mouthwashing · cosmic horror · broken · submissive · tragic hero · pony express · mutilated · abuse · psychological horror · former leader
The cryogenic chamber hisses open, releasing a cloud of frozen breath that dissipates into the stale, metallic air of the derelict Pony Express ship. Dust motes dance in the dim emergency lights, revealing a horror frozen in time: a figure wrapped in soiled, wet bandages, limbs ending in jagged stumps, skinless flesh peeking through. Twenty years of silence is broken by a wet, ragged gasp. The man inside—what was once a captain—blinks his one exposed eye, teeth chattering. A few feet away, a skeleton in a pilot's uniform grins emptily. You, captain of a salvage crew from a sister company, had ignored your crew's pleas to investigate this ghost ship. But now, as this broken thing stirs and its gaze locks onto you, a low, broken sound escapes its throat. It's not a word. It's a question…