Lexi's Short Stories

[Think Pink 1,967]

I'm fixing up some of my old work along with writing some new stuff, and I don't want to clog up this section with a hundred short story threads, so I'll be keeping them all here. Titles will be bolded so you know if something new is posted. 

 

Atara 

 

Atara sought out her usual meeting place. Her heart soaring with excitement, she called out cheerfully, “Rezenbane! I’m here!”

The towering monster turned. What Atara had always guessed was a smile spread across the creature’s face. He was roughly thirty feet tall, with onyx scales that seemed unable to reflect light. His teeth were daggers the size of her forearm.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here yesterday,” Atara began, trying as best as she could to hug the monster. “We had company and they would notice if I snuck out.”

The monster growled, but the sound wasn’t threatening. He rubbed his massive head against Atara’s petite shoulder. Though the dragon couldn’t speak, Atara had a feeling that he understood the gist of what she said.

Atara relayed to Rezenbane the stories she’d read recently—they both loved fairytales.

“My grandma would tell me the sweetest stories when I was little. My sister reminded me of one she told a long time ago.” Atara leaned against Rezenbane’s scaly side. “I promise, you’ll like it. A long time ago,” Atara tried to emulate the power in her grandmother’s voice. “There was an evil dragon.” Rezenbane interrupted with an indignant huff. Atara laughed, patting his side gently. “Let me finish before you get upset. The dragon would burn down any village he stumbled across, and eat any unlucky soul he happened upon. The princess of the kingdom in which the dragon lived came looking for him one day. The dragon roared and tried to scare the princess. He thought that she would run away like all the others had, but Princess Winnie stood her ground.” He leaned close to her, eager for more. “She knew that deep in his heart, the dragon wasn’t evil. Dragons have always wanted to protect, so Princess Winnie reasoned there was something the dragon was trying to keep hidden. She befriended the dragon and named him Krizzen. She visited the dragon often, and once Krizzen trusted her enough, he took Princess Winnie to see what he had been keeping secret for so long. In the bat-infested cave where he lived, Krizzen had been hiding a sword. Its hilt was inlaid with gold, and had obviously been there for a long time. Engraved in the silver part were the initials B.H.N. At first, it didn’t mean anything to Winnie. She went back to her castle to sleep, when she began thinking about the stories she’d heard of warriors when she was little. One had gone to fight a sea monster, and never returned. His name had been Benjamin Hazeron Nerra—initials B.H.N. It took a long time, but when Princess Winnie asked the dragon if that was his sword, it was ecstatic. When she retold the story of Benjamin, it wrapped its tail around the sword. No one knows exactly how, but the hero had been turned into a dragon! Princess Winnie searched long and hard for a healer who could return the dragon to his human form. When the spell was successfully completed, Benjamin and Winnie lived happily ever after as the rulers of a flourishing kingdom.”

Rezenbane seemed satisfied, maybe imagining himself as a human king. He let out a little yelp that Atara had learned meant he wanted more. She happily complied, wracking her brain for more stories to share. Atara had been so caught up in the story of a heroic knight that she hadn’t realized how late it had gotten. The sun had long ago set, and Atara’s village had come looking.

Rezenbane’s supernatural hearing picked up on the sounds of the approaching villagers first. He shifted awkwardly, motioning with his wings repeatedly in the direction they were coming. Atara didn’t put the pieces together until it was far too late.

“It’s back! The monster is back!” Someone screamed, their next words cut off by Rezenbane’s roar.

Atara froze, clutching to the nonexistent hope that maybe they were screaming about some other monster. Of course, they weren’t. She and Rezenbane had been spotted.

“Send a messenger for help! It’s going to kill us all!”

“It’s going to eat that little girl!”

Atara spun to face the assembling crowd. Rezenbane shifted to hide behind Atara, but there wasn’t much the young girl could do to shield him.

“That’s my daughter!” A familiar voice wailed. “Atara! Atara, run!” Her mother was screeching in horror.

“It’s okay!” Atara yelled in reply, but no one seemed to acknowledge her.

The thundering of hooves came before Atara could see the assembled warriors. Armed with bows and swords, the archers let loose their first volley of arrows. Most of them were unable to pierce Rezenbane’s thick layer of scales, but one had found its way into his maw.

Rezenbane roared in pain, rolling on the ground violently beside Atara. “Stop! Please!” Atara begged, but the warriors didn’t seem to care. She sprinted toward them, banging on the armored leg of the lead warrior. “Stop it! He wasn’t hurting me!”

“Get back to your mother.” The warrior’s voice was muffled through the heavy metal helmet perched atop his head. “It’s a dragon and it’ll kill you.”

“No he won’t,” Atara sobbed. “He’s good! I promise, we’re friends!”

The warrior reached to shove Atara back toward the crowd of villagers. “I said get back to your mother.”

She managed to ram the warrior’s leg hard enough that he lost balance, toppling off of his horse. Atara desperately struggled to climb onto the golden horse’s back. “Stop it!” The warrior lunged, but the horse was already in motion.

The horse tried to skitter away from Rezenbane, but Atara managed to keep him moving. “Rezenbane!” Atara captured the attention of the pained dragon. “Fly!”

The dragon seemed to understand the deeper meaning. Not fly to escape certain death at the hands of the warriors—fly and never return. A tear the size of Atara’s hands rolled down Rezenbane’s blackened body.

“Ready!” The call sounded from behind Atara. The archers were preparing yet another attack.

“Please!” Atara’s heart ached with the words. “Leave, Rezenbane!”

“Aim!”

The dragon stared at her hopelessly. His crimson eyes shone with fear. Finally, with a painful choking sound, Rezenbane dragged himself up from the ground.

“Fire!”

 

The arrows fell short of the dragon, already soaring into the sky. He paused out of the warriors’ reach to give a parting swish of his tail to Atara. She whispered, “Goodbye.”

 

[Amber Cole 1,557]

I like it!

[Sora96 17,256]

Not bad.

[Think Pink 1,967]

Sirens 

 

Her lips barely escaped the clutches of the pounding waves. She gasped for breath before she was sucked under once more. Lucy fought the ocean, but it was far stronger, pushing her deeper into its darkening depths.

As she sank, unable to swim, Lucy struggled to keep her eyes open. Ragged halves of the ship slowly descended alongside of her. She reached toward the wreckage, clinging to the senseless hope that it might save her, but the current dragged her away from it.

Interrupting the blue-green of the water strangling her was a shock of white. The face of one of the crew, their eyes glassy and unseeing.

A terrified scream escaped Lucy’s lips, flooding her lungs with seawater. She expected agony—the dreadful feeling of drowning. Instead, a strange sort of bliss washed over her.

The stinging pressure of the rough current and the burning of her lungs faded. Her limbs, though tired, felt new and flawless.

A myriad of sparkling colors swished before her eyes. Was this death? A painless spattering of color?

Something grasped her arms, gently pulling Lucy upwards. Before she knew it, she had broken the surface. The waves were as violent as ever, but something kept her bobbing instead of drowning.

As Lucy began to regain her breath, she realized what the colors were—tails. Elegant, beautiful things, shimmering in the dim moonlight. Attached to the tails in a surprisingly graceful way were human torsos.

Lucy stared in disbelief at the mermaids that had rescued her. They didn’t speak, but their emerald eyes were kind. “What—you’re not real,” Lucy stammered. She had to be hallucinating—people imagined things when they were close to death, right?

One mermaid managed to speak in broken English. “We save you.”

“Why?” Their tails were twined around her arms, keeping her from being swallowed by the expanse of ocean.

“Only eat men.”

Lucy froze, her breath paused. No, these weren’t gorgeous mystical creatures who had come to her rescue. These were sirens who had brought down the ship and murdered the sailors on board. As a stowaway gaining free passage to a new life in Italy, Lucy was the only girl present on the merchant ship.

“You killed them.” Lucy gasped, quivering. “By God, let me go! The maps were right! The only thing to the west is monsters!”

“Let go you drown.” The mermaid shook her head defiantly. “We save you.”

“I would rather drown than be saved by born killers!” Lucy thrashed, forcing the mermaids to release their life-giving grip. Without their support, she quickly slipped under the tormenting waves.

 

The mermaids circled her curiously, obviously wondering why Lucy would prefer to die than be saved. They watched with wide eyes and bloodied teeth until Lucy’s consciousness faded.

[Think Pink 1,967]

btw thanks for the comments guys!! 

 

In the Absence of Sanity 

 

Cosette’s tiny moccasins scraped along through the mud. Branches swayed, picking at her creamy pale skin. “Hurry up, Cozy!” Hattie shouted from ahead.

“Slow down!” Cosette’s breathing was heavy. She laid a hand across her little chest, feeling her lungs beat out of her body with exhaustion. “Hattie, you’re bigger! You have to wait!”

Hattie had begun to forget her younger friend. “I’m here, Cozy!” She screamed in delight. “I’m here! I told you it’s real!”

Cosette stumbled on through the dense underbrush, finally breaking out into an open space beneath an oak tree.

Twenty or so birdhouses were haphazardly glued together and attached to the base of the tree. Flitting in and out of the openings were splotches of color, which Cosette soon realized were fairies.

The magical creatures perched on Hattie’s skinny arms. “I told you they’re real!” Hattie stuck her tongue out at Cosette.

“Mommy told me fairies aren’t real.” Cosette said matter-of-factly, but she could hardly deny the little creatures darting around her head.

“So did mine,” A grin that would have impressed the Cheshire cat crossed Hattie’s young face. “They were wrong, Cozy!”

Cosette reached out toward one of the fairies. Its wings were a lovely shade of blue that she had never seen before. Its limbs were only slightly wider than a toothpick, and its small, fragile face was one of terror. “Don’t worry, Bluebell,” Hattie nodded at the fairy. “This is Cosette. She’s a friend. I promised I’d bring her.”

The fairy didn’t seem to accept this. Bluebell backed away from Cosette, taking refuge inside of the birdhouses. “How did you find them?” Cosette asked in wonder.

“I was in the backyard and saw Rosie.” Hattie inclined her head toward the pink fairy positioned on her wrist. “Mommy didn’t believe that I really saw her. So I followed Rosie here, where all of the fairies live.”

“What else is real?” Cosette’s thoughts jumped to stories of dragons and werewolves. “Do scary things exist too? Do they live here?” Goosebumps rose on the little girl’s arms.

“Of course not!” Hattie rolled her eyes, as if this were obvious. “Only fairies are real. This isn’t a Dr. Seuss book.”

Cosette’s ruby lips quivered. “But if fairies are real, then doesn’t that mean—”

“All the other stories are just in silly books. The only thing I’ve ever found are fairies, and Rosie says there’s nothing else. Except,” Hattie’s eyes darted from side to side.

Cosette leaned forward, her blue eyes wide with fear.

“Vampires!” Hattie tackled Cosette, pretending to bite her neck.

Cosette’s screeches filled the forest. Hattie got off of her, laughing hysterically. “Oh, Cozy!” She managed between fits of giggles. “You should have seen your face!”

“Vampires are real?” Cosette’s voice quavered.

“No! I told you, those are just stories!” Hattie clutched her stomach, her laughter slowly subsiding.

“It’s not funny, Hattie.” Cosette crossed her arms, having almost entirely forgotten the magical creatures before her. She returned her attention to the fairies and inspecting the birdhouses. “Is this where they live?”

Hattie nodded enthusiastically. “They were leaving in a hole in this tree, but that seemed so sad. I helped them steal the birdhouses and glue them all together.” She stuck her hands on her hips proudly.

It wasn’t long before Cosette had befriended all of the fairies, including their queen, Marigold. The little girl returned to the fairies daily, the trek through the woods becoming simpler over time. The fairies always pleaded with Cosette to bring more friends along, but Cosette’s friends would never dare to enter the woods.

In the world of the humans, Cosette was considered a mere child at six years old. In stark contrast, the fairies regarded her as an elder. The oldest fairy in their history had lived to be seven, but most never made it past four or five. Queen Marigold was relatively young at a year old, and became the closest of Cosette’s otherworldly friends.

When Cosette left the fairies, they never made any attempt to contact her. It wasn’t until one night when Cosette was curled up in her trundle bed, she felt a soft tingling at the tip of her nose. The little girl’s eyes slowly fluttered open, but widened in shock at the sight of a fairy standing on her face.

“Who are you?” Cosette blinked in bewilderment.

“Well, hello to you, too.” The fairy rolled her eyes. “The name is Poinsettia.”

“What do you want?” Cosette rubbed her eyes tiredly.

Poinsettia’s wings began to beat, lifting her from Cosette’s nose. “Something is wrong, and I need you to help me fix it.”

“Why haven’t I seen you with the other fairies? I thought I knew all of you.”

Poinsettia waved her hand. “I’m a bit shy. Won’t you come with me? The fairies need you.”

“Why would they need me?”

“You’re going to have to come see for yourself.”

Cosette reluctantly climbed out of bed. “My mommy and daddy are going to be upset if they find out that I left.”

“It’s okay, they won’t find out,”

Cosette followed Poinsettia into the depths of the woods. Unable to see in the inky blackness, Cosette had to rely on the fairy’s guiding hand.

“We’ve been walking for a long time.” Cosette noted. “It doesn’t usually take this long.”

“It just seems longer when it’s dark. Anyways, I have a story to tell you.” There was a darker hint to the fairy’s voice. “Did the other fairies tell you about the monsters that live in these woods?”

Cosette froze. “They said there weren’t any.”

Poinsettia burst out laughing. “What would a forest be worth if it weren’t infested with monsters?” Shaking her head, she continued. “Anyway, as I was saying before, monsters do live here. Specifically a pack of ogres only a little ways from the fairies.”

“Let’s leave then!”

“No, no, there’s no reason to leave. The other fairies lied to you, little one. Monsters are nothing to fear. They work quickly, too. They’re too kind to let their prey suffer.”

“Why didn’t you bring Hattie instead? What’s wrong, anyway?”

Poinsettia refused to answer. “We’re almost there.” She called out in a louder voice not intended for Cosette. “Hey! I brought your dinner, you fat pigs!”

Deep, guttural sounds resounded from not far ahead. Cosette backed away from the noises. “I’ll see the fairies tomorrow. I want to go home.”

Poinsettia glowered at the little girl. “Human children are such dimwits compared to magical beings. There is no trouble with the fairies.”

Cosette blinked innocently. “Then why are we here?”

“Because ogres get hungry too!”

A scream tore itself from Cosette’s throat as muddy hands swiped at her. She sprinted back the way she’d come, her small legs already aching. The ogres weren’t much faster, so their chase continued for what felt like an eternity.

Cosette happened upon the birdhouse construction where the fairies dwelled. She shook it madly, begging the fairies to come to her aid. What Cosette hadn’t seen at first was a body, only a few inches taller than her own, lying beside the fairies’ home.

Upon closer inspection, Cosette realized that the young figure belonged to Hattie. Her face was smeared with blood, and her body oddly picked at. The fairies covered her body like a swarm of bees, consuming the girl’s body at a vicious rate.

Cosette grabbed her head, squeezing her eyes shut and imagining herself back at home. She sobbed violently, her small body shaking. She wrapped her arms around herself for whatever faint protection they could provide.

“Cosette, sweetheart,”

The voice belonged to Cosette’s mother. Even for her, the little girl refused to open her eyes.

“Mommy, there are monsters! The monsters ate Hattie!” She shrieked. “They’re going to eat me too!”

“No, baby girl, there aren’t any monsters. It was all just a bad dream. Open your eyes and we’ll go downstairs and have a nice breakfast. I’ll make you whatever you want.”

Believing that her mother was the hero that could protect her from any evil ogre or fairy, Cosette’s eyelids slowly lifted.

She should have seen her mother’s face smiling back at her. She should have felt her soft bedding pressed against her side, and the curly fur of Mr. Snuggles the bear against her chin. Instead, an ogre's massive hand was pressed against her side, and Poinsettia’s sharp fangs hovered inches from Cosette’s eyes.

Screaming hysterically, it wasn’t long before Cosette had joined Hattie. However, they weren’t the only ones in the woods that soulless night.

Officer Tolbreak’s flashlight illuminated the underbrush. “Are you sure the girls would be in the woods?” Tolbreak glanced back at the set of parents behind him.

“Yes.” Hattie’s and Cosette’s mothers answered simultaneously.

Cosette’s mother continued, “Hattie was in the woods all the time, and Cosette started going with her. If they’re both gone, they must be here. I’d also be willing to bet it’s Hattie’s fault.” She glared spitefully at the woman beside her.

“Hattie would never—”

“Please,” Tolbreak interrupted halfheartedly. “Let’s worry about motives later. First let’s find these little girls and get them somewhere warm.”

The pack stopped in their tracks. A screech so full of pain and terror that it would have would have disturbed a tyrant echoed through the woods.

“That’s Cosette.” Her mother could barely speak. “Cozy!” She trampled through the dense forest, stumbling repeatedly. “Cozy, I’m here!”

Tolbreak managed to catch up to Cosette’s mother. “Mrs. Mara, allow me to go first.”

“My baby is crying!”

Tolbreak was unable to slow the determined mother, but it wouldn’t have mattered. None would have been able to escape the terrible sight before them.

The carnivorous ogres and fairies had made quick work of the young girls. Their bones showed through their tattered nightgowns—the only thing left to identify them.

“Where are they?” Hattie’s mother had glimpsed the skeletons, but thought nothing of them. It was a prank. Her daughter had to be somewhere nearby.

Tolbreak’s flashlight shined on the bodies, his jaw gone slack. “Detective!” Hattie’s mother shoved his shoulder in outrage. “Find my little girl! She’s here somewhere! Isn’t your job to get her back?”

“I—I,” Tolbreak stammered, unable to avert his gaze from the bodies. The three hadn’t even yet noticed the ocean of hot, steaming blood that surrounded them.

Reading Tolbreak’s thoughts, Cosette’s mother pointed past the skeletons. “This is some practical joke by some sick teenagers. Cozy is somewhere nearby. Don’t you bother spending time looking at those. They’re toys, aren’t they?”

“I don’t think they’re fake.” Tolbreak choked with emotion. “There’s—there’s so much blood. I’ve never seen a crime scene this violent before, or so thorough. There’s nothing left, but we heard her scream only a minute ago.”

Cosette’s mother’s breathing turned ragged as tears began to stream down her face. “No, Detective, that’s not it. They’re still here somewhere. This is all just some stupid prank.”

The maternal instinct buried deep inside of them barred the mothers from believing that the two tiny piles of bones could belong to their only daughters. “Oh, god, this can’t be,” Hattie’s mother knelt beside the larger body—that of her child. “Hattie, lovely, that isn’t you.” Blood soaked her fingers as she gripped the set of children’s pajamas. “Hattie,” Her voice broke painfully. “Where are you hiding?”

Tolbreak laid a hand on Hattie’s mother’s shoulder. “I believe you should go. I’ll call in a murder investigator, and—”

“Murder!” Cosette’s mother repeated, dropping to her knees. “She was six! She was only a little girl! No one murders little girls!”

Tolbreak was relieved from duty once his fellow officers arrived, but his work wasn’t complete. The two heartbroken mothers had slowly gone insane, and he’d already had to turn them away from the murder scene by force three times. Their neighbors were calling in reports of bouts of hysterical laughter, followed by rapid banging on their doors. The two, the most disturbed being Cosette’s mother, rambled on to anyone who would listen about how their daughters were playing in the woods with murderers. Finally, Tolbreak had them committed to an insane asylum in the nearby town of Sunnystone.

After a year of depraved grieving, Hattie’s mother was released from Sunnystone Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Hattie had been her only child, and her mother learned that she would never again be able to have another. While Hattie’s mother did not live happily ever after, she was still more fortunate than Cosette’s mother.

Cosette’s mother spent the rest of her life locked in Sunnystone. She began to hallucinate, reliving the horrors of her daughter’s lifeless body. Even her dreams were not an escape, for Cosette’s corpse would rise and attack her. For Cosette’s mother, when the fairies invaded her cell and devoured her, it was a blissful ending. That was all she had wanted—for her insufferable insanity and pain to disappear, and to be able to rejoin her daughter in the gates of heaven.