have seen them when he was standing here moments before he puked... but didn’t.
    The twin girls still stood, arms limp at their side and faces turned blankly towards Günter, eyes fixed upon him. Even though they wore the masks he could tell they were not bothered by what they had witnessed. They stood as if they had seen such acts one hundred thousand times before and had grown immune, if not bored with seeing it again. Günter backed away from the squirming maggot pool, as he did a large branch snapped under his heavy foot. The sound echoed through the forest as if lightning from the sky above had struck a nearby tree, splitting it to the core. Günter’s heart skipped a beat and he began to sweat, he knew something was about to happen. His flight or fight responses kicked into high gear and a “tug-of –war” began in his mind. Should he run or stay and see what may happen? The answer came not as he had expected it to but with thunderous clarity. “Günter.” It was as if one voice had spoken with two sets of vocal cords, two octaves, and two distinct sounds within each other, intermingled. He looked frantically to see where the sound had come from. “Günter... we are here to claim what belongs to we.” “We are here to take back that which you have taken.” The voice continued “We see you, we see through you as you have seen we.” Günter slowly realized that although the voice seemed to resonate from within his head the direction from which it came was the very spot where the two girls stood. The sky which was only moments ago a bright blue had turned grayish black, pregnant and angry with storm. Each cloud seemed crowded by its neighbor angrily elbowing for more room. The girls still stood. Their faded white gowns flowing over their bodies, sleeves much too large for their hands showed only the tips of their three longest fingers. Günter moved slowly towards the girls like a cautious cat ready to pounce from harms claw at a moment’s notice.
    “Come forward Günter. Come to we as we have come to you.” The voice was eerie, echoing yet alluring and despite every fiber of Günter’s mind screaming to turn, to run, his legs refused to obey his will and marched Günter ever forward. Closer and closer he moved towards the two standing girls.
    “Yes, come closer Günter; come as you have to we many times before.” As Günter moved closer the girls seemed to come to life. They moved their heads in unison to his movements, their bodies no longer seemed limp but erect. Günter was only a few feet from them now and could feel cold sweat pouring down his back. His neck and chest seemed to be on fire. With each breath he inhaled the air tasted like poison: dark and malicious, like he was breathing ash. He could almost taste burnt wood in his mouth and nostrils. Overhead the clouds moved, violently pushing and shoving as they collided with each other hoping for a better view of the events unfolding below them.
    Günter had never been so close to the girls since he had first seen them in the village. He was an arm’s length away and beneath the masks he could see their eyes. They were blue like the ocean, peaceful and full of wonder. They dwarfed him substantially now and he, for a moment, could not understand how this was so. Looking down to their feet he saw the answer to that puzzle immediately.
    They were standing upon a large section of the mushroom that had apparently grown out of its underground prison and breached the earth, the beautiful colors of red, blue and orange. With sight of the mushroom, an all consuming hunger filled him again. He began to drool and wanted only to push the two girls violently to the ground and eat more of the wondrous mushroom. “Do you hunger Günter?” “Do you hunger for we?”
    He could barely hear what was being said to him as he stood staring at the mushroom, thoughts of which consumed him more and more. Never once had Günter questioned anything about this wonderful food source he had discovered. Never once had he wondered why it grew here and no other place within the forest. Never once wondered why no other person had found or reported the mushroom.
    
    “Go ahead Günter, take some, take of we.” Günter was unable to stop himself; he reached down and pulled at the mushroom. The smell which he had never noticed before now came in unwavering blasts to his nose. It was sweet, like that of a ripe raspberry, juicy and tender like freshly cooked roast and fragrant spices like sage and rosemary. He watched unable to stop himself. For the first time he saw juice spurt from the mushroom. He noticed a steamy fluid flow the consistency of warm jelly. It oozed filling in the crevice created from the missing portion now in his hand.
    “Yes Günter, taste, it is all yours.” The voices egged him on. His mind was on fire screaming for him to drop it and run, but Günter found himself powerless to control his own body. The mushroom came closer to his lips till he could feel that all too familiar taste. He slowly opened his mouth and the bit down on a portion of the mushroom, the jellylike substance dripping from his bearded chin and falling to the ground. His teeth sunk deep into the fleshy fungus.
    “Have some more Günter nobody can see you now. You can eat guilt free. We is all yours, we are all yours.” No sooner did Günter finish the small portion then he was at the girls feet again pulling free another piece and frantically eating it, licking his lips after smearing the juice from the plant across his face without noticing he did so. With each piece he finished he frantically grabbed the next never seeming to fill. Again he reached down for another and pulling it free, he glanced at one of the girls now exposed ankles.
    It was a gaping wound with blood and pus oozing forth onto her small sandal like shoe and dripping onto the mushroom. He watched for a moment then dropped the mushroom to the ground, fell backward and crawled back a few feet. His mouth agape, chunks still lodged between his teeth and juice staining his lips. “What is wrong Günter, are you full?”
    The voice now seemed mocking and evil. He spit a mouthful of the mushroom down to the ground and he saw that it was not a mushroom at all, but flesh, raw and covered with bugs. He quickly looked down to the mushroom he had been tearing at and enjoying in rapture only moments ago. It was not the mushroom at all, but the rotting carcass of a long dead animal. It had rotten to the point that Günter could not even distinguish what animal it may have, at one time been. Portions of mangled fur intertwined with sun dried muscle. The stomach was bloated to the point where the hind legs were spread unable to close. Günter could see where the bones were still actively being cleaned by a flurry of giant flies. Another portion contained millions of fly eggs some already hatched, and freshly born maggots squirming towards the nearest mass of flesh to devour. The face, or what was left of it, had been picked almost completely clean by birds, portions of the lips had been torn from the face and one eye lay in a half melted pool of its own fluids a few feet from the socket.
    Günter looked over at the chunk of “mushroom” he spit out that now was flesh and realized it did not, from what he could see, belong to the rest of this beast. It was fresher, and although now covered with hungry ants and other bugs, was not rotten like the other. Again Günter felt the unwelcome twisting in his belly and out poured a foul smelling multicolored mixture of half eaten chunks of maggot infested mushroom, stomach acid and bile. This, though it horrified Günter, solved the mystery of if the bugs were on the ground before he puked or not. They were not, which meant they were coming from inside him. That thought triggered another coughing spasm and clasping of his gut as more of the fluid poured from his mouth and nose.
    He jumped to his feet trying to get further from the new squirming pile and as he did maggots fell from his thick beard and out of his nose. Günter turned, his body finally listening to his brain, and began to run from this nightmare. He could not escape, however, because now he had a new enemy within himself, his stomach. He suddenly became very weak and felt as if he had not eaten in months.
    “Hungry Günter?” “Eat friend eat all that your body can hold, till you’re so stuffed you wish to DIE.” The voice beckoned in an evil angry tone. It was as if the voice which he had now determined was coming from the two girls, not one in particular but a harmonic melody of the two voices speaking in unison as one. With that realization the girls again in perfect chorography reached up and began to untie the ties about their waist holding the robes tight to their bodies.
    “Come Günter feast your eyes upon what your greed and selfishness has done.” The robes flew open and the girls shrugged them from their thin shoulders. The two girls stood naked before Günter. Their bodies were covered with bite marks. Some deep, flesh removed and gashes remained. The one girl’s left breast hung inside out like someone had slit it off her chest and left it to hang from the muscles still left intact. All was exposed but the faces, which were still hidden behind their masks. From the inside of another girl’s leg only bone remained. The meat had been stripped from her calf all the way around. The bone gleamed shinny and white despite the lack of sunlight. Her hand was also missing all the meat and the joints rubbed bone against bone as she raised her hand and pointed her blood covered index finger at Günter drops of congealed blood falling as she moved.
    “In your greed you have all but devoured we and yet we allowed you to continue eating. Praying you would change your ways.” “You have disappointed we.” “As you have hungered for we, Günter, we now hunger for you.” With the end of that sentence, the two girls stepped backwards small chunks of flesh and skin hanging wet in the breeze. Where they stood, the carcass began to shake, slowly at first and then with increased fervor. Günter scared stiff had no option but to sit and watch as it rose. Its flesh once dry and tanned with the time regained its muscular texture, blood began to flow and it rose higher and higher till fully upright on all fours like a large wolf awakening from slumber.
    Günter then realized why he had not recognized the beast even in its decayed form. The beast was not of this world. It stood like an oversize wolf, the elongated jaws snapping and snarling. The jaw stretched to accommodate an excessive amount of gnashing teeth. The hind legs quivered as the blood started pumping through half eaten veins some squirting to the ground, some continuing through the intended vein. Günter tried to scream but nothing came from his throat. The beast continued to howl and growl as bones once weak with decay were rejuvenated. The two girls stood just watching, their half eaten naked bodies splattered with blood from the transforming beast. The beast then turned to Günter its jaws still only half covered with flesh, jagged teeth gnashed together. “You have eaten of we out of greed and now so shall you share our fate.”
    With that the beast lunged at Günter. Its fangs dug deep into the pudgy, overindulged muscle ripping them from their tendons. Blood gurgled out Günter’s mouth and nose in violent spurts. Then it was over. Günter left dying in his own blood. The two girls climbed upon the beast’s back and with a last glorifying snarl it raced off into the thick shadows of the woods. Günter laid for what seemed like an eternity in excruciating pain as the life-force gushed from his body. He felt himself getting weaker and weaker as his eyes slowly closed and then there was darkness.
    
    PROLOG
    Günter could not move. He could not feel anything and was surrounded by only darkness. He was not in pain but felt no pleasure either only the cool embrace of darkness and remorse for the events which had put him in this situation. For what seemed like months he lay till one particular day of no real importance a small beam of light broke into his blackened tomb. It was small but unmistakably bright. He moved towards it feeling in the darkness for anything he may crawl upon to get closer to the light, hoping, praying for an escape from this limbo of solidarity.
    He moved closer to the light squinting, it suddenly became larger. The intensity of the light making him lose his balance as he fell back to the ground. He noticed the ground was squishy and soft. This thought only held his attention for a moment as he again made his way back to the beam now illuminating portions of the small enclosure he was in. He climbed and peered out the small hole where the light was coming from. He was in the ground and looking out. He saw a large dirt covered shoe, much larger than any he had ever seen, almost standing on his head. He could now hear someone talking. It was vague and muffled but he could defiantly distinguish a voice.
    “Oh my, what is this?” It said as he saw a very large hand reach down to pick Günter up by his head. He dove out of the way and down to the far corner of his prison away from the light and back into the darkness. The light got wider and he scrambled away, scared. Then calmness swept over him as he recognized the voice. It was his friend Davy, with whom he had hunted the forest many times. Upon that realization he ran across the room to the light and climbed back up the wall to see the giant.
    “Hmmm it smells good.” Günter peered out just in time to see Davy put the multi-colored bread like mushroom into his mouth. Günter then felt a painful ripping sensation, as if he was just bitten, run up his leg. Felt the flesh torn from his body, seen it pull from the bone and away into oblivion.
    Günter then remembered the last words he heard before the beast tore into his body and he “Died”. “You have eaten of we out of greed and now so shall you share our fate.”
    He understood now what she meant. It was not that the beast was going to eat him. He was to be trapped inside a mushroom and slowly devoured. His fate made worse by the fact that it was his friend Davey that was devouring him. Günter looked with sorrow down at his now gashed leg and saw what he was wearing. The same robes which the twin girls were before they showed him their mangled and eaten bodies. Their last words were not a statement of revenge but instead a curse deeming his fate.

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