Chapter two of my new book

Chapter two

I woke up this morning at dawn, right as the sun began to light up the sky. I jumped out of bed and dressed myself up in brown trousers and a dark purple shirt with sleeves that were a little too long for my arms, so I rolled them up just past my elbows. I slipped on my pair of sandals and strapped them up tight, and then I was out of my room and into the kitchen where my Mom had just baked a fresh batch of muffins. She set them on the table, which was made of harden lave like the house, and place two cups of Ule milk down.

“Good morning deary, how did you sleep?” She asked, barely able to see over the table.

“Good.” I answered quickly and picked up two muffins and gulped down the Ule milk as fast as I could. “I’m meeting Sarah in the fields today; she’ll be waiting for me.”

“Alright, well when will you be home?!” She yelled at me as I ran for the door.

“I don’t know, sometime tonight I guess!” I yelled back as I leapt through the door and closed it behind me. Outside the sky was clear of clouds and a cool breeze swept through town, in the distance Clarafade Mountain was clearly visible. It was just another beautiful day in Craz-Tow.

I was meeting Sarah in the fields across town. I figured I could take my time and enjoy eating the two muffins. She was never on time anyway, so it didn’t really matter.

“Good morning Damian?” Mrs. Tebby said from the garden in front of her house as I walk by. Mrs. Tebby was a Goblin. Short, green, and a little ugly, though she had a great personality, and she loved to garden. Beautiful flowers of all colors were always blooming all times of the year. At the moment, there were large yellow flowers that smelled like honey. I always enjoyed walking past her house.

“Good morning Mrs. Tebby. How are you?”

“Good, have a nice day.” She said then returned to digging small holes to bury seeds. I continued on, passing The Forth Leg and a few shops as they set up for opening. Steam was beginning to rise from the bakeries chimney, and the scent of Mr. Jeklin’s sweet cakes and pies filled the air. Mr. Jeklin was a vampire, though instead of blood, he had a thirst for all things sweet. My favorite is his dikle-berry chocolate pie. Imagine strawberries and cherries mashed into a mushy paste, and then add sweet chocolate and stuff it into a pie. Whenever Sarah and I get are monthly allowance we always buy a dikle-berry chocolate pie, bring it to our secret hideout, and share it.

To add to the sweet smell of Mr. Jeklin’s bakery, a soft melody began to fill the air. Gretery was beginning to play his daily hour of music. Mayor Jurrlo had asked Gretery to walk around town and playing one hour of music a day. Jurrlo thought that it would help create a happy mood around town to wake up to the soothing sound of music. So Gretery plays a mixture of instruments from violins to flutes to trumpets. Today, he was blowing a soft tune on his flute as he walked through the streets.

I took a deep breath of sweet air and embraced Gretery’s soft melody as I finished off the last of my two muffins. My mouth was a little dry and I was beginning to crave a glass of cold Ule milk.

GRRRRRHHHHHHMMMMM! A loud grumbling roar filled the air and shook the ground. No one seemed to notice the sounds, they all knew it was just Garroth was waking up and doing his morning stretches. Garroth is a MASSIVE fire breathing dragon, strong and fierce looking! However, when it comes to Garroth, looks are a little deceiving. Imagine a dragon; now give him black as night scales, two pearl white horns on both sides of his head that stretch out past his mouth, and two catlike fierce black eyes. Give him white spikes all along his spine to his tail and make his tail look like a very spiky mace. Then give him massive broad wings and a body to scale and you have a picture of Garroth. However, as fierce and deadly as he may look, he has a personality like a five year old. He hops and bounces and giggles and smiles, and plays pranks and jokes on everyone he can. He’s one of my favorites in Craz-Tow.

In the corner of my eye I could see Garroth stretching out like a cat after a mid afternoon nap, spreading his wings out to the side. Then he stood and shook like a wet dog. When he was done, just after a large yawn where he showed the entire town his mouth full of razor sharp teeth, he leaped into the air and glided through the sky, casting a shadow on everyone below.

I continued on past Feron, the witch fortune teller, the Pelton Pint Pub, and Jastro the metal smith. Soon I was through Craz-Tow and into the fields where I was supposed to meet Sarah.

She was sitting on a large rock in the center of the field. She was wearing a green shirt and pants with her hair tied behind her head. She was wearing a leather side satchel that hung from one shoulder, and in her hands I could just barely make out a bow and three arrows. Of course, I was too far away to see what she was doing with the bow and arrows. Thhhheuuww! Through the air, one of her arrows slammed into the ground just in front of my feet. I slid to a stop and starred down at the arrow in shock! When I looked back up at her, she was smiling and almost laughing.

“You should see the look on your face!” She yelled out as she burst into laughter.

“Why would you do that? What if you had hit me?” My voice cracked and came out a little girlish.

“My parents are teaching me how to use a bow. I can hit a target over one hundred feet away.” She said proudly. I pulled the arrow out of the ground with a tug and ran over to the rock. I had a little trouble at first getting a hold on the rock, but then Sarah reached down and pulled me up. She was incredibly strong, stronger than even Jed, Fred, and Ped.

“Thanks.” I said and handed her the arrow. She took it and strung it across the bow.

“You see that tree over there?” She asked and pointed at a skinny tree about sixty feet away. I nodded. She pulled the arrow back across the string and took her aim. She breathed slow and focused her right eye down the arrow, and then released. The string slung the arrow through the air until it slammed into the trees trunk with a light thud.

“How long have your parents been teaching you?” I asked pretty amazed.

“Three days.” She said as she jumped down off the rock. “Come on! I found something yesterday I want to show you.” She yanked the arrow from the tree and put it in her leather satchel with the others, then slid the bow over her shoulder and let it hang across her back.

I jumped down off the rock and we started off towards the Clarafade Mountains. I struggled to keep up with her. She was an extremely fast runner. After a few minutes I was breathing heavy and begging for a break. Of course she just looked at me and laughed, hardly fatigued.

“Come on, it’s only a little further.” She said encouragingly. “It’s near the river; afterwards we can go for a swim.” I took a few more deep breaths and then we were off. We were out of the fields and into a wooden area at the bottom of Clarafade, in the distance the sound of a rushing river filled the air.

“It’s right over here.” Sarah said and ran ahead to a large tree that looked like it had been pushed over. It had crashed down and landed on several other trees, leaving the area looking like a battlefield of fallen trees. “Here it is.” Sarah said pointing down at something. It was a set of golden armor that gleamed in the sunlight and a silver sword that lying beside it. “I wonder who it came from.” Sarah said.

“Another universe I guess. It can’t be from here, I’ve never seen anything like it.” I mean I’ve seen armor and a sword before, but none like this. It was almost beautiful.

“I know, it’s really pretty.” Sarah said. I picked up the sword, which to my surprise was really light, and held it in the sun. It was then that I noticed that the edge of the blade was stained red. I immediately put it back down and backed away.

“I don’t like this, I think we should leave.” Sarah gave me a weird look, and then nodded with a sympathetic smile.

“Ok, let’s go swim.” We followed the sound of rushing water until we saw a bright blue stream. We both did a cannonball into the stream. The water was cool and quite refreshing. It was difficult not to be swept away in the strong current, but we swam here often and we both knew how not to be carried away.

We spent three hours swimming and diving off trees into the water, until it was nearly noon. That was when Sarah pulled herself out of the water and began drying off. “I found a dying Sweet Goo tree not far from here. It has some really good icicles on it.” She said picking up her bow and leather satchel. Sweet Goo trees are incredible. Once a day, usually around noon, their leaves release a steady stream of sweet liquid for about a minute. Most have been set up by people so that all of the liquid can be collected. Sweet Goo liquid is like our version of soda. It tastes kind of like a vanilla honey, it’s really good. When a Sweet Goo tree dies, instead of releasing liquid, it slowly gushes out sweet sludgy goo that forms icicles on the leaves. The icicles are like rock candy, and taste incredible.

After we both dried off, we headed to the Sweet Goo tree. It was a large tree with blood red leaves shaped like thin cups hanging upside down on the branches, long icicles hanging from each one. The bark of the tree was twisted and spiraled, and like all dying Sweet Goo trees, a dark black color. An aroma of vanilla filled the air.

Sarah walked under the leaves and started picking off the icicles, placing them in her leather satchel with the arrows. I grabbed a long icicle and took a big bite out of it, savoring the flavor. After Sarah had collected twenty icicles, she turned to me and smiled.

“Catch me if you can!” She yelled just before turning and bolting off out of sight. I did my best to keep up, but she was faster. She would slow down just enough for me to get close, then charge forward just out of reach and disappear out of sight just to reappear start all over again. I stood little chance at winning this game.

After twenty minutes of this nonstop chase, Sarah came to a dead stop in front of a small round animal. It was a baby Rooblle. Imagine a basket ball, now give it smooth leathery brown skin, two big beady kitten eyes, you know the ones that are cute beyond all reason, and a large mouth without teeth, just the pink gums and a long red tongue. Now give it two VERY short and stubby arms and legs that are just BARELY four inches long. Its legs are just barely long enough for it to stand and funnily wobble back and forth, but it doesn’t use its legs often. Rooblles roll around to get where they need to go. The babies roll pretty slow.

Now this is just the baby version, all cute and funny looking and completely harmless, but the adult version is a vicious and ugly animal of rage! Triple the baby versions size, give it SUPER sharp teeth, and cover its skin in sticky slim, boils, and warts. Now you have the adult version. O, and it can roll incredibly fast, it could outrun Sarah easily!

Sarah smiled and gave a soft giggle as she starred at the baby Rooblle. Its eyes were boiling in anger and its mouth pulled back as if to show the teeth that weren’t there. It waved its stubby arms as if to scare us away, making faint hissing sounds all the while. Even at a young age they were fierce at heart.

“Do you think its parents are around?” Sarah asked. The young Rooblle was now gnawing on her leg with its toothless mouth, leaking saliva all down her foot.

“I’m not sure. Usually the parents and the pups don’t separate. They must have lost each other.” I said cautiously scanning the area. A run in with an adult Rooblle is never a good thing, even if Sarah was armed with a bow and her deadly accuracy.

Sarah nodded and pulled her leg from the Rooblle’s mouth, then turned to me and kicked it. Its arms and legs immediately sucked into its body, turning into a smooth round ball. The baby Rooblle came to a stop at my feet.

“Let’s see how good you are.” Sarah said hunching over, prepared to stop the Rooblle from getting past her. It may seem cruel to use a small baby animal as a ball, but Rooblles have incredible strong bodies, they can be kicked around all day and not feel a think. All of the children in Craz-Tow use baby Rooblles as balls to play with.

Before the Rooblle could push its limbs back out and start wobbling away, I reached back my leg, aimed, and kicked it! It flew to the right of Sarah and what I thought would be out of her reach, of course I underestimated the skills of an elf. She slid her legs forward and stopped the Rooblle just before it could pass. Then without standing, she kicked the Rooblle back at me with blistering speed. It flew past me and off into the trees, slowly coming to a stop fifty feet or so away. Its stubby arms and legs popped out and it began slowly wobbling away to safety.

“Hah! I win!” She yelled standing up and doing a little victory dance of celebration.

“Aren’t Elves supposed to be gracious winners?” I said.

“Not all of the time.” She said back with a smile. She pulled a Sweet Goo icicle out of her satchel and snapped it in two, then threw one half over to me. For a few moments we sat and munched on the icicles in the shade of a large tree, in the distance they could hear the baby Rooblle hissing and every once in a while they would see it wobble from one tree to the next. Obviously it hadn’t appreciated our little game as much as we had. It wanted revenge, but seemed to understand it stood no chance against us, so it kept its distance, not wanting to provoke us into a rematch.

Once we finished our icicles, Sarah started up her game of chase again, taunting me to catch her knowing full well I never would. This continued on for two hours until I couldn’t go on any further. Sarah of course laughed at me. She was barely tired and could probably go on for hours more till nightfall. For the next couple of hours till dusk, we walked around just talking and passing the time, doing whatever came to mind.

When the sun finally set behind the Clarafade mountains, we were sitting on the rock in the field we had met in this morning. The field was light up with hundreds of Fireflies of all colors. In our universe, Fireflies light up in pink, blue, green, and yellow, which was really cool to see at night. It was like seeing a fireworks show. To add to the Fireflies, in the distance the Clarafade Mountains glowed in the night. The left side of the mountain was glowing red and orange with bursts of lave flying into the sky, while on the right side the stream of water glowed blue. It looked like both sides of the mountain were in a battle to take the sky, blue and red fighting to illuminate the darkness.

“Hmmmm… Well it was a great day Damian.” Sarah said with a sigh. “But I have to get back soon or my parents will worry.”

“Yeah, me too. Mom probably won’t serve Dad dinner until I get home. He won’t be happy about it.” I said as we both jumped off the rock. She gave be a big hug and handed me the last Sweet Goo icicle from her satchel, then we parted ways and headed back home, leaving the beautiful scenery behind.

In the dead of night, in the fields outside Craz-Tow, a small light flashed about four feet off the ground. A few seconds later the light came again, then again and again and again until the light was constant. Then it began to grow bigger, and a faint sound of wind filled the air. The light grew and grew until it was about the size of a doorway, and there was the sound of large gusts of wind. For a few seconds nothing changed, and then the doorway of light gave one blindingly bright flash of white light and then the sound of a hammer beating metal rang through the field and everything went silent and the light vanished. In its place, stood a man in a white lab coat wearing a pair of thin glasses. His lips were spread in a smile as he whispered. “I’m home…”

Chapter one of my new book

Chapter one

My name is Damian, I’m twelve and I live in Craz-Tow. I know, that’s a weird name for a town, but what can I say, I live in a weird universe. It’s a small town with a population of about four hundred people, creatures, animals, and some other things I’m not sure how to classify. Hmmm… let’s see, how do I explain this? Well, in my universe there is a very wide variety of people. There are Humans, Orges, Minotaurs, Elves, Dwarves, Vampires, Werewolves, Dragons, Goblins, Ghouls, Giants, Unicorns, Witches, Wizards, talking animals, animals that don’t talk, massive Owls we call the Wise ones because of their great knowledge, and so on into a list far too long to write down. You’ll hear about the others soon enough. How my universe can to be this was is a little complicated, but I think I can explain it well enough for you to understand.

Imagine your universe as a small rock lying on the ground. The rock doesn’t move or just stand up and walk away, well that is unless some kids decide to play a game of slap leopard with it. Wait, you probably don’t know what that is, do you? Hmmm… Forget about that, back to what I was saying. Your universe is a rock, and so are all of the other universes. Yes, there are other universes, each of them filled with its own cool and unique people and things inside it, and they’re all just sitting around like rocks, just like yours.

So picture an open field filled with rocks, all lying around by themselves, none of them bothering each other or anything of that sort. Then imagine a coin on its side, now flick it with your finger. It begins to spin madly around in circles and runs into everything. Well, that’s us. Were the coin flying out of control and slamming into other universes that are just minding their own business. Whenever our universe touches another universe a portal between the two is opened and everything around the portal is sucked in. That means things from our side are pushed into their side while things from their side are pushed into ours. Anything can be sucked into the portal, people, plants and even an entire building. Trust me, it’s pretty weird to wake up in the morning and look out your window to see some random modern building lying flat on its side in your yard. Plus it is a pain to clean up, I mean you can’t just leave it there and no one in this universe would be caught dead living in of one those buildings. It’s just not natural here. Just like you wouldn’t live in one of our houses if it suddenly appeared in your front yard, even if it was nicer than what you’re living in now.

So that’s why we have so many unique people, and our list is still growing. From every universe they are sucked up and thrown into our world, and eventually we were just one big melting pot of different and weird people all living together. It’s really quite tragic at first, being taken from your universe and all, being forced to live in this new place, but after awhile everyone comes around to the idea of living here. Well, almost everyone. Some people go rather mad with the idea of never going home. I on the other hand love it here! I wasn’t born here of course, but I was sucked up through a portal and brought here when I was just a baby and adopted by my new family. My mom’s a Dwarf named Teara, and my dad’s an Orc name Bearog. Don’t let the name Orc fool you! He’s a great dad, just a big softy at heart with a rough exterior. You know, with the green skin with the warts and the big teeth that stick out of his mouth and the overly massive muscles. There all just a front to scare off people he doesn’t like. But when it comes to the people he does like, he couldn’t be nicer!

So now that you know why our universe is the way it is, I guess it’s time to tell you about Craz-Tow. It’s a smallish town just off the cliffs of the mountain Clarafade. Clarafade is a massive and steep mountain covered in beautiful green, blue, red, and black colors. You see, half of the mountain is a boiling, raging pile of fire and lava! While the other half is filled with trees and a streaming river. To the west, a river of flaming lava flows alongside the town, while on the east a cool stream of water flows. We use this to our advantage, by making our houses out of hardened lava. This somewhat makes them look like we piled up dark grey mud layer after layer until it formed a basic cube shaped house with a slightly slanted roof, two windows, and a door way large enough to comfortably fit an Orc. The finished product isn’t pretty, but they are the most durable houses in all the land, and only we know how to handle the lava and turn it into a house that won’t crumble. Plus, we have unlimited access to all the lava we could ever want. My Dad works as a lava collector. He pulls it out of the river and prepares it for the creation of a house or a few other things we use it for. As an Orc, his skin has an unusually high resistance to heat which makes him perfect for the job, anyone else who tries to get as close as he does to the lava would burn to a crisp.

Well, the rest of Craz-Tow is pretty normal with large open fields for crops and the raising of Ule and other cattle. Wait; do you know what Ule is? Probably not. Well, imagine a cow with a long horse like neck, now add droopy ears that hang a foot below its head and three tails on its butt. Then make the whole thing bright yellow, green, or pink and you have yourself a Ule. Odd, I know, but you can make an excellent Ule stew out of them, and their pretty fun to ride on when their young.

So, what else can I tell you about my universe and my town Craz-Tow? Hmmm… I’ve been having some trouble figuring out what to write. You know, where to start and what to talk about and how much to talk about it while making it all interesting enough for you to keep reading. It’s harder than you’d probably think! I mean just go ahead and try it! I bet you couldn’t make an entire story about your world. But of course your world is nothing like mine. You don’t have dragons or rivers of lava or brightly colored Ule. Well, you might have one or two of those, but not all of them in one place!

Alrighty, what can I tell you? I guess I should tell you about some of the important people around town, the ones whom hold our community together. Well, for starters, there is our mayor, Jurrlo. He’s a Dillweed. Now sure what the name means or why anyone would call themselves by such a thing, but that’s what he says he is, so we go with it. To paint a picture for you, imagine a human. Now shave off all his hair, give him dark tan skin, and catlike eyes. Now extend his nose out until it’s thin and pointy and then curve it downward. Give him a mouth full of small sharp teeth and a purple tongue, then fill his forehead with odd tattoos that look like a mixture of curving lines, and now you know what Jurrlo looks like. O, and put him in an all black cloak that hangs to the ground, with a hood that he never lifts over his head. He just lets it dangle around on his back. Despite his rigid and terrifying exterior, he’s a rather peaceful person. He’s very smart and kind and has a way of dealing with people that makes him pretty great at being mayor.

Next we have Mead. Mead runs the local Inn called ‘The fourth leg’. He takes in the ‘new arrivals’ and gives them a place to stay until they can find a place of their own and get a job to support themselves. Pretty nice guy if you ask me. He is what we in Craz-Tow call a Dindy-do. Another odd name I know! But he likes it, makes him laugh every time he hears it. To describe a Dindy-do for you, you’re going to have to imagine a brown bear. Now stand that bear up on his back legs and shrink him down to a normal human’s size. Give him fingers like a human but take away the pinky on just his right hand. Pull back his large nose and mouth until his face is almost flat, and then take away his teeth and replace them with only two sharp ones in the front of his mouth. Give him tall bunny like ears that stick about a foot up over his head, dress him in brown trousers and a tan shirt, give him an extremely deep and growly voice, and you have yourself a Dindy-do! Mead was lucky enough to be brought here with his wife, Heely. She looks about the same as he does, except her voice isn’t as deep and she wears pretty dresses and other girly things.

Next we have the three bullies of Craz-Tow, Jed, Fred, and Ped. Yep, we have bullies too. Their triplets and they all have the same short temper and bad attitude towards everything. They are what I like to call, ‘Jerk-ta-pusses’. Ever seen an Octopus? Well, take an Octopus and give it a purple human body, let its tentacles be the hair, and give it one black eye in the center of its face. Add a mouth with a blue tongue and really big muscles everywhere in its body. That is what Jed, Fred, and Ped look like. Their fifteen and only seem to pick on those smaller than them. You know, guarantying that they won’t lose a fight. Well, their main target is most often me. I’d rather not get into details about what they like to do to me, so let’s move on.

So to the last person I’ll mention now, my best friend! Her names Saraphine, I call her Sarah. She’s an Elf. If I had to describe her, I guess I would say she was, well, I never thought about her like that… She’s really pretty. She has long blonde hair and pointy ears and a defined face. Just like all other Elves I guess. But like I was saying, she is my BEST friend and we do practically EVERYTHING together from our daily chores in the fields, to spending the nights over at each other’s houses. We have a lot of fun.

I know I said Sarah was going to be the last person I would to talk about, but I really should say something about myself. Well, I’m a human. I have brown hair and brown eyes, a lean body… I mean, a huge body, massive muscles, and I’m also super smart, like a genius. Alright! I guess I shouldn’t lie. I’m a pretty skinny kid, no really big muscles like Jed, Fred, and Ped. But I am pretty smart, not a genius, but smart. I’m not sure what else to say, I’m just a normal human living in a very not normal universe.

Well, I think you kind of understand my universe and Craz-Tow now, or at least I hope you do. Ahh, whatever. If I think of something else I should have told you, I’ll just come back and add it in. It’s not like you would ever know…

I'VE HELD MY DEVIL AT GUNPOINT

I’VE HELD MY DEVIL AT GUN POINT

A young mother so happy and joyous with her new family stood holding her newborn child in her arms. Her eyes full of silent joy, were fixed upon the sleeping child all cuddled up in her arms in a bright white cloth. A smile lightly stretched across the right side of her lips added to the peaceful beauty upon her face, as memories of the past hours of pain and misery disappear in a single glimpse of the infant in her arms. All around her rushing people and loud noises fade away into a silent blur and the only noise she hears is the sound of the infant’s slow repeating heartbeat.

For two years she and her family grow in love, creating an unbreakable bond between each other. But their happiness could not last. Taking their final breaths, the father and child stood looking down on themselves lying on the floor. The wife and mother hunched over them, screaming in horror. He eyes like rivers, she screams again and again and again until her voice gives out as her face turns red and her body becomes weak and falls to the floor!

Struck with unbearable grief and sorrow, and a heart that had stopped beating, she faded away into the shadows of the world, leaving behind everything she had ever loved. With each passing day her pain grew stronger and more unbearable until she was driven to insanity, and she could no longer take it! She wanted to end it all! So she grabs a revolver and waves it in the air! Screaming in horror and anger and demanding answers! Demanding that someone tell her why, why her happiness was taken away! “WHY?!” She screams over and over and over again! Her lungs straining to keep up! Her mind confused and overwhelmed!

Then before her a man appeared, though he was not as much a man as he was the featureless, black as night shadow of a man not there.

She pointed the revolver at him, bringing his head into its crosshairs, prepared to pull the trigger. But as she looked into his eyes she was struck with a sudden fear. His eyes were even darker than the rest of his black as night body, and as she starred into them she saw the blazing oblivion of hell and all of her pains and sorrows, everything that was consuming her. The man embodied all of her emotions of grief, sadness, anger, and fear, everything within her that drove her to insanity, everything that was destroying her, everything that she could no longer take.

Her eyes were strained and marked with red veins, flooded with tears of anger and drenched with sorrow and heartache. Her eyebrows arched downward, casting a shadow over her eyes, and her jaw was clenched shut, straining the muscles in her face. Her skin was flush red as tears flowed down and dripped off her chin. Her entire body shook, overwhelmed with conflicting emotions of anger, sorrow, and fear.

“You…” She said heart wrenched and stricken with horror, her voice faltering. “You did this to me. You’re the one who took away my family, the one who took away my happiness.” Her jaw trembled as a stream of tears fell from each of her eyes.

He slowly and silently nodded his head.

“You stole them from me…” Her throat was choked up, barely able to find the courage to speak. “You stole my family.” As she starred into his eyes, struck with fear, she saw the moment her family had been taken from her, the moment her heart was stricken of its beat. They were as clear and true as her own memories, as if from her own eyes they had been taken. It was in that moment that her heart seemed to fall from her chest and vanish beneath the floor, her entire body becoming numb, her fears disappearing.

She looked at him, her eyes hardening with a layer of ice, her face marked with anger. “You-” She paused and took a deep breath. “You stole my family.” She spoke through her teeth with her jaw clenched shut, her tongue soaked with anger. “You stole EVERYTHING from me. You destroyed my life. YOU DESTROYED MY LIFE!” She erupted in rage and waved the revolver at him, the end of the barrel coming inches from his face!

He stepped forward until the cold metal barrel of the revolver touched his forehead. From the touch of his skin, the tip of the barrel heated until it glowed red, illuminating the darkness of his face. A sudden burning pain arose under her chin, though she didn’t notice it.

Starring into his eyes, she was confronted with more memories of her happiness and the moments it was taken away. They were like knives into her stomach as they stripped the air from her lungs. She tried to look away but her eyes were frozen and she could not turn her gaze. She tightened her grip around the handle and pulled back the hammer, lightly squeezing the trigger.

More tears began to flow down her face. She was so overwhelmed and confused; she wanted it all to end! She wanted to be free of what she saw standing before her! Free of the pains and misery in his eyes! The painful memories that haunted her own mind! She could no longer stand to see their faces in her eyes or hear their laughing voices in her ears! Every waking moment she had she could only see them! The memories of her family haunted her and drove her to insanity! The pain in her heart caused by the thought of them compelled her to squeeze the trigger! To end her pain! To end her own misery!

She closed her eyes as the voices of her family rang through her ears and pictures of them flashed before her eyes! She tried to breathe but the pain suffocated her, she tried to think but their voices clouded her mind! She looked at the man, the revolver still aimed at his head, the glowing hot barrel still illuminating his face and the images in his eyes.

Suddenly, her heart began to pound and beat sporadically. It felt heavy and consuming and weighed her down, pumping the blood through her veins so fast she thought she might burst. Her head throbbed and ached until her brain felt like it was boiling. The pain was unbearable. She screamed at it to stop but it only became worse until she could barely stand.

She looked at the man with a face mixed with opposing emotions of fear, anger, sorrow, and complete horror. She couldn’t take it any longer. “I want it to end.” She said barely able to speak, her lips quivering uncontrollably.

Slowly, the trigger pulled back under her finger, the cylinder spinning and the hammer slamming down.

BANG!..........

She falls to the floor, the revolver in her open hand, a burning hole in her chin, the man disappearing into darkness like all the other images in her eyes, and a silent peace falls upon her face, a look of utter relief.

Greed

When we first came to be on this world we stood on a warm sandy beach with a jungle of beautiful trees and flowers and fruits to our left and a calm blue ocean to our right. The land went on for miles and miles rising and falling in the sky. Almost every inch of it covered in beautiful green life. In the ocean were thousands of swimming fish and life even in the form of colorful rocks. Above us the light blue sky shinned with the suns light and was filled with fluffy white clouds. The air was pure and clean and as we breathed it in we felt refreshed. Everything around us was perfect and beautiful and filled with life and all of it was willing to give to us all that we needed, so we took it. We took what they offered and we were happy but still we wanted more. We were greedy. So we began to take. From everything around us we took whatever we desired.

Soon the world became upset. It tried to stop us but we didn’t listen. So the ocean became angry. Its water began to rush back and forth and huge waves rose up into the sky and beat down on the sandy shores. But still we took.

So the land became angry. The land began to shake and rise up and down and crack as hard as it could. But still we took.

So the clouds became angry. They grew long and dark and blocked out the suns light. But still we took.

So the wind grew angry. It began to whirl and blow as violently as it could. But still we took.

So the ocean became enraged and its waves rose higher and beat down harder on the shore. With the winds help the ocean created a hurricane that came and ravaged everything in its way. But still we took.

So the land became enraged. It shook and cracked as hard as it could and from its deep depths a Volcano rose into the sky spurting out liquid fire that burned everything in its path. But still we took.

So the clouds grew enraged. Rain and hail began to pour down on us until floods began to cover the land and loud cracks of thunder rang through the air as bright flashes of lightning struck down at us. But still we took.

So the wind became enraged. It began to spin faster and faster until it created a tornado that ripped apart everything in its path. And so the world continued until all that lived in the Ocean had been killed by its hurricane and everything that lived on the land was burned by its lava and all that flew in the sky was thrown to the ground to die by its tornado. So the Ocean stopped its hurricane, and the land stopped its lava, and the wind slowed it tornado until it was gone and the clouds spread apart allowing the suns light to once again shine down upon the world. And so we took no more. We had taken and taken and taken so much that the world turned its back on us and let its storms destroy us, and so we died, greedy and uncaring.