KrazyGlue
Smash Champion
Hey all,
Just wanted to share a story I wrote for a school creative writing assignment. Read and enjoy. And please feel free to leave feedback or ask questions!
(Also, sorry for the screwy formatting. It's annoying to format a MS Word essay in smashboards.)
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Suddenly, you open your eyes. You feel a searing pain in your right leg. What happened? You try to remember. Oh, yes, that’s right. You were on a plane heading back home. And then you heard an explosion, and the plane went spiraling down. It was amazing you had even survived. You notice your back is propped up conveniently on the black, rocky precipice behind you. How did you land like that?
You turn to the left and see the plane. But something isn’t right. It’s completely undamaged, as if it were simply part of the landscape. You open the door and the plane seems fresh and clean. It is untouched; nobody is inside and nothing is out of place. Did they leave? Where is everyone?
You exit the plane and get a feel for your surroundings. Around you are cliffs composed of craggy, midnight-colored rocks. The sky is shrouded by a thick mist and almost no sunshine gets through. The air is cool and thin, and it feels ghostly and lifeless. You can’t make much out in the dim light, but it appears that the immediate area is uninhabited by any form of life.
You decide to walk around and search for any way out of this place or any sign of life. You don’t know how long you wandered, but after some time you decide to go back to the plane. Yet when you retrace your steps, there is no plane there. Did you go to the wrong place? No. This looks exactly like where you came from. You search your pockets for anything: a cell phone, an mp3 player, your wallet, anything. But nothing is there. You have no connection to the rest of the world save for the clothes you are wearing.
You don’t know long you have been here; you have no sense of time. You don’t feel hungry or thirsty. What the hell is this place? How did you end up here? You have a creeping sense of dread and despair. Something is amiss. You don’t belong here. The place feels like a mere shadow of the real world. It seems like there is some spirit about the place, and it feels… unwelcoming. You want nothing more than to leave this place forever.
You go back out to search for something, anything. You think about your parents, oh, how they would worry for you. But look! There they are, rounding that corner! You have to go talk to them. No… That couldn’t have actually been them, you tell yourself. You are seeing things. You just need a little rest to calm down. So you lie down to sleep. But you can’t. You don’t feel tired.
You must go see your parents. You stand up, and walk around the corner. And there they are again, rounding the next corner. You have to follow them. You round the next corner, and the next, and the next. You keep barely catching glimpses of them as they pass out of view.
Finally, you round a corner, and there they are, your parents, facing you. But... they don't seem right. They are like the rest of this place, simply a shadow of reality. But why? And then it hits you. They have no face. Reeling, you try to scream but no sound comes out. So you run, run until you are back to the original place of the plane.
You come back to your senses a bit. You just lost a bit of control, that's all. You're obviously “tired” and “traumatized”, and need to sit down and think for a while. That's what you tell yourself. But you know you're not right. Your parents were there! They were! They were every bit as real as the world around you! But... what is the world around you?
It almost seems as if you are in a different dimension. This is a place not meant for humans. It is a sort of limbo, a place where all life and time is at a standstill. It is not a place where one can stay sane. Though there is no life, the place does not feel uninhabited. You have that strange feeling that something is watching you, manipulating your surroundings to confound you. You are lost in a maze, both literally and figuratively. You need someone or something to rescue you from here. But you don’t get the sense that that will happen.
You sit there for a while, brooding over this thought. But there! Your parents! There they are again! You must go talk to them; you must go touch them, make sure they are actually there. Once again, you follow them for some time. Much longer than before. You keep your eyes focused on their path, making sure not to lose track of them. And suddenly, they are gone. They got out of your sight for one second, and then... went away? You look around. You have no idea where you are now. The place where you awakened, the only place of any comfort, is gone. You suddenly start to feel like something is in your pockets, something that wasn’t there before. You pull out a card; it’s your ID! But something is amiss. Your picture is… gone? There is but a blank space where your photo should be.
Why are you here? What are you seeing? Is anything here real? These questions keep circling through your mind with no answer, nothing to silence them. Silence. Your thoughts are the only sounds in this shadow-land. But there must be some sound, you reason. You need there to be sound. You don't want to be alone.
And suddenly, you hear them. Voices! People's voices! Someone must be here! But where are they coming from? It seems like... everywhere. The voices comfort you. You decide to look around to see where they are coming from. But no matter where you search, you can't find their source, nor can you discern any distinct sounds. It's merely a murmur, a distant chatter of many people, as if you were standing in an auditorium packed with people, with the lights off so you can't see anyone.
You feel the sense of being watched, too. You are the performer on stage, and the audience is watching. You are the standout of the crowd; you are under the spotlight. The audience can see you, but you can't see them. But your performance isn't quite right. You don't belong. You are the outsider, and the audience is what belongs. You must join the audience, become one with this world.
You start walking. You don't plan where to step, you just let the voices guide you. And you hear them. They are getting louder! You are going the right way. You keep walking, and the chatter grows louder, waiting for the grand finale of your performance. The audience is anticipating the moment when you finish your performance and join them.
Now the sound is almost deafening; the people must be close by! You stumble over a rock, and almost fall off of a cliff. You look down, roughly 100 feet to the bottom. There, the woman you had sat next to on the plane! And the crying baby that was behind you! And the pilot! And the noise! The audience! There they are, awaiting your finale! The people of the plane: they are the audience! They belong here, and soon, so shall you. You stand up.
The audience is deafening. This is your grand finale. You see them, bloodied, broken, dead. They all finished their performances, and had joined the audience. And now you must do the same. You take a bow, and the cheers grow even louder. You take a step. You lean forward, embracing the audience. You look down, see them waiting, see them looking up at you with eager eyes! The woman! The baby! The pilot! And… who’s that? Yourself? You feel a sudden chill. The noise dies. The people are still there but look up not with anticipation, but with cold, dead, glares. No! No! You are strangled by a powerful sense of terror. You spin your arms back wildly, but you have already lost balance, and you begin to fall.
Your body slams the ground, and you hear the crack of bone and flesh. And there you are, with the audience. You belong now. You look at the people around you. But… they have no faces. They are mere shadows of the real people. And now… you are a shadow of yourself. And something snaps in you. You feel like you’ve broken out of a trance. You don’t want to be here. Why did you follow these people? You want to leave.
You try to stand up, but feel a searing pain, and can’t bear to move. You are broken. You are stuck. You followed these actors, and now you were part of the audience. You wanted to be happy, but you aren’t any happier.
You look up and see someone atop the cliff. They are looking down. They look like they’ve lost their mind. You want to say something, but you are too weak to. And slowly, you see their facial features melting away. They are losing their individuality, and becoming part of the One. For they had all followed the same path, the same illusions, the same lies. And now they rested together in the same pit. And the audience grew, and grew, and grew.
Just wanted to share a story I wrote for a school creative writing assignment. Read and enjoy. And please feel free to leave feedback or ask questions!
(Also, sorry for the screwy formatting. It's annoying to format a MS Word essay in smashboards.)
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Shadow
Suddenly, you open your eyes. You feel a searing pain in your right leg. What happened? You try to remember. Oh, yes, that’s right. You were on a plane heading back home. And then you heard an explosion, and the plane went spiraling down. It was amazing you had even survived. You notice your back is propped up conveniently on the black, rocky precipice behind you. How did you land like that?
You turn to the left and see the plane. But something isn’t right. It’s completely undamaged, as if it were simply part of the landscape. You open the door and the plane seems fresh and clean. It is untouched; nobody is inside and nothing is out of place. Did they leave? Where is everyone?
You exit the plane and get a feel for your surroundings. Around you are cliffs composed of craggy, midnight-colored rocks. The sky is shrouded by a thick mist and almost no sunshine gets through. The air is cool and thin, and it feels ghostly and lifeless. You can’t make much out in the dim light, but it appears that the immediate area is uninhabited by any form of life.
You decide to walk around and search for any way out of this place or any sign of life. You don’t know how long you wandered, but after some time you decide to go back to the plane. Yet when you retrace your steps, there is no plane there. Did you go to the wrong place? No. This looks exactly like where you came from. You search your pockets for anything: a cell phone, an mp3 player, your wallet, anything. But nothing is there. You have no connection to the rest of the world save for the clothes you are wearing.
You don’t know long you have been here; you have no sense of time. You don’t feel hungry or thirsty. What the hell is this place? How did you end up here? You have a creeping sense of dread and despair. Something is amiss. You don’t belong here. The place feels like a mere shadow of the real world. It seems like there is some spirit about the place, and it feels… unwelcoming. You want nothing more than to leave this place forever.
You go back out to search for something, anything. You think about your parents, oh, how they would worry for you. But look! There they are, rounding that corner! You have to go talk to them. No… That couldn’t have actually been them, you tell yourself. You are seeing things. You just need a little rest to calm down. So you lie down to sleep. But you can’t. You don’t feel tired.
You must go see your parents. You stand up, and walk around the corner. And there they are again, rounding the next corner. You have to follow them. You round the next corner, and the next, and the next. You keep barely catching glimpses of them as they pass out of view.
Finally, you round a corner, and there they are, your parents, facing you. But... they don't seem right. They are like the rest of this place, simply a shadow of reality. But why? And then it hits you. They have no face. Reeling, you try to scream but no sound comes out. So you run, run until you are back to the original place of the plane.
You come back to your senses a bit. You just lost a bit of control, that's all. You're obviously “tired” and “traumatized”, and need to sit down and think for a while. That's what you tell yourself. But you know you're not right. Your parents were there! They were! They were every bit as real as the world around you! But... what is the world around you?
It almost seems as if you are in a different dimension. This is a place not meant for humans. It is a sort of limbo, a place where all life and time is at a standstill. It is not a place where one can stay sane. Though there is no life, the place does not feel uninhabited. You have that strange feeling that something is watching you, manipulating your surroundings to confound you. You are lost in a maze, both literally and figuratively. You need someone or something to rescue you from here. But you don’t get the sense that that will happen.
You sit there for a while, brooding over this thought. But there! Your parents! There they are again! You must go talk to them; you must go touch them, make sure they are actually there. Once again, you follow them for some time. Much longer than before. You keep your eyes focused on their path, making sure not to lose track of them. And suddenly, they are gone. They got out of your sight for one second, and then... went away? You look around. You have no idea where you are now. The place where you awakened, the only place of any comfort, is gone. You suddenly start to feel like something is in your pockets, something that wasn’t there before. You pull out a card; it’s your ID! But something is amiss. Your picture is… gone? There is but a blank space where your photo should be.
Why are you here? What are you seeing? Is anything here real? These questions keep circling through your mind with no answer, nothing to silence them. Silence. Your thoughts are the only sounds in this shadow-land. But there must be some sound, you reason. You need there to be sound. You don't want to be alone.
And suddenly, you hear them. Voices! People's voices! Someone must be here! But where are they coming from? It seems like... everywhere. The voices comfort you. You decide to look around to see where they are coming from. But no matter where you search, you can't find their source, nor can you discern any distinct sounds. It's merely a murmur, a distant chatter of many people, as if you were standing in an auditorium packed with people, with the lights off so you can't see anyone.
You feel the sense of being watched, too. You are the performer on stage, and the audience is watching. You are the standout of the crowd; you are under the spotlight. The audience can see you, but you can't see them. But your performance isn't quite right. You don't belong. You are the outsider, and the audience is what belongs. You must join the audience, become one with this world.
You start walking. You don't plan where to step, you just let the voices guide you. And you hear them. They are getting louder! You are going the right way. You keep walking, and the chatter grows louder, waiting for the grand finale of your performance. The audience is anticipating the moment when you finish your performance and join them.
Now the sound is almost deafening; the people must be close by! You stumble over a rock, and almost fall off of a cliff. You look down, roughly 100 feet to the bottom. There, the woman you had sat next to on the plane! And the crying baby that was behind you! And the pilot! And the noise! The audience! There they are, awaiting your finale! The people of the plane: they are the audience! They belong here, and soon, so shall you. You stand up.
The audience is deafening. This is your grand finale. You see them, bloodied, broken, dead. They all finished their performances, and had joined the audience. And now you must do the same. You take a bow, and the cheers grow even louder. You take a step. You lean forward, embracing the audience. You look down, see them waiting, see them looking up at you with eager eyes! The woman! The baby! The pilot! And… who’s that? Yourself? You feel a sudden chill. The noise dies. The people are still there but look up not with anticipation, but with cold, dead, glares. No! No! You are strangled by a powerful sense of terror. You spin your arms back wildly, but you have already lost balance, and you begin to fall.
Your body slams the ground, and you hear the crack of bone and flesh. And there you are, with the audience. You belong now. You look at the people around you. But… they have no faces. They are mere shadows of the real people. And now… you are a shadow of yourself. And something snaps in you. You feel like you’ve broken out of a trance. You don’t want to be here. Why did you follow these people? You want to leave.
You try to stand up, but feel a searing pain, and can’t bear to move. You are broken. You are stuck. You followed these actors, and now you were part of the audience. You wanted to be happy, but you aren’t any happier.
You look up and see someone atop the cliff. They are looking down. They look like they’ve lost their mind. You want to say something, but you are too weak to. And slowly, you see their facial features melting away. They are losing their individuality, and becoming part of the One. For they had all followed the same path, the same illusions, the same lies. And now they rested together in the same pit. And the audience grew, and grew, and grew.
