Short stories & poems

It was a dark, windy night, and the wind howled through the trees, sending a shiver down my spine, when Ashly decided to play hide and seek. “Let’s play hide and seek! It’ll be fun.” She said right before she decided to be the seeker. I didn’t have much choice but to hide, considering that was the point of the game.

 I was hiding right behind a tree, just playfully waiting for Ashly to find me. I was getting tired after twenty minutes went by and I didn’t hear anything so I decided to go out of my hiding place until I heard someone stepping on a branch. “It must be her,” I quickly said as I decided to continue playing the game so I hid behind a bush. Just waiting for her to walk past me. Only, it wasn’t her that walked past. “Since when did Ashly wear big shoes?” I asked myself. “When did she have a husky body?” I also asked myself. It wasn’t then when I realized that the person I wasn’t seeing wasn’t Ashly. It was a man that I had never recognized before. Not only did I not know the man, I didn’t know the sharp object he was holding in his hands, that was dripping red. 

 That’s when I realized that i wasn’t playing for Ashly’s benefit, no I was playing for mines. For my life. The man was dragging something behind him, it seemed to be a lifeless body. Although it wasn’t Ashly’s, it was someone else. When the man walked past me I decided to stay in my position, hiding, and watching. Until I heard Ashly calling my name. No, she was yelling my name, as loud as she could. “Why Ashly? Why? Not now, please not now,” I begged as I saw the man turn around and see if he could locate where the yelling was coming from. “Come out Natasha, I’m tired of searching for you. Just hurry up, I want to go eat,” she yelled. And just then was when the mysterious man realized there wasn’t only one young girl in this forest, there was two..

 The man walked away seeming as if he wants to hide the body he has and track down his next target. When he walked far enough that I couldn’t hear him, I ran. I ran, and I ran as fast as I could. Not to get home, no, but to find my friend before the man found her. “There you are,” Ashly laughed as I ran up to her. I tried to shush her but she wouldn’t stop talking. “What are you doing?” She asked as she seemed to get mad now. “Be quiet, we’re not alone in this forest,” I whispered starting to feel nervous. “Well no duh, there’s animals, and trees here, and-.” I made her stop talking when I felt as if someone was coming. I dove both of us in the bushes that was right beside us. My heart was pounding, my head was aching and I was getting more colder then the second. “What was that for?” Ashly started to say before I covered her mouth and pointed. In the distance there was a man that was around his forty’s looking around. “So?” Ashly whispered. I made her head turn downward to see the sharp blade dripping in a liquidity substance. She figured out what it was quite quick and looked at me in horror. The man seemed to make eye contact with us and held up a number three and a zero. “What does that mean?” Ashly asked abruptly as the man closes his eyes with his hands as he turns around and puts his face to the tree. “What does that mean?” Ashly asks again, but this time her voice was more shaken. “He’s playing hide and seek with us..” “He’s what?” Ashly asked as she locker eyes with me. I quickly got up waisting no time, and Ashly followed me. 

 I looked at her and the unspoken words registered in Ashly’s mind. We have to get away before he spots us. Me and Ashly made a run for it. We passed so many trees that all looked the same. As we was running we saw the murderer staring at us, just smiling as we run for our lives. 

“We had ten more seconds before he will try to kill us,” I thought as my heart raced a lot more faster then it should.

 Ashly decided to hide in another bush while I decided to hide in a hollow log. It was damp and wet but I had to make it do. When five minutes go by I hear the man’s footsteps come closer and closer. It stopped inbetween me and Ashly’s hiding spot. The murderer seemed to scoff as if he’s disappointed in us, as if we could’ve done any better. The man said, “I’ll give you girls one more chance, make this worth my while. If not..” he seemed to trail off as he walked in the same direction where he came from. I thought he didn’t actually know where we was and was just talking out loud. Ashly, however, didn’t decided to stay to find out. She started to run, not even waiting for me but it didn’t take me long to catch up to her. She was running to the street.

Right before we were able to make it to the road we saw a man smoking a cigarette. “Please sir, there’s someone looking for us,” Ashly whispered in a yelling voice. “Yeah he’s in the woods,” I joined in. The man holding a cigarette turns to us and raises an eyebrow as if we’re lying. “Please he’s right there call the cops,” Ashly whined as she started to cry. The man starts to walk away so me and Ashly decided to follow him. For some reason he was walking in the forest. I felt my hairs for up but I thought it was just because of the cold. The man turns back to face us when he makes it deep into the forest. “Looks like you missed two, didn’t you?” He asks. “Huh?” I asks back confused, but then I realized, he wasn’t talking to us, no he looked past us, above us.

 Just then I heard a gargled sound coming from right next to me. I turn to see what it was and it was Ashly, she had knife in her chest, blood ran down from her mouth and from her fatal wound. I try to run, and I try to scream but I didn’t get to far when I felt something dig into my back and out of my chest. I see the man that we followed into the woods light another cigarette. “Well, now we got all of them, ain’t that right brother?” The original killer asked right behind her. “Sure did,” the man in front of her said as he nodded his head. “Sure wished we could’ve kept one alive, especially this one, she’s real pretty..”

Even the smallest trees in the garden tower over her, and yet she presumes to be their master. They were there before she was. She does not have the right to pluck the fruit from their branches. That’s not how power works. I know that full well. I was thrown from the sky for reaching beyond my status. Why should she not be punished as I was? Perhaps it is because she couldn’t handle being punished. She is not worthy even of that. My punishment is what gave me my glory. Being exiled was the greatest gift I ever could have received. I may not be welcome in heaven anymore, but that makes everywhere else in the universe my kingdom. She cannot claim such prestige. She is nothing more than the bone of her husband, and he himself is just a handful of clay.

They know nothing of true beauty. They’ve never lived beyond this earthly mock-up. At least I still reflect glimmers of paradise in my eyes. I originated from the light, and it can never completely depart from me. They may walk with God, but I raced against Him. It is easy to be a follower. I was a challenger. I was the only one with the courage to call God’s bluff. If I hadn’t taken a stand against Him, He may never have showed us what He was capable of. Even He needs someone to hold Him accountable. He could never keep His promises if no one forced Him to make them in the first place. I’m God’s muse. And He knows it, too. That’s why He made these humans. He’s practically baiting me with them. It’s as if He can’t create anything without having me put it through the necessary testing. Well, then, who am I not to comply? They thought taking a third of the angels from heaven was my best work. Imagine how far I can make them fall when they don’t even have wings.

Oh, how lovely you are tonight my dear. Nights like these — you know, the ones filled with your calming aroma and comforting silence, remind me why I cherish you so. For the longest time I wanted to be the cherished one but I've found that spoiling you and engulfing you satiates a part of me that I have never known. I never knew it was possible, to love someone so entirely, all parts of them. You have the loveliest heart... so rich and full. So plump and sweet. I don't even mind that it's greyed for me over time. My love for you is eternal, and you will never age nor falter for me, dearest. If I could preserve this moment I would, but time waits for no man. And certainly not unrefrigerated. Let the record play until it skips tonight. Let me sway you side to side in the flickering yellow light. Let me be your balance and uplift you. Don't say a word, watch us as we spin! See how well I treat you, even if your body has become a tad stiff and unmindful. Watch us while we spin... like a camera on tripod. Watch us while we spin... from the height of the kitchen island. Watch us while we spin... you and me. Watch us like a jealous lover. I can't wait for supper.

There's nowhere to hide. Every corner. Hole, crack, nook, cranny; compromised. Expansive and unavoidable. Universal to both predator and prey, the living, the dead, and those who tow the line. It is unassailable. A force that expands, contracts, chokes, and consumes. Gasping, some flee from it. Sighing, others allow it to ensnare them. Every second that passes, it becomes more and more apparent that there is no escape. Any hope for it (escape) dissolves and shatters, and dissipates just before it collects the gravity to crush you. You cannot hide. I cannot hide. There's nowhere to hide.

The fact that she’s really slim like a supermodel and she’s getting chased by all the people and she’s making so much money she’s so beautiful and just get so much attention and she’s adorable insanely and I just being ignored and I hate the fact that she is somebody when I’m not she’s so full of herself she’s a shit head and you know, no brains or beautyand she’s really nothing but just just a body I’m worth more than her and she’s not

There’s no way he could ever really love her. Especially when I was the last he had, My skin was clear, possessing a delicate sheen, while hers was furry and freckled like some sort of rodent. My hair was neat, straight, and blonde, while hers curled into various rat burrows all over her oblong head. I think he just did it just to spite me. He knew he could never do better so he went dumpster diving and pulled out the first scraps he could find. I feel sorry for him, I really do. I would cry myself to sleep if I kissed those thin cracked lips every night. And god, who taught her to smile, a serial killer? I’m sure those jagged teeth are perfect for eating old beer cans and styrofoam. I just don’t understand why he did this to himself. Why reach for something so low? He must really hate himself… or maybe he really does hate me. He wanted to show me how easily replaceable I really was. If he really is happy with that rat, then what does that make me?!? My mom always told me my eyes were enough to woo any man, so why aren’t they doing anything now? She must have some hold over him, maybe she’s keeping him hostage, or hurting him in some way. And now it’s up to me to save him…

Waking up with a stir, in the stillness of night, a flash of white searing pain throbbing in my head, memories barred behind a fog of confusion. I look around, the mist covered ground makes things difficult to see. In the distance, a shadow of a figure sitting in a melancholy, gentle sighs escaping intermittently. “Food… hungry…” he whines, almost in a child like voice. “Excuse me,” I interrupt. His head turns… no it rotates…almost in a 180 degrees. “Food,” it states, its hollowed eyes, now lit, lunging forward. There’s no time to scream, no time time to scramble or to even process what’s happening. It’s bony arms now clutching on to my wrist, before I feel my flesh disintegrating away, my hand which was once pink and filled with warmth, now replaced by long tendrils of bone, as I stare into a familiar face… my face. An insatiable hunger begins to growl inside me, “food…” I begin to mumble weakly.

I looked down at the naked man laying on my table and the most jaring thing about him were the whites of his eyes. Not the duct tape and muffled screams behind his mouth, not the 4 leather straps incompacitated his limbs in thrashing silence. The whites grew a size larger when I revealed what had been in my hand. I demonstrated my tools intended purpose by tracing playful lines on the man’s bare chest, carefully not to tangle the tubes that connected it to the imbalming fluid reservoirs. “Red out, Blue in” I sank the tool into his chest and his beating heart and my machine worked in unison to solidify his organs. The whites of his eyes began to dim, and he no more had any identifying features. Perhaps I’ll replace them with dolls eyes, I’m sure he’d like that.

A singular ray of sun snuck through the wooden panels placed over the only window. I watched, numb, as the light left her eyes. She’d suffered the same fate as every woman before her, suffered the ‘curse’ that merely deflected the blame from the monsters that dared call themselves man, the monsters that were both the sons in my wretched family and the husbands that wormed their way in.

From the second she was born, she was condemned to be an appendage for the ‘man of the house’. Her whole life, she was both a servant and a baby machine, conflicted with double standards, emotional turmoil, the harsh truth hidden beneath the wealth. I watched as she went from bearing the brunt of the chores with her mother, to watching her mother die and overtaking her duties; I watched as time ticked by and she had to handle the burden of every job, every role, and still suffered in every way possible.

She was the glue keeping the ‘family’ together, yet she was treated as criminal, as a showcase of sin. Far too young, she married a wealthy ‘man’, who was really a corrupted monstrosity. She bore three children, all sons. I saw the relief flood her face every time she realised it was a little boy, not another Eve.

I’ve watched and seen countless members of our ‘family’ whittle away, the men always happy and the women suffering. Now I watch as she, too, fades away. My Julia.

Our very last Human.

“Oh god, Will I ever walk again?” , Wailed Timmy. “How desperate are you to walk?” asked the doctor. “I would do anything!” Concern flickered in the doctors eyes. “I’m not supposed to talk about this, it is quite controversial and most think it unethical. However. There is a ex-colleague of mine who has started a human experimentation lab under a Tabaco farm. He has helped many people, with many problems modern medicine cannot treat.” “How much does it cost?” “Oh it will cost you more than money, it may even cost you your life…..” “Ok, I need this… I need this… how much?” The bastard pays you…. Replies the doctor Timmy looks out the window of the floating bus, powered by unicorn farts. “We are here” yelped the floating bus driver, "now get the fuck off my bus!" The ramp lowered and Timmy was quickly let out before the driver sprinted into the control seat and flew away. Timmy looked up at the big hill and realized that he wasn’t getting up the hill in a chair. “Son of a bitch!” Exclaimed Timmy, as he called the office for help. … "now don’t worry, you won’t die, probably" said dr. Funkyshoe as injected a lot of morphine into Timmy. His work was slow and thorough. As he hacked off Timmy’s lower half with a butcher knife. Ahhh! What are you doing! Timmy said quietly, high from the amount of morphine he was given. All of a sudden tentacles wrapped around Timmy’s torso as a creature rises from under the operating table. Scared shittless all Timmy could get out of his mouth was the word, “monstrosity!” “It’s time!” exclaimed funkyshoe nodding the half octopus half alien nodded as it sunk it mutated fangs into the patient. Suddenly, Timmy shook mouth frothing as his skin dried up into scales, the half body of Timmy vibrated and rose to the ceiling. Blood curdling screams rippled throughout the night. As morning arrived funkyshoe announced, “metamorphosis complete!” Timmy awoke and felt very off. He looked down half expecting to see his crippled legs again but instead was horrified to see he had not just to legs but six! He cried as he woke up in his bed. Completely dumbstruck that it was all a dream. “That’s the last time I smoke before bed”, said Timmy with a half smile.