mikado2021

[mikado2021]

A Toymaker's Dream

(Horror short story, part of the Michael Southward’s Darkest Nightmares short story compilation)

My name is Graham Butterbean and I am a toymaker. I live in a rural village just north from the main city of Budapest, near the borders of Slovakia. It is a very small population of around 25 people, but we get many visitors as this village is famed for its craftsmanship in many fields.

Out of all the craftsmen I am the most favoured by the locals as I make toys for free for the children who live here. The parents are grateful and are amazed by how realistic the wooden toys look and feel as if they were human... there is a secret to this...

Today is the day before the big festival of Regin, the god of craftsmen and metal workers. We host a celebration and festival tribute to this God every year to say thanks for our gifted skills in crafting. So, because it is tomorrow we all prepare loads of products that we make and bring them to the festival where we might trade for other people's work or gift them to the statue that is located in the middle of the town, the statue is of Regin.

For me it's about quality and dedication to the craft. So, I start early in the morning as I need to make as many toys as possible. Of course, the festival attracts many tourists and people from the main areas of Hungary as it isn't the same in the city like atmosphere, so this is a good opportunity for us to make some money and for me to get new resources.

As soon as I complete my morning routine and open my shutters on the top floor of my workshop I instantly spot newcomers from out of the village, after all it is easy to remember the 25 faces that already live here, so I shout down to them in a welcoming tone and voice the words of "Good morning and please if you would like a souvenir to take with you, come visit my shop!" as I complete that sentence I knew I got their attention straight away as their eyes widened with gracefulness and so did mine...

I go downstairs and unlock the shop ready for business and they come in with cold faces and sparkling eyes... the appearance of someone from a different climate and lifestyle. "Come in, come in" I welcome them and let them have a look at my products like it was an art gallery that was ready for exhibitions to be inspected.

"My, this place is wonderful! You made these all by hand and tool?" one of the customers were truly amazed by my works and I nodded to confirm their assumption. After a few minutes of browsing they pick two items, presumably one for each of them, and place them on my counter.  "Is that all?" I ask them to make sure they don't want anything else as it is hard to make money anyways so it's worth the hustle. They shake their head in politeness and I bag their items and tell them the price. They pay it... but after they do and before they could make it to the door, I reach to it first and I lock the door.

"E-Erm excuse me? W-Wha-What are you doing?" the woman asks me as it is truly strange for someone to just lock the door before their customers leave but I need resources and well... here they are... fresh ones too...

"You'll make excellent toys..." I say in a croaky voice as my voice box lessened in efficiency as I was preparing myself for their struggle when I take them by force. The man puts his hand on my shoulder and asks to let them out but I counter his grab and inject some medicine to put him to sleep and for the woman she just screamed at the sight of her boyfriend or fiancé dropping to the floor like an anchor hitting the ocean bed at the docks. I put her to sleep too. With both of my offerings now asleep I can finally make the toy of my dreams...

I string them up like a defenceless animal that has already been slaughtered and ready for food processing however, this is different as they're going to stay alive and I'm going to keep it that way. After they're strung up I begin my work with first lay down the initial pieces of wood along certain body parts that don't really need fine tuning so I can just nail them on straight away without annoyance but of course after the first nail enters the wood and skin it wakes them up and that's when the process gets annoying...

Sadly, I don't have any more medicine so they're going to just have to put up with the pain and let me finish my work... for the festival... after the basic pieces along the body are done I begin to work on the more tedious pieces such as the face, hands, feet and genitals. As I sand and shape the wood to perfection, my smile grows even more as this is the best work I have ever done in my years of toymaking. Once I make the pieces, it is time to put them on to the model and I must say these victims were very loud. I do the hands and feet first and then move on to the genitals... I nail and staple the wood with the help of the labia acting as the supports, the woman screamed in agony as I did this but it was all for the festival so she will understand that her sacrifice is greatly received.

Next was the man's turn as I nailed his piece through the testicles and the opening of the penis, jab, as expected he screamed too and passed out twice through the procedure but if only they knew how important this all was to me, to all of us. Finally, it got to the crowning of the toy... the part where I put their crown of thorns on and lay them up for sacrifice and grace from the God Regin. I knock a small nail, tack, through the forehead as I don't want to kill them and then medium sized nails through the eyes and chin completing my models for the festival.

I stand back in awe as I look at my beautiful creations... there were no longer screams... just muffles through the rings of wood and tears soaking the inner trunks of this beauty...

The toys get taken to the town square and put up on stands for examination by the other villagers, that means touching, looking up close and even getting excited... a bit too excited... after the toys have been exploited and violated we all stand back and we let the God Regin take them... a flame sparks and set them on fire and yet again they managed to scream only this time it was much much... louder... God Regin is pleased with my work and I... I have accomplished... my toymaker's dream...

A day passes and newcomers spot the village as they're passing by...

"Johnnnn why are we stopping?"

"Relax babe, it is about time we be adventurous and explore the open world a bit"

"John I have a hair appointment at 3:30!"

"Yeah, yeah we wont be late for your HaIr ApPoinTMenT. Are you coming with me or not?"

"Fine but not long"

I convince my girlfriend to finally do something spontaneous and go to a nearby village instead of keeping to the road for the trip and we make it down to the village. It seems desolate and frankly rustic and abandoned so I got excited to explore this place.

"Good morning and please if you would like a souvenir to take with you, come visit my shop!" that's weird I thought, someone lives here? And they have a shop so they must be more people around. My curiosity took over and I lead myself and my girlfriend to the shop once he let us in and we looked around. The stuff he made was wooden and lively like as if they were finished with real human skin it was amazing... I must get two as I wont get another experience quite like this. I get the items to the counter and get asked if that's all and I nod in agreement and pay for the items as they get bagged however as soon as I get given the items the man darts to the door and locks it whilst I notice at the back of the shop there are stairs leading down to a basement and the trial is shown in blood as if someone or something was dragged down there... before I could even make a comment on it and ask him I feel a slight prick and my eyes close... 'the festival is tomorrow' I hear before I'm fully unconscious 'and you're going to outdo my last creation'... 'my last toymaker's dream...'

[mikado2021]

Beauty

(Insight into Beauty, part of the Therapy From A Friend book)

Beauty isn't something we see as just looks of a person or animal or even insect and plant no it's more than that. When it comes to beauty it means for something of personal preference to find a thing of anything special, magnificent and outstanding. Something that draws attention to it and ignore everything that's happening around them only to just focus on that then they must find it beautiful and party of beauty.

When beauty is thought up as to why or what you would want out of it, it's mainly to do with how much attractive you find someone and this can be personal as not everyone would agree with you as to if that person or creature or thing even is beautiful. When you think of beauty you think of something that's physically pleasing such as looks or scenery however beauty can also be seen in personality and other things that are not physical. For example, someone who has a honey sweet like voice and angelic innocence can be found by some an attractive 'beauty' trait.

What I say about beauty is that to not just think about the physical aesthetically pleasing features of a person or anything else, think about who they are. What they've achieved, their personality can be one of the most attractive things about them.

[mikado2021]

Memories

(Insight into Memories, part of the Therapy From A Friend book)

A memory can serve so many purposes and save someone from the darkest of times and be their brightest of light. It can keep a person in limbo and non parallel to what the difference is between the past and a memory.

Of which the past is the actions performed, words said and years pasted that define what the past is then of which goes on to define you.

A memory however is an image, scene, dream or thought that's come to life and made into moments within your life that give certain emotions you feel with certain objects, phrases, people that were or similar to those that were tied/connected to that memory as a reminder/souvenir.

Some could argue that memories are purposeful to allow you to remember certain parts of your past and never forget them mainly with good reason. Memories can have big impacts on your life just as much as the past can and a memory can sometimes be more damaging than the past as a memory is in your mind stored and can be thought of whenever and without warning being a weapon that you can technically control but the only person it damages and hurts is you.

Memories will serve as a picture of your most enjoyable and worst moments you've ever lived or dreamed of.

Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.

And

Sometimes, memories are the reason we can't move on.

[mikado2021]

Confidence

(Insight into Confidence, a part of the Therapy From A Friend book)

Individuality is one of the main causes of lack of confidence as they think because they are different from everyone else they should be disappointed in themselves and not to be confident in how they are. But if you're brave enough to go against the world and not be a sheep and be a Shepard then you'll be confident within yourself to stand against them and the norms of trends and social acceptance and you'll gain even more happiness than ever.

The people who mostly lack confidence and for good reason are the girls and women in the world. The good reason that girls and women, not all of them but most of them, lack confidence is because of the amount of expectations made for them without their knowledge sometimes made by other women and girls such as models. For example, some models have been showing their rib cage as a trend in the model world which apparently is the current hot trend which now will affect all women and girls who can't show their rib cages and because of that they get depressed and hateful of themselves just because they are not like the others. Because of these models or hot women that are setting examples of trends and getting guys easier than others women and girls think they need to do this as well to get a partner as that's what they want, or what they think they want. What this does is it creates a label on all males and says that all of them like this expectation and trends made for women and girls which means unless you follow them then you won't get them. Men do also go through confidence issues but don't speak aloud about it as it is seen as non-masculine to and creates this silent group of males that are going through the same pain as all females feel and even worse as they can't speak up about it. These are created by mainly expectations made by their own paranoia and desire to have a good looking partner and for that they think they too need to and as many males are in good shape those who are not or see themselves as not then they get embarrassed and lack confidence.

What I say about this one? Well the more individual, the more you stand out, the more proud you should be as you have accomplished something no sheep has and that you should value more than someone else's opinion.

[mikado2021]

It Was Just Check In...

(Horror short story, part of the Michael Southward’s Darkest Nightmares short story compilation)

My mum takes me in the car to the doctors and on the way she explains all the stuff that I have got wrong with me you know the things they can't cure or get rid of like my asthma and hay fever. This is in case the doctor asks me anything and decides I have responsibility now. As we get to the place a strange sensation soaks into my body like a sponge. It is as if reality has seeped out and leaked into nothing.

I blackout.. I wake up all in one blink, it felt like a rollercoaster ride that went too quick. I look around me and it seems that I have woken in a hospital corridor but a hospital straight from hell. With symbols and messages, all about worshipping Satan and the voices in their head, written in blood I don't think this is the same place I was going to at first but seems like I have no choice so I start to move around trying to find an exit.

As I stumble from one side of the corridor to the other like a ping pong ball I realise my movement is restricted like I am on some sort of drugs. I hear my name whisper in the echoes of the corridors as I look behind me and see a psychiatric nurse waltzing towards me with confidence. Blood smeared all over her apron as if the Red Cross did not have enough red. I notice the shear like tool in her hand all coated in blood dripping with intention to do it again. I try stumbling away with not as much confidence as her in my walk but I still make some distance, however the corridors seemed to go endlessly like as if they were extending and reaching out to the other way making it a pointless escape.

I end up blacking out again but this time I was in the back of a police car, what could this mean?? I look out the window and see a body bag which I see a peek of… a nurse like the one I saw creeping towards to me before. The police then comes to me and asks me questions such as my intentions and the reason I did it, in confusion I ask why he would ask me such questions and he explains that I....I!...stabbed a nurse during one of my check ins with a shear like tool and ended up killing again and killed my mother too...it all makes sense now...I respond to the police and say that "it was just a check in".........

Author's Note: So how many of you are scared to go to the hospital? If so why? The biggest fear that I've seen in people to do with hospitals is getting an injection...the needle is one that people don't tend to be happy getting when it's their time for another jab. What are your guys fear, medicine and hospital related? I hope you all have a great day and night and if you need someone to talk to and/or listen to your problems then please dm me as I'm always available, especially for my readers.

[mikado2021]

Is Anybody Here?… It Isn’t Me…

(Horror short story, part of the Michael Southward’s Darkest Nightmares)

So, it's my first job at Disney land and I work as a ride operator mainly on small world. The jobs easy you load people on, make sure they're all safe and properly locked into the ride and you go and send them off at the control panel in the booth. In the booth you also get cameras that show most of the ride and all of the carts the people are in, for safety reasons, however some of the people that get on don't get off....now I've been working here for three months now and it's been a regular occurrence, it happens mainly to kids and for some reason the parents don't ask where their children are! I may not be a parent but if my child is missing I wouldn't stop until I find them. Anyways I report it to my superiors, and I get threatened and told to leave it Disney obviously don't want no one to know about their rides being haunted....

One kid, who was on his own as it was the last ride, went missing and never came out and seeming it was the last ride and we were about to close we had to go and investigate, I asked one of the maintenance guys to tag along. We walk through the whole track four times and nothing no sign of him, both of us are bewildered as there's no way he went another way out of the ride early before we could see him on CCTV but we can't do nothing but to report yet another missing person in the small world ride. As we make our way back to the entrance of the ride we hear a slight chuckle...I ask the guy with me if he heard it too and he nods his head in fear as we both wished we didn't. A clutter and clacking noise echoed through the ride and out came a cart towards us we made sure all carts were put away and everything was shut off before we entered so we thought it might be a prank but we realised we were the last guys in the park and we have the keys to the power so there's no way someone is pranking us. I shout, "is anybody there?!"...even the echoes were shortly lived as silence fell upon the whole park. And then a childish whisper replied with "only if you get on"... me and my friend are frozen for a second and didn't know what to do but we thought if we just play along with this kid who's obviously smart enough to do this we might just get him out of that ride and call it a day.

We hop in the cart and it automatically starts to move weirdly, it made a sound like the cart was going on its own like it was gaining the traction of no electricity and brakes were applied. The more I pay attention to everything that's happening the more I'm confused as to how this is happening I finally get to the end of the ride not really remembering most of it and as I look to my left my friend, the maintenance guy is not there..........as I'm sat there in shock a thump behind me I look over and see that the maintenance guy is still with me but his body is slouched over, as I push him up....the body of this missing kid embraced inside the guys ribcage like an undeveloped baby in a womb...I notice there's a note in the guy's mouth as I grab it his lifeless jaw drops like there's not even a soul inside. The note is written in blood and says, "well done you found me". As I reconnect with the world I realise that there's a bunch of police shouting commands at me and is arresting me for two murders I didn't commit... or at least I can't remember I did....as they put me in the back of the car all I can seem to say is "it's not me" like I'm trying to reassure myself I didn't do it like there's some doubt like there may be a possibility that I may have killed them both as were leaving the park I look behind me and see through the window the same boy that went missing...looking alive and well saying words that I could just about read from his lips..."it's not me”.

Author's Note: This is definitely either my number one favourite or in the top three favourites and was one of the first short stories I ever made. This was something that I made in a brief moment of creativity and focus and I think it paid off. Are you guys scared to go on rides? Do theme-parks hide things from their loyal customers? Let me know what you guys think in the comments or my dm, I'd love to hear from you all. I hope you all have a great day and night.