(Thanks to LocalTalent53, CrumbledCandyWrapper, and Michelle Maria Salvatore for your reviews! I swear the days go past quick if you're not doing anything O.o. Well, I will submit another chapter tomorrow, and I will try my best to update faster!
Also, if anyone can guess what the game one of the characters is playing is, you get... well, nothing, but it'll be interesting to see if anyone gets it.
The sound of rushing water was one of the few things which could calm Josie Graham down. The way is flowed smooth and free down her skin, the way it drenched her red hair just made Josie quiver. She wasn't calming down anger, though. Josie was well known to become over-excited, to the point that it was almost a medical condition. She retained the state of being excited once she became excited, and had to find something to calm her down. If not, her heart would be rapidly to the point it could quite possible become fatal.
The excitement could be of any kind. Be that sexual excitement, being excited by news, or being overly happy. Even such 'excitement' as being scared. It was something Josie lived with and adapted to. Thankfully, the things which calmed her down were usually commonly accessible.
Feeling sufficiently calm, Josie switched the water and stepped out, drying herself off and pulling on a new pair of clothes which consisted of a bright red shirt with a lion on the front and purple jeans
Josie walked through the bedroom into the living room, where spotted her room/house-mate Jay Blackstock playing a video game on a console. Josie leaned on the doorframe, watching the TV screen for a moment.
Jay was playing as some kind of female, in just her underwear and t-shirt. She was being chased by some kind of masked men, fighting them off. Jay's character managed to get into the bathroom, when her neck was suddenly slit.
Josie winced. "Ow." Josie said, walking towards Jay.
Jay turned around with a small smile, his gray-green eyes looking out from under his bushy bleach-blonde hair. "It's fine. It was a dream... well, nightmare." Jay pointed at the screen, showing the woman awake and well.
"Even so, it was a bit grim." Josie said, walking over to the coat rack.
"This game is surprisingly grim. I wasn't expecting it from the beginning. Are you going?"
"It is eight o'clock." Josie said. "I got to do a whole day today. Last shift."
"Whole day? I though you did mornings till Thursday."
"That's because I got the time off." Josie grinned, pulling her coat on – a bright green puffy jacket, with fur lining the hood.
"Time off? Why?"
"Oh, nothing much. I've just made a phone call to my dad, and he made a phone call to his dad, and then he made a bunch of phone calls and I've arranged for us to meet the Mayor of Baltimore tomorrow. Bye." Waving, Josie smiled as she stepped out into the rain.
"Okay." Jay turned back to his game, when it hit him. "Wait, what?" Jay blinked, getting up, contemplating going after Josie, before sinking back into the sofa. Shaking his head, he sat down. "Must've misheard... she wouldn't do that for me... but... she wouldn't joke about something like that... something that means a lot." Jay blinked. "Must be a joke... I'll have to ask her when she gets back..." Jay muttered something else, before unpausing his game.
Jay, while unemployed, had aspirations to meet high authorities all over the world. Something about the power of holding a country in one hand made him smile and wonder what it would be like. Jay wanted to meet all the high authorities he could – his three mayor goals being the President, and the Prime Minister and the Queen in England.
They were high, high aspirations, and Jay had been teased when he was at school which had lasted until graduation day. Nevertheless, Jay was firm with his goals. He had a whole lifetime to meet them. Josie knew he was sensitive, so she wouldn't tease him when the others had... would she?
Shaking his head for a final time, Jay turned back to his game.
Throughout the day, Jay had a very bad experience on his game. First off, his FBI character was crushed in a disposer. While expecting a game over screen, it just moved to the next character. The female was killed by a crazed doctor, and the main character – whose son had been kidnapped – both found his son, dead, and walked out of the warehouse to get shot. Only the final character survived, although it wasn't exactly a pleasant survival.
Reaching the end of the game, and now in the evening, Jay sighed and sat back. He was surprised at how much he had played the game, but it was a very good game. Yawning, he leant forward when he caught a spark on the TV. Raising an eyebrow, Jay stood up, trying to see where it came from. The spark happened again, this time catching the carpet in fire.
"Woah!" Jay stepped backwards in surprise as the flames burst outwards as if the floor was covered in petrol. Jay pulled his coat off and tried to bat the flames away with it, when a crack caught his attention. Turning his head, Jay looked at the cracked screen of the TV when it exploded.
Glass and metal shredded into his face, cutting into his neck. Jay fell backwards, everything going dark and...
Jay's eyes opened fast, sweat on his brow. He started coughing, before finally quietening down. He leant back on the sofa, feeling oddly scared. Had he just seen what he thought he'd seen? It felt so real... the heat of the flames, the pain of the glass...
Having had enough of video games, Jay stood up and headed into the kitchen to start cooking, since Josie's shift would end by now.
XXX
Indeed, Josie was already walking home in the darkness. The storm had caused the dark to cover the city despite being fairly early in the evening.
Working in a coffee shop – which also sold other refreshments and had internet access – definitely takes its toll, especially on busy days. Rainy days were especially busy, since workers and businessman seek to find shelter to avoid getting too wet.
However, it was a good day. It was the first time Josie had taken a full day, but she only had too to make up for the days when she was in Baltimore. She almost laughed out loud thinking about the reaction Jay was no doubt to have.
The smile was wiped off her face when she had a shiver down her spine. Glancing behind her, Josie spotted a man with a hat pulled down low with his hands on his pockets walking behind her.
Quickening her pace, Josie pulled her coat and looked behind her again. The man had quickened his pace.
Starting to panic, Josie went to run when she rebounded off something solid. Falling to the wet ground, Josie looked up to see another man in a hoody.
"What's a pretty thing like you doing at a time like this?" The man whispered in a gravelly voice, obviously a fake one.
"Get away from-" Josie started, but the man behind her had caught up, roughly putting a gloved hand around her mouth. Josie's eyes widened in panic as she tried to kick out, but the man behind lifted her up gracelessly. Looking around, the men pulled Josie into an alley.
Unable to speak, and finding it hard to breath, Josie continued trying to fight, scared of what was about to happen. It was unbelievable, these kind of things only happened on documentaries and movies. Josie continued to kick and fight.
"Ooh, a feisty one." The man chuckled, as the other pulled Josie back so she was against the wall. The hooded man leaned close, his breath uncomfortably smelling of cigarettes and alcohol. He roughly pushed his hand on Josie's thigh. "I like girls that fight, it makes me ho-"
"Get off her!"
"What?" The hooded man turned around to get punched hard in the stomach. He doubled over, before hands grabbed the back of his hoody and threw him away. The man flailed but collapsed to the ground.
The man with the hat dropped Josie, looking at the new man with wide eyes. The man with the hat pulled a knife out suddenly, pointing it at the new arrival.
"You shouldn't have interrupted us." The man growled.
"Oh, my bad." The young man shrugged, his hair slicked back and jet black. A headband kept his hair from falling down, and a gold locket hung around his neck. He wore a red and white shirt with the famous design of the masks of comedy and tragedy imprinted in black and white. He wore equally black jeans and a pair of black and white sneakers. "I just generally don't think two guys accosting a lady in a dark alleyway makes for a good situation."
"It's not a good situation. For you, anyway."
"It's not a good situation, blah blah blah." The man let out a laugh. "I wonder what zoo you escaped from."
The man with the knife growled, and lunged forward, aiming on causing damage. The saviour just spun around the man with grace, pulling the knife from his grasp. When the man turned around, he pointed the knife at the man's throat.
"Hehe." Now with the knife, the saviour laughed. "You call this thing a knife?" The young man threw the knife across the alley and pulled out a much longer knife from under his shirt. "This is a knife!" Pointing it back to the man, the saviour waved it. "Now get the hell outta here. Both of you. Git. Git!"
With their tails between their legs, the two men ran away with unmanly whimpers.
During this whole exchange, Josie was in a bad position. On her hands and knees, her heart was pumping ferociously, as if it wanted to break out of her body. Trying to catch her breath, Josie couldn't manage it. She was constricted, and if she couldn't draw breath. Panicking wildly, her heartbeat increased to the point that Josie tensed in pain.
However, the pain was suddenly vanished at the feeling of a hand massaging her back.
"There, there, calm down."
After a few minutes, the pain was finally gone and her heartbeat was back to normal. Gasping for air, Josie turned to her saviour, surprised that he was able to calm her down. Working hard, Josie finally managed to speak. "W-w-who are you?"
"Hehe." Chuckling, the man stood up and flicked the knife in the air. He caught it, threw it to the other hand where it seemed to disappear. "Tada!" The man gave a grin. "My favourite day is Valentine's Day. Be careful for what's to come." With the odd answer, the man clapped his hands together hard.
A flock of birds burst from their perch in one of the trees down by the road, which were trying to find shelter in the branches, drawing Josie's attention. When she looked back, the mysterious man was completely gone. No trace of him remained, not even footsteps. Climbing to her feet, Josie tried to comprehend just what happened and hurried home as fast as she could.
(Guys, good news. I am going to throw a 'trailer' out for Final Destination – Egyptian Heritage tomorrow as well. I have plans on starting that story (with this one) sometime in April. Egyptian Heritage is going to be a shorter story that my recent projects, probably.
Also, I am thinking of branching out into original stories down at fiction-press sometime in the future. I want to throw a possible story your way to see how to like it. If the reception is good enough, I'll see if I can start writing it sometime in the future.
A group of four friends, who have been together since they were small children, have finally earnt enough money to spend on a trip they have been planning since high school. The island, off the coast of Brazil has a reputation of being a ghost island, suitably nick-named: Ilha do Maldito (Island of the Damned). The friends obsession with this island is the strange messages they received back in primary school. They were directed at them personally, and told them that the answers they were seeking lay on Ilha Do Maldito.
Believing it to be a hoax, but interested in the island anyway, the four make the trip years after they received the messages. What they find chills them to bone. It seems something knows about their lives, and in some kind of sick joke the four are forced to combat the very things which had scarred them in the past. But the fact of the matter is this: the things following them are not human, and they certainly don't want to 'just talk'.
This is just an idea, as of the moment. It's up to you whether it blossoms into something bigger.
So, till tomorrow!