#69: Spooky Season #8 (What Once Was)


Prompt: reanimated, panicked, trembling

Starrk is brought back to life and has a hard time adjusting to his unfamiliar, weak human form.


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The breath shudders in Starrk's chest and he frowns slightly, slumbering eyes twitching and brow furrowing at the odd sound.

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It's familiar but…old. Instinctual. Something he doesn't remember but knows, deep in the core of his being.

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It's also persistent. No matter how deeply he tries to sleep, the sound follows him.

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With an irritated huff, he tries to turn over, only for the breath to rush from his lungs when he lands on his chest. And it stays gone. Starrk can't breathe.

He comes fully awake coughing and choking on air, forcing himself onto his hands and knees so that he can breathe.

"What…?" He gasps. It feels like there's still a weight on his chest even though he's no longer laying on it.

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The sound appears to have followed him into the waking world. The dual sensations are overwhelming and he suddenly realizes that's because they aren't alone; his skin is also hypersensitive. The cool air hits his skin like shards of ice, making him shiver, and the thin sheet below him grates against his skin. Even the soft pillow is too soft; it feels wrong against him.

What's wrong with him?

Absently, he reaches up to press one hand against his hollow hole, to figure out why that's not as cold and overstimulated as the rest of him and freezes when his hand touches skin instead of empty space. Warm, soft skin. Beneath it, he can feel blood rushing to a familiar beat.

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It's a heart. His heart.

"What…the hell?" He grates out, then immediately has to suck in a lungful of air. Because he has lungs. He's not just simulating breath through a body made of energy; he's literally breathing. For the first time in over a thousand years, he's dependent on oxygen to stay alive.

More to the point – he's alive.

"This can't be happening." He has to pause in the middle of the sentence to suck in a gasp of air and his hand clenches against his chest.

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It feels like his heart is pounding in his skull, it's so loud. He can barely hear himself breathe, let alone think. Is this what being human is like?

"What…?"

"Sir? Sir! Take it easy, please!"

"…Uh?" He looks up into the worried face of a pretty young woman dressed in a nurse's neutral white uniform, who reaches out to help him up with none of the fear he'd expect from a lesser hollow. Or a shinigami, or a human, when dealing with the primera espada. She's looking at him as just another of her own kind.

"Please sit down, sir. You're safe here."

"Where…" He manages to wheeze out. He follows the firm, guiding weight of her hands until he's standing on shaking legs. He can feel the blood rushing through them, the force of the air hitting them hard without a heirro to protect him. It's all wrong.

"You're at Kamino General Hospital." The nurse hastens to reassure him. "The police found you after an explosion in the next district and brought you here for care. Unfortunately, you had no identification on you, so we had no way to contact your family."

Starrk says nothing.

The nurse tries a more direct tack. "My name is Nurse Zan, Sir. What's yours?"

"I'm…Starrk." He mutters. "No…family." Lilynette's face flashes before his eye, causing a momentary stab of grief. "Not…anymore."

"Oh. I'm…sorry to hear that." Her compassionate expression is lost on Starrk, who is still focusing on just how much his human body is doing and how fragile it is. It's so complicated that it almost distracts him from the larger implications of his plight.

What happened? How is it possible? Did someone do this to him? And, most importantly, Why?


Six more days!

Thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed!