Archive of the Odd

Welcome to our newest web feature, Found Fiction Friday! With authors’ permission, we’ll be posting stories from our issues online. Formatting is still unique to the books, but the story is free for all to read.

Today’s story is by J.R. Santos. J.R. Santos debuted as an author in Archive of the Odd #1. His work has since then featured in multiple anthologies, including: Escalators to Hell: Shopping Mall Horrors, That Old House: The Bathroom, and Broken Olive Branches a charity anthology supporting the PCRF.

His debut novella, Don’t Cry For Santos came out May, 2024.

It originally appeared in Issue 1.

Warnings: Death, deteriorating mental state, body horror (mild), dead animals

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You Have (1) New Message

No water or food, and the Sun is blinding, the heat is oppressive and I think this is it. I’m going to die here, writing to you on my phone using the app you made me install because there’s no signal, and I can’t call you or text you but you told me the app stores everything and delivers everything as soon as it picks a signal.

Whenever I find some shade I try to stay there and use the chance to write. The battery is running low, so I have to make the most of it. I can’t sleep and there’s no point in waiting for the night. I’ve tried, I’ve waited for hours and I could be crazy but the clock on my phone and my wristwatch look like they’re both working. It’s the Sun, it doesn’t set. Ever.

I gave up waiting for the night. Some rocks and dead trees here and there and that’s all there is, so maybe I’m walking in circles. I pray to God I’m getting close to somewhere, anywhere with people. I don’t know where our friends went, or the guide who was with us.  It’s just been me and no people, no animals, no buildings.

When we left the little town I was promised forests with old trees, and new ones planted to fight back deforestation.  I was promised clean beaches and a big blue sea but now the only blue I see is the sky.

We could all smell the salt and I could hear the waves; it was a 15 minutes drive from the woods to the seashore, but now it’s just the sound of sand being pushed around.

God, I hate being alone. I wish someone was here with me.

If you get these somehow, please send help.

You Have (2) New Messages

I just woke up again, my feet feel like they’re on fire so I checked and they’re swollen and covered in blisters from the fucking heat. God I’m so thirsty. I walked by what looked like  a bridge and tried resting under it to make use of the shade. Maybe I’m hallucinating but I think I recognize it from the brochure, and it’s actually part of an old roman aqueduct but all the water is gone. It’s just rock on hard dirt and dust and sand.

I’m so thirsty.

You Have (3) New Messages

I had to stop. I kept seeing all these bones and something was chasing me that I couldn’t see clearly because the heat makes everything weird and wavy. I’m sure it was there, it came up from the sand and moved around. I can’t see what it is but it keeps moving. I ran and climbed a rock. I’m burning up here, can’t leave.

You Have (4) New Messages

There’s this movie you kept telling me about, and I tried doing the thing. Threw away a shoe and when it hit the ground the thing came out and grabbed it but it wasn’t a big worm.

It had eyes but they were messed up, I don’t know what it is but I ran away and when I looked back it had stopped and was staring at the Sun. Now walking hurts worse.

You Have (5) New Messages

I cried. I don’t have tears but I cried. My back hurts, my skin hurts, I’m hungry and thirsty.

Found a little tree but it’s all bent and had a beehive. I cracked it open, it was full of dead bees. Tried eating the honey inside. It was hard but I ate it, got my mouth full of dust and couldn’t stop coughing.

I threw up. It’s all pasty and dry.

You Have (6) New Messages

I found the woods. It’s all burned.

The trees are broken, my feet are bleeding and I don’t know what the burnt stuff will do to me. Everything smells burnt. Saw some dead animals, all burned, all black but I was thirsty and I was hungry. They were too hot, but I think it helped. I had to. It tasted horrible.

I don’t want to die.

You Have (7) New Messages

I hear the sea. I think I’m crazy but I hear the sea, but I can’t see it and everything smells burnt and rotten. I need water but there’s no water. I want my shoe back.

You Have (8) New Messages

I don’t like the sky. It’s too blue. Not a cloud, not one. No rain. NO water. Blue blue. Tired of you. My cell phone feels hot and sticky, the glass cracked either because I fell on it or from the heat, I don’t know which but the battery still works.

You gave me the phone on my birthday. I’m glad you did.

I love you.

You Have (9) New Messages

Peeling, big chunks and small chunks. Dry and sore. I dug some place, any place, dug down, found some warm wet dirt and squeezed into my mouth.

Tastes bad and warm.

You Have (10) New Messages

Still digging but feeling better. Something is wrong with my phone. It’s hard to write, maybe it’s the heat, or my fingers being busted and caked in dry mud or maybe it’s the battery. No signal but the messages say sent. I don’t know what’s going on.

You Have (11) New Messages

Tried sleeping inside the hole but almost got buried alive. There was someone out there, but couldn’t see who because the sunlight hurts.

Walking again. I got to find other people, or something to save myself but I am still lost.

At least you are safe.

Away from here.

You Have (12) New Messages

Found the sea. Smelled it before I saw it. Fell down a dune but my phone is okay. I could smell rotten fish. All kinds beached on the sand. So much fish. The sea smells bad and the water is very blue in the distance but here, close to me it looks green and brown. Tried eating the fish that looked less spoiled but it’s all salty and bitter.

You Have (13) New Messages

It’s all so blue, so blue. You can’t tell where the sea ends and the sky begins. The Sun doesn’t move, I tried bathing in the water but all the salt is burning me now and my skin is cracking worse than before.  Everything on the shore is all black, sticky and smelling like oil.

I smell like oil too.

You Have (14) New Messages

There’s a whale, rotting meat and bare bone. Big birds are eating it, picking at the bones and nesting inside the thing. They are bald and scream like seagulls, sometimes pecking at each other until they bleed.

They are all blind. Threw my other shoe at them. Wanted to kill one. They followed the noise and cried at the shoe where it splashed. They are too big and have no feathers, so they can’t fly. Dragging on their bellies and splashing around in the water, they’re so loud it hurts my ears.

I hate them. I hate it here. I hate it. I never wanted to come here, I wanted to visit my parents for the holidays but you never liked them. I want to see them again.

You Have (15) New Messages

I want to die.

You Have (16) New Messages

There’s someone around. I don’t remember falling asleep but woke up and can see a trail, ending where I woke up. Someone dragged me inside a cave. It’s cool but smells. Everything smells.

You Have (17) New Messages

Getting too weak. I don’t feel hungry or thirsty anymore but I feel dizzy. Everything feels dry, all the cool air is gone but I don’t want to go out again.

Sleeping in the cave.

You Have (18) New Messages

The guide is here. His eye sockets are empty, burned black, skin dry and looking like leather. I couldn’t recognize him when I first saw him, thought it was a dream but I noticed the clothes and the little badge with the melted plastic and the faded words. He’s very thin and he scared me but he whispered it was him and everything was good now.

He told me I was almost ready. I told him I wanted to know what was going on and he laughed, then left without me.

You Have (19) New Messages

It’s hard to see. He’s outside the cave and told me to join him and the others. I asked him if you were with them but he just laughed. God, please God, don’t be here, please.

It’s really bright outside and I can’t do this anymore. I dreamed about horrible things. I think it’s over. Something was looking at me from the dark, with lots of little eyes. Saw my face on the cracked glass of the phone and wanted to scream.

I feel cold now. Need to go back and burn the cold and the smell, burn the memory and the dreams. Leaving the cellphone behind with my clothes and my watch.

I love you. Tell my parents I love them too.