Full Names for Darkness, Earth, Lightning, and Light

Darkness - Ander Belasko

Earth - Conall James Volkov

Lightning - Rela Nicole Vida

Light - Martha Alina Robertson

Progress on a Dragon

                                        

Here's some progress pics of a current project for Hunters of Shadows. It's still not done yet though. Only the flat colors are finished and I'm still working on adding some kind of shading to it.

Hunters of Shadows Draft 1 Chapter 2 - Punchable Faces

Special note before we begin: So I didn't meet the goal of having the rest of the 5 chapters done by January obviously. Nevertheless I finally managed to get through the writers block and pump out the last couple paragraphs of this second chapter. I do still plan to keep the first five chapters free for all so please keep an eye out for chapters 3-5! When I've built up enough of a backlog of chapters  after that I'll start posting them to my patreon as a tiered benefit. Please keep a look out on my patreon page for more details when that time arrives. One final note before you read this chapter. As I've finalized some of the character names since last chapter post any filler names have been replaced with the new one. I think the only one that is going to be different for this chapter is 'James' though, who is now 'Conall'- Conall James Volkov. Martha's full name is now Martha Alina Robertson.

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CHAPTER 2 – Punchable Faces

               Martha woke sluggishly. Head pounding her vision slowly came into blurry focus. At first the only thing that registered was a soft yellow light illuminating the area. As her vision cleared she could see that just a few feet from where she lay was a wall made of wrought iron bars. Suddenly aware of the hard stone she was lying on she attempted to sit up for a better look around and immediately regretted it. Besides the vertigo that her hasty movement caused the throbbing in her skull increased and every inch of her was screaming how sore her body was. Closing her eyes in attempt to keep the dizziness at bay she appreciated the fact that as far as she could tell she was only that. Sore.

               The memories of the events leading to her assault suddenly coming back to her full force had her leaping up in a panic. Which was another mistake as the vertigo and migraine that had just started to fade both came back with a vengeance causing her to topple forwards. Grabbing onto the bars for balance and to keep from face planting into them Martha tried to take a steadying breath.

               Voices. She could hear voices and footsteps drawing nearer to her cell. Assuming it was a cell. It couldn’t be anything else with the bars and three stone walls. Slowly- having finally learned her lesson about moving quickly right now- Martha began to back away from the bars until her back was against the wall behind her. Promptly the persons belonging to the approaching footsteps came into view ceasing their hushed whispering to each other at the sight of her.

               “Ahh, look who’s finally awake,” said the man. He was dark haired and a little gruff looking in his worn brown leather jacket and dark jeans. To his right and standing slightly behind him was a stern looking woman about a head taller than him with a dark red-orange bob-cut. Notably the lady was dressed in a gray business skirt and suit jacket with sensible flats in contrast to her more casually rugged companion.

               “Where-, “ Martha began voice catching in her throat.

               “Where are you?” he asked. “Well underground for starters-, “ the woman gives him a sharp look.

               “No!” Martha interrupts. “Conall! Where- Co-, “ she can’t finish the sentence. The memory of her cousin disappearing with that… thing replaying in her mind like a horror film. She can hardly process it but whoever these people holding her captive are she has no doubt they know something about it.

               “Conall?” the man’s brow furrows. A second later understanding lights his features. “Oh, you mean that boy that Darwin saw with you? A nasty shame that, getting hauled off by that monster. He was your cousin right? So sorry about that.“ he said not sounding really all that sorry.

               Paling slightly Martha asked “You don’t mean he’s- “

               “What? Dead? Unfortunate but more than likely.” Martha was really starting to despise this man’s irreverent attitude. “A right horrible way to go probably torn up to shreds- “

               “Shut up!” she shrieked grasping onto the iron bars again. She was only slightly validated by the reproachful look the woman was sending his way. “Why?” she croaked. “Why would you send that thing to kill-, “

               “What you think that was our doing?” he asked amusedly gesturing to his companion and himself in turn. “Oh, no no no little miss you got it all wrong.” She really wanted to punch that grin off his stupid face.

               “Margo that’s enough.” The woman finally speaks up before he can continue with what he meant by that. Stepping forward she pointedly glares her partner into taking a few steps back. Turning back to address Martha she says “Rest assured we are not responsible for sending the shadow beast after you or your cousin young lady.”

               “But you know what it is,” Martha pressed mentally filing away the term ‘shadow beast’.

               “We do.” She says.

               And says nothing else.

               “Well what do you know?” Martha asks again desperation seeping into her voice.

               “We-“ Margo starts.

               “I don’t think we should- “

“Hey I got this.” Margo holds a pacifying hand out to his companion. “I think this,” and he gestures with his other hand to Martha. “Is something we can use.” The woman purses her lips as she gives the man an unreadable look before seeming to concede. “Alright.” She says.

The man Margo steps forward to just a foot in front of the bars. In the same motion he reaches into a right pants pocket and pulls out a set of keys on  a ring which he twirls round his finger.  Martha takes a step back. “I- ” he smirks, “am going to unlock this door for you.” He reaches out with his other hand and rattles the bars. “And you are going to not kick up a fuss- like a good well behaved little girl- and we’ll take you upstairs, get you all cleaned up, with a hot meal, change of clothes, maybe some sweets.” Martha sincerely wishes to punch him. “And then we’ll tell the little miss everything she wants to know. In exchange,” he leans in towards her cell. Martha barely resists the urge to back up again. “You.” Dramatic pause. “Will become our little helper.” Margo has a very punchable face Martha decides.

“So?” he asks. “What does little miss say?” A teasing rattle of the keys.

Martha is silent for a beat as she glares her displeasure.

“Fine.” She says. She hadn’t thought that grin could get any wider, but there it does. “Wonderful!” says Margo. A playful toss of the keys from finger to palm and the lock gets undone. The hinges of the metal door creaks loudly as it’s pulled open. Margo makes a grand gesture to the left of himself one hand still on the cell door. ”Right this way Miss!”

Martha clenches her fists and takes a step forward.

Happy New Year 2020!

First off Happy New Year and welcome to a new Decade!

On to business.

So I kind of disappeared for about a month from here what with not even posting an update about anything but I am back and ready to actually post some stuff on here this month. I've been silent for far longer on other sites before but I'd managed at least a post or two each month since starting this blog so I feel a little like I let the ball drop last month. Anyway I also wanted to let people know that I DO still plan to have the rest of the first 5 rough draft chapters (or at least first 5k words) up for Hunters of Shadows by the end of this month. I've been in a little bit of a funk this holiday season but I'm still determined to try and meet that goal. Wish me luck please!

Hunters of Shadows Draft 1 Chapter 1- About Some Hills

Special note before we begin: Please ignore everything I crossed out in my post from yesterday (Nov 20th). I was misremembering what I had posted for my $1 Patreon tier and what I had originally planned for future tiers. I will be creating a $2 tier in the near future which is the tier that will have exclusive access to ALL rough draft chapters. This is what I was originally planning to do once I'd completed enough for the draft but then I decided I wanted to make certain chapters (the first five)available to everyone. Upon further thought while I will be posting the chapters ON patreon as well as everywhere else  I will not be activating the early access feature for them- they will be available to read for anyone who views my page.

Now without further ado please enjoy reading chapter one of Hunters of Shadows!

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CHAPTER 1 – About Some Hills

          Martha would have said it was too bright a day for a funeral except that Uncle Gregor would have loved this weather. The blonde sixteen year old stood still as a statue trying not to shiver in spite of the heavy coat she wore over her black dress and stockings. It was an unusually cloudless winter day but even with the sun shining down it was cold enough that the snow from the previous day had yet to melt. The harsh glare from the sunlight reflecting off the snow made the intricate copper and silver embellishments on the coffin gleam.

          An exquisitely beautiful sight her Uncle would have said.

          And then he would have gone on to explain how wonderful it was the way light could just bounce off of things like that. Like hitting a wall or the ground doesn’t bother it. It just keeps moving. Martha dug her nails into the gloved palms of her clenched fists. ‘Just painfully blinding more like,’ Martha thought as she squinted through the glare.

          As the coffin, covered with red roses placed by attending family members, was lowered into the freshly dug grave Martha caught movement out of the corner of her right eye. She’d have paid it no mind had she not been standing on her lonesome- the rest of the funeral party to her left and the forest behind the graveyard on her family’s estate in the near distance on her other side. And that flash of movement had been bright red.

          Unable to spot the source of the disturbance Martha turned her narrowed gaze back to consider the funeral party. No one was paying her any mind. Remembering how Uncle Gregor had always encouraged investigation when something was unknown or out of place, she figured he wouldn’t mind her leaving his funeral to do just that. Also, if her guess of it likely being some local teenagers bumbling through the woods on a dare or prank like they sometimes did she would be having words. Today was Uncle Gregors funeral for crying out loud.

          Had they no shame?

          No one turned to stop her as she made her way across the snowy field to the tree line. The old oaks and evergreens were rather crowded next to their fellows with thick bramble and bushes in between making navigating through a bit difficult. Nonetheless Martha was determined to give the trespassers a good telling off and so scrambled her way over logs and between gaps in the brush nevermind her dress. Martha stopped on top of a particularly large log to get her bearings. ‘Now where did they… there!’ Having spotted the same flash of red from earlier just ahead she made haste to catch up narrowly avoiding stumbling to the dirt in the process.

          Soon enough she came upon a clearing in the trees with a large hill at the center. It was here she finally got a good look at her quarry. “James Isaac McGavin what in the blazes do you think you’re doing!?” Whiping around in startlement at her shrill voice the young boy halfway up the hill stumbled and started a rather awkward fall downward. Red sled and all. Martha rushed to catch her twelve year old cousin before he could slam into the trees that came right up to the base of the steep hill. She barely managed to get in his path when he slammed into her as they both toppled backwards. Thankfully there was no sliding further down the hill.

          Pushing him off herself roughly she began “James- “

          “I was just sledding- “

          “On this hill?” she asked incredulously. Then she remembered the days events. “TODAY?!” she shrieked. James winced at her volume but stood his ground. “I just wanted to go sledding- “

          “On this hill?” she asked again.

          This hill. The terribly high and steep hill with brambles and tree trunks so close to the base you’re basically guaranteed to hit one and injure yourself. The same hill that both their parents and Uncle Gregor have specifically told them not to try sledding on. Because as her Uncle had also told Martha there was taking risks and then there was taking risks. And today of all days. She thought it would have been fine and dandy if he had just been exploring about the woods as Uncle Gregor would take them out to do but this. No. She was livid.

          He tried to explain himself. “You know the other hills around here are much shorter- “

          “Safer,” she interrupted.

          “Boring,” he retorted.

          Just as she was about to rip into James with what she thought of that there was a loud thud from the other side of the hill followed by an unintelligible string of words that were probably curses. Sharing a look, the cousins rushed around the hill towards the noise. The brown-haired boy reached the source first. “Holy crap!” he said

          Wide eyed Martha silently agreed. Lying there on the ground over a raised tree root with a trail of blood behind him was a middle aged man. Barely audibly the man groaned. Kneeling down next to him Martha could see that most of the blood was coming from his leg. Too much blood. Quickly standing up to rip the fabric from the bottom of her skirt she turned to James urgently. “Run and get help! I’ll stop the bleeding.”

          Her words brining her cousin out of his stunned silence James turned around to follow the order only to stop short. There in his path was a dark wispy shape looking rather wolf like with glowing blue eyes. And it was growling at him. Too stunned to move again he was helpless as the angry beast leapt towards him. The beast grabbed him by the arm with its jaws knocking him over before both disappeared in smoke. Martha was about to let loose a scream when a hand clamped over her mouth roughly from behind. 

          Reflexively she reached up to pry her attackers hands from her face even as she made to lunge forward and away. Not that such efforts amounted to much as her assailant already had a hold of Martha round her middle pinning her other arm to her side and was lifting her up none to gently. Kicking at them franticly while trying to make as much noise as she could through the hands over her face she attempted to use her free arm to jam her elbow into them. This did not phase them enough to let her go only earning a pained grunt and a tight “Grab her arm Margo!” from the man. At the mans words a second set of hands caught her free arm. “Let me see her neck,” the second person said and her head -mouth still covered- was yanked to the side. She felt a light prick at the exposed skin of her neck and soon her limbs started feeling heavier as her movement slowed. Martha struggled to keep resisting but it was getting harder to move and her eyelids refused to stay open for long. As her world started to fade she heard one of the men- she couldn’t tell which- muttering about “Well now what do we do with this…”

Here's an Update

Hello there!
So it's been a while and I figured it was time to make an announcement about what's up. As of this month my family is finally moved into our new home. Yay! There's still lots of unpacking and getting rid of the rest of the stuff we don't need and general shuffling around of people and things to take care of that we'll be busy with for a while longer.

Moving on I am happy to say that I have finally gotten the first chapter of the first rough draft for Hunters of Shadows written out! Holy moly! After how many years now!? XD I plan to have all of the five first chapters written out by the end of this coming January and I am currently working on the second chapter.

A while back I announced that I am now also on Patreon with a $1 tier set up as per post. I still have only a $1 tier but it is now set for a per monthly basis. Benefits I offer for the $1 tier are listed under my Prints and Products tab on this blog as well as my Patreon page. You might notice one of the benefits listed is exclusive access to completed rough draft chapters of Hunters of Shadows. I have recently decided to take a page out of my friend Xennariel's book and make the first five chapters of this first rough draft available to everyone and not just patrons. Patrons will however be able to access the chapters at least 7 days before the rest of the world as I finish each one.All subsequent chapters will remain patron only. I'd like to say that this is only Draft 1 and future drafts will be broken up into 7 (or 8?) parts-one for each book. I plan to treat each of these future drafts with the same 5 chapter rule I just described. For those of you who are not subscribed to my Patreon but still wish to read the whole story fear not for I will still be publishing an ebook for each part. I will update my Patreon page with these new terms for the Hunters drafts soon.

I think that is all for now but please st ay tuned for more art and writing in the near future!

-astroshadow

Edit 11/21/2019: Please ignore everything I crossed out in the above. I was misremembering what I had posted for my $1 Patreon tier and what I had originally planned for future tiers. I will be creating a $2 tier in the near future which is the tier that will have exclusive access to ALL rough draft chapters. This is what I was originally planning to do once I'd completed enough for the draft but then I decided I wanted to make certain chapters (the first five) available to everyone. Upon further thought while I will be posting the chapters ON patreon as well as everywhere else I will not be activating the early access feature for them- they will be available to read for anyone who views my page.

Wings and a Hollow (maybe) - Hunters of Shadows

And here we have the staggering difference between using and not using references for your art guys. Guess which is which ;)

Hollow is a character in Hunters of Shadows who will have lots of interaction with Bethesda (Beth). Figured I needed to scratch out at least some sort of visual for him and... yeah. I mean I wasn't trying to make it a masterpeice or anything this time around but I'm definitely using some sort of reference pictures the next time I try and draw any kind of concept art for him. Still need to decide if I really want the feather wings for him or if I want something more bat-like.

Hunters of Shadows: A Storm Is Coming 3

Made  in Photoshop CC

You can buy a print of this artwork here: DA and Redbubble and Society6

This is the third version (second redraw) of my first attempt at a poster/logo for the project. This one is actually the right size to be a poster too. Done in Photoshop this time. Yay for further improvement. Now I just need to decide on some sort of text to go with it. I suspect this still may not be the final version of this thing, but it is definitely the best one so far I think.

Dark City WIP - Shadow Hunters

So here’s a WIP of some environment practice/maybe concept art for my Shadow Hunters original story project. Being worked on in a combination of paint.net and Corel Painter Essentials but mostly in Corel. I’m liking that this isn’t as flat as the last time I tried drawing a cityscape digitally.

Bethesda's Wand - Shadow Hunters Excerpt

So here's a little snippet for Bethesda(Power). I'm hoping to get around to writing out some more stuff for her

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    Bethesda stared at the purple stick in her hand with its strange yellow-orange topper. Bringing it closer to the light she squinted at the scraggly black swirls that arched across the round surface at odd angles. If Bethesda had to call it anything she would describe it as a wand or a scepter for some person of regalness. The stem wasn't particularly ornate but she couldn't think of anything else it could be if not a wand. And if it did happen to be a wand then her next question was whether or not it actually worked. Heaving a heavy sigh Bethesda stuffed the fancy stick in her backpack and got up to track down the rest of their motley crew. She hoped no one had fallen in a pit or gotten their head bit off by some unholy night crawler while she wasn't looking.

    Thankfully it didn't take long to find where at least a few had wandered off to. Bethesda raised an eyebrow when she entered the cavern. “What exactly are you guys doing?” Three pairs of eyes look up at the question. Two sets look slightly guilty and the third...

A Storm Is Coming

Made in Sai

You can buy a print of this artwork here: DA

Practice for Hunters

SO I wanted to try drawing the Scythe that I want to give to Bethesda(Power) but then I remembered I've never drawn a Scythe before and also that I really should be practicing more with my drawing tablet. So here we have a general practice drawing of a scythe that I did with the tablet. I didn't try to draw the design that I wanted to figure out for her weapon but I will admit to Beth's color scheme affecting the final product.

Naming Lightning

(Please excuse my horrible handwriting in the photo)
So I think I've got my lightning girl's name at least halfway figured out.She's definitely going to be Rela Nicole 'Something'. I just need to figure out if I like Rela Castro, Rela Ruiz, Rela Vidal, or Rela Cohen better. I don't think I like Cohen as much as the others. Perhaps I'll look up the meanings of the other three names and see if that helps me decide. Anyone have any opinions on these names/ideas?

Lightning in a Strange World

So here's another drawing of my lightning girl this time digital and a back view. I'm thinking there's definiely going to be some dimension type travel in this story but there's a lot of world building that still needs to be done on that front. On another note I think I'm going to solidify this girl's in story age as 11 years old.

Lightning

Trying to get some first goes at the character designs for my Shadow Hunters project drawn out. I have yet to decide on a proper name for her but this girl will be the character associated with lightning in the story.

Original Story Project: Shadow Hunters

This one is more of an idea dump/just trying to pull together some stuff about the characters. I realize not all of the things on this- I'll call it a list- are technically complete thoughts.

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Things are becoming unstable. They must put the world back to rights- restore the balance

An intelligent monster- can take on human form- maybe one of the main chars is descended from one? Wings? Tail?

Monsters are going mad-

Becoming power hungry?

Affected by chaotic…?

Lose sense of self?

Run wild

Ability to reason/logic

Monsters are corrupted?

Main chars don’t know this right off the bat

Govs are after this knowledge/power of them (monsters/main chars)

Bethesda and her father are gamers. She is named after the company because her father lost a bet. Power. Knows the most? Of their duties/the legends (but not that she is one of the eight) 14 or 15 years old? Half Japanese?

8 who keep things in check- fire, power, lightning, air, earth, water, light, darkness

Power binds the others

Guardians?

They are the Shadow Hunters?

The organization that works with the eight?

The old armies

Lots of knowledge is lost/no longer commonly known

Maybe they have to find certain artifacts?

Or the markers are merely identification- either magical/non-magical

Or markers and find artifacts?

Bethesda has a wand or staff (Wand that turns into a staff? Wand and a staff?)

Witches and wizards are ones who can summon monsters?- The monsters are bound to them or their will

Maybe the light girl is a witch? Or the darkness boy?

Darkness is college kid- dresses kind of goth, likes cute animals- keeps pics of them on his phone, half hispanic

Light does ballet- 17? Or 16? Darker blond than Lucy, grey boots, white leggings/pants, grey skirt with white fluff/layers underneath, white shirt, waivy hair?

Earth boy- Orange shirt, black jeans, red convers type shoes, maybe he plays baseball or is also a gamer?, wears fingerless gloves?, lighter brown hair (chestnut?), also plays kickball?, or maybe hockey?, 13 years old?, knee pads elbow pads, arm bracer thingies

Water and Wind- brother and sister (twins?), Chinese, teenagers

Wind- Yellow short sleeve button up (untucked), brown aviators jacket, swim team

Water- loves birds, light (mint?) green skirt, black leggings/knit pants, light blue shirt, black half jacket, light blue sneakers with green accents, braid? Name- Ara?

Lucy is Fire- 6 years old? Or 7? Artist prodigy. Visions? Red tu-tu, black tights, red buckled shoes, white t-shirt, very light blond, ponytail

Change the wraith colors from red and purple to light blue

Lightning- Dark blue hoodie, dark blue jeans, girl, black and white sneakers, blue hair? Hispanic?

So:

Darkness- black

Light- white, grey

Water- light blue

Wind- yellow

Fire- red

Lightning- dark blue

Power- Purple

Earth- Orange?

Original Story Project: Shadow Hunters

So I don't actually have a whole lot fleshed out plot or character wise- I mostly have a concept that I want to turn into a story. What I do have are some bits and peices to kind of start figuring that plot and character stuff out. I just thought I'd post what little story excerpts I do have and see if anyone has some input.

(Note: any names you see used are likely just place holder names)

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We were lost and wandering through the woods alone. I sniffed; it was the smell of smoke. Someone had to be near. I stiffened. Halo, who was walking behind me stopped right in her tracks. “What is it?” she asked. Not answering her I moved to crouch down into the bushes and started moving in the direction of the smell of the smoke. Even having woken up seemingly in the middle of nowhere and lost I remembered enough from the last time I was here that there shouldn’t be anyone else here whatsoever. I could only think of one group that it could possibly be. And I didn’t like it. “Kaolin?” I held up a finger to signal Halo we needed to be quiet. We had come to a rather thick tangle in the brush. Still crouching, I carefully crawled through a small opening. Halo followed me closely. The opening led to a small nook in between a couple of trees on the edge of a large clearing. The small nook coupled with the thick surrounding brush and dim lighting of the forest offered adequate concealment.

Behind me I heard a muffled gasp from my friend when she looked over me to see through the nook. What we saw confirmed my suspicions from earlier. Huge hulking bipedal beasts were scattered around the clearing.
-
John stares at the blank word document in front of him. The blinking cursor is mocking him he swears. It is laughing at him. It thinks it’s so funny poking fun at him just because he can’t start a single sentence. And now it’s giving him a smug look like I bet I could write this essay better than you all by myself and-
John stops himself and rubs his eyes tiredly. It’s 3:34 in the morning and he has been sitting here for hours. Getting. Nothing. Done. And now he has morning classes in four hours, one of those has a test he still needs to study for and-

He really just needs to go to bed.

Sighing, John sits back in his chair tilting his head to stare morosely at the ceiling. A tiny black spider crawls across the stark white plaster. John tracks its progress idly as he lets his mind start to wander. He really wishes he had taken his sister’s advice against scheduling most of his classes for the morning. At the time, he had figured that he might as well just get the bulk of it done early so that he could spend the rest of the day working and studying. He did not realize how burnt out it was going to make him feel. Not until after he had been doing it for a few weeks. The spider stopped its trek before turning and moving to its left towards the wall with the window.
-
Fighting. Fighting, crying, running away from the sounds of violence. Panic and urgency at the forefront of your mind. I stumble and scrape my knees, my leg, my arms and I’m up again and fighting through the mud and the leaves. It hurts. Oh, it hurts so much- the pain, the sting of the brambles as they nick and dig into my skin. I think my ankle might be twisted. Keep running you can’t stop you can’t- If you stop then it’s the end. No. It can’t be the end you have to keep going. Your breathing is heavy and your throat feels raspy as you pant from exertion. Thud. They’re closer. Thud. Thud. Thud. They’re closer and closer and they’re almost on top of you.

Breathe.

You suck in the air, find a burst of speed you didn’t think you had. You spot the cave up ahead to the side on your left. You don’t think you just run over roots and rocks and dive in. You hunker down and press your back against the wall as you try to catch your breath

It’s a small opening of a cave. Maybe they won’t notice it.

There’s an explosion in the distance- shouting. Footsteps thunder past.

You take this chance to stand back up and run further into the cave. No time to think about where it leads as long it’s away, far far away. You can barely see and your lungs heave from the continued exertion, but you have to keep going you just can’t stop-

Your foot slips.

There’s nothing beneath you.

Darkness.

-

Stop thinking you’re overthinking this it’s so simple really the solution why didn’t you think about it before? So stupid. Estupido. Just pick the rock up. Throw it. Throw it hard like it’s going to burn you if you don’t. Throw it straight into their ugly laughing face. They deserve it. You feel light headed but not the bad kind .This is the kind where it feel s like you’re free and you’re looking down on all the tiny insects in the world. It’s addictive and you feel dangerously powerful. You lift your arm and pull back to throw.

“Ella, what are you doing?”

Ella blinks snapping out of it. Startled she looks at the rock in her hand and arm positioned to launch it. I don’t remember picking it up.
-

You pull the chair up and and climb on top of it. You hope no one passing by looks into the room to see you up on the window sill and standing on top of a chair.

-

Raise the broadsword above your head and bring it down swiftly. One quick stroke and they’re done for.

-

Take my hand and watch my life seep slowly out of my eyes like water going down the drain of the kitchen sink. Water is there in my blue eyes and then it’s gone down, down into the dark abyss. What was once a wellspring is now a waterfall running dry.

-

Pulling dirty tricks like that- It’s so… frustrating. I hate it. Am I really any better though? With that stunt I pulled at the museum?

-

Settling down beside the fire I draw my knees up under my chin. All is quiet in the night except for the distant chirping of the crickets. The fire is a delightful break from the harsh cold of the tundras.

-

Cold. Cold. Cold, cold, cold why is it so cold? Teeth chattering temperatures bite at my skin threatening to turn it blue. Water. Hah!

Well-

I guess ice is a form of water. It sucks though

-

“Oh, yes and we’re all just dying to meet you.”

“Well, obviously.”

“Does she understand sarcasm?”

-

You’re at your wits end. You can’t go on like this any longer you just- can’t. You’re exhausted and dirty, honestly you feel like you’ve just been run over by a herd of elephants and then dragged through their dung. And you smell like it too. Lying there in the dark you stare at the ceiling of the sewers you’ve taken shelter in. You’re too tired to move, yet also too tired to fall asleep if that makes any bit of sense. You don’t really think it does, but then when has what you think ever actually mattered in any of this. You’re just sick of it all. You want to go home.

-

1: Burgers are nasty

2: Are… are you okay?

1: There is nothing wrong with not liking burg-

3: No this is sacrilege there is no such thing as not liking burgers how could you even say that

4: That’s not normal bro

1: There is nothing wrong with not liking burgers!

4: *Shaking their head* That’s not normal

3: *Squinting at her* Are you sure you’re a teenager?

1: Yes! I just don’t like burgers

2: Okay, Stacy’s questionable food preferences aside-

1: *Throws her hands up*

-

“Is that a monopoly game?”

He grinned. “Yep!”

Rachel looks at him like he just suggested we go dumpster diving again “……we are not playing monopoly” she deadpans.

“Oh come on”. He plops the box in the center of the floor. “Not like it’d kill you to play one game.” Still grinning.

Lucy cheerily hops up from her spot by the window. “I’m game!” she declares.

-

And now everyone’s looking at him like he just lost the last of his loose screws.

-

I’m at my last straw now. The noise. It just keeps going over and over and over and it won’t stop. There it goes again. I resist the urge to grind my teeth.