It
was a dark and stormy night. I could hear the thunder roll in across the sky
and I was certain it was because of 'them'. I could see one of them not too far
off, towering pitch figures, stretched thin, bodies of wood tar emitting a
constant low hum and the occasional crack of lightning; surveying the area with
wet, swollen red eyes. I'm not safe here.
No
one knew when they arrived. Reports slowly crept in globally about figures at
their windows and doors, there and then suddenly not. Untraceable as they were
it went largely unresolved until it was happening hourly. Day and night, all
over the world. People would go missing. Not just from their homes but their
cars, from work, while they were on the bus, playing at the park with their
children...in mid sentence with the woman checking out their groceries. One
minute they were there, then next the faint echo of a long deep breath..
(-aligurl75
- Round 2)
It
happened to me. I was standing in the kitchen talking to my sister when I
turned to get a drink from the refrigerator. I heard a gasp and swiveled to see
what was wrong when there was a flash of lightning and the lights went out for
a moment. When they came back on my sister was gone. Just poof,
nothing. What has she seen that made her gasp? On the floor when she had been
standing there lay a small pile of her stuff. Her cellphone, her glasses, the
necklace that she never took off and those silly orange crocs that she wore
everywhere. Why were these items left behind?
I
started running all over the house yelling my sister's name.
"Janet!!
Where are you Janet?? Answer me please. " I begged her even though I knew
she wasn't there. I still felt the need to check. I ran outside and saw several
other people standing in the streets looking as dazed and confused and panicky
as I felt. They were calling out their loved one's names.
So
another taking had happened and this time it was someone special to me that was
gone. Why was this happening? Who was taking them? I didn't know the answer to
any of these question but I was determined to find out. My sister was all I had
and I would be damned if I was going to lose her.
(ScrapHappyGabi
– Round 3)
My
mind was racing 100 miles a minute. Janet was 8 years younger than me. I'd been
taking care of her since I was 11 years old. Our parents were never home, I
don't think I've seen my dad in 3 weeks and who knows where mom was. I ran
upstairs, turned on the laptop and looked for anything that may give me
answers. I was scared but I knew that if I didn't understand what was going on,
I couldn't very well fight it or get to the bottom of the disappearances. I
found report after report of missing persons; people posting on every arm of
social media seeking their missing friends and families. No one was safe, celebrities,
politicians and religious heads as well - disappearing without so much as a
trace. There were no clues, nothing that linked the disappearances. I knew I
wasn't safe here. I turned off the lights, shut off the laptop and packed up a
few necessities, a tent, water and my cellphone charger. I wasn't necessarily
going camping but I needed to be able to go off grid for a while if necessary.
I made a few quick calls and waited for the storm to pass and then slipped out
the back door, officially off grid.
Danushaj Round 4
I didn’t dare take the car. No, this was a journey I had to make
on foot. But where to
start? Would I be heading
in the right direction? I
headed for high ground, high above the city lights, maybe I might be able to
see things clearer from there.
Along the way I took out the piece of paper I had scribbled a few
notes from looking at the laptop. The
clues weren’t adding up or piecing together easily. What was I missing?? I crumbled up the paper again and
shoved it in my pocket.
Oh how I wish I paid more attention when dad was talking. He had a mind for these sort of
puzzles and challenges. He
could figure out the Sunday Times crossword in under 10 minutes. Some sort of Menza genius, it was
times like these, or when I needed to change a tyre on my car, that I wished
his genius had rubbed off on me.
I sighed deeply. I
had to think logically, think a little outside the box too. I mentally replayed the clues in my
head.
· Flash/Crack of lightning
· All items containing metallic
objects left behind
· No rhyme or reason as to who was
being taken
· What were the pieces of humming
wood tar anyway??
My mind kept getting stuck on this last point, I had to push this
thought aside for now, focus on the other three. I must have looked like a raving
lunatic, muttering to myself. I
often found this to be the best way to process my thoughts, have a conversation
with myself. Hey it worked,
mostly.
It took me the better part of 2 hours, but I reached the top of
Mount Clayton. Climbing it
was treacherous, slipping in the mud, falling a few times. I am glad I packed light and the
frequent visits to the local gym using the Stairmaster paid off.
I was tired, I pitched my tent, and bunkered down for the rest of
the evening. Hoping my
dreams might provide me with answers. I
was so tired I dozed off quite easily, even with the flapping of the tent
against the low level wind outside.
I awoke to a large flash of lightning outside my tent. I yelped a loud cry. My breathing started to quicken. The light was extremely blinding, it
was very close. I felt
uneasy about pulling open the tent flaps to have a look. My heart was beating out of my chest,
I had to mentally slow my breathing. I
slowly unzipped the tent, being as quiet as I could, but you know tents, they
are not the quietest thing in the world. After what seemed like an eternity, I
managed to open the tent enough to poke my head around the corner.
About 2 paces from the tent lay a pile of items, a cell phone, a
pair of reading glasses, a metallic sports drink bottle and a pager. These looked familiar. Then my mind clicked, they belonged to
my neighbour Denise. She
worked as a vet in town, these were her items. OH NO! Had she followed me up here, trying to
get answers too? Now she
had been taken as well.
WHAT WAS THE CONNECTION? THINK! THINK! THINK!
What did Denise and my sister Janet have in common? They were both women, yeah! But men were being taken too. What was the damn connection? ARGH! THINK! THINK! THINK!
Then it dawned on me. Why
didn’t I see this earlier? The
connection was clear as day. No
time to lose, I had to get to the police station, or better still, the local
news station. Maybe if I
tell people about what I think the link is, maybe someone could make sense of
it? But it still raised a
lot of questions for me.
Round 5 – aligurl75
I finally saw what all these people had in common and why my
sister was taken. I think I knew why some objects were left behind and what
these so bodies of wood tar with a humming noise coming from them were. I quickly made my way back down the mountain
and headed to my house. I wanted to check out something in the kitchen and see
if my hunch was correct.
Running into the kitchen I raced to the pile of objects that was
left behind when my sister went missing. I kneeled down and started rifling
through the pile. Fluorescent orange silicon shoes, cellphone, her glasses and
a necklace that I had made for her from recycled computer components. It was
one of the first pieces of jewelry I had made from recycled/found objects and I
had gifted it to her and she had been so proud of my achievement and design
that she wore it everywhere and jokily called herself my walking billboard. She
was probably the reason for much of my success and many of my sales. The glasses being left behind was the only
thing that struck me as odd but other then those the items in the pile didn’t
surprise me. Also, something that I was expecting to find and helped to
solidify my theory on what happening to all these taken people, was a small
twig and a couple of leaves.
I
ran to the phone and called information requesting the number
for the local news station then asked to be connected to them. Twenty
five minutes later I slammed the phone
down in frustration. No one there would listen to me. I was passed from
person
to person and finally was basically called a nutcase and offered the
number to
the nearest mental health specialist. I
know I’m not crazy. I just need someone with an open mind to listen to
me. Picking
up the phone I started making a few more phone calls. First to the
police but when they wouldn’t
take me seriously either I tried the FBI and then Homeland security. NO
ONE WOULD LISTEN. Everyone was running around at defcon 1. Why
wouldn’t someone listen to me? I was only
trying to help. I had pieced it all together when I finally realized
that all
the people that were taken, everyone had something in common. The
celebrities,
the politicians, the world leader, my neighbor Denise and even my own
sister
Janet. All of these people were dedicated to making the world a better
place.
Both the earth itself and the people and creatures living on it. Denise
had been a veterinarian and a member
of many save the animal organizations. She had funded and been part of
many
efforts to help save animals from abuse and cruelty and to try and save
their
habitats. My sister was a genius like my father and had taken after him
in the
fact that both were renowned scientists.
Janet had multiple degrees in many of the earth science fields but she
was proclaimed as a genius in the field of oceanography. She was
dedicated to the study of marine life
and ecosystems, ocean circulations, plate tectonics and geology of the
sea
floor and the chemical and physical properties of the ocean. She had
been all
over the world studying the oceans. The
celebrities that had been taken were all ones that supported world
relief
organizations and ones that tried to give back to the world by trying to
improve it. The politicians and world
leaders that were taken were all ones that voted for issues and bills
that
would improve our environment and help to eliminate pollution and the
stripping
of the earth resources and voted for the policies that helped the world
in some
way by helping it’s population of both humans and creatures of all
kinds. The
religious leaders that were taken were ones that preached love and
caring and
not ones that touted hate and killing.
Suddenly the house was shook when the loudest, brightest flash of
lightening yet rocked the world knocking me to the floor as I lost my balance.
The brightness of the flash blinded me and I buried my face in the crook of my
arm. For what seemed like an eternity I cowered against the cold tile floor
waiting for it to end. My soul cried out for surely this must be the end of it
all. After what felt like forever I became aware of a soft humming noise and I
felt like I heard my name being called softly from what felt like far away. I
got unsteadily to my feet and looked around me. I could have sworn the voice
calling me had been my sister’s. I ran outside to try and find the voice.
Opening the front door I ran into the street only to be brought up
short when I saw the chaos around me. The noise was incredible and I had to
cover my ears with my hands. Cars were crashed into fences, trees and even houses.
People were running around crazily with loud angry voices. I saw a big burly
man kick in my neighbors door and go inside and then I heard screams and gun
shots. I grabbed my cellphone from my
pocket and lifted it to dial 911 but there was no signal, no bars, no
connection at all. The man came out of the house with a couple laptops under
his arm and pillowcase bulging with items.
My heart was pounding in fear. What should I do? These people were
crazy! He was walking down the sidewalk heading toward a car that was half
parked on the front lawn with the engine idling when my neighbor Linda came out
of the house with a gun in her hand. Before I knew what was happening, she
pulled back the trigger and shot the man in the back. As the man collapsed face
down in the sidewalk she ran over to him and grabbed the pillowcase and laptops
from him and then hiked her foot back and kicked the man in the head and side
several times. I screamed in surprise. She swerved around to look at me and I
stood there with a shocked expression on my face. She set the bag down at her
feet and slowly aimed the gun at me. Then she raised the gun to her lips in a
shushing motion and then pointed it back to me and tilter her head in question
like she was asking me if I understood. I took a step back and quickly shook my
head yes in acknowledgement. With a satisfied nod of her head she reached down
and picked up the bag and went back in the house and slammed the door behind
her. I turned to look at the man she had shot and saw to my astonishment that
he was not dead and was in fact slowly dragging himself along the sidewalk
leaving a trail of blood behind him on the pavement. I raced over to him as he
reached the car and pulled himself up into a standing position. I placed a hand
on his shoulder and I asked him if I could help him. Turning around he sneered
at me as he grabbed me by the front of my shirt and pulled me close to his
face. Breathing foul fumes into my face the man growled at me to mind my own
business before with a powerful shove of his arm he threw me backwards. I
landed about 3 feet away in the grass and with the wind knocked out of me from
the force of the fall I laid there a few moments trying to catch my breath.
Trying to calm myself I raised my hands to cover my eyes and realized that my
cheeks for wet from tears that were quietly running down my cheeks. I hadn’t
even realized that I had been crying but the shock of everything was affecting
me.
That is when I heard my voice again, A soft humming whisper
traveling on the wind. I slowly got to my feet and was almost drawn
magnetically across my neighbors front yard and through gate that connected our
back yards. There standing on my back
lawn was a 10ft tall tree like figure. I
gently approached this figure as I realized it was it that was humming my
name. I stopped about 5 feet away from
it and stood staring up in amazement. I felt no fear whatsoever and in fact
felt a overwhelming sense of calmness overtake me.
“Veronica, we have found
you. We have come for you. It is time to go my child.” A
humming sounded in the air emanating from the tree creature but surprisingly I
knew what it was saying to me, I could feel the meaning in my heart and in my
head. “My name is Draíocht and I am from the race of Ents. We have come here to save the creatures and earth hearted people from
destruction.”
As he spoke to me he reached a branchlike arm out to
me beckoning me to him. A bright flash of light and a boom of thunder sounded
and a fissure began opening behind him. It slowly grew until it was the size of
a doorway and I could see through it to a wonderfully glorious world. I looked
at him in joy and reached out and grasped the end of one of his branches and
followed him through the portal. The doorway closed behind us as we stepped
into the beautiful dimension. My lungs filled with the cleanest air I had ever
inhaled.
“ We came for you earlier but did not see you.” Draíocht explained to me that the flashes of
lightening were actually portals being opened as they came to rescue those that
were pure hearted. That he and his
kinsmen had seen that our earth was on the verge of destruction and the
believed that they needed to rescue those that they could. They chose people
that dedicated their lives to trying to improve the old world and not create or
contribute to the growing chaos and destruction. I looked around me in
amazement. I can not even begin to describe all the beauty around me.
Everything was pure and clean like I imagined that our earth had been millions
of years ago. I turned to thank Draíocht for bringing me here. He smiled gently
at me and nodded his great leafy head in acknowledgement.
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