Accidental Demon Slayers: Melody of Light pt. 28

Kurt heard the scream, and was on his feet, rushing towards the bathroom.

He reached for the handle, but the door was locked.  Locked?  Bobby never locked the bathroom when he was in the shower. 

He slammed his shoulder into the door.  Once. Twice. 

“Bobby?”

“Kurt! Help… me!”  The door muffled Bobby’s words.  He sounded so far away. 

He slammed his shoulder into the door again. He slammed harder, the flimsy door cracking under the force of the blow.  With one more slam the door splintered, and the lock was ripped from out of the frame. 

Kurt nearly screamed himself when he stepped into the bathroom. 

Bobby was hanging onto the edge of the bathtub, trying to pull himself up.  The water in the tub was a murky black, and seemed much deeper than possible.  He was struggling to keep his grip, and with a hard jerk he went under the water, only his single hand was visible, clutching the slick edge of the tub. 

Kurt rushed towards the tub, slipping on the damp tiles.  He scrambled, half falling, half crawling as he reached out, grabbing Bobby’s hand and pulling. 

Bobby broke the surface, the murky black water seeming to cling to his skin.  He was gasping for air.  Something, something under the water, pulled back. 

“Don’t let go!”  Bobby’s words came out in gasps.  His eyes were wide with terror. 

Another tug, this one stronger.  Kurt could feel himself being pulled forward, his knees slamming into the side of the tub. Bobby went under again. 

Kurt pulled back.  He pulled hard, pulling Bobby up, his torso breaking from the murky water. 

Bobby clung to him.  “Thank… Thank you.”

Kurt leaned back, getting ready to stand, to pull his boyfriend completely free from the bathtub.  When he looked into Bobby’s eyes he froze.

Bobby’s eyes were liquid silver, swirling and reflective.  He smiled. 

“You made this so easy.” The voice was not Bobby’s.  The voice was old, feminine and crackling.

That thing in his arms was not Bobby.  That thing was laughing at him, the mouth open wide, revealing browned and cracked teeth. 

Kurt didn’t have time to react.  Bobby’s arms tightened around Kurt’s neck, and he felt himself being yanked down, pulling off his feet, and into the seemingly bottomless pool of darkness that had filled the bathtub.  

New Series Announcement!

So, because I can't help but take on even more writing projects, I will be adding a news series to the blog starting on November 4th.  The series will be posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which means I am now posting five times a week! Oh dear Lordy, this is going to be interesting.

Eye See You is my take on a cellphone novel.  The story, blending the cellphone novel style with my favorite genre, horror, follows several people who start receiving odd text messages from an unknown source.  The message... that someone is watching them, and that whoever receives the messages are living on borrowed time.

For those not familiar with the cellphone novel style, here is a quick rundown.  Cellphone Novels started in Japan as a simple, poetic story telling style that was distributed on... cellphones!  The short chapters, usually under 200 words, are written to be easily read on cellphone screens, with minimal to no scrolling.  The style is simplified, focusing on emotion and plot twists over long passages of description.

Am I going to be following the style perfectly?  Probably not.  The cellphone novels that I have seen tend to focus more on relationship drama and teenage characters, with a heavy emphasis on free form poetry as well as using spacing and white space to help evoke a specific mood or cadence to the writing.

While I do plan on sticking to the word count, I am still adjusting to the more poetic, less concrete style of writing. Also, one of my general rules is to not let style and format get in the way of storytelling. Hence me referring to this as "my take" on a cellphone novel.

More importantly, I am really enjoying telling this story.  Each post will be much shorter than my regular stories, which is part of the reason I am willing to take on a third series.  Also, this is the first time I'll be working with other authors!  Yep, this series will have co-authors, or at least, that is the plan right now.  I will announce who those authors are when their part of the story begins.

So, starting November 4th check out Eye See You, here on Square Zero!
More announcements to come in the coming months, so keep checking the blog!

Pom Pom Angel: Love Rescue pt. 14

The conversation with Regina was going pretty well, at least Gus thought it was.  He paid attention, made sure to actually listen to what she was saying, and tried to keep things light.   Never come on to strong.  That was what Nando had always told him.  Keep it casual, keep it cool.  

He just wasn’t sure he was doing right. 

Regina seemed to like him.  She would bat her eyes and giggle at all his lame jokes, gently slapping his hand, letting her fingers linger. 

Was this what he had been missing out on?  How long had it been since a woman had touched him?  Missy didn’t count, and neither did Soul.  Well, they counted, but not the same way that Regina did.  Regina was pretty, and she was sweet, and she was pretty. 

“So, do you have a girlfriend?” Her eyes narrowed a bit as she asked the question, leaning forward and dropping her voice to a low whisper.  “I don’t mean to be forward, but I want to make sure I’m not spinning my wheels here.” 

“No!” He practically yelled the word. “No, no girlfriend.  Totally free and clear.” 

“Good.”  She leaned back.  “Then how about you and me go out tonight?”

“Go out?” His voice cracked. 

“Yeah, you know, dinner and drinks or something.  Keep it simple and casual.” She bit her lower lip.  “No pressure, just a good night of getting to know you.” 

“That sounds…” He took a breath, calming himself.  “That sounds great.” 

“ I’m kind of new to the area, so you pick the when and where.” 

He wracked his brain.  What kind of place could he take her?  Most of the places he frequented were either fast food joints, dive bars or the bookstore.  None of them seemed like a good place for a night of  ‘getting to know you’.  

“Let me think on that.” He laughed nervously. 

“Here,” she picked up a napkin, jotting something down, and then handed it to him.  “Text me the time and place, and I promise you, I’ll be there.”

“Great!”

“You should probably get back to work.” She stood, brushing down her skirt with her hands.  “God knows my boss will kill me if I’m a minute late.” 

Oh God!  He had left the bookstore unattended, with a gaggle of children inside.  Soul was going to kill him.  Well, if she wasn’t getting carted away for child murder after those little monsters destroyed her store. 

He shot to his feet. 

“Till tonight, then?” She held out her hand. 

He took it, giving it a gentle shake.  “Until tonight.” 

He gave her his best impression of a casual smile, and then headed for the door, praying that he was still going to be alive tonight so that he could actually make their date.  

Accidental Demon Slayers: Melody of Light pt. 27

I stood in the shower, the hot water cascading over the top of my head, my forehead pressed against the slick tile.  I hadn’t been able to shake that feeling of impending doom that had overcome me in the theater. 

I let my mind drift, wander out of the bathroom, then back into itself, into the darkness of my thoughtless brain. 

Juktha’s room came into view, Doctore’s Japanese garden a whole mindscape away. 

She stood at the far end of the room, her gaze distant, caught on some far away sight that may or may not have existed. 

“What is it?” I stepped into her space, the warm smell of vanilla doing little to relax me.  “What was that thing? That woman?  I know you know.” 

She looked at me, her eyes red rimmed and heavy.  “Something evil.  Something growing.” 

I shook my head.  “Don’t be cryptic with me.  Not now.” 

She laughed.  The sound was hoarse.  “It is a hard habit to break.” She sighed. “It is a witch.  A witch consumed with her magic.” 

“Not a demon?”

“No.  She is human, or at least, the remnants of a human.  She is a ghost of something.”

I stepped closer to Juktha.  I could see now that she was chewing on her lower lip. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” My words were not angry.  I was already pretty sure of the answer. 

“You seemed so happy.”  She turned to face me now.  “You and Kurt, and… You all were so happy.  I wanted that to last just a little bit longer.” 

“How do we stop her?” I knew pressing the matter of Juktha’s silence would do nothing. It would only lead to a fight, or more crying.  It would waste time when the threat had potential to grow stronger, or do real damage.

“I… I don’t know.”  She shook her head, a strand of hair breaking loose and dangling in front of her face from the violent motion.  “She is not entirely in this world.  She is hidden, behind a shimmering, opal surface.  I cannot see where, but I can sense it.  It is the gate to her world.” 

I felt my body, my actual body, left open and defenseless in the real world, go tense. 

“Oh no.” Juktha’s eyes went wide.  “She is here.” 

My eyes snapped open, and I was back in the shower, water pooling around my feet.  Had I dropped the drain? The tub was filling, the water level almost past my ankles. 

I blinked, unsure of what I was looking at.  I rubbed my hand across my face, brushing droplets of water away from my eyes.

My reflection was gone.  Instead, the withered old woman from the theater was looking up at me.  She was looking at me, her body mimicking my stance.  When I stood up straight, she did the same, the woman vanishing as my reflection pulled closer to my body. 

Suddenly it felt like the bottom of the bathtub had dropped away, and I plunged towards the water.  

Accidental Demon Slayers: Melody of Light pt. 26

Q had found the old bomb shelter back when he was a kid.  In his youth it had been his fort, and as he grew older it became his secret hideaway.  It was an escape from his mother, and the stares of the other islanders.  As he grew up he had turned it into a second control room, one cut off from the outside world.  The computers inside were connected to no phone lines, and there was no Internet. 

He had turned it into his and Aria’s private nest. 

As he walked down the familiar path, Ashtyn and the other girl behind him, he almost felt like he was defiling the place by bringing someone else there, and they were women no less.  He knew that Aria wouldn’t mind.  She didn’t have a bit of jealousy in her, but Q minded.  It was one more thing he could blame his mother for. 

“So, that old woman we saw, that was your…” Ashtyn’s voice drifted through the shadows. 

“Yes.” Q didn’t turn.  He knew that taking his eyes off the path could mean taking a headfirst tumble into a ditch, or worse, off a cliff.  “Well, what my mother became.”

As they walked, he explained the whole story.  His mother hadn’t always been a dark witch, but as he grew up, and grew away, her jealousy began to taint her heart.  The magic had drained his mother’s beauty, her life force, and before long she had turned into the withered old hag they had seen on the screen. 

When he had met Aria, they had fallen quickly in love, and that put her in his mother’s sites.  The night that he and Aria had planned to leave for the mainland, where they were planning to run away and get married, his mother had struck.  She had murdered Aria, trapping her soul in the crystal. 

Q had only managed to escape by sheer luck, and his mother’s inability to truly harm him.  He had taken the crystal and fled, but not before getting his revenge. 

“What did you do?” It was the other girl’s voice that cut through the darkness this time. 

“Late one night, while she was in her temple, her mind completely lost in some trance, I knocked her out.” He hugged the crystal tighter to his chest.  “Part of me wanted to kill her, but she was still my mother.  Deep inside she was still the woman who had raised me.  It was the magic that had tainted her.  She needed to be stopped, though.  So I sealed her in her temple.”  He glanced over his shoulder.  “I had just assumed she died down there.” 

“I think she did.” Ashtyn was right behind him now.  “When Liz and I fell through the floor earlier today, the room we landed in, that was the temple, right?” 

Q nodded, not sure if Ashtyn could see him. 

“After she had died, I think her spirit remained trapped in that room, and when we fell into it, the spirit escaped.”

It made sense to Q.  He wanted to blame Ashtyn and the crew for what they had done, but he knew it would only have been a matter of time before that room had been found.  If it hadn’t been the film crew, then it would have been some dumb kids on a dare, or a curious tourist. 

The path they were walking on opened to a clearing, and a few feet in front of them was the bunker, its heavy steel and cement doorway jutting out of a small hill. 

“Here we are.” He turned to Ashtyn and the other girl.  “My home away from home.”