| Board : | |
| Author : | |
| Subject : | |
| Date : | |
|
~One Night in Changmu Town~ I stretch. What a beautiful night. Has any night been more beautiful than this? I let the cool air wash over me. The stars twinkle, as if just for me. The leafless trees cast wild shadows in the moonlight, all over the cemetery. The cemetery? I look around me. How did I get here? Suddenly, something pulls at me. I lurch forward, surprised. When I reach out in front of me, nothing's there. There. I feel it again. The pull. It's like something invisible is tugging at the core of me. I stagger, trying to recenter myself. It's late. I shouldn't be here. I should be home. Dinner. That's what this must be: my conscience. Mustn't keep my family waiting on me. That wouldn't be fair. I walk through the cemetery, over the hill, under the moon. As I near home, the pulling feeling grows stronger. I push it aside, irritated at the sensation, at its intensity, at its constant nagging. I walk in through the front door. I was right: dinner sits at the table, looking delicious in the candlelight. I sit at my place and see the steam rise off of the meal. I got here just in time. I'm glad I didn't keep mother and father waiting. I hear them in the next room, their footsteps approaching. I call out: "I'm home." But that's not the noise that comes out. It's a low, mangled moan that escapes my mouth. What -- ? The footsteps freeze. I bring my hands up to my face -- only to see that these are not my hands. Not as I remember them: they're grey, broken, putrid. No! What is this?! My parents' screams shatter the night silence. I look at them and see only fear and dread. The pulling returns. It rips me away from the table. Something is very wrong. I just need time to figure it out -- "Help me," I cry to my family. "Hrrrrrghmmmmhhhhh," they hear. Against my will, I careen past them, yanked hard by the incessant invisible force. Out the door I go, stumbling faster and faster toward a field. I try to stop, but I'm no longer in control. The field meets me. Tall grass, chilly with night dew, slaps at me as I rush through it. To where? To where? To an old wooden fencepost... ... where a wizard waits. He removes his hood and grins. He makes a final pulling motion, and I fall forward. He offers his hand to me on the ground. I look up at him -- and see all my relatives that I thought were long-dead in the darkness behind him. Dead friends. Dead villagers. In the moment before he speaks, I recall exactly what I was doing before I stretched in the moonlight. I was climbing out of the ground. Out of a grave. My grave. "You're awake," he coos, "and now, the world will never sleep again." -Xaverius | |