"Did
you really think that would scare me?"
or
"Yo mama's so scary..."
or
"Suck on that, big boy!"
or
"This place made the Bates Motel look like Disneyland..."
or
"I want my mummy!"
or
"You got candy? I only got rocks!"
or
feature a haunted house or a vampire or any Halloween creature
or have
your character in costume
or use
the Great Pumpkin
or
"When did you get to be so smart?"
or have a
character playing a video game
or have a
potato sack race
or have a
character watch NASCAR
*I’m
using a picture prompt
~Okay,
it’s Halloween and it’s my favorite season. I haven’t had a change to do much
cause of the stroke, but by George, I can do this lol. So, I’m putting Nighttime Promises on hold for this week
to do the Halloween prompts. Who knows, it may turn into something for later.
*evil laugh*
The
Derkelyng
Chapter One
Chapter One
There were myths handed down over
the years, stories of another time when there were no Derkelyng. Only
humans ruled the land, and legend said these humans didn’t hide from the night.
They lived and loved without fear. They had organized schools, governments,
banks, a written word, and they owned
businesses. They even kept time
differently, it was said. Those from the past were not afraid to go out at
night; they were not hunted as food…
or pleasure.
They
had no idea how lucky they were, if that was true. Things were not like
that now. The world as known by those humans ended in 2010. That’s when the Derkelyng
first showed themselves. And soon after that,
there was war.
The year now was 5PW, or Post War.
There were two groups that existed on Earth now. The Derkelyng—the
creatures that walked the night and lived off blood, and the humans. The Derkelyng lived in
the crumbling cities of the past. Humans lived away from the cities in whatever
places they could find that offered safety. Very little could destroy those walking nightmares. Sunlight could. So
could a stake to the heart, or cutting off their heads.
I was a human of the present world.
In the times we now lived in, it was
survival of the fittest. And I fully intended to survive. I was twenty years
old and had been fighting for my life for as long as I could remember. The
scars on my body and my face proved that. By the age of ten, I was proficient
with a knife and could shoot a gun. By fifteen, my father had been killed, and
I was on my own. I knew how to defend myself, thanks to my father. I only had
to kill two of the older men in my clan before they left me alone. Over the
next five years, I’d proved my usefulness to the clan and rose in its ranks.
I would survive.
But the truth was, if one of the
creatures took an interest in you, you were dead; either really dead, or dead
as undead… one of those things that haunted the night. None of us knew for sure
how the Derkelyng converted
a human. There were rumors the creatures infected humans with their bite. Other
rumors said it was from having sex with them. The Derkelyng certainly weren’t
telling.
Humans were prey, plain and simple.
Being prey was one thing, but being stupid was another. And I had been
incredibly stupid. Twilight was coming, and here I was still inside the city
limits. Stupid didn’t even begin to explain what I was. No, actually, dead was
probably what I was going to be.
“Shit, shit, shit.”
I found a burned-out shell of a house outside city limits that hadn’t
been ransacked yet. Maybe being nothing but a hull had fooled others, but I
still had to check it out. What I’d found had been amazing. There was a
basement under all that trash and burnt wood. Once I cleared away the junk,
broken furniture, and camouflage, I found a door in the floor. I broke the lock
and made my way down a sturdy staircase.
Things were looking up.
But even I wasn’t prepared for what I found. There were guns, at least
fifteen, and boxes and boxes of ammo to go with those weapons. There had been
walls packed three feet deep with canned goods and paper products too. Excited by
the bounty, I hadn’t really checked out the surroundings aboveground.
As I took inventory, a young man came out of the shadows, snarling obscenities
and waving a knife. I tried to reason with him, talk him down—I mean, he
had to see the rifle slung over my shoulder, right?—but when he threw the knife at me… well, that persuaded me otherwise.
I shot him between the eyes.
Maybe later I’d feel bad, feel something for the life I’d taken. Maybe.
First, I had to deal with a wailing young girl on a pallet in the back. She was
sick, deadly sick, and covered in open, seeping sores. The smell was horrible.
Or maybe that smell was the dead baby next to her. God.
Every-fucking-where I looked death stared at me. Knowing I was making a
mistake, I stayed and did what I could for her. I tried to leave water near
her, even tried to get her to drink, but I could tell she wasn’t long for this
world. She sounded like she was breathing through water, and her eyes were
glazed. Two hours later, she died.
I… I couldn’t help it; I had to bury all them. If only the guy would’ve
let me talk to him, instead of attacking me. Once he threw that knife, he
sealed his fate. And he had nicked me. Nothing bad, but bleeding and being out
of doors…yeah, not a good combination. I found some bottled water and washed
the cut. Then I cut a strip off my shirt and wrapped the wound.
With a sigh, I gathered the bodies and buried them. Once finished, I
went back to the basement to take stock. I found a tunnel they used to get out
of the basement, and I explored that. It was when I found the other end of the
tunnel that I realized how much time had passed, and where the damn thing came
out. Jesus Christ, I was fucked. I was back inside the city limits, night was
coming, and I had a cut which was still seeping.
Blood would draw the Derkelyng to me like a moth to a flame.
TBC. Make sure to visit the other
Briefers! Oh, the rest of this will post on Halloween. J It’s a short story I
hope y’all enjoy.
