glennr25
09-18-2013, 02:30 PM
Hey guys, I'm back! I know this is a short story forum, but I wanted to share the first couple of chapters of my nearly finished novel.
Chapter 1
Breaking into the apothecary was sure to get Seth’s hands chopped off. But he had to take the chance. Inside was the only thing that would stop the nightmares that were driving him crazy.
He checked his watch when he was outside his apartment building. Traveling on the main roads was too risky at night, patrols would be everywhere with curfew in effect. But even that wasn’t a sure thing. Since his mandatory microchip implant he felt like he was being watched day and night.
Every other day he would watch from his window as guardsmen entered into people’s homes, wondering when it would be his turn. They’d take them out by force and throw them into a black tinted van. They’d never come back. Most people who opposed the Empire never did. They said they didn’t do it because it was fun, but because it kept everything in order. They made sure to remind people every day with lessons, sometimes over the television, but most times everywhere you went. He was kneeling down next to one now in a rat infested alley as he waited for a patrol to pass by. Lesson # 1: Anyone who steals from the government steals from the people. Punishment: Your hands get chopped off.
Once the patrol was out of view he took his flashlight out from his back pocket and gave the signal. A few seconds later three rapid flashes came from the alley across the street, the pendant around his neck lit up bright green with each one. He made sure the coast was clear before crossing, keeping low to the pavement.
Suddenly he heard a shriek come from one of the houses in front, sending him sliding behind one of the cars parked on the curb. There was a struggle, then he saw a woman dart across the street. “We’ve got a runner,” said one of the guards. Seth heard the guard’s shock rifle charge, the hum it generated tickled his ear. Then a blue bolt shot out and the woman went down flat on her stomach; her eyes looking straight at Seth as her body twitched on the cool asphalt. He sucked in his breath.
The guard laughed. “She made it pretty far. Must be some kind of record.”
“Go on and reel her in so we can get out of here. I’m hungry.”
Seth listened for the footsteps, they were coming from the hood of the car. Two guards, one waited on the sidewalk. He slid under the car and watched as they dragged the body back to the van.
When they were gone he got out from under the car and went over to the alley. Rita and Darius were waiting. “Stupid, what was she thinking running off like that?” Rita said. He shone the light on her. Her blue eyes sparkled. Rita Higgins was sixteen like him, but you wouldn’t know it from the way she carried herself. Always cool and collected. Something she picked up while training with Father. He disappeared five years ago, right around the time Marridis Cash took over the world. But not before he taught Seth everything he knew. Martial arts came in handy at times like these.
“Maybe she knew she was going to die anyways,” Darius nervously said. Seth shifted the light onto him, he was still kneeling down behind one of the trash cans. Darius James’ eyes and skin were a coffee-colored match, and he was burly, thanks to his football training. He was the fastest person Seth knew, but cautious, always cautious. Which also came in handy.
They hurried through the alley and came out on the opposite end.
The apothecary was a dark-medieval-looking place that went well with the black smog that hung low in the sky. A sign hung over the front door that read THE EMPIRE’S APOTHECARY with a weird looking symbol that had markings along the edges, written in a language that Seth had never seen before. Ads of the great King, Marridis Cash, could be seen plastered all over the face of the building, although he wasn’t really a King. It was a little joke they shared between the three of them. Whenever they would see a new ad, they’d say, “There goes the King of Kings” or “All hail the great King.” They would usually bow with their arms extended. It helped lighten up their sad existence, even if it was just for a few minutes.
“This place has just taken the top spot of creepiest things I've seen in my life,” said Darius.
He was right, there was definitely something funny about the place. And it wasn't just the odd-looking architecture and symbols. It was something else. Something Seth couldn't quite explain. And sure enough, as Seth got closer to the building, burning red eyes flashed through his mind, a familiar dark hooded figure appeared, but this one looked different from the ones in his nightmare; he had long pointy ears, milky pale skin, and a grin of pure evil.
The sheer pain sent Seth down to the concrete, knees first, as he grasped his ears with both hands to try and stop the ringing noise.
Darius and Rita hurried over to him. “Are you okay, what happened?” the two of them asked with a duo of worried looks on their faces. After the pain subsided a bit he got up off of his knees with the help of them both.
“It looked like one of the dark figures from my nightmare,” said Seth, his hands trembling. “But he seemed different from the others somehow…darker. It felt…it almost felt like he was watching me.”
Darius took a couple steps back. “Whoa, I've never heard of nightmares doing that before. Maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all.”
“It could be a sign,” said Rita, with an alternative, unsurprisingly to Seth. “What if the thing you saw in your head doesn't want you to get the book and that’s why you saw him just now?” She always had the right thing to say whenever things were at their worse. Seth had long figured out that she was always just craving for an adventure. And here they were just when things couldn't get any weirder, Rita was ready to head into the abyss. It would usually take Darius and him to talk her out of her crazy plans. But this time Seth couldn't argue with her; he had to find a way to get the images out of his head no matter what.
“Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re not. Either way this is the best chance I've got in getting rid of this.”
Seth walked to the front door window, his green eyes reflected off the glass with the help of the streetlamp across the street. He cupped both hands and peered inside. There were potions and bottles at the far end of the room, a bunch of tables with chemistry equipment scattered all over, along with a shelf-full of books. It was too dark to make out anything else. He didn't notice any guards, which was odd because it was a shop owned by the Empire. His gut didn't like that, but his head kept telling him to move on for the sake of his sanity. They went around the castle-looking-building to see if they could somehow slip through a back door or something.
A high chain-link fence greeted them. He was the first to go up, and as he made his way over, Seth caught a camera whizzing at the far corner of the shop, the red glow from the lens giving it away. As soon as he noticed it, he barrel-rolled behind some bushes. Upon closer inspection, the camera seemed poorly placed, hitting a blind spot once it turned away from the fence. He signaled to Rita and Darius where the camera was as soon as he saw their heads in view. They ran over to him. “You see that door over there?” Seth said, pointing at the door about twenty yards—on the other end of the building—just below the camera. Darius and Rita nodded. “We need to get there as fast as we can once the camera stops and starts moving away from this corner. We have about fifteen seconds to make it there before it comes back around and catches us.”
“Don’t you find it odd that there’s only one camera and nobody guarding the place?” said Darius.
“It does seem weird,” Rita replied, moving around her feet to get a good position to run. “But we got this far, we’re not backing out now.”
The camera was coming back around. “OK, get ready,” said Seth. "One…two…three…Go.” He went first, with Darius and Rita following right behind, as they barely made it with three seconds to spare. Seth peered through the window; all he could see was what looked like a maintenance closet and a door that he figured led to the main room. Rita reached into her pocket and pulled out a lock pick. Another one of the many attributes that amazed Seth.
“Wait,” said Darius. “What if there’s an alarm?”
Seth looked inside one more time. “I don’t see any wires coming from the door.”
Rita shoved the metal wire into the door knob and said, “If there aren't any guards around and only one camera, what makes you think there would be an alarm, genius?”
Darius shrugged. “What if they meant for you to think that?”
“Well,” she said while jerking the pick around, “I guess we’re about to find out.” After a couple of minutes of moving the pick inside the keyhole, just before the sound of metal scratching metal was starting to get annoying, there was a click and the door opened. “See, no alarm.”
He clicked the flashlight on and opened the door to the main room. The first thing Seth noticed was the dizzying smell of chemicals, there were more odd symbols on the walls, and lots and lots of books and potions.
“OK,” Rita said while making her way to the bookshelf. “Let’s find the book and get out of here.”
“You don’t have to say that twice,” said Darius. “Do you know what it looks like?”
“It should be very old, and it should be entitled, ‘Alchemy.’”
Darius shot her a suspicious look. “Wait a minute, how do you know this again?”
“My parents know someone who used to work here before the Purge,” she explained. “He told me that there was a book with instructions that could help with getting rid of nightmares.”
Seth looked through the hundreds of books using the flashlight. There were books about chemistry, transmutation, anatomy, and history. Each one looked as if they were hundreds of years old, with an inch thick of dust at the top of the bookends. “Stop,” Rita demanded. Seth did just that. She bent down to grab an old dusty book. “Here it is.” She turned around and blew the dust all over Darius's face.
He coughed. “Watch it.”
The book was an old brown color, with a star symbol under the title, and a cover that looked like it had been ran through a shredder. Rita opened it as Seth kept the light on it. The pages were littered with the same strange symbols found around the walls in the shop. As Rita flipped through the pages, the images started flooding through Seth’s mind again. He stumbled a bit, catching himself on the bookshelf. Rita and Darius stopped and started to head over to him, when he waved them away. ”I’m okay. Keep looking.” They both looked at him for a minute, but eventually picked up where they left off.
”If it’s not too long,” said Rita as she flipped hastily, “maybe we can just rip the pages out and leave the book.”
“Good idea,” replied Darius. “That would save us the trouble of carrying it all the way back home.”
Rita’s eyes widened when she finally stopped. “Got it!”
The door knob to the front door started to rattle just then.
“Someone’s coming!” Darius warned. All three of them scattered, looking around for somewhere to hide. They settled behind one of the book shelves in the corner of the room just as the door was starting to swing open. Seth clicked the flashlight off.
The door opened with a loud creak, followed by heavy footsteps that sent a vibration running along the wooden floor beneath them with each step. Seth peeked through one of the creases in the bookshelf but couldn't see anything just yet. Whoever it was, they seemed to be making their way over to the bookshelf, their bookshelf. Rita was beside him, clutching the book for dear life, and Darius was crouched down, bullets of sweat forming on his brow.
The guard stopped in front of the bookshelf where they were hiding, his boots grinding on the wooden floor like nails on a chalkboard. The sound of his breath so close, Seth could smell what he had for breakfast.
This is it, he said to himself, Darius and Rita are going to get caught. He should have kept his big mouth shut and suffered through the nightmares instead of getting his best friends involved, now they won’t see their families or the light of day for the rest of their lives. If he had to he would distract him, give Rita and Darius enough time to get away.
But to Seth’s surprise, the guard turned around and walked back towards the door. Seth got a good look at his face as the light from outside glanced off of him.
Once the door closed, the three of them scurried to the back of the shop, and outside, where they jumped the fence with the book in hand, just missing being imprisoned for life; the guard’s grin still fresh on Seth’s mind.
Chapter 1
Breaking into the apothecary was sure to get Seth’s hands chopped off. But he had to take the chance. Inside was the only thing that would stop the nightmares that were driving him crazy.
He checked his watch when he was outside his apartment building. Traveling on the main roads was too risky at night, patrols would be everywhere with curfew in effect. But even that wasn’t a sure thing. Since his mandatory microchip implant he felt like he was being watched day and night.
Every other day he would watch from his window as guardsmen entered into people’s homes, wondering when it would be his turn. They’d take them out by force and throw them into a black tinted van. They’d never come back. Most people who opposed the Empire never did. They said they didn’t do it because it was fun, but because it kept everything in order. They made sure to remind people every day with lessons, sometimes over the television, but most times everywhere you went. He was kneeling down next to one now in a rat infested alley as he waited for a patrol to pass by. Lesson # 1: Anyone who steals from the government steals from the people. Punishment: Your hands get chopped off.
Once the patrol was out of view he took his flashlight out from his back pocket and gave the signal. A few seconds later three rapid flashes came from the alley across the street, the pendant around his neck lit up bright green with each one. He made sure the coast was clear before crossing, keeping low to the pavement.
Suddenly he heard a shriek come from one of the houses in front, sending him sliding behind one of the cars parked on the curb. There was a struggle, then he saw a woman dart across the street. “We’ve got a runner,” said one of the guards. Seth heard the guard’s shock rifle charge, the hum it generated tickled his ear. Then a blue bolt shot out and the woman went down flat on her stomach; her eyes looking straight at Seth as her body twitched on the cool asphalt. He sucked in his breath.
The guard laughed. “She made it pretty far. Must be some kind of record.”
“Go on and reel her in so we can get out of here. I’m hungry.”
Seth listened for the footsteps, they were coming from the hood of the car. Two guards, one waited on the sidewalk. He slid under the car and watched as they dragged the body back to the van.
When they were gone he got out from under the car and went over to the alley. Rita and Darius were waiting. “Stupid, what was she thinking running off like that?” Rita said. He shone the light on her. Her blue eyes sparkled. Rita Higgins was sixteen like him, but you wouldn’t know it from the way she carried herself. Always cool and collected. Something she picked up while training with Father. He disappeared five years ago, right around the time Marridis Cash took over the world. But not before he taught Seth everything he knew. Martial arts came in handy at times like these.
“Maybe she knew she was going to die anyways,” Darius nervously said. Seth shifted the light onto him, he was still kneeling down behind one of the trash cans. Darius James’ eyes and skin were a coffee-colored match, and he was burly, thanks to his football training. He was the fastest person Seth knew, but cautious, always cautious. Which also came in handy.
They hurried through the alley and came out on the opposite end.
The apothecary was a dark-medieval-looking place that went well with the black smog that hung low in the sky. A sign hung over the front door that read THE EMPIRE’S APOTHECARY with a weird looking symbol that had markings along the edges, written in a language that Seth had never seen before. Ads of the great King, Marridis Cash, could be seen plastered all over the face of the building, although he wasn’t really a King. It was a little joke they shared between the three of them. Whenever they would see a new ad, they’d say, “There goes the King of Kings” or “All hail the great King.” They would usually bow with their arms extended. It helped lighten up their sad existence, even if it was just for a few minutes.
“This place has just taken the top spot of creepiest things I've seen in my life,” said Darius.
He was right, there was definitely something funny about the place. And it wasn't just the odd-looking architecture and symbols. It was something else. Something Seth couldn't quite explain. And sure enough, as Seth got closer to the building, burning red eyes flashed through his mind, a familiar dark hooded figure appeared, but this one looked different from the ones in his nightmare; he had long pointy ears, milky pale skin, and a grin of pure evil.
The sheer pain sent Seth down to the concrete, knees first, as he grasped his ears with both hands to try and stop the ringing noise.
Darius and Rita hurried over to him. “Are you okay, what happened?” the two of them asked with a duo of worried looks on their faces. After the pain subsided a bit he got up off of his knees with the help of them both.
“It looked like one of the dark figures from my nightmare,” said Seth, his hands trembling. “But he seemed different from the others somehow…darker. It felt…it almost felt like he was watching me.”
Darius took a couple steps back. “Whoa, I've never heard of nightmares doing that before. Maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all.”
“It could be a sign,” said Rita, with an alternative, unsurprisingly to Seth. “What if the thing you saw in your head doesn't want you to get the book and that’s why you saw him just now?” She always had the right thing to say whenever things were at their worse. Seth had long figured out that she was always just craving for an adventure. And here they were just when things couldn't get any weirder, Rita was ready to head into the abyss. It would usually take Darius and him to talk her out of her crazy plans. But this time Seth couldn't argue with her; he had to find a way to get the images out of his head no matter what.
“Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re not. Either way this is the best chance I've got in getting rid of this.”
Seth walked to the front door window, his green eyes reflected off the glass with the help of the streetlamp across the street. He cupped both hands and peered inside. There were potions and bottles at the far end of the room, a bunch of tables with chemistry equipment scattered all over, along with a shelf-full of books. It was too dark to make out anything else. He didn't notice any guards, which was odd because it was a shop owned by the Empire. His gut didn't like that, but his head kept telling him to move on for the sake of his sanity. They went around the castle-looking-building to see if they could somehow slip through a back door or something.
A high chain-link fence greeted them. He was the first to go up, and as he made his way over, Seth caught a camera whizzing at the far corner of the shop, the red glow from the lens giving it away. As soon as he noticed it, he barrel-rolled behind some bushes. Upon closer inspection, the camera seemed poorly placed, hitting a blind spot once it turned away from the fence. He signaled to Rita and Darius where the camera was as soon as he saw their heads in view. They ran over to him. “You see that door over there?” Seth said, pointing at the door about twenty yards—on the other end of the building—just below the camera. Darius and Rita nodded. “We need to get there as fast as we can once the camera stops and starts moving away from this corner. We have about fifteen seconds to make it there before it comes back around and catches us.”
“Don’t you find it odd that there’s only one camera and nobody guarding the place?” said Darius.
“It does seem weird,” Rita replied, moving around her feet to get a good position to run. “But we got this far, we’re not backing out now.”
The camera was coming back around. “OK, get ready,” said Seth. "One…two…three…Go.” He went first, with Darius and Rita following right behind, as they barely made it with three seconds to spare. Seth peered through the window; all he could see was what looked like a maintenance closet and a door that he figured led to the main room. Rita reached into her pocket and pulled out a lock pick. Another one of the many attributes that amazed Seth.
“Wait,” said Darius. “What if there’s an alarm?”
Seth looked inside one more time. “I don’t see any wires coming from the door.”
Rita shoved the metal wire into the door knob and said, “If there aren't any guards around and only one camera, what makes you think there would be an alarm, genius?”
Darius shrugged. “What if they meant for you to think that?”
“Well,” she said while jerking the pick around, “I guess we’re about to find out.” After a couple of minutes of moving the pick inside the keyhole, just before the sound of metal scratching metal was starting to get annoying, there was a click and the door opened. “See, no alarm.”
He clicked the flashlight on and opened the door to the main room. The first thing Seth noticed was the dizzying smell of chemicals, there were more odd symbols on the walls, and lots and lots of books and potions.
“OK,” Rita said while making her way to the bookshelf. “Let’s find the book and get out of here.”
“You don’t have to say that twice,” said Darius. “Do you know what it looks like?”
“It should be very old, and it should be entitled, ‘Alchemy.’”
Darius shot her a suspicious look. “Wait a minute, how do you know this again?”
“My parents know someone who used to work here before the Purge,” she explained. “He told me that there was a book with instructions that could help with getting rid of nightmares.”
Seth looked through the hundreds of books using the flashlight. There were books about chemistry, transmutation, anatomy, and history. Each one looked as if they were hundreds of years old, with an inch thick of dust at the top of the bookends. “Stop,” Rita demanded. Seth did just that. She bent down to grab an old dusty book. “Here it is.” She turned around and blew the dust all over Darius's face.
He coughed. “Watch it.”
The book was an old brown color, with a star symbol under the title, and a cover that looked like it had been ran through a shredder. Rita opened it as Seth kept the light on it. The pages were littered with the same strange symbols found around the walls in the shop. As Rita flipped through the pages, the images started flooding through Seth’s mind again. He stumbled a bit, catching himself on the bookshelf. Rita and Darius stopped and started to head over to him, when he waved them away. ”I’m okay. Keep looking.” They both looked at him for a minute, but eventually picked up where they left off.
”If it’s not too long,” said Rita as she flipped hastily, “maybe we can just rip the pages out and leave the book.”
“Good idea,” replied Darius. “That would save us the trouble of carrying it all the way back home.”
Rita’s eyes widened when she finally stopped. “Got it!”
The door knob to the front door started to rattle just then.
“Someone’s coming!” Darius warned. All three of them scattered, looking around for somewhere to hide. They settled behind one of the book shelves in the corner of the room just as the door was starting to swing open. Seth clicked the flashlight off.
The door opened with a loud creak, followed by heavy footsteps that sent a vibration running along the wooden floor beneath them with each step. Seth peeked through one of the creases in the bookshelf but couldn't see anything just yet. Whoever it was, they seemed to be making their way over to the bookshelf, their bookshelf. Rita was beside him, clutching the book for dear life, and Darius was crouched down, bullets of sweat forming on his brow.
The guard stopped in front of the bookshelf where they were hiding, his boots grinding on the wooden floor like nails on a chalkboard. The sound of his breath so close, Seth could smell what he had for breakfast.
This is it, he said to himself, Darius and Rita are going to get caught. He should have kept his big mouth shut and suffered through the nightmares instead of getting his best friends involved, now they won’t see their families or the light of day for the rest of their lives. If he had to he would distract him, give Rita and Darius enough time to get away.
But to Seth’s surprise, the guard turned around and walked back towards the door. Seth got a good look at his face as the light from outside glanced off of him.
Once the door closed, the three of them scurried to the back of the shop, and outside, where they jumped the fence with the book in hand, just missing being imprisoned for life; the guard’s grin still fresh on Seth’s mind.