Tag: short stories

“Can you understand me?” Jarvier says as he grabs a handful of Sophie’s hair and pulls it back.

“J-Jar?” She says softly as a wicked smile grows across her face. Jarvier let’s go and takes a step back in shock.

“What, you don’t want to be my valentine anymore?” Marilyn says as she slowly shuffles to her feet, standing awkwardly like a puppet who’s strings have been cut.

“W-W-What the fuck is going on? W-We had a DEAL!” He yells.

“Had is such a naughty word, isn’t it lover boy,” she says with a wicked laugh. “But deals change as the wind blows, and yours my love is blowing hard.”

Jarvier quickly has his revolver out and his finger threatening to squeeze the trigger. “I’ve kept my end this far, so will it!” He growls through clenched teeth, the spit in his face softens as the blood runs out of his face, and he stares confusingly at a petrified Sophie as she holds her hands over her face in fear screaming his name.

“M-My god S-Sophie,” he says softly in shock. “I-I-I’m so sorry, you have to believe me, it  wasn’t m-m-y, my fault. ”

“What the FUCK happened to you? You’re eyes were like Glenn’s, black empty voids of life and your skin was pale like a freaking zombie!”

“I-I-I, I don’t know, one minute I’m pulling you from the wreckage and the next minute you’re not you and, and I, I-I-I,” he stares off momentarily into the vast emptiness of the space between them before she pulls him back into the here and now.

“Jarvier, are you listening to me? Who was I?”

“S-S-Someone who used to mean a whole lot to me,” Jarvier says as he runs his neck awkwardly, turning away to hide the tears that well up in his eyes.

“Then tell me what this deal is all about?” She asks, slowly Jarvier turns back to her and angles his head like an interested puppy dog.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, what’s the deal you were going on about before. Because it seemed mighty important at the time.”

“It’s nothing that matters right now, it’s from a long time ago. We have to move, it’s playing with us. Making us fight with each other to confuse us of our aim.”

“No it, it doesn’t feel the same. It feels different.”

“What do you mean, different?”

“It feels like this time it wasn’t trying to kill us, it was trying to show us something. That’s why  it makes me think it wasn’t that thing, that did this.”

“Don’t be stupid, if it wasn’t the beast the only other thing it could be is….” Jarvier’s words trail off as he realises who else could be playing with them. “Towns,” he hisses under his breath.

The darkness wraps around her naked body like a blanket of blades, tearing into everything she is until she no longer hears her own cries. It’s at that point that it releases her and she sits up in her bed, sweat pouring from her flesh like an overflowing bath tub.

The door to her bedroom crashes open and Glenn rushes in, baseball bat at the ready.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” He yells as he flicks the light on.

Sophie rolls herself up into a ball, “DON’T DO IT GLENN! PLEASE DON’T!” She screams, he stands there perplexed as the bat gently sways from side to side in his hands.

“Shit Soph, I ain’t gonna hit you. What the fuck would make you think that? I just heard you scream out, and thought someone was in your room. Had I know you were just dreaming, I would’ve just ignored your bitch-arsed cries.”

“I-I-I,” She stammers then laughs nervously. “I don’t know. I guess it’s all this research I’ve been doing, It’s got me twisting up a pole or two.”

“Fucking told you to turn that shit off, didn’t I? Fucking told you it’d send you all crazy like a bitch. Why the hell don’t you leave it alone and do something normal.”

“And running around the house in the middle of the night with a baseball bat is normal? How do you even own one of those things, I’ve never seen you in a pair of runners let alone play sport.”

He casts a nervous glance at the baseball bat as he lower it to the ground and smiles awkwardly. “Fuck you Soph, just because I made a valid point doesn’t mean you get to try and stick me with shit.”

“Then back off and leave me alone, this is important to me.”

“Why? What make this important to you? It’s only a fucking story!”

“It’s important to her, because she’s the one who finds Towns and slays the beast,” Jarvier says as he drives the butt of his revolver into Glenn’s skull, knocking him to the ground.

Sophie scream in panic, as Jarvier holds his hands up to her in a calming fashion.

“What the FUCK is going ON? WHY CAN’T I WAKE UP!” She screams.

“Because it won’t let you,” Javier says as he reaches out to her slowly. “But I can help, and together we can make sure you wake up tomorrow.”

Gunfire rips through the air and Glenn’s twisted lifeless corpse crashes to the ground in a bloody heap. Sophie screams louder as Jarvier moves swiftly from out of the shadows, his revolver still at the ready.

“WHO ARE YOU!” She screams as she shields herself with her hands in hope of protecting herself against further gunfire.

“Sophie McAdams, there’s no need to be afraid. My name is Javier Toddard, I’m a Detective with the special crime unit, you need to come with me,” Javier says as he holds out a hand towards her.

“Wh-Wh-What’s happening, you can’t be, you’re not real.”

“I’m standing in front of you, after just putting a bullet in your room mates head after he became infected by its word and attempted to bash your head in with a baseball bat. I think maybe you need to throw the real and the make-believe out the window and just trust what your eyes can see standing in front of you,” Javier says as he shakes his hand as a way of encouraging her to take it. “We can’t waste time, if it works out we’ve shifted the focus it will attempt a reset.”

“A-A-A, a reset?”

“You know, when you wake up from a really bad dream that felt like it was as real as everything feels right now, that’s a reset. That soulless piece of shit wants only one thing, and it’ll keep shifting the focus of everything to make it that way. We’ve only got one shot to stop it and we need Towns to do that, but beastly wants Towns to finish its story, so we’re in a bind and only you can help us out.”

“W-W-Why me.”

“Because, that’s the character he wrote you to play. You’re the one who finds him and slays the beast.”

“W-W-Wrote me to play? You’ve got this all wrong, you’re the one who’s from his books I-I’m a nobody, I’m not some made up character.”

“Honey would I be here if you weren’t part of his story?”

“I’m dreaming again, t-t-that’s all. N-N-None of this is real, it’s just in my head.”

“Sister if this is all just in your head, then I’d suggest you go see someone or stop reading whatever weird shit you’re reading, or watching for that matter. But whatever the case may be you have to listen to me you and take my hand regardless of what this really is. You know what they say about dying in your dreams, right?” He asks seconds before Glenn drives his baseball bat into Jarvier’s skull and knocks him to the ground, then proceeds to hit him again and again before finally turning his attention back to Sophie.

He smiles a toothy grin and laughs before swinging the bat wildly towards her.

“Why can’t you just tell me what you want instead of taunting me with these impossible riddles you amuse yourself with!” Javier says as he launches himself to his feet and defiantly stares the beast down. “What the HELL do you mean by me being Rudolph?”

It sniggers deeply as its already malformed face twists like a wound up rubber band then cracks open like an egg to reveal thousands of sharp teeth.

“Metaphors are what make us, what we are. But if you must understand, then I will share with you a moment so you can understand what it is you must do and how doing what I ask will make everything be complete.”

“You give me that day again, and you make it last forever I’ll give you whatever you want.”

“I swear it will so,” the beast growls as an image of a girl appears before them. “Her name is Sophie McAdams, she holds the key to how this all ends.”

“If she’s so important why don’t you just trap her like you have done with me?”

“Because she’s part to the current story, where you’re fodder, a leftover character given a glimpse of tomorrow but with no real role until now that is.”

Javier bites down on a cigarette as he ignites it, taking several strong drags on it before blowing a bellowing ball of smoke into the beast face, “So, you want me to kill her?”

The beast smiles, “No brother, I want you to save her, I want you to protect her. Towns has created her to find where he has hidden himself, his true self and then to slay me. But if we control the weapon, we control destiny,” the beast says as the darkness melts away and Javier finds himself standing in a hallway. As his eyes move around his new surroundings he spies a disfigured figure standing slouched at the opposite end of the hallway brandishing a baseball bat, a woman’s body laying at its feet.

The figure looks over to Javier and he sees its teeth glimmer in the darkness. Suddenly it stands upright and turns its head towards the girl then jerks forward, lunging towards her. She scrambles backwards, screaming in fear as the it grabs at her relentlessly, with little hesitation Javier raises his revolver and squeezes the trigger.

“I AM NOT YOUR TOY!” Javier screams as he shoves the revolver to his head, but this time there is no explosion.

This time there is no pain.

This time, there is only darkness and the beast.

“Why do you continue to fight me brother?” It births into this world like scratching on a blackboard.

“Why won’t you just let me FUCKING DIE!” Jarvier screams as he pulls the trigger again and again with no result.

“I am not doing this out of hate, it is love that I do all this for,” the beast replies.

Javier laughs momentarily before pulling the trigger again. “FUCK YOU!” He yells as he pulls a blade from jacket and slices it across his throat. He screams in agony as the blade tears open veins with glorious jets of crimson flowing before his eyes, then nothing and he sits before the beast once more, naked this time.

“I have no desire to see you dead brother, trust in me and I will make all your greatest desires be,” the beast hisses.

“I have no desire to care what you WANT!” Javier spits as he bites down deeply taking mouthful of flesh and tendons from his wrists in a sea of red that washes over him.

The birds song sings loudly in his ears, as he shields his eyes from the blinding sunlight, as the warmth washes over him he feels her hand come to rest on his chest.

“I don’t want this day to ever end,” she says as she kisses his bare flesh.

He feels the tears well up in his eyes as his bottom lip trembles.

“STOP THIS!”

“If you listen to what I have to say, I can make this day never end,” its disembodied voice hisses.

“I-It wouldn’t be real, you can promise that which you can’t give,” Jarvier says as he opens his eyes and stares into its pools of nothingness.

“I can promise anything if you help me brother. I can promise forever if you so desire.”

“H-H-How?”

“I need you to become my Rudolph and help guide my sleigh tonight,” the beast hisses.

“How many more times?” He softly hisses through clenched teeth as he stares at her soulless empty eyes, but she gives no reply. He leaps to his feet and flicks the cigarette to the ground as he unloads several shots into Sam’s skull as she leaps from the darkness, then effortlessly twists around and sends another two into Victoria’s.

He releases the empty clip and locks a fresh one in its place. “Oh, why won’t you stay dead,” he says nonchalantly, his voice void of emotion.

”Come on lover, don’t be like that. I thought you had at least a few hundred more repetitions left in you before you’d break,” Marilyn says as she slithers out of the darkness.

“I’m not your play toy,” He says as he places the gun to his head and fires.

His eyes watch with little wonder as the ash falls from the cigarette and lightly tumbles to the ground as if time had no weight at all. He takes a deep drag and looks up into her dead eyes. “I’m not your play toy,” he says as he flicks the cigarette at her and thrusts his revolver to the side of his head. “I’M NOT YOUR PLAY TOY!” He screams with laughter as he pulls the trigger.

The ash from the cigarette falls to the ground and his eyes watch as it explodes in a ball of dust as it hits the ground. He eyes meet her soulless empty eyes and he smiles, quickly pulling his revolver up to the side of his head and squeezing the trigger.

As the ash falls to the ground he places his revolver to his head and pulls the trigger.

He shoves the barrel of his revolver to the side of his head and pulls the trigger.

“ENOUGH!” The beast bellows as the room melts away to nothing’s and only it and Javier remain.

”I say when it’s ENOUGH!” Javier yells as he jams his revolver into the side of his head and squeezes the trigger.

The ash falls into the darkness as his eyes rise up to meet its large pools of nothingness.

“There is a point in every existence when we question what is, and what could be. We three are at that point,” he says looking across the table at the two men who sit opposite him, one of the men meet his gaze while the other concentrates his focus on the words he scribbles down into the small writing pad before him.

“We’re at a completely different, what could be situation than your normal run of the mill pondering of future destinations.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because we actually have control over what happens next.”

“We, control nothing. He on the other hand,” he says as he nods towards the man who continues to expel the contents of his head into words on paper. “He controls it all.”

“So WE have control over what happens next, like I said.”

“But what if he doesn’t agree with what we think should happen?”

“But he will, and we will, because we’re all one mind focused on one aim.”

“But we’re not one mind. I’m me, you’re you, and he’s whoever the fuck he wants himself to be at any given time.”

He looks up from the paper and stares at the man, before looking back down and continues to write.

“You talk like you know what’s happening, but you don’t really understand who he actually is and what we actually are because of him.”

“I know enough, I know he’s some big shot wanna be who thinks he can play with people’s feelings. I know he thinks he has enough smarts about him to outwit his own ideas. But what he doesn’t know is I know more than he’s letting on, and it’s killing him because he doesn’t know how I know what I know,” he says with a broad smile.

“None of that makes sense.”

“Of course it does, but you’re just an abstract character who he’s using to try and find out why I know what I know. Unfortunately every time he tries to write why I know things, the story shifts and he can’t focus on what he wants to write. Like right now. He’s stuck in a loop, trying to work his way back to the part of the story where I tell you what I know, and why I know it.”

“So, why do you know what you know?”

“Like I said, we three are at a point where what could be, can be,” He says as he smiles broadly again and leans forward, placing a hand on the notepad.

Fingernails dig into his flesh, as well as teeth as Jarvier finds himself dragged to the ground by the two girls, he screams in fear, he screams in anger.

He feels it pierce his chest and grip his innards before ripping outwards with a handful if his intestines.

“Look at that, you are just like everyone else on the inside.”

He looks up into Marilyn’s twisted face and grits his teeth with hate.

“Stop playing with me, if your going to kill me just get it over and done with,” He hisses, causing her to smile broadly.

“Lover if it wanted you dead, we would’ve disembowled you many times ago instead of going over and over this charade,” she replies with a sarcastic laugh.

“W-Why? What’s so special about me?”

“We don’t know. But more importantly, it doesn’t know why you’re still part of the story. All it can assume is, that he resurrected you for a reason and it wants to know why?”

“W-What the fuck are you taking about?”

”I’m talking about the fear that never dies. I’m talking about yesterday being tomorrow and tomorrow behind yesterday. I’m talking about Towns and The Roundhead. I’m talking about what that little shit did to us, about what you did to him, remember lover? Remember what happened when you’re eyes were opened?” She says as they stare into each other’s eyes, before he looks away and watches as the ash falls softly to the ground from the end of his cigarette and he breathes a lungful of smoke out, letting out a volatile cough comprised of saliva and blood shortly after.

He looks up into Marilyn’s dead eyes and shoves a shaking fist into his mouth which he bites powerfully down upon as he sobs uncontrollably, piercing the flesh as he does.

“Don’t be like that lover, things don’t have to change between us because of all this does it?” Sam says with a twisted smiled upon her pale face, he quickly raises his revolver and unloads the remainder of the clip into her skull.

“WHY WON’T ANY OF YOU STAY DEAD!”

Javier squeezes the trigger back and squints his eyes in anticipation, but there is no explosion, there is no propelling of forged steel, there is nothing but her smile.

She pushes her bottom lip out like an unhappy child. “That’s not the welcome I expected,” she says before smiling a broad toothy grin. “That’s a lie, you did exactly what I thought you’d do. I mean shit lover, I just killed you right in front of you, that’s gotta fuck a man up,” she says confidently, thrusting her chest out and slamming her fists into her hips proudly.

“This is all a dream. You’re dead and whoever that was, was nothing more than my mind fucking with me.”

She pouts once again, “Lover, if this was a dream this next wouldn’t hurt as much as it’s going to,” she says as arms grab Javier from behind and pull him backwards, he struggles to free himself but finds it impossible to escape.

“Don’t be so quick to run away hunk-o-spunk, the night is young,” Victoria hisses into his left ear.

“We’ve got more fun than any one man could ever want and I know you’d regret not being a part of it,” Sam whispers in his right ear, biting his earlobe.

He feels steel touch his bare chest and looks up into Marilyn’s soulless empty eyes as she holds the blade to his chest.

“Don’t take it personally lover, but there’s just so many things we have to show you I don’t really know where to start. So I thought I’d just cut to the chase and bring on the end.”

“If this is all real and not a dream like I think it is, the fact that that’s my future self on the floor over there means you’ve already killed me tonight and you won’t be killing me again,” he says, her smile drops as she casts a quick glance over to his corpse and then back to Javier.

“The future can cha…,” she says before a shot rips through her head.

“What the fuck is happening?”

“Repetition,” A voice says from behind him, Javier spins around his revolver at the ready once more. He finds only emptiness behind him.

“S-S-Show yourself you coward!” He yells.

“For me to be a coward I’d have to be hiding, and clearly I’m not hiding,” the voice says from behind him once more. He turns around quickly again to find himself standing in his own living room, the TV hissing violently at him and a silhouetted figure stands at its side. “Lower your gun Toddard there’s no need for it, not against me anyway.”

“I’ll be the judge of what I will and will not do, who are you and what the FUCK is going on?” Jarvier says as he blindly feels around for the light switch while keeping his revolver and eyes firmly locked on the mysterious stranger who stands before him.

“I’ll gladly tell you everything you need to know, but trust me when I say this. Seeing everything right now won’t help you understand what is happening any more than you already do, so I’d stop and concentrate on what will, this conversation.”

“STOP telling me what to do!” Jarvier yells as the room explodes with light and he stands there staring at a disheveled reflection of himself.

“W-W-Who the FUCK are y-y-you?” Jarvier stammers.

“I told you the light wouldn’t help, but I guess when I was you I didn’t listen either.”

“When you were me, are you saying you’re me from the future!” Jarvier says with a nervous laugh.

“Do you really want me to answer that?”

Jarvier thrusts his gun forward, “I don’t know, should you?”

“I’ll tell you what I told you, when I was you.”

They stand there is silence staring at each other.

“What did you tell me?” Javier asks finally.

“I told you, there was no more time for me to say anything else.”

“W-W-Why not?”

“Because she drives a blade through my chest and kills me.”

“Who drives a b…” but he doesn’t get to finish asking his question, for a blade tears through his future selfs chest.

“Hello lover, miss me?” Marilyn asks as she tosses his lifeless future selfs body to the side.

“Tell me what this has to do with a fun park!”

“Y-Y-You’ve m-missed the point I was trying to make Det-Detective bo-bozo. What I was saying was, the blogs were all lined up like the mirrors in a fun park. Each one on a slightly different angle. Each one slightly twisted in design. But throughout each one the original image was still present regardless, feeding like a leech off every reverberated image,” Kevin says as he pushes the revolver away and tries to wriggle his way out of Javier’s grip, but only encourages Javier to tighten it.

“How did you first make contact with the victims?”

Kevin nervously chews on his bottom lip as his eyes search the room and come to rest on the broken water jug. “D-D-Do I have to?”

“Maybe the gravity of all that’s going on around you has lost its weight somewhere in that addled mind of yours, so let me bring you back up to speed. You’re facing sixteen counts of indecent assault, fourteen counts of recklessly endangering the lives of innocent bystanders, and two, possibly three counts of murder in the first degree. Now if you FEEL like answering my questions is a waste of YOUR valuable time, then you’ve got another thing COMING! Now how the fuck did you and the victims first make contact with each other?”

Kevin swallows and nods towards the water jar. “C-C-Can I have another glass?”

“What the fuck are you, a fish? Just answer the god DAMN question!” Javier hisses as he tightens his grip and pulls Kevin up from the seat.

Kevin smiles as he nervously scratches at an infected abscess on his arm. “I-It-I-It was on a forum b-board, and b-before you ask I don’t remember which one, but it was o-on-online.”

”And?”

”A-A-And what?” Kevin asks as a foul-smelling pus bursts from the inflamed area on his arm while he continues to dig at the now open wound.

“And what did each of the victims say when they messaged you?”

Kevin bites down on his bottom lip, unflinching as the dark red blood poses down his chin. Javier’s face twists up as he thrusts Kevin away and pulls his revolver free once more, training it on Kevin.

He looks up at Javier with soulless black eyes and smiles. “Do you want to read a stor…” his words are cut short as Javier fires three well placed shots into the centre of his skull. His ears ring with a piercing shriek and then is replaced by the hisses of static that comes from the TV that now sits in front of him.

The blade of the knife caresses Javier’s throat like a lover, letting him know he is there but not doing anything to confirm he is there at the same time.

“We all have a story within us Toddard, yours became more as the window widened and we needed a hero to distract the beast from our true intentions. But now you’re an outdated flag flapping in the wind without a country to represent, desperately trying to find meaning in a world where you have no meaning,” Marty says as he presses his cold lips to Javier’s ear. “So rejoice, for I have given you a meaning. Rejoice, for I have plucked you from your nightmare and found a story that will be your completion,” he hisses.

Javier feels the cigarette burn his finger and jerks back suddenly with a hiss of pain.

“Are you okay Detective?” The young boy asks from across the table.

Javier stares at him, the confusion obviously written across his face. “K-K-Kevin, Kevin Waters?” Javier stammers.

Kevin smiles nervously as he places a hand on the glass of water in front of him. “Are you trying to freak me out? Is this how you t…”

Javier leaps to his feet, tossing his chair to the side. “SHUT UP!” He yells as he slams a fist onto the desks surface. “Tell me about the blogs, about the theme that was going through them!”

Kevin tightens his grip on the glass and smiles once more, “I guess you could say there was a theme going through the blogs,” Kevin says as he sculls the glass of water down as if it had been days since he’d last had any fluids touch his dry, sore throat.

“I know that part, but what kind of THEME Kevin!”

“S-S-Stress much Detective?”

Javier grips the table and thrusts it to the side and grabs Kevin by the throat. “ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION!”

“I-I-I, I can’t quite explain it, b-b-but if I had too I’d say It was like the room of mirrors you’d find in those old creepy fun parks. Actually that feels better than using the word them…”

Javier shakes him violently, “We’ve done this more times than I care to remember, and like every other time you losing me, now tell me everything or the next question will be the last question!” Javier says as he digs his revolver into Kevin’s head.

His eyes stare at the smoldering ash as it falls softly to the ground from the end of his cigarette and he breathes a lungful of smoke out, letting out a volatile cough comprised of saliva and blood shortly after.

He looks up into Marilyn’s dead eyes and shoves a shaking fist into his mouth which he bites powerfully down upon as he sobs uncontrollably, piercing the flesh as he does.

“Don’t be like that lover, things don’t have to change between us because of all this does it?” Sam says with a twisted smiled upon her pale face, he quickly raises his revolver and unloads the remainder of the clip into her skull.

“WHY WON’T ANY OF YOU STAY DEAD!” Javier screams as he leaps to his feet, releasing the spent clip and slamming a fresh one in place.

“Come now sweet stuff you can have us both if that’s what your into,” Victoria says as she wraps her arms around him from behind. He thrusts himself backwards slamming her into the wall behind them, but it only strengthens her grip. He tries again and again, with no result. It’s then that Sam’s reanimated corps leaps to its feet one more and she lets out a demented giggle.

“You can’t be free of us Javier, you can’t escape what you did to us. It still hunts you, even inside here, even inside your own mind,” she hisses as she drives a blade deep into Javier’s chest.

He screams with pain as he leaps to his feet, Marilyn’s dead eyes still starting at him. He rips his shirt open, checking his flesh for any signs of a wound, but finds none.

“It’s playing with you,” a voice calls out from somewhere in the darkness of the apartment.

“Towns?” Javier yells.

“Should I be someone else?”

“Don’t make this any worse than it already is. Put down your weapons and come out, I give you my word that I will not harm you in anyway.”

Marty laughs, “I killed your girl, and tired to kill you. You won’t let me live, it’s not how this part of the story plays out.”

“Then you tell me how it’s going to play out, and I’ll let you know how off the mark are,” Javier yells, as he casts a glance over to Marilyn’s body, and for a moment he could’ve sworn she smiled.

“You’re going to kill me,” Marty hisses in Javier’s ear as he holds a blade to his throat.

Seconds pass as the world spins around violently for Sophie, she weakly clutches her skull and winches in pain as she feels a large bump already formed on her head. She slowly opens her eyes, making out the hulking form of Glenn standing a few feet away, his stance awkward and slouched over. As her vision begins to clear she notices strange marks over his body, and his face empty of any emotion. Suddenly he stands upright and turns his head towards her then jerks forward, lunging towards her. She scrambles backwards, screaming in fear as Glenn grabs at her relentlessly.

Gunfire rips into the air and Glenn crashes to the ground in a bloody heap. Sophie screams louder as a unshaven man in his mid forties moves swiftly from out of the shadows, a revolver drawn and held at the ready.

“WHO ARE YOU!” She screams as she shields herself with her hands in hope of protecting herself against further gunfire.

“Sophie McAdams, there’s no need to be afraid. My name is Javier Toddard, I’m a Detective with the special crime unit, you need to come with me,” Javier says as he holds out a hand towards her.

“Wh-Wh-What’s happening, you can’t be, you’re not real.”

“I’m standing in front of you, after just putting a bullet in your room mates head after he became infected by its word and attempted to bash your head in with a baseball bat. I think maybe you need to throw the real and the make-believe out the window and just trust what your eyes can see standing in front of you,” Javier says as he shakes his hand as a way of encouraging her to take it. “We can’t waste time, if it works out we’ve shifted the focus it will attempt a reset.”

“A-A-A, a reset?”

“You know, when you wake up from a really bad dream that felt like it was as real as everything feels right now, that’s a reset. That soulless piece of shit wants only one thing, and it’ll keep shifting the focus of everything to make it that way. We’ve only got one shot to stop it and we need Towns to do that, but beastly wants Towns to finish its story, so we’re in a bind and only you can help us out.”

“W-W-Why me.”

“Because, that’s the character he wrote you to play. You’re the one who finds him and slays the beast.”

Glenn swings the bat like a little league pro, huffing and puffing with exhilaration.
“WHAT the FUCK’S going on Soph! You okay?” He yells as he tightens his grip on the bats handle as if he is waiting for the pitcher to toss a ball his way.

“It okay you big idiot, I just had a bad dream is all,” she says as she wipes the sweat from her brow and swaddles her lower half, desperately trying to hide the fact she’d wet her bed.

“Bullshit, I heard a male voice scream out. He was talking batshit stuff and you we’re feeding it back to him, so don’t treat me like some chump. What the fuck is going on, and why the fuck does your room smell like the hobo toilets down in Princess Park?”

“I-I-I, I told you before Glenn, I found him and I guess I’ve been on edge since. But that’s all that’s going on I swear, and there was no one else in here, so whatever or whoever you though you heard was just probably me talking in my sleep.”

“Fucking on edge is a down playing it Soph, you’ve been stressed our like the weight of the world is about to break you, and I’ve seen it break people before. Get yourself together before you go looking any further for this guy, I’d rather see you stay in one piece than end up another victim of this stupid curse.”

“That’s the problem Glenn,” Sophie says as she launches herself from the bed and storms past him. “It’s not a stupid curse, it’s real and I’m going to put an end to it!” She says as she slams the door to the bathroom and locks it behind her. For a few moments she stands in the darkness glaring at her own twisted reflection, until a chill runs down her spine as her reflection shuffles forward and smiles a wide torn smile at her.

“Tick-tock went the clock that the beast lay at my bed, it’s words of twisted desires ran rampant through my head, tick-tock, tick-tock, the clock went tick-tock!” Her own disembodied voice hisses from the mirror image, suddenly the twisted version grabs Sophie by the throat from within the mirror and begins to strangle the life from her. Desperately Sophie tires to free herself but the mirror version’s grip is too tight, finally in a frantic gesture she manages to flick the bathroom light on and finds herself alone in the small room, her own hands around her throat. With a panicked stare one last time at her own reflection she darts to the doorway and pulls it open only for Glen to drive the baseball bat into her head, knocking her to the ground in an unconscious heap.

Sweat runs down her brow as her bottom lip quivers with nervousness. She looks around the silent room as her heart fills her ears, its then that she locks eyes with those of a pale young girl who stands within the darkness of her room.

Sophie leaps from her bed and strides clumsily towards the door, as he hand clutches the handle something grips her ankle and pulls her back into the rooms center.

She screams with terror as she is flipped onto her back and the awkward young girl mounts her chest, forcing all the weight of her small frame onto Sophie’s chest. She turns her head to the side as her empty eyes study Sophie’s fear etched face, before smiling and mouthful of razor-sharp teeth as her very face tears open to extend her twisted smile.

“It watches you,” the girl growls. “It watches you and it sees that you see the lie hidden in plain sight. It wants to see you find your way to his door but it cannot see that place for you. Find his door, reveal his emptiness and allow the story to finish,” the girl says as blood and saliva drip from her torn face. The door to Sophie’s room swings open and Glenn bursts into the room with a panicked look upon his face.

“What the FUCK Soph?” He yells as he flicks on the light to reveal Sophie crouched on the floor, alone. She meets his frustrated gaze with her confused, he throws his arms into the air and storms back out of the room. “Get a NEW hobby Soph, before you end becoming part of the story.”

Sophie tightly clutches her knees and squeezes herself into a ball as she slowly searches the room.
Its then that she feels the coldness of her breathe on the back of her neck, quickly followed by a rotting stench and the words, “Find his door, reveal his emptiness.”

The computer screen glows brightly in the dark room, eerily showering its light across the room. From out of the darkness she moves towards the screen, a pen wedge tightly between her clenched teeth and her rimless glasses perched on the tip of her nose. Her eyes run quickly across the screen as she reads the plethora of words displayed before her, before leaning back and scribbling notes on an already overfilled page of her note pad. The light flicks on and she shields her eyes, letting out a groan of annoyance.

“Turn it off!” She growls, casting a vicious glare toward the doorway.

“It’s three in the FUCKING morning Soph, can’t you take a break? If you keep going the way you are, you’re going to burn yourself out!”

“I can’t Glenn. I know you don’t get it, but I’ve got to be ready,” Sophie says with frustration as she turns back to the screen and returns to reading once more.

Glenn strides further into the room and closes her laptop. “Enough of this shit, you need sleep!” He growls, she forces his hand away and pull the laptop open again.

“You don’t understand Glenn, I’m so close. I-I-I, I think I’ve found him,” she says with stuttered excitement.

“Found who?”

“Marty Towns!”

Curse Of The Roundhead

The car comes to a screeching stop on the dry dirt road and Sophie leaps out of the driver side door screaming as she runs into the dense forest that grows along the side of the road. The sharp branches tear into her flesh as she forces her way through the thick growth casting a panicked look over her shoulder, as she locks eyes with his emotionless gaze she looses her footing and tumbles helplessly over a small ravine and crashes to the ground some meters below with a volatile thud.

Seconds pass, and soon become minutes before she finally shows signs of life and slowly pulls herself to her knees, letting out a cry of agony as she does, falling to all fours.

“Running won’t save you,” a voice says as Sophie is pulled up by her hair and she feels the coldness of the blade slice across her throat as he stares coldly into her eyes.

“Stop looking for ME!” He screams.

Sophie leaps up from her desk, sending her laptop crashing to the floor, and as her heart pounds frantically in her chest his words burn in her ears.