Writing Championships #4

Sapphire Simps

TWs: Drowning, major character death

The tattoo didn't bother Cleo as much as the other Hermits.

When it had appeared, she was more curious than afraid. Her timer wasn't as far away as some of the other's--just a few weeks away. Some Hermits' tattoos had dates decades later. Joe's timer was an exception--his timer was dated to 3 days after the tattoos had appeared.

Some Hermits were worried about the tattoos. "Why did they each have different times?" they asked. "Why did some come earlier than others?" Some tried to take it off. It didn't work. The ink still looked brand new.

Cleo didn't think too deep into the new ink on her arm. She carried on with her day, until the day Joe's time came up.

That's when he had died. Permanently. No respawn.

That's when the Hermits realized: It wasn't just a tattoo showing a random date. It was a timer. A countdown.

A countdown to their demise.

At first, Cleo started worrying. She was next after Joe. Her time was a little over 2 weeks from now. Would she die, too? Could she prepare? Or was it inevitable, with no way of stopping it? That thought scared her the most.

Still, when the day finally came, she couldn't help but feel a sense of dread rise up in her as she climbed out of her bed and started her day. Others had also had similar things happen.

Scar got impaled by a trident the day his timer was set. Grian suffocated a few hours after him.

The next two weeks fell heavy on her as she rushed around to get as much complete as she could before she too fell to the hand of death. Again.

It was never meant to be. She was never meant to keep her zombie form. After she worked herself until she could feel her bones trying to helplessly keep together, she'd sit on the beach, with an ice cream in hand. Occasionally taking a swim to forget it all. Then, it reached her day.

It had gone just as normal, besides people claiming that Ren too, had also died the previous day. Her hands mixed in with the beach's sand, and the waves reached out for her eagerly. What harm would a few more minutes do before she got to work, after all?

Then, as she waved a hand in the warm seawater...she realized. She was a zombie. She was already dead. What was the tattoo going to do to her, kill her twice? She'd just reanimate as a zombie. ZombieZombieCleo. The thought of that made her laugh.

That realization took all the worry away, and she lay on the beach, spreading her arms and letting the morning sun shine on her.

As the waves went back and forth, Cleo heard something from behind her. A skeleton. They have never really hurt her before due to her zombie features, but this one was followed by a couple of dogs who looked like ones that Joe had owned. That thought made her shiver, and she wondered where the dogs had come from.

She ran away from it to try and not get shot but it followed her going a bit quicker than one you would usually find. Her inked tattoo flashed as she ran faster, and she started breathing faster.

An arrow hit her right in the middle of her back and the dog ran right after her. Cleo stumbled, then splashed into the water into the water to try and escape from them.

Unfortunately, the dogs followed her, not stopping for one moment, and pushed her deep, deep under the water. In her haste, Cleo got herself tangled in the kelp underneath, and she thrashed and fought for freedom as bubbles escaped from her mouth. Satisfied with their work, the dogs surfaced back onto the water.

But Cleo was already too deep to go back up for air again. She was six feet under, literally.

So this is how it ends, huh...? Guess being a zombie couldn't stop her from dying. Or, in this case, drowning. It reminded her of the game of Demise in Season 6, and the mortal irony of that scenario made her release a laugh. The salty water washed into her mouth, and she tried to cough. That only made more water come in.

Cleo's vision darkened as her lungs ran out of air, filled with seawater, and she let go of the kelp trapping her as she closed her eyes and let out her final breaths. Her last vision was her tattoo, the date and its blurring numbers taunting her.

ZombieCleo drowned

Score: 9