Almost There

 

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Chapter 1

  How things have changed in just a few short weeks. It was a sunlit day of late spring, and the sky held a soft blue glow. You couldn't tell it was spring because of seeing the green grass with specks of color from flowers like lavenders, roses, or asters. You couldn't tell it was spring because the white coat of snow had melted from the sunlight. There is none of that anymore, it's dark, no sunlight just moonlight.

 

  As a child, I used to wake in the night and wish for the sun. The darkness worried me, my imagination supplied many beasts with fantastical jaws to lurk beyond the range of my vision. But now I embrace it. The night provides cover from the flesh and blood monsters of the day.  

 

  Death wasn't kind, I know that. It snatched where it could, taking people who were far too young, far too good. It didn't pretend to care; it didn't pretend to distinguish. The hooded vale of death had hung over the world for a long time, always threatening. It had never touched me quite so close. Death had ripped away a part of me, the part of me that was most loved. Fear was something that everyone noticed in me, no matter how strong or how weak I was everyone knew I was afraid. That's why I am here, one of the few who's left here on earth. The world is a darker place because hell is empty, all the devils are here.

 

  Before the darkness came upon the Earth, I was in my grandfather’s study. I found an old book of myths and remedies, witchcraft. I found it interesting by its familiar cravings in the cover. As the fire turned to dark my heart was stolen, I was close to his study. I was too late, I found his cloths bloody on the ground covering the book. I took it with me, to see is I could figure out why he was hiding it.

 

  The forest was dark and foreboding, but there was peace in its sullen ambiance. I wonder how I ever came to find the place. My eyes flickered over the thick, dark trunks of the trees that rose steadily into the sky, its branches interlocking with its neighbors like giant's arms linked together protecting their home. I pressed my palm against its rough bark, and breathed in the scent of the forest. The musty scent of leaves after rainfall, the warm soil packed against the earth by scurrying animals, the scent of things in different stages of blooming and growth. The smell of life, there were people were recently, I must be close.

 

In the dim moonlight, I see faint footprints, they look like their heading south like the pages said, few who leave marks lead up the right way. I follow the footprints carefully; they lead to a mountain path. The mountain path grew wide where the soil was soft and then narrow in the rocky passes. There were times it was barely there at all, no more than a mild disturbance in the dirt. But always it leads upward to the peak, close I saw a human figure. I was careful, to get close enough to see it wasn't a human. My body twirled and jerked as I fell. The wind in my face made it impossible to breathe, I felt like I'd suffocated before I slammed softly against the rock. I felt something holding me by my hand, I got pulled up by a vampire.

 

"I'm not here to kill you... I've been waiting for you..." He said, I'm shocked on what just happened. Recalling the books words, one who's different you will trust. I sit up looking over to him, the vampire looked so bored. He raised his heavy lids and stared at me through pink eyes. With the paper-white hand that rested on the branch he took off a dead leaf. This was the stuff of my childhood nightmares but my heart still pounded its usual rhythm, apparently, I wasn't scared. Sitting next to him his aroma was heady, it wasn't like raw meat or festering flesh, but instead it was like a summer garden, as if he lay in a bed of petals each night.

 

"Will you help me then?" I ask, watching his pale white hands fold over each other.

 

" The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at anytime. Are you ready to do anything?" He asks mysteriously, at an image of a red moon appears in his palm.

 

" Anything... When you say that..." I say when a loud grunt comes out of a bush nearby, the vampire speaks again.

 

" Don't be afraid of something you don't understand. If you found out the reason we are here, you would understand." He continues a large black figure comes from the bush, racing towards the vampire. In a blink of an eye he was gone, I sat there stunned.  The smell of roses were gone, the essence of him disappeared.

 

Anger built up in side of me, upset and frustrated I stood up, starting to finish my climb. At the peak, I see the view of what the world had become. Seeing an old broke down church, glowing red from the inside. That was my goal, I will take the host down. Traveling west the moonlight starts to change, from the white to a light pink. The wind got colder, there will be a change and soon.

 

Closer I got to the church the redder the moon became. It was darker when I arrived; gnarled trees hung low over the baronial church, creaking ominously in the howling winds. The heavy oak doors broke open, echoing around the empty church. The moonlight shined through the heavily cracked stained-glass windows, casting an eerie glow onto the dusty alter. Thick cobwebs hung on every surface and my footsteps sounded deafening on the cold stone floor.

 

  I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right, it was silent. It was the kind of silence that falls right before you get knifed in the back. It sent a shiver down my spine and I felt my blood chill in my veins. The ghost was more silent than the grave it arose from, staring with heavy lidded eyes and a slack mouth. Her cheekbones accentuated the skeletal look and in her gaze my mind was robbed of emotion. Instead of running, or screaming I stood more still than the mossy statue in the heart of the graveyard and just as cold. I began to think new things; the thought became a desire and my insides lit with an intensity to make it possible. 

 

A loud screech came echoing throughout the church. Looking back at the ghost, in her intense silence she somehow screamed with her whole body. The eyes wide with horror, the mouth rigid and open, her chalky face gaunt and immobile, the fists clenched with blanched knuckles and the nails digging deeply into the palms of his hand. Her neck starts to bleed, the blood flowed like a lazy river. 

 

The demon, the one who started all of this, walks slowly around the perimeter of the church in the dark. In the inky blackness lay a savage double-headed werewolf. His teeth, eerily incandescent, emitted a strange blue glow and were as sharp as a fine diamond sword. His skin was mostly scar tissue and he shivered in the early fall breeze. On his torso and face were recent scabs from a meal that had fought back, now he picked at them with blood-caked claws to relieve the boredom of the stake-out. Then came movement from the dwelling, his wait was almost over.

 

" If I'm the last one left, take my life as if it's nothing. Bring back the world that it use to be, taking all these innocent lives. What will that do for you?" I say as I come closer to it as it stops walking.

 

He suddenly jumps up, possibly knowing what I have come to do. It moves across me, seizing every movement and locking my limbs in place long enough for it to cleave and claim another part of my being. The feeling of burning but only I can feel its pervasive hold. Falling to the ground the demon gets up from its place hovering over me, being hit unconscious, everything was black, shaking my head to wake up I'm surrounded by people in a white room.

 

" It's time."

 

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Andrea Baxcy

I thought the book read well and I can't wait for more!

Chapter 2

As my eyes open my limbs flex in shock. There is a liquid in them, around my entire body too. Tubes run up each nostril and all that meets my skin is the warm glass that surrounds. There is binding on my limbs and around my neck. Without a conscious thought, a choice, my body does what any must to survive. Every muscle is stronger than it should ever be and there is no mental restraint on the force I can use. Snapped bones are preferable to death. In this way, my captors have underestimated my strength. The liquid rushes out of the newly shattered glass and I step out, looking around a full white room, with masked people in blue. The liquid drips off my body, unable to speak I glare at them.

" It's time." A man said, his voice was rasping, like an old man, even though his eyes was young.

"It's your grandfather, he did this to you, so you know what's happening. Do you remember?" A woman says as the hypodermic needle, she held, grew as I watched it. " It's so clear your voice, you won't feel anything." She added someone took my arm, my heart gave a hard thump before I rip my arm away. The burning sensation in my throat grew more, as I do so. I grab my throat as tear grew in my eyes.

" You need it before this condition grows worse!" Another man yells, I feel a rush of dizziness and a pain shot through my head, everything grew black. Death surrounds me, my heartbeat's slowing down. I won't take this world's abuse, I won't give up or refuse.

Once again, I wake up in a strand room, but a hospital, the smells lingers everywhere. Looking around the room there was a curtain, I slowly get up, not feeling dizzy but relief. I felt something pulling me towards the other side of the curtain. I hold onto my infusion pole, walking over to the curtain, I hear a heavy uneven breathing. Moving the curtain slowly revealing the person next to me my heart begins to race, the lit room began to darken making every movement frightening. Relieving, my grandfather's torn apart face, emotion stir up in my head, I fall on my knees in his bed.

" Grandfather!" I wimpier as hot tears fall from my face, I grab his wand which genitally squeezes mine. I look up from the floor to him as his soft eyes look at me.

" My dear..." he starts to say taking wheezing breaths, " I'm sorry what I put you through... but I needed to show you... that's going to happen... you need to fix it... be strong... save us... you can do that for me... Right?" he says taking painful breaths, all I can do is nod, wiping away my tears. Comprehending what he said he points to the bag, and whispers. " Goodbye."

The next thing I realize he flatlines, the long extended high pitch noise, I feel lonely. Staring at him I don't move, I just barely whisper " Grandfather." I feel empty as nurse's rush in pulling me away, all I could hear is the noise but I saw their mouths moving. As they close the curtain again, I turn outside to the first snow fall.

Hours later Alex, a distant friend, comes and discharge me. Grabbing my grandfather's thing and mine, we leave. My tears give me fits, coming, and going, rethinking what he said. Alex brings be outside as the show falls, the cold snowflakes fall on my warm cheeks.

" Suffocation, no breathing, I don't give a fuck if I cut my arm, bleeding... Do you even care if I die bleeding? Would it be wrong? Would it be right? If I took my life tonight, chances are that I might... Mutilation outta sight and I'm contemplating suicide. Cause I'm losing my sight losing my mind. Wish somebody would tell me I'm fine, even though I'm not." I say to Alex as I stare into the distance.

"If you feel so empty, so used up, so let down If you feel so angry. So, ripped off, so stepped on you're not the only one. Refusing to back down, you're not the only one. If you feel so filthy so dirty, so fucked up If you feel so walked on so painful, so pissed off you're not the only one refusing to go down, so get up." Alex says as he stands up looking pissed off that he as to be here.

"This is how it feels when you're bent and broken, this is how it feels when your dignity's stolen. When everything I love is leaving, I hold on to what I believe in. The last thing I heard was him whispering goodbye and then I heard him flatline. You were never here for me!" I say catching my breath, grabbing his shirt pulling him close to me as I glare at him. Staring into his deep eyes, I let go and walk away. With each stride, her mind became more clear, more resolute as if the growing physical distance between everyone had now become an emotional chasm. A future I would mound, build, direct. Then with each stride after that, I felt more in charge, in command of my own mind, body, and soul.

Getting my grandfathers, I found an old book of myths and remedies, witchcraft. I found it interesting by its familiar cravings in the cover. Feeling like this was a deja vu, I close my eyes, my thought came rushing at me, about the end, how dark it was, how scary everything was. I quickly remembered everything about the end, how this book helped me, get to the church. But where was I?

Going back to my own study I begin reading where I left up reading 'Look around and all evil walking dead disguised as real people. It's kill or be killed 'cause life is not forever. It comes apart and then it falls together. The world I've grown to know unforgiving and so cold.' Why would it say that? Thinking about it I go to the graveyard. Rows of tombstones stood erect in silence to the left and right, in front and behind, like a sea of the dead. Some were crumbled with the weathering of centuries, some were smooth marble with new black writing and laid with floral tributes. Most, though, were overgrown and unkempt, for now, even their mourners had joined them under the clay soil. And upon the hill a new grave had been dug to await its new occupant. The black hearse slowly wended its way down the central lane followed by a procession of black limousines. I look closely at one of the tombstones, it looks like someone was trying to dig it up, leaving a dirty hand print on the tombstone. Does this mean, there will be... no there are Zombies?

" Why is this happening? What is Causing this?" I say looking at the whole, but it looks like it came from underground, not the other way around.

" Maybe it someone close to you, or maybe not." a familiar voice says, I stand up looking over to him, the vampire looked so bored. He raised his heavy lids and stared at me through pink eyes. With the paper-white hand rises, like he was waving to me. " It's you again..." I say as I smell his sweet scent of roses.

" Will you help me again?" I say walking towards him, he nods slowly. He points to the north, in the distance, there was a light but it was a bit blurry because of the snow. The snow starts to fall harder and harder, walking with him we get to the light, a small cottage house. Knocking at the door, no one answered, but the light was on, opening the old wood door I get inside. Looking around finding no one, how weird. Outside rages a blizzard so strong that the familiar sight of our street has been almost erased. The flakes fall slowly and the air is almost still, but it is so thick that it almost obscures the view completely. As I look upwards I feel almost as if I'm flying upward rather than watching the crystals fall, like oversize confetti, towards me.

" Why are you helping me?" I ask walking away from the window.

" Your grandfather, wished for me to protect you. Which I didn't do before." He says as he walks into the dark.

" My grandfather... How was I in another world, but when I woke up I was in this liquid. My grandfather died twice, both times. How?" I ask as I sit on the couch, facing the dark area where he went.

" I don't know everything, but he told me if you have the book you can save us." He says in the dark, but he points to the bag with the book in it.

"So, this is the key?" I ask holding it close.

" Yes, if you lose it, there is no going back." He says in a more serious tone. I nod as I feel my eyes get heavy before I knew it I was asleep. 

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