Unidentified

It bewildered her, the powerful screen. It seemed to create hyper-realistic images right before her eyes. And not just images, films too. These changed every time she encountered it, although they always included the same main character. She would escape from her dwelling daily to come and observe this magical thing of beauty. It lived in the woods behind her home. She had found it there and intended to leave it there. She told nobody of it, afraid that she would be called a liar; or perhaps she thought she would be mocked and teased. Besides, it was her special secret and she wished to keep it that way. 

New Air

It seemed to disappear. It was gone into thin air within seconds. First a misty room, then nothing. Faded into the air and was gone. We saw it and could not touch it. It seemed almost like a being on its own. It needed no doctoring, and we could almost put it anywhere. But no touching. It was like nothing we had never seen. We could not feel it, but we could feel its chill. It had no texture, just a misting essence that we all saw, then never saw again. The feeling of it around our ankles was like none other. It felt like a cold air that could pull you down through the floor and down, down, down. It gripped you the way hands do when you meet someone new. You knew it would not  hurt you because it was just a misty air, but you couldn’t be sure...

Captivation

He sat directly in front of it, starstruck and jaw wide open at the fascinating scene that attracted his stare. Never before had the man been so captivated throughout his mundane and prosaic existence. The phenomenon this man was witnessing was an inanimate object; however, seemed to be teeming of life and vivacity. A mystifying fever was radiating from the substance, seemingly burning off the flesh of the worn and drab man. However, this phenomenon simultaneously extracted heat as it radiated it. The more the man felt the emission from the object, the closer he wanted to be to it, and the more lively he felt. The object was drawing out the man’s little liveliness he had left and filling him with new, pacifying energy. His eyes locked into place and his body froze completely, although he was filled with warmth.

The Box

     She walked in carrying a white box. The box was in the shape of a squashed rectangle, and it was coated in a geometric pattern consisting of red squares and strange squiggly lines. I immediately became curious as to what was in the box, so I approached it (with caution, as its contents may have been dangerous). As I drew closer to the box, the air became thick and warm, almost as if it was charged with some sort of otherwordly energy. I began to take deep breaths through my nose, and my limbs became heavy and my mind cloudy. It was almost as if I had entered a haze, like in the moments just before a dream ends and the dreamer awakens. Whatever was in the box undoubtedly had some sort of unearthly powers that dulled the senses.
    I emerged from my haze when the girl pried the box open. Her action seemed to occur in slow motion, and I was raptly attentive. Immidiately, another strong wave of thick air almost blew me backwards. Inside the box was a glowing orange circle that resembled the sun. Like the sun, I wanted to look away but could not. The circular thing was captivating, and it grabbed me and drew me near. I even dared to reach out and touch it. It was scalding, and I pulled my hand back. The girl smiled and then reached her own hand into the box. I wanted to tell her to stop, that the strange circle would burn her too, but it was too late. She latched onto the circle with her fingers and tore off a piece of it, leaving a gaping, tooth-shaped hole. After she was done, the box snapped shut like the maw of a carnivorous beast. The girl seemed unaffected, but I though that the box seemed angry. I backed away, never taking my eyes off of the box. Eventually, long after the girl had left the room, I felt my eyelids drooping and stopped worrying so much about the strange box and its powers. The squares on the box were starting to blur, and I knew it was time for me to go to sleep.

Adventures

A wedding cake of dust billowed around the object, which swirled endlessly into a dark hole. A perpetual musk, created by the toils of a man who had attempted Herculean tasks, surrounded it like a phantom cape. Running his hand across the bottom, he admired the feel of dolphin skin on his palm, also getting the sense of the squid’s tight grip around his hand, while his fingers traversed over crevasses and climbed up hills. Moving up the object, he encountered a canvas dirtied with mahogany, sprayed liberally like a paint gun, with blotches applied unevenly. The webbing above was fortified like castle walls, yet flexible as a yoga practitioner and soft as silk. His fingers were caught in the spider’s web above, and the more he struggled, the tighter the binds became. In particular, an area of the was shaped like handcuffs, being large enough for him to fit his waists through, yet hanging like a noose and growing ever tighter the longer he let it stay. From here, his hands ventured down into the dragon’s den, and rebounded off the ground of the bounce house. The snorts of the sleeping dragon were all he had to nourish his hands, while they explored the insides of a den fully without treasure. Finally, at the lowest point in this den, his hands reached a dead end, and he withdrew, satisfied with his inspection. As his hands ventured out, he unconsciously wrinkled his nose, suddenly annoyed by the odor which was the witch’s concoction. He took one last look at its infinite darkness, contradicted by the streaks of shooting stars flying through, seemingly content to leave it in the same position as it had been in earlier, and squelching his reminiscent thoughts as he left.

Darkness

When the girl returned home from school at six o'clock in the evening, none of her family was to be found in her house. She walked through the front door and when she gently closed it behind her, the hustle and bustle from the outside world at rush hour was silenced, and the air was still. The room was dim, and hung with the felling absence and alienation. The girl thought that she might have heard something move in the room, but she figured that it was merely her imagination dancing in the midst of the extreme quiet. She warily proceeded across the room and searched through the murkiness for the thing that would defeat the cold and dark being lurking in atmosphere. Her fingers trembled as they crept across the shadowed walls; searching for the one weapon that she had against the presence masking the room. When she finally found it, she immediately put it into use, so that the space was suddenly flooded with light and warmth. At that moment, her feeling of fear and loneliness was stifled by the new, dominant company deluging into the room. 

Disoriented

 The man walked through the dark house in search of his enemy. As he went from room to room, he didn’t see or hear anything. He was about to exit a room when there was a flash of lightning behind him along with a loud roaring noise. The flash became a constant light, brighter than the sun.  He spun around, but he had no idea what was happening, the light was changing colors and the noise was at a deafening volume. He heard voices all around him, he thought he was going mad. He could have sworn he knew what was happening, but he was too disoriented to realize exactly what was. Before he had the time to gather his wits, he was snatched up by his enemy. Only then, when he was being dragged out of the room, and his eyes had adjusted, he realized what tool of sorcery he had just fallen victim to.

Survivor

Survivor

Something didn’t seem right. He told me to wait for him; that was five hours ago. I clasped the cool metallic handle clad with string, my life-line. It’s curve was threatening if not self-incriminating. The tooth of a dragon that could be revealed at a moments notice. The hard boxing glove that could be the difference between me and my impending fate. As I gripped tighter I could feel my index finger slide deeper and deeper down into the ring binding to my hand. It was all I had, it was my father’s. I held the cat’s claw between my fingers with caution, I did not know what would follow. I heard a noise behind me; a rustling in the leaves; I lunged to the side behind cover and paused. I breathed. “just like he showed me,” I reminded my hands. I was the poised panther with my claws extended. I lurched forward. The stone from hell had a mind of its own, before I was aware of what had happened, it was too late. I looked into the eyes of my savior, the man who would never again return to his family; the man who would never again enjoy a drink at the bar. I looked into the eyes of my savior slipping away.

Gone

It lurks in the corner, unnoticed, until one day, it's gone, and its absence is like a dense and dusty cloud that stifles the room. The shadow it once cast upon the lonely walls ceases to exist. It's servants' hands are now forever burdened with the mud of the earth, the impure, that which stinks and festers. No longer will it eat up the mire. No longer will it obediently take what it is given. The Hole to the other world, a labyrinth of the unseen and forgotten, has closed--or rather, moved. The wrinkles in its dark skin, the folds in the film that was the barrier between its Body and the Hole, are now only faded memories. Sighing, its servants reminisce about the days when their humble master waited patiently to be filled. It was a gracious master, truly, when it still was; the way in which it accepted what was considered worthless so willingly was proof of that. What was even more was that it had been an utmost reliable presence, as it had never vanished before. Consuming all it was offered, the bottomless Hole was filled often, but never for long. Soon there was a new skin, one that had miraculously sunk itself into the Body overnight. Alas, what a tragedy! What unjustness! Such is the sudden loss of a lonely ruler. Once mundane and forgotten, it is now defined by the fear of its nonexistence.

Please

  The girl begged her mother for two of the largest sparkling pieces of copper and nickel that she had with her.  After a few seconds of her daughters incessant pleading, the mother relented and gracefully picked the round, glistening pieces from the pocket in her pants and placed them in the chubby hands of her daughter.  The girl pranced over to the towering device of metal and glass and stared, long and hard.  A lion from the jungle was staring from the corner.  A bunny from the meadow stuck out in the middle.  A fish from the deep blue was in the back.  After a short while, her eyes became transfixed on the midnight and snowy penguin in the front.  Had it just made its way from the South Pole?  Did it swim well?  How did it use its beak?  Answers, the girl thought.  She needed answers.  The girl carefully inserted the pieces from her mother into the sky high machine and precisely navigated the device to the exact location of the penguin.  Not too far this way, not too far that way.  She quickly ran to the other sides of the contraption to check for accuracy.  "Perfect," she thought, and she pursued the mission further.  The hand wavered over the top of the penguin and grasped it right around the stomach.  The girl quickly took a breath in and bit her lip, anxiously, as the hand holding her penguin swung perilously back and forth.  After what seemed like an eternity, the hand stopped over a deep hole and released the penguin, which plunged into a world of darkness for just a second before the girl grabbed it and brought it to the light.  She smiled and held her new friend tight, for her questions of but a minute and a half would now have answers.