Into the Wild and After the Dark

By Kym Robinson

A collection of short stories that linger in horror with macabre and at times dystopian themes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kym Robinson
• Release date: Jan 12, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224731084

Book preview

Story Two

The Jungle

It was her jungle.  It was her home, her feral familiar and yet despite that outsiders cursed its sacredness as they trampled through its depths and slashed down its green fingers and arms, severing its spirit.  She watched on, her flesh though exposed was also concealed by the faint specks of sunlight as it penetrated the depths of the lush undergrowth.  She with guile and lithe manipulation of her form coiled herself from a top of a long limb of a tree generations old, her feminine build and sensual lines defied her instincts for death and hunters eye. 

Again, she felt a snarl of distaste emerge from within her very being as she heard before saw the scream of the trees as its branches fell, nectar and life blood draining thickly onto the ground.  She climbed down and approached them, remaining low to the Earth she was a shadow to their clumsy eyes as they bashed and thudded through the green living with arrogance and little awareness.  She could have been recently blinded and she would have known where they were. 

Crawling so that her belly rubbed across the damp ground, leaves and slick branches ran gently across her being she could feel the jungle caress her.  She paused suddenly, a strange scent brushed across her nostrils, she took in the strange smell trying to analyse it.  It was them, they stank, fowl and obtuse odours permeating from their pores and breathes as they made vulgar grunts to one another in a primitive language.  Hiding beneath a bush, its long leaves wide enough to drape across her head bobbed softly enough to conceal her as one of them passed by, unaware of her proximity the intruder stumbled as its foot caught an exposed root.  It belched curses at the jungle as it corrected its footing, her experience and composure kept her still as it remained close.  Turning in her direction it pulled out a piece of itself and slowly began to mark the Earth with its polluted waters, she held her breathe and turned her face, it was male.

Once the male had finished marking the ground and tree with its steaming liquid it adjusted itself and turned, again it crudely gestured with its voice to its companion.  She had seen enough, not only had it harmed the jungle, intruded her lands but now it was marking her grounds with its foul odour, no longer would she let it them pass by she decided it was time to remove them.  Slowly she compressed herself, her actions so very subtle and without theatre, the male was unaware of her, he grunted more sounds just as she leaped at him.  She was as long as he was tall as she attacked him, her weight and speed forcing him to the ground, with vicious focus her claws and teeth found his throat.  She was not concerned with marking him or scaring him, instead she wanted to kill him.  His salty blood filled her throat, she had not tasted anything as acidic as his crimson liquid, her claws and face covered in his life essence as he lay limp the spirits of the jungle pulling him from his mangled physical body. 

The companion to him shrieked, a loud boom erupted, it kicked up the leaves near her, she pulled herself from the dead male’s body and dashed deep into the green folds of the tress and growth, another loud crack like that of concentrated thunder blasted behind her.  She ran for several bounds, stopping to take in her breath.  Though she was not hungry now, she needed to feed soon, her tongue lapped at her paws as she took in the blood from the male.  She could eat it.  Grooming herself as her eyes remained focused on where she had just been, seeking unnatural motion or listening for the cluttering noises that this kind of intruder seemed to create, she waited.

A sudden thunderclap boomed from within the folds of the jungle, she bounced onto her feet and ran with all of her strength, her stride deep and energised by the fear of death.  From behind her she could hear their vulgar noises interspersed with the booming loudness of the stick that they held.  They were attempting to hunt her she concluded, she made herself to a slight perch along an elderly tree that had fallen against younger trunks, she could look deep into the distance of the jungle.  Two of them stalked through the dark green, they were a variety of colours different to the natural plantation that they now sought protection among, despite their savage brutality upon it in the moments earlier when she had first encountered them.  Now like uncertain cubs they turned and hid behind each leaf and stem, she would laugh if the situation was not so dire.  With stealth she crawled down from her perch and circled around their sides. 

She knew her jungle intimately she passed a deep ditch in the Earth, where long ago he had made her first kill, now it was merely a nostalgic monument to her coming of age, her legs carried her slight weight with speed over the long ago memory of death.  Slowing down she zeroed in on where it was that they should be, stopping her strides she could hear them.  With a knowing confidence she cautiously matched their pace, the harsh sounds that they made to one another was enough for her to zone in on them.  Then off course the stench that wafted across the natural perfumes of her natural territory. 

One of them was ahead of her, she could see its long legs as it stood wide stance, she could ascertain from its actions that it was lost and unsure as to what it should do.  It was her moment, with a mighty pounce she gained enough speed and momentum to bring it down.  Seizing it from behind she wrested it to the ground hard and fast, she needed to make her death stroke quickly before the other one could bring its thunder sound upon her.  With experienced manipulation she by passed its grappling attempts as its limbs thrashed against her, she ripped and tore at its throat and neck, breaking skin and cartilage with her strength and natural abilities.  The body of it began to jerk and writhe as all beasts did once they slipped into the next plain, she could not enjoy the victory however as the other was upon her.  With a clap of dark noise, she felt and heard the boom.  Rolling away from the corpse she sprinted as quickly as she could inside of the jungles sanctuary, behind her more thunder and harsh noises.

Slowly she limped, her body began to ache with a throb of agony.  She was injured, that noise had harmed her.  She assessed her injury, it did not seem severe enough to kill her for now.  She felt an urgency run through her as her body slowly began to feel the fatigue of her exertions and injury, her slight body did not carry much fat and thus impinged her in such long term moments of intensity.  She limped back inside the jungles deepness, slowly steering herself in a direction so that she could find the remaining intruder.  It did not take her long to come across it.  Standing tall it stared her in the eyes, both exchanging a murderous defiance.  Without further thought she exploded, with all of the energy that her body and spirit retained she drove onwards towards it.  Running as best as she could despite her injury she was determined to drive the intrusion from her territory even if it meant her own death. 

The thunder erupted around her, she did not know if she passed through it or it her, liquid numbness encased her and despite it she kept pressing onto the intruder.  With the remaining ounces of her essence she tore and slashed at it, with ebbing strength and failing breath she maimed it and eventually just as her chest pumped with exerted desperation she took its life.  Watching with satisfaction as it stared lifelessly at her, its empty eyes looking into her now weeping ones she cursed at it and its kind.  Slowly she stumbled back into the folds of her gentle jungle, pain sapping her as she tripped and fell, the animals of the jungle watching her.  Now emerging as the unfamiliar intrusion had been checked.  She had protected her home; she had secured her fellow beasts. 

With a final effort she crawled, falling into a heap, her chest and back heaved as each breath became a laborious effort.  A darkness began to gently embrace her, it was not like the comforting relaxed absence of thought that she found when she slept, this was different. It was painful.  She looked around one last time, this was the spot, her fondest memory.  She laid her head upon her paws and thought about that time she had taken her first life, how proud she was, the pride in her mother’s eyes.  Now she was to return to the jungle here, to disappear into death.  In her last moments she knew that regardless it would always be her home and she had shown today that it shall always be, hers.

Story Three

The Questing Man

H ow could you forgive him?  The voice echoed from within his mind.  Despite the repetitive query his body continued its labour, climbing ever upwards towards a peak that seemed hidden behind the clouds of a damp mist.  The voice asked him again as he bit down on his lower lip, the cold embracing him as he reached higher and higher.  Water pelted across his being as he struggled with his grip it was a rain of both intensity and inconsistency, the outcome was the same however, he fell damp beneath its flow. Though he was not naked, his flesh was exposed to the cold elements.   His muscles though aching as they throbbed continued to pull and claw his bulk onwards as he ascended slowly despite the height and distance.  Rock and moss that had never felt the warm living touch of a man remained wet and lifeless beneath his many prying grips.   Upon his back he