Bits & Pieces

What follows is an experiment I have conducted before, where I pool my decaying Vocal fragments and attempt to bind them in some cohesive manner. While I do put honest effort into molding the overall piece, it is still an attempt more desperate than intended--mainly because of the platform's 600 word minimum (for non-poetry submissions), which I find a hindrance and nothing more.

And because I make only fragments of a penny with each read, I honestly don't bother myself about financial gains here. So I have no standards rattling me in that regard.

Of course, I hope the final article has something interesting to offer you--and certainly myself in the process.

Let me know what you think! \m/, B']

- Zach, May 16th, 2023

Chapter 1

The Jeep raced down the dirt road, rounding corners with fated ease. The driver, a woman of indeterminate age, gripped the wheel intensely, eyes awaiting the slightest glint of light behind.

Her only passenger was a child of about 10, diagonally behind, whose grip was similarly calculating.

The road appeared to go on interminably, the woods dark and vague around them. It was not the ideal circumstance, certainly, and had thwarted their plans in one fell swoop. But that was the way it was. All careful planning--all the fruits of waiting out hesitancy--had been obliterated in the blink of an eye.

Was that a headlight behind them?

There was a shift in the state of things as she registered the shock...while as the seconds pressed on, there came nothing but complete darkness, and she let it pass.

Then, within seconds, came the sight they had been waiting for: a service road. She cut the wheel, taking the turn with only a minor skid into the underbrush.

As long as nothing came to her attention in the time it took to breach the next turn, they might just be okay. She only hoped dust wouldn't give them away.

Chapter 2

The surrounding forest loomed still larger as ebon sought to chew and swallow. The child remained stationary, chained to frenetic despair. She sought to mimic her Mother's arms as she tightened her rags about her--even before the frigid cold had lain hold.

Despair turned to imagined belonging as the nocturnal bloomed. At heart, she had loved this forest ever long. Now, she was left only to wish that her care would be cherished by the nature she had ever lauded.

She summoned a fantastical shield, and probed the unknown steps ahead. The floor sounded erratically as she advanced, her fears squelching and oozing as the river sought to submerge her.

With a silent explosion, a crimson flood overtook the trees, as if their flesh had caught in an ichoric flame. A path rose before her, seemingly out of the Earth. An enormous shape was swiveling along it at horrific speed, an emeraldic flame burning upon it. As they coalesced before her, the static of synchronized power ignited to lightning and thunder.

A quintet of steps before her marked the halt of the arrival, and the shock of confusion and awe upheld the mark.

"I am Vherauxuous," came it's voice.

It's ungodly features governed a serpentine body, whose bat-like wings and retractable appendages were folded sickeningly. While its manner came as benevolent...it was but for a price. For, in truth, the guardian dragon required a special concoction to satiate its hunger for trespassers.

Chapter 3

A pair of crows is perched upon the building ahead. They are staring at a corner of rooftop, at attention. One appears to alert the other, as if in warning.

Suddenly, that crow is gone. It has up and vanished, like breath in a cold mist. There is only its companion--immovable; stationed for some unknown purpose.

Is a murder soon impending?

I turn to my typewriter and record my observations.

As I return, the crow has been displaced beyond the gaze of the corner, and peers down and across the courtyard. It is now that I notice small ventilation pipes, arranged in a triangular fashion. It is as if they have suddenly grown up between the shingles, bursting forth into life.

Another crow has joined the ranks of the scene, as yet more swoop and swarm in the background.

Under my watchful eye, my mind is sent to notions of flight and whimsy. As foolish as it may be to yearn for flight, it is yet as foolish to wish to top the limits set upon us. After all, even if one crow may rise above the rest, what is to stop another from landing upon it...or standing atop its lifeless features?

My unknown friend takes flight, and is gone. Nothing but industrial form and misty white sky remains. Not even the streaks of rain, which any fair wind may cause to run and gather, can breathe further life into what I now see. All that remains now is a memory of happenstance, and the cycles which, devoid of mystery, repeat ever onward.

Chapter 4

"What are you?" I asked, beset by the crashing waves.

An unknown creature sat before me, its crustacean qualities irrespective of their complements.

As I watched, it did not move--nor vocalize in any manner. It was simply...there: a stranger to qualm; an ancient arrival.

Needless to say, I was astounded. Had I been in any normal situation, I surely would have photographed for proof...drawn a sketch, at very least.

Tonight, I shall dream...

Today...I shall write.

Chapter 5

The album speaks to grander heights; a catalog of thoughts bizarre. It is far too late as I slam it shut and bear the cloud of dust that erupts before me. The faded drawings have bled much too much into their negative spaces, and I feel not even the dust can own the imbalance that absconds with my sensations.

The crisis builds and scorches, sputtering as a flame toward elusive grandeur.

And then...it is over. Time nurses not an imposing threat after all, and the album, once more, satiates its hunger...with mnemonic dust.