wiznard

[wiznard]

Brett Arntt                                                                                       6033 words

The Archer

I stood on the roof of the building overlooking the city. It was incredibly peaceful tonight. I felt bad for what was about to happen. The city would erupt into chaos. There would be riots in the street. I looked towards the sky and saw my target. A giant blimp. It was moving faster than predicted. Not that it would be a problem. The EMP would temporarily power it off giving us a few seconds to attach to it and get on. The blimp started to lower to the city and the EMP went off. I put my crossbow on my back and grabbed my grappling hook. I aimed and shot through a window. Within seconds I was on the blimp. I heard a couple more windows break which means the rest of my team made it on the blimp too. I put on my mask which covers my entire face except for my eyes, and put on my goggles. I put on my hood and started for the middle of the blimp. I checked in every room looking for the target. I wasn’t quite sure who we were here to kill, only that this particular mission promised big bucks. Mostly do to what the client told us would afterwards. We were ordered to kill the target and then crash the blimp into the building that only our boss knew about. I opened a door to find the boss crouched in front of a safe.

“Something important in that boss?” I asked. She jumped and threw a knife at me. I barely jumped back before the knife went into my head. She slumped and looked relieved to see me.

“Archer, don't scare me like that. I’d hate to kill you on our last mission.” I knew that was false. She’d probably kill any of us in a heartbeat. If she didn’t she probably would call us by our actual name. Not the jobs we got because of our skills. 

“What’s in the safe boss? Something important?” She turns back to me with an upset look on her face. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be looking for the target? We don’t have that much time before the blimp arrives at the building we need to crash it into. What don't remember about what the target looks like? He’s the only one wearing a brown jacket. Well, go on. Get going Archer.” I stepped outside of the room and closed the door. I guess she doesn’t wanna talk about what’s in the safe. I kept walking through the blimp when The doors in front me busted open and a bunch of guards ran out. Thanks to the new modification on my cross I can shoot multiple arrows within seconds. With any mod I want on it. Fire, gas, electric, or explosive. The guards however aren’t looking for a long range fight. The first guard threw his gun at me and then punched me in the face.  I fell back and tried to regain my posture when two more guards joined the first one. I managed to hit the first one with my crossbow which threw him off balance and knocked him into the others. I took a step back and raised my crossbow. I fired an electric arrow into the one in the front electrocuting all of them. I stepped into the room they ran out of and saw the man in the brown jacket. Without thinking I shot him. His body slumped then fell to the ground. I heard gunfire coming from the other side of the blimp. The others were taking out any guards still running around. I was going to turn around and walk out when curiosity got the best of me. I walked over to the body and flipped it over. The face of the president greeted me. 

“Oh no. Oh no no no no no no no no no no.” I turned around to leave when I saw the boss standing at the door. She was holding some files in her hand. The look on her face was that of pity.

“Oh Archer. Why did you have to do that. This was it. The last mission and you could’ve been done. You would’ve been free to do whatever you wanted. But now I have to kill you.” She raised her gun to chest and a smile appeared on her face.

“What am I saying. I’ve wanted to kill you for a while now. You’re nosey, impatient, loud, obnoxious, and plain annoying. I am very much going to enjoy this Archer.” Without thinking I swung my crossbow and knocked her on the ground. I raised my crossbow to shoot her when the blimp started going down. I fell into the wall and the boss landed right beside me. We both forced ourselves up and she swung at me. I ducked and swung my crossbow again. She kicked it out of my hand and kicked me in the face. I dropped as she reached for her knife and lunged at me. I grabbed her wrist and threw her into the floor. I heard a click and saw the furniture which was locked onto the floor was breaking from its locks. I barely moved as a couch crashed through a wall. The boss got up as a chair crashed into her and they went through the wall. I saw the files start falling towards the walls and I made a split decision to dive at them. I grabbed them but I also fell through the hole in the wall. I fell into a couch and dropped the files. The locks on the couch gave out and it slid down and crashed through the wall. Me and the couch hit a metal wall. I got to my knees but was instantly kicked in the back. I flew forward and landed on my face. I turned to see the boss standing on the couch. 

“Hey, no fair. I thought you were knocked out.” I said as I got back up to my feet. The boss lunged at me and pushed me into the window. I punched her in the stomach. As she fell back I opened the window. I grabbed her by the hair and threw her out. I looked out the window to see her boots erupt into flames. She started flying back towards the window.

“Oh hell no. She has rocket boots? That’s totally unfair.” I ran towards the files as the blimp crashed. I got sent flying into the  wall. I woke up a couple hours later with a ton of furniture on top of me. I managed to climb my way out of the blimp and I collapsed on the floor. I threw my quiver off and took off my armoured jacket. I took off my mask and walked over to the window. The blimp was still intact somehow. But it went into the building. So the building did get destroyed but not in an explosion like the client wanted. Meaning the boss wouldn’t get paid for the job since all the requirements weren’t met. I collapsed to the floor before I could make it to the window. I looked down to see some glass in my leg. I ripped off my shirt and tied it around my leg. I’d get Annie to look at it later. I looked around the room and saw the desk. Not just any desk. The presidential desk. I suddenly became very aware of the situation that I was in. The blimp didn’t explode which means they’ll find the president’s body with my arrow in it. The boss will get away with this and will pin it on everyone else involved. I’ll definitely get killed for this. If not by the law then by the boss. I got up and started looking out the window. I grabbed the chair and broke the window. I ran as fast as I could for as long as I could. I went far around the lawn and disappeared into the city. I have no idea where I am. I’ve never been to Washington D.C. before. I’ve rarely been outside of New York. I needed to get back to New York. Annie would know what to do. She always knew what to do. I limped my way into an internet cafe. I plopped into a chair and started looking up a map of Washington. I looked over to see a little girl staring at me. 

“Hi.” She said with a sniffle. 

“What are you doing?” She asked as she looked at my computer.

“Looking up a map of this place. I’ve never been here before.” I say as I click the option to print out a picture. I got up and started to limp away.

“Can you find my mommy’s house on the map? She left me here and it’s been a long time and I’m cold and hungry.” I stop and look at the girl as she sat there playing with the strings of her pink hoodie. I lift up one finger and walk to the guy in the front.

“Hey bud. How long has that little girl been here?” The guy looked up and shrugged.

“I don’t know a couple days maybe.” I stood up as straight as I could and puffed out my chest to make myself look bigger. 

“And why didn’t you call the cops or anyone so they could come help this kid?” They guy sighed and looked up at me again. 

“It’s not my problem. She’s not my kid. I don’t care.” He looked back at his phone and I lost it. I grabbed his hair and slammed his head into his desk. He was out instantly. I looked around everywhere to make sure no one had seen that. I walked over to the little girl again. I patted my pocket to make sure that the money Annie had given me in case things went wrong was still there. 

“Come on kid. Let’s go get you something to eat and find your mommy.” She grabbed my hand and we walked out the door. 

“Why is that man sleeping?” She asked 

“He used too much of his brain and needed to take a little nap.” I said as I looked at the map I printed out. I saw the nearest restaurant was some place called Chicken King. I just hoped this place was cheap. I needed the money to get to New York City. 

“So what’s your name kid?” I asked as we waited for the light to change so we could cross the street. 

“Annie.” She said. I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Funny that I would end up meeting someone else named Annie tonight. As we walked to the restaurant I noticed there weren't as many flying cars as there were in New York City. I mean yeah not everyone had flying cars but a ton of people did. Maybe two of every twenty people owned one. Maybe because there were less people here. In fact the flying cars here didn’t look anywhere as nice as they do in New York City. Plus everyone’s outfit looked a little older than they do in New York City. They weren’t anywhere as colorful and flashy. Before I could think of anything else we arrived at Chicken King. I walked up to the register and looked at the menu. 

“Yeah uh I’ll take a number one and the kid’s meal. Both with a coke to drink.” I said to the woman behind the register. 

“That’ll be twelve dollars and thirty-two cents.” She said with a sigh. I paid her and took Annie to the table. As I sat down the phone I kept in my boot started to go off. I walked outside and took it out. The number was blocked. 

“Hello?” I asked as I started to walk around. 

“Goodbye Archer.” As soon as the voice finished talking the Chicken King exploded. I was sent flying down the street. I struggled to my feet as I looked towards the burning building. My leg buckled and I fell down again. I felt my chest tighten up. I should’ve taken her to the police station immediately. Or left her at the internet cafe. At least she’d be alive. No, now's not the time to think about that. I need to find out who the call was from. The voice didn’t sound familiar but they called me Archer. They must know the boss. I got up and started down the street. The train station was a couple blocks from my location. I needed to get to my Annie. I need to avenge little Annie and she’d be the only one who could help me right now. After some walking I saw the train station. I heard a loud explosion from behind me. I turned around to see that half of the flying cars had exploded and went down. Out of the flames an armoured car emerged. Before I could react, a missile hit the armoured car and brought it down. I turned to see one of the FBI’s jets fly past. I started again for the train station when I heard screams. I turned to see another bigger plane emerge from the clouds. I didn’t recognize the flag on the side but I knew it wasn’t friendly. It dropped bombs on the street. I dived into the alley and jumped into a dumpster. As soon as I closed the lid the bombs exploded. The dumpster was sent flying into the next street over and it landed on the lid. I was trapped. I threw all of my weight into the bottom of the dumpster and managed to flip it onto its backside so I could climb out. I tried to run but my leg buckled and I fell. My leg was in excruciating pain. I looked down to see the bone sticking out of my leg. My tumble in the blimp, the crash, all the running, and finally getting thrown around in the dumpster had messed up my leg. I forced myself to stand and I limped myself the last couple blocks to the train station. After a couple hours I made it to New York City. Luckily for me Annie lived close to the train station so I wouldn’t have to limp much further. As I moved down the streets I noticed everyone stopped and watched me as I passed by. I looked across the street and saw the wanted sign holograms. They were me and my entire gang. Ten in total but six were red which meant they were found dead. The boss and her brother were green which meant they were in police custody, Smith’s was blue which meant they had no idea where he was, and mine was orange which meant they were investigating the area they thought I was dead in. Which means they knew I was in the area of the bombing but they couldn’t find my body. I was about to turn and leave when Smith’s hologram turned red. They found his body. Most likely in the armoured car that tried to kill me. I turned and limped to Annie’s apartment. I rang the buzzer and waited.

“Who is it?” Annie’s rung out from the machine. 

“Annie! It’s me! It’s Will! Can you please let me in.” There was nothing for a while. She must’ve heard the news and didn’t want anything to do with me anymore. I started to back up when the door buzzed. I went in and limped my way up the stairs to her apartment. As I reached her door my leg started hurting really bad again and I fell. I passed out as soon as my head hit the floor. I woke up to the sound of the rain hitting the window. I was laying on a couch I had never seen before. I started looking around but I noticed I was in Annie’s apartment. It had her dark pink walls with pictures of the two of us everywhere. We were never officially dating but we did everything together. I even spent most nights at her apartment. She even knew what I did for a living. She didn’t always agree but she knew it was what I had to do. It was all I could do. I forced myself to put my feet on the ground when I noticed my leg felt fine. It hurt a little but it didn’t feel broken. Annie must have taken me to get it fixed. But even with the advancement of modern medicine it would still take a month for my leg to fully heal. Which means I’ve been asleep and Annie’s kept me hidden for a month. I got up and went to the bathroom. As I looked in the mirror I saw my hair had gotten long. It was put in a ponytail though. Also I had grown a decent looking beard. I looked like a true hitman. Not the one with the short curly hair that almost got himself killed over three weeks ago. I heard the front door close. I turned the bathroom light off and jumped into the closet in the hallway. 

“Will. Are you still here? You better not have woken up and ran away. The FBI is still looking for you. Especially since Janet broke out two days ago.” I stepped out of the closet and went into the front room. 

“Boss broke out of their custody?” This was bad. Annie sat down on the couch and nodded.

“They rushed her trial on account of the fact that she accepted and helped carry out a hit on the president. She also had a file but they wouldn’t release what the file was about only that it was top secret and dangerous in anyone else’s hand. She told everyone that you technically killed the president and that she’d help track you down but you know. She’s the boss. She alway had that file and order Smith it try and bomb you while you were in Washinton. So they labled her a terrorist. Her brother tried to escape and got shot. Now they really want you.” I plopped down on the couch. 

“Why aren’t they worried about her? She was able to escape from them. She’s more dangerous.” I looked at Annie but she was looking out the window.

“They know Janet is in Washington. They have planes and agents everywhere. She hasn’t been able to leave Washington. But they don’t know where in Washington she is. They think if they can find you and bring you to Washington she’ll come out of hiding to kill you. Remember she had an escape plan to get all of you out of there but you interfered and everyone else died. She absolutely hates you now. She talked about you all the time in the trial.” Annie turned to the wall and was looking at the pictures of us.

“So they want to use me as bait to get Janet to come out. I’ll do it. I’ll turn myself in.” Annie looked back at me with fear in her eyes. 

“No, you can’t do this. Please, they’ll kill you after it’s done.” She grabbed my hand and squeezed tight.

“Annie, listen I have to do this. I think we both know I have to. I killed the president. I’m responsible for the Chicken King getting blown up. That random plane in the street bombed me and Smith. I’m responsible for all those deaths. I have to turn myself in. To try and do one good thing in my life.” She let go of my hand and I got up and walked out of the apartment. It was cold outside. If I was only in a coma for an entire month it would be the first week of December. As I walked down the street I saw the holograms the police kept up. Me and Janet weren’t the only ones but we had the highest bounties. I walked up to the hologram and clicked the button to alert the police to the location. The police were here in minutes. They handcuffed me and threw me in their car. A couple hours later I was being interrogated. A blonde woman walked in. She was taller than me and looked meaner than anyone I’ve ever met.

“So Mr. Marcus. Why did you kill the president?” 

“I didn’t know it was the president until after I shot him.”

“Yeah, an unlikely story. Why did you decide to turn yourself in a month after the crime?”

“Due to the injuries I had endured I fell into a coma.”

“What injuries? You look perfectly fine to me.”

“A friend treated me and healed me while I was in my coma.”

“Who is this friend of yours?”

“Respectfully I’m not telling you ma’am.”

“Alright. So why did you turn yourself in Mr. Marcus.?”

“I want to help catch Janet. And pay for all the deaths that I caused.” This seemed to catch the woman off guard.

“Alright then. You can help. But you do exactly what I say. The head of the FBI himself has requested to join in on the hunt for Janet. That means you’ll go and see him now.” I followed her to a plane located outside the building. Inside was a suit similar to my old one, a bow, a quiver filled with arrow’s, and a razor. 

“Alright, make yourself look nice. We’re gonna go catch a crazy person.” She went to the front of the plane as I got dressed. I shaved my hair to almost nothing and trimmed my beard. When I finished, a bulky man got onto the plane and closed the door. He looked over and saw me standing in the bathroom. 

“AH you must be William Marcus. Master archer, skilled in hand to hand combat, great with swords, and master of stealth. I have heard a lot about you. Such a shame that this will be your last job before they lock you up. Don’t worry I talked to them and if you help us kill your old boss they won’t kill you for killing the president.” The man walked over and plopped himself on the couch. 

“Ah don’t you just love private jets Will. I think it’s the only way to travel.” I nod my head but I can’t take my eyes off of this guy.

“You must be the director of the FBI. It’s nice to meet you. Surprised to hear that the FBI is so involved with this case. Usually the CIA are the people more involved with big stuff like the president’s murder.” He let out a little chuckle.

“Where have you been the past couple of weeks? The CIA is in trouble because people believe they’re the ones that hired you. Not that you would know or Janet would tell. So they’re being looked into. Looking for any proof that they’re behind this. I think the reason they want to find Janet so bad is so they can get her to say who hired you guys. They had a lot of insider knowledge to figure out when and where the president and those files were.” He put his head back and got quiet. 

“If you don’t mind me asking. What’s your name?” He looked down at me.

“Jack. Now will you let me take a nap? It’s been a long month. I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep since you killed the president.” Jack passed out. I didn’t feel bad for him. Something about him felt scummy. Like he wasn’t being honest about something. I couldn’t put my finger on it though. After a couple of hours we arrived in Washington. I went to the front to check on the lady who interrogated me and flew the plane. 

“What are you doing up here Marcus?” She snapped as I opened the door. 

“You can just call me Will. And I came to ask what the plan was as soon as we landed. Janet won’t attack me or anything if she sees you all with me. Plus she has people everywhere. She’ll have spies checking the airport.” 

“How do you know that?”

“All of the people who join her main team start out as spies. I was one of her spies in New York. Before she found out about my ability with a bow. She taught me how to sneak and how to kill without remorse.”

“So a female Charles Manson.”

“Who?”

“Nevermind. Don’t worry about it, we'll figure it out. You worry about staying out of trouble.” The lady didn’t say anything after that. I started for the back when I saw Jack put a parachute on. He turned to me and threw another one at me. 

“Come on Will. If we’re gonna find your old boss we gotta do it our way. It’ll be more believable if you have the cops chasing you. Trust me.” I put the parachute on as the lady walked out of the cockpit. 

“Wait Marcus no…” Jack threw me out of the plane and jumped out himself. I watched as he pushed a button on his watch and the plane blew up. He let out a laugh as we fell to the ground. He pulled his parachute and fell back. I kept falling. I needed to get as much space between me and him as I could. He screamed my name as I plummeted closer to the ground. With second left I pulled the line and my parachute opened. As I got closer I noticed there were people everywhere. The police, Janet, and her men would turn this place into a warzone. People would die. As I landed people shouted and clapped like it was a cool stunt. But they saw my bow and quiver and took a couple steps back

“RUN! GO! NOW! THIS PLACE WILL BE A WARZONE!” People started to run screaming. I turned to see Jack approaching the ground. Then everyone started running back towards me and I turned to see an armoured car fly towards me. I reached towards my quiver and clicked the button on the side which added an explosive bolt to my arrow. I drew it and shut the armoured car. I shut into the little opening that led to the engine. It exploded into pieces and I watched as people died from the fiery parts thrown around. Jack finally landed and went to draw his gun. I drew another arrow and shot him between the eyes. I turned to run deeper into the city. A couple of blocks later I noticed a sniper on one of the buildings. He shot at me but missed and only scraped my left leg. I however didn’t miss mine. I got him somewhere in neck. As I started up again I realized something. The sniper wasn’t aiming for a kill shot. He went for my leg that got injured last month. I started running again. I didn’t quite know where I was going until I got there. The old Chicken King. The place where little Annie died. The subconscious reason I was doing all of this. To get revenge on her. Yeah Smith died in that random bombing. But Smith wouldn’t have tried to kill me unless Janet ordered him to. As I started to walk away a car pulled up and a man in a suit stepped out. 

“Will Marcus. Nice to see you again.”

“Wait…again? Who the hell are you?” 

“You wouldn’t recognize me but I’m with the FBI. Well actually I kind of am the FBI. I’m the agent in charge. I hired your services to kill someone so I could run for the position.”

“You hired us to kill the president? 

“Yeah. You see I’ve been doing some stuff that would label me as a terrorist in the eyes of some. And he had a file of all the crimes that we’ve done. I hired you to kill him, take the files, and crash the blimp into the White House. But after you killed the president you had to grow a conscious. Ruined everything. Caused problems and we weren’t able to come and extract your crew. Your boss’ brother got himself caught with the files. Luckily it was an FBI case. So we got the files back. But that left you. We couldn’t find you. Until that idiot Smith blew this chicken place up. Which led us to you. Thankfully we kept that plane from the Japs all those years ago. Now of course I’ll have to make up some story and declare war on them when I become president but no matter. We’ll just kill you now and then find and kill your boss. No witnesses and I win. George kill him. As the man named George stepped out of the car I drew my bow and shot him in the shoulder causing him to drop his gun. I turned towards the director but he already had his gun. He shot me in the side. I fell into the building. George ripped the arrow out his shoulder and walked up to me. He stabbed the arrow into my left leg. All of the pain from a month ago swelled into my leg again. I opened my mouth to scream but George punched me in the stomach. I dropped to my knees causing the arrow to go deeper into my leg. 

“Now now George. What did we talk about? We don’t have the time to play with Will. We have to kill him and go find the girl.”

“But boss. Let me finish up here and you go find the girl.” George pleaded. I tried to stand up again but George ripped the arrow out of my leg from the opposite side he stabbed it into and stabbed in the back in my left leg a little bit lower than he did the first time.  This time I let out a scream as I fell to the ground. 

“Alright. Just don’t let yourself get caught.” The man got back into the car and it sped off down the corner. George turned back towards me and ripped the arrow out again. 

“I gotta tell you this is a nice arrow. Very durable. Very strong.” He stood admiring the arrow as I grabbed my bow and swept his feet out from under him. I grabbed the arrow from the air and stabbed it into his right eye. I fell on my back and grabbed at my leg. The pain was immense. But I needed to get up and find Janet. Now I needed to find the director of the FBI. Or find someone to warn about him. I ripped George’s shirt and used it to patch up my leg. I needed to find Janet fast. She is priority number one. Then the guy in the suit. As I limped down the road I noticed an abandoned building which had a message on it. ARCHER ENTER HERE. This is it. Once I go in I’m probably not going to come out. I limped into the building. The second I stepped in I got punched in the face and was out before I hit the ground. I woke up tied to a chair surrounded by people with black hoodies. They had blask masks covering their full face. The attire Janet made us wear when she executed a traitor. The people directly across from me parted and Janet walked in. She had my quiver on her back and my bow in her hand. 

“I have to be honest. I didn’t think you’d be dumb enough to walk through the front door. Then again I didn’t think you’d betray me so I guess I’m still learning about you. Unfortunately for you I hate learning.” She turned to face the crowd as the ceiling broke and FBI agents repealed down. They dropped guns blazing. Janet’s men pulled out their own guns and more of them came in from the entrances. An FBI agent cut the ropes and freed me. I forced myself to run as fast as I could to reach Janet. When I caught up to her I threw myself onto her. We slammed into the wall. I tried to go for the bow but she was faster and kicked me in the face. I fell back as she went for an arrow. I grabbed a pole off the ground and threw it at her stomach. As it connected I got up and jumped at her. We went through the window only to get lucky at the fact there was another building super close. We crashed into the second building. I tried to get up again but she still had less injuries and was faster. She grabbed the bow and started beating me with it. I kicked her in the leg and tried to jump on her again but a shot fired and a bullet went into my side. Almost in the same spot the other one was. I fell over and grabbed my side as a scream escaped my mouth. Laughing filled the room. 

“Well well Will, and if it isn’t Janet. I didn’t expect to see both of you here.” The man in the suit from earlier was here. I did my best to sit up beside the window. Janet got to her feet and looked back and forth between me and the man. 

“What do you want, Steven? I’m about to kill Archer and then everything will be fine. We can go back to how things were before.” Steven only laughed as he shot Janet in the leg. She buckled and fell to the ground without so much as a wince.

“I can’t trust you guys anymore. You promised professionalism and here we are in the country’s capital while it’s burning to the ground. It should’ve been quick and it should’ve been easy. But no.” Suddenly an explosion from the other building sent all of us flying to the other part of the room. The quiver flew off Janet’s back and I managed to quickly crawl over to it and lay on it. I took out a bunch of arrows and laid still. Steven got up and looked at me and Janet. 

“Something’s not right. Women, where'd your quiver go?” At the question I turned and threw the quiver directly into his chest. He stepped back with blood dripping from his chest. He dropped his gun and started laughing again.

“Oh Will funny how you think this is enough to kill me. You’ll bleed out before me and then I’ll get taken to a hospital. This’ll look good on the papers. Not only did I kill two terrorists but I survived an arrow to the chest.” Once again he started laughing. I reached for my quiver and added an explosive bolt to my arrow. 

“I’m sorry Steven, but I’m afraid you won’t be making it out of this either.” I grabbed my bow off the floor and shot the arrow into his heart. The explosion sent me through the window where I landed in another dumpster and passed out. 

A couple years later and I was sitting in a prison cell. Because I helped bring an end to Janet and her secret army and exposed the FBI I wouldn’t be executed. I wouldn’t be allowed to see the outside world again except for the thirty minutes of yard time. Annie came to visit me once but only to tell me she couldn’t stand to see me anymore. They gave me a new knee replacement but I’d forever limp. Not that it mattered anymore I didn’t do a lot of moving around. I laid on my bed all day. As I was laying down about to drift off a guard came into my room. He ordered me against the wall for inspection. As I stood there I felt the barrel of a gun against the back of my head. 

“For Janet.” I heard the voice say before nothing.

[wiznard]

Brett Arntt                                                                                                           3469 words

Clown in the Asylum

I turned the corner and kept running as fast as I could. He was back and he was chasing me through the hospital. He tried killing me before but he failed. He didn’t die like the cops tried telling me before they threw me in here. I knew he wasn’t dead. Whatever that man was, he wasn’t  human. As I turned the corner I fell off my bed. I lay there breathing hard. Another nightmare. He is dead. The cops shot and killed him. He’s dead and I’m legally insane because of him. I got up to my feet and looked around. The same all white room that I’ve gotten accustomed to these past couple years. I plopped down on the floor beside the door. I won't be able to sleep tonight. And I have an evaluation tomorrow. They’ll figure out if I’ve gotten any better in the last year that I’ve been here. I haven’t but I’d do anything to get out of here and go home. I ended up slumping over and falling asleep. I woke up to someone shaking me. It was one of the guards. The doctor was ready to see me now. They brought me to her office, and she smiled at me.

“Ah Michael, it is so good to see you again. I hear you’ve been having nightmares but not showing any signs of being too crazy. Which is good, very good.” She started writing something in her notebook.

“Yeah um but you know everyone has nightmares it’s just human nature. I think maybe give me some meds to help me sleep and I’ll be able to go out into the real world again. Don’t you agree Dr. Addams?” I did my best to look at her and seem confident in what I was saying. She looked up at me and gave me a big smile.

“I don’t know Michael, maybe we could start with some visitation and if you can do that then we'll talk about sending you back out.” I closed my eyes and thought about it for a while. 

“Yeah that sounds like a pla…” I opened my eyes to see him standing behind Dr. Addams. I jumped backwards and started screaming. How did he get in here? Was he with the doctor? Is this how I die. The guards came in and grabbed me. They escorted me down the halls to my room. They threw me in and locked the door. The flap opened and Dr. Addams was standing there.

“Michael, when are you going to acknowledge the fact that he is dead? He’s not going to hurt you anymore. The sooner your brain accepts that the sooner you can be let out of here.” She closed the flap and left. When are they going to realize that I understand he’s dead. I know he’s dead but he’s everywhere I look. He keeps showing up out of nowhere. That night I cried myself to sleep as I do every day. When I was finally asleep I saw him. The clown. My brain refuses to even think of his name. But he walked closer and closer to me. I turned and ran but tripped over something. I looked to see what it was and saw my father’s body. I almost threw up as I did when this happened in real life. I got up and ran towards the front door. I turned the corner and saw my mom’s dead hanging body. I had to take a few steps back. I forgot he had done this. I wanted to forget he had done this. I pushed past her body and kept going until I saw my little sister’s body. She got it worse than any of us. That clown had cut her face off. I fell down in front of her and started crying as I did back then. I felt his hand on my shoulder but this time I didn’t run or look back at him. I know what he was wearing. That fat ugly clown had put my sister’s face on his own. I heard him drae his knife and bring it down when the dream ended. I woke up tied to something in a random room. It looked like a bed but it was lifted up a lot so I could look across and see the face of Dr. Addams. She didn’t look too happy to be here. 

“Michael, they said a nurse saw you having a bad dream and you pushed her to her knees and stabbed her in the shoulder with her pen. She’ll be alright but she’s suing the mental hospital since you have nothing to sue for. The hospital is looking you up in a more secure area where you won’t be allowed any human contact except for our now to be weekly visits.” She looked at me waiting for me to say something but I stared her dead in the eye.

“Michael, you need to talk to me and tell me what’s going on. You’re not the type of person to just do something like that. Why’d you stab her? It looked like you were asleep on all of the cameras. Well that and the fact that after they strapped you to the bed and wheeled you in here you were still asleep.” I kept staring her in the eyes. Because when I looked at them I saw the clown. I started shaking trying to get free. The clown was behind me. Dr. Addams was just going to let that clown kill me. Another doctor came in and stabbed a needle into my neck. I was out within seconds. I awoke inside another all white room however there was no door anywhere. I stood up and started feeling around the room but I couldn’t find one anywhere. A voice rang out over the speakers.

“Michael, this is for your own good. Maybe if your brain thinks there’s no way for the clown to come in he won’t be a threat to you.” Dr. Addams. I’d recognize her voice anywhere. I plopped down on the bed on the left side of the room and kept looking around. Yeah that clown can’t get me in here. I’ll finally be safe here. In my dream that night I was sitting in an all black room and heard a voice ring out through it. 

“Oh Michael. I can’t believe they threw you in the looney bin. They must not believe you when you say I’m still around. Oh but don’t worry Mikey. I’m still around alright and I’m coming for you. I have to finish what I started of course. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.”

I woke up in a cold sweat. I got up and started walking around when my door burst open. A group of guards grabbed me and strapped me to the gurney outside. They wheeled me out and took me to Dr. Addams office. They set me up on the vertical bed thing and strapped me in. They left us alone together. She looked at me waiting for me to say something but nothing would come out. 

“Michael I am trying to help you get better but you’re not talking to me. I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s wrong with you.” I stared at her waiting for the clown to show himself again. I knew he was in here somewhere. Probably behind the bed like last time. All the energy left Dr. Addams face as she realized I wouldn’t be saying anything again. She walked out of the room. Suddenly an alarm went off and all the lights went out. The light from the hallway illuminated the room. The door opened slowly and the clown was standing in the doorway. I tried to move but I was strapped down. The clown quickly ran to me and cut the straps off. I pushed the clown down and ran down the hallway. The alarm was blaring and its light illuminated most of the hallway. I stopped at an intersection of halls. I realized I didn’t know where to go. I was drugged when I was brought in here and almost always drugged when I was moved around. I turned to see the clown was running towards me. Faster than he was able to last time. I decided straight was the right way to go. I kept running and every time I came into a new hallway I turned a new direction. Sometimes right, sometimes left, something just straight ahead. After a while I realized I was running in a circle. I kept turning and not looking for stairs or anything. I also realized I hadn’t heard the clown's footsteps in a long time. I crept down the hallway. I heard an elevator ding from behind me. I stopped and waited to see who would come out. I was surprised to see a nurse I had never seen before. She ran up to me and grabbed my hand.

“Come one we need to get you out of here it’s not safe for anyone to be here. The cops will be here to find whoever broke in.” I ripped my hand out of hers. She stopped and looked at me with fear in her eyes.

“What do you mean whoever broke in. The clown broke in. He’s trying to kill me. What are the cops going to do? They couldn’t even kill him last time.” The nurse just grabbed my hand and took me to the elevator. I saw we were on the 20th floor. I didn’t know the hospital was that tall. Everything was going smoothly until the elevator suddenly stopped on the 17th floor. The door opened and the nurse looked confused. She grabbed my hand and started to walk down the hallway.

“Okay then I guess the elevator is out of the question. The stairs are fine.” We walked down the hall until we stopped in front of the cafeteria. My stomach rumbled at the thought of getting something to eat. 

“You hungry big guy? Well it doesn’t look like whoever broke in is still running around. At least not on this floor anyways. Come on, let's make a couple sandwiches or something.” We went towards the kitchen. We started making sandwiches when I heard footsteps. I turned to see that the nurse was gone. I crept towards the section where they kept all of the lunch meat. I pushed open the door to see the clown lift his knife and stab the nurse multiple times in the chest. The nurse’s loud screams were suddenly silenced. The clown turned and looked at me and smiled. I backed up and grabbed a knife before I ran out of the room. I ran towards the elevator and pushed the button over and over and over and over and over and over again until the elevator came to my floor. I jumped in and pushed the one. I fell to the floor panting. Then it hit me. Wait but the elevator is broken. How is it moving, and why was it on another floor? Something is going on and I am not having any of it. Suddenly the elevator stopped on the 15th floor. I got up to my feet as the doors slid open. I peered out into the hallway. Something didn’t feel right about this floor. Something evil was here. I walked out of the elevator and walked around the floor. There didn’t seem to be anything here. 

“FREEZE! PUT THE KNIFE DOWN! PUT THE KNIFE DOWN NOW!” I heard his footsteps walk up to me so I got down onto my knees and set the knife down. The cop bent over to grab the knife when he started to freak out.

“What is that on the knife? What did…” The cop was thrown off because he got thrown over my head and a big arm stabbed him a dozen times. I looked back to see the clown grinning at me. I tumbled over the body and started running away. I kept running until I fell over and threw up. I threw up until I couldn’t anymore. I stood up and started walking until I fell down again and started crying. Why was this happening again? How did he keep showing up whenever I found someone? Is he stalking me? Is he watching me right now? I got up and started walking away when I felt like I was being watched. I looked around until I saw a camera. That’s it, that's how the clown is finding me. He found the security room and has been waiting until I find someone and then he attacks. I got up and started walking again. I needed to find the stairs and get out of here. Most importantly I needed to avoid people. I found another elevator and waited for it to come to my floor. When it did I stared in horror as someone was inside of it. I stepped back and ran away. They started yelling after me and chasing me. I turned into a room and jumped into the closet. They ran into  the room after me and started looking around. They looked towards the closet and started heading towards it. Suddenly they were jerked backwards and thrown on the hospital bed. The clown took a pillow and started suffocating them. I couldn’t bring myself to move to try and save them. I could just watch in horror. When the clown was finally done he walked out of the room. I got out of the closet and walked towards the body. As I got beside it I noticed it was the first doctor I was sent to see. Dr. Leven. He quit on me because I thought I saw the clown outside my window every day. As he just learned I was right. The clown was staring at me every day and now he was here to kill me. But why wasn’t he killing me? He was killing everyone but me. I walked out of the room and started heading for the elevator again. I called it and waited. When the door opened there was another cop. 

“HEY HEY HEY GET DOWN! WHO ARE YOU?’’ The cop asked as I got to my knees and lifted my hands above my head. 

“My name is Michael and the clown has been chasing me around this entire time. I’ve seen him murder multiple people. But I think I might’ve found out how he’s been finding everyone.” The cop patted me down. He looked at the front of my hospital gown and took a couple steps back. 

“What is that on your gown there Michael?” He held his nose and took another step back.

“Oh I threw up earlier. I haven’t found any spare gowns or anything. Sorry.” The cop walked into a random room and walked out with a pair of scrubs.

“Here put these on. You smell really bad.” I got dressed and stood in silence. I looked over to see the camera face towards us. 

“That’s it. That’s how the clown is finding everyone. He’s in the security room. He’s been watching me this entire time. We need to get him.” The cop looked from the camera to me.

“I thought you wanted to get out of here? Now you want to go and confront this clown?” He looked me up and down, inspecting me further.

“Yes. He’s killed so many people today alone. We have to get him now. If not he’ll leave and continue to kill. I was told the cops killed him years ago but he’s here now and killing.” The cop looked around clearly questioning what the correct choice was. He looked at me again and his expression darkened. He went and wiped the throw up off my shirt. 

“This throw up. Why is it so red?” He asked as he wiped his fingers on the side of his pants. 

“I...I...I don’t know. Must’ve been whatever they’re feeding us here. Whatever it is, it’s very gross.” I tried not to laugh at what I said. The cop shook his head and walked to the elevator. 

“Alright when I looked at the map earlier it looked like the security room was on the twentieth floor. We should get there and try to stop him.” I followed the cop into the elevator and to the twentieth floor. When we arrived the cop drew his gun and slowly crept towards the security room. I walked on the side of the room. As we headed to the security room I looked towards the windows beside the officer. I wasn’t allowed to look outside anymore. I was tempted to leave the clown to the officer. When out of nowhere the clown ran out and pushed  the cop out of the window. I ran towards the window and looked down. I could barely see the cop’s body. I turned to see the clown standing outside of the security room with a disappointed and scared expression on his face. I took a step towards him and saw the cops gun on the floor. Unfortunately the clown saw it too. I went to grab it when the clown threw himself on me. I fell on my back and kicked the clown on the floor. I jumped on him and started punching him in the face. He started bleeding and gasping for air when I heard a gunshot. Pain sheared through my chest as I felt my lungs fill up with blood. I fell to the floor and wheezed. The clown moved himself a couple feet away.

“I’m sorry it had to be this way Michael. I really wanted to help you.” The clown fell and passed out. I turned to my back and started coughing. I coughed up blood. I soon started to laugh. I don’t know why I just  did it. Soon I couldn’t feel the pain and my eyes grew heavy. 

TWO WEEKS LATER… 

I woke up to the sound of someone snoring. I set up and saw my husband asleep on the couch. I was in a hospital. A new hospital, not the one I passed out in. My sister in law walked out of the bathroom and let out a huge gasp.

“Oh my god Janet you’re awake. We didn’t know if you ever would.” My sister in law ran up and hugged me. I sat there staring at the wall. 

“Janet now that you’re awake they’re going to want you to tell them exactly what happened that night. With Michael.” I knew they would. I just hoped I would have more time. The next morning I was given a wheelchair and wheeled to a small podium outside of the hospital. There were reporters everywhere. They all asked the same question. What was the deal with the mental patient? I cleared my chest before I could continue.

“Michael Hyland was a special patient who after years of touture caused by a man in a clown costume was left incapable of living a normal life. He was a smart man but he ended up developing one of the worst cases of schizophrenia I’ve ever seen. He thought he had seen the clown everywhere he went. He was convinced the clown was in the building and was killing everyone that night.” I stopped talking. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to finish the rest. Michael wasn’t a bad person, he was just treated unfairly. He was dealt a bad hand and lost. Maybe if another doctor had him then things would’ve turned out differently for him. I cleared my throat before I could speak again.

“However there was no clown anywhere. The clown that had tortured him, a man named Reagan Connor, was killed seven years ago right before he was brought into our care. Michael snapped and went crazy. He broke out of his restraints  and killed everyone he encountered that night. Watching the camera I didn’t know what was happening. Hearing a couple of his conversations it became apparent that he was one million percent convinced the clown was killing all of those people and not him. He attacked me because he must’ve thought I was the clown but I had a gun from the cop that he pushed out of the window. He attacked me and I was forced to shoot him. I’m just glad I passed out before he succumbed and died.” All of the reporters exploded with questions. I didn’t feel like talking anymore. I asked to be wheeled back to my room. Later that night I heard someone moving outside the room. I looked towards the doorway and saw Michael staring at me from the doorway.

[wiznard]

Brett Arntt

The Email

Anxiety pumped through my veins. Today was the day that I would hear back from the college. I enrolled for a scholarship months ago. Today I will finally get my answer. I needed this badly. My family couldn’t afford to send me to college. If I didn’t get this scholarship my life would be over. I would be stuck in this small town and forced to work at the plant. I’d be stuck in my parents basement forever. My phone went off and I ran to it. There was an email from the college. I read it and dropped my phone. I slumped onto the couch. I got turned down. They were shutting down the course I would be taking if I went. My life is over. I’ll be stuck in this town forever. My only chance out of this town is gone. My grades were mediocre and not good enough for any of the other colleges teaching the course I wanted to go in. Later that night I went over to the bridge. I stared into the water and sighed. I took a step and everything went black.

[wiznard]

Brett Arntt                                                                               6909 words

Kane

I walked through the battlefield. Looking at it you could tell a huge battle happened here. There were corpses everywhere. From the huge twenty foot tall dwarves to the ugly three foot tall elfs. I wasn’t here to look at the battlefield or even look for my friends bodies which I knew I would find here somewhere. No no I was looking for my sword. It wasn’t the biggest or the shiniest but it was mine. I made it in the forges of Hell and it was extremely powerful. I needed it because Gwendilan was here somewhere and it was my only chance to kill her. God how I just wanted to kill her and go home. I wanted to be back on the little farm far away from all of this chaos and death. But I know I couldn’t leave. There would always be evil and there would always be fighting. As I trudged past the bodies of my comrades my hopes for finding my sword dwindled. Until I saw Gwendilan standing with someone with their backs turned to me. They must have heard me because they both turned around and I saw my sword in the hooded figure's hand. I trudged toward them not knowing what I would do when I got there. Halfway to them Gwendilan vanished and me and the hooded figure were left together. We walked up together and he handed me my sword.

“Nice blade you’ve made yourself. I fully plan on taking it from you after I kill you. I hope there are no hard feelings between us of course. I just need the money. I believe that’s why you joined the war effort too, right? Money...it’s what makes this messed up world go round. How’d you go from needing money to leading any entire army, I simply must know.” 

“I found out I was good at killing things. That and they offered me more money the more I killed for them.” The hooded figure seemed disgusted by my answer but it was the only one I had. Because it was the truth after all. Everything I did I did for the money. 

“I need the money to pay off the debt my uncles racked up. The people I’m doing this for took my little cousin and they said the more I do the more they’ll put towards the debt. I know how it is. I’m the bad guy in this scenario and everything but I don’t have a choice here. I’m doing what I have to do. Surely you understand. I can’t leave them and join Gwendilan even if I wanted to. I’ve made too many friends and I can’t just leave them. It wouldn’t be right.” The hooded figure stood there for a while before he lowered his hood. His face had a huge scratch going across it. 

“Elf scratch?” I asked him. He stood there for a while. Long enough for it to be awkward. He finally straightened up and cleared his throat.

“Yeah an especially ugly one. It was a couple years ago at the battle for the willow forest. I didn’t see it until it was too late.” I nodded with him. I had my fair share of scars all over my body. Yeah I was a good fighter, but I was far from the best and I was constantly cut and beaten. The longer I stood there the more I didn’t wanna fight this guy. Maybe this was his plan. If it was, it was definitely working. 

“I don’t wanna fight anymore. And I don’t mean like I don’t wanna fight anymore today. I mean in general I don’t wanna fight. I’m just so damn tired and all of this fighting is pointless. Maybe if I didn’t have to fight for the bad guys anymore it’d be easier but I have my cousin to worry about and she needs me. I hope you understand. If not, may you forgive me in the afterlife.” We both raised our swords and swung at the same time. Our blades collided and there were bright  sparks. I swung towards his arm to try and end the fight quickly and he kicked me square in the chest. I fell to the floor holding my chest trying to collect my breath when he swung his sword down. I barely moved out of the way as he struck the ground. I got to my feet as he swung again. I dodged and cut him on the side. He stepped back holding his side. This guy was good. If I wanted to win I would need to end it quickly. He must’ve known this too because he went on the defense. Dodging and parrying everything I threw at him. He went to kick me again but I was ready. I dodged to the left and stabbed my sword through his leg. He dropped his sword and fell to the ground. I stood over him breathing hard. I raised my sword above my head and started to bring it down. When once again he kicked me square in the chest. I fell to the ground and this time I couldn’t catch my breath. He got to his feet and twirled his sword. Before he brought the hilt down on my head. 

 I don’t know how long I was out. All I know is I was out for a while. I sat up but everything hurt. It seemed like all of the damage my body took from the battle had finally caught up to me, and it was winning. I looked around trying to figure where I was. It was a decent sized room. But there was nothing giving away my location. I was on a comfortable bed surrounded by truly ugly paintings. I noticed the wooden door to my left and tried to get out of bed to go and see what was on the outside through the hole in it. As soon as I got out of bed my body gave up and I feel to the floor. I let out a louder scream than I intended for. Suddenly some girl walked into the room followed by a couple guards. She had some really bright clothes in her hands.

“It’s nice to see that you’re finally awake. When I heard that Barwick was tasked with bringing you in I figured it wouldn’t be pleasant for you. But you are in worse shape than I thought. Talius  must not have healed your wounds like she was instructed.” She chuckled to herself. 

“Put these on then I will bring you to Gwendilan. She wishes to speak to you about your cousin.” She dropped the clothes and then walked out of the room. I stood staring at the clothes she had brought me. It was a bright yellow shirt with bright red breeches. The most confusing part was that I knew they didn’t wear bright clothes. It wasn’t their style. So why did they expect me to wear bright clothes? I got dressed and waited until they came to get me. Which took a little while. 

“Well you look great in yellow and red.” The girl said as she opened the door. She didn’t wait for me to say anything. I quickly ran out to follow her. As I followed her I realized we were in the dungeon of what seemed to be a huge castle. As I followed her I noticed the other prisoners were in rooms with caged bars unlike the private room I was in. Also they were wearing yellow shirts and red breeches. Great, they brought me here to try and persuade me to join them but they made me wear the outfits of their prisoners. Probably to let me know that’s all they think of me. Smart.

“Gwendilan is very excited to meet you. I’m not sure why though. Seeing as you’ve almost killed her before. Remember that? Back at that waterfall right after you made that cursed sword. You fought and stabbed her in the side. She never forgot. The scar never healed.” This made my throat tight. Not because I felt bad but I feel like I finally understood why I was brought to the castle  instead of being killed on that battlefield. They are going to execute publicly. I made her look weak now she’s gonna show everyone just how strong she is. I had to play dirty to just get that little cut in. However it looks like she’s exaggerating to everyone about just how strong I am. But why?To make herself look better when she kills me? The girl looked back at me and seemed to read my mind.

“Oh no don’t worry she isn’t going to kill you or anything. She has far worse plans for you I’m sure of it.” She laughed at this but I wasn’t. I couldn’t believe this would be how it ended. I counted on it yes but I had hoped it would with me killing Gwenilan first and my cousin being freed. But no it wouldn’t happen like that at all. I wouldn’t get to die with the fact that my cousin was freed. Only that once again I failed. Maybe they’d let her go if I can injure Gwendilan or something before the worse punishment happens. We arrived at a huge red door. 

“Welp in you go now. Hopefully I’ll see you again. You’re a great talking buddy.” And just like that the girl was gone and I was left standing in front of the door. I could try to run but I’m at the end of the hallway and I’d die before I made it to the frog door. Not that I knew where that was. The door suddenly swung open and I was standing in front of Gwendilan. She had a bright smile on her face and seemed very happy to see me.

“Ah it isn't my rival. Eh uh darn I never did learn your name did I? What is your name?” She asked me. 

“Kane.” I managed to get out. I wasn’t afraid of her, no it wasn’t that. We had fought before but at this time she didn’t seem threatening in fact no one here did. They all seemed to like each other. Which is more than I could say for the troops back where I’m from. She studied me before she turned and walked back into the room. I followed but at more of a distance. Everything in the room was bright and cheerful. I knew I was the bad guy here and I was in the wrong. But I never thought about it. Standing here I really felt like the bad guy, and she knew it. The way she looked back at me made me feel like she was just like the girl from earlier and was somehow reading my mind. 

“Yes Kane, I can read minds. I am an angel after all. I am a very powerful being with tons of power and magic. No, I don't blame you for everything that happened. I  just wish we could’ve come together under better standings. You are a great warrior and could change the tide in our war against your leader Azazel.” She looked at me hoping for me to say something. But I didn't. I tried keeping my mind blank but my thoughts kept going back to my cousin. Maybe she could help me save my cousin. Or make Azazel forget the debt so my cousin could be freed. 

“I can make people forget stuff but not Azazel. He is a different kind of threat altogether. He is just as powerful as me. He however is no angel. He is a demon. One of the Princes of Hell. A very powerful being. He wants to unlock the barrier and let his demons destroy the planet. But he can’t. Not with me here. I am his polar opposite. He is equal for always and eternity. He can’t open the gates of hell and I can’t unleash the forces of Heaven. Not until he’s killed by a weapon made from hell itself. Know anyone with such a dangerous and powerful weapon? A sword perhaps.” I finally understood why they wanted me here. They needed my sword. Gwendilan can fight him and they’d be at a stalemate. They need me to be there to be that little extra power to help beat him. 

“I’ll only help if you promise that you’ll do everything in your power to save my little cousin.” I said forcing myself to look her in the eyes. She smiled and nodded at me. 

“Good. We must leave now then. We have no time to waste and must begin the march to Azazel’s castle before it’s too late. He might not know you have you yet.” She said as she ran towards the door. Great, I'm going to war with a Prince of Hell. What could go wrong? 

7 months later…

I dropped to my feet exhausted from the fight that just occurred. A full scale battle on top of a mountain. The humans looked terrible while the elves, the dwarves, the cyclops, and the giant wolves looked unphased. Oh how I wished I could be anyone of them. None of them looked affected by this weather or lack of oxygen. I looked up and saw Zaranda was headed my way. She looked so different from the girl who brought me my clothes the first time we met. She wore armor and always had a bow. From what I’ve been told she’s the best shot on the planet. She never missed. She’s the type of person you wanted protecting your back. 

“Gwendilan wants to talk to you. Something about a secret mission you get to go on.” I got up and started for Gwendilan’s tent. When I arrived she looked up but she didn’t have her typical smile on her face. 

“Kane I just got word that Azazel is moving his prisoners towards the dark forest. Now they won’t have much protection. The dark forest is very dangerous. At least what’s in the forest.” She said as I sat down.

“Well what’s in the forest that you’re so worried about? A couple bears or something?” I said with a smile. I’ve killed so many creatures and people in my life it didn’t seem to phase me anymore.

“A portal to Hell. It appears Azazel wants to get the prisoners out of the way. He believes if your cousin is out of the picture you too will leave. Which is precisely what is going to happen. I want you and Zaranda to go and get the prisoners back. I know of a powerful wizard amongst their company who could get us close to Azazel and end this war.’" Me and Zaranda looked at each other. We know it wouldn’t be that easy but Gwendilan is positive we could do this alone. Which I knew would be good enough for Zaranda seeing as she loved to please Gwendilan but I wasn’t Zaranda and I didn’t see this working. However my cousin is there and I’m not letting her be brought to Hell. We nodded to Gwendilan and were off. 

Our things were already packed because he planned on marching out in the morning anyways. I stood waiting for Zaranda. It felt like I was there for an hour at least. When finally I saw her come from her tent I noticed she wasn’t alone. She was talking to a guy that I have never seen around here before. He had the appearance of a real soldier. Not a mercenary like me. He was tall, with a stocky build, and had short black hair. Very different from me. I was of medium height, I was pretty muscular but I had nothing on this guy, and my hair was brown and always messy. They stood outside the tent and talked for a bit before she walked away. The guy seemed to notice me and waved over in my direction. I tried my best to look tough as I waved back. Zaranda walked past me and kept going. 

“Hey hey, who uh who was that? He like your lover or something. He definitely looks great. Like someone any girl would want to be with.” I chuckled as I as spoked. She finally stopped and glared at me. I got the feeling I said something wrong. Finally after staring for a while she spoke up. 

“If you must know, he is my little brother. I was informing him of our mission. And that I will miss you terribly. But he will continue to grow and be a great man without me to be there and guide him.” As she finished she started walking away.

“Woah woah woah. You talk like you don’t expect us to come back. Everything will be fine. Why would Gwendilan pick us if she thought we couldn’t do it.” I asked. Zaranda once again stopped and looked over at me clearly upset. And it was at this moment that I truly noticed how she looked. Her beautiful blonde hair was cut short just like her brother. She wore it longer but an enemy used it against here and swung her around so she cut it. She was someone shorter than I was, which was hard. And probably better built than I was. She had a cut just below her right eye. That started from the far side of her eye and went to her nose. I know it was a weird thing to notice at a time like this but we had never spent any time together since the castle. I almost forgot about the mission ahead of us.

“How daft are you? You truly think Azazel is just going to leave his prisoners virtually unguarded. Especially since that stupid cousin you always talk about is there. No. Not only that but they’re literally going to a portal to Hell. HELL!!! You know the place where the worst creatures imaginable are. We most likely aren’t coming back.” She started tearing up when she finished. 

“We have to. I gotta save my cousin. She’s all I care about.” She cut me off from anything else I could say.

“What’s so special about your cousin Kane? How is she so different from the millions of other people on this planet?” She stared at me waiting for an answer but I wasn’t having it. I started to walk down the mountain when she grabbed my arm. 

“Tell me Kane. Why? Why is your cousin so important? Is she magic or something?” I turned and looked Zaranda dead in the eyes.

“Yes. And she’s all that I have left. So if you don’t want to come then don’t stay. I don’t care.” I once again started my way down the mountain. I  didn’t hear any other footsteps so I figured I was alone. It was until I made it down and started out towards the forest when I heard her.

“So your cousin is magic? How so? What can she do? And what do you mean she’s all you have left? Do you not have anymore family? What happened to them?” I stopped in my tracks. I sighed and stood there for a while before I could get myself to say anything.

“The reason Azazel was so persistent on getting the debt back from my uncle wasn’t just because of gambling but because my uncle had information on another powerful weapon that could kill an angel or demon. He thought if he killed everyone my uncle loved and kidnapped my cousin for “debt purposes” then he would crack and confess to everything. It didn’t work like he wanted. My uncle did crack and he did give information just not to Azazel. No, he told me. So that way Azazel would let me live. The thing is he knew I wouldn’t reveal where the weapon was to him so he gave me another option to get my cousin back. Kill Gwendilan and me and my cousin would get to live untouched when the demons invaded. So I took him up on the offer. I mean I had no choice. He wouldn’t believe me when I told him the weapon wasn’t an object but a person. That and I couldn’t tell the person was the one he had locked up.” I turned around to look at Zaranda and she looked super confused. 

“Wait so let me get their straight. Your little cousin is the weapon capable of killing angels and demons. I thought only angels and demons could kill each other. Unless you had one of their weapons. Like your sword.” She held her hand out to stop me from answering. She started walking around in a circle. Finally she shrugged and looked towards me waiting for me to answer.

“My uncle wasn’t the awful person that he was near the end of his life. He was actually an amazing and caring person who tried to help everyone. He was a soldier for the first part of his life. He caught the eye of an amazing woman.  She was the nicest and sweetest woman you have ever met. She was by far nicer than Gwendilan. Her and my uncle had my cousin after a few years and she disappeared shortly after. My uncle took to means of any kind to distract him from the loss of her. No one knew where she came from or where she went after but my uncle would later go on to tell me she was an angel. So my cousin is half angel. Which would allow her to kill both Azazel and Gwendilan. So I need to find her and get her away from Azazel. Gwendilan promised me she’d help me anyway she could and now she threw the two of us out to do it ourselves.” I looked in the direction of the woods and once again set off when Zaranda stopped me again.

“Wait wait wait. Does Gwendilan not know about your cousin? If so she would’ve made getting her our top priority. We’re not that far we can still tell her.” She started heading up the mountain. I grabbed her arm and threw her back down.

“NO! Gwendilan will see her and use her as a weapon. Not as a person. Do you know what it took to not let Gwendilan scour my mind to find out? I had to resort to darker magic to keep my mind shut to her. That takes a toll on the human body. I can’t let Gwendilan know about her.” 

“Well you told me about her. What if Gwendilan goes through my head and finds out?” I saw something in Zaranda’s eyes that I didn’t know was possible. Fear. Here’s the thing about Gwendilan goes through your head, while it’s not terribly painful it does feel very weird. It becomes obvious very quickly that you’re not alone in your head. The worst part is not being able to do anything once she’s in there. She can stay as long as she wants and do whatever she wants while she’s in. I pulled Zaranda in for a hug. There must be something that she doesn’t want Gwendilan to see.

“Don’t worry about Gwendilan going through your head. I'll figure something out so you don’t have to worry about it. I promise.” I said as Zaranda’s breathing seemed to slow down to normal. I let go of her and we finally headed out towards the woods. The further we got into the woods the darker it felt. The sun had been coming over the tree line when we went which means the forest should be bright and welcoming as the forest was when I was younger. Now though it feels like it wanted to kill me. Which it probably wanted to. There was a portal to Hell here. There could be a ton of terrible creatures behind every tree. The first day was very uneventful. Nothing tried to attack us but I felt like I was being watched. I couldn’t see anything no matter where I looked. As the sun started to set I proposed the idea to set camp. Zaranda fell asleep instantly. I didn’t mind keeping a lookout. The feeling of being watched didn’t go away but it intensified. As if I was now being watched by a million things. Suddenly an old man appeared beside the campfire across from Zaranda. 

“What a lovely woman you’ve got traveling with you Kane. Gwendilan shouldn’t have sent her with you. These woods are cursed you see. Thousands of people can come in but only two can ever leave at a time. And you’re trying to get your cousins and the other prisoners. So if you do manage to get your cousin, who will be the second person?” The old man said as he stood up and stretched. He then turned towards me waiting for my response.

“All three of us will. I don’t care If I gotta burn down the whole forest just to get out. We all are leaving this forest alive.” I unsheath my sword and faced him. He sat back down laughing.

“There’s no need for violence. If I wanted to kill you I would’ve. No, fortunately you don’t get such an easy death. Here take this whistle. When you finally get to your cousin, blow it. It’ll call a friend of mine to come and get her and another person of your choosing. Or you can  just toss it and try to escape on your own.” He tossed me the whistle and as soon as I caught it I looked up and noticed he was gone. I chuckled to myself and looked over the whistle. It was cold in my hand. I debated on keeping but figured it would be rude to just toss it and leave. Whatever that old man was, he seemed very powerful and genuine. What did he mean though when he said my death wouldn’t be an easy one. Am I not going to make it out of here? This entire time I was worried about my cousin. I didn't think of myself. I looked over at Zaranda. I knew what had to be done. I need to do whatever it takes to  save my cousin and make sure Zaranda makes it home. Suddenly there was rustling in the bushes. I jumped to my feet and unsheathed my sword. I watched as a creature the size of a bear came out of nowhere. It smelled terrible and looked like it was rotting. Oh gross it’s a zombie bear of some kind. It got low like it was going to pounce and without warning it did. I swung my sword just in time to cut its head into two parts. It fell down beside me and clamored to its feet. Then it did what I was worried about. It noticed Zaranda. I had to do something to keep its attention on me. I swung at it again and this time took its head completely off. I thought I had won when it swiped its huge paws at me and sent me flying. I let out a scream as I slammed into a tree. This fortunately woke up Zaranda. She was up shooting arrows within seconds. The bear jumped at her and its paw landed in the fire and it jumped back. Fire that’s it that’s its weakness. I jumped up and ran towards the fire.  I grabbed my sword and ran towards the fire. The bear sensed my presence and swung at me again. Like earlier it hit me and sent me flying. This time I broke the tree on impact. I tried my best to get up. I grabbed my sword. Fire I just need to put my sword in the fire and then I can beat the zombie bear. Suddenly voices in my head started chanting the word fire. Suddenly my sword erupted into flames. I almost dropped it but I wasn able to hold on. The sword felt lighter in my hands. It felt right. I ran up towards what remained of the bear and swung down on it. The fire from my blade seemed to melt the bear instantly. Within seconds the bear's melted skin and bones were on the floor. I felt like gagging purley from the smell. 

“Ok welp I’m not going to be able to get anymore sleep and you look wide awake yourself too. So let’s go. Gotta find all the prisoners before it’s too late.” Zaranda said as she started off deeper into the forest. We walked all night and half of the next day before we found a sign on the prisoners.

“Footprints and quite a lot of them. But they’re not all human. Looks like dwarf prints, some elf, and huge paw prints. Different kinds of paw prints. Looks like Gwendilan was wrong. The prisoners are being guarded very well. Might be hard for us to fight them fairly. Might have to get dirty. But first we’ll need to catch up to them. They look relatively fresh and they have a huge party with them. So we can move faster but they might not be stopping for rest. Something we’ll need to do.” Zaranda looked to me for my thoughts on the matter but all I could do was nod my head to show I agreed. I didn’t like it but we did need sleep. 

“Alright but we should keep going and try to close the gap between us as close as possible before night time comes.” I started following the trail and Zaranda followed. By night we had covered a lot of ground and I was ready to collapse. I hadn’t gotten any sleep since before the battle on the mountain and I was running on empty. Zaranda seemed to notice because she stopped me from going any further.

“Come on Kane, you need to get some sleep. You won’t be able to do any fighting if we catch up with them soon. I can watch tonight.” I tried to argue but my eyes were too heavy and I dropped beside a tree and was out in seconds. I was prepared for the dreamless nights I was used to but I wouldn’t receive that luxury tonight. In my dream I was in a dark room with barely any light. Then I heard the familiar laugh. The old man had come back to visit.

“Kane my boy. I didn’t think I would get the pleasure to see you again. I was afraid I’d never get to see how your journey goes. I’m a very busy man with lots of souls to collect. Gotta get them on time or natural order is messed up. I should be more mad at you. I’ve had to collect a lot of souls because of you and I suspect tomorrow I’ll collect a lot more because of you.” The old man didn’t laugh this time in fact he seemed genuinely sad about this. 

“What do you mean you collect souls? Who are you, the grim reaper or something?” I let out a little chuckle and the old man still stood stone faced. 

“Yes Kane. I am what you would call the grim reaper. I was a warrior like you. And like you I was one of the best. I worked for both an angel and a demon as an errand boy. When I died God himself offered me a job. Said souls keep getting lost and he needed someone to guide. I thought it would be easy. However I have to see so many innocent people die. I’m tired of this job. I’ve enjoyed watching you and helping you prepare for your mission. If only I could do that instead of collecting souls. Maybe I would be happier.” The old man let out a sigh and turned around.

“I’m not supposed to do this but Azazel’s minions just found and kidnapped Zaranda. They were about to find you and she distracted them and drew them away. They are going to kill her. Azazel is going to kill her. He’s with the prisoners. This could be your chance to save them all. You just need to follow them to the portal and do whatever it takes to push Azazel down the portal. The second he enters Hell the Kingdom of Heaven will unleash an army of angels to clean up his mess and he won’t be able to come back. Do with this what you will and remember the whistle. Goodbye Kane I hope you can defeat Azazel and save your cousin. I’m rooting for you.” As soon as the old man disappeared I sat up. I got up and Looked until I could find the trail and I ran as fast as I could. Eventually I found them. I found Azazel. He was in his human form leading the march. This was worse than I thought. I could kill the minions but to actually push Azazel back into Hell. I kept looking and saw her. My little cousin. It had been years since I saw her. She had gotten big yet she was so skinny. I followed close behind them until suddenly the world got cold and dark. I ran ahead while keeping to the trees and arrived at the portal first. It was a hole in the ground but when you looked in it was hell fire. I reached into my bag and pulled out some food I hadn’t eaten yet. I set it down a little bit ahead of the portal and climbed up a tree. I watched the army arrive at the portal. Azazel stopped at the apple and picked it up. He looked everywhere. He must be trying to look for me and read my mind but he couldn’t because it was blocked. Out of nowhere an axe cut the tree I was on in half. I fell and the tree landed on me. All I could think of was the pain I was in. When my head was in shearing pain. I had let my guard down and he was in. He was going through all of my memories individually looking for something. He was looking for the weapon. I tried closing my mind from him when he got closer and started to push him back. But he had years of practice and quickly shut down the defenses I had quickly put up. I laid there and he found the conversation with my uncle. He laughed and turned around to face the prisoners. 

“Ah so little girl you are the weapon I’ve been looking for. Maybe you could help me in the way your cousin never could. You could help me kill my enemy. You could help unleash Hell onto this world. All you have to do is put your cousin out of his misery. His body isn’t looking too good because of that tree, and his mind is a terrible mess now. Also there’s too much dark magic resting in his body. He’s useless now. Kill him and join me. We could be very powerful together.” The elfs unchained my cousin and brought her towards me. The dwarves moved the tree off of me and put me on my knees directly in front of my cousin. I looked in my cousin’s eyes to try and see what she was thinking and I didn’t like what  I saw. Her eyes were filled with anger. She held her hand out and Azazel handed her his knife.

“Sara no you, you don’t have to do this. I came to save you. I still can save you. I...I...I…” She lunged and stabbed me in the stomach. I fell down gasping for air. She must’ve got me in one of the lungs. The dwarfs set me up again and I screamed. I watched Sara lick the knife and grin. I couldn’t believe this. Just like that she turned. No, not just like that. Years of being imprisoned lead to this. I was about to scream out again when an arrow shot out of nowhere from the forest hitting one of the dwarves in the face killing it. Azazel and Sara turned around to see all of the prisoners had freed themselves and killed the rest of the army. The other dwarf let go of me and ran away. I drew my sword and swung at Azazel. I managed to get a good cut on his side. Before he could react. Sara turned and lunged at me and stabbed me in the side too. Without thinking I kicked her and the chest and she went flying. I pulled the knife out of my side and faced Azazel who had finally left his daze. 

“So Kane this is it huh? This is to be the final fight? You versus me. How it was always going to be. I will enjoy killing you.” 

“Unfortunately you won’t get the chance.” He swung at me and I deflected his attack. I cut him in the middle of his arm and went for his neck. He punched me in the stomach where Sara cut me and I coughed up blood. He did it again. He did it again and again and again. Laughing harder each time he did it. I fell on the floor with blood covering my mouth and tears in my eyes. He stood over me and grabbed my sword off the ground. His finger ran across the blade and the voices from earlier came back. Screaming...FIRE...FIRE..FIRE...FIRE...FIRE...FIRE… and then my sword erupted in flames. It burnt his hand and he fell back screaming. I grabbed my sword and swung down on him. He barely managed to dodge but he didn’t see me next attack. I stabbed him in the back. He lay there screaming as I did it over and over and over again. Until he stopped screaming. I grabbed his body and threw him into the portal. Suddenly a sharp pain went into my side. I turned and saw Sara. I swung at her and she disappeared. Her laugh filled the air. I saw Zaranda run towards me. There was fighting. I didn’t notice the enemy troops come up and start fighting. I looked back at the portal and saw something that scared me. Azazel’s started crawling out. I looked back to see Zaranda running towards me. She had a smile as she must’ve been happy to see me. I smiled back and stabbed my sword in the ground. I turned towards the portal and threw myself in. Grabbing Azazel and bringing him with me into Hell. We landed on a pile of bones, and he let out a howl. Azazel disappeared into smoke and I was left dying alone in a random corner of hell. 

“This isn’t the death I had hoped for you Kane. I knew I would be getting your soul but I had hoped you would save your cousin and died of old age after marrying Zaranda. Instead your cousin betrayed you and you’re bleeding out after falling through a portal to hell. Come here my boy, give me your hand. Let’s get your soul out of here.” I grabbed his hand and suddenly I was in a bright castle. There were winged people everywhere. Grabbing weapons and armor. 

“They must be preparing to go and clean up Earth. I guess God wants you to help before you get your eternal rest. So go suit up. Tell me all about it when you’re back.” I went to put some armor on when I noticed my wings. They were bigger than Gwendilan’s I guess I was a better person than her. Or it was because of my sacrifice at the end. Once I was ready a giant portal opened in the cloud and we flew down. Earth looked terrible flying towards it. There was a battle going on. I recognized the different sides in seconds and swooped down to take out the enemies. I was cutting humans and creatures with ease. My new sword which looked like my old sword erupted into blue flames. After I killed hundreds of enemies I saw her...Sara. I flew towards her and stabbed her through the chest. She looked surprised and betrayed. I did my best to look stone faced. She was the enemy, this is just how things were. I watched her disintegrate to nothing. I felt a tear go down my face. If only I was faster or told Gwendilan the truth than things would’ve played out differently for Sara. I realized the angels were returning to the portal in the clouds. As I sheath my sword and started to follow I saw Zaranda. She had my old sword. There were tears going down her face as she saw. I went up to her and patted her on the shoulders. 

“The war is finally over. Go out and live your life the way you want it. Live your life for me.” At this I flew towards Heaven and smiled for the first time in a while. It was over. Everyone on Earth could live happily and I could finally get some rest.

[wiznard]

Brett Arntt

Deal gone wrong

It was night throughout the city. The perfect time for a heist. This wasn’t our first time. But it would be our last. The heist was going perfectly until Tim set off the alarm. The guards were on us in seconds. We barely made it out and were running from roof to roof when the helicopters were us. They started firing at us. Joe was shot and killed in seconds. The rest of us jumped through an open window and were jumping from building to building. The cops seemed to know about this because they were ready for us. Alan was grabbed and beaten to death while the rest of us ran on. 

We jumped out through the streets and were running through alleyways. The cops drove their cars through and chased on. Tina was run over and caused the cop car to swerve and block up the alleyway. There were four of us left from the original seven. At this point we were aware that the cops being everywhere we went was no accident. They were waiting for us and could be anywhere. We just didn’t know who to put the blame on. We arrived at our getaway copter when Cinna opened the door and the whole thing exploded. 

It was down to three. Me, Tim, and Barbra. We stood there looking at each other. We knew one of us was a rat but we didn’t know who. My money was on Tim seeing as he set off the alarm. He had never done that before on a heist. It was too unlike him. We each took a couple steps back and ran away in different directions. I heard cop cars and turned to see them follow Barbra and Tim. I kept running. I couldn’t let them catch me. This was part of the agreement after all. I put together a team of the worst and I turn them in at the end. The only problem was that none of this was part of the plan. There was another rat on them that I didn’t know about. Maybe they were given the same deal but I wasn’t going to jail.

[wiznard]

Brett Arntt                                                                              529 words

The truth of Atlantis

I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The lost city in all of its glory. Atlantis was much more beautiful than we thought it would be. The marble aches on the entrance to the city looked like they were made yesterday and not thousands of years ago. The buildings were some of the most beautiful that I’ ve ever seen. But the best of all was the castle that rested in the middle of  the underwater city. It was bigger than any castle still on the surface. It looked to be made of pure gold. With diamonds and rubies used as accents. We piloted the submarine into the main room of the castle when suddenly everything changed. I was now standing in the main room of the castle but there was no water. The sun shone brightly. I ran back outside and to my amazement Atlantis was out of the water. 

The city started to shake violently. The townspeople started freaking out and running for their lives. A huge shadow swallowed the city and I saw a huge tentacled monster grab hold of the city. It started pulling the city down into the water with all of its might. I couldn’t believe my eyes. For years scientists have studied trying to figure out what could’ve brought any entire city under the water. That’s what I was doing. Looking for signs of an earthquake or something. But no it wasn’t an earthquake that brought the mighty city down. No, it was something far more sinister. Another legend entirely then the one I was here for her. No one would believe me when I told them. The city of Atlantis was destroyed by the Kraken. 

I ran back towards the castle when I suddenly appeared back in the sub. I went back to the main ship to tell everyone what I saw and of course no one believed me. I knew they wouldn't, I mean how could they. I was talking about a giant squid creature that dragged an entire city under the water. I had to stay strong. Once I arrived on land I went to everyone I could on this subject. I needed to get a team together so I could prove the kraken was real. I just needed to find people who believed me. But no one ever did. I was to be alone on this voyage of mine. 

I got my ship ready and set out. I didn’t know where I was going but I felt I would know when I was there. I would go years looking for any proof of the Krakens' existence. I couldn’t find it anywhere. Not anywhere above or below the sea. How could such a giant creature just disappear. One day I decided to check the Mariana Trench. I took my submarine down. Suddenly I realized I passed the point where it was thought to have ended. I entered a huge cave and then I saw it...the Kraken. It looked up and let out a terrible roar and swam out of the cave. It had been living in peace and I disturbed it. I unleashed the Kraken.

[wiznard]

Brett Arntt                                                                                                       2892 words

The truth revealed 

By Brett Arntt

We all know the feeling of absolute dread. The fear that nothing you do will ever be enough trust me I do. There’s nothing fun about this feeling. I wish there was something I could do to rid myself of this feeling indefinitely. But alas there isn’t…right? Wrong, we are in the future my friend anything and everything is possible these days. Don’t want to look seventy even though you are? Done thanks to the new pills they made. Scientists have found a way to fix quite literally any problem you could have. Well, except dying. Unfortunately they haven’t found the cure to dying yet. Pfft cure that makes it seem like dying is a bad thing. I guess to some it is but not to me. To me and quite frankly anyone with a brain dying is the reward for a long life well lived, or to others a punishment for those who’ve done terrible things. Sure you can make yourself taller, make yourself stronger, or even make yourself look twenty-three forever. Live your life the way you want to. Live  your life, don't try to extend it. A lot of bad things can happen if people live forever. People can get bored and restless and do terrible things. Trust me I’d know. How do I know, you ask? Well because I was there in 2456 when the lady got restless from 200 years of living and started an all out war between the entire planet. I had to help clean up the mess she made and trust me it was a mess alright. 

My day started out pretty terrible but that’s how most of my days start out so I didn’t really care. You see even though it's the future, life can still be pretty unfair when you don’t have money. That’s one thing I didn’t even have. I didn’t even have any family. As soon as I hit eighteen my parents disappeared. They wanted to go out and live their best life. Make lots of money and do everything they want. Unfortunately for me their perfect life didn’t involve me. Not that I care...anymore at least. Sure when they left I was depressed but that was like six years ago. I’m twenty-four now. I've been on my own for quite some time now and I’m doing fine. I don’t need anyone. I was getting ready for work when I heard a huge thud come from the apartment above me. Then I watched the ceiling crash and I saw a huge black object fall through my floor and then nothing. I crept towards the hole in my floor when I heard ticking but it wasn’t your normal tick this one sounded digital. I looked over and I saw it...a bomb. It had the Chinese flag plastered on the side. I started for the other side of my apartment when it blew up. I was in the other room and the impact of the bomb sent me flying through the wall. Before I knew it I was laying on someone’s parked car. I rolled off and forced myself to stand up and take a couple steps back. The building looked terrible, that’s when I noticed the other planes coming in. I watched as they all dropped bombs on the other buildings in the neighborhood. They all exploded one by one until they had all gone off. The neighborhood was utterly destroyed. I would later go on to learn that roughly one hundred people. More than half were children

I didn’t end up going to the hospital that night. Sure I had multiple cuts and I looked awful. I felt like I didn’t have it as bad as a lot of the others did? I went to my rich friend's house in the middle of town. You see our town was built in a circle, all of the rich people’s houses were in the middle surrounded by all the poor people’s houses. I guess to make their houses look better or something I didn’t know or care honestly. On the news I learned that my neighborhood wasn’t the only one to get bombed but all of the poor neighborhoods were. In fact we weren’t the only city either. A ton of places got bombed and it was bad. However in no city were the rich neighborhoods hit. If it weren’t for the fact that multiple people saw the Chinese flag on the bombs they would’ve suspected our government was trying to kill us. This wouldn’t have been the first time. It happened in San Francisco. The government bombed the poor neighborhoods to make room to build new houses for the rich. There’s only one place safe for the poor people and that’s Jersey. For whatever reason the government wants nothing to do with that place. That’s where I was going to go next. I had a job opportunity up there for a while but I had just paid the lease on my apartment so I put it off. Now that I had no apartment it was the perfect time. However, a part of me knew that the government wouldn’t take this bombing sitting down. They would fight back. And unfortunately for me I enlisted in case anything wrong happened and they needed me. I knew my time was about to come.

The surprising thing was nothing happened for a while. I moved to Jersey, got the job, got a house, and got married. I had just turned thirty when the government decided they finally wanted to get their payback. I however didn’t get enlisted. They didn’t think I was good enough for whatever reason. Maybe because I didn’t get the robotic upgrades they wanted everyone to get before joining. Whatever the case was, I didn't get called to serve. Looking back on it now I wish I was. Probably would’ve been easier and I wouldn’t have to lie to everybody about what really happened. And maybe I wouldn’t be writing this filled with the dread I’m filled with today. Plus my Liv would be with me and I wouldn’t be so alone. 

My job at the time was security detail for this scientist base underneath Jersey. I didn’t know that when I agreed to the job. All I was told was that I would get paid good money and a place to live. That was also how I meant Olive or as she likes to go by Liv. We met on my first day there and started dating a week later. She was one of the scientists working there under the head lady named Monica Harris. God how writing this name makes me boil. This lady gave me a job and introduced me to Liv, showed me happiness and made me feel important. But she was the reason for my apartment getting destroyed. She was the reason all of Jersey would later get separated from the rest of the US, she was the reason an entire continent got nuked to all hell, she was the reason for the great divide of Earth’s country, most importantly she was the reason my Liv died that day all of those years ago. I remember that day very vividly, it’s all that I can think about anymore. The day that peace officially died. 

It was four in the morning, an hour before me and Liv started our shift, our last day before we would both get transferred to Alaska. We were both super excited because while we had only been in Jersey for six or so years we both hated it here and wanted out. Alaska was still a very barren place with not many people living there. Liv would run experiments on the new species that were popping up and I would protect her from anything dangerous. When we got to work the environment felt off. I couldn’t put my finger on it then but now I can. It was filled with hostility. There was something brewing in the bottom part of the lab and I would uncover it shortly after arriving. I was ordered to guard Harris for my last day. You see no one wanted to guard Harris there was an assaination attempt on her daily, but not a lot of people cared. We get paid more if we save a scientist and since Harris is the one in charge you get paid a lot more. And yeah between me and Liv we make quite a bit of money it’s nice to have more. You see, Liv wanted a kid and I wanted one too, but I wasn’t crossing my fingers or anything because I was thirty I would be in my forties when the kid got to high school I would be super old. I mean yeah I could pay money to look younger but I wasn’t going to. When I got to Harris’ room I gave a knock to let her know I was there. When she came out she looked startled to see me. Which was new because I had never seen her scared. Unless she was regularly scared. I wouldn’t know she never wanted me to guard her probably because I didn’t have the robotic upgrades the other guards had. She mumbled something about not wanting me to guard her since the explosions. That’s when something clicked inside me. How would she have known I was in the explosions? No one here knew that. Not even Liv and I tell her everything. 

After five hours of taking her place to place I started noticing something. She kept checking her phone, muttering something about the president not responding. I didn’t think this place had a president since it was government run. That’s when it clicked. She was talking about the president of the US. I didn’t know she was that important. I followed her into a conference room filled with strange men. Now this wasn’t your normal conference room, no this was as big as the ones they used in the sumits. As I looked at their nametags I noticed these weren’t regular people, no no they were the other world leaders. But they did everything via hologram; it was way safer. When I closed the door it locked. I pulled on it for a second when Harris slapt me hand and held a finger to her lips with a smile. That made me feel like I needed protection from her. She walked to a podium and everyone sat down. She started talking and what she would go on to say would shake my core for years to come. 

“Welcome one and all to your last day on Earth. Now I know you’re all thinking that I look very familiar and that’s because you’ve seen me and known me on a personal level. My real name is Monica Harris but I’m sure you know me by something else. Some fake name that I’ve given you so I could gain all your secrets to plan this. Now before I continue I feel like I should explain this to all of you. In 2256 with the help of some friends we created immortality but there were side effects. Now the person with the immortality could die but it would take a huge amount of nuclear radiation to kill them but getting the amount required is almost impossible. Now I accepted the immorality immediately I thought it was what I wanted. Now standing here exactly two hundred years later I can finally say death is right around the corner. I just needed all of your nukes to do it. I just needed access to all of your nukes and somewhere to unleash them. So I started a war between the US and China and roped everyone else into it. I want to destroy this lab too so I created a machine on the outside around it to teleport it to a place of my choosing. I’ll put it in China so I could take that entire country out. I don’t know why I just don’t like it. That and my son is the president of this country and I don’t wanna harm him. Goodbye gentleman. Come on Richard I might be able to get you and Olive out of here in time.” 

Just like that the door unlocked and we left. As soon as the door closed it locked itself again. I was reluctant to follow because on one hand it looked like I would get to leave and live happily with Liv, but I couldn’t let this happen. I was tempted to shoot her but she said only a huge amount of radiation could kill her. I thought she was bluffing because she needed to be protected but she could’ve been lying. I mean she was smart enough to do all of this. I texted my friend who worked at the library to look for someone named Monica Harris in 2256. I followed her around but her posture seemed different. She no longer seemed scared like she did this morning but determined and ready. Thirty minutes later my friend sent me a picture and I looked in horror to see that it was the same person. When we were on the elevator I slipped out at the last second and ran down the hall. I needed to get to Liv and get the hell out of here. Suddenly the doors on the ends of the hallways closed and the lights went out. Harris’ laugh rang out through the hallway. 

“Richard Richard Richard. I was going to let you out of here. I felt bad that you dragged into this. You and Olive were gonna get to leave but now You’re going to die in that hallway. Maybe I’ll bring Olive to be with you. You guys can die together, it'll be romantic. Anyway, toodeloos Richard.”  Suddenly the entire lab started rumbling. At first it almost wasn’t recognizable but then it was bad. I could barely stand up straight. I threw myself against the door as best I could until it broke down. I took off as fast as I could to Liv’s part of the lab until I noticed that the lab was falling apart. I ran even faster until I saw Liv bent over looking at one the other scientist who had gotten hurt. I slid over to her and threw her over my shoulder and took off as fast as I could...again. 

“Richard, what's going on, what’s happening to this place.” She cried to me.

“Long story short Harris created immortality two hundred year ago and the only way she can die is nuclear radiation and a lot of it. So she’s started a nuclear war and plans on teleporting the lab and destroying China to cover herself up. Also all of the world leaders except for ours are here and they’re probably going to die too.” I got out between breaths. 

“Richard, hold up. We have to help them. It would be bad if they died here.” She said. I set her down and looked her dead in the eyes.

“No, no we don’t. We will be fine. This isn’t our issue. We need to try and get out of here before this lab ends up in China. I don’t care about the world leaders, I care about you and only you.” her eyes told me she was determined to save them and there was no way I could convince her otherwise. 

“Fine fine fine. We can help them but the second things start to go sideways and it looks like big trouble. I am grabbing you and we are leaving them to die. Understand me?” She nodded.

“Alright what’s the plan? They're locked in the big conference room and I don’t know how to get them out.” I said.

“We need to split up. I’ll unlock the doors and you distract Harris so I can do it without her catching me.” She told me. I didn’t like it but I didn’t have a better plan at the time. Sitting here years later with all this time alone to think I could think of a hundred far better plans. That’s all I seem to do anymore. Think of better plans and write them down. That’s all I’m good for anymore. If only I could go back and reverse it. If only I could go back and fix it. 

The story ends here. I can't force myself to continue anymore. It would be a few more pages but they are the hardest to write. The plan was simple because what needed to be done was simple. I distract Harris and Liv saves the world leaders. Simple enough...or it should’ve been. Instead Harris tricked me into leaving the lab through a disguised portal. I had to watch in horror as All of Jersey disappeared. I had to watch the news and see all of China get nuked. It’s been 19 years today. I turned forty-nine a couple months ago. Life has been utter hell. I tried telling the truth but no one believed me. Instead I lied and told them what they wanted to hear.  I’ve seen so much death these last nineteen years. And it’s all my fault.

[wiznard]

Brett Arntt                                                                                                                        2474 words

Zero to Hero

By Brett Arntt

All I could smell was my neck hair burning. I was on my stomach waiting for my daily beating. Ok hold up, let me take a second to explain what’s going on here. So everyone has some sort of “super power” I say it like that because not everyone’s power is super or impressive. While some people have super strength or super speed, some people's power is that they can quite literally remember a lot of stuff, or they can breathe underwater. So while they are impressive they are far from being super. At this moment I’m getting my butt kicked by a guy who can egnite himself on fire which makes him a pain to fight or in my case not get hit too much. Anyways back to getting my butt kicked. I started to get up when I got hit by what felt like 100 cinder blocks in the back. I fell back down and winced in pain. “Look at this, the powerless freak is once again on the ground.  Gonna call mommy?” It took me a while to remember that voice but after I did I was amazed it took me this long. It was Charles. We were friends in grade and middle school but I never got a power when I turned 15 so he left and went to find cooler friends. I started to get up when he kicked me back down, this time I wasn’t able to keep my wince in. In case it wasn’t already obvious Charles has super strength. Finally the school bell rang and everyone left to go to their last class. I stayed there on the floor unable to move. I’m pretty sure my back was broken...again. I would probably make a bigger deal about this except this was far from the first time that this has happened since starting high school. I think this is the fifth time actually. The only reason I’m not paralyzed is because the nurse can heal serious injuries so at most I’ll just have really bad back pains for a month. That’s if I’m lucky. After twenty minutes the nurse and the vice principal came to the school’s garden where they found me laying there. The vice principal took me into the nursing office where they could heal my wounds. We talked about what happened and he left me with the nurse. “You can’t just keep letting them treat you like this,” the nurse said. “I know I know I just don’t see the thrill in fighting you know.” He looked at me in his usual disappointed manner but left it at that. When the final bell rang I hobbled out of the school and started home. As I headed home my mind started wondering as it usually does. I was thinking about what I would tell my mom so she wouldn’t worry or do something drastic seeing as she does enough anyways. My mom is a superhero. She's one of the better superheroes actually. She has an amazing super power. Whenever an enemy uses their power against her she can copy their power and use it too. She keeps their power too. So she’s one of the stronger heros. It’s good she’s a hero cause if she was a villain they probably wouldn’t be able to stop her. I finally made it to my apartment and started up my steps when I heard Charles again. “Hey loser, we were looking for you. We feel like we didn’t beat you up enough earlier.” I stood in front of my door with my heart beating fast. I was already in immense pain and I wasn’t sure how much more my body could take. Before I could do anything I was laying on my back. Must’ve been that Tommy guy he has super speed. I started to get up when the hits started coming. For the next thirty minutes I was getting the snot beat out of me. When they finally left I was laying there bleeding. I couldn’t move at all. Whenever I started to breathe it felt like something was poking my heart and lungs. They had broken my rib cage and they were now facing in different directions. Great, I'm laying outside my apartment in the middle of the sidewalk dying. I felt my breathing slowing down and my eyes grew heavy. I’m down. If I die here then I die. I closed my eyes and faded off. 

I woke up hours later in a hospital bed. My mom was asleep in the chair next to me. The tv was blaring and I tried to set up to turn it off. When I got up the pain that I didn’t feel originally went everywhere and I let out a huge scream. My mom was on her feet looking around for any danger that there could be. When she looked over at me her face seemed relieved that there wasn’t anything there. “Honey you need to lay down, your body needs rest and time to heal.” She started rubbing my head until I passed out again. When I finally woke up two days later the sun was shining through my window and my mom was gone. I ended up staying at the hospital for another two weeks. I probably needed to stay there longer but Mr. Lemon, the school nurse, came and helped out. I was still bandaged and needed a cane to walk. I started walking home because my mom wasn’t there. I hadn’t seen her since the night when we first arrived at the hospital. I wasn’t worried because this happens a lot, she travels around the world saving the day but this time something didn’t feel right.

 When I got to the apartment there was a black van parked outside and the door was wide open. I hobbled inside and there were four guys looking through the house. They turned around and saw that I was there. The first guy walked over to me and started asking questions. “Where is the vial?” I stood there staring at him not saying anything. He got visibly frustrated the longer I said nothing. “Where is the vial? Don’t you realize that we need it so we can make a new one so the world doesn’t fall into chaos?” He walked away and continued looking for this vial thing. Finally I decided to ask about it. “What’s so important about this vial thing that you want. What’s in it?” The man turned over to look at me. He looked very annoyed like I just asked him the dumbest question and the answer should be obvious. “The vial has your mother’s powers so when something happens we can make a hero just like here so the world doesn’t fall to chaos. We do it with every very powerful hero we’ve come across.” He turned back around and went back to his searching. “Wait, what do you mean when things go wrong? You mean if right?” The man let out a huge sigh and turned back to me, “No kid I mean when. What are you trying to tell me right now? Your mom died last week, did you not know or something?” I collapsed on my couch. All four guys slowly looked over to me with the same confused expression on their faces. Finally one of them spoke up, “Kid you did know your mom died last week?” I couldn’t form an answer. They all looked remorseful. “I’m sorry kid we weren’t aware. We saw the package on your bed and assumed you had known.” 

I didn’t know of any package. I got up and hobbled up the stairs and towards my room. When I got to my room I saw it. A bright red box almost as big as my bed was set up on my bed. I opened it and there was a lot of stuff in it. A ton of papers and new articles talking about how amazing my mom was. Her suit was in it. The dark purple with the red gloves and boots. The small red mask to cover half of her face. I felt the costume and noticed there was a lot of stitching that wasn’t there a couple weeks ago when I had last seen it. It looked like more than half of the costume had been destroyed. I lifted the suit up to get a better look at it when another news article fell from it. It was tucked away inside the suit. It was an article going over her death. She was fighting some alien from space and in order to defeat it she had to plunge the both of them into a volcano. After reading this I looked at this suit again. That was why the stitching was different and looked ruined; this wasn’t her real costume, it was a crappily made replica. Her real one was at the bottom of some volcano. I was about to throw the box across the room when I noticed there was a smaller package. On it was a note saying the choice was mine. I opened it and there was a vial. It was a beautiful purple. I was tempted to drink it...but there was something stopping me. I had wanted to be a superhero my entire life but now that the moment was here and I could be one it just didn’t feel right. Yes I want to be a superhero but not like this. I wanted to be a hero on my own, not with my mom’s powers. I heard the front door slam shut and heard the black van drive off. I set the vial on my desk and put my “mom's suit” on top of my closet. I put the papers and news articles away and then I went to bed. Life would never be the same I knew that. Life would be way different because it was just me and my mom. I had no other family; at least none that mom ever told me about. I stayed home for another week.

 No one came to visit or nothing, just me. It was quiet but I knew it wouldn’t last long. Eventually someone would come and I’d be whisked away to Child Protective Services. The door knocked one day when I was watching another news report on my mom. When I opened it I saw a middle aged man in a black suit. “Ah you must be Master Arntt, I’ve been sent to pick you up and bring you to your grandfather.” Now here’s the thing: my entire family on my dad’s side disappeared without a trace. No one's been able to find them for a little over sixteen years. They were said to be crazy people, and it was good for everyone that they disappeared. And my grandfather on my mother’s side died when I was three. So when he said he’s here to bring me to my grandfather I was very skeptical. “Uh my grandfather died twelve years ago so I don’t appreciate this joke.” I started to shut the door when the man pushed me back and walked into the house. “Now listen here while I am very sorry to hear about Liz’s father. I have no relationship with that man. I am picking you up on account of Lynn, your father’s father.” I stood staring at him waiting for him to say psych or something because there’s no way this man knew my grandfather was on my dad’s side. “Yeah yeah alright bud and I went to prom with Taylor Swift.” I started to walk away when he grabbed my shoulder and started talking again, “Well than I feel bad for that Ms. Swift because you seem rather rude. I wouldn’t want to go to prom with you. I wonder why she would.” I searched his face for any signs of a smile or something to prove that he was pulling my leg but no matter how hard I looked I just couldn’t. “Hold up, you're not joking are you? Like you’re actually here for my grandpa on my dad’s side?” He looked me straight in the face and puffed “Well of course I am why would I lie to you? Don’t worry about your stuff, someone else will be here to grab it for you. We must go to your grandfather’s right away.” 

Eleven years later….

I stood on the rooftop surveying the city. It was quiet tonight but the night always starts out quiet. I took a seat on the edge of the roof while the wind blew through my hair. Sometimes when it gets this quiet I take time to reflect on the last eleven years of my life. I moved in with my grandpa and he trained me to become a hero without any powers. The first five years were dedicated to training the other six I spent on the streets taking out bad guys saving the day. I still don’t have powers but I’ve mastered all forms of martial arts and hand to hand combat. I’m skilled with any weapons put in my hand. My favorite are my short katanas I keep with me. A lot has happened these eleven years. The vial containing my mom’s powers got stolen while my stuff was being moved to my grandfather’s place. While as of yet no one has made any moves with them or has been seen using them I’m still on the lookout for them. I plan on finding the thief and extracting the powers from them. I laugh to myself. As if it’d be that easy they have one of the strongest super powers ever. They are a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately for them they are probably on their own while I’ve made some allies over the years. My old friend turned high school bully Charles once again became my best friend after a fight we had four years ago. The organization that funded the hero considered me a threat after  I beat up one of their crooked heros after he stopped a robber but he himself took off with the money. Charles thought he had me cornered when I was able to get the upper hand and flipped the fight over to my favor. After we realized who the other was we had a laugh and I told him about the crooked hero who later himself got arrested. Samuel, a man with the ability to move things with his mind. Ray, a man who could ignite himself on fire. Frank, a man who could see weak points in enemies and could beat them easily. Finally Chey, a woman who could control the weather. Separate we are strong but together we are dangerous.