In the Pursuit of Death| ONC 2024

A Little Front Matter

Hi everyone! It's so nice to be here, back in a headspace where I feel like I can create something (maybe not a good something, but a something regardless). For those of you who don't know, 2023 kind of took a lot out of me. One of my fur babies passed away in May and without her feisty spirit around to destroy carpets and chew walls and thump when I presented her with one too few treats, I felt like what little magic the world possessed had all but vanished. 

Then in August, stupid me decided to get up on a side table and humanely collect the bees that were buzzing around my bedroom and put them back outside where they belonged. I ended up falling from said table and breaking my foot. So the last third of the year I was worried sick I'd need surgery (I didn't, thankfully! My bones did all the healing on their own). Needless to say, not the most conducive environment to write in.

I put Abbernathy and Magick's End on pause, I stepped away from writing and Wattpad. 

With the new year, I was hopeful I could get back into writing. I wasn't sure I'd be able to create anything, but I at least wanted to try. Then ONC rolls around and I think, "that's great. Not for me, but that's great." I look over the prompts when they dropped and again, I think, "that's great. Truly. Still not for me. But it'll be a great year for entries. How exciting." 

And then, well, you clicked on this book because you saw 'ONC 2024' in the title and as one of the tags so you get it. 

In the Pursuit of Death is my ONC 2024 entry, born from prompt 63. In a world of curses and gifts, you find yourself cursed with immortality - in the apocalypse (in this case it's post-apocalypse as it makes the whole concept of immortality sadder to me somehow). 

I'll also be incorporating prompts 29 (An eye for an eye, a kiss for a kiss), 37 ("I'll chase you to the end of the world and then push you over the edge,") and 95. ("I will become as monstrous as I must.") Can you tell this is going to be a happy one? *shakes head* 

Logline: 

A woman cursed with immortality navigates a post-apocalyptic world in order to hunt down the god that cursed her...and kill him.

WIP synopsis: 

Eris Oslow knows grief. As a survivor of a mass extinction event known as the Ruin, she's seen everyone she's ever loved die, and had to watch the world slowly rot away. One day, the god of Death visits her, offering to give her whatever she desires. She tells him she wants a family, and so he takes her as his bride. For a time, Eris is content—she has come to love her god-husband and has even born a daughter, Daya. Together, they'd carved out a place of happiness among the decay.

But one day, Eris realizes how fragile their happiness is. Daya comes down with the same illness that had wiped out Eris's entire village years prior, forcing Eris to relive the trauma of watching those she loves die. Akul provides no comfort, reminding Eris that death is merely the price of mortality. Without her daughter, Eris's days stretch on without meaning. Her grief threatens to drown her, while a growing resentment toward Akul for not saving Daya erodes her heart.

When Eris becomes certain her heart has shattered beyond repair, she is visited by Akul's brother, A'Cubei. He offers her a solution to her suffering—kill Akul, as doing so will rid the world of death for good. After all, it was Daya's death that spurred on Eris's suffering in the first place.

Given a dagger capable of slitting a god's throat, Eris sets out, determined to kill her god-husband, and wipe the stain of death from the world. But Akul is quick to recognize her betrayal, and his brother's insignia on the dagger's hilt. Saddened and enraged, Akul exacts his revenge - giving Eris what she most desires. He gifts her immortality, ensuring she'll live in a world without him in it.

But his gift isn't what it seems. With Daya taken to Greenworld, Akul's domain, and with Eris's inability to die, Akul has cursed her to an existence without the promise of ever seeing Daya again. Stripped of a reunion in the afterlife, Eris sets out on a journey spanning thousands of years, to hunt down Akul, rid herself of his curse and see Daya once more.

Nothing will stand in Eris's way, in her pursuit of Death.

Written for ONC 2024 | First Draft

~TRIGGER WARNINGS~ (Please read before continuing. Your mental health matters!)

Non-graphic depiction of child death - on page | Discussion of death and grief throughout | Fantasy depiction of assisted suicide, non-graphic.

This will be a very rough first draft, it'll probably suck. *shrugs*

I'm hoping to finish this novella. I've kept the plot simple in hopes that it'll stay novella-length, and I won't find myself 10,000 words deep and on chapter 2 (like last year...). It's been three years I think since I last completed ONC, so here's to this being my year. 

Anyone else doing ONC? What are your prompts? Drop a link to your story here -------->>>>>>>>

Good luck to all participants! Let's abandon our inner critics and write whatever the hell we want!