A Brand New Mushroom

At first, it looked like any other toadstool.

White-spotted, red-capped, a textbook Amanita muscaria. The kind you weren’t supposed to touch, let alone eat. But it stood so perfectly upright on the mossy ridge, shining with morning dew, as if someone had placed it there just for her.

Ivy bent closer. The forest air was still. Too still. She could hear her own breath—slow, curious, shallow.

She had read the warnings. The hallucinations. The sickness. The folklore. But something about this one was different. Fresher. More vivid. Almost... breathing.

She picked it. Her fingers tingled.

One bite, just one. That’s what she told herself.

The taste was bitter, chalky, and sweet beneath the skin. She didn’t swallow the whole thing. She didn’t have to.

The walk home was foggy. Not because of the forest. Because of her.

She laughed at things that weren’t funny. Forgot the names of objects mid-sentence. Saw faces in tree bark, eyes in puddles, mouths in leaves.

By nightfall, she could feel her skin itching. It started on her arms, then her neck. Tiny white bumps, like warts, but too round. Too smooth.

By morning, they had multiplied. Dozens, then hundreds, no larger than pinheads. They didn’t hurt, not at first. They just... existed. Quiet, waiting.

She wore long sleeves. Cancelled plans. Told no one.

By the third day, the bumps had opened. Hollow, pale cores with soft rims. Breathing.

She stood in front of the mirror, pulled up her shirt, and saw movement beneath the skin. Like seeds shifting in soil.

When she touched one, it pulsed.

That night, her temperature dropped.

She no longer felt hunger. Or fear. Or sleep.

She sat upright in bed, watching shadows move along the ceiling. Listening. Feeling the spore-web deepen.

She remembered the sound the mushroom made when she plucked it.
A soft pop, wet and final. And now, deep inside her chest, she could feel it again.

Another pop. Then another.

She didn’t scream. She didn’t move.

She only smiled.

The mushrooms were growing.

And she was becoming a brand new one.

                                                                                                                                                                                                             ~D.G