a few short stories -- Scribbler's Corner

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2], 3, 4, 5 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 11:05:17 04/01/02 Mon
Author: Golden Ghost
Subject: a few short stories

Bad luck Bernard

It was a dark and cloudy night. No star shone in the sky that night. It rained a bit. Sort of like a drizzle. No sounds were heard except a dog barking a few blocks away. A plastic bag just lay on the road. Touched now and then by a burst of wind. Many of the streetlights weren�t working and the ones that worked were flickering on and off. Windows were like hollow eyes in the dark concrete building surrounding the road. Behind a few of them there burned a small and cold light.

It seemed like nothing was alive that night in that part of town. But wait. There, out of the shadows at the beginning of the street there appeared a figure. It was a man. The man walked, no shuffled, through these empty streets. As if he was afraid of something. And he�d better be afraid, because this was not a good part of town to be in at this time of night. Not with a group, but certainly not alone.

The man was of normal height and wore a leather jacked in witch he hoped to disappear as it seemed. Leafs were swirling around his feat.

�Why do � always have this luck? Why had my car to break down just now, and why did it have to be in this neighbourhood. Driving through it is already bad enough, but walking�I will be glad if I get out of this mess alive and unharmed. Look at this, it looks like a junkyard. And that smell. It smells like garbage and rotting leaves. How can any decent living being survive here? Oh wait. They can�t.�

The man mumbled somewhat more but stopped when he heard the sound. He looked around and fear was clearly shown in his eyes and on his face. The noise had come from a dark, small alley across the street. A tin can was rolling out of it and was rattling over the street now. Shortly after it, followed a little kitten. A short sigh of relief could be heard and the man followed his way again. Cursing him self for being afraid of something stupid as a little kitten. Okay, it was a black kitten but still�

After the man walked a few blocks more he thought he heard a sound again. It sounded like soft footsteps following him. When he looked around him he saw nothing and the sound was gone. It was totally silent again and he convinced himself it was nothing. That he was imagining things. As soon as he started to walk again the sounds also came to his ear again. Quickly he turned around but he saw nothing as the rain falling on the street and a light in one of the flats going out. The sound however didn�t stop this time and the man began to walk quicker and quicker and quicker. Soon he went into running, but it was already too late. The sound of feet was now al around him and came closer and closer. He stopped one last time. He was tired of running away from the danger he couldn�t see. He would now deal with it with all dignity and power that was left inside of him even while he knew that wasn�t much.

As if they knew he would stop. The moment he stood still there was a short, sharp whistle and shadows came out of the dark. Some came from behind cars, others came climbing down from the roofs and the fire escapes and some out of the alleys behind and up front of him. The man now could see them. The gang that was the terror of this neighborhood, the gang he had hoped to avoid with all his hart. The BlakeBoys. At night this was THEIR kingdom and nobody else�s.

He stood there with his back against the concrete wall of one of the buildings. A flickering streetlight stood not far away and began to irritate him even in his fear.

Get yourself together boy, are you a man or a wimp and a mouse he asked himself. And he gave the only possible answer. He was a wimp. He was scared like hell and almost peeing his pants. He started to look around him in the hope to see some compassion, but all he saw was men in black leather with a lot of iron on it. And all of them had white faces. Not ordinary white but chalk white. Like those Japanese ladies had done ages ago. Their lips were blood red and their teeth polished to rip through meat with great ease. Some of them had baseball bats, a few of them had bicycle chains and others had only knifes.

Ending 1

He fell on his knees and began to pray. He was too young to die. �Get up� A voice suddenly spoke. He looked around him. Who was it that had spoken to him? Then he saw her. She was even more beautiful as the last time. �So here we meet again.� �It appears so.� He answered. This beautiful woman now standing in front of him was nobody else as the love of his life from years ago. He hadn�t seen her for what was it? Ten, eleven years? Perhaps even longer, and now she was standing right in front of him. What could he say? How could he react?

It was now about eleven years ago that they had met for the first time. It was love at first sight for both of them. They had met at the mall in the line in front of the checkout of the supermarket. They swapped telephone numbers and after a while they started dating. On one of the dates they went to a classy restaurant and had a very intimate dinner with good wine, good food and even better, each other�s company. He could remember every detail about it. They had that little table in the south corner of the restaurant. She had worn a classy long dark red dress with a very light flower motive in mint green on it. The motive was so fine that it was almost as if it wasn�t there at all but merely a trick of the eye. And at the end of that night he had asked here to marry him and she had said yes. She knew it would be almost impossible for them to marriage because of their different life style and believes. She knew what she was while he only saw what he wanted to see. Then already she was highly involved in the crime scene and she knew he wouldn�t understand it nor accept it. Still she said yes because she loved him so much. And perhaps she could change him? She thought.

After weeks of preparation it was finally the big day. Everything was set. The guests invited, the wedding cake baked and the wedding gown made. Everything had to be perfect for him. He wanted it to be a massive feast. As the hour of the marriage came closer and closer she began to feel more uncomfortable with the minute. She had had the feeling for days now, or perhaps even weeks. She knew she had to tell him sooner or later they couldn�t marry, and the sooner the better because then it would hurt him not that much. But every time she tried to tell him he looked at her with those big puppy eyes full of love that she just couldn�t do it. It would break his heart and she knew it. And know the wedding was just a few minutes away.

She looked in the mirror one last time. It would be now or never, and she knew it had to be never no matter how difficult it would be for both of them. Without saying an other word or even as much as a short note she left silently. It would be better for both of them she kept saying to herself over and over again.

It was years later before he found out who she really was and what was the reason she had left him. For all those years he had been a broken man. Thinking of him self as a total failure but still loving her deeply in his heart. Just recently things were going slightly better for him. He had finally found a new girlfriend and was trying to forget her really hard.

And know she was in his life again. Here right in front of him. This time he wouldn�t let her go. This time he would make it work. He didn�t want to loose her again. O what a lucky day it was.

Then came the bang. A bullet found it�s way through his brains and he felt his life slowly slipping away of him. The last words he heard were hers. �Sorry Bernard, sorry. Can you ever forgive me? I always kept loving you, but business is business you know?� and he just felt her soft lips giving him a tender kiss before he died.

And so it was not a lucky day after all for Bernard.

Ending 2

Just as had given up all hope and was preparing himself for his death there was a loud rumor. Several cars came around the corner with screaming wheels and smoking tires. The cars were all loaded with more men and Bernard (because that was the man�s name) first thought was that it were just more members of the same gang. But when he looked at the faces around him he saw nothing but hate and anger, fearsome grins and flashing teeth. Weapons got drawn and the leader of the gang that held Bernard told him to take a hike. �Beat it boy, you don�t know how lucky you are the Crusaders are show up just now.�

So this are now those famous Crusaders Bernard thought. He had heard a lot about them. The Crusaders were a group of men who got sick of all the crime in their town, and they had decided to do something about it. At day they had normal jobs but at night they roamed the streets for the gangs and they were not looking to talk but to kill. While Bernard was thinking of this all Blake (who was the leader of the BlakeBoys) had directed his gang to several positions in the street. He was preparing for a battle right here, right now and in this street. He knew that running was not an option because the Crusaders would come back time after time again. They would not rest until all the gangs were destroyed or disappeared.

The Crusaders stopped their cars and jumped out. It was a strange sight to see two so different groups standing head to head. Where the BlakeBoys looked like well your normal street gang the Crusaders wore business suits, grocery uniforms, your all day jeans and sweater and everything in between. They were armed with everything from a lead pipe to a meat knife. And somewhere Bernard even saw an electric bread knife with a battery. While doing this observation Bernard slowly backed out of the fighting zone and climbed up on a fire escape so he would have a good view. No matter how scared he was this was something he didn�t want to miss.

As if the gods new what was going to happen now they let the rain stop pouring down and a few clouds were blow aside above the battleground. The streetlights shone their faint light on the glimmering water in the street and the streetlights still flickered on and off, but now it seemed as if it happened in some sort of strange rhythm. Bernard also saw a few faces appear behind some of the windows. Everything and everybody was preparing itself for the show that would follow. Some of the Crusaders had already pulled of the jackets of their business suits and hung them somewhere safe and dry.

And then suddenly it began. Both sides started running. Battle screams filled the air. Weapons swung in circles and last tactics were screamed to each other. And then they hit. Both sides classed into their enemy. Soon the air was filled with screams for help. Blood spattered all over the battlefield, limbs hung helplessly on the bodies of their owners broken and bruised.
Bernard saw one of the suits trying to push his intestines back inside, after being cut up by one of the BlakeBoys, with one hand and trying to crawl away on the other hand and his two feet. When he almost reached a pretty safe place he got hit by a baseball bat pretty hard and his head got smacked against a wall. His head cracked open and brains and blood began to pour out of it with great speed.

On he other end of the battlefield Bernard saw a big man dressed as a baker swinging with a baseball bat with a big nail driven into it. He was making a great effort in jamming the nail into everybody who was coming to close and was succeeding pretty well.

Somewhere in the middle a man with a lead pipe found himself caught by a bicycle chain and pulled into the knifes of the men who did the pulling. Everywhere were men fighting out duels. Some were one on one, some one on two and every other combination you could imagine. The one thing they had all in common was that there was blood spilled. Men�s ducking knifes just to walk into a baseball bat, others who fell and just got trampled. Bernard even managed to see one guy lying on the ground while another did some sort of a little dance on his back until he got hit whit a pipe witch shaped neatly in the form of the guys head.

After a while it became clear that the Crusaders were on the winning hand and slowly the BlakeBoys started to retreat and some were plainly fleeing the scene running as hard as they still could with their injuries. Limping, Pushing back intestines to their proper places and closing wounds to prevent bleeding to death right on the spot they were all searching for a safe hiding place. Wounded comrades were in some cases even sacrificed to make sure an other could run.

In the end there weren�t any BlakeBoys in sight anymore and the crusaders began to count the death and give first aid to their wounded. While Bernard saw them doing this he felt a light thumb on his shoulder. Scared he jumped up only to relax again. One of the Crusaders was standing behind him. �Well mate this certainly is your lucky day. If we hadn�t arrived here just in the nick of time you would have been death by now. It�s now safe again for you to continue to where you was going.� �Thank you. You guys saved my life.� And Bernard climbed down to the street. After him he heard the Crusaders laugh. �Hey look. What do you guys think that this is? A spleen or a lung?� The noises faded away slowly the closer he came to the corner. And then, then when he finally thought he was safe again he tripped. He tripped over an empty tin can, fell down and broke his neck.

And so it was not a lucky day after all for Bernard.

-----------------------------------------------------------

The middle of the sun

It was a cold Sunday morning when Mike awoke. But what the heck was this?? He didn�t awake in his own cosy bed in this little town in Arizona as he suspected. Where were his law covered with snow, his little wooden cabin he called home and his knife and fork?? Were his spoon was he knew cause he seemed to carry it behind his ears for no scientific reason at all.

That was when Mike decided to take a look around him. Holy smoke!! No wonder he was sweating. For some strange reason he couldn�t remember he left his bed and was now floating in the middle of the sun!! If he had new this he would have went to bed in his shorts and T-shirt instead of this thick woollen pyjama. And as if the sweat wasn�t terrible enough already the pyjama was itching like hell. This would definably be the last time ever he had worn a pyjama his grandmother knitted for him. The stupid old woman, she should know by now he hated her and her knitting. He began to think of a violent way for her to die and already came up with the plan to let her wear one of her own woollen itching, to small sized pyjama�s and then tickle her with a feather under her feet until she would have died from a combination of laughter and unbearable itch, when suddenly a voice in his head suggested him to grab his mind and think of some way to come out of this hot glowing ball otherwise known as the sun.

Mike began to observe the space around him and well to be honest he was quite shocked to see all the garbage that floated around him. There were all sorts of candy papers, hamburger wrappings, pizza boxes and all kinds of other food packing. In the middle of it all was a man with a huge belly swimming through the garbage to find something still eatable.

�Hi there. I�m Mike. Who are you if may ask?�

�I�m Elvis of course. Can�t you see that?�

�Elvis? Who is Elvis? And why should I know you?�

�You know. Jailhouse rock, In the Ghetto, Guitar man etc. etc.�

�Nope. Doesn�t ring a bell.�

�Never mind. Now what do you want. I�m busy cant you see.�

�Well�if it isn�t to much trouble�could you show me the direction out of here?�

�Sure, just remember to go straight ahead all the time.�

�And how am I going to do that if I may ask so?�

�Here. Take these and these�

�How do I have to use them if I may ask?�

�Figure that out on your own. Now beat it. I have no more time for you. Got to find me my 6th breakfast.�

And away was the man. There Mike stood then (well not actually stood because there was no solid ground but hey you get the idea.). In his hand he had now a bag of 20 coconuts and a neon orange flag. Only one thought was flashing through his mind. *Who was that man�*
And shortly after that there came a second. *And what the hell am I going to do with these spoon, coconuts and flag�*

Since he wasn�t going anywhere for now Mike decided he better took breakfast first. Flying through space on an empty stomach was bad for the testicles his grandfather always thought him. On his question why it was so bad for them the old man had always answered that if you didn�t had eaten first before flying of into space your body wouldn�t have enough food it could survive on while the trip lasted and thus you�re body would begin to eat your testicles and they would never recover. It would leave you with an impotent little willie.

Since Mike�s willie wasn�t that big in the first place he didn�t want to risk it becoming even smaller so he took his spoon and one of the coconuts. *Now let�s see if we can get this thing open�*

After a while Mike finally managed to get a little hole in the coconut using his teeth and the spoon. With the spoon he then made the hole bigger and began to drink and eat. After the fist one there followed two more coconuts until Mike finally had eaten enough and was pretty sure his body wouldn�t start eating his willie on the journey back to earth.

His next thought was how to actually travel back to earth with only a stupid flag. The only thing Mike could think of was catching a ride on a solar flame witch was heading for earth. Perhaps he could catch the solar flame with this flag. Yes. That was how he was going to do it. And he started to look for a useful solar flame. After a couple of minutes Mike got bored and still he hadn�t found what he was looking for. All the solar flames he saw went for the wrong direction!! Mike was so angry at the sun he threw one of his remaining coconuts right into to very core of it. Wow. That made a nice flame! And it was going into almost the right direction. Well if they weren�t going to come natural he would make one witch WAS going to where he wanted it to go.

One coconut after the other Mike threw in the direction of the sun and it was going better and better with every nut he threw. The only problem was that they weren�t going high/fast enough to be very useful. But at least the direction was good now. A sudden thought came to Mike then. Why not using the flag as a sort of slingshot. That would give the coconuts a lot more speed and thus a bigger solar flame. So said so done. A few times he was very close to completing his task but then he didn�t manage to capture the flame. Or he DID capture it but the flame wasn�t going in the right direction after all so he had to let it go and swim back to his starting point for a new try.

With only two coconuts left Mike was getting almost desperate. Once more he managed to get a good solar flame and this time he managed to throw his flag over the front of it and it was going in the right direction and everything went right now. His last nut he threw away to the garbage heaps a little bit to his left. There it hit the strange man right on his head and made him tumble right into the direction of mars were he crashed into a highly civilized culture were he began to eat and eat and eat until there was nothing more to eat and they all starved to death and a great culture of friendly Martians came to an end.

Back with Mike who was now almost back on earth everything went just fine. Mike was now almost entering the orbit and was planning to use the flag as a parachute from there on. It looked a little bit burned but it would hold on for a while he hoped.

Mike steered his chute to a large city on the edge of the ocean. It looked like he was entering Miami now. Soon he would be on earth again. Then he could finally get back to his cabin, his bed and his fork and knife to rejoin his spoon with it�s beloved other furnace. He neatly landed on the sidewalk and with the road workers flag still on his shoulders began to cross the road where he saw a bus station. And that was the end of Mike. While crossing the street he got runned over and killed by an old lady in a very small car.

The moral of this story? Nobody likes road workers in the middle of rush hour.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Last man standing

He was the last human on the planet and he knew it. He was the only one now. O how he longed for a snore of white right now. White always made him feel better. It would give him the strength to see death as a minor glitch in his beautiful dream world. The only problem was he couldn't get any white anymore. The dealers were gone, the other users were gone and even the police was gone. He always wished the police were gone. But not like this. This situation was too hard to experience without his daily portion of white. O god. How he longed for some white. He felt filthy, angry, desperate, hungry and tired.

Once, it seemed so long ago but reality was it was just a few days; he was a member of civilisation on Grimlocks. Grimlocks was one of the many planets occupied by humanity in a time humanity was on its peek and nothing could stop them. Grimlocks was on of the first to be colonized and had grown into a large and prosperous colony.

He was one of the addicted. That was how they called the men who couldn't resist the call of the white. Everybody looked down on him. But still. He hadn't had a bad life. He always managed to scramble up his daily needs and everything was going just fine for him.

Then the rumours came. A strange race was attacking the outposts of humanity killing everything on their way. And they were coming closer. The humans had after all that time accept the fact they were the only intelligent race in the universe. And thus they had no resistance against the Golden People, as they called this new race of killers. The human army was no match for them and had to fall back further and further, leaving open all the outer planets for the destruction of the Golden Race, until they were called back to earth were they had to take a last stand.

At first the war seemed so far away for the people of Grimlocks. Nothing was really changing. But slowly all trade was stopping and contact was lost with more and more planets.

A week ago now the message for help was answered. The answer said the earth would not help them. The remains of the crushed fleet had to stay in orbit around earth itself. That was when panic began. The ones who were rich enough to have their own spaceship escaped the doomed planet and headed for earth. The ones who didn't had that luck could do nothing else as wait in fear.

That was also when the looting began. People got robbed and killed, shop's plundered and fights got normal. Life already was a total mess before the enemy really arrived. That day came only fore days ago now if he could remember correct.

Their large fleet appeared in the sky and began with a massive bombardment. Their ships caused death and agony all over the whole planet. It was also the time he had his last snore of white. He had robbed and killed somebody for it he remembered. Who and how he couldn't remember. The bombardment lasted for a whole day.

The next morning he remembered waking u in the middle of hundreds of ruins with once were the core of the beautiful capital. He also remembered the white slowly lost it's effect on him and how the truth finally hit him. He was going to die.

That day the Golden People sent down their soldiers to finish what the bombs had start. The total extinction of the human race on Grimlocks. That afternoon he runned into a group of them when he tried to hide for another group. Much to his surprise he wasn't killed immediately but taken prisoner. Perhaps they weren't as cruel as everybody had thought. They took him to a large camp were there were more people. They were the only survivors they were told.

He couldn't sleep well that night. As if he could feel something horrible was going to happen. And that was precisely what it was. After waking up there came an officer with some soldiers. They picked 100 of the prisoners at random. Man and woman, young and old. He was one of them. They were taken away and got a good meal. When he was eating as much as he could they all heard the sound of machine guns coming from the camp. He looked at the others and knew they also knew. They were now the last 100 humans alive on the planet and he began to wonder why the Golden People had speared them.

After dinner they were taken to a large room were a high officer of the Golden People told them what was coming next. It wasn't pretty and all hope faded away. They were made hunting prey for the officers of the army. They had one hour to try to get as far away as they could. After that it was hunting season.

He had runned as fast as his legs could carry him. After exactly one hour he heard the words "100 alive" coming from speakers in the ships above the city. From that moment on the number got lower and lower with the time that passed. He tried to move the whole day and the following night. He was exhausted now and couldn't keep escaping much longer. The loud voice constantly repeating "1 alive, 1 alive" certainly didn't help.

He crawled in a corner and waited for things to come. After a few moments he heard the voices of a few Golden People coming closer and closer. He new he couldn't escape this time. Searching the last straws of energy left in him he pulled himself up. He took a deep breath, screamed as best as he could and began to run towards the Golden People who just rounded the corner. At first the looked surprised. Then they began to fire. Not much later the only thing what broke the deep silence was this sentence. "0 alive, 0 alive"

-----------------------------------------------------------

The little boy

The little boy sat down for a moment. He could feel his hart beat rapidly. He never was this tired in his whole life. He had runned from way back there and had still all the ground to way over there lying in front of him.

His mother was in labour of her second child. It was not an easy labour. And thus his mother had sent him to get a doctor as quick as he could.

He had started to run and hadn't stopped running until now. When his hart beated normally again he began to look around.

He had never noticed the forest was so beautiful in the autumn before. All those brown and red and gold leafs gave it a magnificent look. Stunned by al this beauty the little boy began doing what all little boys do. He began to play with the leafs.

While playing the little boy wandered furder and furder into the deep forest forgetting all about what he was supposed to do.

After playing for several hours the boy fell asleep on the ground under a big oak. In the middle of the night the boy woke up at once, remembering what it was he was in the forest for in the first place. He was surrounded by darkness and strange sounds came from everywhere around him.

At first he began to cry for his mother who was in such pain and realising he had plaid when he should have helped her did no good to the little boy. He decided crying wasn't gonna help anybody and so he set of again to find the doctor. In the dark the forest looked totally different and it was not long before the little boy was lost.

He stood still. He thought he heard a noise. There it was again. It was coming closer it seemed. Above his head stood a full moon and an owl was searching for pray from a nearby tree. The longer the boy stood still the more sounds he heard. He panicked and started to run. He hoped it was the right direction.

He was running and running. Nothing seemed to touch him anymore as his feet trampled the ground beneath them. He jumped through bushes and ducked for the lower branches of the trees.

Suddenly after a jump his feet didn't touch the ground. At first he didn't realised what was happening. But then it struck him. He was falling rapidly now. He jumped by accident over the edge of a big cliff. He saw the ground coming closer and closer. Nothing could safe him now. Just before he hit the ground he asked his mother for forgiveness.

His head hit the ground and at first he felt an enormous pain. Then there was nothing except the blood oozing out of his cracked skull.

At the same time his mother gave birth to a healthy little girl. It had been hard but she made it. Forever she kept wondering what happened to her first born. Her boy.

-----------------------------------------------------------

The Emperor

I was emperor of a thousand places,
My treasure stashed in many cases.
All those people under my command,
They all obeyed me in the end.

My speaking had almighty power,
I could order his death, yours or our.
Power was my middle name,
Pinball my favourite game.

I sit here now all alone,
In this room with my golden throne.
I was a dictator of the purest sort,
Divide and conquer with one word.

The servants don�t run so fast these days,
I guess the gods have many ways.
They show me, who I really am,
Perhaps, weren�t I so cruel, I could sit next to them?

I�m old and slowly loosing my mind,
I feel fear. It�s a strange kind.
My skin is wrinkled, my knees in pain,
The power I had now seems so vain.

I�m ill, I think you had already guessed,
If you think about it, my mind is all I ever possessed.
My once so powerful frontal lobe,
You can see him shrink now, under a microscope.

They will have to feed me with a spoon,
Oh how will I look like a goon.
Prognoses are I�ll die in September,
Is this the only face they will remember?

The people are rebelling,
I can hear them yelling.
They want to exploit me now I�m weak,
I�ll get them with one last streak.

I�ll blow up the whole place in a minute,
The palace will be gone and everybody in it.
Then the people are free to do what they want,
Yes. That�s what I�ll do. I�ll make a final stand.

I have the button right here in my hand,
Oh how will I miss this beautiful land.
And all my ancestors that in heaven dwell,
I have just one question for you. Did I do well?

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Re: a few short stories -- Zora, 04:25:30 04/04/02 Thu