Kayley Roach is a 14-year old writer who participated in the Summer 2023 Elemental Writing Challenge in which she wrote a 5,000 word original short story this summer. Kayley’s contemporary romance follows the character, Kay, a high school senior preparing to graduate. Kay’s anxiety about the future manifests into strange mystical sensations amplified by the growing tension with her friend, Skye, who claims that Kay’s boyfriend cannot be trusted.
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11:58am – After School
Sometimes, I wish I was a whole different person. I mean, I never really did ask to be who I am. All I know is that I was magically here one day and I’ve been living my life like this ever since.
I guess I decided not to do what I wanted and stay in bed till noon, but I guess I had to be there, you know. To say goodbye. If it weren’t for my best friend convincing me to come, I’d never have realized why I was being asked to come.
If only I had stayed home… in my warm bed, writing my stories at home. But no. Instead, Ihadto go to school, even though it was only for two and a half hours. What was the point? Was the last day of school reallythat important? All I knew was that I didn’t want to go back… Ever.
Isaac McKinnie is a twelve-year old writer who participated in the 2022 Seafarer’s Writing Challenge in which he wrote a 5,000 word original short story this summer. Isaac’s sci-fi thriller involves a young motorcyclist participating in a race that takes a drastic and traitorous detour.
Read the full story below!
Roads are dull. There is no other way to describe them. They are just slabs of concrete shaped to make a meaningless line. However, roads are even more mind-numbing when no one is using them. On these occasions it almost hurts to see a sight so boring. Luckily for the road next the small harbor in Winfred, Sasnak, this was hardly ever the case; and today was no exception. If someone had been counting how many cars had passed through, they would have lost count in the first ten seconds.
Yet, in all the hustle and bustle of this road, one vehicle stood out. It was a motorcycle, a Hoss Boss to be exact. Its black body paint glistened like obsidian in the early afternoon sun. The beautiful Hoss Boss sped down the (still dull) road with the same amount of importance as King Arthur and his own steed would have. The driver was unfortunately neither wearing a helmet nor taking any safety precautions at all. You might say that he was not very smart. If you did, I would commend you for being smarter than him. However, he seemed to prefer riding without any safety measures. Dylan (for that was the name of the motorcycle rider) laughed as the salty sea wind blew back his black hair and lifted the smell of the ocean to his nostrils. After he finished admiring the view, he revved the engine and sped off. As he rode, he decided to take a route he had not taken yet before going to the meeting place. He sped and then took a random turn. This was what excited him about motorcycling the most: the constant adrenaline, the rush of fear when he took a sharp turn, and the idea that anything might happen. He wove his way around the roads until he finally found his way to the meeting place. There it was––an abandoned warehouse. Now, this warehouse might look like any other abandoned warehouse. But if you went inside and walked through the abandoned warehouse you would find a tear in the wall. If you squeezed through that tear, you would see a small shed. It was there that Dylan met up with his friends.
Layla Mendoza is a twelve-year old writer who participated in the 2022 Seafarer’s Writing Challenge in which she wrote a 5,000 word original short story this summer. Layla’s nautical adventure tells the swashbuckling tale of Captain Howe and the spell that changes his life.
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There really was no explanation as to how Captain Howe’s vessel had ended up in the Pacific Ocean. He could have sworn that they were going to stay in the Atlantic waters, but nooooooo, they just had to end up in the Pacific Ocean, and right by the Ring of Fire, too, if he had read his maps correctly.
“Uh, Cap’n’?”
“WHAT?” Captain Howe shouted, banging one pudgy fist down on the wooden table where he was sitting. Maps and books that had been on the edge of the table fell to the floor, and his Cartographer, the one who had spoken, slumped a bit lower in his seat.
“Uh, um, just that, we- ah- seem to be getting fairly close to some active volcanoes that are part of the Ring of Fire, if I’m right about where we are on the map. We aren’t exactly headed directly towards a volcano, but we might pass by one. But,” he shrugged his shoulders, “If you don’t want to take precautions-”
“No, no,” Captain Howe said gruffly. “Do take precautions. Try to alter our course so that we don’t have the chance of getting blown up by a volcano.”
Olivia is a 15 year old writer who has participated in many of the library’s writing challenges, including last summer’s Voyager Writing Challenge and this spring’s Bad Guy Writing Challenge. Red Strings is the sequel to Olivia’s first short story, Neutral Zone, and dives deeper into the motivations of the tormented villain, Vic!
Vick can admit that he is not the best person,
but he certainly is not stupid. He knew the oblivious, helpless person he and
Terrace quite literally stumbled upon was not to be killed. He may want the end
of the AWs, Alternate Worlds, but he is not that evil.
“You brought us here anyway,” Vick accused. The
first AW was not his ideal battle terrain, mostly because anything multiverse
travelers, like himself, killed there killed its counterpart everywhere else.
“No I didn’t! You did!” Terrace yelled back up
at Vick. Vick smirked. Even if he was not suspended on a swing, he was still
taller than the short creator.
“I don’t
recall ever thinking to put myself at a disadvantage.” Vick was not happy. He
lowered himself to the ground. He stared directly into Terrace’s ever changing
eyes.
“It’s not like you don’t make mistakes,” Terrace
said. “We’re both human, Vick.”
“Human, huh?” Vick spat at him. The red markings
wrapped around his arms glowed with a fiery intensity. Vick scowled at Terrace.
He felt his familiar red strings flow down from the marks to his hands. He shot
them toward part of the back porch. The strings wrapped themselves around the
poor porch and paused. He shot Terrace a crazed grin. “What part of me is
human?”
He gripped his hand into a fist. He swung his
arm at Terrace as if he was throwing a shot-put. The strings strained and
yanked the porch out of the ground. In a blur of wood, the porch was on a
direct course toward Terrace. It landed with a huge Crash!and…
missed
Terrace. Vick knew that would happen, but was not in the mood. Terrace had
teleported over to the fence gate.
“Missed me!”
Terrace teased. Vick was fuming. He angrily directed his strings toward the
nearest fence post, tore it out of the ground, and threw it at Terrace. He
could not care less if he killed anyone else, he just wanted to wipe off
Terrace’s smug grin.
He retreated his strings. Though he really
wanted to make sure Terrace was at least scared, he did not want to stick
around longer. Let Terrace take care of his ownbusinesshe
thought, teleporting away from the destroyed yard.
Now, one may expect Vick to have some sort of huge base where he would
monitor the whole multiverse. That is not the case. Because of the
stereotypical villain, Vick’s “base” is in a small cabin in AW 27, another
“magic filled” AW.
Vick’s teleportation destination landed him in
the kitchen of said cabin. He took a peek in the fridge for anything that
looked edible. Believe it or not, destroying useless worlds worked up an
appetite. Vick took the leftover pancakes from breakfast and closed the fridge.
“Back already?” Vick heard someone say from the
living room.
“Not like you’ve been anywhere,” Vick grumbled.
“Dumb creator teleported the both of us to the original. I gave him a bit of a
job to fix.” Vick heard laughter. He made his way to the living room and found
the new(ish) recruit, dressed in all black, playing with a knife.
“The original’s found out, huh?” Blood laughed.
“Yep. Scared the kid out of his skin. You should
have seen it, turned him white on the spot.” Vick started gnawing on one of the
pancakes.
“My turn?” Blood asked excitedly, his eyes
flashing red as if to seal his intentions.
“Go aheath,” Vick said, half a pancake dangling
out of his mouth. “Whehe’s Lethon?”
“Lendon’s probably in his room,” Blood answered.
“Later!” Blood teleported out of the room.
Vick finished his pancakes and sighed. Blood
joined them —that is, the team— about two years ago. Vick never thought about
time because it did not mean much for a multiverse traveler like himself. It
changes too much from AW to AW that Vick just stopped caring.
Vick never asked Blood why he joined the team,
but Blood always seemed to know where Terrace and Cerulean were. Vick just went
with it. He was sure Lendon knew —he was the head of the team and he knew just
about everything about each of them.
Lendon was originally from AW 17, which also had
magic. Vick does not know much about his origin either, but does know Lendon is
pretty powerful. Vick has seen him
level a city in seconds. He has also fought
Terrace and Cerulean to a stalemate, which Vick has yet to do. Vick is not
patient enough for it.
“Yo, Vick!” yelled someone. Vick snapped himself
out of his thoughts and looked up. He saw another member of the team. He wore a
blood red sweater and black jeans. He stared at Vick with his cyan eyes burning
through his shaggy black hair.
“What do you want, Dultin?” Vick grumbled.
Dultin took playful offense as he flopped on the
couch next to Vick. “Why do you always assume I want something whenever I talk
to you?”
“Because you
do.” The day before, Dultin asked Vick to help him find one of his guns. Dultin
claimed it was his “favorite” and “couldn’t live without it.” They almost got
caught by the police in five different AWs and Vick came home sore.
Dultin came from AW 30. His father was a police
officer and taught Dultin everything about guns. Dultin said it was his
“calling” whenever he told the story. He claimed he brought a gun to “show and
tell” in Kindergarten and accidentally shot and killed one of his classmates.
Vick was wary about the credibility of the story, but did not put it past him
to do so.
“Okay, you got me,” Dultin said, raising his
hands up as if he was getting arrested. “I only want to know where Blood is.”
Vick forgot that Blood and Dultin had bonded over the past two years.
“Fine.” Vick closed his eyes and searched the
entire multiverse for Blood. Luckily, he had a good idea about where he was.
“Upmost. AW 10.” Dultin was stood up to leave. Vick grabbed his arm. “Let him
be for a bit. He’s playing with the original.”
Dultin seemed to understand and sat back down.
~~~~~~~~~
Blood did not come back in the next hours.
Vick started
assuming the worst. He could barely think, mostly because Dultin was constantly
assembling and taking apart one of his handguns. Vick grew tired of the
constant clinking of metal. He stood up.
“Fine!” he groaned. “We’ll look for him. Get
your things. I have a trap.”
Dultin shot up, giddy to leave. “You think it’ll
work? It’s about 11 pm original time.”
“It definitely will. Terrace wouldn’t miss.”
Vick opened a portal. “Come on.” Dultin hopped into the portal as Vick
followed, sealing the portal after entering the location.
They ended up in a field surrounded by forest.
The clearing was almost miraculous.
Occasional dandelions popped up every once and
awhile. It was about noon in that AW.
“You’ve never seen me destroy an entire world,
have you?” Vick asked Dultin. Dultin shook his head no. “Well, today’s your
lucky day.” Vick’s markings glowed blood red. Vick knelt on the ground and put
both hands on the grassy field. He again felt his strings flow into his hands,
but this time they slipped out and into the ground like worms. Vick got up.
“The trap’s set.”
“What did you do?” Dultin asked with genuine
curiosity.
“Each world has a ‘soul,’ so to speak,” Vick
explained. “My strings can locate and destroy that ‘soul,’ leaving the world to
rot and disappear. The process takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Quick and
efficient. The only flaw is that Terrace can sense when my strings are close to
the ‘soul’ and can get rid of them the same way I distribute them. That is our
opening.”
“Which world is this, anyway?” Dultin asked,
loading a pistol with one of his homemade bullets.
“AW 2,102,” Vick replied. He rolled his eyes.
“There’s too much of the same trash.”
“Darn right.” Dultin laughed.
The pair of delinquents were treated to a bright
flash of light. When the light diminished, Vick saw four silhouettes. Two
obviously belonged to Terrace and Cerulean. The third was the original, Vick
figured. Vick could not figure out who the fourth was. He seemed to be part of
Cerulean’s shadow, dressed in all black as he was.
Then he caught sight of his face. Vick stared at
him, a spike of disbelief shooting through his insides. He wondered what
happened in the last few hours that caused this.
Dultin started laughing. The laugh turned dry,
shooting imaginary daggers into their adversaries. “Yes, Vick, the trap
worked,” he said. He directed his now loaded gun at the “shadow.” “Alas, it
worked too well. We caught a ghost, and now it’s time to dispose of him.”
Dultin’s smile turned toxic. “Goodbye Blood.”
Dultin loaded and fired his pistol in half a second, aiming it directly at
Blood. There was no time for Blood to dodge. Better
offwithout himVick
thought.
A mind-numbing screech of metal was heard. Blood
had decided to deflect the bullet, using a knife to cut the bullet before it
hit him. The two pieces of the bullet fell harmlessly on either side of him.
Sadly, the pieces did not hit anyone else.
Vick
did not waste time. Arms glowing, he sent his strings toward Terrace and
Cerulean. They wrapped around their necks, daring to choke them to death. Vick
pulled and their eyes grew wide with fear. They started choking and clawed at
the strings to try to get air.
They were cut free soon after. Vick glared at
Blood, who had freed them. Vick redirected his attention to Terrace. The short
creator had eyed him and was holding his paintbrushes. “You got the other
three?” Vick half asked Dultin.
“Can’t wait to kill that traitor,” Dultin
hissed.
“Just don’t kill Derick.” Dultin scoffed. Vick
could not worry about that. He had to keep Terrace from saving the AW. And he
had a great idea. In the long time that he and Terrace have been fighting, he
knew he put others as more important than himself. That was his flaw. Vick
wondered if Terrace would ever learn after being exploited so much.
Vick’s
strings shot toward Derick. The “poor kid” did not know what hit him. Vick
pinned Derick’s arms to his sides and suspended him in the air. Vick shot
Dultin a look. Dultin smiled, pointed another one of his “special” guns at
Derick, and fired.
Terrace looked terrified. He froze and looked up
at Derick in disbelief. Cerulean displayed similar emotions —even crying, to
Vick’s delight. Blood just stared at Dultin. The gaze held back a hurricane of
emotions, ready to be unleashed.
Vick watched as Blood almost doubled over,
clutching his side as if he had taken the bullet. Vick smirked. “Dultin, what
was in the bullet?” he asked playfully, getting everyone’s attention.
“Well!” Dultin responded excitedly. “That was
one of my special concoctions! It locates magical bonds in the recipient and
exploits the connection!” Dultin stared at Blood. “I wanted to use it on
Cerulean, but you —you lying traitor— deserved it more.”
Derick started coughing. He was struggling to
get out of the strings, but to no avail. Vick only tightened his bindings.
Derick was staring at the ground in fear. “C-Cerulean? Why’s the ground red?”
Cerulean and Terrace gave him a terrified look.
Vick smirked. “Looks like someone forgot why
they were here. Forgetful creator,” he teased Terrace while shaking his head.
Vick turned his attention to Derick and shot him a crazed smile. “That’s what a
world looks like before it’s destroyed. Terrace was being slow, as always.” He
nodded at Dultin. “Hope you all enjoyed your little late night expedition. I
sure did.”
“Burn…in…hell,” Blood said, still holding
his side in pain. “You know…you didn’t.”
Dultin’s instinctual course of action was to
shoot Blood with another one of the special bullets. The bullet passed through
Blood’s head without spilling any blood. Derick let out a strained yelp in
pain. Vick dropped the now passed out kid from his strings. Terrace ran to
catch the kid in time and, unfortunately, did. Vick almost signaled Dultin to
leave when Cerulean also dropped. This shocked Vick. Any new connections like
that shine like a beacon to Vick. That
connection is nowhere near newhe
realized.
He motioned at Dultin that it was time to leave.
They both teleported out of there, just as the ground started collapsing. They
arrived back at their base and just… stood in the living room.
“That traitor!” Dultin yelled, kicking over the
living room couch. “I swear, I’m going to kill him after ghosting us like
that!”
Vick was also mad. Blood was the last person he
saw deserting and flipping sides. Honestly, he thought that if Dultin ever had
therapy, he would be first. Dultin did what he did because he thought it was
fun. Vick always saw that as a poor reason, so he always thought Dultin would
desert.
He, Lendon, and Blood all had solid reasons, he
assumed. As already mentioned, he did not know much about either of the two,
but he pieced together that Blood has something against Cerulean. Vick did not
know what, but after what happened with the bullets, he knew it was deep.
Lendon was still a mystery. Vick had no idea of
how he even got so powerful in the first place. He just remembers when Lendon
recruited him to his team. Vick could feel his power. It emanated from him like
a radio signal that Vick could pick up and listen to. He remembered feeling
uneasy as his fierce orange eyes stared into him as he spoke.
Vick was
snapped back into reality as Dultin toppled the couch again. He was still angry
about Blood. Dultin stormed off to his room. Vick figured he should go to his
room also. He thought about telling Lendon, but Vick had a feeling he already
knew.
Vick went up the staircase in the back of the
room toward his room. It was the first door on the right. He opened the door to
his bland room. He never bothered to decorate. He didn’t like clutter, and
didn’t see any reason in doing so. He wasn’t in his room much anyway.
He was, however, exhausted. He plopped on his
bed and went out like a light.
He
was in a white and black area. He didn’t bother looking around. He knew where
he was. The landscape swirled with the white and black colors, but nothing else
could be seen. He also knew that. He did not know why he tried every time.
Where was he? Well, he was home. His AW.
There was nothing. Vick did not know what
happened, but what was supposed to be an actually livable space with other
people only turned out to be him. He could not count the number of times he had
false hopes about someone being out there and disappointed when there was not.
Sometimes, the area would play tricks on him and the blackness would shape like
a person and then disappear.
He always dreams of being here. He cannot
remember ever having a “good” dream. He always looked at the other AWs in
disgust. They had so much when he had nothing. That is why he is so numb.
He simply does not care.
He did not always have the marks, either. They
were blood. When he was stuck there, he would often think and dream about
death. That was the only way out he saw. He would constantly dream of killing
himself and the like. One time, his dream did not go away and he found the
markings on his arms. The strings were painful at first, it was like shaping
his own blood, but he grew numb to it.
Leaving was a complete accident. Vick remembered
wishing to be somewhere better and he was instantly in a forest. He instantly
knew he was not home. He heard birds and excited shouts. He followed them to a
campsite with about five tents. Kids were running about as parents watched
loosely while conversing with each other.
Vick was mad. He did not know that was out
there. Why did he not get any of that? Why did he have to live in that
nightmarish landscape while they had everything? His markings glowed blood red
Vick stared up at his ceiling. That was the
first world he destroyed. It was the 3,979th AW. He never regretted destroying
it. He knew it had only been an hour. He could never sleep for long and hunger
was never a concern for him. He could go a very long time without eating and be
fine. Eating was more of a “hobby” to him, so to speak. He did not care if it
was abnormal. Nothing about him was normal anyway.
He really only joined because he was tired of
his place and he thought it would be interesting. He doesn’t mind working for
Lendon but made sure to tell Lendon that it would be no deal if he could not do
as he pleased at times. Lendon agreed to it and welcomed him aboard. Vick made
a point to destroy the world they were in before following Lendon. That was AW
1,249.
Terrace was an almost immediate acquaintance
after he left his AW, but before Lendon (which was almost one and a half years
after he started). Terrace was very confusing to him. He did not try to kill
Vick, but also reversed the destruction of the AW. Confusion turned to anger
and Vick decked Terrace before teleporting away. He hit a few other AWs before
going back to his home.
Vick was not patient. He was, however, very
easily distracted by his thoughts. A few days could go by and he would not have
noticed unless something happened to or near him. He called this one of his
“trances.” He blamed it on his sociopathic behavior. He luckily never did this
during a fight. Plus, he never liked patience. He saw it as useless and
wasteful. If he wanted to wait around, he would not have left.
Terrace also lacked patience, in his eyes. Their
fights never lasted long and he could tell by the way Terrace used his attacks.
Surprisingly, Vick found that attacks say a lot about a person. Vick deduced
that Terrace was an outgoing person and would never kill anyone.
Someone was saying his name. He got off his bed
and sauntered down the stairs to the living room. “Look who decided to show
up!” Dultin smirked. Vick saw both Dultin and Lendon looking at him. Lendon
looked like he had a plan. He was wearing his normal green shirt, grey pants,
brown boots, and orange gloves. His aura hung around him like a magnetic field.
Vick took his seat on the fixed couch. “What’s
the plan?” he asked.
“Thanks to Dultin’s… experiment,” Lendon started.
“We know three of our four adversaries have a magic bond of varying magnitude.
Any magic bonds strengthen both/all participants, thus decreasing our chances
of defeating them. If we single out the one without any magic ties to the
others, we should be able to lure the rest into any trap we may set. For
instance, if we kept Terrace locked up here, we could count on the other three
coming to us. But, we would have to keep Derick out of it.”
“Why
though?” Dultin asked. “He’s weak and inexperienced.” He pointed a finger gun
at Vick’s head. “Just one well placed shot and—” He jerked his hand back in
recoil as if he shot Vick. “Well, no more problem.”
“Dultin, he’s the original!” Vick hissed. “We
can’t kill him.”
“We don’t
know what he may be capable of,” Lendon continued. “I intend on finding out one
way or another. After we successfully capture Terrace, we will be able to ‘take
out’ Derick. I’m thinking of the Prison. Thoughts?”
The Prison was an abandoned military base near
their cabin. Each holding cell had soundproof walls and security cameras. It
was easy to monitor and there was no way to know if anyone else was in there
with you. Vick saw it as perfect. He nodded his head in approval.
“Finally!” Dultin said.
“Very well,” Lendon said, looking between the
two killers. “The plan will start as soon as possible. Places, everyone.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vick was out again. He had the task of luring
out Terrace, which would be very easy.
Another AW, another seed planted. Vick waited.
Terrace came alone. PerfectVick
thought. Terrace did not have time to react when Vick strangled him enough to
make him pass out. Vick dropped Terrace off in one of the cells in the Prison.
Not even a second later, Dultin came back with a
passed out Derick. Dultin paraded him around down to his cell like a hunter
carrying a deer he killed home. Vick thought for a second that Derick was dead,
but they were all still there so it was not the case. Now,we wait, Vick
thought. And wait they did. An almost 40 minutes.
Cerulean and Blood turned up near their base—
glorified house. Vick could feel them coming in the Prison’s direction. He told
Dultin to get ready. “This is exciting!” Dultin replied, playing with a switch
in the control room of the Prison. The two entered the complex. Dultin and Vick
watched them through the various security cameras placed in the maze-like
hallways.
The moment came. “Now!” Vick shouted at Dultin.
Dultin slammed the switch down and a sliding steel door slid between the two.
The now separated pair tried to open/destroy the door, but nothing happened.
They continued on their separate ways. Vick radioed Lendon: “He’s all yours.”
Lendon was waiting for Cerulean. He did not give
any details on what he would do, so Vick and Dultin watched the security tapes
intriguingly. Cerulean walked back the way he came. He took a left near the
entrance and stopped at another crossroad. He took another left and a right at
another crossroad. All along the walls are doors leading to cell after cell after
cell. “Close the left door,” Vick told Dultin. At the upcoming intersection,
the left door closed. Cerulean’s only options were right or backtrack. Cerulean
took the right.
That was where Lendon was. Cerulean stopped and
started backing away from him. Dultin was about to close the door behind him,
but Lendon made a magical barrier, blocking Cerulean’s escape. Vick heard
Dultin snicker. To be honest, Cerulean’s terrified face was hilarious, but Vick
shut him up.
“Poor Cerulean,” Lendon sneered. “A weak shell
of a human that wanted too much. Now look where that got you. Your so-called
‘friends’ are gone and it’s all your fault.”
“No, no!” Cerulean said, still deathly afraid.
“I couldn’t have known!”
“Maybe,” Lendon smiled. “But, think about it. If
you didn’t split yourself, maybe you could’ve found them and left by now.
That’s not done by now because you’re weak and pathetic.”
“No… no!” Cerulean shook his head. Cerulean
was frozen still by an orange glow around him. “That’s not true!”
“Oh, quit lying to yourself. It’s tiring,
really.” Lendon walked toward Cerulean. Cerulean tried moving away, but the
orange magic held him in place. Lendon tilted Cerulean’s head toward him so
they made eye contact.
“No!” Cerulean tried looking away, but couldn’t.
A blinding orange light filled the security camera. After blinking away the
after effects, Vick saw only Cerulean in the corridor. He walked over to the
dropped radio and radioed the duo in the control center. “Open the doors,” he
said. He stared directly at the security camera.
They saw his
eyes and immediately opened the doors. His eyes glowed the same orange as
Lendon’s. Well, he can possess people nowVick thought. He cracked a
smile. “He’s certainly full of surprises,” Vick said aloud.
“You bet!” Dultin said. “This just got better!”
“It sure did,” Vick said as they continually
stared at the cameras. One more to gohe
kept to himself.
Lendon was approaching Blood. Blood must have
sensed him because he said: “What do you want, Lendon?”
“Blood!” Lendon said as Cerulean. “I found the
switches to the doors and opened them. We should continue looking together.”
“I’m not a naive fool, Lendon!” Blood continued
without turning around. “Leave me alone! I’m not going to be part of your team
anymore!”
Lendon laughed. “That’s crazy Blood!” Cerulean’s
voice said. “Why would I want you back? You obviously can’t be trusted.” Blood
finally turned around.
“Cerulean?!” Blood shouted in surprise. Lendon
stared at Blood.
“It would be easier to kill you now!” Cerulean’s
voice took a dark turn as Lendon lunged for Blood’s throat. Blood sidestepped
Lendon. He threw a knife in his direction. Lendon latched onto it with magic
and used its momentum to fling it back at Blood. The knife destroyed the door
behind Blood.
“No way!” Dultin yelled.
“What?” Vick asked.
“That’s where I put Derick! How did he know?!”
Cerulean did not convey any emotional reaction.
Blood helped Derick out of the wreckage. “ ‘Really accurate hunches’, huh?”
Derick teased.
“Hey, I got you out, didn’t I?” Blood responded.
Blood shoved Derick behind himself. “Go find Terrace. I’ll deal with Lendon.”
“Who’s—?” Derick began to ask before he started
glowing orange. He was struggling against the translucent bindings.
Lendon smirked. “You’re not going anywhere,”
Cerulean’s voice said.
“Let him go, Lendon!” Blood threatened.
“Sure.” Lendon threw Derick against a wall. The
wall was damaged on impact and debris went everywhere. Blood tried to protect
himself from the blast, but Vick could see clear cuts in his sweats.
Derick was not unscathed. He had a huge cut on
his cheek and Vick bet that he had popped his arm out of socket. He had many
other minor cuts everywhere. He struggled to get up, using the wall as some
sort of crutch. He looked at Lendon. “Why?” he asked. “Why Cerulean?”
“Cerulean’s not here,” Lendon smirked. Blood
walked up behind Lendon and tried to hit him with the blunt end of his knife.
Lendon froze him and sent him flying into one of the
other cells. “You’re very annoying, Blood.” He
sighed. “It’s not like you’ll actually try to kill me. Though you might’ve
wanted to kill him, you can’t kill Cerulean.”
The dust cleared and Blood was staring Lendon
down. “… heh heh…” he laughed. “Who said I was trying to kill you?” Blood
looked like he would drop down any moment. He threateningly raised a glowing
red knife at Lendon. “By now, Derick’s been looking for Terrace. You really are
unobservant idiots.” He eyed the security camera on the wall, which was
directly at Vick and Dultin.
Vick was mad. He did not like that he was that
easily distracted. “Where is he?” he wondered aloud while searching the
cameras.
“There he is!” Dultin pointed at one of the
screens. Derick was walking quickly; it seemed as if he already knew where
Terrace was. Vick realized he was heading in the right direction.
“I’ll go stop him,” Vick told Dultin. “Keep
watching Lendon, just in case something goes wrong.” Dultin puffed up in
resistance, but did not make any moves to challenge Vick.
Vick teleported to where Derick was last seen.
He did not want to accidentally hit Terrace’s cell while he tried to stop
Derick, so he concocted a plan. His arms glowed red as he pursues Derick, who
was getting dangerously close to the cell. He shot his arm forward, his strings
lashing out toward their target. They grabbed onto Derick, promptly stopping
his progress and incapacitating him.
Derick let
out a surprised shout as he was yanked backward. Vick’s strings pulled him back
like a fishing rod being reeled in. Vick grabbed Derick and teleported the both
of them to the one place that Vick knew would do nicely.
The landscape swirled around their arrival.
Nothing made a sound. The endlessness was welcoming Vick home. “Home sweet
home,” he said.
“Where—?”
Derick tried asking before a tight squeeze from his bindings shut him up. He
seemed to be shaking from pain. Vick has almost forgotten about his injury
earlier.
Vick laughed. “You’re lucky,” he said. “You’re
the first to see this place. There is nothing here. This AW has no number
anymore. Such a fitting place for someone like me.” Vick’s strings let go of
Derick. It’s not like he can do anythinghe
figured.
Derick hit the floor immediately. He used his
right arm to help himself up as his left hung limp. He managed to get himself
into a sitting position. “This… is where you’re from?” he asked. Vick
shrugged, not interested in the slightest. “Do you have any family? Friends?”
“What part of ‘there is nothing here’ do you not
understand?” Vick snapped. His markings glowed in his anger.
Derick flinched at the retribution. “So, you’re
really alone here? That’s—”
“I don’t want your pity. I don’t care anymore.”
Derick looked a bit annoyed at Vick’s
interruption, but thought a bit before talking again. “It hurts, doesn’t it?
Being alone like this?”
“What did I say about pity?” Vick spat daggers.
“And what would you know?”
“Nothing,” Derick shrugged. “I’ve never been
secluded like this. As for my knowledge, only you have. Only you can find a way
to deal with it.”
“It doesn’t affect me anymore.”
Derick laughed. “That’s like saying history is
nonessential. Vick, being numb is not coping. It’s blatant ignorance. You can’t
say you’ve moved on without, well, ‘moving on.’ It’s obvious you haven’t.”
Vick laughed. The longer it went on, the crazier
it was. “That’s what Terrace has been saying all this time. I don’t need two of
him.” Vick’s strings reattached themselves around Derick and lifted him into
the air. Vick opened a portal back to the Prison underneath him. He slammed
Derick down through it and jumped in after. Vick’s strings receded.
Derick hit the floor with the satisfying sound
of bones breaking. Derick shakingly stood up and trudged over to one of the
cells. Vick was about to follow when he saw Lendon, the real him, get flung
into the cell Derick passed. The door cracked open and, well, curse their luck,
Terrace jumped out of the cell. He caught notice of Derick and immediately
generated his paintbrushes and painted him into some state of health. Derick
looked surprised, but didn’t say anything.
Blood walked toward them with a limp. He had
with him a non possessed Cerulean looking emotionally unstable. Blood devil
stared at Lendon. “Don’t you dare mess with Cerulean like that again!” Lendon
only hissed his denial.
Terrace looked between Vick and Lendon. “Your
plan didn’t work,” he said. “Good job! Bravo!” he teased.
“Terrace,” Cerulean rolled his eyes. Terrace
shrugged and teleported out of the Prison.
Cerulean and Derick followed, leaving Blood
alone.
Blood stared at an overhead security camera.
“You’re so lazy, Dultin,” he said shaking his head. He left promptly.
Vick sighed. He knew they lost. He caught
Lendon’s smile.
Vick knew it was not over yet. Not as long as
they three were there would it ever be over. Vick also smiled. He would be
seeing them soon.
Marley is a 13 year old writer who participated in the Spring 2020 Bad Guy Writing Challenge. Below is her creepy and action-packed short story about a family plagued by a strange nature spirit that roams their house.
Chapter 1
It peered down on the family from the tall tree where it had been stationed for the past hour observing them. “Hold on, watch this real quick” says Lili’s dad. Laughs fade to silence, and eyes flick towards him, as he throws a piece of what looks to be plastic into the large bonfire. After only a couple of seconds, the fire bursts out into a beautiful blue color, with purple streaks and if you look hard enough, even a very faint tone of green.
Everyone is silent, observing the fire in awe as the colors fade back into the traditional array of warm colors. As the night takes over on the chilly evening in the town of Springwood Pennsylvania, the Locke family decides to head inside as their bonfire grows smaller. Lili, the second oldest child, with two younger sisters and an older brother, decides to stay out after the rest of the family for just a few minutes. She liked watching when their monthly bonfires slowly die out, especially towards the end of the fire when all the tiny flames dance in the glowing red pieces of wood at the bottom of the pile.
Lili found it very awing that the giant piles of leaves, sticks, branches, and the occasional piece of broken furniture from the home could turn into a way smaller mound of ash that could be disposed of by simply blowing it around the yard. As the last few flames danced in the breeze, she saw something amongst the treeline. Two balls of warm white light, like a reflection. She giggled, because she knew it was her brother hiding trying to scare her as he normally did. However, when there was no response back, she became skeptical. She saw the two reflections go away for only a second, then appear right back in the same spot, like they were blinking. At that point, she was certain it was her brother trying to scare her, and he had simply blinked because he didn’t realise that you could see the reflection of their eyes.
And that’s when the thought hit her- human eyes don’t reflect light, such as the light from the fire which was probably causing it. Lili saw the eyes slowly moving, as if the unknown creature was moving, and then the eyes disappeared into the darkness in the forest. Just then, she heard a large crash from the trees as she had turned to head back to the house. There was another one. Then another. She recognized the sound as falling trees, but there was no noise indicating someone had cut them down such as a chainsaw. They were also falling at a rate that no person could cut down that quickly. One right after another, there must have been two trees falling every five seconds. Spooked, she sprinted back to the house, and ran into the bathroom to shower and get the smell of smoke, which she had grown to love over time, off of her body and out of her long, brown hair. Lili was just turning the water on in the shower when she heard something downstairs fall and break, so she decided to brave the walk down the stairs and see what had happened.
Then she saw it- her mother laying in her husband’s arms. The floor was covered with blood, and there were two huge gashes on the backs of her calves. Lili’s mom, dad, and the kitchen floor were drenched blood spatter, as if something had come behind her and slashed her legs open. Her dad picked up the phone, and tried to call an ambulance, or someone that could help. Just as he had hit the call button, the phone just beeped like there was no service. The only other time she had heard that noise was right after a category 4 hurricane had hit near her home along the border of Pennsylvania, and torn the power lines right in half. How could that be? Lili thought, because the power was still on.
“Dad, I’m going to check on the lines outside to see if something happened to them. Try and figure out what happened to mom!” She grabbed the flashlight off the table, and ran outside to check. As the light flooded the darkness, she saw that a single part of the line was cut cleanly in half. The two halves were swaying as if there was wind that was blowing them around, but there wasn’t. The breeze had gone away. That could only mean one thing, Lili thought. The line had to have been cut very recently if they were still swaying like that. She shined the light around the lines looking for an answer. She didn’t see anything. She was shining the light all the way down both sides of the cables until the light could not shine any further. But when she flashed it back to where it was originally cut, there it was again.
That pair of eyes shining in the darkness. Again, reflecting the light, only this time, it was the flashlight and not the fire. Lili could not see exactly where the eyes were shining, but she felt that they were staring straight into hers. They blinked again, and the creature started moving. It began slowly, and then all at once, began leaping from one post to the next. She was in shock at how it could move like that, because all the posts must have been at least thirty feet apart from each other. Shining the flashlight towards whatever was jumping, she saw a large bony body, light grey in color, and it had almost looked transparent. Lili still had no clue what it could be, but one thing she knew for sure, and that was that it definitely could not be human.
She then ran as quickly as possible back into the house to tell her dad what she had seen. But when she tried getting inside the door, it was locked. She banged on it for someone to let her in, but within twenty seconds no one answered it. So she ran over to grab the ladder and come back in her window that she knew was unlocked. She set the ladder on the house, and climbed up onto a part of the roof, where she then pushed it back down so nothing could follow her, and ran to her window. She had always left it unlocked because the doors sometimes got jammed and they needed a way to get inside the house, but when she went to pull it open, it was locked. She tried every other window, but they were all locked too. Lili ran back to where she had put the ladder so she could get back down and try another way, but when she got there, she realized that she had pushed the ladder down, and she was now stuck on the roof.
Chapter 2
Don’t think you’re getting away that easy, sweetheart. It thought. Good luck getting down without a ladder. You want to take my family away from me? Two can play at that game. My nest used to belong where your huge brick nest is that you’re constantly inside. Sleeping, eating, everything. Why your nest is so much bigger than mine was, I don’t know. But I’m going to take care of it. Once and for all. Good luck to you all, Locke’s.
The games have begun. It watched Lili scrambling to the windows looking for a way down, but there was nothing. Windows? Locked. Ladders? Tipped over. There was nothing she could do. The drop down from the first story section of the roof was still a nine foot drop. Curse you, country houses for having such high roofs she thought. Then she remembered she had a trampoline in her back yard. She tried running around on the roof on the first story, but it got blocked off before she was at the point she could jump. So she climbed up onto the second story section, which was very easy as part of it came down close to the first story roofing above the porch.
So she got up there, and eventually made her way around to the back of the house. Looking up from the trampoline onto the roof had not looked like that tall of a drop, but now that she looked where she had to land and how far down it was, she was hesitant. She had to drop nearly two stories and jump out six feet to hit the edge of the trampoline. It was very dark too, since none of the back lights had been turned on because they were motion sensors. This is the only way. I have to do this. For mom. She took a large breath, and jumped as she exhaled, pushing forward with all her strength. She landed on the trampoline, and fell through the padding onto the ground. Could’ve been worse. And then she got up- almost. She noticed that her leg was bent in a way it should not have been bending. That’s when the pain set in. Nothing hurt her until she realized that there was something wrong with her leg and that it was messed up somehow.
The pain quickly seared through her ankle and up to her knee. It was like someone had struck it with a metal club that was on fire. She tried to touch it, but she instantly regretted it as she had touched her ankle directly on the injury. She tried to pull herself to her feet from the metal framing of the trampoline, but when she got on her feet, she fell right back down. What am I supposed to do? Mom and Dad are in serious trouble and I can’t even be there for them! Lili thought, tears rolling down her cheeks, pale from fright. She eventually got on her feet again and began hopping on one foot, headed for the back door. She tried to stand on her hurt foot, but it could not yet support her. So she continued hobbling on her right foot until she reached the back door.
She pulled it open, and walked in between the counters and used them almost like crutches. She turned the corner into the dining room and saw that her mom and dad were still in the same peril state. She bent down and touched her mother’s head, making sure she knew Lili was there too. Her mother slowly looked at her, eyes red and wet. “Lili, honey, you know I love you right?” These words brought tears to Lili’s eyes as well, knowing what the next few following sentences would bring. She nodded. “You know that wherever I may go, I’ll always be right here with you, don’t you?” Her heart dropped. “Yes”. Lili looked up at her dad, who was trying very hard to hide the fact that he was hurting. But Lili could tell he was crying, both on the inside and on the outside.
It was at this moment she realized how much blood her mother had really lost. She didn’t have anything to say. She just bent over and gave her mom a hug. She didn’t care that her shirt was covered in blood at that point, she just cared that she was with her mother, while her mother was still with her. Her dad pulled out his phone to try to call someone one last time, and to everyone’s shock, it worked.
He called an ambulance and they were out in nearly ten minutes. They put Lili’s mom on a stretcher and took her away. At that point her dad quit trying to be strong. He grabbed Lili and held her, sobbing. She held him just at tight as he had. “I love you baby girl” he said. “I love you too dad.” Those were the last words they spoke to each other for the next twenty minutes. Eventually they got in the pickup truck, and headed to the hospital. They weren’t allowed in the ambulance simply because there would have been too many people, but nevertheless, they were on their way.
Chapter 3
They
arrived at the hospital half an hour later, and they sat down in the waiting
room. This gave Lili time to think about everything. What it was, who it was,
what it’s problem was with her family, and why it was trying to hurt them. It
had nearly killed her mother already, who knows what else it could do. She
tried to think about all the stories she’d read as a girl, about all these
different kinds of paranormal and extraterrestrial creatures that may or may
not exist. She’d always been a fan of stories and documentaries on the subject,
but she never thought she would be living in one. She gave herself a list of
things to figure out; what it was, why it was targeting her family, and what it
wanted. She thought and thought for hours on end and never came up with
anything. There was no lead. They hadn’t done anything spiritual that might
have triggered it such as a ouija board. “Hey dad?” He looked over at her.
“Have you ever seen it?”
“Seen what?”
“That creature, the one that hurt mom?”
“What creature? You know what did this to her?”
“I think so. I went outside to check why you couldn’t call
anyone earlier, and I saw this thing on the power lines. It wasn’t the first
time I had seen it either. Do you remember the other night when we had the
bonfire in the yard?” He nodded. “Along the treeline facing the back of the
house really far away I saw it then too.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t just someone from the other side of
the tree line? There are a couple of houses on the opposite side like ours.” He
asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure. Human eyes don’t reflect light, that thing’s did. I have no clue what is going on.” Lili looked down at the cast on her ankle and wondered why she jumped from the highest spot instead of hanging off the edge and dropping. She would have only been a couple feet off the ground. And it would have saved her a lot of pain. It was too late at that point, however. Her thoughts wandered back to her mom. She wondered when she would get to see her, and if she would be okay. About an hour of thinking later, she still had come up with no explanation, nor a place to start.
A nurse came into the waiting room from a door across the room. “Are the Locke’s here?” Lili’s dad shot up from his chair, and Lili followed. She giggled at the fact that there was an indention where her dad had been sitting, but the joke quickly escaped her mind when they walked through the doors into a long hallway. The nurse showed them where Lili’s mom was staying, opened the door to the room, and stepped aside so they could walk in. She let the door close behind them as she continued down the hallway to do her job. The room scared Lili, as there were multiple tubes coming out of her mom’s arms, and machines beeping, over and over. She felt trapped. She watched the heart monitor continue in the same path. With each beep, it would spike, then go back down. Then again, and again, and again. It never sped up, it never slowed down. Until it did.
“Hey mom, can you hear me?” No response. The nurse had told
them that because of the medicine she had given her, she might be unresponsive
because she was sleeping. Lili reached for her hand, and laid hers on top of
her moms.
“I know you’re in there, mom. Keep fighting. Don’t give up on us. You can’t give up on us. I need you.” Silence followed by the beeping of the monitor. Then it began speeding up. A lot. Doctors burst into the room and ordered the family out. So they left the room in a panic. They turned to look from outside the window on the side, but the curtain closed on them. They could hear faint shouting coming from the other side of the room.
“Is she going to be okay, Dad? Please tell me she is going
to be fine.” He did not respond for a few seconds.
“I don’t know yet, Tiger.” Tiger. She’d been called Tiger once before by her dad, and that was when she fell off of her bicycle when she was younger and broke her arm. That sent a wave of shock over her, and her heart dropped yet again. The same nurse began walking towards them from the direction she had left earlier, and ushered them to another waiting room. There were no people in this one, and it was much smaller. This room had to be four times smaller than the normal one, with only ten chairs and a small coffee table. A TV was mounted to the wall, and it was broadcasting some little kid show Lili had never seen before. Just like in any other waiting room, the volume had been turned down very quiet. In that room they sat.
One hour, two hours, three hours. The room had gradually become darker as dusk had set in. Finally, someone had come into the room. By that point, both Lili and her dad were dozing off, and the sudden burst of the door startled them both awake. It took them a second to realize where they were but once they did, the doctor took them to see Lili’s mom. The doctor said that she had a seizure, but that she was stable as of right now. Lili walked over to see her mother with bags under her eyes. Meanwhile, the creature was trying to find where the Locke’s were at. They were not inside nor outside the house. It had checked already. Maybe I finally got rid of that stupid family. They decided to take my family away from me, don’t think I’ve forgotten that easily. The creature posted up on the roof, scanning the surrounding area for signs of the family. But when nothing came up, it moved on. I’ll be back in the morning. Prepare yourselves Lockes. I will get my revenge. Don’t you doubt it for a second. And just as quickly as it had appeared, it sped off into the treeline.
Chapter 4
As they
drove away from the hospital, Lili’s mother began to speak. “I’m still so
confused as to what happened.”
“Something attacked you, Mom. What do you remember? Did you
see it? Hear it? Tell me everything.” Lili said.
“I didn’t see much, all I remember was that I was at the
counter making sandwiches for dinner that night, and something knocked me to
the ground. I could not see what it was, I just felt a sharp pain in the backs
of my legs. When I turned around to see what happened, nothing was there. I
tried to scream for someone to come help me, but I couldn’t. I don’t know why,
but I couldn’t. Then I passed out and woke up in that hospital bed.”
Lili pondered on this for a bit. If that creature she had
seen multiple times before was the culprit, it would make sense. Her mother
said it was quiet, and she never heard anything. Lili didn’t hear anything when
it was leaping away on the telephone poles. Her mom said it was so fast she could
not see it. That thing had been pretty quick when Lili saw it. It all
connected.
Okay, well at least I’ve got somewhere to start now Lili
thought. I know now that the creature I saw was probably what hurt mom. I still
don’t have the why, but at least I have the who. The Lockes got home, and at
that point it was nearly two in the morning, so everyone went to bed.
When Lili woke up the next morning, she went downstairs to make herself some breakfast, thinking this whole thing would be over and done with. But after her parents did not come down stairs, she became skeptical. She went upstairs to check on them at about noon, which was way late for them to get up, as they are early risers and are usually out and about by nine. She opened the door to her parents room, but they were not there. Lili searched the whole house, but could not find anyone. She soon pulled out her phone, and called her dad. No answer. Then she tried her mom. No answer. She went outside to look for them out there, because sometimes they liked to go out to the pastures and groom the horses and milk the cows. But they were not there.
In fact, nothing was there. The cows were all gone, and so were the horses and chickens. She checked and even the eggs were gone from the coop. This had never happened before. She tried calling again, but there was still no answer. Eventually she began running back to the house, and called her mom one more time. This time, instead of hearing her own phone ring, she heard her mom’s ringtone going off in the distance. Confused and terrified, she called again and again, until she found the source of the sound. Lili found both of her parents’s phones laying right next to each other, perfectly straight. None of this made any sense. And then that is when she saw the eyes again. Along the treeline yet again, but instead of being at her house looking towards the trees, she was only yards away. They blinked, and moved forward. It was at this moment Lili realized how large the creature really was, towering above her nearly as tall as her house did.
“Lili, I see we finally meet face to face.” She heard the
voice, it was deep and monotone. She did not see a mouth for a moment, because
the creature was black. Really black. Darker than the night sky. When she did
eventually find it, it looked like someone had attempted to stitch it closed
and failed. Skin stretched between the lips as it’s mouth opened, making it
even more terrifying than it was before. “Who are you, and what do you want
with me? Where are my mom and dad?” Lili shouted at the creature.
“Me? I’m surprised you don’t remember me, Lili Locke.” A
shiver ran down her back.
“Who are you!” She screamed.
“Oh honey, you shouldn’t be worried about me. It is your
parents you should be concerned about. Do you know where they are?” Silence.
“Oh, that’s right. I have them. You guys took my family from me and left me
alone for years, so I am going to do the same to you, Lili Locke.”
“Why are you doing this?” She shouted at it, tears beginning
to sting her eyes.
“You killed my family when you built this house. You took
away the only people I have ever loved. So I am going to do the same to you.” The creature pulled out
an arm with long, sharp looking fingers, which only added to the terrifying
aspect of this creature. It pointed behind the tree line, where there was an
open area. It was at this point she saw her mother and father, wrapped in
web-like material, from there feet to their necks. They were motionless and
their eyes were closed. “What family are you talking about? Who did we take
from you?”
“My mother, my father, and my brothers and sisters. When you burned down the forest to create this area of land to build your giant house on, you burned my family’s home. I was the only lucky one that was able to get out!”
Chapter 5
“What
even are you?” Lili asked.
“That doesn’t matter! Who do you all think you are, to come
to my forrest, burn it all, and claim the land as your own? Why should you get
to keep your family, but I lost mine?”
“Because I didn’t do anything to deserve to lose my family!”
“And you think I did? I was very young, I had known my
family for less then a year! You’ve had yours way longer, and it’s finally time
you feel what i’ve felt all along.” Lili went stiff as a board. She had no clue
what to say.
“We aren’t the ones who burned your forest! This house has been here longer then any of us have been alive!” Even though Lili knew this was a lie, she had to try everything she could in order to save her family. Years ago, many before she was born, they had bought out the plot of land and burned it to make a new life here. They had hundreds of acres of forest burned down for them, and never replanted a single tree.
“LIES! I watched your father light the match and toss it at
the tree! Don’t try and lie to me, Lili Locke, you WILL regret it.” the
creature got closer to her face. This made Lili very uncomfortable, and she
stumbled backwards.
“I’ve seen what your family can and will do to get their
way. And I think it’s finally time they pay for that, don’t you?”
“Please, you’ve got to take piddy on me, I wasn’t even alive
yet when it happened, please don’t punish me!”
“It’s too late. Begging isn’t going to do anything. I wish
you would see that already.” The creature leaped over the tall trees back into
the clearing where Lili’s parents were being kept. She sprinted as fast as
possible towards them, and stood in front of them. She shook them aggressively,
but they did not come out of their state.
“Wake up! Mom! Dad! Don’t leave me like this!!” she
screamed, but it was useless.
“Move child, or you’re going with them.” The creature said.
She did not budge. Lili simply stood there in between her parents, as if she
was guarding them.
“Dang it kid, I said move!” The creature was now only half a
foot away from her face. She could feel it breathing on her as she reached up
and grabbed it’s head. She punched it multiple times, until eventually it threw
her off of him. Thats when something happened that no one expected. Lili’s eyes
shone bright green beams of light, and began rising into the sky.
“Let. Them. Go. Now.” She said.
“Silly girl, haven’t you realized by now-” he was cut off.
The same green appeared in his eyes that were in Lili’s eyes.
“Wha- Whats
happening?” it cried. Lili watched as it began fading colors, shifting grey,
then white, until it was nearly transparent. Thats when everything began to pan
out. With the loudest BOOM Lili had ever heard, the creature was gone. The
explosion sent her flying backwards towards the ground, and she blacked out.
When she came to, she saw her mom standing over her. She sat up, wondering what
had happened.
“Where am I?” she asked. Her mom simply giggled.
“Honey, you’re still in bed. It’s time to wake up, you’ve
slept way longer than usual. Are you feeling alright?” Lili was just confused
at this point.
“Wait, but how did you get out of the web nets?” Her parents
now looked as confused as Lili.
“What web nets, you crazy?” Her mom said, laughing.
“The ones the creature wrapped you up in! You and dad were
both stuck and when I tried to shake you awake, you didn’t wake up!”
“Sweetheart, I think you’ve been dreaming a lot lately. Come
on, I made breakfast. It’s your favorite, scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon!
It’s real bacon this time too, not the turkey bacon you said you didn’t like.
But I don’t understand how you don’t like turkey bacon, I honestly like it more
than normal bacon. Come down when you’re dressed.” She turned and walked away.
Lili looked at the back of her moms legs as she walked out, and there were no
signs of cuts. Not even any scars. She got up and looked in the mirror. Her
eyes weren’t green anymore. Just her normal blue. Maybe it was all just a dream
She thought. But it felt so real! It was like I was right there. Even now that
I know it was just a dream, it still feels like i’m going to walk into the
kitchen and see mom laying on the floor in peril again. Lili got dressed, and
headed down stairs. Her mom greeted her in the kitchen with a hug, and handed
her a glass plate to get her food. Lili looked at all the amazing food, and it
smelled so good. She couldn’t wait to dig in, but she let her mom get her food
first since she cooked it all.
“Hey, where is dad at? I haven’t seen him yet today.” Lili
asked.
“Oh, he just went out to do some work around the pastures,
fixing old broken boards and that horrible old gate. He went out to get wood
and stuff last night to fix it. Said it should all be done around supper time.”
Lili wondered if she should help him or not
“Do you think he would want any help? I don’t think I have
anything to do today. I finished the replica you told me to build.”
“I’m sure he would love some help, honey. You can go out
there after you’re done eating. Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah.” She was reminded of the dream again. She sat down at
the dining table across from her mom, and began eating. So much happened in so
little time, I still can’t believe it was only a dream.
Olivia is a 15 year old writer who has participated in many of the library’s writing challenges, including last summer’s Voyager Writing Challenge and this spring’s Bad Guy Writing Challenge. Neutral Zone is a science fiction story that leads the main character through multiple universes to battle against his alternate self!
Check it out below!
Original artwork by Olivia!
Derick slouched in his chair. The seemingly endless babble of his History teacher discouraged any interest he had in the Industrial Revolution, which was none in the first place. He just wanted the class to be over and the weekend to start. He stared blankly at his History book, trying to make sense of it. His teacher was not even talking about the Industrial Revolution at this point, instead about a bet that he made with one of Derick’s classmates. It was something about a race around the school with Derick’s fastest classmate.
Derick shrugged and tried to fill out notes for
the section. He hurried through them, barely reading the section, so he could
finish before the bell, which was supposed to go off in five minutes.
When the clock was in the last minute, Derick
could hear the sea of eager children quickly stacking all the stuff they had in
messy piles on their desks. He was doing it too, so he had no room to judge.
The bell rang and Derick almost had to run out
of the classroom to get to his locker before the hallway became too crowded. He
shoved his stuff in his backpack, closed his locker, and was out the door
before someone could count to ten.
“Hey, dude!” called someone from behind him.
Derick looked over his shoulder to find his friend Chris running after him.
“You’re taking me home today, remember? And what’s got you hurrying?”
“Sorry, I forgot,” Derick answered as he slowed
down a bit for Chris to catch up. “And Mom’s got to go for her yearly check up
today. I didn’t want to miss my chance.”
“You knew I was coming you dumb nut, and okay.”
They both continued to run to Derick’s mom’s car. The red minivan was not hard
to miss. Sprinting across the parking lot was not their best idea, Derick
admitted, but they did get there faster than they would have any other way.
“Boys!” Derick’s mom exclaimed once they got in
the car.
“Sorry for Sprinting,” Derick apologized. “But
the car was over the Verizon.” He added gun fingers.
“Derick no!” Chris said, threatening to get out
of his seat and leave.
“Derick yes!” Derick
retorted. He loved to mess with Chris like that.
His mom sighed. “Can we not have one moment of
peace?” she asked wishfully.
“Nope,” Derick and Chris said at the same time.
The drive home was a quick three minutes. Derick’s
mom dropped them at the front door and drove off. Derick walked up to the door
and rummaged around in his pocket to find the key to the house…
Of which he accidentally left in the long gone
red minivan that belongs to his mom. He face palmed.
“You left the key in the car, didn’t you?” Chris
asked, already knowing the answer.
“Yep,” Derick said.
“Dude, you have a problem. That’s the third time
this week.”
“I know.”
“And your mom’s going to kill you next time you
do it.”
“I know.”
“Just saying.” Chris sat down on the front step.
“You know, that cloud looks like a dragon.”
Derick joined him. “No, it looks like a Star
Destroyer from Star Wars.”
“You and your Star Wars.” Chris said, shaking
his head.
Derick heard
something that sounded like a bomb went off in his backyard. He noticed Chris
was not put off by it. Derick wondered if he was hearing things, but he figured
it would be safe to check anyway.
“Hey, I’m gonna go check on something,” he told
Chris while trying to strain his neck around to see his backyard.
“Sure dude,” Chris shrugged and went back to
stabbing the ground with sticks he found laying in the grass. Derick rolled his
eyes.
Derick quickly climbed over his fence to see
what was going on. He could not believe what he saw. There was a huge crater in
the middle of his backyard. In the center was a short person, about a head
shorter than Derick. He wore a tan short-sleeve shirt with one light green
triangle in the center of the sleeve. The tan color matched the color of his
skin pretty well, but his skin was a tad bit lighter. Under it was an orange
shirt with sleeves that reached his elbows. It was matched with dark brown
cargo shorts. He had light blue shoes on and a sash that contained little
containers full of paint that was pretty much every color of the rainbow. He
had dark brown hair, the color matched Derick’s, and different colored eyes
which seemed to change every few seconds. Some black paint was splatted near
where his nose was, but he did not seem to notice.
Derick
only had about a thousand questions for him, but another person was hovering in
the air. Derick looked again and realized that he was not hovering, but sitting
on a swing made of blood red strings. The strings seemed to be coming from
markings on his arms. He wore a black t-shirt with grey sweats. He had on black
shoes. His skin was a dark brown and his hair pitch black. His crazed grin sent
a shiver down Derick’s spine. He had a bad feeling about this.
“It’s all your fault, Terrace,” the person on the
swing said. “If you let me do my job, we wouldn’t be here, would we?”
“If I let you do your ‘job,’ Vick,” Terrace
said. Derick assumed that was his name because the other person said so. “There
wouldn’t be anything left!”
Derick was
glad both of them had not noticed him yet. They both looked piping mad at each
other and he wanted no part in that. He tried sneaking back over the fence. It
was going well, he almost made it over.
Almost.
Another chill went down his spine. He felt like
he was being watched. He froze, not daring to move.
“Well, what do we have here?” sneered Vick.
Derick could tell it was him because his voice was a lot harsher than
Terrace’s.
“Gosh darn it,” Derick mumbled to himself. He
turned his head back around. He saw both of them now staring at him.
Terrace had a terrified look on his face while
Vick continued to smile. Vick pointed his hand at Derick and his markings
started to glow.
“Don’t do it Vick!” Terrace yelled. “You can’t
kill him! This is the original AW, don’t you know that?” He pronounced ‘AW’ as
two individual letters.
Derick was confused. He had no idea what was
going on.
Vick lowered his hand and his markings stopped
glowing. “What makes you think I was gonna kill him?” he asked Terrace. “You
brought us here anyway.”
“No I didn’t!” Terrace yelled back. “You did!”
Derick noticed that, at this point, their battle
had been forgotten and they now resorted to bickering with each other. Derick
used this time to finish making his way over the fence. He could not leave them
like that in his backyard, so he used a crack in the fence to watch them.
“Hi!” someone exclaimed next to Derick. He
jumped back and turned to look at the person. He was wearing a light grey
t-shirt and dark blue basketball shorts. He had on light blue shoes, which
matched the color of the scarf he had around his neck. His skin tone was the
same as Derick’s, a tan color, light brown hair, and, to Derick’s surprise,
green eyes. He had on a big smile.
“What are you doing here?” Derick asked. He had
no idea who this person was. “It isn’t safe!”
“You mean them?” The person pointed at the
fence, but Derick knew what he meant. “They always do that! That’ll be over
soon!” He giggled. “I’m Cerulean by the way!”
Derick shook Cerulean’s outstretched hand.
“You know them?”
“Of course I do! Terrace is my friend! He helped
create the multiverse and the AWs! Vick destroys the AWs.”
“Hold up, what multiverse?
That’s just a dumb theory. It’s not real!”
“You better believe it! Where you live is called
an Alternate World, or AW for short! Your AW is the first one and mine’s the
second!”
“You’re bluffing!”
“Nope! Derick, everything I said was true!”
“How do you know my name?” Cerulean did not
answer. “I don’t remember telling you.”
Cerulean took a deep breath in and out. “Derick,
I-”
Something blasted the fence gate and destroyed
it. Cerulean and Derick ducked for cover. When he looked up, Derick saw Terrace
run over towards them. “Cerulean!?” he called frantically.
“I’m here!” Cerulean called back from behind a
bush. Terrace looked relieved. “So is Derick!” Cerulean added.
“I’m over here!” Derick
called. He and Cerulean got up from behind the bushes. Derick quickly looked at
the damage to the fence gate. He could not even recognize that there was a
fence there. He further looked around the wreckage into his backyard to check
for Vick.
“What happened?” He heard Cerulean ask Terrace
behind him.
“Well, Vick and I were arguing for a bit and,
well, you know how unstable he is,
he…uh…” Terrace stumbled around for words to
describe it. “Kinda wrapped his strings around part of the porch and threw it
at me. I dodged and it hit the gate. Then I laughed at him for missing me and
he tried to hit me with a fence post. He stormed off to who-knows-where.”
“Man! How am
I going to explain this!” Derick exclaimed. “I’m home for ten minutes and my
backyard looks like I was experimenting with nukes and accidentally exploded
one!” Derick was freaking out.
“Derick!” Terrace yelled. Derick stopped. “I can
fix this, just give me a sec!”
“Really?” Derick scoffed. “This is not a one man jo—” Terrace generated
two paint brushes out of thin air and, with a determined look in his eyes,
proceeded to draw Derick’s backyard back to its original state.
“How?” Derick gaped. He was in shock.
“Terrace is the god of Creativity,” Cerulean
added.
“Oh.” Derick recalled Cerulean saying something
like that earlier.
“Oh yeah! I was going to tell you how I knew
your name!”
“I would still like to know.”
“Well, so, basically, I’M YOU IN MY AW!”
Derick was surprised. He did not see the
connection until then. “So are Terrace and Vick?”
“Yes,” Cerulean said, with less enthusiasm.
“What’s with the nicknames then?”
“Derick, you are more important than you
realize!”
Terrace started laughing, much to both of their
surprise. They both looked at him weirdly. “What?” Terrace asked.
“Does he always do that?” Derick asked Cerulean
quietly.
“Yes, but sometimes it’s a bit different. The
other day, he got really mad at me for no reason. A second later, he apologized
to me for it and claimed he didn’t know what got over him. I think he’s keeping
something from me.” Cerulean whispered back.
“ ‘I got a bad feeling about this,’ ” Derick
said in his best impersonation of Han Solo. Cerulean laughed.
“You want to see something cool?” Cerulean asked
Derick excitedly.
“Sure,” Derick said, winking
one eye and smiling.
Cerulean bounded over to Terrace. “Terrace!! Can
we show him the place??” he asked.
“Which place?” Terrace asked playfully. Derick
could tell Terrace knew which place Cerulean was talking about.
“You know what place, silly!” Cerulean smiled.
“Okay,” Terrace said. “I guess I can do that.”
“Yay!” Cerulean cheered. “Come on, Derick!”
Terrace drew a big portal-like thing with his paint brushes, stepped in, and
disappeared. Cerulean did the same.
Derick did not know if he wanted to go with some
strangers to some place. Scratch that, he wanted to go, he just did not know if
he should. He figured a few moments could not hurt, so he walked through the
portal. Gotta trust myself at some pointhe
sighed. ~~~~~~
Derick had to take a step back. The
teleportation made him a bit queasy, but Terrace reassured him that it was only
because it was his first time.
“Derick, welcome to AW 10,” Terrace said. “Or,
specifically, to Upmost, Earth satellite and a hospitable place for humans.”
At the moment, Derick realized…
He was in space.
Derick had to step back to take in the
breathtaking view of the Earth from space. He could see the sun peaking out
from just over the horizon the Earth made.
“Wait, how can we breathe up here?” Derick
asked.
“This place is covered by a sort of force
field,” Cerulean explained. “I’m not sure exactly how it works, but in the
building over there is a generator that generates oxygen.” Cerulean gestured
toward a whitish-grey covered building in the distance. The building seemed to
be laid out in sections and each section was connected by some sort of
above-ground tunnel.
“Here comes the head man,” Terrace announced.
Derick saw someone emerge from the building. He was taller than all of them and
wore a white lab coat over a dark gray shirt. “Derick, this is Astro. He’s a
future you that’s a scientist. He also runs things around here.”
“Hello,” Astro said. Derick gave him a small
wave. Astro turned his attention towards Terrace. “Terrace, I don’t mind that
you come here, but you have to tell me beforehand, got it?”
“Sorry,” Terrace apologized. “But I had to show
Derick around, Cerulean begged me.”
“This is your one pass,” Astro said.
“Hey Derick!” Cerulean pulled on Derick’s shirt.
“How about I show you around?”
“Okay.” Derick followed Cerulean inside the
building.
Derick
barely paid attention to Cerulean giving him a tour. He really was fascinated
by the structure, but he was not feeling well. Shortly after entering the
building, he heard a ringing sound in his ears. After a while, he also felt
incredibly hot.
“Hey, Cerulean?” Derick started to ask. “Is it
hot in here or what?”
“Derick, are you okay?” Cerulean asked. “This
room is practically a big freezer for all the food here.”
“Nah, I’m fine,” Derick lied. His vision started
to blur. His knees buckled and he fell forward.
“Derick!” Cerulean screamed, but Derick did not
hear him. He had blacked out.
Derick opened his eyes. He seemed to still be in
the building. The air was musty with the smell of blood. A strange fog covered
the area, giving it an eerie feel. Derick started walking around. He saw a
shadowy outline in the fog. After getting a bit closer, he identified the
outline as Cerulean.
Cerulean was really beat up. He had generated
some sort of weapon that hung loosely in his right hand. Derick made a mental
note to ask about it later.
Cerulean noticed Derick. “What are you doing
here? It’s not safe!” Derick heard laughter behind him. “Watch out!” Cerulean
yelled. Derick turned around to try and identify what the threat was. He tried
to move, but he was not fast enough.
He
could feel the terrible pain of a knife piercing his side. His hands flew to
the place where the knife was. He could feel his blood on it. In front of him,
he saw another outline in the fog.
“Who—” Derick started to say but was interrupted
by a coughing fit. He could feel blood trickling down from his mouth. “Who are
you?” he rasped.
“Who am I?” The person stepped out of the fog.
He was wearing a black hoodie and black sweatpants. His hood was pulled over
his eye line and he held another knife. “I’m you, but everyone calls me Blood.”
Blood walked
closer to Derick. “It’s so nice to haunt your dreams. Too bad you’re not
actually here. This would have been so much more fun if so.” Derick only
stared. He knew he did not have the strength to run.
Blood stood in front of Derick. He smiled. “You
must have thought Vick was the only one.” Blood pulled out the knife that was
wedged in Derick. The ripping motion reopened the wound and blood flowed out of
it. Derick desperately tried to stop the blood flow with his hands and, while
doing so, sank to his knees. He felt a hand grip his hair, forcing his head to
tilt upward. He saw Blood’s merciless eyes staring back.
“Silly,” he laughed. “There are a lot of us.”
Blood stabbed Derick again. “Goodbye, for now.”
Derick jolted awake. He saw Terrace and Cerulean
staring at him. He grew a little uncomfortable. He seemed to be in some sort of
infirmary. “Welcome back, Derick,” he heard Astro say. Derick got up from what
resembled a hospital bed. He felt a weird pain from his side.
The pain was
close to nothing, but it was enough to remind Derick about his dream, if it
could even be called that. He could still perfectly picture the knife in his
side and Blood laughing at him. He all of a sudden wanted to get out of the
building.
Derick walked out of the room before anyone
could say anything. Somehow, his feet remembered which way he entered from. He
could hear Cerulean following him; Derick knew it was him because he was
calling Derick’s name. He continued on.
He finally
found his way to the exit. He was going to open the door, but his side started
hurting more. He figured it was because he had been running, so he casted it
aside. He tried to open the door again, but Cerulean caught up with him.
“Derick!” Cerulean yelled. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Derick said. “I just need some fresh
air.” He reached again for the handle.
“That’s not a good reason why you bolted off!”
At this point, Derick’s side was throbbing
with pain. Derick opened the door.
~~~~~~
Derick was
planning on going through the door, but he did not. He took a step back and
stared forward. Speak of the devilDerick
thought.
“What’s wrong?” Cerulean asked. He also looked
forward and flinched.
“Aww, this is so cute,” Blood said. “I actually
get to kill someone.”
“When you said ‘for now,’ I didn’t think you
meant in five minutes,” Derick said, trying to be funny for his own sake.
Blood was obviously not amused. “Your humor is
stupid,” he said. He took a step forward. Out of the corner of his eye Derick
saw Cerulean generate a slingshot. That’swhat that wasDerick
realized.
“Don’t come any closer!” Cerulean warned.
“Or what? You’re going to hit me with that?”
Blood laughed. “You can’t aim!”
“Yes I can!” To prove his point, Cerulean flung
a rock like object at Blood. It hit him in the face. It did not seem to hurt
him, but it did surprise him.
Blood was furious. He generated a knife. “This
has your name on it Cerulean.”
“Get behind me, Derick,” Cerulean ordered “So he
can’t hit you.” Derick did what he was told.
“I already
did,” Blood smiled. He snapped his fingers. Derick’s side started hurting as
much as it did in his dream. Again, he imagined a knife in his side. He grabbed
onto Cerulean’s shirt to try to stay standing.
“Derick!” Cerulean shrieked. He put his arms
around Derick to steady him. Cerulean looked back at Blood “What did you do?!”
“No, Cerulean,” Blood shook his head “It’s ‘what
did you do?’” Cerulean flinched. “You’ve kept the truth long enough. Heck,
you’ve lied to keep the truth. Now what kind of friend is that?”
“Cerulean, what is he talking about?” Derick
asked. He was skeptical about what Blood was saying but Cerulean’s reaction
made it seem like it was true. “What truth?”
“It’s nothing,” Cerulean said. Cerulean did not
make eye contact with Derick.
“‘Nothing’? I’ve been living ‘nothing’ my whole
life?!” Blood spat. “I’m only here because of you! Do you know what it’s like
to be made of someone’s insecurities? Huh?”
“I didn’t know it would turn out like this!”
Cerulean said.
“Oh, so you ‘didn’t know’ you were lying about
Terrace? Is that how this is going? And now you’re pulling not just another
person, but the original into this?”
Derick was completely lost. The pain in his side
subsided, finally, but Cerulean would not let go of him. Somehow, he felt like
he needed to be strong for Cerulean. “I don’t get it,” Derick asked. “Who are
you?” He directed the question at Blood.
Cerulean answered. “He’s me, Derick.” Derick
just stared at him. “In my… our AW, people are born with the natural ability to
do magic. Some are better than others. And you can be whatever you want to be!”
“But that’s true for everyone…?” Derick half
asked.
“Well, I took it more literal than everyone else. I wanted to be the
best me I could be by locking away almost all of my negative traits. It took
almost all of my magic to do, but I was a better person. I loved it!
“Over time, all those negative feelings grew a
literal mind of their own. First, it was just nightmares. Those nightmares gave
me back my regret. And then, after a while, they had a body that followed me
around like a ghost. He was stable at first. He gave me criticism, but I mostly
ignored it.
“You actually heard me?” Blood looked surprised.
“Yes,” Cerulean answered. “Anyway, I met at Terrace
one day. I showed Terrace around my home, and we became friends. When he asked
if I wanted to go with him, I immediately said yes. He showed me his favorite
places in the AWs, and we had fun. During this, I didn’t realize my negative
ghost was gone. When I finally did, I was concerned, actually.
“Yeah right,” Blood scoffed.
”I’m not kidding. I was so used to the constant
commentary that I felt weird without it. Well, the days went on and I met
Blood, he was calling himself that, truly on accident. I recognized him
instantly.”
“So you’ve lied about this instead of telling
the truth?” Derick pieced together. “I know the truth is very important. While
you were telling the story, did you realize Blood lost the insane look he had
before?” Cerulean was stunned. So was Blood. “The more you lied, the more piled
on Blood, the more crazy he seemed, and the more positive you were.” As a joke,
he added. “Come on, you guys do magic. You’re, like, ten times more powerful
than me.” Cerulean laughed. Blood chuckled a bit too.
“You are going to explain to him this one,”
Cerulean said to Blood.
“Fine,” Blood took a deep breath. “Derick, you
know you are the original, right?”
“Yes?” Derick said. He did not know why that
mattered.
“You get certain powers because of that. The
most important one is that if you die outside your AW, all other yous die and
all AWs collapse and there goes the multiverse. You can traverse the multiverse
without help and…um…”
“We don’t know all of those powers,” Cerulean finished.
“Wow,” Derick said. “That’s awesome! I have one
question though.”
“Shoot for it,” Cerulean said.
“Are you ready to tell Terrace?”
“I don’t know. I’ll need time. I’ve known him
longer and I don’t know if he’ll take it well.”
“We’ll tell him together, all three of us,”
Derick assured Cerulean. “In about five seconds.”
“What?!” Cerulean and Blood said at the same
time.
The door slammed open. “Oh my gosh! Did someone
die?” Terrace demanded. Derick saw that he had his paintbrushes out.
“Everyone is alive!” Derick yelled back.
“Not while he’s here!” Terrace started at Blood.
Cerulean stepped in between them.
“We have something to tell you,” Cerulean said.
~~~
It took a while, but the three of them told
Terrace the whole story. Terrace took it surprisingly well.
“Do we have to tell Astro that Terrace broke the
door?” Derick asked.
“Nah, Terrace will fix it,” Cerulean assured
Derick.
“He was you the whole time?!” Terrace asked.
Cerulean nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to think less of me,” Cerulean
admitted. “And I was ashamed of it.” “Cerulean, you’re my friend. I would
never.” Terrace gave Cerulean a reassuring smile.
Derick was happy for the two. He could not help
but glance in Blood’s direction. “So,” Derick started. “What will you do now? I
mean, you have things sorted out with Cerulean, and you’re done with that knife
trick of yours.”
“Who said I was?” Blood smirked. Derick felt a
bit of pain from his side. He elbowed Blood. “Hey, I was kidding.”
“How do you do that anyway?” Derick asked.
“Magic.” Blood grinned. Derick glared at him.
“Well, I don’t know what I’m going to do now.”
“This may seem stupid, but what if you helped
the multiverse?”
“Me?” Blood laughed. “I’m the literal opposite
of the hero type.”
“Cerulean just admitted to being ashamed. Maybe
you two share some emotions instead of trade them off.”
“Derick, I’ve killed a lot of people. How am I
going to come back from that?”
“One step at a time. You’ll have to give
yourself some sort of chance at redemption.”
“You are very hopeful.” Blood stared up at the
stars. “I’ll consider it.”
Derick smiled. He noticed that Astro was coming
out of the building. “Terrace! The door!” Derick shouted.
“Shoot!” Terrace exclaimed. He quickly repainted
the door. It reminded Derick about his yard. For the first time during the
trip, Derick felt homesick.
He chuckled to himself. “Man, my life will never
be the same after this,” he said.
“Welcome to the club,” Blood said. “If Cerulean
doesn’t throw off any more negativity, I can finally act sane for once. It’ll
be nice.” He smiled.
“Derick! Are you ready to go home?” Terrace
called.
“Not yet!” Derick called back. He looked at
Blood. “After all you put me through, I’m going to miss you.”
“Heh, me too,” Blood said. “I might just have to
invade your dreams again.”
“If you do, pick somewhere less creepy, okay?”
Derick and Blood both laughed. Derick had a feeling that, deep down, something
sparked in Blood.
“In that case, see you on the flip side,” Blood said.
“Make sure you talk to Cerulean, it looks like he has something for you.”
“Okay,” Derick waved back at Blood before
walking over to Cerulean.
“Oh, Derick!” Cerulean said. “Thank you for
giving me another chance! I did a terrible thing and I told big lies to cover
it up and I just went about it the wrong way and I really should have known
better and—” Cerulean was almost in tears.
“Cerulean,” Derick said, cutting Cerulean off.
He looked Cerulean in the eyes. “It’s okay. Making mistakes is what makes us
human. It’s not healthy to beat yourself up about it. You have to accept that
you did something wrong so you can move on.”
“I don’t think Blood will let me.”
“Yes he will. He’s as done with the lies as you
are.”
Cerulean grinned. “Thank you, again, Derick.”
“Anytime.”
“That reminds me!” Cerulean held out a piece of
paper. “It’s my number. If you need anything, just ask!”
“Okay, give me a quick second,” Terrace created
a portal. “See you, Derick.”
“Come by anytime, Terrace!” Derick smiled. He went through the portal
and ended up back in his backyard. He waved at his new friends through the
portal before it closed. He climbed back over his fence.
“Hey dude,” Chris said. “Did you see something?”
“Well,” Derick looked back at his backyard. “I
guess you could say that.”
“Cool.”
~~~
Derick’s mom was disappointed with Derick. After
she dropped Chris back at his house, she talked to Derick about being
responsible with things that were not his. Derick promised to do better.
After dinner, when Derick had enough time to
himself, he whipped out his phone. He took out the slip of paper in his pocket.
He entered in Cerulean’s phone number. He was about to close the contact when
he saw the words “dial (-) first” scribbled on the back of the slip. He
completed the contact. He took a deep breath. He hoped it worked and he would
not accidentally text some random person instead. He texted “Heya, it’s Derick.”
The response was almost instant. “Hi Derick!
It’s Cerulean!” Derick smiled. He had a feeling he would see him again soon.
Above everything, he was really tired. He had had too much excitement for one
day. He said good night to his parents and went to bed.
It did not last long. Derick woke up to a
crashing sound. He reached over to his light switch and flicked it on. He saw
Cerulean tangled up in a cord. Derick was not sure what it was to. “Why are you
here, Cerulean?” he said groggily. “It’s probably midnight.”
“It’s eleven,” Cerulean said. “And we need your
help!”
“Why didn’t you call me?” Derick was not fully
awake. He was not thinking straight.
“This calls for drastic measures!” Cerulean gave
someone behind Derick a thumbs up.
In an instant, Derick felt a cold liquid poor
down his shirt. That woke him up.
“What the—” Derick started to say. He looked
behind him. He saw Blood laughing his head off. “Guys, my parents!”
“Okay, I’ll meet you there.” Derick took a deep
breath. “I’m going to try it.”
“Be careful,” Blood said. He and Cerulean
disappeared.
Derick had no idea how to teleport. Well, he had
one. He cleared his mind and closed his eyes. He thought about the spectacular
view of Earth from Upmost.
A second later, he opened his eyes. He found
himself in the same spot he thought about. He pumped his fist in the air.
“Oh good! You made it!” Cerulean said.
“Cerulean was worried sick,” Blood said. “He
wanted to go back to help you, but I told him you’d be fine.”
“How were you so sure?” Derick asked. Blood
pointed to Derick’s side.
“We have a small link now,” he said. “Don’t
worry, it can only do dreams and really good hunches.”
“How long will it be there?” Blood shrugged. All
three of them laughed.
“We should probably get going,” Cerulean said.
“Terrace is waiting inside the building.”
They walked towards the door. Derick felt ready.
He knew that whatever Vick was doing would be stopped by the four of them.
He felt truly invincible.
Look out for Olivia’s sequel called Red Strings coming soon to the blog!
Sydney is a 9th grade student who participated in the Bad Guy Writing Challenge in April 2020. She completed an epic, 13,000 word novella set in a bleak, fantasy wood where a dark assassin struggles with his inner purpose.
Enjoy Sydney’s story below!
No one wondered what happened to me, for they all knew my
story. No beast dared to threaten me, for they knew I’d slay it. Nothing in
this dark, cold world could care for me, for I once cared too much and now,
what I loved is gone. The savage fire inside my heart could never dwindle by
any form of love or care, for I knew it no more. People say keep your friends
close but your enemies closer, well I only have one friend and one enemy, and
they happened to be the same person. The darkness was my friend and my enemy.
Our villain and protagonist
I only knew the dark, he was my friend and my closest ally.
Yet I hated him with all my gut, he was my most feared enemy. What strange kind
of a man is like this you might ask? Well, I can assure you, I am no man. I
know not who I am, but I am not human.
I say this because the once warm feeling of emotion swirled
inside of my chest, I was once proud and full valor and then I was left with nothing.
Something happened to me and it destroyed me. I had no pride and valor, instead
I was left with an empty hole in my soul and a crack in my heart. No man could
go on forever with such an empty vessel, so I had to fill myself with something
new.
I found no happiness in life and seeing people smile, no
love could revive my heart and soul, I knew that good and well, for I had tried
to replace that feeling yet failed. I’d nearly given up on all hope of becoming
my old human self again, when a light was shed on my situation. Only, there was
no light, there was no happy ending or sunset, instead I found darkness and
only darkness.
How strange you might think, is this ‘man’ even a real thing
you ask? Yes, he is very much a real thing, for I know him like a brother. Now,
the darkness was simply dark. Just black like a void to nowhere, yet one man’s
trash is another man’s treasure. I’d hit the goldmine with this new,
unexplained passion.
In the dark, no one can see anything, not even one’s own
hand. It will hide you from the others, it shall protect you and keep you safe so
that no one can judge you or expose you. I found peace in this—I was hidden
from the outside world where I could be alone and safe. However, the darkness
also prevents you from seeing yourself. You can’t watch yourself become a
monster, nor can you stop it. It hides what’s growing inside of you. Over time
you get so used to it, that you don’t even know what’s happening to yourself.
It will consume you. This I feared—for I could no longer know what I was or
what I could do in the blink of an eye.
Some would describe me as a mad man, others a drunk, I say
I’m neither of those, or any name one could call me. I was no man or beast, no
storm or sea. What am I? I am the dark. A powerful being that’s strong enough
to save you and powerful enough to destroy you.
-==+++==-
I wondered the snow bitten forest in the middle of the cold
winter’s night. The moonlight broke through the bare trees casting long shadows
in the crunchy snow. My skin was cold to the touch, as cold as the snow some
described, yet I hardly noticed it. I enjoyed the numb, lifeless feeling
crawling inside my bones. The way my blood hardly flowed inside of me was how I
was living in this very moment. I thrived off of the cold, dark feeling of
emptiness.
I could see my breath in the air, it came out like dragon
smoke and then it vanished into the night. My stallion let out a snort and his
ears twitched as he trotted through the bloody snow. For a moment he was
hesitant to move but with a gentle touch of my heel he moved forward past the
dead bodies.
There weren’t many of them, not enough to completely ‘ruin’
the forest floor. Their dark red blood stained the fresh mountain snow. Oh, it
was a beautiful sight, I loved it. For these people were no help to me, and I
was of no help to them, thus their deaths were inevitable.
They were merchants and traders coming in a caravan from the southeast, they’d gotten lost here in the northern woodland trying to get the big cities just beyond this forest, yet very few knew how to navigate through them, most got lost and needed help. I don’t desire to help anyone unless I need one of their skills to help me for my own well-being, but that was rare. I possessed nearly every skill I needed to survive on my own in this wasteland. Very rarely did I seek an acquaintance to help me gain something I did not already have.
Most sensible men, with a normal mind set, would have tried
to help these men in exchange for gold, not me though. People who’d see me this
way would say I was psychotic, not right in the mind, and I very much agree
with them, so I’d kill them too. I killed these men for pleasure, for it filled
the emptiness in my heart and fueled the life of my soul.
The crimson liquid that covered the snow was splattered and
pooling everywhere. A heavy snow fall was coming down just as I was leaving,
the white flakes soaked into the blood, soon there’d be a lighter red puddle of
mushy snow and bloody lumps all covered in a thick snow all over the forest
floor.
My work was done for the day, I’d spared these people from
freezing and dying alone in the woods, with no assurance that their wives and
children would be taken care of. For the day I’d killed four of them, these
four were scouts from there caravan trying to find help. I assured those four
men that I would help them, and I most certainly did. I might have been in the
middle of the process of helping them, but I was doing what I promised them.
I’d killed those four now off to find their caravan and kill the rest of those helpless souls. I was being merciful if you ask me, for no help would come from me therefore no help would come to them at all, it was only reasonable that I do this. I was showing them the mercy that I never received.
The wind had picked up since I’d departed from the four
scouts’ bodies. I was perhaps thirty minuet’s due south of them. The poor fools
told me right where their caravan was. If they were smarter, they wouldn’t have
trusted me so easily. Most people don’t trust a strange rider in the northern
woodlands. For these lands are strange and wild, so little is known about them.
Though the forest is dark and unknown to my misfortune not
all people who live here are as dark as I am. There are a few rangers who roam,
they’re no more dangerous than I am, yet there no less smart. They are like me,
but I am not like them. They keep to the shadows away from the world, trying to
perhaps runaway from there past life, yet they’re barely able to stay afloat in
the light, unlike me who completely submerged myself in the darkness.
There is one of these rangers who I am not particularly fond
of—I’m not fond of any of them but this one gets on my nerves—He goes by the
name of Vidarr. Most of us who roam the woodlands have encountered him more than
once. He’s strange like the rest of us, for he wonders without a purpose and he
thrives for no known reason, but he’s rather spirited.
Vidarr, the Ranger
For a ranger such as himself he keeps an optimistic
attitude. For the times that I’d been watching him he seemed so hopeful. He was
kind natured towards the animals, and he didn’t enjoy killing them, but he did
to satisfy his hunger. He didn’t track of hunt for sport, and the thing I didn’t
understand the most about him was how he ‘helped’ others.
I’d watched him before, and the few people we have wondering
in the forest he helped. Whether it be day or night, summer of winter he set
aside his own time to show compassion towards pathetic and weak souls who’d
gotten lost in this wasteland. I couldn’t understand why he was this way, for
people who come here, come here to leave their life behind, but he seemingly
did not.
Vidarr and I had encountered two times before. The first
time he happened to look at the right place and the right time, he saw me lurking
around in the woods. I was trying to spy on him and getting to know my new
enemy. He spotted me so I bolted away. To my surprise he didn’t follow me,
however, I picked up that he was a curious creature and he did want to follow
but he stayed put.
The second time I encountered this young man, he and I ran
into each other by the river to the east. I’d gone there to water my horse and
sure enough he was there too. I desired to track him down and slaughter him,
but he barely slipped away by climbing a steep ridge. He however didn’t escape
without a scratch.
To my displeasure, he got away, but our quarrel was far from
over. For any man of no use to me was surely no use to anyone at all, therefore
the reaper would be coming to collect Vidarr’s soul soon enough. I intended to
kill this bright, unique ranger as I did any man or beast I encountered.
–==+++==–
Riding swiftly through the forest I soon discovered lightly
dusted over foot tracks, roaming the area. The caravan was close. Keeping a
sharp eye out and an even sharper ear I watched and listened for anything signs
of life.
To my pleasure I heard the sound of horses whinnying and
snorting towards my own steed. He gave no response, for I trained him better
than that. We went quietly, slowly gaining ground and getting closer to the
people.
Then I saw smoke rising in the wind and I could smell the
fiery sent as well. I could see the silhouette of people sitting around a large
fire, bundled up with heavy blankets and clothes. They were so far, unaware of
my presence. I could see their horses tied up a fair amount of distance away
from the people, and there were a few well sized carts next to them. These were
a very poor people coming from the southeast, probably wanting to get a better
life for themselves, that dream certainly wouldn’t last long.
I rested my hand on the cold hilt of my sword. There was a
small crust of frost over it, and the icy feeling it made my adrenaline rush. Slipping
off my dapple-grey horse I silently stalked up towards the people. I was like
the darkness following up on a sunset, unexpected, fast and if you aren’t
smart, fatal.
There was a particularly young female sitting by the fire,
and she faced me. I saw her look up and I saw the panic in her face. That’s
when I drew my blade. The sound of the metal scrapping against its sheath made
them all look up at me. There were a few slightly older men around the fire,
not well worn but older then the scouts that I’d killed, I saw the fear flash
in their eyes as they too jumped up and started ordering the women and children
to run while drawing their swords.
I was nearly upon them, but I saw something move out of the
corner of my eye. I quick movement that was of a human. Not to mention I saw
one of the men looking behind me, not directly at me. Someone was behind me. To
my knowledge this person had a bow, and probably a sword handy. For I heard something
drop, perhaps firewood, and the stretching sound of a tight string getting
pulled back.
I small smile crept up on my face, and I lowered my sword
ever so slightly, turning my head I could see the figure out of the corner of
my eyes. He looked different from the rest of these men. He was taller and
younger. He wore a thick brown cloak and there was a hood covering his eyes. A
filthy ranger just stumbled across me and my day. Perfect.
‘’Are you going to shoot or what?’’ I taunted, my voice was
deep and calm. ‘’I don’t have all day.’’
‘’Why don’t you just leave, get your horse and go and
perhaps I will consider sparing your life.’’ He was young from the sounds of
it, younger than what I’d thought.
A deep hum of amusement burned in my throat. ‘’Do you really
want to do this?’’ I asked. ‘’I don’t take kindly to strangers—‘’ I eyed the
four men in front of me. ‘’And I don’t spare them either.’’ I warned.
‘’This is your final chance!’’ He snarled. ‘’Leave or get an
arrow through the heart.’’ He growled.
‘’I think I’ll take my chances.’’ Then suddenly barrel
rolling forward and I sprang up right in front of the first man I saw, and I
sank my blade up into his torso. I knew the other three men were reacting fast
for they would be on me in a heartbeat and this ranger was slow and hesitant to
shoot me. For by the time the life had faded in my victim’s eyes I’d pivoted
around him using him as a shield and an arrow lodged itself in his chest. This
ranger wasn’t a big fan of hurting me for he was slow to shoot at me, interesting.
I knew another man was behind me and his sword was raised
over head. I whipped around and I gracefully dragged my sword across his stomach.
It was a quick, clean cut. Not enough to kill him but enough to make him
suffer.
Over in the distance I could hear the women screaming and
their children crying. One of the three men with dark brown hair was screaming
at them to run and leave so I turned my attention towards him. I swung my long,
silver sword and he jumped back and put up his own stubbier sword in defense.
Twisting it easily and flipping it out of his hands I began
to corner him in. Before I could swing and end his miserable life, I saw the
third man coming at me. He had longer blonde hair and feisty blue eyes, he let
out a battle cry as he swung, he’d missed me, and he slid off of me towards the
side. He had blood smeared across his face and I realized he had been with the
man who I’d struck before—surely, he was dead now.
These two younger men—both scared for their lives and
families—were trying to find a way to gang up on me. I could tell for the one
with the blood on him was circling to the left and the other with the dark hair
picked up his sword and was circling to the right. Oh, this was going to be
fun!
I thought back to the ranger for a moment, looking to see where
he was, I realized he was gone. He hadn’t left he was probably circling around
the clearing to find a place he could sneak up on me or he’d gone to the women
and children to help them flee. Either way, whatever he was doing wasn’t going
to work.
The one on the left charged at me, he was mad furious. I
could tell due to the way he was swinging. Strong and quick blows from the
sword were coming from him. I saw the anger flash in his blue eyes as I blocked
his attack and shoved him off of me with a kick, then whipping around to meet
the darker haired one’s blade. He wasn’t as mad as the other—more scared but he
put up a fight.
Our swords clanked together, and he tried to shove me back.
Stumbling a little I backed off and turned towards the other and he was really
into it. He was boiling over now. ‘’Having fun yet?’’’ I sneered quietly. His
face and my own were close together and I saw his expression darken. He let out
a growl and I knew the other man was coming at me.
‘’I will end you!’’ The vicious man hissed as I spun off of
him, meeting the other one and the two crashed into each other. Then I spotted
the movement of a cloak, and then with a jolt I felt an arrow sink into my left
shoulder. I hissed in pain as I looked towards the ranger to see he was already
pulling another arrow up towards his cheek.
Then I formulated a plan to end all three of them. ‘’Get out
here and fight like a man.’’ I mocked the ranger in pain as I yanked the arrow
out of my left shoulder and clenched it tightly. ‘’For these two fight like
men—‘’ He knew what I was about to do. He dropped his bow and pulled out his
sword and he ran towards me in fear.
The more angered man with blond hair behind me had already
collected himself and was coming at me like a made bull. I saw the fire in his
blue eyes and the blood smeared on his face made him look like a real soldier.
‘’Gideon don’t!!’’ The ranger yelled.
‘’And they will surely die like men too.’’ I spun around and
I stabbed the arrow into his chest. His eyes grew wide and thick, crimson blood
dripped from his lips. He wheezed for air and I backed away from him, letting
his body drop to the snow-covered floor. And then there were two.
I had no remorse for any of the deaths I’d caused. This
pleased me, and I let it fuel me. Turning quickly the ranger swung his blade
and I blocked, and we had a quick spat. Our swords bounced off of each other
and he blocked as I swung. He circled in around each other for a moment. My
more-calm gaze stared into his own fiery one. ‘’Why must you be this way?’’ He
snarled as he swung his sword out of anger. ‘’You kill everyone for no reason.’’
He stated as I dodged one of his blows. ‘’Why?’’ He questioned as I noticed the
other man with the dark hair begin to scramble away. He was trying to flee for
his life that was unexceptional. I needed to finish him off and end the rest of
them.
‘’You know there’s not a lot of talking in a duel, one
normally keeps his mouth shut before he dies out here.’’ I snarled as I
attacked him with a quick series of strikes.
‘’What makes you think I’m going to die?’’ He asked as he
backed away from me, his sword still held up, yet he knew he was losing.
‘’I don’t think you’re going to die.’’ I saw his darkened
face grow confused. ‘’I know you are.’’ Then just as I was about to charge
without mercy something jumped in between us. The other man with dark hair who
was cowering away now stood there with a blade in his gut.
Yanking my weapon out in anger I finally saw the rangers
face. He pulled off his hood and I saw him stare at the man in shock. I
instantly recognized the ranger. It was Vidarr! He had olive colored skin, muddy
brown hair and wide black eyes. He had a more-square face and a sharp jaw. He
was more no more than the age of twenty-two winters, still young and spirited.
He looked terrified and upset as his comrade fell to the
floor. He looked at me in disbelief and horror as he began to back away from
me. I saw the panic and confusion in his eyes and his mouth gaped open a little
as if he wanted to say something, yet no words came from him.
Talk about killing two birds with one stone, I could get him
out of the picture while helping these souls out as well! The day had just
gotten better. Oh, how I longed to stab him now, but he was making a bolt for
the forest. I had to chase after him, there was no way I’d catch him on foot.
He was much younger than me, thus faster. Not to mention, my shoulder burned
from the previous arrow that was stuck in it.
Turning quickly, I sprinted past the fallen bodies of the
men, looking to see that the women and children had a taken a few of their
horses and things and left. They could run but they couldn’t hide. They
wouldn’t last long out in the wild world of the forest. I’d kill Vidarr and
then I’d easily track them down and slaughter them too.
What a perfect day today was. I couldn’t ask for a better
one. Killing a ranger and some helpless people was just what I needed to make
my day. I spotted my silver stallion and he stood where I left him. His ears
twitched and he lifted his head as he took a few steps towards me in the thick
snow.
Grabbing his reins and quickly hoisting myself into the saddle. I sheathed my sword and I gave my horse I hard kick in and he immediately took off in a strong canter. I rode back out into the clearing and past the bodies and towards the forest once more. I quickly spotted the fresh tracks that the young ranger had left. He was in a full sprint trying to get away from me. Kicking my horse a little harder, encouraging him to run faster, he picked up the pace in a full run. He was fast and he would take me to Vidarr easily. Now, the chase was on.
Of all the days in my past, there is one memory that really
makes me remember who I once was. Of when I was a man, of when I was human.
It’s only an echo of the past but I tend to dwell on the memory more then I
should. It’s something I unfortunately wished I had, of course, now it was gone
and I did everything in my power to let go of it, yet I was still clinging to
this small thread of my past, as if I still needed it to live.
–==+++==–
There was once a man named Allerick. He was a proud, happy
man who lived outside of a large town just north of the woodlands. He had a
very good life. A pleasant home his grandfather built sat on a grassy green
hill where his family lived. Allerick was married to his wife Adeena, and he
loved her very dearly. He also had two children, a son named Priamos and a
daughter named Nesrin.
Allerick
It was a good life Allerick lived, and he never wished for
another. He was a content farmer living a simple life—a good one too. He only
wanted to live the rest of his days in that cozy home with his wife, but that
wasn’t meant to be.
Though these lands were filled with good and light, there
was still a shadow following them around. There was a great force conquering
the lands. Vikings from the south wanted to take over the country for
themselves, and they went planning on taking it nicely. Starting in the southwest
and working their way north, the Vikings started taking over the country. They
came with fire, spears and swords, they showed no mercy to anyone. Not even the
helpless.
Of course, being the head of the household and a respected
member of the town Allerick proposed they stand their ground and fight,
everyone agreed that fighting back was the right call. Defending their home was
one of many ways the people showed their love towards the country.
That fateful day came when fire covered the grass and smoke
filled the sky, the people stood no chance against the Vikings. The men stood
their ground at the tree line to the woodland, but they were overwhelmed and
had to retreat. There was no time to warn anyone against the numbers and brutal
strength of the enemy, the town was to be slaughtered.
The people tried to flee to the north but very few made it
to the outskirts of town, let alone the mountains to which they would retreat
too. Allerick fought honorably, as did all the men but their efforts were of
little use, their families were burned and slaughtered. There was nothing they
could do.
Allerick desperately tried to save his wife and children,
but it was not to be. He was held back, forced to his knees and he helplessly
watched as his families’ necks were slit open. The Vikings figured they should
kill him next, but one of the leaders said he was already dead, at least on the
inside. Killing him would be merciful, so he was spared from the jaws of death.
Eventually, over time the Vikings were driven out of the
country, but the losses were heavy, heavier than what everyone would have
wanted. Allerick was a lost soul like many other fathers, his beloved was dead,
and his future was dead as well, he had no reason to move on in life, as the
Vikings said, it would be merciful to kill him. He couldn’t bring himself to end
his life, and that’s when the sun set on his human reign and so arose the
darkness in him.
He became something inhuman, he became darkness, and nothing
more. He was one of the soul survivors who made it through the war, and he
wished that the rest of his days would be spent helping the helpless and showing
mercy to those who had received no mercy.
–==+++==–
The Woods in Winter
This man I was thinking of was someone I didn’t know
anymore. He was a stranger of the past who I didn’t care about or love, if I ever
saw him, I would turn my back to him and leave him behind, I had too. He was
dead to me. Once again if you ask me, I was showing mercy to him—killing him
off and leaving him behind in the past. He was only a burden I carried on my
shoulders, he was useless and pathetic, it was only quite reasonable that I’d
kill him.
I cast the thoughts of this man I once knew to the back of
my mind and I focused on the task at hand. I needed to get Vidarr. I needed to
end him like I ended Allerick so many years ago, it was the only just that I
did this, if I didn’t, I wasn’t doing my job.
Urging my stallion to run faster, I was able to spot the
young ranger ahead of me. His cloak was sailing behind him and he was clenching
his bow in his hand. He peered over his shoulders and I saw panic flash in his
eyes. He was afraid, he certainly should be.
I had no bow and quiver of my own, for many reasons. One
being I liked to end my victims up close and in person. The job just didn’t
seem to feel right ending a man from a distance with an arrow. My hand rested
on my sheath, my fingers inched up towards the hilt and they rested on the cold
metal. I was gaining ground quickly, Vidarr didn’t have long.
I’d been dreaming of this moment for months and know it was
upon me. I was about twenty meters behind him, and I was closing in on my prey
fast, I began to pull my sword out of its sheath. My lips curled into a smile
as I drew it fully out and was getting ready to swing, but that’s when
something unexpected happened.
I was about to end poor Vidarr’s life when I saw another
horse coming at me. It was a small bay colored mare and there was an even
smaller girl riding her. She looked bewildered and she clung to the horse for
her life. What a strange thing, you might say. Seeing a little girl riding a
horse next to me near moments before ending the ranger. I very much agree with
you, I quickly decided that ending her would have to be added to the days kill
list, so turning my attention towards her, I quickly raised my blade overhead
but that’s when my horse reared up, making me fall off of him just as an arrow
whizzed past my head.
Landing in the thick snow, I quickly put together that
Vidarr had tried to pull off a quick shot while my attention was on the girl.
In the process of falling off my steed I lost grip of my weapon. I was able to
spot it just as the girl slipped off her horse and ran towards Vidarr who was panting
in the snow, looking terrified himself.
She tugged and pulled at his hand and he seemed to bounce
back because he scooped her up in his arms and bolted back to the horse. This
was my chance to get them both, I scrambled over to my sword and I grabbed the
cold metal and I ran towards the duo.
My adrenaline was coursing, and my heart was pounding. This
was it! They were right there. Vidarr quickly shoved the girl onto the back of
the horse and his head whipped towards me. He put his bow up in defense against
my swing and my blade chipped into his wooden long bow. There was a snap in the
wood from the sounds of it and the mare jumped because of it. She let out a
panicked neigh and she reared up her back legs, making the small girl fall off
in the process. Then she trotted away still kicking up her legs, leaving the
girl defenseless.
Vidarr shoved me back but I swung so he was forced to turn
around and use his breaking bow to defend himself. As he fought for his life
and the girls, his head was constantly looking over his shoulder towards her. I
couldn’t figure out if the two were related or not, but they clearly cared for
each other. ‘’Reila you need to run!’’ He ordered her as he tried forcing me
back, but I stood my ground, forcing him backwards and trying to get his bow to
snap.
‘’But I won’t get far!’’ She squeaked as she weakly pushed
herself up to standing, now I was able to get a good look at her. She was small
and rather frail, maybe about ten winters old. She had long blonde hair and
hazel eyes. I completely lost focus on Vidarr, for this girl called Reila
looked like Allerick’s daughter.
As I said before, Allerick had a family. Adeena his
beautiful wife, his son Priamos and his daughter Nesrin. Nesrin was a small,
petite girl with warm brown eyes and golden hair. She was innocent and gentle,
not much of a fighter. Reila looked the same way. Same small frame and nearly
the same eye color. Pretty long hair and to innocent to be in the woods.
Something about her made me remember Nesrin before killing
him. I knew Allerick loved his daughter very much, he spoke fondly of the girl
and he cared for her. Something in me was almost tempted to stop fighting and
just look at her for a moment. There was something about her that just…made me
want to stop and turn around.
I was suddenly snapped back into reality and with a hard
push I managed to make Vidarr trip backwards. Now I was on top of him. I was
going to end him. Raising my sword over my head, I looked down at my victim. He
was panting like a dog and staring up at me with hopelessness running over his
eyes. I was about to swing down and sink my blade into his stomach, but the
small girl screamed in fear.
My eyes shot over to her, she was on her knee’s, sobbing her
eyes out. I couldn’t terror my gaze from her. She looked like Nesrin. If I
hadn’t known any better, I would have thought it was actually her. Something
inside of me was screaming at me to leave, it was like this ‘thing’ didn’t want
me to kill Vidarr or Reila.
I still hesitantly stood where I was before, staring at the
small girl with the ranger underneath me. I couldn’t bring myself to lower my
sword and kill Vidarr, instead I just stood there thinking about Nesrin and the
man I once knew.
I ranger didn’t know what was happening either, but he
wasted no more time lying where he was. Instead he scrambled backwards, then he
finally pushed himself up, picked up Reila and he chased after the horse.
I could feel myself come back to my sense’s, I still didn’t
understand why I was hesitant to swing my sword. It was confusing to me, I
looked to the ground back up to the duo to see Vidarr climbing onto the mare
with Reila, kicking the horse then running off deeper into the forest. What
happened to me? Why was I hesitant to kill him?
I shook my head in disbelief and as I ran my fingers through my hair, and I walked back over towards my steed. I couldn’t believe what just happened. Allerick, was very much alive inside of me, and I knew I had to end him again. In order to maintain my current straight of saving the helpless, I had to kill Allerick, and I had to kill him now.
I was enraged at myself. How could I not know Allerick was
dead?! After all this time—it had been years since I’d so much as felt his
presence in me and now he just decided to come out of hiding? This was
unacceptable! I felt foolish for not making sure the man I was knew was truly
dead, and now I had to go through the process of killing him all over again,
while tracking down Vidarr and the rest of the caravan. Perfect, just perfect,
they day was going perfectly fine until Allerick decided to drop in.
There was a growl deep in my throat as I marched back
towards my horse. He anxiously awaited me, a couple meters away. He nervously
snorted as I rested my hand on his muzzle and he calmed down. For a moment I
had an urge to call my companion, by his given name…wait…I just called him my
companion! Allerick was trying to come back out!!
Thinking of a way to shove the man back down into the
darkest pits of my soul I broke my gaze from my horse, and I grabbed his reins
and I hauled myself onto his back. I gave him a sharp quick then he let out a whinny
as he began to trot forward. Yet he knew what I wanted to do, his trot turned
into a gallop and from there into a run. He knew I wanted to get on with my
work.
I followed the other horse’s tracks in the thick snow, they were
trying to get away from me. They were probably a fairway ahead of me, but I’d
soon catch up, there were two people on a small mare on the run from a single
man on a big stallion. They wouldn’t last long.
For a moment again I thought of Nesrin, I remembered her
soft voice and cheerful personality, she was gentle towards everyone and kind.
I thought of the girl called Reila, I began to wonder if she was the same
way….ughh….not again!! There was Allerick trying to come out once more! I
thought about how I was to slaughter the girl and Vidarr, I thought how I was
going to kill of the other women and children, yes, yes, the blood! That’s just
what I needed, I needed to see more blood seeping into the snow, I needed to
see lifeless bodies on the ground, yes that’s what I wanted, I was craving it!
Reila
The icy wind nipped at my ears and it danced through my hair
and I felt my blood pulse through me. Focus, on killing them, just killing
them. My breath fogged out in front of me and I squinted my eyes trying to
protect them from the chill in the air, soon, more crimson blood would ruin on
the forest floor.
I rode my horse long and hard until the tracks became fresher,
up ahead I could a darkened shape trying to escape me, and it was now or never.
I simply needed to get this over with and move on with this. I saw Vidarr try
to urge his horse to move faster but the mare only seemed to slow, this was
excellent on my behalf. ‘’Come on, faster.’’ I hissed to my steed.
The ranger looked over his shoulder and I stared at him with
wide dark eyes. This was it, no hesitation! I quickly yanked out my sword and I
could almost hear the panic coming from him, I was riding next to them now, and
once again I saw the girl. Reila was cowering into Vidarr and she was trying
not to look at me, I saw her teary brown eyes and she sank back towards the
ranger.
Vidarr kept one of his arms wrapped around her, and the he
reached for an arrow in his quiver. He was on the defense now, for he was
holding the arrow as if it was a knife, he was not going down without a fight.
Though, he was scared and fearful of me, I realized he’d die before I got near Reila.
Then the thought of Nesrin crept back into my mind. Ah! Why
did this keep happening to me?! I had to act now! I swung my blade without
thinking and the mare neighed in pain and Vidarr yelped. My eyes spotted fresh
red blood on the tip of my steel sword. It was deep and dark, it nearly looked
black. The blood began to drip off the edge of it and I felt satisfaction roll
over me. The blood was an overjoying sight and it calmed me, and I felt
Allerick shrink away again. Oh, how thankful I was now…now I could…
By the time I was snapped into my normal scenes the horse
the duo was riding reared up because I’d struck her flank. She was on her hind
legs and the two fell off, I pulled my steed to a stop then circled around back
towards the ranger and girl.
Vidarr was scrambling around in bloody snow, he was trying
to stand so he could fight, but I’d slashed open his left thigh and there was
red liquid everywhere. The almost black blood pooled down his leg as he grabbed
yet another arrow. He looked to the ground and the girl was scrambling up
towards him.
She grabbed onto his cloak and cowered behind it. He put a
hand in front of her as I circled around them. ‘’Will you at least consider
sparing her if I gave my life?’’ He winced painfully as his position followed
me wherever I rode.
I heard her whimper when he said, ‘consider sparing’. It was
almost his way of saying ‘there’s no way out of this one’ to the poor girl. I
suddenly remembered Nesrin crying over the fact that we were going to war with
the Vikings so many years ago. She didn’t want us to fight, and she couldn’t
understand why we couldn’t just have peace, and I remembered her screaming my
name to help her just moments before she died.
That ebbing pain I felt as I remembered my daughter made me
want to ride off and leave. I pulled my horse away from the two, for a moment I
stared blankly at my sword. Did I really have to kill people…no…I mustn’t think
that way! I’d already injured Vidarr, soon enough he’d bleed out anyway and
Reila had no chance of surviving in the woods on her own. Mercy was all I could
show towards them!
I slipped of my horse as I stormed towards them and the
cowered back, both of them looked terrified and fearful, Vidarr looked more
ready to die due to his wound and Reila…I swear in the kings name it was
Nesrin!! My hand began to quiver as I lowered my sword. ‘’Perhaps…’’I spoke.
‘’I can spare you both—‘’ I cut myself off and I saw the confusion and hope
swirl in Vidarr’s eyes.
Maybe I could spare them…I could be merciful in the since of
being a leader…For a moment I was brought back to being my true self, I felt
the presence of Allerick come over me. I blankly stared off into thin air and I
saw Vidarr start shoving Reila backwards, but she tried moving towards me.
I watched her small figure scramble out of the rangers grasp
and she came to me. I broke my gaze from her, and I noticed my reflection in my
sword. I saw my normal self, my stormy blue eyes…longer brown hair tied back so
I’d stay out of my face…a sharp jaw and pain. Lots of pain, but there was also
sympathy.
There was sympathy in my gaze and the smallest flicker of
hope in my eyes and I looked back to Reila and her own brown eyes were wide
with curiosity. It was like she wanted to get to know me. How strange, how
foolish.
He was coming back out again! The darker form of myself who
wanted to kill and slaughter the helpless, I couldn’t, I was back, and I
couldn’t let him return! I felt cold snow fall onto my cheek and that familiar
feeling of emptiness pounded through my veins. That cold lifeless feeling was
back inside of me and oh how I loved it!
I tore my gaze from my reflection, and I saw Reila creeping
towards me. The ranger was still standing where he stood before, and I saw how
cautious yet hopeful he looked, what fools! ‘’Forgive me Vidarr but I must end
this bright moment early…’’
He tilted his head and he inched towards me. ‘’Whatever do
you mean? You haven’t killed us yet, that gives me hope that there’s still good
in you. Don’t let that go to waste.’’ He begged. ‘’We’ve all heard stories of
you. How ruthless and cold you are…prove them wrong. I know you used to be a
good man—‘’
‘’Well you were wrong to think that!’’ I hissed. ‘’I never
was a good man—‘’ My voice trailed and I suddenly reached forward and I grabbed
Reila by the arm and she yelped in fear and I pulled her close to me, putting my
blade to her neck. I needed to get her out of the picture!
‘’Don’t you dare!’’ The ranger stepped forward but he was
crippled by pain, he still held his arrow in a stabbing position. ‘’You were
Allerick a second ago, find him!’’ He growled, but I would do no such thing!
Don’t do it.
You must!
This isn’t right.
Kill her! Kill her now!
Walk away from this all.
I heard these phrases in my head and they wouldn’t go away. I
began to panic ever so slightly. Do I kill her and the ranger or do I walk away
and spare them? What was I supposed to do?! With these voices inside of me it
was nearly impossible to think straight and now who was right and who was wrong!
Kill or spare do or die! It was nearly impossible to know what I was supposed
to do, I just had to…I had to…run.
Without knowing what to do I ran. I grabbed Reila and I ran
to my horse, shoved her on and I rode him into the forest. I heard Vidarr
scream and Reila tried squirming away from me and she was trying hard not to
cry but I didn’t listen to her plea. I tuned her out and I zoned into my mind.
Take your sword and stab her in the heart!! One voice
screamed. You know that’s wrong, stop, turn around and take her back. No!
You’re a justice giving being that is called darkness, this isn’t who you are,
you’re dark and heartless!! You were once a man called Allerick, don’t you miss
being him?
Back and forth my thoughts screamed at me and it made my
head hurt and my heart race. The moment was so intense for me it was hard for
me to know how to ride a horse right. I felt Reila yank the reins around she
was trying to slow my companion, ugh!! She was trying to slow my steed and she
could hardly get the leather reins out of my hands.
‘’Slow down!!’’ She screamed as we ran past a tree, nearly
running right into it. ‘’Take me back! Take me back!’’ She begged me as she
tried shaking my arms that were caging her in. ‘’I don’t want this!’’
For a moment I felt Allerick overcome me and I quickly
pulled back on the reins making Vangelis slow down quickly. ‘’I don’t want this
either.’’ My silver horse jerked his head and he bucked ever so slightly but he
slowed down to a trot. ‘’That’s a good lad.’’ I patted his neck gently and he
snorted.
Reila turned her head and looked at me. ‘’You’re not going
to hurt me now, right?’’ She asked hopefully as she noticed my sudden changes
in behavior.
I looked into her deep brown eyes and I sighed. ‘’I—I don’t
know.’’ Was all I could say as I began to devise a plan on how to keep the
darker form of myself locked away forever. I needed to kill him just as he once
did to me so many years ago, only this time I was intending for him to stay
that way.
I quickly slipped off of Vangelis and he stopped moving and
I made sure Reila stayed put on my dear horse. ‘’Listen to me young one, ride
back to the ranger and—‘’ I stopped talking and my head throbbed as I winced
painfully. He was trying to come back, I felt one of her little thin hands
touch my big rough hand and I felt him disappear for a moment. ‘’—And ride back
to Vidarr, you can follow the tracks that we’ve already made…’’ I backed away
as I felt the darkness overtake me. ‘’Leave! Vangelis won’t stray from you,
go!’’
I grabbed my head and I fell to my knees and I saw the girl
ride off. Ahh! How could I let her slip away like that?! She was right under my
fingertips and she got away! How could I be so naïve?! I had the girl and now
she was gone! Stay where you belong Allerick! Stay in the grave!! I screamed at
the man who was suddenly back from the dead!
No! I shall fight until you kill me again!! Allerick yelled
back. I grabbed my head and let out a yell as I wished these two voices would
just leave me alone! I never asked for this said Allerick, I never thought
you’d give in so easily, said the other.
The madness was getting to me as I felt myself fall apart in
the snow, I wanted to be the old me, I wanted Allerick back! But the pain I
felt as the darkness tried to consume me was almost over-baring, I could feel
the two of them battling inside me. It was almost physical like in a real fight,
I felt sharp pains and jabs going on inside of me, for a moment one would win
but then the next the other would conquer the enemy. My head was throbbing, and
I wished it to stop but no end came to the fighting!
‘’Stop this!! Aahhhgrrrr!!’’ I winced as I grabbed my skull
and yelled. I squinted my eyes shut and I felt Allerick pull through for a
moment. Have faith, I’m not going back to the grave he said. You were good
once. Now listen to me—
I didn’t hear Allerick finish what he wanted to say for a
sharp pain replaced his voice and the darkness overruled him. Get up and chase
the girl, go kill her! Go spare her helpless life!! Get up, take your sword and
get her! Remember the blood, remember the darkness hides you and protects you
from those around you! I can hide you, no one will remember you for being weak
and helpless, let me help you!
That offer was so tempting, I grabbed it by the hand, and I
felt myself get pulled into the darkness. Oh, I was back! I was back and I was
going to kill everyone! Yes, yes, I was going to end them all! I pushed myself
up and I dusted the snow off my legs, I let out a sigh and my breath fogged up
for a moment.
I let out a deep chuckle and I grabbed my sword from its sheath, and I began to march forward, following the tracks of my horse. Oh, this was going to be fun! Finally, I could end this once and for all. The darkness was in control and there was no coming back.
I trudged through the snow, quickly following the tracks of
my steed, soon enough I’d end them all. The wind picked up ever so slightly,
and a light snow began to fall once more. Even though it was a light snow fall I’d
rather not risk the tracks being covered, so I went from a walk to a march,
eagerly searching for the ranger and the girl.
Not too much time passed when I was able to spot my horse
trotting along with the girl on his back. One too many times had she slipped
away from my grasp, not anymore though. I kept quiet and I treaded lightly
doing everything in my power to keep to the shadows of the forest.
So far, I’d gone unnoticed, I had the element of surprise to
my advantage, I need to kill her, no more hesitating. I told myself. Show
mercy, I must show mercy, be merciful. Don’t think just do. I looked towards
Reila again and she was occasionally peering over her shoulder to see if I was
following her, of course I’d trailed off towards the far side of her, so I’d catch
her off guard.
The small girl looked so weak and helpless as she rode
along. She was scared and on edge, she didn’t know what to do, as far as I
could tell she was still trying to figure out where Vidarr was. There was no
way she’d get out of this one without a scratch.
I yanked my sword out of its sheath and I started making my
way out of the woods towards her. When I was within thirty feet of her my horse
stopped and he looked towards me. His ears were perked there was a gleam of
happiness in his eyes. He bobbed his head up and down and snorted and the girl
looked at me.
She gave me an unsure smile and it quickly faded away. Her
little brown eyes grew round, and she tried pulling back on the reins, ushering
the horse to back away. He did what he was told but he pawed at the ground and
his ears twitched, the poor thing was confused. He wanted to come to me, but he
knew what I was about to do. He didn’t know what to do though—such a loyal
thing but concerned for the girl’s well-being. He had to decide between
listening to Reila and coming to me.
He dipped his head and he started backing away again, the
girl looked relived, but my steed wasn’t going very far. I picked up my pace
and I snatched his reins into my hands, and he stood there unwavering, he’d given
into me, so pathetic. That’s when Reila tried to slide off the saddle I grabbed
her. ‘’Wait! I thought you were good now!’’ She whimpered in fear as I pulled
her close towards me and I readied my sword.
‘’You thought wrong dear girl.’’ I hissed.
‘’You now you can change.’’ She squeaked as I saw tears
swell in her eyes. ‘’I don’t want to die.’’ And that’s when I struck, there was
no hesitation this time.
I saw crimson red blood drip down my blade, and I saw the
fear in her eyes as the life left her body. Blood dripped from her mouth as she
sank towards the ground and died. Everything happened to quickly, I
just…grabber her and now…she was dead. Good…good. That’s what I needed to do,
and I did it. Her small frail body dropped to the ground and I stared at if for
a moment.
Her pretty eyes were now dull and lifeless, blood stained
her face and torso, and she didn’t even put up a struggle she just let it
happen. She put up no fight, she was just…so innocent. She was…so similar to…I
couldn’t bring myself to say or even think her name. I knew if I spoke of the
daughter of Allerick he’d come crawling back out of the pit again. He had to
stay there, there was no hope for me now. I’d done too much and gone too far. I
couldn’t let all that precious work go to waste over a single girl that needed
to be put out of her misery.
I needed to move on now, I just needed to leave and take
care of Vidarr and then find the rest of the caravan and end them too, but my
feet wouldn’t budge. I just stared at Reila, I was unsure of what to do
something in me didn’t want to leave, I-I…I felt regret swell in my chest the
longer I stood there.
Allerick must have been trying to crawl his way back out and
for some reason…I let him come. I crashed to my knees and I felt my entire
world fall apart. I…I killed her. She was dead because of me. I killed her for
no just reason…what had I done?!
I found myself crying over the fact that I’d killed an
innocent girl, she was just like Nesrin and I ended her. I killed her, I killed
her…wait no. The dark rider version of myself killed her, I could of tried
harder to stop him but now it was too late! I couldn’t bring her back! I
couldn’t control myself anymore I was a monster. I needed to leave I just
needed to leave and live out the rest of my life in solitude, not that I wasn’t
already alone but I just needed to isolate myself even more so the darker
version of myself couldn’t come out and hurt anyone anymore.
But first I needed to tell Allerick, the younger ranger was
probably not too far off bleeding to death in the snow. I let out a chocked cry
as I dried a small tear that was running down my cheek, what had I become? Over
the past ten years I’d turned into something so incredibly wicked while I was
cowering away in the dark, I didn’t even know what I was anymore.
The darkness might have hid me from the world, but I’d
stayed in it too long and it changed me into something inhuman, I desperately
needed to leave and runway. Yes, I’d been running away from my problems for some
time now, but there was no point in going back or trying to retrace my steps.
No one would help me after the things I’d done.
I just had to pull myself together, tell Vidarr I was…sorry
and then I’d be gone for good. No one would ever hear from me again. As I
sheathed my sword—regret filled my bones as I felt my heart pang with more
grief and sadness after killing the young girl. She had so much to do in her
life, so much to look forward to and I ruined it. Her parents were probably
worried sick and sooner or later they’d find out I killed her.
More tears slid down my cheeks and I felt my friend nuzzle
my face and his hot breath warmed my cold cheeks. He nuzzled me again then he
started sniffing at Reila’s small lifeless body. He then looked back to me and
he pawed the ground and snorted. ‘’I know old friend…I know.’’ I muttered as I
gently rubbed the side of his head. ‘’She was much to kind to be killed, she
didn’t deserve it, and I don’t deserve your compassion.’’ I said as I looked
into his big black eyes he snorted again, and he tried nibbling on my hair. It
was as if he was trying to say, ‘It’s going to be okay’.
‘’You’re such a good companion.’’ I said quietly as I looked
at him. He jerked his head again and he lowered it over towards Reila. I
figured he’d miss the small girl. ‘’I know boy, I know.’’ I said quietly and I
knew I’d best be off to tell Vidarr, what terrible crime I’d done.
I believed it’d be best to bring her body with me so Vidarr
could see her one last time, so I slowly and carefully picked her up. She was
so light in weight, it felt as if I was picking up a feather. I closed her dull
eyes and I carefully picked her up and climbed onto Vangelis. Without me
kicking him he started trotting forward, he was such a good horse.
I think in my heart I knew Vangelis was the only friend I
had whether I was me or the dark rider. Loyal to the fault and he never left
me, I felt as though he was grieving for Reila too. He slowly walked in the
snow and I soon spotted Vidarr sitting up against a tree, slowly dying where
I’d left him.
His skin was pale, and his breath was shallow, blood covered
his leg. He looked to me and his eyes widened, he tried to sit up, but he was
barely able too, he still had his broken bow in hand, and he grabbed it and put
it up in defense. But as I slipped of Vangelis, with his friend in my arms he
lowered it and I saw the pain in his expression. It wasn’t only from his
injuries it was mental too.
He then tried to push himself up to standing, and he
supported himself against the tree. ‘’You—I thought there was some good in you,
clearly—‘’ He winced. ‘’I was wrong.’’ Blood oozed out of his cut.
‘’Vidarr—‘’ I spoke in a soft voice, trying to keep my own
emotions under controlled. ‘’I–‘’
‘’You were just showing mercy? I know…well I don’t call that
mercy, I call that being a coward. You’re just afraid of your past. Now…let’s
settle this and get this over with.’’ He said as he stepped forward and he used
his bow stick as a sword.
‘’Vidarr I know the things I’ve done are bad, I’ve killed…’’
I chocked on my words, for a moment nothing came out of my mouth. ‘’I’ve killed
too many innocent people to count, including Reila.’’ I began.
‘’Stop with the speech and just fight me…please. I’d rather
die to a blade then a wound.’’ He grunted in pain as he tried inching his way
towards me, thought it was very hard since his left leg was practically
useless.
‘’I don’t want to kill you.’’
He looked at me and his brown eyes were wide like the full
moon. ‘’You’re…you’re you aren’t you?’’ he asked me.
Nodding slowly, I walked towards him. ‘’I can’t kill you. I
can’t bring myself to end another life.’’ When I spoke the word ‘life’ I
practically chocked on it, for a moment I looked at Reila who was dead in my
arms, it was getting harder to bare this by the second.
He then let out a painful sigh as he tossed his broken
weapon aside as tears started streaming down his face as I slowly walked up to
him with Reila. He crumbled to the forest floor burring his face into his hands
and I came to him. ‘’Just kill me already, I’ve got nothing to lose.’’ He
begged as he looked at me. ‘’You killed her, the caravan is probably a lost
cause, I won’t recover from this…’’ he closed his eyes and looked away from me
in shame. ‘’Just please kill me.’’ He muttered through a sob. ‘’You’d being
doing it out of real mercy. This would be justified.’’ He cried as he looked to
me.
I shared his pain as I knelt down in front of him, and he
made eye contact with me. I kept Reila close to me, but I started handing her
towards the dying Ranger. ‘’I can’t—‘’
‘’You must…please. I’d rather die to a sword then a wound.’’
He sniffed, trying to dry his tears, he then looked at Reila and he gave me a
weary smile. ‘’Was it fast?’’ he asked me in a painful tone.
Nodding I began to hand her towards the ranger, and he took
her into his arms with trembling hands. He cradled the small girl in his arms then
I noticed how Vidarr was doing, he looked so weak, I could tell he didn’t have
long. His breath was light, and he was shaking cause of the cold, his skin was
paler than the snow and his eyes were growing dull. ‘’She was like a little
sister to me, they were all like family.’’ His voice trailed as he looked to
me.
‘’You won’t kill them, right? You’re not going to turn again,
are you?’’ His voice grew dark as he looked at me. ‘’I know you’ve been going
back and forth between your current self and the darkness in you…are you going
to stay the same?’’ He sounded as if he wanted me to assure him that I would.
“I-I will try Vidarr.’’ I put a firm hand on his shoulder.
‘’Good, now…please…’’ He looked towards my sword and eyed
it. ‘’Do it.’’ He begged.
I started shaking my head ‘no’ as I backed up from him ever
so slightly. ‘’No, I can’t.’’ I muttered, I feared if I touched the sword the
darkness in me would creep out again.
‘’You must.’’
‘’No.’’
‘’I’m asking you as a friend and enemy to kill me.’’
‘’I mustn’t.’’
‘’It would be justified, I’m asking you to do it for one and
you’d be putting me out of my pain…’’ he winced as he touched his bloody leg,
showing me the deep cut into his flesh.
‘’No Vidarr!’’ I hissed. ‘’If I do, he might come back
out!’’
The young man paused for a moment. ‘’I-I see…but still, I
want to die Allerick can you not fulfil a dying man’s request?’’ He asked in a
deep voice.
I shook my head ‘no’ once more. ‘’I cannot Vidarr, I am
sorry.’’ I whispered.
Vidarr let out a snort. ‘’Fine, if you can’t end me, I guess
I’ll have to force you too.’’ He suddenly grabbed the sword out of my sheath
and I instantly backed up.
‘’What are you doing?’’ I asked in confusion, very slowly
backing away from him
He winced as he carefully picked Reila up and he set her in
the snow away from him and he barely managed to stand up and hold my bloody
sword in his hands. ‘’Forcing you into something you can’t get out of.’’ He
hissed, as he sloppily swung his blade at me, I slid to the left of him as he
stumbled forward. ‘’End me Allerick or I’ll end you trying.’’ He snarled in
pain as he spun around and tried to hit me again.
I didn’t understand what he was getting at, but I knew I had
to defend myself. Looking around I spotted his broken bow that was snapped in
two in the snow. I ran towards it and I snatched it up a broken half of the
stick and I turned around and his weapon met the stick I was using to defend
myself. ‘’Vidarr lets not—‘’
‘’No Allercik! Just—‘’ He crashed to his knees and he yelped
in pain. ‘’Just kill me!’’ He begged.
I shook my head as I looked at him. ‘’I can’t! I can’t kill
anyone anymore!’’ I nearly shouted at him.
He tried to swing at me, and his weapon nearly skinned my
shin. ‘’Stop being so selfish and think of others for once in your life.’’ He
hissed as he used the sword to support himself as he stood up again and swung
at me, his weapon weakly crashed into my broken bow stick and I backed up from
him and he stumbled around.
‘’I can’t, I’m already a monster!’’ I growled as I swung my
own stick at him and he blocked, for a moment he tilted his head and I saw his
eyes light up as he blocked my attack.
‘’Your pathetic if you can’t end a dying man! It’s a mercy
kill I tell you! Mercy! Isn’t that all you ever wanted to give when you were
the dark rider!’’
Anger flashed up inside of me. How could he bring back
something I was so desperately trying to put behind me? I swung my stick and he
blocked. ‘’That wasn’t me! I can’t kill anyone, he can!’’ I growled in anger.
‘’And I’m not letting him back out again!’’
Vidarr spun around and he sloppily attacked me with my
sword. ‘’Maybe you should, it wouldn’t be a bad idea, I’m already suffering,
he’d surely put me down!’’
Just then I felt myself boil over and I jabbed my stick
forward and I watched in horror as the stick sank into his torso. Vidar fell to
his knees, and there was a small grin on his face as he held his stomach. What
had I done?! I came to his side and he looked at me as a little bit of blood
dripped from his lips. ‘’Die to the blade rather than the wound…’’ he coughed
out as I began to lower him to the ground.
‘’Vidarr I-I didn’t—‘’
‘’No Allerick, this is what I wanted…’’ He croaked as his
eyes began to close. ‘’Might I ask one last favor of you?’’ he asked as he let
out a raspy breath.
For a heartbeat I couldn’t answer him, I was still in shock
that I stabbed him. His blood was everywhere, it was pooling out from his new
injury and my hands were cover in it. I felt myself begin to panic as I looked
to the dying man. ‘’That—that wasn’t supposed to happen!’’ Pain stabbed my own
heart as I stared at the ranger with tear swollen. ‘’You shouldn’t have to die!
None of you should have to die to my hands!’’ I said as I shook him trying to
keep him awake.
‘’It doesn’t matter—can you do one last favor?’’ he wheezed
as he drew a hard breath.
A favor?! How did he see me ending him as a favor?? ‘’I-I
don’t think I can, I can’t live like this anymore!’’ I cried as I watched him
die. I killed an innocent man and girl. I’d killed husbands and wives, children
and the innocent. I was a monster!
‘’Allerick—‘’ He grabbed my shoulder and he forced me to
look at him. ‘’Please don’t let your sacrifice go in vain—‘’
I shook my head as I looked at him. ‘’My sacrifice…? W-what
do you mean?’’ I asked as I forced myself to swallow my sobs.
‘’I mean don’t let the darkness come back out because I
asked you to kill me—‘’ He yelped and more blood came from his mouth and nose.
‘’Don’t live in fear anymore…deep down I knew there was good in you…don’t let
it go to waste. Don’t let him take control of you and make you live in fear—not
worth it.’’ He said more quietly as his hand began to sink away from my
shoulder. ‘’I-I—‘’ he panted. ‘’I lived a good life Allerick, knowing that
someone else benefited from it—‘’ His eyes began to close and his body grew
limb. ‘’Leave…the woods and…and help others that need saving—mercy and
justice…like a king would.’’
‘’Vidarr…please don’t say such things…I can’t do that.’’ I
cried as he drew his final breath.
‘’Yes…you can…I know…because I…was once like the
darkness…too.’’ He rasped then his eyes shut, and his body fell still, and I
let out a mad scream as I cried over the fallen ranger. He was dead, I killed
him! I killed him and Reila and so many people!! I couldn’t live like this! How
did he expect me to live if I just felt myself die on the inside?? I was a
horrible person…who killed the innocent! And what did he mean he was once like
the darkness too? What stories did he have to tell that where never heard? Did
he suffer as I did so many years ago?
–==+++==–
I mourned and grieved and cried for many hours to come. I hardly
came to terms with what just happened, I sat in the freezing snow with two dead
bodies next to me. I killed them both, I killed them both! I couldn’t let this
thought escape me but Vidarr’s last words still rang like a bell in my head. ‘Help
others that need saving—mercy and justice—like a king would’ What did that even
mean?
Nighttime fell upon me and I was starting to understand what
he meant. He wanted me to show real mercy and justice towards people who needed
help. He wanted me to be like a king and help everybody…he wanted me to truly
become like the Allerick and help people, he wanted me to guide them, lead them
on the right path.
I thought of the war ten years ago when I stood as respected man of the town and I fought in the front lines with other soldiers. I led the charge, people looked up to me, they had a respect for the man I was. He wanted me to be like that. How was I supposed to do that now? I was nothing but a broken man with no one to go too.
As the night went on, I built a small fire and I watched the
flames devour the sticks I’d tossed in it. To the left of me a couple feet away
sat two dead bodies wrapped in thin cloths that I found on Vidarr. I’d have to
bury them sooner or later. I figured I’d go bury them by the norther tree line
a couple miles away from one of the big cities in the country. It was quiet and
peaceful there, not many wondered in that area since it strayed into the forest.
I knew there were rolling green hills there in the spring and flowers bloomed,
and once an old town used to sit right next to it. I knew that town for it was
my old home.
It’d be good to pay a visit to my former home, I’d bury
Vidarr and Reila there…and perhaps go to my families’ graves. I hadn’t been
there in nearly ten years, I supposed I owed them a visit. Deciding that in the
morning I would depart north I settled down for the night, hoping that somehow
everything would be okay.
I woke early the next morning to see the two bodies were
lightly covered in snow and my fire had died out. I looked around as I began to
gather myself and I spotted my dapple-grey stallion standing off in the
distance looking at me. He too was covered in a lit dusting of snow, her perked
up his ears and he snorted as I patted my leg motioning for him to come over to
me.
He happily neighed as he trotted towards me, he had a small
prance in his step as he came to me. I grabbed his reins and I gently stroked
his forehead and he stood there patiently. ‘’Off to home old friend, off to
home.’’ I said as I left him standing where he was and I carefully tied down
Vidarr and Reila’s bodies onto his back and then with a click of my tongue I
lead him into the forest, heading north towards home.
Several days passed when I finally noticed the trees were
thinning out. I let out a sigh as I saw the snow-covered hills and old ruins of
homes and buildings littered the landscape. Once a small town stood out there
and now it was rubble, used by travelers on their way to the cities.
As I led Vangelis further out, I spotted a familiar sight.
There was a large pasture filled with wooden crosses and planks labeling fallen
people. Out there was my family and out there I’d bury the innocent lives I
ended.
As I walked into the center of the pasture, I found my wife
and children graves. They were buried side by side, each one had a wooden plank
with their name on it. There was Adeena, I missed her dearly. My beautiful wife
whom I loved, lied here now. Next to her was Primaros, my son. He was such a courageous
boy who tried to defend his sister and mother. I wished him to be a great man
but now he was a fallen boy, and next to him was Nesrin, my little girl. I
wanted her to stay a little girl and always be happy but now she was still and gone.
Here they were all silent and dead, here I remembered my family.
Later I found an open spot under a willow tree in the
pasture by the tree line. There I started digging two graves while my horse
patiently waited for me. A little while later I was carefully lowering their
bodies into the ground and covering them with dirt and snow. Vangelis stood
there with a soft expression on his face, he kept his head rather low and he
stood there as I finished my work.
‘’There, there Vangelis.’’ I said quietly as I finished
covering Reila’s small grave. ‘’There in a better place now.’’ I mumbled as I
slowly stood and came to my friend’s side. ‘’There in a better place I’m
sure—away from this world and…People like me.’’ I spoke quietly.
He gently nudged me, and he tried nibbling my hand as if he
was comforting me. I then put my arm under my horse’s neck, and I started
gently rubbing and patting him. ‘’I know boy I know.’’ I said a I sniffed a
little as I thought about Vidarr and Reila. I didn’t know too much about them,
just that they were innocent and didn’t deserve to die to my blade. So, I stood
there in silence, paying my respects to them both.
I stayed in the pasture all day going back and forth between
their graves and my families. Finally, at the end of the day and I knew I’d
have to leave. I stood under the snow frosted willow tree I stared at Vidarr’s
grave. He was such a good man, he died too young to my hands. He was a forest
warrior trying to find the good in people, the good in me. He would have been
an exceptional leader, much better than me.
A chilling breeze ruffled my hair as I pulled my cloak tighter
around me. Vangelis let out a muffled neigh and he nudged my arm. ‘’Yes, I know
boy. Let us…go.’’ I sighed as I took one last look at their graves, but I
didn’t move, I needed to do something before leaving.
I slowly drew my blood-stained sword out and I walked up to
his grave and I sank the blade into the dirt and I didn’t pull it back out.
There it would rest forever. Vidarr died a true warrior, he died to the blade
and not the wound, and he deserved to be respected as one to. My sword was his
now and that’s how it would remain.
Looking to Reila’s grave I knelt down and pulled out a small
knife that I owned, and I started carving something into the wooden stick I
used for her headstone. I slowly carefully carved a small heart next to her
name, it wasn’t much, it seemed to suit her well. It was the same thing I did
on Nesrins headstone so many years ago.
Then with a sigh a stood up and went back to my steed. He
nuzzled my cheek and I patted him once again. I then slowly began to lead him
out of the pasture back to the forest, I didn’t look back to any of their
graves I knew I had to look forward to something much great then myself.
I got onto Vangelis’s back and he slowly walked back towards
the dark forest. I thought of Vidarr once more and what he asked of me. He
wanted me to lead others back into the light…surely, I must do it now. I had to
justify myself, and this was one of the small ways I could. All people knew me
as a dark rider lurking in the forest. It would take a great deal of time for
someone to trust me but if Vidarr could then someone would later on down the
road.
It might take months or years, but one day I hoped to be the
leader and man I once was. I knew I had it in me, just so long as I kept the
darkness locked away. I never wanted to see or hear him again, I had to try my
hardest to move on and stay as my current self. I had to be Allerick in order
for anything worth living for in the future.
For ten years I was darkness, and only darkness. I lived in
shadow and I slaughtered people—calling it ‘mercy’. I was a dark rider trying
to forget about his past. Now, I was my old self, I was Allerick. I was going
to strive to be a good and merciful leader who helped others. That’s what I
needed to do, that’s what I had to do. I had to do this for Vidarr and Reila
and every person I’d ever killed.
Redemption
As I rode deeper into the forest, I felt a new presence in
the air. The forest was somehow different, it was no longer calling to me and
begging me to come thrive in the shadow it was just… a forest. ‘’What do you
say we try to help that caravan?’’ I asked my horse. ‘’I know…I know they
probably won’t let me help but the least I could do is try right?’’ I asked
him. He simply bobbed his head up and down. ‘’I have too…for Vidarr and
Reila…’’ My words trailed. I felt a chill run down my spine, but for some
reason I was calmed by it. How strange.
‘’I don’t know what I am anymore Vangelis…maybe I am a man, but I still think I have a way to go before earning that proper title.’’ I spoke quietly as we walked into the night. ‘’Over the years I will earn a new name. I know I cannot erase the past, but I can try to mold my future…’’ I spoke and he snorted as a response. ‘’Tell me, what am I?’’ I asked aloud. He whinnied and I chuckled. ‘’I suppose your right about that…I am no longer the darkness in the woods.’’ Then all of a sudden, a great burden was lifted off of me. I felt free…I was free of my past, free of the dark rider. I’d let go of everything I once loved…and now I was moving on. Then somehow I knew, everything was going to be okay.
The End
Sydney Winegar is 14 years old and in 9th grade. She frequents the library’s yoga classes with her family. This is her second time participating in a library writing challenge.
