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Rigor Mortis

Summary:

Maybe it wasn't a spine thing. Maybe it's a brain thing? That could be why he can't remember anything. Not even his own name at the moment. He knows it's important. Who he is. If someone found him here surely they'd be able to tell him his name. He doesn't want to die and not have someone know who he is.

Die?

That can't be right. He can't be dead. Dead people do not think. He is thinking a lot. Too much brain activity going on to be a corpse.

But...

He can't move.
---

Aka William just died and he's having a little trouble getting up. And remembering who he is.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1: He Can't Move

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

He can't move.

That's the first thing he notices. He feels so stiff. He can hear birds. He can see the night sky through the trees. He can see a cliff above him.

His eyes hurt. Like they've been open for way too long. But he cannot move. Everything is so tense.

He can distantly feel that he is hurt. But it doesn't feel as intense as it should. He knows it should hurt a lot more than it does. He knows what...

He doesn't. He doesn't know what happened to cause this. He doesn't even know what this is.

He cannot move.

His mind is slow. Thoughts aren't coming as fast as they usually do. At least he thinks that. He feels like things used to go faster. But right here, right now. Things are unbelievably slow.

Birds fly around. Deer pass by. Even two wolves hang around for god knows how long.

And he cannot move.

He uses this time to think. He needs to think. He's good at thinking. Or so he thinks.

He cannot move. So something must have happened. The cliff above him looks high enough that it could seriously hurt to fall off of. So that is what must have happened. He fell.

And now he can't move.

Why? Why can't he move? If this was some spinal injury shouldn't he be able to move something? His face at the very least? He can't even close his eyes.

Maybe it wasn't a spine thing. Maybe it's a brain thing? That could be why he can't remember anything. Not even his own name at the moment. He knows it's important. Who he is. If someone found him here surely they'd be able to tell him his name. He doesn't want to die and not have someone know who he is.

Die?

That can't be right. He can't be dead. Dead people do not think. He is thinking a lot. Too much brain activity going on to be a corpse.

But...

He can't move.

He feels stiff. Like all of his muscles have closed up. Locking into place.

He can't move.

He knows what the stages of decomposition are. Why would he need to know that? Why did he research that?

He can't move.

Rigor mortis. Stiffness of death. Occurs 1-6 hours after death. Usually around the 2-4 hour point. It's cold. He can feel that. It's dry. He can feel that too.

He can't move

It likely would be on the 4-6 hour timeframe in these conditions. If this is rigor mortis then he could be stuck here for days.

He can't move.

He has to get up. This can't be right. If he just gets up he can prove that he's not dead. Prove that he's okay. He just has to-

He can't move.

He wants to get up. He has to. He needs to. He has to be okay. Tears manage to escape his eyes.

He can't move.

He can see the sun starting to rise.

He can't move.

No matter what he tries he just can't make it happen.

The wolves come back. They are sniffing around him. It feels weird for them to touch his skin.

One of them grabs his sleeve and starts pulling it. And he'd end up rolled over on his side. It's painful. His arm feels horrible to lay on.

And he still can't move.

The wolves leave after poking at him more. He uses his new vantage point to look into the woods around himself. They are dark and he feels uneasy being so... Unguarded near them.

And yet... They beckon him to come closer. Investigate the mysteries that lie in wait.

The woods are taunting him.

He cannot move.

The shadows look to be cast from directly overhead now. And he feels like he's going insane staring into the woods. He could almost swear he is seeing things. Little balls of blue. A shadowy figure.

They both watch him. Amused. Anxious. Excited.

Waiting for something to happen.

And yet he still cannot move.

He stares at the blue. Trying to reach out. It feels safe. Warm. And he really needs that right now.

He's desperate. He needs to move. He needs to. He fell. He's dead. He needs to get up.

And then he feels it. The muscles in his face start to rest. And finally. He closes his eyes.

It's a weird feeling. Different than how it felt before. He's never felt his face be sore before. At least he thinks he doesn't.

But he can move. If only a little. So move he does. He moves his face a lot just because he can!

He keeps his eyes closed for a while. His eyes hurt a lot. Likely from being stuck open for so long.

When he opens them again the blue lights are closer. And the shadowy figure is farther away. Still watching. Still waiting. Waiting for him to get up.

Who even is he?

He can see that his hair is black. It's in his face a little. He can feel that it's not too long. He can see a flashlight near his hand. He likely dropped it on the way down.

He can see that he's wearing a hoodie. One that's been ripped up and repaired many times. So he's either accident prone or emo. And considering he fell off a cliff, he is going to go with accident prone.

He can't see much more about himself from this angle. He can't solve this. Not without more information. This is a mystery. He is the mystery. And he needs to solve it.

The sun would set by the time he moves his finger again for the first time

Slowly and steadily he'd regain motion in his arms. His legs follow suit shortly after. He's able to move himself upright, sitting as he finally is able to investigate his surroundings.

The blue lights are still off in the distance. still closer than the last time he looked at them. The shadow appears to be gone. He thinks that feels like a good thing.

He grabs the flashlight. It has 'W. Wisp' written on it with a sharpie.

That's likely his name. W. Wisp. Wyatt? No. That doesn't sound right. Walker? Nope absolutely not. Wren? No... Willy? William?

William. William Wisp. His name is William Wisp.

He has a family. They are likely looking for him.

William drags himself to a nearby tree and uses it to force himself to his feet. It takes a minute for him to steady himself. But when he does he sees one of the blue lights ahead of him. A wisp. All of the other ones have disappeared. Leaving only the wisp ahead of him.

It wants William to follow it.

William has nowhere else to go. So he does. Slowly making his way towards it.

The wisps zips around almost playfully. As it waits for William to catch up to it as it leads him through the dark and dense forest.

And eventually he starts to hear something off in the distance.

He musters up all of the energy he has and he runs towards it.

They are voices. Yelling out his name.

He doesn't even notice that the wisps have disappeared.

And then he sees someone. A woman. Brown hair. Round and kind features. She's short. And when she sees him she runs towards him, shouting his name. She sounds southern.

William runs towards her and she wraps her arms around him. "William I swear to the heavens above if you do this ever again I will- I..."

The hug feels so warm. Or maybe he feels so cold. Regardless he hugs her back tightly. "I'm sorry..." He says very quietly. Almost in a whisper.

"Don't apologize... We need to get you to a doctor. You are covered in blood... You can tell me what happened later just... We need to make sure you are okay."

He nods slightly but he doesn't let go of his mother. It's easy to remember that. She's his mother.

The next few days are a blur. But he pieces together his life again. The Unwitness Protection Program. His rocky relationship with his brother. It all comes back after a little prodding.

Annoyingly he can't remember what happened to lead him to his death. His friends in the Unwitness Protection Program say that he saw something off in the distance. But he never explained what it was.

It was probably a wisp. They probably led him to the cliff.

And now they won't leave him alone.

Before this he had only seen them occasionally. Heard rumors about wisps in the forest but now they are in his room. Bumping things over. Bumping into him. Bumping into each other.

That's not the only supernatural phenomenon though. It appears dying has caused him to become a phenomenon in his own right. Falling through objects and becoming invisible on accident is becoming his new norm.

Just the other day he didn't just fall through the floor, he fell out of his body. The wisps seemed really proud of that one. Even if it nearly killed everyone in the house when he accidentally ended up shooting blue fire out of his hands.

He doesn't like the wisp form.

That's what led to his parents getting into contact with WATCH. And now he's getting sent away to be on some super hero team. Put his powers to use or something.

He just hopes that this Prime Defenders thing can help him control all of... Everything that is going on. Even if he doesn't exactly like it, if he wants to figure this out, he figures that he is going to have to roll with it.

Notes:

Oop rip wiwi

My pd server- not specifically for rigor mortis, just for prime defenders!

https://discord.gg/j5bM2z2r6h