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#FICTION on the WEB short stories
cuntylittlesalmon · 8 months
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[this post has alt text]
ocean vuong - eurydice // peter hoffman // rhys allen - real ghosts of formerly imagined bodies // ana teresa barboza // kathy bruce // rhys allen - real ghosts of formerly imagined bodies // francisca pageo // tamino - you don’t own me
my "trans person digs up their childself's body" story has been officially published, and free to read in bizarrchitecture magazine here 💓🙏
if you enjoy my writing and want to support me, my cashapp and venmo are rhysvkm and here is my ko-fi page. thanks!
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bluejayooo · 28 days
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Dinner
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weepingfoxfury · 1 month
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"A home without spiders and dust belongs to someone whose hands have yet to find that moment of stillness and understanding " - Frenella Peabody
When I first moved into my home all those years ago, it had been uninhabited for some time. There were flies in abundance. My immediate reaction was to reach for and put up sticky fly trap paper.
I sat day after day drinking my coffee, watching insects fall foul of this enticing, swinging graveyard, and thought no more about it other than how nice it was without being mithered by flies.
Then, one day, the bulb went in the kitchen light. I got a fresh one and stood on the table and started to take the old bulb out. It was at that point that the fly trap got stuck to my hair and face.
I was horrified and mortified. Now I was up close and personal with the dead and the dying, their legs and wings writhing close to my left eye. I reached up with my left hand, released the pin that held this monstrosity up and stepped shakily back onto my chair and then onto the floor.
Once down I stood, scissors in hand, and cut the fly trap out of my hair and managed, with some heat, to ease the paper off my skin.
Never again!
Now I just sit and look at the kitchen windows, drink my coffee and smile as I watch the spiders getting fat on the flies that keep barrelling in to bounce against the glass ... and I think to myself that Mithered By Flies would make a great album title ...
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popcultureoverdosed · 3 months
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The Curse of Saki Sanobashi
I'm writing this journal entry to document my experience with a certain film. I'm probably already dead if anyone is reading this, but please read on. I hate Saki Sanobashi and what it has done to my life. Most importantly, I hate the depraved bastards who made it.
Until recently, I've been an average college girl with only one notable quality: I love searching for lost media. Most people get a thrill from watching a good horror movie and I'm no different with lost media. There's just something about the elusive nature of it that makes the hunt so fascinating. There's a countless amount of entertainment that vanishes from the public eye for whatever reason and many remain completely forgotten. That never sat well with me. Maybe it's the history buff in me, but I believe every form of content should be preserved. It's scary to think that something that brings you joy could one day be forever lost to time.
Saki Sanobashi is a name that's been plaguing me for the last few years now. Every lost media enthusiast worth their salt has at least heard of it if they haven't already joined the hunt. I'm one of the several archivists who plunged headfirst into this monstrosity of a goose chase. I, like many others, got hooked on its tragic premise of a bunch of schoolgirls trapped in a bathroom where death is the only way out. The morbid curiosity in all of us compelled us to search high and low for this elusive anime.
That was years ago.
Now? Saki remains a distant memory in the minds of once optimistic researchers. Dead end after dead end had led to the entire thing being labeled as some elaborate hoax. Even I began losing faith in the search despite all the time I invested in it. It was disheartening knowing that one of the most fascinating lost media searches of all time could be fake. I would've quit entirely had it not been for that one fateful afternoon.
It was a typically brutal winter in Toronto which meant that a snowstorm would be picking up before the day was over. I thought it best to go to my favorite comic and stock up on my favorite books before the storm trapped me at home with my girlfriend. Marque Noir was different from other comic shops in that there exists a secret section of the store only a select few know about. Because I've been a loyal customer for a few years, the owner trusted in showing me the back room. I was hesitant at first to enter a secluded room alone with a man due to being a woman, but I figured he wouldn't try anything with customers still in the store.
What I saw in that room was the stuff of wonder. Several shelves were stocked with underground comics so obscure even the most hardcore archivists probably didn't know about them. The type of comics you can't even find on the internet. It was heaven on earth for a lost media obsessed girl like me. The original post mentioned Saki being an anime, but I was desperate for any type of media out there. What's fascinating is that there were also movies stocked with the comics. The cover art on each DVD case was incredibly low quality, to the point that I assumed the store owner hand-made them himself. There were no ISBNs or distributor info anywhere to be found so my theory seemed fairly likely all things considered.
I filled my bag with as many items as I could afford( which isn't a lot for a broke college student)  and excitedly swiped my card at the counter. The store owner gave me the weirdest of grins as I made my purchase. He seemed amused but almost in a mocking sort of way. He hardly ever emotes in the first place so that smile really caught me off guard.
I left the store and boarded the closest train to drop me off at the dorms. Though Halloween comes in the autumn, I feel like winter is the most ideal season to indulge in horror. The cold weather is like a reflection of the spine chilling fear I get whenever I read a good comic. I stepped inside my dorm room and immediately began browsing through my latest collection. They all looked so good I didn't know where to begin. As I rummaged through the pile of DVDs, I noticed something that threw me for a loop.
One DVD case was completely blank. The cover was pitch black and so was the back. There wasn't even anything on the spine. I couldn't imagine myself buying something like this so how it ended up with me was a mystery. Still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the least bit intrigued by it. There could've been literally anything on that disc and the only way to find out was to start the movie.
I waited for my girlfriend to return from campus before starting the movie. Emily's a cute brunette, but she has zero tolerance for horror. She always shrieks her head off whenever I play my movies in the living room. All that blood and gore drives her crazy. She greeted me with a kiss on the lips and then paused when she saw the devious smirk on my face. She already knew what I had in store for her. Emily, of course, protested but I pleaded with her to watch the movie with me. Seeing her scream like a child over on screen murder was sometimes more enjoyable than the movie itself. She remained firm in her stance against it but eventually broke down after enough of my begging. It feels good having things my way.
I quickly inserted the DVD into an old game station and stared at the screen with anticipation for what was about to start.  After several seconds of a blank screen, some Japanese text appeared with an English subtitle that read " Requiem of the lost girls." The title naturally left me curious so I watched on with excitement.
The scene then faded back to black and what I saw after that made my blood freeze solid.
Three schoolgirls in a bathroom.
All of them had miserable looks of utter despair.
The scene was unmistakable. It was a scenario I ran over in my head countless times. It was Saki Sanobashi, the anime searched years for! Having the legendary film before me after all this time was almost too good to be true. And to think it came from my favorite comic shop. I've been shopping for years now and never even had a hint something like Saki would be there.
Emily was confused as to why I was so excited so I told her we just discovered the holy grail of lost media. The gravity of the situation was unsurprisingly lost on her but she smiled anyway for my sake. We watched the movie unfold just like the legend went. The girls remained trapped in the bathroom and lamented their misfortune all the while. As the film progressed, the agony in their expressions became increasingly visceral. Their eyes looked so hollow, their skin was so pale. Emily clutched into my hand with a hint of anxiety in her eyes.
The tone of the video was much more somber than I expected. Seeing the girls take turns telling the others about their hopes and dreams, trying desperately to alleviate their situation, felt oddly melancholic. I was growing attached to these characters to the point I hoped they'd find a way despite that going against the lore. We eventually reached the part where the girls realized there truly was no way out of their situation...except for death.
Their deaths were just as horrid as I expected them to be. One girl goaded one of the others into drowning her in the sink and another clawed at her own neck with visceral detail. The most painful part of it all was the bloodcurdling scream the last girl emitted as she bashed her head against the wall. It was far more realistic than it had any right to be.
Despite all the fear, my heart raced with excitement. I had to write a blog post to let everyone know about my discovery! The internet would go wild once I told them the good news. I quickly went to my Tumblr to start writing, but the site wouldn't load. I tried other social media sites but nothing was working.
I tried stepping outside in the hall to get better reception but the door wouldn't budge. The knob didn't move at all no matter how hard I pulled. My girlfriend and I were both freaking out at this point. We tried opening windows, calling 911, and banging on doors, all of which were in vain. We were somehow completely severed from the outside world. I wondered how the hell was any of this possible when the image of the movie flashed into my mind.
We were trapped just like the girls in Saki Sanobashi. Was the film cursed? That seemed to be the only explanation. I should've trusted my gut instincts and never let that guy lead me to the backroom. I knew there was something off about him and now I fell into his trap. So far we've spent two weeks in this hellhole of an apartment. Food has long since run out and any sense of hope is dead. It pains me to see Emily's body as pale as winter, her eyes devoid of life. Neither of us can last much longer. I'm writing this document as a warning to anyone searching for Saki Sanobashi.
Stay the hell away from it. It is a cursed film that dooms its viewers the suffer the same fate as the girls in the bathroom. I imagine the curse will be lifted once we die and our belongings will be collected by our loved ones. Hopefully, they will see this document and spread the news. Or maybe they'll brush this off as the crazed rantings of a lunatic.
I honestly don't know anymore. All I can say is to stay safe and never attempt to watch this damned movie.
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whumpacabra · 3 months
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Sometimes I post something to my main that gets popular and someone in the notes is like ‘woah do you have a writeblr or any other writing you can share with us? :0’ and I just have to look over at the hundreds of thousands of words about torturing my blorbos and say ‘no sorry haha :]’ <- lying
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emlinden · 3 months
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Adventuring is never easy...particularly when your brand new cyclops-killing gun starts acting up in the middle of a fight against said cyclops.
Join Mogara the orc inventor as she tries to get her latest invention working in time to save her companions from a raging cyclops in today's new flash fiction, Technical Difficulties. Check it out through the link above!
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elstrawfedora · 1 year
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The Stoneskipper (Part 1)
I realized I never shared it here, but I drew another comic short story! The story follows a kid, Lenti, who lives in a quiet empty green world, on a rite of passage to reach an ancient place his village has told them little about. But before reaching this mysterious place, Lenti meets an unusual creature.
This one will be in multiple parts, so stay tuned for more!
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abruptlymystic · 4 months
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Participation in the Winter Event is Mandatory is up for my Ream Followers!
Just some goofy holiday fun times I wrote last year, freshly formatted for Ream! Follow for free!
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maybemockingbird · 2 years
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Hi there, I’m Al!
Hello!  My name is Al (she/they),  I am a queer indie author who specializes in massive space operas and tiny disturbances, and I have some projects I’d love to share with you!  I’m trying to build my fanbase and would love for you to come join me on my adventures!  I’d appreciate re-blogs and likes!
First off (and most important), I am running a Kickstarter campaign for a short story I wrote over the summer that I’m trying to self-published called Of Prodigals and Pomegranates, which is the cover down below (done by the incredible Sera Swati, creator of the webcomic Bone’s Tarot!) and I’m trying to hit my very small goal of $350 by Halloween!  You can find the campaign here:
Of Prodigals and Pomegranates on KickStarter
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It is a story about a foolish mortal who decides to steal the most powerful aphrodisiac in the land to seduce the man who rejected him.  He enrages the lord of the damned in doing so and flees to the shores of Crete to find safety in the shadows of the Labyrinth.  However, the succulent smells of the pomegranate in his possession summons Asterion and temptation grows tangled like a vine between them.
This 18+ ONLY, monsterlover story is perfect for fans of mythology retellings like Hades and Lore Olympus and webcomics like Banquet or The Hunt, titles I am a huge fan of that helped give me the courage to write this piece.  It features horror vibes, consensual spiciness, and a queer protagonist.  The PDF is only $4, the zine is $8, and you can get both for $10 which also gets your name in the back of the book!  Please go follow the campaign and support if you can, even following it makes a HUGE difference and helps me reach more people!
The second thing I want to share is a slice-of-life meets soft sci-fi web novel I’m writing called The Wayward Souls of Avalon, and the first chapter is now free to read for the public!  It is a story about two strangers aboard a space station on their journey to Mars after the cataclysmic end of earth.  It features themes of grief, isolation, queer romance, space exploration, and the little moments that make us human.  It is available for just $3 a month on my Patreon below!  If any of that sounds interesting to you, please pop on over to read the first chapter and support if you can, I promise you’ll like it!
Alycia Davidson on Patreon
To prove I actually know what I’m doing, here’s a list of some short stories/flash fiction pieces that are being published by various zines in the near (very near!) future!  I also have several pieces in several issues of Worth Writing About, which is a charity zine, and will be a part of Reflex Press’ upcoming novella-in-flash project.
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Thank you SO much for your time and support!  Indie authors like myself always appreciate it more than you know and we can’t do it without you!  You can find me on Twitter at MayBMockingbird and find my personal writing blog here on Disturbances!  Thanks so much!
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nitrosplicer · 2 years
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Watching Over Me
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“Watching Over Me” by Galen David Bunting,
The Fabulist,
August 26, 2022
https://fabulistmagazine.com/watching-over-me/
(art credits: Cero Umano by Gorche, Boy Staring at an Apparition by Francisco Goya, The Presence by Alfred Edward Borthwick, Plenty of Parking by Sterling Tidwell)
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livly-3 · 7 months
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Stranger of Twine #8
I just want to say thank you for all of the support! Making these comics everyday is certainly a challenge but will see this through! Just a HEADS up! Wanna read the story again? I’ve published (up to date) all of the episodes I’ve made so far on WEBTOONS! So go ahead and check it out!
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cuntylittlesalmon · 12 days
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[this post has alt text]
rhys allen - saint michael comes to you in blood // david cronenberg - crash (1996) // andrew joseph white - hell followed with us // @.yearningfordarkshadows // rhys allen - saint michael comes to you in blood
— saint michael comes to you in blood, my violent little micro piece about finding one of god's messengers dying on the side of a road, is now available to read in vulture culture for free
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elriel-is-real · 7 months
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"are you coming, aeon? does something hold you from me still..?"
elriel is real
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luxkamczyc · 1 year
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Zeiger 3500
Alright, fuck it. Here’s an unedited first draft of a web series I was writing. Feel free to point edits or make suggestions for how to rewrite this story. Enjoy.
EPISODE 1
Char always wondered what was at the bottom of the sea.
When he wasn’t busy helping his father pull massive nets of fish from its depths, he would often stare into the dark waters and imagine giant squids and crabs waging massive battles that would reshape the ocean floor. Sometimes, he wondered if the fables his father told him about underwater cities were real.
Of course, Char had to be careful when he went into these daydreams. The other guys on his father’s ship gave him shit if they caught him fading from reality on the job. One of them, Figgis, would punch him in the arm when he wasn’t paying attention. It was all in good fun but Figgis knew how to lay into him.
“Daydreaming again shit head?” Figgis said, nudging Char as he walked past. “What is it about this time?”
“Fucking your mom, Figgis,” Char replied. It was a shitty joke but it was the best he could come up with.
“Language,” he could hear his father scream from the ship’s control room.
“Yeah bitch, watch your language,” Figgis replied. Char couldn’t help himself from laughing, despite his father’s disapproval.
As the ship, about the size of half a football field, swayed, Char listened to the waves thump against the hull. He closed his eyes and tried to match his breathing with the sway of the ship. As the seconds passed, he could hear the sound of his father coming up beside him.
“What was it this time?” he asked Char.
“Sea battle.”
“Ahhhh, I love the sea battle fantasy. Y’know, they used to make movies like those daydreams you have?”
“Yeah. You tell me at least three or four times a week,” Char laughed.
“Hmmm,” his dad said, scratching the gray beard. “I ever show you one of them?”
“How would we be able to watch one?
“Maybe I know an old war buddy that could hook us up with a projector,” he replied.
“Really?”
“Oh sure, it’s not like a projector is high tech stuff,” his father said. “We don’t have to go to one of the sky cities to get it, though.”
“That would be amazing,” Char looked at his father. His black hair faintly shined in the light, sweat from a long day's work. Char was taller than his dad and often cracked jokes about it.
“I’m thinking we watch an old Kaiju film,” he said, scratching his chin.
“What’s that?”
“An old old old film about a giant monster that fights other giant monsters,” he said looking out into the sea. “It’s amazing, me and your mother used to watch them all the time.”
Char rested his head on his hands.
“What?”
“I miss her.”
Char’s dad looked out to sea. After a few sways of the ship, he rested his hand on Char’s back.
“Me too son.”
Suddenly, an alarm began to ring, let everyone on the ship know a large school of fish was near. As the last ring echoed across the water, the ship’s seven-man crew prepared to go fishing.
Char sighed, taking one last look into the water, wondering if he’d ever been able to explore the ocean. He tucked the thought away and returned to his position operating the ship’s crane. As he climbed the nearly one-story metal pillar that overlooked the ship, painted a dull olive that blended with the ocean, he examined the ship’s condition. There were nicks and rust that decorated the paint, small indents in the floor of the ship where Char accidentally dropped heavy objects served as reminders of how not ro operate the crane. Char felt like all of this added to the ship’s character, though his father would disagree.
He couldn’t believe that this machine served a different purpose twenty years ago. Built at the height of the Last War, it was used to salvage abandoned war suits, robots as tall as skyscrapers that used to roam the earth. When war suits were outlawed, these ships were no longer necessary to some countries and they were auctioned off.
The hull of the ship was made of dense metal and was fitted with propellers on the front and back. Everything, including the crane, was air sealed and had its own air supply, just in case the ship tipped over.
“SCHOOL INCOMING,” his father yelled from the ship’s control room.
Ever since the war, industries like the fishing business had been booming. Most of the planet’s livestock came from the sea after the war nearly destroyed half the planet. Before his father pulled him out of school, Char learned about what happened in his history class, though the exact details always eluded him. He tended not to think about it too much because he rarely had time to do so.
Reaching the top of the crane, he remembered that there was an air tank that sat just above the cockpit door. He cursed, nearly hitting his head on it, it was one of the only things they couldn’t remove from it. The ship was so old, he wasn’t even sure there was air left. Sitting down in the operator seat, he strapped himself in and sealed the cockpit.
Char could see the small crew of men tighten their grasp on ropes that controlled a net on the side of the ship. In just a few minutes, they would begin wrestling with it as the ship’s speed made the fish hit the back of the net like tiny meteors. It wasn’t an easy job but none of the men seemed to complain since the pay was so good.
“CHAR GET READY,” he heard his father scream.
Almost without thinking, he moved the long yellow arm of the crane over to the net. Char waited there for a few minutes until he saw his father swing his arm, signaling to lower the crane and grab the net. When it latched on, it began to raise, showing that it was now filled with what looked like a million pounds of fish.
Char turned the crane and moved the net over a hidden pit that would keep the fish fresh until then got back to shore. Once the pit opened, he dropped the net with the flick of the wrist and watched the men begin removing the fish from the apparatus. He watched for a few minutes before stretching out in the cockpit.
This was the fourth catch of the day and he knew after this it would be time to return home. It wasn’t tedious work but it was tiring because they needed to wake up as soon as the sun rose. Father told him it was to catch the fish off guard though. He hated to admit it, but he was bored and hated helping his dad.
He closed his eyes and dozed off, listening to the sound of the crew begin preparations for returning home. Eventually his breathing slowed and he began dreaming about sea monsters fighting in the ocean once more.
When he woke up, it was as if the dream followed him into real life. Dark clouds ambushed the ship and a fierce rain began pelting the crew. He could hear his father screaming for him to wake up.
The rain hit the crane’s cockpit like hail, loudly thumping against the glass. Like the rest of the ship’s small crew, Char was caught off guard. He always checked the weather forecast for the day before going out to see and it never said anything about a violent rain.
Then something hit the side of the ship, forcing it to rock violently.
Char turned around in his seat to see if everyone was okay. He strained his eyes to see the small group of men huddled over the side of the ship. He noticed one of them, a small portly man that they nicknamed Chubz, was waving his arms frantically. Instantly, Char understood what happened and hit a big red button on the control board on top of the cockpit.
The ship’s giant bell began ringing and every light on the medium-sized vessel turned on as its crew began searching for a man overboard.
Char started to get out of the cockpit but his father signaled him to stay in the crane. He understood why, with the rain beating down as hard as it was, one wrong step, and he could’ve snapped his neck on the way down. So he sat back down, helplessly watching as his father and the crew attempted to rescue the man now floating in the sea.
He sat in the cockpit for what felt like millennia watching. The ship rocked three more times as if it just scraped across solid land. Char could feel his heart pounding out of his chest as he struggled to catch his breath.
Straining his eyes once more, he looked toward where the group was huddled, his father was now down there helping out with a rescue rope. Other than that though, it was no use, he couldn’t tell what the hell was going on from his vantage point. Wanting to help, he began to unbuckle himself when his eyes caught the shadow of something massive looking at them.
He saw two red eyes, cutting through the black clouds.
-
An aging man dressed in a dark military uniform looked down at the monitors tracking his creation’s progress. So far, its vitals looked normal and the only abnormality was that its weather shroud systems were putting out a little more energy than he would have liked.
He made a mental note to find out what was causing the energy surge later.
For now, he was focused on the task at hand. This was the fourth system test for the machine he lovingly dubbed “Chimera,” it was also the most important. Being one of the first machines of its kind, he needed to test how it fared in intense weather conditions, especially if its creating them.
But this was more than a motion test for the behemoth.
“Get ready,” he told the man standing next to him. The man began typing commands in the monitor in front of him, without giving much thought about what was going to happen next.
-
At first, Char thought it was just an illusion.
Because of the tense situation, his eyes decided to play tricks on him. After rubbing them gently with his fists, realized it was real. Something was out there, looking at them.
For a few minutes, Char sat there looking at it, trying to figure out what it possibly could have been. Brief glimpses of light revealed its size. It looked like it had arms, or two large things sticking out of its back. He turned around to see if the commotion outside was settled, hoping that someone else saw what he saw.
It was no use, the fierce waves and rain required his father and the crew to solely focus on rescuing the man. He saw three men hoisting a rope back up to the ship, his father holding a blanket for the sailor. Soon he’d be out of one nightmare and into another.
Char felt helpless, how could he be the only one looking at the thing on the horizon. When would someone else notice? That question was quickly answered when a blood-curdling howl pierced through the chaos. Like metal crunching and twisting against each other- so loud that only the deaf would miss it.
Everyone stood silently as they watched the outline of the best move towards them. Char’s heart felt like it was buried under the ocean floor, his mouth felt like he had been sucking on cotton balls.
Eventually, the monster stopped.
Then something began to grow just to the right of the monster's eyes. A red ball of light, at first the size of a penny, growing on the beast’s shoulder. Char leaned in his chair to see what it could be but he had no idea. Slowly, the ball grew and grew and kept growing until it was more like the size of a small planet.
From below, Char could hear his father issuing commands to the crew. Figgis looked as if he was throwing metal crates containing the day's catch overboard. Chubz helped by throwing shovel loads of their most recent catches overboard. He could feel a slight shift in the boat’s movement, were they turning around, Char wondered?
It was too late. By the time the boat began changing course, another howl boomed, rattling the ocean. The ball of light was now pointed directly at them. He could see two red eyes pierce through the night sky. Char felt as if the eyes of God were staring back at him and all he could do was tremble.
CRACK. VROOM.
The night’s sky lit up as if fireworks traveled at the speed of light. The ball of light zoomed passed the small ship but Char could feel the heat from the beam that followed it. It was as if the sun crashed into the Earth. Being in the cockpit, Char felt like he was being cooked alive for a few minutes before the beam disappeared.
As the beam disappeared into the ocean, the ship rocked violently as the seas began to shift. Char looked to see his father, hanging on to one of the ship’s poles, terror painted on his face. Only three of the ship’s crew could be visible. The ship began to tilt in the direction the beam passed them. It made twisted howls and screams as it moved.
It was going down.
It happened slowly at first, then all at once. The water consumed the ship, swallowing Char’s father and crew including Figgis and Chubz. He watched as his dad extended his arm out to the ship.
“PLEASE GOD NO,” Char screamed at the top of his lungs as he watched the ship go under. He screamed until his voice went hoarse and he could taste something metallic. A few more minutes and he began coughing from overexerting his vocal cords. It felt like he was drowning in the cockpit, watching his father wash away with all of the darkness of the ocean.
He sat there in silence, listening to the water pressure slowly squeeze the specialized metal protecting him. He could hear the air tank system slowly release and filter the oxygen filling the cockpit. Char’s head felt like it was on fire, he couldn’t stop thinking about watching his father die - either by drowning or being crushed by the sea.
He felt like screaming. He felt like crying. No matter what he did though, the tears wouldn’t come and his throat still hurt. The ocean was darker than he imagined it would be. The fish he did see swam up and around the former salvage ship. It was like a drop in a bucket of water, small and insignificant.
A few more minutes passed until he realized that eventually, the pressure of the ocean would crush the ship with him in it. Of course, he also wasn’t sure how much time he had in his oxygen tank. He looked around the cockpit, trying to appreciate the memories he and his father made on the ship.
The first time he ever set foot on it was when they picked it up from his father’s old military pal’s scrapyard. The look on his face made it seem like we had just hit the jackpot, which in a way he guessed they did. After a few months of refurbishing it and repairing the damage, they enlisted a crew and began fishing.
Char no longer cared about what was hiding beneath the waters. He knew that whatever could be down here paled in comparison to what was up there. He closed his eyes and began saying a prayer as the light from the surface got darker and darker. The red eyes of god seared holes into his brain though and suddenly, Char felt a jolt of adrenaline.
He didn’t want to die and was willing to do whatever it took to climb back to the surface. He grabbed the controls of the crane and started frantically looking around to form a plan. As the ship began to compress more and more, he searched for something, anything he could grab on to with the ship’s arm.
The ship continued to compress until Char could hear the metal hull start to crack. Then, as if something from below heard the prayers he couldn’t say, Char saw the dark outline of something within earshot of him.
It was muscle memory that took over next. Char slowly swiveled the crane toward the outline and began to extend the arm. As the crane reached out into the vast unknown, doubt raced across his mind. How far down has he sunk?
THUMP. CUUUHHHHSHHHHHHHH.
His father’s ship began to drift slowly toward the underwater cliff Char had caught on to. Despite feeling like he was floating the entire time, the ship rocketed to one side and slammed into the rock formations. Char hit his head on the side of the cockpit, forgetting to buckle back up after trying to get out to help the crew.
He gently touched the top of his head and felt something warm coming from it. The ship no longer sounded like it was compressing. A wave of relief ironically washed over Char as he slowly dozed off into a black haze. He did not know if help would come, but for now, he was tired.
He didn’t even notice the tears gently running down his cheek.
_
The man stood peering over the observation deck, watching the burst of pure energy disintegrate the area near the small fishing ship.  As the seas parted and swallowed the ship, he wrote something down in his notes. He had not planned for a human trial of his weapon but the data he gathered was too valuable to ignore.
“Sir?”
“What is it?”
“What do we do, should we send a crew to look for wreckage?”
“No, there’s no need to waste time here. Turn the Chimera around, I think we’re ready for the next phase.”
-
The sun beat down on Char as he opened his eyes from his long slumber. It took him a few minutes to realize that somehow he was on dry land, the arm of the crane sticking directly into the land. He turned over onto his back to catch his breath and remembered hitting his head. Checking to see if it was okay, he cringed in pain as he felt the small gash that had since clotted and dried. It wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t life-threatening.
Readjusting himself, he quickly scanned his surroundings. Black sharp rocks surrounded him as he laid, suspended two stories above the ground. Any chance for escape on his own was nonexistent.
“Well fuck,” he said under his breath. He quietly apologized to his dad for swearing and felt warm tears swell in his eyes.
As the hours passed, the waves crashed against the jagged outer rock formation of the stone island. Char wondered if this mass had been here before. If that were true, was his father still alive?
He laid on his back for what seemed like hours when he heard a strange sound coming from the distance. He slowly turned around on the glass to make sure he didn’t upset it and fall through. It took him a few minutes to see what looked like four dots cutting through the water growing larger. They were coming toward him.
Char closed his eyes and tried to get some rest. Whatever was coming meant he wouldn’t get sleep for a long time. There would no doubt be swaths of people interested to know what happened to him, his father, the crew and the ship.
After a short slumber, he woke to four metal machines that looked like dragons the way they got thicker in their midsection and tapered off again by the tail. They also had sharp sets of fins on the top of their heads going halfway down their spins and another set on their tails.
One of dragon’s heads popped open and a pilot, whose face was covered by a helmet stepped out and tried calling out to Char. It was no use, not only was the cockpit door still sealed, Char lacked the strength to comprehend what was happening.
The pilot noticed this, said something to the radio attached to his shoulder, and jumped down. The machine to the left of him started moving toward Char. They planned to use the mechanical dragon as a link between the ground and the crane.
He could hear the other pilot try to call out to him to move but Char was frozen.
He could feel something gurgling in his stomach but it wasn’t food or vomit. He tried to think of what it was but the pain in his head slowly crept back as the initial adrenaline of everything began losing its potency.
It took ten minutes for the bridge to be completed and one of the pilots to meet Char face to face. They may have well-been astronauts from a different planet, it felt like they were speaking a different language to him. He was scared, he missed his father and now he got the feeling that he wouldn’t be going home anytime soon.
The pilot reached his hand out. The sound came crashing back into Char’s ears.
“It’s okay,” the pilot said. “We’ll take you somewhere safe.”
Reaching out, Char grabbed the pilot's hands and exited the crane. Eventually, the adrenaline would subside and the weight of the world returned to him. The  machine slowly retracted from the cockpit and Char could see what happened.
The ship was torn to pieces, bits and parts thrown around the black rock formations that engulfed the cockpit. When the machine lowered its head, one of the pilots came to him and shined a light into Char’s eyes. He could here the group talk to eachother through the radios.
“There are no other signs of life.”
“Jesus christ, how big is this land mass?”
“What created it?”
“How far off from the coast is this?
“What do we do with the kid?” a voice asked through one of the pilot’s radios.
“Take him to Vector 3.”
FIN.
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lumiramaut · 10 months
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Hey,
I wrote a short story about a couple. They are going to their usual yoga classes, driving in a bus. When they go through a town, things are escalating between them.
You can read the story in both dutch and english on Wattpad and or Penana.
Tell me what you think of it. Plus, if you like it, please share it around and follow me.
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an0smic · 2 years
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hello! Im an0smic and this is concept art/a teaser for the webcomic that I am currently working on, it’s based around two misfit teens who try and navigate their way through life and figure out how to be normal, both keeping dark secrets from the other. if you want to be kept up to date then follow the blog!! -an0smic
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