Story I Quit.

[AbsurdAbyss]

A person(call them X), late at night, walks into a cemetery. In a dream like state, they come across the first grave, a shadow rises from it, asks them who are you? X replies X, shadow says no, thats JUST your name. X tries all kinds of answers(work, status, family, relationships etc.), the shadow rejects every single one saying no, that's JUST it. this infuriates X, they say what exactly do u want me to say, what do you want from me? shadow says nobody cares anyway and vanishes. Angry and powerless, they move on, the second grave. Another shadow rises from it, lets out a crazy laugh, tells X to cheer up, IT CAN'T BE SO BAD. Initiates a conversation, forcibly engages X, who slowly but surely starts enjoying the conversation. Just as the conversation begins to get real interesting and X finally feels like they matter to somebody else, the shadow vanishes. this drives X to frustration, near insanity. X waits and waits. Nothing happens. The shadow's gone, forever a memory that never comes back. X moves on, comes to grave number 3. A third shadow rises. This one is melancholic. Only stares at X in silence. X stares back. With each passing second, the pull of melancholia gets stronger, X loses themselves in the lifelong experience of misery, loneliness, suffering that surrounds and possesses them. Suddenly, a jolt of lightning strikes X, snaps them back to the present. Confused, dazed, X stumbles upon the last grave. No shadow rises. An empty grave, with an epitaph : "For the weary soul who wants an end to all pain, lie here and bury yourself, safe and sound, forgotten to all but yourself." X lies down, and a shadow appears, burying them within. The next morning at a neglected edge of the city, in a remote, broken old house, alone, desolate, and utterly hopeless, X is found dead. They had been dead for over a year. The previous night two self proclaimed 'urban explorers with a penchant for horror' who stumbled upon this place had discovered their rotten, decayed corpse. The corpse lay in a posture indicating the person had been crying and in severe pain before death. There was no weapon around. No poisons found inside or near the body. No cause of death could be established - it was officially classified as death due to "unknown causes" and brushed away beneath a large set of files on unidentified Does. This shadow, X, vanished from the world, unnoticed, unseen, unheard, unfelt by existence.