Strange: The Senior Young Writers Group Zine 2023

CORPOREAL FEAR – Ray Lee
7:18am
The town was dragging itself to the waking world. The sun
blaring an alarm of harsh, bright light.
There was a stranger. Found between day and night.
Content to work in the cornfields, teach the children in the
school and engage with the adults in the town hall. But the
town was wary of its hands in the fields, of its words with the
children, its input taken with a grain of salt by the adults. No
one knew its name despite how many times they said it, never
invited to get togethers despite their kindness, never trusted
despite their cooperation.
They found its body. Petrified and spindly. A thin, pale
arm reaching out towards the bed of the sun. They noticed the
pain and fear. But not the tears not fallen, nor the desperation
of her wanting to live.
11:55am
The town was living through the addicting taste of mystery and
gossip. The kids called it a vampire or some creature that only
imitates humans. The adults did nothing. None dared to touch
the body. They feared the disease they assumed the stranger
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