The Undoing

The Undoing is a slow and painful dissolution of the body. In its early stages, the victim begins to experience perceptual distortions, including strange visual spots, phantom sounds, and overwhelmingly noxious odors that no one else can detect. These sensations intensify until they become completely debilitating, casting the afflicted person into a state where they can barely interact with those around them. Many victims rush about in panic, overwhelmed by the horrific and intense sensations that assault their mind.

In the later stages, the body slowly begins to tear itself apart, but the life within is preserved. The skeleton starts to warp under the strain of the disease, while the skin peels away in long strips that litter the ground. The victim becomes incapable of sleeping or even losing consciousness, and screams constantly. Many caretakers try to put the sufferer out of their misery, only to discover that no wound or toxin can end their pain, and any attempt only increases it. Worse, the disease induces a strange psychic aura around the victim, sharply heightening the empathy response of anyone nearby. They feel the victim's pain in a visceral way but cannot bring themselves to abandon them. Entire communities can be paralyzed by a single case of the Undoing, unable to sleep, unable to flee, and unable to do anything to ease the suffering.

Death comes eventually, or at least something that cannot be distinguished from it. The victim's body slowly dissolves, each limb breaking apart into tiny flakes over the course of weeks. The plague sustains a form of life even after all vital organs have disintegrated. The screaming ends only when the neck collapses into shreds of wet flesh. The eyes keep moving until they turn to goo. In time, the entire body becomes a wet pile of refuse, and one can only pray that the soul has been released from those gory remains.