In Season 1, Episode 4 of Scott Savino’s Series of Grave Mistakes, a widower keeps his yearly appointment with a government-issued resurrection of his late husband: one night a year, in the barn where they were married.
â–º Notice: Everything by Scott Savino contains disturbing or unsettling content. It is the opinion of the Voidspire Audio Archivists he does this knowingly and on purpose. Discretion is always advised. âš S01E04 -- ContentWarnings
In 2076, death is no longer quite the end. Through the Neural Archivation Bureau, the departed can be Retrorevived. Their NeuroPrints are uploaded into a synthetic HUSK grown from their own stored tissue for a single evening each year during Federal Retrorevival Week. The government pamphlets call it a Furlough. Most people use theirs once, to say goodbye.
But Zayan has never been very good at goodbyes.
For ten years, Zayan has returned to the old barn where he married Jaxel. He hangs the same lanterns from their wedding night and waits for the man he lost to walk back through the door. This year, something is different. Jaxel remembers things that never happened. He loses time mid-sentence. And the dog-eared pamphlet in Zayan’s hands, unchanged for a decade, has a section for every possible complication except the one that matters most: knowing when to let go.
What begins as a bittersweet and often funny portrait of a marriage that refuses to end slowly unravels into something far darker. It becomes an exploration of grief, denial, guilt, and the comforting illusions we’re willing to pay for so we never have to stop believing.
This original short horror story blends science fiction horror, dystopian satire, psychological dread, and emotional horror into a devastating narrative about memory, love, and the cost of never saying goodbye.
â–º Transcript: https://scottsavino.com/revenance-furlough
â–º Written by Scott Savino, writer of LGBTQIA+ horror and weird fiction
----ðŸ”---scottsavino.com for archives, audio downloads, and suspicious whispers about his unsettling past. Follow Scott on: Facebook / Instagram / X / Reddit / YouTube / Tumblr / BlueSky / Amazon / Myspace / Discord / Snapchat / TikTok / Wattpad / Quora / ... you can find him everywhere and nowhere in particular. See his latest updates by visiting links.scottsavino.com
â–º Expertly narrated by ElevenLab's AI Engine
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