Fumbling with her groceries, Kate struggled to open the door. Breathing a sigh of relief when her cold and clumsy fingers finally manged to turn the key, she rushed in gratefully into the warmth of the house.
"How was your day, dear?" She called out, dumping bags full to bursting with food on the nearest table.
The house remained absolutely quiet. She nodded as if in response to an answer.
"Well, my day was nothing interesting either. Oh, except for this one call. Do you remember Ched, my old high school friend? Well apparently he decided to ditch his current job and start earning money by making a text-based RPG online game. Can you believe it? Studious Ched, who always wanted to be a boring old lawyer, suddenly up and decided to create a game that most likely only people with no life at all would play." She laughed. "What's more, he is actually earning money! What a shocker."
Humming quietly, she began to pack away the items she bought.
"Pass me that pair of scissors would you dear?" She said absentmindedly, all her attention focused on shelving tins of sardine neatly.
The curtains by the kitchen window came to life suddenly, carefully easing the pair of scissors off the table before offering it to Kate, tickling her ankle to inform her.
Kate brushed the curtains in thanks, before taking hold of the scissors and cutting open a packet of carrots.
"It's been too long since we actually had an evening to ourselves." Kate said fondly. She had been overwhelmed with evening shift after evening shift at the hospital lately.
"Why don't we spend this evening just enjoying ourselves, just chilling with Netflix?" She winked.
The house lights flickered for a moment.
Kate grinned in delight.
"I've missed you too." She said, caressing the edge of the kitchen table. "Now, I'll go set up the laptop, you'll make the other... arrangements, won't you?"
The lights flickered again. Leaning back against the table, she tipped her head up to the ceiling and her eyes softened.
"I love you too Dexter. Never doubt that." She murmured, feeling the warmth that can only come from her husband's ghost surrounding her.
It's close to midnight and crazy muggers lurking In the dark Under the street lights you see a knife that almost hits Your heart You try to scram, but they've DBKed you before You travel You try to bank as the mugger starts to click mug Too late You're hospitalized
'Cause this is city, city torn And no one's gonna save you from the mugger about to Strike You know it's city, city torn You're fighting for your cash inside a circus mugger tonight
You hear the footsteps and realize there's nowhere Left to run You feel the cold knife and wonder if you'll ever have some fun You bounty them and blacklist like you've got no Imagination But all the while you hear the mugger creepin' up Behind You're out of time
noob kingdom is the place to be, with prizes and chats and a very special queen bee! with minion the bot doing your every wish, if you're not there yet, well, come here you fish!
Now that's a sight to remember alright. I whistled softly, shielding my eyes against the glare of the sun as I look up at the huge structure in front of me. Tall and spindly towers rise out of a stout and solidly built stone castle looming out of the snow-covered hills to the east of Torn City, covering most of one side of a hill. Golden gates adorn the front of the castle, glittering in the morning light. The white marble that made up the foundation of the castle seemed to glow almost with its own light, and colourful flags moved with its own wind at the top of the towers.
The rising sun behind the castle made it seemed almost magical; bright and cheerful in a way that contrasted sharply with the grime and general dinginess of Torn. In fact, chances are it’s magical, what with the way it wasn’t here the day before.
I squinted at the castle, then glanced back at Torn, pondering if I should perform my rightful duty as a citizen and alert the city.
“Eh.” I shrugged. Whatever. Since when has “rightful duty” ever been a part of a Torn citizen’s dictionary? Besides, there might treasure of some sort within it, and I don’t wanna any other person to get to it before me.
Walking slowly towards the entrance, I eyed the shiny golden gate, and wondered how I was going to open it. It’s not like I can brute force open a gate 3 times my size that appeared just out of nowhere.
I looked at the grenades hanging on my belt (‘coz you know, no sane person will walk around Torn without at least one trusty grenade or two hanging around), and brightened. Oh hey, maybe a person’s gotta be creative. I rubbed my palms in excitement and picked up my pace.
To my disappointment, the gate swung open silently when I got within touching distance, the hinges moving smoothly and silently.
“Damn, why you gotta spoil my fun,” I grumbled as I strolled through the gate, glancing around in curiosity.
Beyond the gate was a pretty little courtyard, with a bubbling fountain in the middle that filled the air with a calming sort of white noise. The air had a sharp and clear quality to it, and the temperature seemed to drop slightly as I moved into the middle. I shivered and clutched my waist coat closer to me, feeling distinctly out-of-place. The quiet and peaceful atmosphere had me on edge.
A quiet cough right behind me broke the silence. “Excuse me, ma’am?”
I jumped and spun around, coming face-to-face with a… creature. I blinked and suppressed my instinct to take a step back.
“Hey don’t go around scaring people like that! Wear a bell or something to give me some warning. Jeez! What do you want?” I blustered.
Ice blue eyes framed by unnaturally sharp features looked at me as if I was nothing more than a speck of dirt on its shoes. The creature hovered in the air, fluttering almost transparent wings. “He wishes to see you. Follow me.”
With that very unhelpful answer, it simply turned its back on me and fluttered off without a backward glance.
I stood there for a moment, surprised, and sputtered at the air. “HEY! What’s happening! Who’s “he”? What are you?” I hollered at its back.
There was no response. Grumbling, I glanced around once more and figured there was nothing better to do. Who knows, maybe this mysterious he will hit me up with some free drugs or something.
Jogging to catch up with the creature’s brisk flight, I continued flinging more questions while panting. “What’s all this? How did this castle come out of nowhere? What’s happening?”
To my frustration, it ignored me, and set a faster pace, flying at almost sprinting speed, forcing me to give up on my questions in favour of concentrating on my breathing. We raced through corridor after corridor, all which seemed exactly the same, and I pretty much gave up on remembering the way back. Hey, I’m trying to not die here! Cardio is not my kind of thing. The most I do are my daily morning walks like the one I was doing this morning.
After what seemed like an eternal torment of running, running, and more running, we seemed to finally have reached a destination, slowing down. We stopped outside a pair of imposing wooden doors twice my height, carved with meticulous detail. I clutched at a nearby wall, panting, and tried not to die. Meanwhile, the stupid blasted irritating creature was perfectly fine, flying forwards to knock on the doors before pulling them open, entering the room without a backward glance at me, simply expecting me to follow.
I growled. I had enough of presumptuous bratty little things that expected me to follow them without any explanation whatsoever. Fine, so I did follow until here, but that didn’t meant I was going to continue. I turned on my heel, prepared to wander around until I found my way out. The castle is only so big right? I might as well filch anything expensive-looking as revenge too.
Before I even took a single step, that darn blasted thing of a creature firmly grabbed hold of my collar with one hand, then proceeded to casually drag me backwards as easy as you please, leaving me stumbling and wind-milling my hands to not fall.
“Hey!” I shouted.
I whirled around, yanking my Armalite to rest against my shoulder, prepared to give hell to whoever this mysterious “he” is.
I stared.
“Ched?”
What the hell? That was definitely Chedburn, Torn’s dearest and darlingest Mayor. Note the heavy sarcasm there. He was feverishly typing away at a computer at a desk in the middle of the room with one hand, the other frantically signing and initially papers that are laid beneath his pen and then replaced with lightning speed by a whole line of the same creature that led me in.
Speaking of which, that thing that pulled me in gave a disdainful sniff before bowing shallowly to Ched and flying off to god-knows-where. I glared at his retreating back, fighting the urge to throw my shoe at him before turning my attention back to the mayor.
“Right, right, sorry, no time to elaborate, this was a mistake, Christmas town wasn’t supposed to go up now, we are working on it, sorry that you wasted your time trying to explore the map before it was ready.” Ched rattled off, not even looking up at me.
I gaped. What? This empty, echoing castle was supposed to be the yearly Christmas Town where people would come and collect loot and gifts? I looked at those flying blue creatures with a new light. Those must be the legendary “coders” who supposedly helped Ched with running Torn.
“What are you still doing here? I’ve got more people to explain this too, things to do, places to be.” Ched snapped, causing me to jump.
He looked up for a brief second and glared at me. “Get!”
When Ched tells you to do something, you do it. You don’t wanna know about the consequences if you don’t. I hauled my butt out of there.
That didn’t mean I was happy. I didn’t get any free cans or loot or drugs. Grumbling, I set my way back into town, with the goal of the town forum in mind. I may have to do what Ched tells me to do, but that doesn’t mean I can’t complain. Everyone in Torn is going to know about my displeasure, that’s for sure.
And that, kids, is how Christmasgate 2018 occurred on the ground.
Hi! I've been enjoying this tool so far, just some minor issues in size of the layout for my comparatively smaller laptop screen. Thank you for your work in doing this!
Mirror mirror on the wall Who's the fairest of us all. We who live in this Torn city Amongst filth and dirt plenty. So tell me, don't dawdle, just give me a reply And if I'm not the answer then all shall die.
But no that's too merciful for fools Who dare to claim what is rightly mine. Shall I rend their living flesh from bones And call for beasts to go forth and dine? Or shall I call for ghosts of haunted pasts To stalk their every step and action. How many curses should I cast Until I hear them scream with passion?
Beggars, millionaires, thugs and heroes- All of them a mere nuisance to me. With a thought I can bring them woe, All made equal by their painful reality.
So! Beware all to not cross my line For all your lives are forfeit to mine. Mirror mirror on the wall I had better be the fairest of us all.
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