Blueberries are evil
All the worst horror movies I’d ever seen flashed through my mind in one continuous panorama of terror, dismemberment, and gore.
CHOICES is the first book in the Chronicles of a Hero fantasy series. This is the story of Wendell P. Dipmier, who I’ve been writing about since 1990. I hope you’ll join me on this new adventure….as I tell the honest, complete story of this amazing 17 year old, exclusively on Life of Fiction.
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Chapter 3
Ever been so terrified of being 40,000 feet in the air that you screamed out in fear from the back of an airplane?
I have. Not recommended.
This was worse.
Imagine, if you will, a rock concert, or maybe a dance where a DJ controlled the music. You’re standing too close to those enormous speakers, because you want to feel the sound. You want to experience the music exploding from those giant black boxes. The thumping beats, intense vibrations all pummel your body, while the music stabs at your eardrums. Teleportation is almost identical, without the sound.
The moment my body passed through the opening, I pulled my arms and legs into my chest and did my best impression of an egg. There was a pulling sensation, yanking me from the brightness of the opening, and then it was gone. Before I could blink, the porch of the Matthew’s home was gone. The surrounding darkness swirled with strands of pale blue light, imitating wisps of smoke. I flinched as I passed through a wisp, and a sudden shock ripped through my body.
Up my spine and arching over my skull, the sensation seized every fiber of muscles and squeezed. My teeth snapped together hard, my jaw clenching so tight, I wondered if my molars would crack. It felt like peeing on a high-voltage electric fence.
Not that I’d ever done that.
Often.
A stabbing chill followed. Painful lines of cold raced through veins, small shards of glass pushing beneath my skin. The pressure moved from my heart, outward towards my hands and feet, then to fingers and toes. It felt like blood was being forced from my body through my limbs, but without an opening to escape. I wanted to scream with the pain, but nothing came out. I couldn’t inhale. The pressure compacted into my fingers and toes, pushing harder and harder. Like icy needles, the sensations stabbed violently at my toes and fingertips repeatedly, wanting to get out. Again I tried to cry out in pain, but a force held my chest in place.
A moment in-between taking and giving a breath.
Vibrations pummeled my bones, the whole of my body compressing, and I drifted away from consciousness. I blinked the wetness from my eyes. Delicate sparkles of purple and pure white mingled with the strands of blue around me.
Then, like being pulled off the roof of a building, I was falling.
My lungs filled with air, and my whole body went limp, exhausted from the constant contraction of my muscles. There was a moment when my mind disengaged from the sensations and wondered. I’m not sure how to describe this, but for a brief breath of time, there was nothing to fear. My brain ignored the sensations I was having and reminded me it was all a dream.
Flashes of rationalization took over in dynamic visuals, performing a live screenplay in front of me. Jeffrey and his goons had pushed me down the ravine, and I saw the act from a third person view. Felt the hands on me. My stomach churned as I tumbled down the leaf-covered hillside. I hit my head against a rock, sliding to a stop at the river’s edge. It’s why I was cold. I’d rolled partially into the stream, the cold sensations in my fingers were hands dipped in the icy stream.
Evan hadn’t actually found me.
Faster and faster I fell through the blackness, and my fingers twitched. Something within me reached out and my arms followed. I grasped at nothing to slow my fall.
There was nothing to hold on to.
BAMPH!
SMACK!
Owwwww.
A residue of that electricity trickled through my body, causing me to twitch. My ears popped. Lifting my head, silver sparks twinkled behind my eyelids and I swooned. I blinked, then forced my eyelids wide. I blinked again. The blackness retreated. Though nothing was clear to me, there were areas in my vision less dark and leaning towards a charcoal grey.
That was the weirdest thing I’ve ever…
Dax landed on my chest.
“Whuuuuu!” I wheezed, all the air punched from my lungs. Thrashing and gasping, I struggled to get the heavy, smelly kidnapper off of me.
“WooHOO! That’s TWO record jumps! I’m raising my prices!!” With a cough, he spat the broken cigar from his mouth and slid from my chest.
My knees folded up to meet my arms wrapped around my gut, and I rolled onto my side, hacking.
“Don’t worry, the pain’ll pass,” he said. “Just gotta acclimatize to the forces of a jump. Happens to everyone their first time.” Dax walked back over to me and leaned down. I flinched as calloused fingers patted my face. His grotesque grin of yellow teeth flashed beneath blue eyes, staring back at me. “Time ta meet the boss.”
With that, he grabbed me by the hair and dragged my flailing body across an uneven stone surface.
“Ow, Ow, OW!” I shouted, grabbing his hand with both of mine to protect my hair from being pulled out. “Let GO,” I screamed, now that I had air. Dax ignored me. Instead, he dragged me past circles of light. I could only face a single direction, but it allowed me to get a faint view of my surroundings. It was a large room. At least I think it was a room. I couldn’t see any windows or furniture. Honestly, I couldn’t see much of anything but stone floors and stone pillars. When I looked up into the circle of light, I caught a flash of an iron sconce gripping a torch.
“You’re hurting me!”
“Baby,” Dax said.
“Bully,” I replied.
“Wuss.”
“Thug.”
“Whiner.”
“MONSTER!”
We paused. Without warning, the fingers interlacing my hair slid down and around my neck.
…and squeezed.
“GAK,” was a stupid sound I always questioned in books and comics. It never seemed real when blurted from the lips of characters. But here I was, being choked by a monster, in the darkness, blurting out the only sound I could make. Just take note it happens when they squeeze, forcing out that last little giblet of air from your throat.
My fingers scratched at the tough hairy flesh of his fingers.
One corner of Dax’s mouth rose in a jagged snarl. “Monster?” He sneered. “I’ll show you a monster.” Fingers released my throat as my captor stepped backwards into the darkness.
I coughed, my hand going to the tender flesh of my neck. My heart pounded in my chest. Dax’s violence felt a bit too real for my taste, and the rest of my body retreated. Legs kicking out, I pushed my butt across the stone until my back slammed against a cold, solid surface behind me. One torch in the distance produced a soft glow of light between us. The effect magnified the depth of the shadows protected by the pillars themselves. I swallowed hard as Dax’s dark skin merged with those shadows, fading from view. The last thing I saw was an angry snarl of teeth. Then he was gone.
Dax’s raspy whisper rose from the shadows like a faint heartbeat. “Let’s see how long you last.”
Then he was gone.
Remember that comment about the universe and me?
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