Stories and Poetry
| First Person Exercise | Impending Doom | Robold | |
I lashed out at the rough sapling and was barely able to grab ahold, hopping with all hope that the frail twig wouldn’t snap and send me careening to the rocky floor below. I don’t know how long this blasted twig will hold my substantial bulk. I sure am glad now that I had been out on many quests recently or I would already be a stain on the jagged rocks below. However, despite my skills the sapling seemed willing to deposit me on the floor at any moment.
If only I had not been such an idiot! That awful green lizard lured me to the edge of this troublesome fissure in an attempt to send a dwarf back to his rocky home. Somehow, this horrible abomination was thought well of by most people being known as a gentle and intelligent creature, but if ever given the chance I will see just how gentle it is… going down my throat and into my belly.
There was an impending doom coming to our small town of Calamity. Nobody could have imagined that it would originate at a church on the outskirts of town. Few people were inside as the doom approached. Preacher Tom was the first one in the church to see what would haunt the town and was scared out of his wits. He pushed a young woman out of the doorway and sprinted into the church. Few noticed the pale color of his skin or that upon that skin stood hair sticking strait up like that of a frightened cat. He immediately spun around, only long enough to bar the door before he continued with his frantic movements. He closed and latched the few windows as the shocked group of religious lemmings stared on at him with slight suspicion. A quiet fell over the church as everyone swung their gazes to a distressed Tom who had dropped to his knees and began to pray as a loud noise echoed around the building. The crowd began to scream as the windows rattled and the building swayed. Then the noise died away as mysteriously as it had come leaving the worshipers thinking of their slight contributions in the last few weeks to the offering plate and their short prayers before bed and even their light voices during the hymn singing. However, these fragile thoughts were shattered by the weakest of noises which drifted in under the door and through the cracks in the old building. At first, the sound was too vague to locate in memory, but then as the sound increased slightly, one person recognized it for what it was. To her, the sound was unmistakable, it was the tiny voice of little Lisa Cunningham. She was sobbing just outside the door. Mrs. Hamm hobbled quickly over to the door before anyone else could react. She threw the door open as Father Ted finally came to his senses. Lisa flung herself through the door and into the arms of Mrs. Hamm. Father Ted lurched for the door and slammed it shut. He gave Mrs. Hamm a hard star which showed his contempt for her carelessness. His stare was broken quickly, as something slammed into the other side of the door he was bracing, nearly flinging him from it in the process. He finally found himself capable of speech and convinced a few of the men to move some of the pews to block the door. Mrs. Hamm grasped the child and attempted to console her. She jerked her head back as a sharp pain erupted in her breast. She looked down and saw a dark stain growing on her blue dress and jerked the child away. Everyone’s eyes went wide as they saw the scene unfolding before them. As she was thrown away, there was a loud ripping sound and then a very distinct thump. Lisa stood and smiling; face drenched in blood, and began to laugh hysterically. Mrs. Hamm became hysterical as well, when she noticed that one side of her chest has become smaller than the other. A huge chunk had been bitten away by the child and was sitting on the floor in front of her, slightly hidden by the once blue fabric. One woman feinted, a few more screamed. A few men vomited, while others spasmed and jerked uncontrollably. Poor fools, they new nothing of how dire their current situation was, for at that moment when all attention was focused on the once innocent, now ferocious little Lisa the door had began to slowly open.
Above the chaos that ensued was I, a young man, nearly the same age as Lisa, who was taking in the entire scene with a grimace from the loft on the second level of the church. I could not believe the ferocity of what I saw, but knew better than to hope for a miracle or to in any way compromise my position. All I could do was sit there, take in the events, and pray to a God that I don’t even believe in that my life would be spared. But, in retrospect, I don’t know if I was fortunate to have gotten out alive. Even now I can’t get the feelings to pass. I feel raped. All of my senses have been violated in such an extreme way that I know they will never be the same again, neither will I. I had some dear friends in that room, and I swear on my newly leased life that those things will pay, whatever they were.
Dave, being a healthy young kid of the day, spent most of his time watching television and movies and reading comic books. However, he had always leaned towards the supernatural in these endeavors. He loved horror films and read a lot about the classic monsters such as: Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies, Ghosts, and Ghouls. However, he didn’t just read the fluffy stuff, he sought out the historical information as well. Luckily his brother Stephen had plenty of money from working his teen years away to buy the stuff for him. Basically how it worked was Dave would find an interesting volume and buy it. He would bring it home with a receipt and show it to Steve who would decide whether or not it warranted inclusion in his collection. Dave had a smaller, but more informative collection of his own that Steve knew little about. These volumes were bought with Dave’s money that he made by cataloguing Steve’s books and keeping them in good shape. He also wrote his own things, though. Through a good working knowledge with Steve’s books, Dave had come upon tidbits on knowledge here and there that added to his understanding of the paranormal. He had began a database to keep up with all of the facts that he had ascertained on the various beasts including the contradictions and the far fetched. He also kept a diary which he used as a holding of his short stories which would involve any ghastly creature he had researched that given day. Who would have known the validity of the most recent of these entries?
It was a great day for Steve, his favorite show just had its season premiere and he had enjoyed it so much that he had gone back to watch a few of his favorite episodes. It was getting late, however, and the pizza he had eaten earlier had decided to come back and play. So, to the kitchen he went.
“All I need now is a tall glass of cold milk to put the body back in order,” he thought.
As he was gulping down the last of his vitamin D goodness, Steve heard the front door slam shut. Knowing his parents already asleep, Steve figured that the disturbance must have come from David, his younger brother. Steve decided to step in and see what was up with Dave. However, as he entered the room, his jubilation at the day dwindled to intense wonder as he saw Dave tearing through his room, looking for something.
“What are you doing in here?” Steve asked seriously.
“Oh my God!” Dave answered in a near panic, “I…I…I have to find my book on the paranormal.”
“Don’t you mean my book,” Steve questioned.
“Oh, yeah, said Dave, “you leant it to me a while back. Do you know where it is?
“Yeah, why,” he responded.
“You would never believe me, it is crazy,” Dave barked.
When Steve gave Dave “the look,” he knew that Dave would tell him anything he wanted to know, however, he used it sparingly hoping not to wear it out.
“Well,” Dave began, I was at church in town when things started going crazy. There was a girl, Lisa I believe, who was trapped outside as something attacked. I don’t know what happened, but when she was let into the church, she lunged at Mrs. Hamm and bit her. She had a crazy look in her eye and luckily I was out of sight in the loft when everything went crazy. People started running, but they were all too scared of what had been chasing Brother Tom earlier and corrupted little Lisa that they would not leave the church. Eventually everyone was dead. Lisa was like a wild animal and took them all down one by one. She opened the door and let in a few other people who began to drink the blood of those who had just been killed. Then a tall man dressed in black came into the room and seemed to be leading them.”
“Decent story,” Steve responded, “what channel was it on TBS, USA, Sci-Fi?”
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me, but you will tomorrow,” Dave remarked.
“Whatever,” Steve tossed over his shoulder, “But if you want that book come on and get it, we have to go to bed, school starts back in the morning.”
A loud buzzing sound locked in on Steve and he jerked up in bed only to realize that it was his alarm, set to get him up early for school. Steve was a senior at Calamity High and was used to the grind for the most part. However, he had been keeping undead hours over the summer, rarely retiring before the sun came up. Therefore, 6 a.m. rolled around much too early for him. Steve figured since he was up, he might as well go ahead and get ready. He slumped out of bed and dragged himself to the kitchen while wiping the gunk from his eyes. After eating some cereal, he took a shower and groomed himself for school. When he was done, he started getting his stuff together and noticed that he had not seen Dave all morning. Therefore, he walked over to his room, where the door was cracked. Steve pushed it in and saw that Dave was laying with his face half in a book. There were other books strewn around the room, as well as numerous computer print outs. This behavior bothered Steve. Every once and a while Dave would get one of these strange obsessions, but he had never gone this far.
Steve decided to give him a bit longer. Although these spells of Dave’s were a bit unhealthy he usually scrounged up some tasty information in the process. Steve kicked up his heels on the coffee table and decided to check out the sports scores from the night before. He grabbed the remote and flicked on the television. He began to press the button for the next channel when the bastard slipped out of his hand. Stephen kneeled down to retrieve the blasted device when a strange line caught his ear. He slowly raised his head and saw as clear as day in front of him a picture that nearly stopped his heart. Little Lisa, who he had helped babysit for on numerous occasions had gone missing. She was great little girl, full of energy and fun. Despite the drastic difference in their age, Steve still hung out with her on occasions because she was so fun to be with. Steve dropped to the couch on which he had been sitting and let the tragedy truly make its mark on him. As this sorrowing vision continued to play, something nagged at the back of his mind. He felt a bit odd and realized that he was sitting on something. Steve withdrew from under him some paper. He remembered that he had brought some of the print outs from Dave’s room with him when he had left it. Steve let his eyes wander over the page and a few of the words jumped out at him. They included vampire, zombie, necromancer, and demon. He stood up and quickly made his way to Dave’s room where he stormed in and began to demand the full truth of the previous night, but to his amazement, Dave was gone. The room was slightly more crazed then it was earlier and Steve was worried about what had happened and where his brother had went off to. He turned around and nearly left his feet when there in front of him was Dave with mangy hair and puffy eyes.
“Tell me what’s going on!” demanded Steve, however the voice cracking from his still fresh knowledge of the missing child didn’t help his bravado at all.
“You are not yet ready to know,” was all Dave would say in a very calm voice.
The two stared straight into each other’s eyes until Steve finally found some resolve and began to turn away when Dave thrusted out an old tome that looked oddly familiar to him. Steve grabbed the book and looked at the cover. It was an old book that Steve had thought lost. He had read the book long ago to Dave when he was sick. It might not have been the best of choices, but it was a story about a group of people to fight the forces of evil. They would have many adventures and fight many battles, but never could they completely conquer the evil. This was Dave’s introduction into the paranormal and this time together had forged a bond that could never be broken. Steve put his arm over Dave’s shoulders and patted them on the back. They both had fond memories of this time together and their feelings only grew as they both smiled and walked to Dave’s room. He had a special place where he had once kept the book and know he was putting it back until he had second thoughts and decided to place it in his book bag instead. Dave had already departed from his brother and was heading towards the bathroom when he saw this and nodded to himself. Steve would need to remember the past and the lessons once learned before he could face the future.
Noticing the time, Steve called to Dave to
quickly get his things together or he was going to leave him.
Dave quickly packed up his stuff and prepared for the first day back to the
asylum better known as CHS, Calamity
High School. They hopped into Steve’s
beat up Monte Carlo
and sped off to school. They needn’t be in any hurry really, there was plenty
of time until homeroom began at eight, but Steve loved to get to school early to
hand out with friends and talk about what had happened in the hiatus between
their talks no matter if it had been days or months. There was much more on
Dave’s mind though, he still could not believe what he had seen mere hours ago
in the old church. What could those things have been, and how could he stop
them. He was snatched out of his reverie suddenly when the car screeched to a
halt.
“What’s going on, you on your way to class?” Steve asked the young woman who had just appeared to Dave from the bushes that lined the road.
“Yeh, what’s it to ya?” replied the girl who was obviously annoyed by her verbal assailant.
“I just figured that if we were heading in the same direction that I could give you a lift, that’s all,” came the honest answer. Steve was slightly put off by how forceful the young girl had been in her reply, but being the kind soul that he was kept the offer on the table.
“Well, I guess riding beats walking, so how much farther is school anyway?” she said in a much calmer tone that made Steve glad that he had kept in good faith with the newcomer.
“Not too far, just another couple of miles.” “It is only a minute by car, but walking you would be hard pressed to make your first class.”
Steve decided to cut the small talk and get going and the girl obliged his nonverbal cues and quickly hopped into the back where she joined Dave. At first she was shocked as she barely noticed the boy who had been seemingly dozing when she entered the vehicle. He seemed more her age than the driver did though, and she quickly decided that if these guy were weirdoes that she would be able to easily fend them off. However, all that she got from them was a bit of small talk from who she came to find out was Steve. He seemed a good enough guy, but seemed to be straining to keep up his cheery manner. Dave on the other hand merely kept his eyes shut most of the time, but after a minute seemed to decide that the little bit of sleep he could get before school was not worth the effort and therefore repositioned himself with his back to the door of the car and faced her. At first he freaked her out a bit, for he just stared at her for a moment. He wasn’t checking her out or anything. Just looking into her eyes and such. This was one of the first times anyone had seemingly looked past her exterior appearance and actually did something like stare into her eyes. She hopped back as she noticed that Dave had moved. Then laughed offhandedly as she noticed what he had done. He had produced a pop tart from somewhere and was offering her one of them. She accepted his offering and thought to herself, maybe this won’t be such a bad town after all.
“What did you do?” cried the man. His car was crumpled like a discarded drink can against the pole.
“Stay back if you value your life,” Robold said coolly. He knew enough about wizards of this sort to know that although he had disabled his main weapon, he was still very powerful and not to be taken lightly. Luckily, his magical blade which was known as Mailcleaver and feared far and wide in his world had been forged long ago by a powerful wizard and passed down through many generations to lie now in his hands.
“Whoa,” yelped the man, as he threw his hands in the air. “I was only trying to get out of my car before the freakin’ thing exploded.”
Robold was puzzled by this remark, but knew this trick well enough. The wizard was trying to get him to lower his guard so that it would be easier to put him out of commission once and for all. Robold began to circle around as he thought of his options. He could either attempt to kill this wizard quickly, or question him about this new land.
He quickly decided on the second option and was about to open his mouth when he heard another odd sound. This sound was continuous and rose and fell every second or so. It also appeared to be getting closer. This unknown force was much more dangerous potentially than the half-beaten wizard, so he decided to let his vision drift towards the new noise.
Robold could not believe how odd his day had been. It was mere moments ago when the oddity that was not his reality had happened.
He had opened his eyes at the end of a long blink to the realization that he was no longer where he had been nearly a moment ago. Robold had been happily downing his ale when a funny feeling had come over him. As he now stared at his surroundings, he was sure that this was no place of his world. People passed him on either side giving him suspicious glances as he tried to explain to himself what had happened. Out of habit, Robold began to pace while he was thinking when suddenly a loud honking noise split the air. As Robold turned his head, he noticed a giant machine hurtling at him at great speed. He lept backwards and pulled his sword from its sheath. As he landed, Robold swung his broadsword through the mechanical contraption which was threatening his very existence on this new plane. As the magical blade sliced cleanly through the metal of the car, as he was later told this name of this thing was, he happened to catch the top of the tire in his follow through, which sent the car spinning out of control. Lucky for the driver, he was not going too fast due to the tightening traffic of the inner city, but slammed into a light pole nonetheless. Robold approached the disabled object cautiously, ready to strike, as a young man hobbled out of the vehicle with a cut upon his left brow and burns on his arms.
The sound of screeching rubber snapped Robold out of his brief reverie. He jerked his head around quickly to take in his surroundings and shook his head to get out the cobwebs. He knew by the tension in the air that he must move quickly, but what to do?
A sound was coming from the same direction as the wizard had come, so he became even more cautious. Robold quickly noticed flashing lights of multiple colors heading their way. So, obviously had the wizard, for his face sank as the lights began to draw near.
“What should I do,” Robold asked himself, “for if this wizard is scared of the lights, then most certainly it must be the most dangerous of beasts.”
The wizard had gone partially back into his contraption and was again exiting as two similar objects slid into view mere yards away. At this, the sound ceased, but the lights remained. Robold jerked his head back around to see the wizard with some sort of sack in one hand and a strange L shaped object in the other. The object appeared to be pointed at him and he let his instincts take over. He fell into a roll as he attempted to make his way for the wall a few feet away. As he came up, he heard an earsplitting explosion and a wising noise went by his head. At the same time, he had seen a flash from the L object. As he came out of the roll, he used his momentum to spring upon the wall. In the air he heard another explosion and saw a bit of the wall about six feet away come crumbling down. However, he knew that this wizard could not get off another blast with his boom-stick. As he pivoted, he noticed that the wizards in the machines had the same sort of weapons and appeared to be in the same guild due to their similar clothing. The reason he had noticed this was that one of the guild members had blasted at the singular wizard and missed. However, he knew that he would not as he was now drifting down from the wall with his sword lifted above his head. He brought down the blade with all of his might until sparks showered as his blade bit into the pavement.
At this, the guild wizards began to blast at him. Robold quickly decided that with the sound of more of the guild on their way, the best option was to retreat while he still could. He bolted around the corner as more blasts flew by. There he saw a wall about fifteen feet high. This he scaled easily after sheathing his sword. He grabbed onto the top and pulled himself up. He quickly dropped to the other side, and landed in a crouch and waited as he heard his pursuers run past.