Wednesday, November 23, 2016

The Stitcher of Souls - Chapter 2



Chapter 2: Unearthly City

“This is Unearthly City. But, I suppose you didn’t know that either.”
He really didn’t buy my act, though it was half-true. Because no, angry hot guy with sexy messy hair, I truly didn’t know that we were in “Unearthly City” and I found it a rather misleading name, because I was pretty sure there was nothing unearthly about it. Were there any stores with faces who could talk and would groan happily because the people who entered it were filling its belly? Were there mermaids and hot fairy guys with pointy ears and long hair which make them a little less pretty? Was the city a chaos of colour and optical illusions?
No, no, and well… Maybe. Although I’m not sure if you could call it optical illusions.
Because, okay – fine! This city does have its unearthly things. O, who am I kidding – this city was the very definition of unearthly!
We were on a road where people immediately jumped away to fall into another road that went up – UP! Up to some other streets above us – ABOVE US! Above us there were people walking on those streets where they seemed to have adjusted their height as to not hit the people below them.
Like I was looking at a miniature city above me and next to me – it was true madness here!
And it didn’t stop there! No! There were doors – or was I supposed to call them latches? – right above me and suddenly a guy grew bigger in the miniature city and basically stepped on the door. I could see his bushy, curly blonde hair and the sunlight that shone on his head, which seemed to grow smaller as he reached for the doorknob underneath and walked inside normally.
I realized that it was the same sunlight that shone on my own head, and on the stern guy in front of me and the other people on this street.
MADNESS. TRUE MADNESS.
Other than the streets leading up and down and twisting and turning around us and the doors above us, the streets themselves were insane too.
MAAAADDNNNNEEESSSSSSSSSSS.
I held on to the guy as tightly as possible as to make sure that all those things here wouldn’t kill me.
Because there were fireballs. Waterballs. Earthballs. Kids throwing the balls. Kids stamping on the air to make the pavement shoot up in the air as a part of a game.
There were sparkly trails of sprinkly and sparkly dust of butterflies – no, wait, tiny humans with wings – HOLY MOLY THOSE ARE PIXIES! Or fairies? I didn’t know – I didn’t care!
There were floating tents on the sky, almost in those other roads, no ladders climb on to get wide open tentflaps and no need for them anyway – people could just walk to inside of them, no floating and flying needed or a ladder.
There were women standing on balconies, who dried their clothing by throwing them away and smiling at hot guys – sadly no fairies, well, they don’t look like fairies anyway – while the wind which literally hummed carried them to the washing line. Yeah, because why do it the hard way like the losers from the place where I live, right?
WHAT WAS ALL OF THIS? THIS WAS MADNESS, TRUE MADNESS!
HOW – WHY – WHAT THE FUCKING HELL?!
“Sit still, would you? And please refrain from screaming in my back,” the guy on the horse grunted, but there was no need for him to tell me that, because just like in the animes my face had turned red, my eyes turned into spirals and my mouth half-open, while I was murmuring something incomprehensible.
Then my attention was drawn to clothes the people were wearing. They wore cloaks in different colours; blue, red and black.
But blue never walked with someone in red or black, nor did people in the other colours. In fact there were three rows of blue, red and black. And some had stains of the other two colours and were basically forced to walk in between the rows. Even those kids seemed to play in those rows, their fireballs not coming as far as the gap between the rows... Huh.
The road must be extremely big to be make it for both these people to walk in three rows and those kids to play in the same part as those roads. No wait there were three separate roads. No one big road. Three separate ones? One very big one? Uhm… Huh.
Maybe if I’d go just a bit higher, maybe then I’ll see… Nope, too high, too high. Let’s go back, let’s go back. Pretty cool that I can see so much from this point of view. Hey, look at those white threads above me... Huh.
WAIT, WHAT?
Then everything turned white.

As if we rode straight through a barrier, we ended up on a big plaza with six gigantic pointy buildings.
The guy on the horse didn’t seem to be amazed by all that craziness back there and honestly, I didn’t feel that amazed either. I mean, I remembered feeling amazed- because it was true madness, a really mad experience – but then it became, well, nothing, yeah, nothing. I don’t know, maybe… Maybe I’m just tired –
“As you can see,” his stern voice suddenly interrupted my hazy thinking and felt like a slap in my face, “we’ve reached Guna Plaza. I’ll find a place to drop you off safely and then you’re on your own.”
Talking about subtle, huh.
I let a small trembling “yes” escape my mouth.
Damn, very subtle, dude. He was right, though – I could not deny it. I was going to be on my own. I was going to have to figure it all out. On my own.
I started to shudder and became suddenly very aware of me being naked underneath this jacket. I felt being watched by the few people walking in three neat rows.
Oh damn it, I’m scared. I’m scared. So fucking scared. Damn it! I really am scared!
I breathed in and out. Oo… Kaayy…
I opened my eyes, clearing my mind.
Let’s do this. BAZAAM. Yup, I ruined the moment of heroic-ness.
The plaza was madness, too.
Heck, this whole city was.
Heck, this world, probably.
The guy took me to the biggest fountain I’ve ever seen. There he almost threw me off of his horse. The fountain stood in pool of foggy… water? Smoke? And was made out of a billion thin and really soft threads that – holy crap it was cold! My bare leg bumbed into the side of the pool, because of a certain someone, and if you could die of coldness, I’d be long dead by now. For second time.
But those threads were probably the most normal things I’ve seen around here, because they didn’t make any twist and turns, they didn’t go left and right and round me, no they just went all the way up and made an egg-like form, as if it were a big ass cocoon. Yeah, and I bet there’s a big ass butterfly in it, too.
“Stop being so clumsy,” the guy on the horse grunted with the same old frown on his face. “Or did you also forget that this is the Big Butterfly’s cocoon?”
I had to keep myself from dropping my mouth because – ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
First I get killed by some random Slenderman-wannabe, then I wake up naked in a forest, I get to this city of true madness – MADNESS – and now the angry guy who isn’t buying my shit is telling me that I should stop being so clumsy because there’s a fucking butterfly in the egg-like fountain behind me?
This was the moment where everybody would drop their shit, give ‘em a “nah-ah” and a snap of the fingers, ‘cause this was too much to handle.
But instead I just nodded slowly and took a few steps away from the cocoon.
He rode away on his horse and then I stood there on my own.
I gave myself a facepalm.
I’m so fucking stupid. Really, I had to make a billion jokes in my head about everything I saw instead of looking out for useful spots in this mad city. I had to be scared. I had to end up here.
Damn it, what am I doing? This self-pity wasn’t going to help me either! Jeez. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Fuck. 
How the hell was I supposed to do this?

[PIC ORIGIN: fineartamerica.com, made by MARY CLANAHAN]

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

The Stitcher of Souls - Chapter 1.2


Chapter 1: After Death - Part II

A gate. It opened.
Three thick threads, blue, red and b;ack.
I walk on them. They pierce through me.
And we’re blinded by pulsing whiteness.
I sat on a tree trunk.
I was surrounded by massive trees.
I was in an open spot – it was green.
I was in a forest.

I felt the wind on my face.
I saw how it moved my bare feet, my bare legs.
I looked at my hands, bare too.
I looked at the rest of my body and realised it was naked.
I also realized that it wasn’t a body. It was a shell.

The wind blew again, but it didn’t reach me.
I sat on a tree trunk, but I didn’t feel anything underneath me.
I saw the forest, but it didn’t change me.
I even stood up, but felt no difference in height and experience.
Nothing.

This body was a shell.
This shell carried me, Quin.
I am Quinn. Nothing more, nothing less.
I am Quinn.
I walked and the sun beamed straight at me, but I felt no warmth and no changes when walking.

That is, until someone yelled.
“Hey you– What the hell?”
Someone sat on a horse, which someone put to a stop, but after seeing the shell someone was moving it away again, slowly.
I reached out.

“Wait!”
I ran straight at the guy on the horse, but stopped because what the hell indeed.
Where am I? How did I get here? What am I doing here? What is this place?
I looked down at my body and thought of the guy standing before me.
WHY THE HELL WAS I NAKED?!
It was just like the animes, really, jeez.
No – Quinn, no time for anime references.
First, hide behind that tree.
Okay, okay – good.
Now slowly, show your face to the probably extremely traumatized guy – I couldn’t really blame him – stop it, Quinn.
Now say something, yes, open up your mouth – WAIT! Don’t say anything – you might screw it up and get yourself in trouble.
Just, eh, ah – got it! Act all innocent and lost and scared.
Yup, perfect.
I stood there, my body hidden behind on of the biggest trees I’ve ever seen, and looked at the guy on a horse, who also wore a badass – Quinn! – cape, in a very innocent, lost and scared way.
He frowned at me, obviously not trusting the naked girl, but also not too sure if she’d really do any harm – well, she might- QUINN! – and after a while he opened his mouth to say something.
He sounded very stern and accusingly.
“What are you doing here, butt naked?”
Mr. Obvious, huh. QUINN! STICK TO YOUR ACT, DAMN IT!
I cowered under his stern and accusing tone and looked down.
“I-I… I don’t –” what do you say in these situations?
‘I don’t know’ sounds too easy, lying about that this is how I live, suspicious and lying about that I’ve raped and robbed, too obvious and can easily lead to my end, because why didn’t I look tackled and painful?
I didn’t have any info or knowledge that could help me out here.
Well, then the easy one – then I could at least sound like I’m speaking the truth, because I honestly didn’t know why I was here, butt naked.
“…I don’t know.”
He snorted and mumbled, “Of course you don’t.”
Yup, definitely too easy. Well, better stick to what I started.
Even though he was going to think I’m the typical helpless girl. Hallelujah – just like in the movies.
I bet he’s a prince, too.
Quit the sarcasm, Quinn, and make sure you don’t die.
Die.
Wow – I died.
I remembered then: I remembered the guy in the dark cloak and his knife – god, that cold knife that did terrible things to my flesh.
Holy shit – I died.
I died. The jokes about dead sounded pretty pathetic at that moment, because at the time I made those jokes it seemed like I could handle it, like it wasn’t a big of a deal, but…
The way I died –
The fact I’m here now –
I couldn’t help but cry.
I slumped against the tree and eventually fell with my knees on the ground.
And I couldn’t help but being utterly terrified and feeling truly innocent, lost and scared.
And helpless, o so helpless.
Ironically, I’d say afterwards.
I started to cry even louder, more desperately and I curled myself up in a ball. I forgot that there still was this guy on a horse with a cape watching me and that I had more important things to do than to cry, but I just let it all out.
Slowly the fear, the tension slipped off of me, just when I felt a heavy jacket fall on top of me.
I looked up to see the guy towering over me, his dark brown eyes staring down at me with a kind of sneer on his face, making him seem quite dark and evil, in that bad-boy-way. His dark, almost black in two earlike pieces, like the ears of a wolf, stood on his head in a well, sexy and messy way, perfectly adding up to his evil face. His olive arms were crossed over his chest and he looked away as soon as I looked up.
“Cover yourself with that jacket,” he said plainly and as I was about to say something, he walked away. “I’ll take you to the nearby city, but from there you’re on your own.”
I carefully put on the jacket, which was longer and warmer than expected, and stood up.
I wiped the tears off of my face and took a deep breath.
Then, I followed him to his horse.


Next up: Chapter 2 Unearthly City
See you on the next page!

[pic origin: http://konseptual.com/2014/04/noragami-review/]