I am a new member to this site and I felt it would be good way to start things off by sharing this short story I'd written with you.
I've been into the whole QS thing from a very young age and never told anyone that I know about it. I figured that now I'm a bit older (mid 20's), why not have a go at being in a community with others who share the same interest.
Back on topic though, my writing skills and story telling are amateur at best so I'd be more than happy for any feedback I could use to improve it in the future
I hope that some of you enjoy this story and I look forward to engaging more with this community in the near future
Regards, Silt Strider
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A Tragic Fate
Dreary and overcast was the only was the way the day could be described down at the local oval of a little-known country seaside town. Playing there that day was the local women’s soccer team. They were hard at work on improving their goal attack drills, in preparation for an upcoming match against a neighbouring local community. The result of this game would be critical in the deciding of their team’s place on the leaderboard. The girls had been at it for a good hour and a half already and were beginning to fatigue. On top of the weariness many of the girls were eager to head to the showers and thoroughly wash up as there had been an excessive amount rain on the pitch the night before and the poorly maintained field was turning to a sticky black mush. At the commencement of the final drill for that day, Emily got up off the bench exhaling heavily and readied herself for a go at the goals. Emily was a relatively short but athletic girl with black curly shoulder length hair that she currently had tied up into a ponytail for when playing soccer. Her skin was a glowing olive colour due to her Italian heritage and it was further darkened by a suntan resulting from her passion of outdoor activities. She was rearing to go yet nervous because she had to uphold her reputation of being the best point scorer on the team. A few of other the other girls thought her to be overly prideful yet were jealous of her natural abilities. The drill kicked off and she raced into action, dribbling the ball a good 20 meters while evading the defence and pushing through nimbly avoiding the defenders. When Emily was in range of scoring a goal disaster struck, her rear foot slipped on the muddy pitch, causing her to fumble the goal shot. The ball went sailing high and far off to the left of the goals and off into the thick evergreen forest that surrounded most of the oval. Emily was on her knees breathing heavily and swore. ‘Yeah, nice work Emily’ jeered one of her teammates. All the girls were agitated and worn out and took it out on one another. The coach noticed this and had seen enough. She blew her whistle to call everyone back and conclude the session. Emily stood up and the goalkeeper walked past her and saying in a venomous tone ‘seeing as you messed that up Ems, you can go and get the ball’. Emily was far too tired for arguments at this stage and simply replied ‘Whatever. I’m done’. She began walking off in the direction of the forest, following what she perceived to be the rough direction in which the ball might have landed. ‘I can’t be bothered dealing with their crap right now anyway’ she muttered to herself as she walked off the oval and over a small fence leading to the dense evergreen forest.
Emily checked her watch, and it was approaching 4:30pm. She’d been wandering along for good 15 minutes since leaving the sports oval. Suddenly she stopped in her tracks, and it stuck her. Emily lightly chuckled at herself as she’d been walking for 15 minutes and hadn’t even really been looking for the ball. While she was stopped, contemplating this humorous lapse in concentration, she leaned her back against a pine tree and gazed around at the environment, seemingly forgetting all her troubles. The trees towered high up all around her giving off the impression of timelessness. It occurred to her that this forest had been standing unchanged hundreds of years before she was born and would remain so for hundreds of years after she had drawn her last breath. The glade was all very beautiful to her as she took in the ambient sounds, colours and scents. Emily had always enjoyed spending time outdoors but had never been one to go out of her way to appreciate the finer details of the wilderness until seeing this serene place. It now dawned on her how amazing it was that such a picturesque place had been so closely located to the oval she attended three times a week. The landscape stretched on in all directions and the only limitation to her view was the shadows of far-off trees and bushes. She checked her watch again and decided she may as well stroll onwards a little longer and see if there were any more glades like this one. She regretted leaving her phone back at the club so that she could have taken some pictures, but she wasn’t too bothered. ‘it’s always best to just enjoy the moment rather than take a heap of pictures’ she thought to herself.
As she was walking along the overcast weather began to clear up as the sun slowly sank down into the horizon. She had walked an astonishing further 20 minutes. The landscape around her seemed to have changed. While the forest air and noises remained about the same, Emily noticed that there were much less tall trees. She could faintly hear the croaking of frogs and a soft trickle, suggesting to her that there must be a water source of some kind nearby. Emily sat down on an open patch of leaves and black dirt and was beginning to contemplate heading back to the oval and riding home, when an unusual section of the forest caught her eye. She stood up while brushing herself off and looked at what appeared to be a large open space littered with a few fallen trees. The late evening sky was exposed above this place, and she observed that all the ground in this open space was strangely smooth textured, and the ground an obsidian black compared to the rest of the forest floor. The entire area seemed slightly recessed below the rest of the forest floor. Emily’s face changed to a look of curiosity at this looming place that stuck out from the rest of the forest. She slowly wandered towards it and noticed that all around this open space there were mud cracks on the banks that gradually faded into smoothness in the middle. At that moment, Emily came to a quick halt and spied something out of place near the middle of this pit. It was a ball. ‘What!’ she exclaimed. She quickly scrambled up a fallen tree trunk that was next to her and had a look at the ball in the fading daylight. ‘It has to has a different ball’ she thought. Looking at it she couldn’t make an exact decision on if it was the clubs or not but regardless, it seemed to be in good condition. It sat about 15 meters into the pit seemingly close to its dead centre. By Emily’s reckoning, this area was some sort of dried-up bog. She’d seen similar places on her grandparent’s farm in the summer near dams and waterways. While Emily prided herself on being a tough and physically capable girl, she was not ever overly keen on getting muddy. She weighed up her thoughts on picking up the free ball and remembered the sound of trickling water nearby. Worst case scenario if the bog did get a bit soft and muddy in places, she would at least be able to clean herself off once she had retrieved it. She had it in her determined mind that she would get that ball.
Emily took a deep breath and began cautiously walking forward onto the dried-out mud cracks. The first few feet were solid ground and then she felt the ground gently crack beneath her and give way. She looked down and a black viscous muddy ooze was creeping up the side of her soccer boots. ‘Eugh!’ she exclaimed and swiftly pulled back. Emily’s family were frugal people, and those soccer boots were a Christmas present that she believed, likely cost upwards of a couple of hundred dollars. She retreated and undid her laces and pulled off her boots and socks. This was relieving to Emily as she had been in those boots training for a good portion of that day. She left her boots on the log and once again began to slowly walk forward. Emily carefully walked over the mud cracks and the ground was harsh and rough to walk on until she reached where she stopped initially. The ground was now soft and cool. She walked a few more steps and that’s when she started beginning to sink slightly. As she walked her feet sank under up to her ankles and the ground made a deep squelch underfoot while putting a heavily earthy smell into the air. Emily’s face cringed in disgust, but she persisted onwards. As she gingerly walked on, she began getting used to the feel of the soft and yielding ground until a few more feet in, Emily began sinking deeper and her steps were becoming more laborious. She stopped and looked down at her legs. She could feel that she had begun sinking nearly up to her knees and with her feet she could feel that even the ground under the surface of the mud was not feeling all too firm as if she could easily break through it. She looked forward and saw that she had not made significant progress to the ball, then noticing that a fallen tree with a sturdy appearance had fallen across the centre of the bog on the opposite bank from her, providing what seemed to be a solid path to the ball. Part of her simply wanted to try her luck and keep going rather than circumnavigating the outside of the bog. She decided the risk of the mud getting too deep wasn’t worth it. She promptly turned around and headed back to the bank to walk around and try her luck with the fallen tree.
Emily had been aware of the dangers of quicksand and deep mud. When she was a teenager, she had stayed at her uncle’s beach house, and he gravely warned her about fishermen and walkers in the area who had become ensnared by quicksand on the low tide or in the mud of the mangrove banks and being drowned by the tide after desperately trying to escape their fate. She had known by that age it was just in Hollywood that people keep sinking until the are completely under and smothered. Emily was not too scared of being trapped and consequently drowned as she had always been in tremendously good shape and confident in herself in tough situations. If anything, she always had kept away from precarious looking mud because she was more afraid of getting her clothes dirty. Unfortunately, Emily and her uncle did not know that there are some very rare hidden places in the world, where people won’t always stop sinking to their waistlines.
Emily was now standing at the other side of the bog at the foot of the fallen tree leading to the ball. The sun had now fully set but she could see her surroundings quite well due to a large full moon hanging brightly in the night sky emanating down a pale white light. The thought crossed her mind that she would need to head home at some point soon, but she was fixated upon the ball that was so close at hand, almost seeming to glow in the light of the moon. Emily had put one foot on the top of the fallen log when she suddenly felt a fleeting wave of cold terror sweep through her heart and then rest of her body. For a moment she had a hysterical thought that this would be a fatal mistake, but the feeling quickly passed as she vaulted up onto the log and looked down its length and brushed the feeling off as cowardice or situational anxiety. She began slowly walking forward on the log while crouched down to keep balance, being cautious of where she placed her steps. She had finally gotten to the ball and balanced on the end of the log that sat a meter and a half above the smooth surface of the bog. Her heart was beating heavily knowing that falling in would completely ruin her running shorts and sports jersey. She saw what appeared to be half a secure looking branch sticking out of the smooth mud close to the ball that she could stand on while reaching out to grab it. She took a deep breath and positioned herself to lower down onto the log. She propped her arms and slowly lowered herself down and felt herself gain footing on the log. While still firmly holding onto the top log, she let her weight rest on branch. It seemed stable. This is where she would have to be most careful. Her plan was to kneel once on the branch, grab the ball with both hands and throw it to the bank where she could simply retrieve it. With her weight resting on the branch, she loosened her grip on the log and took one hand off and knelt. Emily heard a sharp crack and the ground underneath her gave way as the log snapped off to the side. Emily let out a sharp scream and, in an instant, she had sunk in the dense mud all the way up to the bottom of her thighs. ‘Shit!’ she cried aloud, and she tried to reach for the log, but it was just out of her reach and was slowly pulling further away from her. Emily’s usually cool state gave way to panic, and she started thrashing her legs wildly against the thick mud that was slowly swallowing her. She looked down and she had sunk to the top of her thighs and was already feeling slightly sapped of energy. She started swearing repeatedly. It started to dawn on her that she had put herself into an extremely embarrassing situation over a ball. She knew her family would report her missing if she could not get out of this and she would be pulled out of the muck by a rescue team after being there for hours. She shuddered at the thought of what her teammates in the club would say about it. She was terrified but not giving up. She looked and saw a small branch on the side of the log that she may have been able to climb out on, but it was out of reach. All this time Emily had been very slowly sinking deeper. She felt the mud had crawled up to the bottom of her shorts and there was very little of her legs now above the surface. She thought quickly and had the idea that she may be able to catch her shirt on the protruding branch and pull herself up on it. It would ruin her shirt, but she no longer cared given the situation. She pulled it off revealing her black sports bra underneath she always wore during training. She began flicking her shirt at the protruding branch, thrusting her whole body to no avail against the tar like mud that held her fast. She was up to her hips and could feel the thick mud steadily crawling up her shorts and around her groin. She dropped the shirt by her side and kicked her legs to attempt to pull some of herself back out, but it proved to be useless. She was only sucked in further. Emily’s breathing was now in short, panicked breaths. As she attempted to thrust her whole body against the mud, the dark sludge rippled in response to her every movement, all around her like a foul, black, gelatinous mass. The mud was unnaturally warm, and it seemed to be actively wrapping itself tighter and tighter around every part of Emily’s lower body as she fought it, as if refusing to let her ever go free. She was up to the bottom of her stomach and the mud was all about her genitals. With each movement she could almost feel it pulsating and rippling against her skin as if it was trying to enter her in unspeakable ways. Emily was worn out. She stopped resisting the pull of the bog and was content with waiting until she was rescued. She knew that people couldn’t sink further than their waist. Her arms dropped by her side as she pulled in several deep breaths when she felt the sensation. The sensation, of the tarlike mud continuing to creep up her body. This was the moment that Emily felt the true terror of the situation she was in. She weakly struggled more by placing her palms flat against the surface of the mud and pushing up. She raised herself only a small amount before the suction on the lower half of her body swiftly pulled her back down. Her hands broke through the blackened surface of the mud and became stuck fast beside her. They were by no means easy for her to pull back out. She felt the clinging mud had now crawled up her waist and was near the bottom of her breasts. Emily now knew that she would not stop sinking in the black mud. She would sink into what would be her grave. Emily was utterly horrified and began to scream for help. The only living things that heard her, were the animals of the forest. They themselves had seen many types of life perish in the hidden mire and knew instinctively to stay away, otherwise they would end up like the poor girl sinking to her fate before them. Emily’s voice was beginning to wear out and her screams became less and less noticeable. She was utterly trapped, and the mud had now reached her breasts. As the mud sluggishly creeped up over her nipples, Emily’s whole life flashed before her eyes. She saw events from her childhood all the through to what would have been her peaceful death at home with family. She saw that she was now never going to have children or meet her husband. She began weeping as she sank down up to her shoulders. Emily fought against her fate out of sheer survival instant. All the mud now only softly rippled around her as she could barely move her limbs. One of her arms had become stuck up to the shoulder and trying to pull it out would be futile. Emily wept on her other arm that rested on that surface of the bog in front of her. She was up to her neck. Now struggling to breathe through her tears as the warm mud pushed in on her chest and back. She felt a numb cramping pain all the way from her feet to her neck and knew she would be dead within minutes. Still, she was slowly pulled down until the mud reached her chin. She leaned her head back and lifted her arm up trying to grab a hand or aid that would never come. She looked at the night sky blurred through her tears and was horrified about the way she was about to die. As the mud crept over Emily’s ears and the side of her face, she saw only black walls appear all around her vision and they grew larger and fell in towards her. In one final effort of self-preservation, Emily screamed and thrashed her whole body to try and lift herself out with her free arm but in doing so, also became submerged. The mud dropped over Emily’s mouth like a warm wet hand, and she was forced to breathe through her nose. The walls of black mud in her vison were rising higher than ever blocking out the stars of the night sky before her eyes. The mud slowly collapsed down over her face and her whole head went under with the end of her ponytail dragging under the surface behind it. From the surface, all that could be seen was a slight rippling of the mud and finally about 30 seconds afterwards, stillness broken only by two or three bubbles lazily breaking the surface of the blackened bog.
It was about two weeks in when the police had given up the search for the Emily. Her family naturally reported her missing while shortly afterwards, the police attempted to sweep the large area in which she went missing. The members of the club were questioned, and the investigators gained nothing of substance. They found the ball she’d been in search of in bushes nearby to the field along with her boots which had been tracked down with scent dogs. The boots had been discovered a long distance away by a dirt road. To this day some suspect she was kidnapped but it was never explained why the boots were left behind. Within the forest, sitting on the surface of a mire that no man or creature will ever consciously approach, there still sits the mere object someone unknowingly gave their life for. The ball that is now the marker of a tragedy that no-one will know of.
