Sundial

Sundial: story facts

Written by	LiquidDongorong
Published on Creepypasta.com	November 2026
Length	4,513 words · about 21 minutes to read
Story level	Long
Category	Religion and Spirituality

[RECOVERED ITEM 0417. Personal notebook of J. Désérable. Retrieved by the Second Expedition. Restricted to Appointed Personnel Only.]

I sit, peacefully, beneath what is somehow still, unmistakably, a maple tree, like the one in my mother’s photos. My legs do me no service anymore. My ribs feel like they are about to crack beneath the pressure of the roots.

I’m drenched in the shadows of wilting leaves. I’ve stopped counting the ones that fall.

My name is Jeannette Désérable. Most everyone called me Jean.

If you are reading this, turn back around. Le Soir is your last bastion of hope. The church is right about that. It’s the only thing they’re right about.

Stay underground. Keep your hope. Keep believing the walls will hold.

As for me, I want to account for my own record. Not the church’s sad little epitaph.

It was curiosity that started it all.

Dr. Dorian Droit, head scientist at Genese, opposed the Church of Lumière. He blamed High Priest Fontaine for Le Soir’s lack of education, Fontaine’s paranoia and power grabs destroying centuries of pre-war artifacts. Manuscripts, technologies, knowledge of what the world once was.

We, the people, grew restless. Fontaine would eventually cede. Give a little rope for Genese to hang themselves with.

It was a team of five, initially. Dorian as our lead. Accompanying him was Yoan Chevalier. I can’t say much about Yoan. He was ‘gifted’ to us by the Luminites to make sure we didn’t get into any trouble on the surface. What good he ended up being.

Sami Vidal was our field medic. A nurse in training, and devout atheist. I’d met them once before during one of Dorian’s seminars. They mostly kept to themselves, picking at the scabs they got from spitting at Luminite enforcers.

By some miracle, or perhaps through nepotism, my childhood best friend Laure Pascal was picked as a field researcher, same as me. We had parallel studies in school, hers being mycology whereas I focused on botany, often considered outdated and practically worthless.

The grass between my fingers proves them wrong.

They packed us with the bare essentials. A Geiger counter to alert us to dangerous pockets of radiation. Hazmat suits, standard. Kinetically charged flashlights. Rations. A pack of charges…we didn’t realize what it was for at the time, but my guess is to have a convenient ‘accident’ happen before we returned with good news.

Only a scattered few surrounded La Voûte that day. Curious passersby, on their way to their thirteen-hour shifts. Papa was among them. I placed a kiss on his cheek and wished him well. All he could do was listen to my echoing footsteps, hanging his head low. The heavy gears cranked, the steel door shifted, and I looked back at my home for the last time.

Maple trees are beautiful, no? Not only for the distinctive shape of their leaves, but the way that their seeds have tails. Tails that let them spin gracefully as they find their place in the earth.

They fall all around me now, twirling and twirling, like tops, coming to land on my waist. Sure, there’s four tails too many on them, and they sport a bizarre shade of purple, but they are still unmistakably maple seeds.

We ascended for days, according to Papa’s watch. Yoan didn’t make it.

We woke up from the sound of his screaming only to find his intestines being actively dragged into the darkness of the cave. I could barely make out the attackers in the light. Pale eyes, wormy noses, bucked teeth. They didn’t seem to appreciate the light much, and let us be.

The poor bastard’s supply bag had been thoroughly pilfered when we reached it. Sami took the chance to grab his pipe pistol. Dorian grabbed them by their collar and told them to haul ass.

The only other thing the creatures didn’t take was the charges. I grabbed a pack and ran with it.

Eighteen hours later, we came across a giant steel hatch, barred from our side. Rust crept at its corners. We knew it was meant to keep something out. Lingering radiation, according to Dorian, an artifact of some war fought centuries ago.

My insides churned. There was a saying Papa would tell me. ‘Like butterflies in the stomach.’ An old-world phrase, I’m sure. There are no butterflies in Le Soir.

Dorian scrambled for the Geiger counter. The hatch was only a few steps away.

Suddenly, one click.

The counter read zero. Dorian laughed.

I’d never seen him do it before.

Sami, who had been totally silent up until that point, handed him the wrench. It was still soaked in Yoan’s blood. It slipped from his trembling hands and splattered onto the ground. He picked it back up, and got to work.

The final bolt came loose, and with it, a mountain of soil.

Our suits helped filter the dust, but scent was another thing entirely. Among all the earthly delights of Le Soir, I’d never smelled anything quite like this new Earth. Foul. Alluring.

I carefully stepped through the rubble. Darker than I expected outside. Waning moonlight. Only myself and Laure had yet to take the step into the new world. I helped her get her footing after I found mine.

I turned my gaze to a brilliant sky. Auroras hung low, like fog, reactive to the touch. A sea of flickering lights in distant space. Stars? I imagined they’d be much brighter.

They are. If you’re close enough.

The landscape breathed in and out, Dorian said. How right he was. A noticeable dip and rise of the horizon. As though every step we took was atop a living being. Trees taller than any I had read about. Drooping canopies. Some stone walkways, hardly visible, overtaken by tall grass that stuck to our legs. I wiped the residue away from my suit as best as I could.

Laure’s eyes were wide as saucers. She gripped my hand and smiled ear-to-ear.

There was a gunshot then. Disoriented me for a second. Laure too. We blankly stared at one another, heads craning toward the source.

I remember Dorian tearing the weapon out of Sami’s hand.

Sami’s shoulders slumped during the whole lecture. As soon as Dorian went to set up his equipment, the act faded. Went right back to doing whatever it was they were planning on doing with the creature.

‘Creature,’ if you could even call it that. It appeared more like a pitcher plant, with a mossy shell and six legs ending on firm petals. Digestive ooze bubbled from the wound, its flowers began to rigidly splay. Dead as dead can be.

Their eyes flitted with light, seeing it.

I turned to Laure, who also appeared to be practicing the art of zoning it out. She carefully collected samples of the gooey dew that graced the grasses. Just a few drops in a few petri dishes. Pressed and sealed, packed away in her satchel.

The energy was a welcome change. We held a shared joy, marveling at the wonder of life.

“What do you make of it?” I asked.

“It’s incredible. Nothing like what our textbooks describe. Take a look at the blades.”

I crouched, pulling the thick grass from the earth. Holding it up to the moonlight. You could see hundreds of thousands of little veins working overtime to spread its nutrients throughout. Far too many. That, and the creature Sami dispatched…

The blade of grass, long as it was, slowly coiled around my arm.

An effect of the radiation?

I brushed it off, shaken, but not deterred. Laure gingerly placed it inside her satchel.

The tree above me rustles. More of the seeds fall. My pool of shade grows more shallow, and the roots further constrict my legs. I can feel them tunneling into my calves, my skin having given out minutes ago. I’ve gone numb to the pain.

We discovered the ruins of a large city square. Larger than I had ever imagined one could be. There was no obvious evidence, of course. No buildings. No skeletons, yet. Massive mounds of sand and limestone rubble.

The grounds were beset by the passage of time, I suppose.

However, what we did find were a few precious metals scattered about. Platinum chains with missing pendants. Gold coins, with faces etched into them, figures we did not recognize from our studies.

Soon enough we discovered a great tomb, a mausoleum for the dead far more complex than the inner workings of our most complicated machinery. It was in pristine condition, not a single crack. Nothing like the city above.

Couldn’t help but feel we were being watched the whole time.

Laure screamed at one turn. Down a lengthy corridor of skulls, we could barely make it out with our lights. Something akin to a large, stony tumor. I’d read about something similar in pre-war texts. They called it the Elephant’s Foot, and it could kill you just by standing near it for mere minutes.

But…was it supposed to move?

Slow, rippling motions, up and down its form. Like it was actively digesting something.

The Geiger counter still read zero.

Dorian ushered Laure back the way we came. I practically had to drag Sami out before their curiosity got the best of them.

So much time wasted.

It’s getting harder to breathe.

I wondered as a child what would happen when we die. Mama was very ill, so it was naturally on my mind a lot. According to the Luminites, there is a place good souls go to called Oasis. It is a utopian wellspring of riches and splendor, and all the food you can ever hope to eat.

Mama believed that if she worked hard enough in the excavations, that she would be helping the people of Le Soir toward the future. In return, she believed she’d earn a spot among the saints. Hah. I hope she is in good hands.

I hope your excavation is worth it, Fontaine.

Following the dried up riverbanks, we eventually happened upon a sizable enough cave to set up camp. Dorian said it would block any wind from disturbing us. Laure and I prepared the fire. Sami and Dorian set up tents on opposite sides from one another.

Sami kept the damned creature. The one they shot, dangling from their utility belt like a headhunter’s trophy. It now lay in front of us. Its inner ooze had dried up into a crust.

Dorian tried to explain it rationally. Three hundred years, natural selection, high mutation rates.

Laure cut him off. She hadn’t spoken much since the tomb.

“Radiation gives you tumors. It destroys. You of all people should know that.”

“We do not know the extent of the war.” Dorian said. “It has been three centuries, all-out, apocalyptic,”

“That’s nothing. This is…”

Laure opened her satchel, bringing out her ‘microscope.’ Built from scratch, out of scrap metal and two lenses she’d traded Papa for after he’d gone blind.

She set it down on a flat stone, scraping a piece off the creature’s shell. I helped with my light.

Laure took a moment, then moved aside so I could see.

I knew the tissue well enough myself. Cells built like bricks, stacked in rows, walled in one by one. But between them, in a few odd clusters, round ones. Soft edges, no walls.

“Animal cells,” Laure said.

“It’s carnivorous,” Sami said. “Probably just ate something before I shot it.”

Laure didn’t respond, merely reaching for her petri dishes next. After another moment of observation, she completely froze.

“Laure?” I asked.

“It’s all animal cells,” she gasped. “The dew is alive, it’s all one organism, it’s moving—”

“Preposterous,” Dorian said.

“See for yourself.” I gestured to the microscope.

Dorian obliged, and after about two seconds of consideration he wrote it off as nothing more than it being ‘like pond water.’

Laure’s nostrils flared, but she didn’t say another word, packing her things and relegating herself to her tent.

“Putain, Dorian,” I said. “What was wrong with what she saw?”

Dorian didn’t give me much of a response. He sat fireside, cleaning his dusty visor off.

“I am merely trying to keep us from panicking, Miss Désérable.”

“But this is the mission, isn’t it? To see what’s out here, to know if we can come out again.”

“Yes.”

Something about his voice there. I remember it quivering.

“I do not like it out here. Whatever this is, I am afraid of it. Our textbooks were completely wrong about the building blocks of our universe.”

Also read: Shall Not Suffer a Witch to Live

Dorian turned to me, lightly grabbing me by the arm.

“We need to go home. At first light. Something is terribly wrong with this place.”

The fire burned, slowly fizzling out. Dorian snuffed it with dirt and went to his tent. I went to mine. Sami stayed outside with the creature for a few odd minutes before eventually returning to theirs.

In my tent I wound Papa’s watch. I swear it had jumped ahead a few hours faster than we’d been out.

I fell asleep dreaming of Oasis.

What happens when you die?

I think the Earth just swallows you up, soul and all.

The next thing I remember is Dorian shaking me awake. He told me to hurry outside.

It was bright outside. Brighter than anything I’d ever experienced. I was stunned for a few seconds as my eyes had to adjust. Thank the heavens for our visors.

There was a grisly scene before us. Sami’s tent, closest to the edge of the cave, had completely withered away. I could see one of their legs sticking out, basking in the sunlight. The suit had been completely compromised. Their leg sported numerous gory growths. A set of teeth, gnashing. Pores that opened and closed like mouths as well. Or maybe they were suction cups, trying to stick onto the nearest surface.

A rancid smell filled our noses. Laure, standing nearby, puked inside her suit. The inner filtration unit made sure she didn’t drown in it.

Dorian called Sami’s name. No response. He wouldn’t budge an inch past that. I could see it in his eyes. He wasn’t ready to face reality.

Suppose it had to be me then. I approached, careful with each step. Thoughts raced. Had we been infected somehow? Had something slipped into our suits? But then what about the tent?

I reached for the tent’s door flaps when a hand shot out, grabbing me by the wrist.

“Careful,” Sami giggled. “See?”

They pointed at their leg. The sun continued its rise in the east. More leg was exposed to the light. What little suit was there rapidly decayed, then Sami’s skin. It stiffened, wrinkled, hairs grew and fizzled away. Discolored splotches bloomed like flowers, and as it melted away, there were scales and eyes and spines growing beneath.

I tore my hand free of Sami’s. They reached out to poke their opening sores with Yoan’s wrench. It was corroded to the point that pieces crumbled with a touch.

“You think this is bad? You should’ve seen Yoan. Grisly shit.”

I could feel my jaw clench. Tunnel vision. What was happening?

“You were supposed to be on watch,” I said as calmly as I could.

“Oh, right. Yeah. I mighta dozed off. Does it really matter at this point?” Sami asked. They tossed Yoan’s wrench away, sticking their arm into the light now. “We’re all going to be born again, come afternoon.”

I’d taken a few steps back at this point, bumping into Dorian. He was stiff as a board, and I could see why, his firearm raised, pointed at Sami’s head.

Sami frowned.

“Yeesh. Can’t you just let me have th—”

Their head hit the ground with a thud. My ears rang for a good few minutes. Dorian turned to me and shouted something. Not a word registered. He pointed to Laure, and jerked his thumb toward the back of the cave, where the shadows were deepest.

We did as we were told.

Looking back, Sami didn’t stop moving. Another arm flopped over into the sunlight, beginning its transformation. It dragged the rest of their body out. They cackled as the bullet wound in their head split wider, and wider, and wider, until their entire upper half was one giant jaw. Teeth the size of axes burst from their gums.

It was stumbling towards us now, one arm like a crab-claw scythe ready to take our heads off.

Dorian dumped three of his remaining rounds into the monster. It did nothing but create new orifices for teeth to come out of.

He screamed something at us.

The cave didn’t go any deeper. Shallow as a bowl of porridge.

The only tools I had were the charges in my hand.

I grabbed Laure by the wrist and retreated into the shadows, sparking one of the charges against my boot. The creature roared and charged. I didn’t hesitate to throw the bomb right into its ugly gullet.

Pieces of Sami were blown all across the dark recesses of the cave. A lucky few landed back outside in the sun, but were too small to be of any real threat. For now. The ones on our turf, we stomped out.

Then the ceiling collapsed. The three of us jumped back to avoid it. Only a little bit of shade on our side, now.

I checked my satchel for charges. Four left. If anything else came for us, they’d suffice.

What we had in front of us was a relatively thin slab of stone. Its edges were close enough to the shade for us to reach. I gestured for the others to help me pull it into the remaining darkness. It must have weighed around a hundred kilograms. Dorian complained about the haul. Threw out his back, apparently.

We carried it on our backs, walking carefully in the direction we came from. It thankfully did not take long to find alternatives. The jungle outside was rapidly growing dense overhead. We ditched the slab and picked up the pace.

The pieces of Sami, or whatever they had become, did not remain still beneath the sun. They writhed, pulled themselves together, formed new organisms with the life around them. What little conscience Sami had must have thought they were still part of the team, because they would not leave us the hell alone.

Laure checked her compass. It was easier to navigate in the evening. Unfortunately we hadn’t the time to wait it out now. Judging by the sounds around us, the entire ecosystem had just woken up.

We stumbled back onto the cracked stone of the city, making a beeline toward the mausoleum’s entrance. We rigged two charges with some vines we snagged to blow when tripped. It would cost us one exit, but judging by the size of the catacombs, there were sure to be multiple.

The sunlight has reached Papa’s watch. I’m watching it corrode away, the little hands spinning round and round on overdrive. The glass is cracking, splitting away. Tendrils of grass threaten to drag it beneath the alien soil.

Our only way through the catacombs was past the ‘Elephant’s Foot.’ That we determined earlier. We heard a big boom behind us, and knew that Sami was coming.

Two charges left. I needed at least one for the endgame.

We took no chances, lighting one up and tossing it at the behemoth. Hoping it didn’t birth something far worse.

It didn’t (beyond a rotten smell).

I laughed. So did Dorian. I turned to Laure to share the moment. She wasn’t laughing.

Her eyes had rolled back. Foam at the corners of her mouth. Body convulsing, paralyzed standing.

Dorian and I helped her to the ground. I immediately noticed the hole in the sole of her boot. Putain, Sami. She’d been infected.

I heard the click of a gun. Dorian was already set to put her out of her misery. I pleaded with him not to. I shook Laure’s shoulders. Her eyes rolled just enough to meet mine for a moment.

Fear.

I flinched as Dorian pulled the trigger.

All of it’s a blur past that. Of course her body continued to convulse after the shot. Of course, a horde of snake-like vines started spraying from the blasted Elephant’s Foot. Of course Dorian dragged me away, and we ran like trapped vermin. I’m not going to pretend I know what was happening with that.

When we were children, Laure gave me a tour of her parents’ plant in the industry sector. It’s where most of the city’s food happened to be processed. Her family found it convenient a long time ago to breed bugs and certain branches of mycelium to create meal supplements for the bunkering masses.

I remember her telling me she wanted to help feed the whole wide world when she grew up. I was a little too smart for my age, and broke it to her that there was no world left, according to science. She bawled for a good while until her parents produced some candied crickets and a cheap white lie.

She never deserved to be in this position. Maybe that’s why I could forgive Dorian.

I’m not sure how we made it out. I’m not sure how we found our way back. Perhaps it was the great square, where once I’m sure there were plenty of souls pacing about, living their perfect lives, worrying about all the wrong things.

Sorry. I don’t have time to lecture you. I suppose I’ve just grown a bit more…reflective, in these moments.

There was a light at the end of the skeletal tunnels. A quick peek, with a borrowed coffin lid above our heads, and we confirmed it. Miraculously near to where we first emerged. The old hatch, dressed in blessed shadow. Growing above it, unmistakable, a mutant maple.

It was a two-hundred meter dash from our new vantage point. The coffin was deteriorating rapidly. We’d have to make a decision fast here.

Behind us, I could hear Laure calling our names. Or perhaps it was Sami, taunting us.

That helped the decision-making process along. Dorian and I both positioned the lid to protect us as best as it could from the sun. Some parts of our suits were going to be exposed, inevitably, but it was our best shot. A one-minute run, I’d wager. How much damage would be done in one minute?

Dorian was silently speaking to himself, making gestures across his chest. I recognized them well enough. The protective signature of the Luminites.

A horrible noise behind us. Still recognizably them, but so, so garbled. The tendrils snaked their way up the steps behind us. I took the lead, shoving us forward.

As soon as we were under the light, even just the small bits of us that were exposed, I had that feeling of being watched again. But watched by something much more. It watched, and it saw me, and it judged.

Our upper bodies were well protected, but our legs were no good with how the coffin was positioned. Dorian knew that, as he was forcibly sliding his half of the coffin downward, my way. Trying to give my legs more coverage before my suit wore out. Oh, I knew exactly what he was doing. I hated him for doing it. Leaving me to die alone.

But maybe that isn’t the case. As these roots continue to consume me, as the sun creeps closer around the corner, I feel more at peace with it all. Nature, the Earth, the cosmos. I feel my mind wander to places I had never once considered. I feel my mind wander often. I don’t recognize the places it is beginning to go.

Dorian collapsed behind me, giving in to the sun. His arms splayed wide into the air. At peace with his god. Tendrils enveloped him, dragging him into the emerging leviathan. I had full coffin protection now, but for how long? It was chipping away with each step. And with each step, it was clear that the beast was much, much faster than me.

Even if I made it into the cave, I was dead.

I’m not really sure what I was thinking. I guess I just wanted to go out on my own terms. Or maybe I was hoping for some ill-fated attempt at protecting you folks from the surface.

Rather than go straight for the entrance, I climbed the hill surrounding it. I took refuge beneath the maple tree, and held the charge high above my head.

I called to the beast. I demanded to know if it understood me. It hesitated, hearing my roar. All seventeen of its eyes locked onto me. A few shifted toward the cave. One hand from the amalgam took a step towards it. I threatened with the charge. It retreated.

“Leave!” I said. “Haven’t you had enough?! Leave!”

“Jean,” it said.

I noticed a few of its limbs all pointing in one direction; towards me. More specifically, towards my left foot, which had been exposed to the sun for quite some time at this point. I was fusing with the roots of the maple. I yanked, trying to free myself, and horrifically, the foot came clean off. Blood spewed from the stump, thicker than normal. I fell back, against the tree, my belongings scattering around me.

The sun was beating down hard on the creature. Its rapidly evolving form was beginning to undo itself. Organs pushed beyond their limits reduced to sludge. Limbs that extended too far grew droopy and rubber-like.

It, too, was dying.

“Jean,” it said again.

It looked tired.

“Let’s go home, Jean.”

My heart raced. Butterflies in the stomach. I shook my head.

“We can’t go home anymore.”

The creature continued staring. Waiting for me to give it an answer.

Retaining eye contact, I offered the charge. I think a part of it understood. Maybe Dorian’s big brain gave it a bit of a conscience right before the end. It made a striking motion with a few of its borrowed arms.

With an underhand toss, I threw it over. It caught the explosive, and stumbled deep into the cave.

It wasn’t until a few minutes ago that I actually felt the boom. Hopefully enough to trigger a cave-in.

Hah. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it through that whole story. The shade is quickly retreating. My body is being covered. I try not to look at what I am becoming.

I’m burying this notebook beside myself, in hopes that if they’re foolish enough to send more, they will find it and turn back.

As for myself, I hope my ‘contribution’ to the Earth provides just a little more shade for the shelter door. For Le Soir.

I wish I could see those distant stars one last time. Under them, I did not feel so exposed.

[Archivist’s Note: Recommend extra security for our third expedition for those supposed ‘mole people’ on the ascent.]

Credit: LiquidDongorong

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