Distraught

By: James

I feel so angry, and so sad. The anger I feel is for no one but my self. I love her so much but I fear I can not tell her. I love her so much I fear by telling her she will shun me from her life. I envy those who are close to her. Those people who know her more than I. These people whom she loves with all her heart and soul. As I ponder the other thoughts that weigh on my mind; I am distracted; for as I sit and write, the wind howls and the moon glows. For some unexplained reason these common elements of nature are magnified to the utmost extreme. I hear the crickets chirp and the wolves cry. I believe it is this un-vented love that is creating these supernatural senses; forcing its way through my ears and eyes. I believe it is creating a funnel catching every last sound that exists on this earth. I believe this love is creating magnifying glasses that never leave my eyes. Each sound and sight lasts but a moment; unfortunately this reminds me of life, and furthermore this pathetic existence I am living. The sadness I feel is for my unrelenting love for her. Only acquaintances and nothing more; bound to a relationship of talking while I watch others steal her heart, these thieves that take her heart and run away. I wish oh so much they would return it so that I may have it and keep it. I desire it so that I might cherish it and love it. For all that is good and holy how much can one man take?! How much longer can I watch and listen to these fools that deceive her with false love. They charm their way into her life with tales of romance and bravery. I am saddened by these lies, and furthermore am almost angered. It is unbearable to not tell her; to keep it a secret for the rest of my dreadful existence. Maybe one day she will realize how much I love her by not telling her what my true desires are. By not telling her, I am destroying my soul bit by bit and piece by piece. I am sacrificing so much I can not bear it. One day she may realize this is the ultimate love and the purest I could feel for any girl. I shall never love another girl for as long as I live. She is the one for me even if I am not the one for her, and will be forever more. For how can she not be? My eyes will never fall on another and love her. This is true love I feel not foolishness. So one day I hope and pray she will love me, if not, then I shall wait for the next day, and if still no, I will wait forever. Join in prayer with me that I will not have to. For my soul is so tattered I doubt it could take the weight of such a strain.

Demon

February 2008

One day I was at home. Dark clouds rolled in and blocked out the sun. In the sudden gloom I turned on a light, but nothing happened. No light came on. I grabbed a flashlight and headed into the black basement to find the circuit breaker. At the bottom of the stairs I hesitated. Something felt wrong. I stepped into the basement hall and the door to the kitchen at the top of the stairs immediately slammed shut. Alarmed, I stepped back onto the stairs and fumbled with the flashlight. My arm brushed against something soft and cold. Something was there on the stairs with me. I was suddenly thrown against the wall. Then whatever it was got a hold of my neck, suffocating me. I brought my flashlight up; the light fell across a very large humanoid creature. It was blacker than the dark basement. It had no eyes and only a slit of a mouth. It was eight feet tall.

I fought free. Somehow I found a sharp object and was able to overpower the creature and chop it into small pieces. The pieces bled, turned into black ooze, and drained through cracks in the cement floor. Shaken, I left the house. No other buildings were visible as I ran through the fields. Our house was alone on the Highland Moore. I eventually arrived at the next building. I was winded. An hour or more had past. This building was a gray, dank, stone house. It was very old but had been converted into a restaurant many years ago.

Entering I found myself in a pleasant little Burger King. It was lunch time and quite crowded. I got a burger and sat with some friends. Dark clouds formed again outside. I was a little worried, but figured it was just a stormy day. For some reason I went down into the basement of the restaurant which was old, cobwebby, and obviously unimproved from a century ago. It grew dark again. The power was still on at least. One corner of the basement, in a back room, was still completely dark. I eyed the room warily. The blackness gathered form and suddenly the creature leapt out at me. We battled and I screamed for help. One of my friends jumped down the stairs. We managed to subdue the creature again and chop it into bits. We were both wounded and chopping it up was extremely difficult. This time I gathered up the creature before it could ooze away and threw it into the furnace. It made a terrific howling noise and smelled awful.

I thanked my friend. I told him to stay here and enjoy his lunch. I needed to leave. He of course wanted to know what had just attacked us. I was putting the pieces together but didn’t want to say anything to upset him.

I trekked further north through the empty and windy land to the house of my uncle. It had been in our family for at least ten generations and was once the clan headquarters. I needed help, for I was afraid this was not the last attack. I was afraid I had yet again failed to kill the creature. For how can you kill something that is already dead? It was a Demon that had come for me. I’m not sure how, but it had come from Hell and somehow taken physical form. Foul and decrepit as it was, it was extremely powerful and bent on killing me for some reason. Or so I figured since both of its attacks had centered on me. If I was correct, it would come a third time and I would need a better weapon. I also needed some rest.

From the house of my uncle I took the family sword. It was a large but surprisingly light sword that was as old as our clan and rumored to have been handed to our ancestor by one of the very archangels guarding heaven. I hoped the rumor was true.

The sun was setting as I hiked towards home. A sudden rushing sound scared me. I dove onto the ground and rolled as a large green dragon slashed through the air where I had been. It rose into the cloudy sky and vanished. I slowly got to my feet and unsheathed the sword from the scabbard on my back. I could hear the creature circling in the wispy clouds not far above me.

The sun was sinking behind the distant hills. I needed shelter. Burger King was not far away and my closest bet. I ran. The clouds thickened over the distant building. It knew I headed there.

For some reason the Demon stayed out of sight. I made it to Burger King without any other attacks. It was the dinner rush. My friends were still there, now having dinner. The sun had set and its faint red glow was being blocked out by the sinking clouds that were engulfing the restaurant. By the time I had explained to the costumers the danger we were all in it was completely black outside. Nothing could be seen out of the many large glass windows. I stepped to one cautiously. The Demon’s green head pushed out of the blackness and into the glass, cracking it. I jumped back, heart racing. Its wings thumped against the wall. It was not too large, its body probably only eight feet long. It was still humanoid. Only it had given itself large wings and a sinuous tail. I gathered all the costumers into the center of the building. We were as far from the windows as we could get. The windows wouldn’t stop the Demon. It was only toying with us.

Screams from the basement stopped my thoughts. I kicked open the basement door. No lights were on. I flipped the switch and revealed two children at the base of the stairs staring at the green shadow that had formed between us. The shadow lunged at them. Sword first, I plunged down on it. The winged Demon solidified. One child died. My sword was able to slice right through the Demon like paper. The fight was terrible. I was bleeding and ended with broken ribs and nose but was able to slice the Demon into submission. As it thrashed in pieces on the ground I sliced it up even more. I knew that that was what you do with Demons. But this time I did something different afterwards that I hoped would truly banish the Demon. I can’t remember what though. I returned upstairs to the terrified people feeling relatively confident I had won.

Primary colors: Black Green Gray

Rotten Teeth

Monday, January 28, 2008

The clock on the wall ticked loudly as my teacher droned on about this or that. I was in high school. I had not graduated yet. Looking around the classroom, most of the other students appeared to be in comatose.

And then I feel it. Out of nowhere, a dull sensation of my tooth moving, felt through my tongue. I come full awake. I move my tongue carefully. My tooth is fine, but a piece has come off and is sliding under my tongue. I maneuver it up and into my hand. It is a large piece from one of my molars. I look around embarrassed, but no one has noticed. I put the piece in my pocket and resolve to set an appointment with my dentist as soon as possible. There is nothing I could do now, and I was in no pain.

Class drags on. I start to drift to sleep. My mouth relaxes. I lazily run my tongue along the bottom row of my teeth. I feel the indentation where my tooth had chipped. On the other side of my mouth I feel another gap. This was new. I open my eyes and straighten up in my chair. I check again. Yes, there is another part of one of my molars missing. I can feel the piece to the side of my tongue. I look around trying to figure out if I am awake. I sure felt awake. I get the piece of tooth on my tongue and spit it out into my hand. If was smaller than the other chip. I slide it into my pocket with the other, and resolve to call my dentist as soon as I get home that afternoon. I’d better try for an appointment first thing tomorrow. I would miss class, but my first class was gym and didn’t really matter.

I slump down in my chair and start to worry. Why did two of my teeth just chip? That was weird. How much was this going to cost to fix?

I suddenly feel something on my tongue. I push it up against my gums and could feel it was hard. It had to be another part of my teeth. I spit it out and sure enough it is. In the process of spitting it out I feel a sharp pain in one of my front teeth. I put a finger in my mouth and discover that the tooth is wobbling. It had cracked completely in half. I pull my finger out and close my mouth. Pain starts in other places. I feel things on my tongue. I run my tongue along the back of my teeth. They feel jagged and wrong.

My mouth is now full of pieces. I bend over and spit them into my hand. I empty my hand on my desk, and then feel around my mouth with a finger again. There are many gaps and cracks, and as I run my finger along, pieces crumble off what is left of my teeth. It hurts and there is a taste of blood. My finger is red when I pull it out. I look around nervously. Many in the class are now staring at me. I feel very embarrassed and blush.

Jumping up, I put all my pieces in my pocket and run into the hall. I leave having resolved to see my dentist immediately. I no longer believe this can wait. Several rooms down, I stop and wave to Dave Marcum. He looks annoyed but comes out to see what I want. I explain very briefly and smile for him. He agrees to take me to the dentist immediately.

We run out to his car. I put on my seat belt and then spit out some more chips of my teeth. What was left was still crumbling in my mouth. I flip down the sun visor and open my mouth as I angle the little mirror on its back. I can see the jags that were left of my teeth, and the many gaping holes where some had completely decayed leaving my jaw visible through the gums. There isn’t too much blood. And, for how bad it looked, it really didn’t hurt as much as one would expect.

Dave drives to the dentist. But this is where I woke up.