Tag: reading

The Lily Pad

I dropped to my knees and felt a relief wash over me, but my eyes stayed on the lily pad.

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I stood there on the edge of the water, the silence surrounded me as thick as a blanket. All was still, the water didn’t move, no rustles in the trees, just silence. I would have thought it felt peaceful, if it didn’t feel so thick. I understood the phrase, “you could cut the air with a knife” a bit more in that moment.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. Something was drawing me into it. It pulled so, that I’d blink and try to be more aware of my surroundings, but couldn’t lift my eyes. I was listening hard for even a small chirp from a bird or that lovely song the crickets made at nightfall. I could have sworn it had just been bright as day, but now the sun was setting. My eyes stayed on a single lily pad while I tried to tune in my other senses. I could feel the temperature drop a few degrees as the sun continued to set. What was it about this lily pad? My brain was fuzzy and I couldn’t seem to think straight. How long had I been standing there for? It sure was getting colder and seemed to be getting even quieter. How was that even possible?

Where had I been going? What had brought me here? This is so bizarre, my brain seems so fuzzy right now. I can’t stop staring at it, blinking again I couldn’t lift my arms to rub my eyes, they felt like they were burning, burning so strongly. The sun seemed to have set completely now, but the pond was giving off some type of radiating light, or at least it appeared to be. It was freezing now, I thought I was shivering, how long had it been again? It was floating there, right in the pond, a single lonely lily pad in the small pond. Where was this pond again? I can’t for the life of me remember where I was or what I had been doing, I just knew that this lily pad was there FOR me. What was I to take from this?

I felt a pain in my legs, I realized my entire body was shaking, I dropped to my knees and felt a relief wash over me, but my eyes stayed on the lily pad. I could hear the water lapping at the shore, but hadn’t it just been quiet a second ago? I sense an excitement, having heard some type of noise within the thickness of the silence just a second ago. The lily pad appeared to be getting closer, that was a good thing right? My mind couldn’t seem to form any other functioning thought at this moment, my focus on the other senses gone, all I could see was that the pad was actually just getting bigger. I felt that was a good thing, but I did feel even more of a coldness throughout my body, a deep deep coldness that I could feel within my bones. Another phrase I now understood with more clarity. I chuckled to myself and almost jumped at a noise. Noise! Was that caused by me? The silence felt so powerful that it felt like I was almost being pushed down.

Down. I did feel like I was being pushed down. What a peculiar feeling right now. My neck felt strained as it continued looking at that lily pad. Was it even bigger now? My neck was killing me even more now. The lily pad HAD to be closer.

I am so cold, it’s so quiet and dark….

Where did it go?

The Road Untraveled

Standing in the middle of the dirt roadway, frozen solid. The air had gotten considerably colder…

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Walking down the dirt path roadway she marveled at how enchanting the road was. Trees bordering all down the road, as far as you could see, with massive tree covers completely enveloping the roadway, creating a type of calmness that made her feel as if there wasn’t another soul in the world. It was colder under the tree cover, but also quieter and dimmer.

As she walked on, she almost giggled to herself as she considered she was more sauntering than walking, she kept getting distracted by the forests lining the roadway. Something would catch her eye and then she’d catch herself standing and staring at seemingly nothing and have to jolt herself out of the trance to continue walking on.

She noticed there wasn’t any animal noises, no birds chirping or rustling of any forest critters, just her and her soft steps along the roadway. She looked up and could see glimpses of sunlight in patches, but most of the covering was pretty well entangled together above the road.

She kept on for a bit, still marveling at how quiet it was and how it seemed to have no end in sight. It really did bring her to a calm, leaving her alone with her thoughts. She kept on, losing track of time when once again she snapped out of her trance and realized she wasn’t walking anymore. She was standing in the middle of the dirt roadway, frozen solid. The air had gotten considerably colder, she even had goosebumps on her bare arms. She looked around, she didn’t see anything, nothing moving, no wind blowing through the tree coverings, nothing at all.

She suddenly felt as if someone was watching her, as if someone was almost on top of her. She slowly turned around, knowing for sure she was going to be looking straight into someone’s eyes.

There was no one there.

However she realized she hadn’t actually walked that far down the forest roadway. Mere feet in fact. Puzzled, she went to turn back around to continue on her way, when she caught a glimpse of a black figure towards the beginning of the forest cover. She stepped towards it, but it was gone in an instant. It must have been a shadow playing with her eyes she told herself.

Shrugging her shoulders she turned and continued on down the forest roadway. She wasn’t going to get distracted again, she would pay attention. It was very clear just how quiet it had become under these giant trees and their expansive branches, leaves, and coverings. She didn’t make it very far when she felt a Strong sense that someone was about to grab her, she instantly whipped around to confront whatever it was. She was getting irritated now. Probably some kids messing with her. Once again there was nothing there. Again she noticed she wasn’t very far from where she had been last time. Hell, had she even made any progress? She’d been walking at least 15 minutes since the last time she stopped, it had to be!

She wondered if she should just go back the way she came from, but had been enjoying the idea of her walk today and going through this roadway. So she turned and kept on her way. She went at a quicker pace, almost jogging, breaking out a sweat. She just needed to get on with it. She refused to turn around, and paid attention to landmarks with certain trees and ground plants. She knew it had to have been her brain playing tricks on her, so she just kept going.

After awhile she tired, slowing down to a stroll again. Even after working up a sweat she was chilly. She paused to catch her breath and pull out her bottle of water. As she was drinking she was telling herself it was silly to be nervous, knowing full well she was going to turn around and check her progress but not wanting to.

Forcing herself she turned around, breathing out a sigh of relief seeing that she was now deep within the forest roadway.

She froze suddenly when she also realized that she couldn’t see anything beyond a few hundred feet. It was as if everything was part of a giant black shadow, as if she was staring into an actual abyss. She took a few steps forward, back towards the way she had come, the blackness getting closer…5455124131_4050ace8fe_bAs she kept inching forward she realized that the blackness, the shadow was actually moving, writhing.

She inched closer until she was about 5 feet away from the edge. She was staring into a wall of black nothingness, the entire forest she was facing seemed to have disappeared, becoming one with this blackness.

It was eerily quiet, yet she could have sworn she heard a non stop whispering coming from the blackness. As she was focusing on the sounds she realized that the blackness was not only moving within itself, but moving towards her.

She stepped back, another step back, hesitant to turn her back on the wall but knowing she needed to move, and move now. Turning she was relieved to see the normal forest in front of her. It no longer had a calming effect on her however, she could feel the tension under the canopy of trees and started running.

She ran as fast as she could. She ran until she couldn’t feel her feet and kept on running. Finally when she couldn’t go any farther she collapsed to her knees on the ground, trying to catch her breath. She felt better, even though she still couldn’t catch her breath. She didn’t know what the hell that was but she felt better knowing it was farther away.

As she caught her breath she got to her feet. Man she needed to hit the gym more she thought to herself. She turned around, and stood in disbelief. The black wall was almost fully surrounding her now, mere inches away from her, she instantly started backing up, but still couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She heard the whispering again, but it was more fervent, anguished, almost tormented.

She didn’t dare turn her back on it now, she knew that whatever it was, that IT wanted her.

She kept backing up, fascinated with how the blackness was writhing, turning into itself right in front of her eyes. She realized how cold it was, freezing almost, she had to get out of there. Knowing she needed to move she slowly turned, ready to run for it,
but there was only blackness.

© 2017 Mj Gale

 

The Platform Pt.4

I stayed there, un-moving for what seemed like an eternity, I almost felt a bit of peace come over me before I realized…

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There had to be a way out. I got myself standing and half stumbled to where I thought the edge was. The floor was glowing bright enough that I could see where it stopped. I grab a piece of the pile, a hand I think, and throw it toward the dark part of the ground and listen. There is no noise. It was obviously a drop off. I start moving along the edge and it becomes apparent that we were on a giant rectangular platform. I look up for anything that might help me, but it’s too dark to see anything at all. Then I hear the whoosh again just in time for me to dive to the floor.

I stayed until the second whoosh came back through, hoping my new adversary was still on the pile. I listen as hard as I can but I don’t hear anything. I stay still for a few more minutes but the floor is just too hot. I crawl back over to my created pile and very carefully and as quietly as I can, begin to climb up it. When I am almost to the top I struggle to try to see if he was up there or if anything was moving, either it was too dark or he wasn’t there. I climbed the rest of the way to the top, lay backwards face up, and keep as still as possible. I thought I’d heard a noise to my left but I didn’t budge, I needed time to think, and it was still so hot and I was SO thirsty. I stayed there, un-moving for what seemed like an eternity, I almost feel a bit of peace come over me before I realiz that is probably a bad thing.

I need to stay alert, I need a game plan. My Brain is so foggy, I can’t think of anything except an ice cold drink. Right then I feel the pile move, and I know he must be climbing up it. I continue my attempt to be as quiet as before. He obviously wasn’t wanting to try to work together to find a way out, but I wasn’t sure I could do what he did to me. I hold as still as I can while I feel the pile move ever so slightly. It was so hot, I was so thirsty, my Brain was so disoriented, what if I was just imagining it moving..? Finally I sense that he is near, he was obviously trying to move slow and quiet, I can tell he is near my feet, I pull my knees into my chest, struggling to see any type of shape in front of me, but it was still just darkness.

I sense it before I feel him, he was on his knees groping around the top of the pile. I close my eyes, hesitating briefly, before shooting my legs out and hitting him square in the chest. He shot backwards yelling out and grabbing for something as he flew down onto the floor. He instantly starts screaming as he hits the ground; there is an awful, grinding noise accompanying his screams. The red light is now back and almost on-top of me above the pile, a dark, dark red that was finally illuminating the room. I look and am able to see him down there, the floor was glowing bright orange, and there were hundreds of spikes sticking out of it now, and the spikes were turning. He was punctured and being ground up. As his screams finally subside I realize I am covered up to my knees on-top of the pile. Then he stops completely, and it is eerily quiet again.

There is a loud noise on the other end of the platform, I see two large doors open from what seemed to be nowhere, light fills the area. I squint but all I can see is the gore left behind. The floor is no longer glowing and the spikes are gone, all that remains is an array of body parts and blood covering everything. I climb down and hesitantly head to the open door. When I reach it I can see a bright bright white room, with a single item. I step into the white room, and stare at the small black table in the middle of the room, on it there was just one thing.
A bottle of water.

© 2017 Mj Gale

Pt.1     Pt.2     Pt.3

Altered

I heard the stream again but didn’t feel anything, I just keep on running. I turn a few corners, it’s getting darker and darker…

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We are walking up to this large abandoned building. The feeling of excitement is thick throughout our group, we’ve been trying to get into this building for a long time. One guy slips through a broken window, we hear a thump and then a big wide door rolls open. We grab our packs and start exploring. We are all so excited, we can feel it all around. We get through the first floor in no time, not much there of interest. We are about halfway through the second floor when we hear a car outside. Though this wasn’t too unusual; as we weren’t the only ones interested in exploring abandoned places such as this, we did take notice.

I peek out the upper window and see a figure disappear into the doorway we had entered. I get back to the guys and we keep on going deeper into the building. I heard a big thump behind me and turned around, not seeing anything I turned back around. The guys were about 15 feet ahead of me and I was about to call out to them when I hear the thump again. This time I sensed danger, as if it was right behind me. Instinct told me to duck so I did, while simultaneously spinning around. I shout out to the guys to hide, as I stare up into the face of the stranger from earlier.

My gaze rests on an item he is holding; small, about the size of his hand, with a glowing circle on the end, and I can see a trigger. It was aimed over my head and as I kept shouting at the guys one of them turned around to come towards me, he pulled the trigger. A small laser light stream burst out and hit my guy square in the forehead. I screamed and ran over to him, crumpled up on the floor. He wasn’t bleeding and appeared fine, but confused. The laser stream shoots past me again hitting my friend, and he drops to the ground too, writhing around, yet with no blood or anything.

I glance back at the perpetrator as the stream now comes toward me. I turn back around and curled into a tight ball on the ground. I feel it hit me, but I don’t feel any pain. At all. I heard him curse and start towards me. I try to get the attention of my companions, but they both looked at me strangely, as if they had never seen me before… I crawl over to my guy, grab his face, and kiss him, but he quickly shoves me off. He starts speaking, saying something that sounds like complete gibberish. I’m not able to determine a single word, yet he looks as if he knew exactly what he was saying. Something is not right, he’s altered somehow… I looked at my friend who was also hit, and by this time he was standing with a blank look on his face, and mumbling to himself in a completely alien language. Looking back behind me I see that the stranger is closer now, yelling at me to hold still and look at him. I stand up tall, and quickly run the opposite direction of him.

I heard the stream again but didn’t feel anything, I just keep on running. I turn a few corners, it’s getting darker and darker. I don’t have my pack, which conveniently has my light in it, and I’m worried about running into a wall, or falling through a hole. I slow down, as it’s almost completely black. Feeling along the wall with my hands guiding me I move on, while continuously looking behind me, I do not see or hear the stranger pursuing. I know I need to find a way down and out. I pause to try and see if I can hear anything. It is eerily quiet. So I just keep moving forward, with my hands along the wall for what seems like forever.

Finally I feel an opening, it is still so dark, but at the moment, I was actually finding comfort in that. The opening ended up being a stairwell and I again guide myself down. I can see light begin to shine through as I near the bottom. I am back on the first floor, squinting at the light. I think I am on the opposite side of where we entered, it looks vaguely familiar from our pass through earlier. Not hearing or seeing anyone I make myself move as quietly as possible across the first floor, back to the entrance we came into.

As I near it I can see movement out the window. I peek over and through the broken glass, I see the guys! They are with the stranger, out by the car that had arrived. He seems to be directing them to do things, both are unloading items from the trunk, but I can’t quite make out what they are. I cannot figure out why they are doing what he’s directing them to do… why aren’t they putting up a fight…They seem different somehow, oddly they seem more like the stranger… Despite all that, I know I can’t just leave them. I really wish I had my pack, which also has my phone in it… It is what it is, so I back away from the window and walk around to the other side of the entrance, and dart out to hide behind a pillar nearer to the guys.

Now that I’m closer I can see that they’re taking out large tote like plastic containers. They all appear to be filled with the same items; they’re all filled with the same hand held laser things the stranger had! I try whispering to get the attention of the guys, loosing track of the stranger in order to edge closer, I have to help them. I suddenly hear a noise back behind me, towards the entrance. I whirl around, and I find myself staring straight into the laser-stream. Then, everything goes black.

© 2017 Mj Gale

The Swarm

As soon as I looked I felt terror through my entire body

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We are huddled in a corner, it’s a very large room and almost completely dark except for a few candles in the corner where we are. There had to be hundreds in this room, as close together as we could get, yet the other side of the room was empty. Everyone was whispering, there was one phrase that kept getting repeated, “the swarm, the swarm, the swarm”

I’m looking around, asking what they were talking about, but everyone looks dazed, almost drugged. I realize now everyone was whispering to themselves, unaware there was someone next to them.

I’m trying to move but there was so many people crammed into this corner that I couldn’t get them to budge. I tried being more forceful and it was like pushing a rock. I couldn’t figure out what was going on but I knew I needed to get out of there. The flickering lights from the candles were disorienting.

Then I heard an actual voice, deep voice talking to someone else. It was coming from the empty side of the room. Instantly I knew it meant trouble. I tried to blend in and get into the rocking sway of the people all around me, and I started whispering. I kept my eyes down as I heard the deep voices come closer.

“It’s time to move them” I heard. I tried not to panic because I felt, down to my core, that I had to get out of there before they moved us to wherever they had planned. I kept looking up for exits, a window, anything that I could run to. It was just too large and dark of room, I couldn’t see anything past all these people.

The group started shuffling forward all of a sudden, and I felt myself pushed from behind so I got into their rhythm again, keeping my head down and muttering as they were. I could tell they had us headed to the opposite side of the room, knew I couldn’t let myself get that far.

I wait until what I think is the middle of the room, and I raise my head, desperate to find an escape route. As soon as I looked I felt terror through my entire body. The room was not dark because of a lack of light, the entire side of the room where they were sending us was moving, it appeared to be an open mouth. This mouth ahead was made up of millions of tiny little moving objects; the darkness itself appeared to be moving, and I could hear now a slight buzz above the muttering. Instantly I knew what the swarm was. We were being walked to a death within the swarm.

I stopped and was instantly pushed forward by the people surrounding me. I decided action was better than surrendering, and just turned around and started climbing over the people. Onto their shoulders and over their bodies. I heard one of the deep voices yell something and just kept going back. Back was better than whatever was in front of us. I kept going, scrambling over these people, (why couldn’t they wake up??) I fell, jumped right back up, kept going and climbing over and over, yet I still felt as if I was being pushed forward to The Swarm, the deep voices were much closer to me but I kept going. Just as soon as I could see I was almost to the end of the group of people, I heard the deep voices, they seemed right on top of me… Then I felt a hard hand grab my neck, and everything went black.

© 2017 Mj Gale

The Force in the Woods

I knew it was time to run so I ran as fast I possibly could…

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I’m running through the woods, it’s sunny and bright, so many crisp leaves on the ground,. The trees are bare and I can hear nothing but my steps in the peacefulness of these woods. It’s wonderful. I suddenly stop running when I hear voices, and hide behind a huge fallen log, I peek around, intuition told me I should not be seen.

I look upon a gruesome scene, three boys, about teenager age, are mutilating this poor rabbit. They’ve already disemboweled it and right now the alpha male is trying to get the other two to eat parts of the intestines. Horrified, I knew I had to get out of there….I try to turn around and sneak away but the leaves were too loud, and all three boys instantly turned around and saw me. I knew it was time to run so I ran as fast I possibly could, and yet I could hear them gaining on my small legs.

I’m running and running through the woods, a little bit lost but I am following a creek. Right when I am about to run through the creek to the other side I’m tackled from behind. The alpha male was on top of me, turned me around and had all his weight on me while the other two were cheering him on. He stands up and says something along the lines of, well what should we do with this one? They’re all standing over me and as he swings his leg back to try to hit me there is this massive “whoooshhh” through the entire area…There is a force like a huge gust of wind that was strong enough to knock all three boys to the ground.

I tried to sit up but the force was holding me down in place as well. Then the three boys are lifted into the air, it’s so so quiet, nothing at all was being heard. They are twirled around and around, head over feet, sideways and back, and I’m lying on the ground watching as all of a sudden they were still….and then, without any noise no boom or anything, they were ripped apart from the inside out. Just as if there was a bomb inside them that blew them apart. I was sprayed with the remnants of what the boys once were, while still being pushed to the ground, unable to move.

In complete awe, I am just looking up, trying not to focus on the blood and bits covering everything. Then I feel another force of wind come upon me; an almost tornado like wind covering the entire area. The force swirls around gathering all the bits and blood; every single piece of what the boys once were is gathered by this force. It goes smaller and smaller upon itself until it completely disappeared, and there was no trace left of anything.

I was lying on the crisp leaves, looking up, and could hear the sounds of the woods again, and was able to sit up. Looking around I could not process what had just happened…then I felt a strong gush of wind coming up behind me…and once again I knew it was time to move. I jumped to my feet and started running back through the woods as fast as I possibly could….running and running and running….

© 2017 Mj Gale

White Rage

… I can hear it’s force rip and tear and shred.

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I have been captured with a bunch of people. I can hear that there is a group of them nearby, but I am alone. We are outside in the desert. Our captors have singled out one  person in particular, and they keep antagonizing them. I’m off to the side and I warn them “hey, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
I can’t see around the corner where they are with the prisoners, but all of the sudden, there is a major shit storm!
A crazy whirlwind twirling white tornado creature has formed; it’s the person they were antagonizing… It is out of control; I can hear it’s force rip and tear and shred. All the bad people are being mutilated.
When it finally stops their body parts are everywhere; bloody, gushing, and smashed on the floor… along with every one else’s. Then the twirling white force lets herself out, it is female, she heads towards me. Why do I not feel fear..?
Then, everything goes black.

© 2017 Mj Gale

Beneath My Skin

I can hear tiny little noises, almost like a scurrying.

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I am at an empty old high school. It’s really dated, but not abandoned, I think it’s just the weekend. I’m walking around looking for some type of book, can’t seem to remember where I left it…
I walk into a random room, and I am startled to see three students standing there in lab suits, full on hazmat. They look at me horrified, and just say “run…. run before they get you!!” So I turned and ran. I had no clue what I was running from but I ran as fast as I could…
I ended up running down into a dark hallway, for all the logical reasons.
Now I’m cornered, lost, and I can hear tiny little noises, almost like a scurrying. I turn around. It’s dark but I can still see the floor, and there isn’t anything on the floor at all…  All of the sudden I feel hundreds if not thousands of tiny little things crawling all over my body. I can’t see anything on me but I can feel them.
They’re burrowing directly into my skin. I don’t see anything on me, but I see my skin starting to bleed and seep. Then the lab coats show up and just look at me horrified through their masks.”They’ve gotten her” they say, and I ask what “they” are, they respond “the parasites” then one of them pulls a gun out and shoots me
and everything goes black.

© 2017 Mj Gale

Who’s facing the day? 

…impeccably clean, the left was nude.

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We are in a big sterile room somewhere, where there were a bunch of Military people. Each one had on only a half of a uniform, vertically. From the collar down, the right side of  their body was uniformed, impeccably clean while the left side was nude. Not like hey I see your wang nude, just nude without focus on body parts. Every one of them was this way, it was just the way things were.
However there was a problem at hand: there was a comet heading straight towards earth expecting to make contact and we were the ones that were supposed to fix it somehow. But all they wanted to do was look for a cat. Literally drafting plans on how to find the damn cat while our humanity was in peril.

© 2017 Mj Gale

Bones & Steampunk Spider-Man

…simultaneously realizing that he heard two shots…

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Booth and bones are chasing a super smart adversary. Bones and the guy end up in this basement room where they each have a gun and are doing the normal standoff speech thing.

Booth runs in just in time to witness bones shoot the guy straight in the head (because he was the type of guy who would keep coming back if it wasn’t done straight in the head.) Booth says “hey way to go!” on his way over to her, simultaneously realizing that he heard two shots…

He looks over at bones, and she has a bullet hole straight through her head as well. Both had shot off a perfect shot at same time to get they other in the head.

Jump to funeral and it is basically everyone from the show talking about her and about how much of a waste it was that she was gone because of how smart she was and the contributions she made to science.
Booth of course was a wreck.
Also, there was a Steampunk Spider-Man in the back of the room. That’s it.

© 2017 Mj Gale