The Terror of Turquoise Elfcap
by Sarah Oakes
Before the terror, the town of Turquoise Elfcap bustled with life.
It was an old town, that had used the mushrooms to dye the wood of their houses, each one a different shade of blue. For the mushrooms grew wild and free, in the forests around the town, and so the people had harvested thousands of mushrooms, long ago, squeezing juices and ripping stalks, not knowing that the mycelium felt it all, that the caps bided their time for revenge.
No one knew what started the terror. But people in the woods began reporting odd footprints, as if something had uprooted itself from the ground, where swathes of mushrooms had been the day before. A handful of people went mad, disappearing into the woods never to be seen again. There was a horrid sickly-sweet stench, that filled every house for night after night. In the mornings, an odd sticky residue coated each house, sealing window and door alike. No one could get in or out, and panic began to rise among the people as the days went on.
On Midsummers Eve, a symphony filled the air, like nothing the people had ever heard before. It chilled all to the bone, made of notes deeper than the earth and scales older than time, passages that grew in minor keys and dark places. Amongst the shrieking sounds was another noise, like thunder, that rose and fell as it approached the town, that sickly sweet scent permeating stronger than ever.
In the moonlight the terror descended. A great huge horrid entity, of giant stalks and bulging caps, with a head that reared up into the sky, made of a thousand twisted tendrils of blue and green, that sensed and felt its prey, a hunter who hungered for fresh flesh, with roots that trailed, made of suckers and stingers and so much more, grotesque and gargantuan. It was glimpsed for only a moment, in the moonlight, before vanishing into the dark. And in the dark the screams and slurps started, a horrid sucking noise that echoed as it gulped and swallowed and moaned for more, until all that remained were sticky residues. Spores grew from blood and bone, each one bright blue and glimmering green, as the mushrooms consumed the town. For the creature moved easily from house to house, roots and tendrils sticking to window and door alike, and so it easily climbed within, growing and spreading further and further, until the town of Turquoise Elfcap finally fell silent.
BIO: Sarah Oakes is a visually impaired writer and musician in love with krakens and science fiction. She has had short stories, poems and many flashes published both in print and online. You can find her stories in Voidspace Zine, Mythic Picnic, Literary Namjooning, FromOneLine, Disabled Tales and National Flash Fiction Day. When not writing, you can find Sarah travelling, somewhere in nature, or playing her clarinet. You can also find Sarah on Bluesky at @sarahoakeskraken32.bsky.social