Sunday, November 22, 2015

Hideous

Sometimes it is hard to be a hideous monster, Gorak thought to himself as he stomped home after the long, dark night.

Not the terrifying the humans that slipped into the dark nether regions of the Darkness, between Waking world and the world of Dreams part; that was the fun part.

No, it was the drudging hours spent waiting in cramped, damp spaces like beneath cellar staircases, under close-to-the-floor beds, or in over-filled and disorganized closets, just for the few fleeting moments when a frightened human happened to catch a glimpse of his nightmarish form.

Their screams were delicious, but his massive size made for many uncomfortable nights.

And though he was well-liked in the Company, and the higher-ups were happy with his performance, it was always those slick, wraith-like types that were all long fingers and teeth that kept getting promoted over him; he lacked the drive to bring new and innovative ideas to the field of terror to really make it.

He was just a big, lumbering beast that looked scary but he never got into the mind games that his supervisors were looking for in upper management. Or so they said at his quarterly revues, but he knew they thought he was too dumb to be really life-scaringly scary.

Maybe he was, he thought, maybe he would just be the grotesque hulk that lurked in the dark, night in and night out until he was too old and too tired to do anything else.

With a big sigh he turned up the walkway to his small, one bedroom cave, pushed the door boulder aside and lurched sadly inside. He plopped down on his recliner chair and turned on the television to see what new horrors were happening around the world he could use in his nightly excursions.

Slowly, his heavy eye lids began to droop and, like most days, he fell asleep in his chair in front of the flickering images of the atrocities the humans did to themselves; if only he could think of something half as terrible as those, he would be chairman of the board already.


Instead he drifted into his usual nightmare, the one where he worked at the animal shelter with hundreds of cute puppies and fluffy kittens all jumping on him and licking his face. It was real terror.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Betwixt

Betwixt the shadow of night and the light of day, out on the horizon of the dawn, there lies a plain of existence separate from our own; a realm where all things are possible and time is stretched out into eternity.

There are some who say that there is no such place, that it is a fleeting fantasy of those that wish to escape reality. They say what lies out on the horizon is only more horizon, a shimmering haze that tricks the foolish into venturing out further and further, until they become lost and drowned out in the frigid sea.

Yet, this is untrue, this fact I know; know it in my heart, that there is another world beyond the edge of this one, and it is there that I must go.

Galloping across the grassy plains, my horse charges on as I push him to dash on; onward fervently, toward the glimmer on the horizon; onward toward the gateway that leads to another realm amongst the golden clouds that hang there.

While keeping my sights ahead toward my goal, in my mind I look inward to see the pleading faces of my family, imploring me not to strike out on my quest. I had tried to explain to them, tried to make them see; there was another world out there; I needed there to be.

But they would not listen, so it was with a heavy heart that I stole away in the night, to race against the rising sun; to meet that perfect moment where the first sliver of daylight breaks through the cloak of night, to reveal the way in.

If only I could be fast enough, I could see her again.

As we moved closer to where I knew the land would give way to the crystal blue waters of the sea, doubt crept, sneaking in to my sorrow-filled thoughts.

It must be there; it had to be, for why else would she not have returned to her devoted love; why had she not returned to me?

I too had thought her tales of the realm between worlds to be a foolish dream, so away from me she had run; towards the dawn's new born sun, until she had vanished into its bright, golden light.

Now my only hope is to find the land she has already found; to tell her I was wrong, that I do believe in that place, in her realm above the sea and below the sky above, where we can be together forever as one.

Sprinting now, the wind whipping in our faces, man and beast moving together, racing to the edge of consciousness; memories of my love's smiling face blurring in my mind's eye, as the horizon melds with the land and sky, allowing us to gallop on through to the realm in between.

Here betwixt the shadow of night and the light of day, I have found you, my love, you were right, and now forever here we will stay. Far away from the grey world we left down below; far away from the cold, cruel sea, where our earthly bodies now lay.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

The Beast

"Many have come before you." The great beast told him in its rumbling voice that shook the ground beneath his feet. "And all have failed. But, come, brave fool; come and take your turn."

Alejandro steadied himself from the tremors and tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword. He had ventured long and far into the dark Forest of the North, searching for the Beast of Legend; a creature the elders of his village had told tales of since times gone by, so ancient and massive that it was said to have existed since the dawn of time, possibly even before that.

Like all the children of the village, he had grown up listening to these tales, filling his head with ambitions of adventure and glory. And once he had grown up strong and skilled, he had set forth on his quest to hunt down and kill the Beast.

It had been an arduous journey, filled with much peril that tested him to his very limits. Through poisonous swamps that robbed him of his strength, an expansive river which caused him to forget who he was and where he was heading, even a crystal cavern where he had come face to face with his own dark reflection.

Yet he had triumphed over all these trials and tribulations to reach the edge of the Forest; to finally arrive at the very and of the world.

The Beast spoke true enough though, on his voyage Alejandro had come across the remains of the many warriors that had come before and not made it as far as he had. This had filled his heart with pride and renewed strength, for he had come further than any had before; he had found the Beast and would triumph over it as well.

The Beast's massive head swung around atop its great, scaled neck and looked down upon the tiny man standing ready to strike on the ground so far below with its grotesquely huge eye.

It laughed and the world shook.

"I can hear your thoughts, boy." It rumbled amusedly. "And you are mistaken. It is not as if the others had not made it this far. It is that they came to realize what you shortly will. And, like them, the knowledge will drive you screaming in madness."

Alejandro's nerve wavered slightly; what did the great creature mean?

No, he thought, steeling himself once more, it was toying with him, trying to make him lose his resolve; but he would not break, he would not fail.

Before the Beast could muddle his mettle further, Alejandra leapt into action and charged toward where the huge creature's neck had erupted from the edge of the cliff that dropped abruptly at the forest's end.

With a fierce shout, Alejandro took a mighty leap and jumped onto the Beast's thick neck and ran up its long, curving slope, brandishing his sword and baring his teeth.

As he neared the humongous head, he hefted his sword above his own head, readying to rein deadly blows upon the old monster.

He then caught sight of the view beyond the Beast's massive form; beyond the cliff's edge, and it froze his heart and stopped him dead in his tracks.

For below where he stood upon the reptilian-like neck of the ancient creature he had come to slay, was nothingness.

No land far below, no rushing river being fed from a high waterfall, not even clouds or sky; only the nothingness of space that hung all around them, the stars and the sphere of the sun shining far off in the distance.

Alejandro looked back at the cliff's edge and saw that it was made up of the enormous form of the Beast; everything was. The land itself was riding on the back of the Beast's scaly back.

The truth flooded his mind and everything began to swirl as he lost his balance and slipped backwards, hitting the hard surface of the Beast's neck and bouncing off to fall, screaming out into the void of space.

His final vision, before his mind fell into the madness that was the abyss below, was of the entirety of his world floating above him in space as he plunged further and further away from it, into the darkness, and the Beast laughed its gravely laugh.