Fantasy
CAT AND MOUSE
Six o’clock AM, another day begins at the estate. The servants arise and dress in their uniforms and head to the kitchen dining room for their breakfast. The staff settles in with their coffee. Coffee time is the best part of the day for the staff. It is a dark roast and served just at the right strength. This is the time the staff has just to themselves to chat and get ready for a day of service. The Butler, Mr. Maxon enters the dining room, the staff stands until he is seated. He is the head of the palace staff. 60 years old, he volunteered for service at the palace. Mr. Maxon alerts the cook Ms. Parker that breakfast is ready to be served. She brings out a porcelain tureen and sets it in front of him. Mr. Maxon picks up a bowl from the stack to his left. He dishes out portions into each bowl and the staff passes them down the table. Clara looks down hiding her disappointment. Porridge--again! More often than not the staff is served porridge for breakfast. She does not complain because as service positions in this time went - theirs was one of the best. As she consumes her breakfast she gently fingers the heart shaped locket around her neck.
By Cara Arildsen3 years ago in Fiction
The Balance of Fate
I remember when violence in music, television and movies was censored. Everyone was certain that kids would become desensitized to it all and it would lead to violence and hatred in everyday life. I was one of the kids who thought, “Seriously, we know the difference between reality and it’s consequences and make believe.” I know I sure did, but I was horribly mistaken. It didn’t stop with kids but even adults got it in their head that a television show or movie was real. They couldn’t differentiate between the actors and their characters, so very desperate to escape what they perceived as their own redundant, boring lives. Within 10 years, more graphic lyrics, scenes and even newscasts were becoming more and more prevalent. With technology, people began to disconnect from one another. It opened the door for the always present yet suppressed “human nature” to begin to rule society, governments, military, you name it yet so many people just couldn’t see how things were getting out of hand. They couldn’t see what evil was happening around them. I remember after witnessing several completely selfish, heartless and extremely cruel acts of people around me that I wrote a poem about how I was certain there were people being born these days without souls. Finally, one day, a little known dictator decided that nuclear weapons weren’t as dangerous as they had been made out to be and really didn’t care about anything except being right and recreating in reality the plot to his favorite television series. He blew up his own country when the weapon malfunctioned and destroyed half the world along with its population. That’s when “they” came. Strangers that were not truly human, not alien, nothing we could explain. They came a few at a time at first through flashes or what I came to see as rifts. What was left of the human race fought disease, radiation poisoning, the loss of the luxuries everyone relied on. The “soulless” prayed on those who could not clearly see this coming but who were truly what humanity used to strive to become, kind, pure and innocent. All they want and do is reach out and help each other. Nonviolent, loving, peaceful, even in the face of this ruined world. The “innocents” never thought about retaliating against their oppressors even when members of their group were murdered. Those of us who could clearly see how humanity was changing for the worst, who saw where the world was headed as years passed right up to the end of our civilization, try to protect the innocents. We call ourselves the “seers”. We know that the innocents must be protected. They are the future of humanity. The soulless have to go but when our work is done, we must also go. Our ability for violence would taint the innocents. However, we are happy to sacrifice ourselves in the end to see humanity reach its true potential.
By Gelene Beverly3 years ago in Fiction
Romeo and Juliet 2: Romey Owes and Julies' Debt
In a torch-lit cave deep underground, stagnant decaying air, heavy with the stench of sulphur, penetrates the nostrils of a newly delivered dozen of the Devil's damned delinquents. As the bleary, squinting eyes of this group of pale failures slowly adjust to the dim lighting within the cave, a 'Hell Introduction Officer' stands before them eager to officially welcome them all to Hell.
By Jacobie Jones3 years ago in Fiction
Humanity Is A Portal
My desire for the truth makes me different from the rest of the population. My inner knowing, that life does not have to be so full of hatred and pain, is also a sign of my difference to the rest. I am sure that I am not the only person who has this feeling, but I have no idea how I would find anyone else.
By Amelia Randall 3 years ago in Fiction
The Pandora
Curiosity is arguably one of the first traits we human beings ever develop. A baby's wide eyed wonder at the world. An explorer's burning need to see with their own eyes. The strange, stupid little instinct that makes us go turn on the porch light to see what made that noise in the darkness.
By Rebekka Cornell3 years ago in Fiction
Look to the Sky....
From the moment the rocks from outer space began descending across the earth, the humans that were fortunate to remain across the globe, soon found, that this fortune to be alive had been a cruel, vicious joke. It had been a higher power’s form of bad luck, spread to the few human soles, that struggled to live on.
By J W Nelson3 years ago in Fiction
The New World
23/4/2050 Dear diary, I write this as my first and last entry. This is my testament as to how the world was destroyed and how we were able to rebuild it. If you are reading this and there is life flourishing once more then you know we are alive, if no one ever reads this then I guess I failed, but here goes…
By Nicola mcfarlane 3 years ago in Fiction
Staring into the Abyss
Long ago there existed a world dominated by hairless monkeys. They created a great and terrible civilisation of kindness and cruelty, connection and isolation, war and peace, freedom and slavery, hope and despair. For as long as they existed, they were consumed with the question, ‘Are we alone in the universe?’ And never, even for a moment did they think to ask that most obvious and terrifying of questions, ‘What if they’re like us?’
By Lachlan Hedge3 years ago in Fiction
Kitsune
Akio carried the tiny mouse in his hands as he hurried home. It seemed to be dehydrated, listless and weak it had barely moved when he approached to pick it up. A movement caught Akio’s eye and he glanced up in time to see a shadow disappear between two trees.
By Heather Ewings3 years ago in Fiction