Sorrowful Heart 1 – Infectious Despair
There’s been silence in Roger’s
house for nearly two years with the deaths of his children still weighing heavy
on his soul as if they just died. He still has their torn clothes with their
dried blood still on it. His house is as dirty and empty as if it was
abandoned. The beds are undone, the kitchen is a mess, and dust covers almost
every surface. Things that were broken have stayed broken. The washer and
shower are rarely used and even though there’s barely anything in the fridge,
the trash and recycle cans outside are filled to the brim.
It’s the birthday of his son and
Roger has gotten cupcakes. He puts three cupcakes near three out of six chairs.
He then sits down to eat his cupcake while looking through a photo album. There
are only pictures of him and his children in the album though there are
pictures with the faces of certain people torn off. Roger couldn’t bring
himself to throw away a picture of his smiling children, so he cut out the “imperfections”
to make it bearable to look at or rather easier. Every time he looks at the
pictures in a photo or in his mind, he remembers his happy memories and feels
sad. Sadness itself is the normal feeling for him and it shows on his face as the
way he previously looked in the pictures make them look like they were taken
decades ago.
He slams the photo album close as
his emotions are becoming too much to bear. Looking through his mail, he finds
bills, junk mail, and a surprise. One of the pieces of mail is a letter. There’s
no address or anything either than Roger’s own. The sender only identifies
himself as a friend. Curious about it,
he opens the letter to read it. The letter says,
“It's
time to stop your mourning
It's
time to wake to a new morning
Because
this is a warning you should know
So
you can be saved from your woes
You
know what causes you despair
Your
time for mourning has been fair
Now
rise from your sadness
And
taste the sweetness of gladness
The
Undertaker of Sorrows is coming after you
He
knows what you've been through
He
wants you to succeed
But
if you fail, he will do more than make you bleed
Your
ways have caused others harm
And
the state of your soul is cause for alarm
So
let go of what causes you sorrow
Or
the Undertaker will not let you live after tomorrow”
Roger has heard of the Undertaker
of Sorrows, but his garbage can filled with crosses, Bibles, and pictures of
the saints says his view of the afterlife and the supernatural, so he throws
the letter in the trash. After eating his cupcake and throwing away the rest, Roger
goes to bed in a worse mood than usual. He wakes up later and gets ready for
another day of work. Once he’s ready, he leaves the house while stepping on the
few bugs that share his home. Even though he joins the crowds of workers as he
makes his way to work, he feels alone.
This is until he sees a strange man
in the crowd. The man catches Roger’s eye because of the undertaker outfit he’s
wearing and his hands that seem to be stuck in constant prayer. Their eyes meet
as the undertaker looks at him then smiles. The Undertaker of Sorrows rhyme
then plays itself in his head again before the undertaker he sees disappears
into the crowd. Roger rubs his eyes then shrugs off what he saw.
When Roger arrives at work, he
enters his room, which is almost as dirty and unappealing to look at as his
house. The only thing that makes it look appealing are the certificates, awards,
and dusty mini trophies from years ago. He looks through old and new emails of
declining morale, reminders of better days, his duty to fix it, and to get over
the past. Despite holding onto his job by a string, he types up excuses for his
behavior and talks about making exercises that the company can do to improve
morale that don’t involve him being in it. After typing the emails, he looks up
to catch a few of his coworkers who were looking at him with sadness in their
eyes. They look away then go somewhere else to carry on their conversation. Roger
shrugs then sighs while looking up at the ceiling for a bit then looks outside
his room again to see a familiar face.
The undertaker from before is back
and talking to one of his coworkers. Both of them appear to be having a fun conversation,
but something about the undertaker unnerves Roger. He looks back down at his
computer to get back to work. It goes silent outside his room before he hears
what sounds like something being slipped underneath his door. He goes to check
it and sees the undertaker gently smiling at him while waving. Roger waves back
with an uneasy look on his face before looking at the letter underneath his
door. The letter has the Undertaker of Sorrows rhyme on it to his surprise.
When he looks back up, the undertaker’s face has drastically changed to that of
what the Undertaker of Sorrows is rumored to look like, which makes Roger leap
back in fear. This is only for a spilt second as the undertaker’s face goes
back to normal at the blink of an eye.
Roger keeps his eyes on the
undertaker before rubbing his eyes then opening them again to see that the
undertaker has disappeared. Thinking that his stress and tiredness is just getting
to him, he makes himself coffee in his room while also taking some medicine to
dull the pain. The workday goes on with emails getting sent to him that
advertise counseling, psychiatrists, local church events, and the like that seem
to be catered towards him. He dismisses this as the advertising algorithms that
just want him to spend money or join their groups because of his internet
history. Once the day is done, he heads out of his room and turns to lock his
room only to find the Undertaker of Sorrows rhyme nailed on his door. He rips up
the rhyme then storms out the door.
Along the way to his home, Roger decides
to stop at the nearby bar but isn’t allowed in. In a worse mood than he is
usually in, he storms down the streets while not caring about the people he walks
through or the homeless he steps on. As soon as he gets home, he slams his mail
on the table before sitting down to cool off. Once he’s had a drink from the
fridge, he looks through his mail. Again, he finds advertisements for things
that can help him be freed from his sadness and among the letters, he finds the
Undertaker’s rhyme yet again. Roger thinks about letting go of his sadness but
can’t bring himself to bear the pain. For the rest of the night, the memories
of his previous life torture him until the broken clocks turn to eleven fifty-five.
This confirms to Roger that the
Undertaker of Sorrows myth is just that. A myth. A knock at his door disturbs
his sigh of relief. He gets up to see no one at the door, but he feels uneasy. He
then closes the door only to see the same undertaker from before sitting in the
chair he was watching TV in. The undertaker slowly turns around to reveal his horrifying
face. His face that the Undertaker of Sorrows is said to have, however, it’s
even more horrifying in person. The eye with a mouth in the pupil along with a wide
eerie grin chills his soul.
The Undertaker sits and smiles
while Roger stares back while trying to open the door, which he is unable to
open. He then moves to the windows and tries to open, but they can’t open nor
are they breakable. The two still lock eyes as the Undertaker hasn’t moved or
done anything. The rhyme keeps playing and playing in Roger’s head as if it was
begging him to do what it wanted. Instead of thinking about the rhyme, Roger backs
up the stairs while keeping his eyes on the Undertaker. Once his eyes are off
the monster, he turns to his bedroom where he sees the Undertaker pop out of it.
This sudden scare makes Roger fall down the stairs.
When he looks back at the
Undertaker, Roger sees his children’s torn clothes. The Undertaker tears the clothes
apart into scraps. Roger scrambles to grabs the pieces and only manages to
catch a few. Disappointed in what he did, the Undertaker puts one hand behind
his back and waggles his finger while shaking his head. The only other possible
way out is the back, so Roger runs to the kitchen and locks the door behind him. He
tries to open the door, but that along with the nearby window is locked. The Undertaker’s
rhyme gets his attention on the table. He looks at it again and feels like
there’s more than the letter in his hands. Putting the letter down, he finds a
picture of his children’s graves along with pictures that his children drew of
the family. He begins to cry as the feelings overwhelm him.
After he wipes away his tears, he
sees that the Undertaker is in the room with Roger’s children holding his hands.
His children appear to be like angels with glowing skin and their bodies uncorrupted
by their violent deaths. Roger tries his best in trying to tear his children
away from the Undertaker but is unable to, so he punches him which makes his
children disappear. Roger continues uselessly punching the Undertaker until he grabs the next punch then takes his heart out of his chest.
Despite lacking a heart, Roger is
still living even though he is in extreme amounts of pain as his body slowly
dies. He is unable to scream, move, or change his fate. The Undertaker then
shoves Roger’s heart into his throat until Roger chokes to death. Once he is
dead, the Undertaker disappears to attempt to relieve another person of their
sorrows.
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