English corsework story

[Kariah]

Page 1
Stephanie Wood March 2005
A blessings curse
*
I walk alone,
I have always walked alone,
Will it ever change?
I doubt it,
For now, I am content with my shallow loneliness.

As I walked along the street silent and alone I could hear screams, screams of those soon to be dead. This was not unusual in this neighbourhood, so ignoring these now annoying sounds I walked on. I am not a very compassionate man and I keep myself to myself. In my ignorance I kicked something laying on the floor, I looked down and to my surprise I saw a babies rattle at my feet.
I turned to look at the nearest house there was only one light on, and then I heard something strange, something I couldn’t quite fathom. I went up to the house and realised that what I could here was a baby crying, but no other noise came from the house. They must be asleep I thought, it is the early hours of the morning. Yet I had this nagging feeling that all was not well, I eventually dragged myself away making a self promise to go back in the morning.
Ten minutes later I arrived home. My black leather sofa creaked as I collapsed into it, it had been a hard day at work and I just wanted to sleep, however I found when I finally got to bed I just couldn’t sleep. That sound rung in my head, it almost drove me off the edge of sanity, I could hear it as if I was back outside the house. When I eventually got to sleep I dreamt I was in the house holding the child in my arms; but then strangers took her from me and I was chased away. It was as if I was connected to the child in some way.
I dragged myself out of bed tired and weary because of my sleepless night. I pulled on my tight leather trousers and my black top, laden with chains, buckles and other metal garments. I had breakfast even though it made me feel sick. Then I slung my leather trench coat on my back and left for the house.
I walked quickly yet it seemed an age before I was there, yet what was that I heard but again a baby’s cry, and still no other sounds. So I decided upon something rash, I decided I was going to find out why this child had been left alone, why no one had come to its aid.
The door, being old and rotten broke easily with a single kick, I walked in not knowing what to expect. It was evident from the now clearer noise that the child resided upstairs. The stairs creaked as I walked up them. I wondered for a moment if anyone could hear me, but I knew something was wrong after I had broken down the door and no one had come to see what the noise was.
I tried to push open the door in which the wailing child lay, but the door seemed to be blocked by something heavy on the floor. I gave the door a harder push and it opened. The first thing I saw was a woman who lay spread-eagled on the floor, she seemed oddly familiar and yet I couldn’t place her. I have a problem with alcohol and get drunk often so this didn’t come as a surprise.
Dried blood lined the left side of her once pretty face, I realised she seemed not to be taking in breath and she lay quite still. I checked for a pulse, she was

[Kariah]

Page 2
Stephanie Wood March 2005
freezing cold and I found no pulse, no signs of life, consequently I realised she had deceased.
I walked over to the child’s crib; the child went silent as soon as I held it close to my heart, I felt like this child was part of me. I wanted to look after it; I wanted it to be a part of my life! I’d never felt quite like this but now I did. As I stared into the babies beautiful blue eyes I felt lost in awe.
Just then I heard sounds from downstairs and someone shout ‘POLICE’, I knew I had to get away yet I couldn’t let go of the child. Eventually as I heard the creaking of the stairs I had no choice, I lay it back into its cradle and walked towards the window, suddenly a policeman walked into the room.
“Sir you are under arrest for unauthorised entry and murder, you do not have to sa…” he told me, but I didn’t let him finish. I gathered up most of my remaining energy into my hand. I drew a symbol in the air, and then said a few words. What happened next will confuse that poor policeman for the rest of his days.
My whole body disappeared into the shadows, not to be seen in this neighbourhood again.
*

*
I woke up, a cold sweat held me prisoner, my pale face as white as a ghost. I’d had the dream again, well more of a nightmare, I kept dreaming of a figure and I knew I had to speak with them but I never saw their face and no matter how persistent I was I could never reach them.
I lay there for a while but I just couldn’t lull myself back to sleep, so with the looming depression of school now hanging like a cloud over my head I realised that I had to get up. I dragged myself out of bed and pulled on my uniform, I brushed my hair while looking in the mirror, and a young teenager stared back. Sixteen today! My black hair now neatly brushed though there was that little bit of frizz that always eluded me no matter how hard I tried to control it. My blue eyes seemed dull and tired, as usual. I walked down my stairs and made myself breakfast, the clock said it was six o’ clock in the morning. I sighed and finished eating.
I didn’t feel like waiting up for the rest of my family so I left a note on the kitchen table and set off for school about half six. My family would be up around seven but I’m adopted and therefore don’t feel like I’m as part of the family as the other kids. I have two adopted brothers, on eight and one thirteen. My brothers catch the bus to school but as I normally have the time to spare I walked there.
I liked observing the nature, the trees, the flowers, it always fascinated me, and I always felt as if no one else could feel like this. No one seemed to have such an affinity with it. As I walked I passed many people, and no one gave me a second glance, it was as if I wasn’t there. I had dreamt of using a symbol to become one with the shadows and had tried it out on many occasions, the strange thing was it always seemed to work.
I have always wondered what my parents were like, why they weren’t there for me. Did they have this gift that I seemed to have been blessed with? I always had thought like this on the way to school, but soon my thoughts were on my schoolwork and my thoughts on these matters were fated not to be thought again until another time.

[Kariah]

Page 3
Stephanie Wood March 2005
After school I walked home alone once more, as I walked along Steer Street I saw a man in the shadows; people passed him as if he wasn’t there, just like they did to me. He stared in my direction, and I knew he could see me too.
He then turned tail and ran, I chased after him, not knowing what to behold. I sprinted as fast as possible but I was still to slow for his awesome speed. Finally I gave up, he’d ran too far ahead it was impossible for me to go at that speed without an aid of somekind.
I wondered down a darkened alley, not sure what to expect. I’d never been to this area before, suddenly before I had time to notice someone pulled a sack over my head and then knocked me out cold.
*

*
As I came to I heard the sound of a warm, crackling fire, I woke with a start, what if it was a REAL FIRE! Then I saw the fireplace, a chair with it’s back towards me and a figure of a man was next to the fire. The figure was of the man I’d been chasing. The hunter had become the hunted or so it would seem.
I felt as if I could trust him somehow, so I edged closer to him.
“I suppose you wondering why I’ve brought you here?” he asked suddenly.
“Y…yes, sir.” I stuttered.
“Well I had to know I wasn’t being watched. I had to know the truth.” He replied.
“The truth to what exactly?” I asked him.
“Whether you are my child or not, it’s quite easy on your part, all I have to do is to take some blood and send it off to my friend. However, until I get the result, I have to keep you here.”<br>“Why?”<br>“Because, child, I need you to be there when the results come through.”<br>“Ok, what makes you think you’re my father? Or that I’m going to let you have my blood?”<br>“Well, to the first question I answer that I have a feeling, and my feelings are usually right, and to the latter question, you have no choice or I will never let you go.”<br> I held out my arm as he pulled out a sterilised needle out of a first aid kit.
“Do you even know what your doing?” I asked nervously.
“Indeed I do, for I used to be a fully qualified surgeon until that day.” Came the reply.
“What day?”<br>“Nevermind..”<br>“..but..
“NO BUTS, just forget it ok!!”<br>“Okay.” I answered, not wanting to anger him yet still so curious; and this is how it went on, me asking questions and him getting a bit peeved because I was asking so many questions
“Why don’t you just go to your room kid!” he finally told me. I could tell he was angry so I left the room with haste and proceeded up the narrow staircase. It was a bit cold in the room so I used a match to light the marble fireplace in the centre of the room. Just then I heard a knock at the door so I went to see if the door would be opened to the stranger waiting outside.

[Kariah]

Page 4
Stephanie Wood March 2005
It was and another man stepped though the door, he looked younger than the man holding me captive yet he had a chill about him, I just didn’t like him. I ran down the stares to join them.
“Ah, is this the child, Onyx?” asked the stranger.
“Indeed it is Tom, so please, without further ado, the results please.” Asked Onyx.
“You are indeed the Child’s father, Onyx.” The man told him as he handed him the papers, “See for yourself.
“I knew it!” Onyx explained. I couldn’t believe it, this man was actually my family! I HAD FAMILY!
“There is one other matter,” Tom told my father.
“What is it old friend?”<br>“Well I have come to find that you’re a wanted man, and the reward is very high…”
“…no you wouldn’t” Father interrupted, hastily, the breath knocked out of him, as if he’d been punched in the stomach a few dozen times.
“A tidy little sum like that will put me and my family into good care for the rest of our days, I’m sorry Onyx, but I have to turn you in. COME IN GUYS!” he spoke normally but then shouted the last of his words as if calling to someone outside.
“Tia, we must leave!” exclaimed my father, and, without further ado, he rushed me out of the door.
“How do…. you know…my name?” I asked with baited breath.
“Ah, I know a great deal of information about you child.” He told me, and I noted he seemed not to be as tired as me. We ran up the stairs and into my room, the hearth still burning away, but the room had warmed up quite a bit.
“Ahah, fire, watch closely child, I see you have mastered one of the many symbols in the ancient and noble art of Symbolism that runs through our family veins. For I saw you use the shadow symbol the day I followed you. But I shall now use symbols beyond your mastery.” He whispered to me.
“Is this a type of magic?” I asked.
“Which kind? The kind little kiddies watch on TV with wands and that kind of thing? No. Witchcraft? Wicca? Not that I’ve found so I think it is it’s own branch of an ancient teaching which was lost to the sands of time except to us.” He scorned me, well it felt like it, he wasn’t telling me off but there was a stern tone in his voice that I just couldn’t quite comprehend; it was as if he knew more than he was letting on.
“Oh, ok.” I said, then, suddenly the door burst open.
“Oh fire symbol, symbol of the ancients, element of passion and love, of fury and anger, I call upon your true power to cast away this foe.” He chanted as he drew a strange symbol in the air. Tom just laughed, and then something impossible happened. The flame from the fireplace jumped across the room at Tom and he was instantly ablaze. But my father was already chanting a new symbol, one I new well. I tried to start one myself but he grabbed me and pulled me to his chest.
He was surprisingly strong for how thin he was, it was obvious he had pulled me into his shadow.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To a place where no one will find us, no one will come for us.”<br>“Where though………”
“Just trust me,” it seemed like he ran for hours, finally stopping in a deserted meadow somewhere way out in the country, a strange plane stood in the meadow. He took me to it.

[Kariah]

Page 5
Stephanie Wood March 2005
It was pure black and the suns rays reflected of its shiny armour. It seemed so magnificent, so much so I was in awe of its breathtaking beauty. He pressed a panel on the side of the ship and a door open, out of which some stairs automatically flowed in a spiral, we were just about to take the first step when we heard voices from behind us. Then I heard a familiar voice, the voice of my adoptive parents.
*

*
I turned to hear what it was they were shouting at me. What I heard knocked me back as if I’d been punched.
“PLEASE TIA, DON’T GO WITH HIM, HE KILLED YOUR MOTHER!!!!” shouted my adoptive mother, in floods of tears. I turned to him, tears filling up in my eyes I blurted out
“Did…..you…? DID YOU KILL MY MOTHER!”<br>“Yes,” he said, almost calmly, “But I did it so I could obtain you, you see I am alone in this universe, and I wish for you to join me. But your mother refused and when I said I’d take you anyway she attacked me so I threw her off and she hit her head. I was drunk at the time, I didn’t think she was dead; I thought she was just unconscious so I left the house in one of my drunken rages. Then in the morning I had forgotten she’d told me about you but I’d found her dead anyway. I only found out after reading the letter she’d given me. And on that same day I vowed never to drink again, I vowed I’d find you, and I haven’t touched a single drop! Come on daughter, come with me, you do not belong on this vile planet.”<br> After that everything happened so fast, someone shot at my father and I jumped in front of him, then the world started to fade into darkness.
“TIA!” I heard my father scream.
*

*
I held her in my arms for the last day that time, I can’t really remember all the details just that someone shot at me and Tia jumped in the way to take me place. There and then my world fell apart, I scooped her up, and she turned to me smiling.
“Father…get..away……………from this place…..live on…for me…..I….love…you..” Then the life that remained in her flowed away like the river of death.
I walk alone
I haven’t always walked alone but I do now,
I go on for her, my shining star, my only child,
I came back to see her, to take her away, that was my selfish wish,
You gave me so much in those few short days and I hope I gave you enough,
I will always love you my child, always.
*

[Kariah]

All of the writings depicted here are copyright of YameretzuStephanie 2005

[Kariah]

thanks

[StockholmSyndrome]

Hmmm...
I don't know if I like it. Personally I think it's slightly cliched, and a lot of the words you use are longer and contain more syllables than they need to. It's promising, but I can't really appreciate it.
Just my opinion.

[claire]

[Lymphocyte2]

I think it is really good and I found it very interesting and mysterious. I especially like the way the beginning of the story was reflected upon at the end.

[Kariah]

Claire thats so childish, ever heard of constructive critism instedof something I would expect as a reply from a five year old not a 15 year old.