A Decaying World Chapter 15: Amidst the Ruins

And here's chapter 15 of A Decaying World. It could have gone a bit faster, but I've worked on another project a few days ago, where I ended up writing about 10K words in only three days. If only all my projects were progressing so fast...
Anyway, I'm going to return to Loop next. I've already had it lying around for too long without progressing the story. And I'm still going to release short stories during the next few weeks before I release the entire horror-collection.

 

 Chapter 15: Amidst the Ruins

A hundreds tiny grains of sand dug into Drake's skin like crystal shards, slowly rousing his dormant consciousness. His eyes fluttered open and fell upon two massive legs connected to a beast made of stone, a lapucuz. Its leathery tail entwined the vampire's chest, dragging him from the wreckage of his ship to a nearby forest.

“Wha—” It was a mistake to open his mouth. A load of sand invaded his oral cavity, eliciting painful rattling coughs.

All motion came to a halt. The beast turned around, sluggishly moving one foot at a time, until half of its hideous face could be seen. One lidless eye focused on Drake while a giant mouth opened up, freeing the beast's snake-like tongue. It darted forward and connected with the vampire's skin, ramming a dozen tiny needles into his flesh.

Within seconds, he was paralyzed, incapable of offering any resistance. But his eyes were still open, able to take in his surroundings. He had never been on this continent, but the endless sea of trees and the giant one towering above them revealed that he had reached his destination, despite plunging into an icy grave.

Need a hand? Yeah, but not yours. Still defying me, after everything I've done for you? Modera might have crushed your mind if I hadn't pulled you back from the brink of despair! That doesn't mean I have to like you. Why don't you go back to sleep? No chance!

Another beast had joined the first, with Maximilian in its clutches. He was still unconscious, unaware of the sand cutting into his face. But it was only a matter of time until his skull would bang against the stones scattered across the forest floor.

So, who's going to save you now? Feyadal might still be out there. And if he's not? Are you just going to let them kill you? They could have done so a long time ago. Maybe they're using us to stock up on supplies. Why wait when we could be free within seconds?

There was no reason to wait, yet Drake refused to change his stance. He didn't want to depend on his inner darkness unless it was absolutely necessary. But when the beast could set him free, he should have been able to do so by himself.

He tried to close his eyes, but his captor's poison had frozen his lids in place. Even such a motion as simple as breathing was impossible. If the same applied to Maximilian, he might have already been dead. Good riddance. Fuck you!

Grasping the power trapped within his body, he tried to imagine a wave of energy surging through his body, dissipating the paralysis. A tingling sensation rippled through his flesh, but when it died down, only his fingers had come back to live. His arms were still trailing behind him, so the best he could have accomplished was to throw a fireball into the sky. A few more attempts might have done the trick, but both beasts stopped dead in their tracks, releasing fulminant roars from their cavernous bodies.

“I could be mistaken”, said a squeaky voice from nearby, “but those creatures don't look edible at all.”

“But we to them!” replied a much deeper, rumbling voice. Its owner seemed to have trouble using Meceruun's common tongue, as every sentence came in quick bursts and every T ended up sounding like a D. “Else they wouldn't grabbed those guys.”

The lapucuzs roared once more and raised their tails into the air, allowing Drake a glimpse of the newcomers, none of which were human. One could have been mistaken for a human child, if not for his sallow and wrinkled skin. A giant schnozzle was poking out of his face while the rest was covered by unkempt hair. The second creature was the complete opposite: tall, muscular, hairless, and dark-skinned. His four beefy arms could have easily crushed a human's skull.

Since the lapucuzs had no intention of letting fresh meat get away, they flung Maximilian and Drake into the sand and hurled themselves at the newcomers. The smaller creature, a gnome, shrieked and sped away, swirling up the earth beneath his feet. But his companion, a gialuk, was not inclined to take flight. He slammed his fists together, then pulled all arms back and propelled them forward. A shockwave rippled through the lapucuz's shell, partially rupturing it. But the impact hadn't been powerful enough to reach its fleshy bits.

It slammed into the gialuk and pushed him back, but the creature reacted quickly and rammed his feet into the earth, stopping their movement. A manic smile crept onto his face as he slung his arms around the lapucuz's body, lifting the beast from its feet.

Knowing that it couldn't land a direct hit, the lapucuz opened its mouth. Its poison was powerful enough to take most creatures down, but even though gialuk's aren't the brightest of creatures, this one was quite crafty. He threw the lapucuz into the air, grabbed its tongue wit its upper arms, and began to spin the beast like a lariat.

“You like that?” yelled the gialuk derisively. “Or do you want down?”

The lapucuz screamed and snapped, as if trying to bite off its own tongue, but there was nothing it could do. And then the gialuk let go, sending it off into the sky. It ascended in a wide arc and them came hurtling down like a comet, audibly taking at least half a dozen trees with it.

The gialuk laughed and stretched his limbs just as the gnome came back, screeching for help. The second lapucuz was close on his heels, rolling through the sand like a cannonball.

“Get behind!” bellowed the gialuk as he twisted his body halfway to the right. Then he pulled back his arms, taking a big swing. If timed correctly, the lapucuz's momentum could be used to smash through its shell, maybe even strike it down with a single move. But if the gialuk screwed up … well, it wouldn't be pretty. The lapucuz was moving too fast to be stopped like the first.

The gnome reached his companion and grabbed onto his burly legs as he slithered over the earth. When it came to a halt, it peered over a mountain of muscles at the rapidly approaching threat.

“You got this?” asked the gnome, not quite as loud this time.

“I do!”

The gialuk concentrated, focusing all power into his right arms. Any other member of his clan would have sidestepped the attack, but Gorn was more than confident in his abilities. He would not lose to a mindless beast that had to coat itself with stones to survive.

Moments before impact, his arms shot forward and time seemed to freeze. Neither did his fists penetrate the lapucuz's shell, nor was he squashed. Then, a crack appeared, followed by another, and then another.

The lapucuz screamed in agony and flew off, cutting a swath into the forest. Gorn smiled at this glorious sight, spread his arms, and let out a mighty roar. His companion chimed in, despite sounding like a broken whistle.

Drake would have been thankful for the rescue, but the gialuk gathered him and Maximilian from the sand and slung them roughly over his shoulders while the gnome stared at them with a watering mouth.

Their captors might have changed, but their fate was still the same.

Don't release your first story!

...at least not until you've written a lot of other stories and have improved your skills, so that you can go back and revise your old works with a new perspective on all its flaws.

I myself made that mistake, and while I never wanted to go back to my first story, I'm still sitting at it again, still trying to improve upon what I wrote almost a year ago. But it will never be perfect, as I would have to revise almost everything from the third chapter on and excise an entire character. Sure, it could be worth it, but the story was just an experiment and even based on a character that I didn't create, so I lack the incentive to go through all the trouble.

But if you find yourself in a smiliar situation, it might be best to either let the story rest or simply write it from scratch, as the second version can only turn out to be better than the first. You can try to revise it of course, but you might spent more time on fixing a written story than if you were to simply start anew.


So don't make the same mistake I made, no matter how excited you are about having turned your thoughts into an actual story. Just write, and write, and write, until you think that've you reached a point where you can actually publish something worth reading.
Have I myself reached that point yet? Maybe, but there's still a lot to be improved upon.

But whatever the case, I'm going to start releasing my short stories on Amazon soon, followed by my horror collection. Since the latter contains the former, there's really no point in purchasing them one by one. I just want to increase my visibility.

I still have two stories lying around that won't be included, but while one of them might be publishable, the other is not, as I haven't even looked at it after writing it down.

A Decaying World Chapter 14: Across the Sea

At the moment, I'm trying to finish up my horror collection to release something once again, but I really didn't want to spend all my time on it. But I also didn't want to write the next iteration of Loop before I could fully concentrate on the story. So I did something different and simply wrote the next chapter of a Decaying World! That was only possible because it was so short, though. The next chapters will most likebly be longer, although not as long as the final chapters of the first half. At least not at first.

 

Chapter 14: Across the Sea

Somewhere, in the middle of the ocean, a small vessel was trapped within the grasp of nature. The wind howled like a banshee, swooping down onto the ship, spurring on the ocean. Gargantuan waves crashed against wood, pulling and pushing it in every direction. It creaked and groaned and burst apart, not able to withstand the nature of this storm.

Barely visible figures scuttled across the planks, running and jumping and slipping, doing their best to keep what was left of their transport afloat. But it was a battle they couldn't win. What crew they had was either trapped below deck or had already met the kings of the underworld. Only a handful were still participating in their futile struggle.

A lightning bolt emerged from the cloud that was following them—a cloud so dark that it rivaled the night sky—and it ripped through the main mast, nearly toppling it over. The lone sailor who had held his position in the crow's nest screamed in terror, but it was too late. He was grabbed by a gust of wind so strong that it might as well have been the hand of a titan, and was plunged into the depths, certain to meet the planks head-on.

Cat-like eyes fell upon his flesh, alerted by his screams, and a blurry figure jumped into the sky, catching him moments before his rendezvous with death and laying him to rest in a corner from where he wouldn't meet his end, at least for the next few seconds.

“T-t-t-t-t-thank you ….” stammered the man, but his savior had already disappeared.

Another lightning bolt cut through the main mast, snapping it in half. It cracked and lurched, slowly descending onto deck, but two people sped below where it would fall, raising their swords into the air.

A snake made of light and darkness coiled itself around the mast's wood, embracing it like a lover, then destroying it with the force of a supernova. A hole was blown into the deck, but the damage was acceptable. Having a spear made of wood crash into it would have resulted in the imminent destruction of the vessel.

“Are we anywhere near the continent?” yelled Maximilian over the raging storm, swallowing raindrops that burned in his throat.

“I didn't see anything the last time I checked,” replied Drake, shielding his face from the onslaught of the chaos. “I'll have another look, as long as we still have a mast left.”

Then he jumped into the air and grabbed onto the ladder placed on the outside of the mast. Under normal circumstances, he might have been able to jump all the way to the top, but he hadn't regained his full strength since the destruction of Arlington. And there was no telling where the storm would have pushed the ship by the time he would have arrived at the top.

They'd been in the middle of nowhere for more than a month now—a journey that they began about a week after his encounter with Assar. Most of the trip had been a breeze, until bad memories came surging back to haunt the vampire. The storm that was chasing them was the same that had destroyed his hometown, that had taken his girlfriend from him. It might have been acting its part this time, but a mere glimpse was all it took for Drake to see through the charade. If they stopped for even a moment, time would come to a halt, then loop, then end forever. And if he was trapped within, then everything was lost.

“Fucking liar! You said you'd give me time!” grumbled Drake through gritted teeth while he ascended the final rungs.

The ship groaned and screamed once more, precariously falling, almost toppling over. The vampire stumbled sideways, nearly vacating his vantage point the moment he had reached it. Only his strong grip made him keep his position. Not that falling would have mattered. When he peered into the distance, there was nothing to be seen. Just an endless chaos of waves, all of which were focused on their vessel, no matter how little sense their movement made.

Gazing down, he saw Feyadal wrestling with the steering wheel. They'd lost the captain right at the start, had to watch him get burned to ash, and lightning had struck that same spot on a multitude of occasions since then. I'm surprised the wheel itself hasn't been destroyed yet. Are you still toying with me, Assar? Why not get it over with?

A demonic scream filled the air, and a gust of wind as powerful as a hammer slammed into Drake's vantage point, hurtling him backwards and onto the planks, exactly the way he had fallen from Modera's tower after his fateful encounter.

Novella: Loop (Beginning)

I've found a couple of Betareaders for A Decaying World, but only one of them has given me feedback as of yet, and only up to chapter 1. But if he continues to provide the same amount of feedback, then it would almost be as good as having an editor. I've already deleted one of the prologues and shuffled a few things around to add anything that might be missing.
Apart from that, I've started working on Loop, my scifi novella. The game it's based on is about an hour long, so it shouldn't get too big, which is why I'm not going to post the complete story, except for the first beginning. Not much is happening yet, but it should give you an idea of what it is about.
Don't forget that this is only a first draft. A lot might change later on. And I have no idea why the last story kept its indents and this doesn't.

 

Loop

A deep and steady humming noise reverberated throughout the metal chamber, its source somewhere in the depths of the facility. A red light spread across the wall-sized monitor at the front, until it had enveloped the dome displayed on its surface. At the same time, an egg-shaped structure in the center of the room began to glow, almost blinding the chamber's occupants.

“Status report!” bellowed a middle-aged man with brown hair from in front of the monitor.

“The Chronoshield is running at full power and the Reversal Engine is at fifty percent. There are slight fluctuations in the energy flow”—the speaker, a young man with azure-colored hair, moved his fingers across a touchpad, adjusting dozens of values within seconds—“but they're gone now!”

“Professor Visan, start the countdown!”

An old man with pointy ears and graying-hair entered a command into the console in front of him. The humming grew even louder and the room began to shake.

“Temporal reversal in ten,” a robotic voice echoed through the room, its source the loudspeakers embedded in the walls, “nine, eight, seven, six, five ...”

The occupants of the room, some dressed in white gowns, others in full-body armor, turned towards the egg-shaped construct. Its light was pulsing in the rhythm of the countdown, slowly transforming from blinding white to bluish black.

And when the timer reached zero, a wave of energy rippled through the room, knocking everyone from their feet. The humming turned into a shrill squealing noise and was instantly joined by the screams of the room's occupants. The walls shimmered and undulated, flesh and clothing became translucent, people were moving back and forth, the light grew dim and bright ... and then everything came crashing down.

The room fell silent as every living being vanished from within. And then it was enveloped by darkness, making it impossible to see anything.

Spam up your Life

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Please buy the published edition to support me.

Spam up your Life

> SmexyHexy (18) has sent you a message!

> Wanna last longer in bed?

> Too short? We've got the solution!

Spam, spam, and even more spam. It's the same shit every day.

“How do these fuckers get my address every time?”

I took a sip from my coke and deleted all but one mail from my inbox. It was getting worse again, even though I'd changed my address not long ago. I didn't participate in sweepstakes, had no personal contacts over mail, used an alternate address for all accounts, so how did they still find me? Do the providers themselves sell me out because I refuse to take them up on their bullshit offers?

“Wouldn't surprise me ….”

My stomach grumbled and I slammed my hands onto the wheels of my wheelchair, hurriedly whirling around. I hated being paralyzed, not only because of my inability to walk, but also because I couldn't control my bladder and bowel movements. All because of one son of a bitch who thought that he could take a call while driving his truck through a narrow street ….