TodayI— 05/05/25 (Mon) 18:33:42 #70443321
Today I was driving home from my work. My nine to five, my burden to bear. I had not an ounce of energy left in me for anything but going home. Returning to the place of rest, where I felt truly comfortable. I drove down the winding, gray road, and I saw it. I saw the thing laying upon the road, motionless and looking toward me, as if it wanted its final gaze to be of my car.
It was a cat.
It was a brown and white cat.
It was a brown and white cat with a collar.
And it laid dead upon the road, with nobody caring.
The cars continued to pass, the car a distance in front of me had obviously driven over it with no issue. So why did I hate it? I wanted so badly to swerve around it, to keep the body some form of preserved, some form of safe from desecration, from being mangled beyond recognition by my car, but… There was too much traffic, and I couldn't swerve. I couldn't save it. I heard a light crack, a soft squelch of crushed flesh. I couldn't bring myself to look into my rear-view mirror. I couldn't bring myself to see what I had done to the poor, dead animal that I had crushed with my tires. Someone's animal. Someone's beloved pet, left in the road.
Sorry about the SadPost today guys. It hit me like a truck seeing it. Back to my normal paranormal happenings tomorrow.
criticman8008 05/05/25 (Mon) 18:39:04 #45954210
this isn't even a para-post. i'm disappointed in the misuse of your platform. i'll be back when you return to para-posts.
lamentableMage 05/05/25 (Mon) 18:43:56 #45954210
Aw, I'm so sorry you had to go through that. We're here for you!
TodayI— 05/06/25 (Tue) 18:42:08 #70443321
Today I saw it again. I know I said I was going back to regular supernatural posts today, but I couldn't. It wasn't so much an animal this time, as it was a lump of fur and disgustingly mangled flesh. Though it was ripped and torn beyond recognition as the brown and white cat it started as, I saw a small shimmer near the end of the mass of flesh. The shimmer was connected to a long, blue length of leather, connected on the other side by a buckle. It was the collar.
As much I wished, I could not slam on the brakes then, I could not stop and get out of my car and look at it. And feel pity. And feel terrible for what I had done to it. No, if I stopped, then the person behind me would be liable to scream at me, or to lament the fact that they were stuck, in a busy, no-pass zone, with a poor sap that couldn't get over a single piece of roadkill. They were common on these roads, but I had never seen someone's assumedly beloved pet treated so callously by the road, with such disregard for what the poor owner might think.
As I drove over the mass of cat, I wondered what the shimmer was. Maybe it was a little golden tag, with the cat's name on it. The thought was pushed down as quickly as it came.
lamentableMage 05/06/25 (Tue) 18:56:21 #45954210
Oh. Maybe you should call the sanitation department about this? Most places have a force dedicated to roadkill, you know?
TodayI— 05/07/25 (Wed) 19:02:19 #70443321
Today I only saw blood on the pavement. Only a smear of the thing that was here but a day ago. Only a smear of what was left of the poor cat. I paused a little. Finally, someone had taken care of the poor thing. Someone had given it an ounce of sympathy and cared for it. Cared for what was left of it.
But I didn't think about that for long. Who had spent precious minutes of their day moving something meant for the road? Moving something so disgusting from outside the safe confines of your vehicle? Who had presumably clogged the flow of ever-going traffic for this. For this thing. I felt pity for it, but I would not have been that person. I would not have broken the unceasing, the necessary unceasing of traffic, of the world of the car. Why would I ever do that?
I would never risk the rage, the annoyance of the road and its adherents for this.
lamentableMage 05/07/25 (Wed) 19:10:23 #45954210
I'm a little worried about you, Day. Maybe you should talk to someone about this, because I think it's getting to you. Maybe take the day off work? Just, take some time? Please? At least respond to me, please.
TodayI— 05/08/25 (Thu) 18:30:06 #70443321
Today, there was a vulture staring down at the spot from the electrical pole. It looked hungry. It looked like it wished it had gotten there earlier, to feast upon the meat of the beloved pet that laid there for at least two days. I swear to you, it turned to me, and it stared at me. It's small, beady black eyes boring into my heart, almost wishing that it could pluck my heart from my chest and sink its beak into it, biting and clawing at it and feasting on the rest of me.
Of course, it wouldn't. But I knew what it wanted to do. I knew how hungry it was. I could feel the hunger clawing at its disgusting feathers. Vultures will gorge themselves on a carcass and become too fat to fly, did you know that? They'll realize they can't get their bodies off the ground, and they'll puke up their spoils. They're gluttons at their finest, but I know something they don't. I don't think the road bodies are for them.
lamentableMage 05/08/25 (Thu) 18:34:13 #45954210
Day. Call me. Please. Text me. Anything.
TodayI— 05/09/25 (Fri) 18:51:39 #70443321
On top of the blood smear, I saw a man strewn on the road. Dead. He showed no sign of what killed him, but it was obvious he was gone. He was laid across the road, and nobody cared. The car in front of me drove in front of him, spilling blood and sinew across the pavement. It was almost ritualistic. The pound of our wheels upon the meat, throwing and staining our cars and the pavement. One after another, we all paid our dues to the thing that gave us the power to go where we needed, where we wanted. One by one we crushed and spilled the blood of the sacrifice upon the altar of the pavement.
I adjusted my rear-view mirror after I had paid my dues, looking on the mound of flesh, clothing bloodied and barely visible, and the skin parting to make way for the bone and organs and everything meant to be inside to spill out, to be turned into a mash upon the pavement for no other reason than to be gone. Nobody was going to touch it. Nobody was going to touch the dead, even if they all hated the crackle and snap of driving atop it— Why complain, when this is how it has always been?
criticman8008 05/09/25 (Fri) 20:40:50 #45954210
you're back to your normal posts?
