Hell

[Numinous]

Michael sat on the hill, staring off into the distance...  Merely playing games with his mind, enjoying the ability to make the silhouttes of the horizon twist to his will.  Quickly turning his head to stare at the ground, the boy jumps...  He could've sworn that shadow moved...  Oh well, just his mind playing tricks on him again....  Sitting out here alone gave him peace, just the sound of the highway and the lights of the town below...  Then suddenly, a cold chill spreads forth across his back from the base of his spine.  He gasps for air, but his bmouth doesn't move and his lungs aren't working.  A feeling of impossible despair spreads throughout his body, the fear immobilizing him.  You must see now, Michael was afraid of the dark, and for good reason.

[Numinous]

Walking down the road, mumbling to himself...  Anthony was coming home late again, and he just wanted to get home...  Carefully eyeing the shadows, he started to jog.  He knew they were watching him, oh yes, they feared him almost as much as they feared him.  He now broke out into a cold sweat, running down the slope at a pace most definitively unsafe.  The same words kept running through his head...  The first one told him these things, and now he was hunted for his knowledge.  They had made this world, and they were going to take it back.  The rapid beating of his heart seemed so loud, surely someone must be able to hear it...  He knew they liked blood, as they hunted him by it's warmth.  So then they shoulkdn't be able to find him, he was too cold, oh so cold...

3 hours later, three students found him.  Pale as white paint, and sprawled out on the ground,  as though he fell while running.  He had scrapes all along his arms, but it looked like for some odd reason, he never bled...

[SDragon]

i like the way this changes the nature of fear of darkness; whereas the fear is normally based on what the darkness hides, this is based on the darkness itself.

very nice twist, bravo.

[Numinous]

She shouted from the pupit, great urgency in her voice!  Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the officers slowly approaching from halls to either side, she was running out of time.  This would be her last chance, and she knew it.  Once they caught her and locked her up, she would be unable to return and preach.  Her masters would come and save her, sure, but the church would never let her within it's walls again.  With great conviction, she shouted to the gathered believers.  "Rejoice my brothers!  Rejoice my sisters! My parents and my progeny!  Rejoice, for all questions have been answered, and uncertainty is gone!  No longer shall we fear what comes after this life, for I shall tell thee all you need to know!  The truth is what I shall speak to you now, and listen for it has the tempered nature of real wisdom!  Rejoice my friends as it is all over now!  Rejoice, for we are already in Hell!"  and with that, the police charged forth from the concealed halls, and the mass which had gathered gasped in unison as they saw her fall in their grip.  As they restrained her with metal chains, she grinned a knowing smile and imprinted their faces on her mind.  One day, she would be free, and one day, they would be punished.

[limetom]

I really hope the lack of transition was intentional...  otherwise, there needs to be some sort of transition for these two parts to make them make sense with one another.

Pretty good, otherwise.

[Numinous]

They're disconnected incidents, related to the same cause...  which of course, I don't even know...  I spent an hour tonight all alone, watching the highway.  Being alone with my mind does some crazy things to people...  er, me.

[Benicus]

I like it, its dark, scary, and hell-ish...

Continue!

[Túrin]

More please! :D I'm curious where this will be going.

[Numinous]

Actually, it's kinda goin' nowhere...  I was just bored, so I wrote it and posted it.

[Numinous]

[ic=The Witch]They all stare up at me, their eyes wider than the space they once left for me in the crowd.  One poor soul steps forward, bearing a torch.  Jittery as ever, Mr. Miller, you know what this will come to, don't you?  He lays it on the ground and leaps backwads into the waiting crowd, as if he had prodded a sleeping viper.

I see the tinder catch, slowly, torturously slow, the smoldering glow makes it's way up the hastily gathered thatch.  Finally, a flicker, and then a blaze of light as a flame begins it's short and manipulated life.  The leaping tendrils claw their way upwards, as if purgatory itself extended a hand with which to claim it's next victim.

I can't feel my legs anymore, the heat licks at my face.  My tears boil and hiss, and only my laughter can be heard over the roar of the consuming claw of the Devil himself. "Fools!  you just delay your fate and enrage the most powerful of the Coven!  Your deaths shall make mine appear as favorable as a stroll in the sun!  Your souls are MINE!"

And with that last exclamation, the flames were extingushed, gray ashes swirling through the space where the witch had been.  All present glanced around at their neighbors, and slowly crept back to their homes.  The shutters were closed and the doors barred.  Nobody would ever admit it, but the laughter still rang throughout the town square, as it would on every Hallow's Eve thereafter.[/ic]

[Numinous]

The following piece may be a bit graphic or unsettling for some.  Don't read on if you hae a weak stomach or are easily disturbed...

[spoiler=I warned you][ic=The Beast]So cold...  Why is it so cold?

It was dark, a velvety blackness so solid that it seemed nothing was real but the terrified thoughts in the back of his head.

Where am I?  What happened?

A red pulse, a throbbing pain.  He moved to touch the back of his head, but found his hands tied roughly behind him.

What the Hell is going on?

He heard a door squeak open, and he felt a cool breeze on his face.  A sweet september breeze met his face as he tried to twist around, a sense of urgency filling him.  al he managed to do was convulse in a broken way, as if he were a fish struggling for it's last breaths as the merciless fishermen watches with cold eyes.

Wait, I can feel it...  someone's there!

He stops moving, and tries to speak, to scream, for help, companionship, or just to fins something in the void all around him.  But as he tried to speak, he choked.  Dried blood filled his mouth, his throat, all was closed up with the crimson barrier.

Wait, I should be able to see something, anything, nowhere could be this dark...

And then it struck him like the truck which he'd been hit by when he was only six.  He had no eyes!  Crusts of red clung and cracked along his cheeks, and his absent tongue would not let him scream.

What is this!?  What nightmare am I in?  Please, please, pleasepleaseplease, let me WAKE UP!!!

"The beast is awake, who knows how many it will kill if it runs free again.  What should we do Sir?"

"Kill it, and the others too.  Kill them all, for they would do the same to us."

"Yes Sir."

A soft whistling filled the air, and the hammer went home with a dull thud.  The soldiers grimly stalked out of the shed, their eyes set low with shame for what they had done.

Back inside the shed, a boy's corpse attracted the first flies.  Shreds of his clothes littered the floor around him, and the pool where his head was just an hour before glistened wetly.  

Moonlight glittered across the morbid scene through a broken panel in the wall.  It was one of many, for the beasts did not take well to confinement.  Deep scratches gouged the interior of the simple shelter, and from the over-looking bluff came the shrill and mournful howl of a wolf.  the Enemy cried for it's fallen, and it's tears might be more deadly than it's hunger on this pale night.[/ic][/spoiler]