Anyway, I had gotten the idea for this story a while ago. I was trying to find a story I could write that was set in modern times but had the weapons and stuff from the olden times. Ie: Scythes, swords, axes, etc. So while driving home from Florida I got to thinking in my I only had like 4 hours of sleep I'm freakin tired state I came up with this. Then I wrote all my ideas for it down in the journal that was supposed to be used for my AP lit Summer reading. ^^; I planned out everything that was going to happen so I would never get an indefinate block on writing this because I would always know where the story was going sooo I know I'M GOING TO FINISH THIS THING!!!! So you can expect an update ranging from 2-3 weeks to 2 months at most. If you don't see one bug me. ^^
So I guess with out further ado let me procure for you Our Modern Paradise.
Our Modern Paradise
Chapter One: Oh, Sweet Paradise.
The bright, yellow sun slowly rose of the walls of the great city of Wrath at 7:30 AM. Though the sun had been up for at least a little over an hour, the walls surrounding the oasis city blocked the light, giving the inhabitants of the futuristic city a little bit more sleep than the rest of the world. The walls not only let the sun rise later and set earlier but also protected the paradise from the raging sandstorms and fierce desert animals that hunted in the cold night.
Wrath was a technological marvel. Everything in it was environmentally beneficial. No gas, no coal, the water was clean and everything. The cars, trains and buses ran on electricity. It was humanity’s perfect city, a futuristic city in the middle of the wasteland, a modern oasis. A huge freshwater lake had sprung up when the city was first constructed and has been the main method of supplying water to the city since that tune. Surrounding the lake was a park filled with luscious greenery and outside the ring of green was a much wider and thicker ring of a mixture of silver buildings and skyscrapers and gray concrete.
As the sun rose, its shadow retreated to the opposite side of the city as if running from the fiery inferno the bright disk created. The shadow quickly passed over a house and shone into the window the revealed a modern, white wall-papered bedroom with a desk in the corner which held a complicated computer; opposite the desk sat a bed with a large lump in the center. The lump of covers and comforters started to slowly move then fling themselves over the edge of a double-size bed and a groggy, tall teenager emerged from their midst.
“I’m up, I’m up,” Aden mumbled to himself as he shuffled to the bathroom, his brown hair a disheveled mess. He took his shower and got dressed and felt a little more energized than before. He went down stairs to the kitchen to see his mother’s cheery, beaming face.
“Good morning sweetie,” she said as she kissed him on the forehead and presented him with a light breakfast of milk and a bagel with cream cheese. All she got back was a grunt as he dug into the food. He quickly finished his meal and got up to leave. Aden’s mom went through the annoying ritual of kissing him goodbye and then let him go out the door to school.
“Another day in paradise,” Aden sighed when he was a good distance away from the house.
Aden walked down the street to the corner to meet his best friend Elizabeth. She was standing there with a smile on her plush face, her long, brown hair flittering in the slight breeze. She wore her usual outfit of a light blue dress that went down to just above the knee with a matching plaid vest over a white shirt. Her sapphire eyes shone as they caught Aden running toward her. She gave him a quick hug as he arrived.
“You’ve just got to get used to the fact that she’s going to kiss you every morning,” Elizabeth frowned as she noticed Aden’s annoyed mood.
“I’m just not one for that kind of contact,” Aden said shoving his hands into his pockets a little deeper.
“Anyway, did you get your history homework done?” She asked putting her arms on her hips.
“It’s history, Liz, what do you think?” Aden replied shoving his hands even farther into the black holes that seemed to inhabit his pockets.
“I wish you’d take some interest in Wrath’s history; it’s very interesting.”
“I think history is a waste of time. There’s no point in learning about pointless things that have already happened.”
“You’re a hopeless case. Let’s get to school before we’re late,” Elizabeth sighed and rolled her eyes. They continued on at a quickened pace and promptly came up to the campus of Dur Gurth High. Hundreds of kids milled about in the schoolyard. Some hung out around the fountain in the middle and the rest either was standing or sitting on the lawn or doing the same at the steps to the school. Elizabeth and Aden walked through the throng of students up to the large silver doors of the school. It was a huge, gray and silver building- like all the others in Wrath- with spires on either end holding speakers where the sound of the school bell would ring. The middle housed a dome that had a beautiful painting of a scene of angels playing in the clouds. It looked like Renaissance period art. Under the dome was the main where Elizabeth and Aden found themselves as the bell shrieked throughout the campus.
“I’ll see you after school, right?” Aden asked.
“Yeah, in front of the fountain,” Liz smiled and added and she turned to leave for class. “I’ll see you there.”
Aden waved goodbye to her retreating figure and prepared himself for a very boring day of school.
After seven hours of boring lectures ranging from history to stop throwing the bouncy hot dogs at freshman, Aden walked out of school more tired then when he came in. He then walked over to the fountain to wait for his best friend. It was a grand fountain actually. In the middle of the pool of frothing water stood a large representation of the three-headed dog from Greek myth, the Cerberus. Aden had always wondered why the school chose that hellish dog to sit on the fountain in the middle of the schoolyard, but decided it represented the school well. It was a living Hell. Aden sat there for over an hour waiting for Elizabeth to arrive, but she never did. Sadly, Aden took his stuff and headed home.
This hadn’t been the first time this had happened to him. She would do this a lot and never fully tell Aden where she went or what she was doing. She would always dodge the subject or ignore it completely. It had worried him at first when it first started to occur. When it became common that she didn’t show up but was still around the next day he began to let it go and deal with it.
Fifteen minutes later he arrived at home, dealt with a kiss from his mom and then went to his room, did his homework and finally went to bed.
The next few days were the same as every other day; school, home, then sleep and rinse and repeat. The only thing different was that Aden didn’t see Elizabeth again like he usually did. He didn’t see her in the morning like always and she never showed up at the fountain. Although something extraordinary did happen one day while he was waiting for her.
He was standing next to the fountain looking around for Elizabeth when head a low growl from behind him. He spun around quickly to see what the cause of the noise was only to find nothing there. He turned back around, dismissing the noise as just a figment of his imagination until he hard it again a couple of minutes later louder than before. This time he turned around slowly knowing for sure something was really making that noise and that something was not anything he wanted to see. Ironically, smack dab in Aden’s face was the statue, but with yellow and red fur, three glowing pairs of yellow eyes, razor sharp flaws and teeth, and very much alive. Without any other thought in his mind he ran. His mind was so focused on getting the Hell away from the monster he didn’t notice that the Cerberus wasn’t following him and that nobody noticed him running and his frightened cries.
A couple of days later turned up no Elizabeth but yet another strange experience for Aden. As Aden was looking around in History during another boring lecture he noticed at the door a man in a black tuxedo looking straight at him. He was well kept and clean and Aden would have passed him off as some stranger checking in on classes except for one little thing. He held in his hand a jagged-edged, bloodstained sword that he held up by his shoulder as if he was showing off his weapon with a huge sharp-toothed smile.
“Aden?” His teacher asked looking at him. He was about to apologize for not paying attention when she continued. “Where’s Aden? Wasn’t he just here?"
She kept looking at him and now the rest of the class joined in and started looking at him. He went on to say that he was here and that everybody could stop looking at him now when he was cut short by the realization that everybody wasn’t looking at him; they were looking through him. He looked at the sharp-dressed man again, getting a little frightened at his predicament. The man laughed loudly; it was a bone-chilling, haunting laugh that resonated throughout the hallways and the classroom. The teacher had given up on looking for Aden and resumed her lecture, not noticing the hideous laughter booming through the room. Aden’s spine began to tingle, his hair started to stand on end, and he felt a lump form in his throat as he realized he was helplessly alone in this situation and there wasn’t a good ending in sight.
The man in the tuxedo opened the door and started to walk in. With the last bit of hope starting to well inside him he looked around to see if anybody noticed the door opening and this obviously homicidal man walking into the classroom. That last bit of hope was blown to smithereens, as nobody even twitched when the man kept walking closer and closer to him. Aden’s butt was glued to his seat; his mind was screaming at his legs to run but they wouldn’t listen. As the man got closer he noticed his skin look scaly, rough and riddled with scars that looked like they came from weapons such as his. He could see that this was no ordinary person; he had to be some kind of demon to have that kind of skin, teeth and black eyes with out any pupils. Within a couple of seconds the man was right up to Aden. He lifted the grisly sword above his head.
It seemed that Aden’s legs finally listened to his mind at the right time because when the demon-man brought the sword down it shattered the desk that he had occupied less that a second earlier. He felt the slivers of wood bounce of his back as he ran out of the room at lightning speed and down the hall. He had no idea where he was going but decided anywhere was better than where he just was. He took a glimpse behind him as he rounded the corner and saw the demon burst out of the classroom, spot him and run in his direction. He turned and kicked in another gear, adrenaline shooting throughout his veins, desperately trying to get away from the insane person trying to kill him.
He took a few more corners trying to lose him and ended up in the main lobby of the school. He looked around and behind him to make sure he hadn’t followed. He saw no one except some school staff who completely ignored him. He tried to calm himself down by breathing slower when he heard a strange noise above the dome. It was like the sound of a fluttering flag in the wind.
Suddenly, a part of the dome shattered and stone and glass rained down to the floor across the room from him. The demon had sprouted a pair of huge, dark, bat-like wings and laughed the same laugh he did when he saw Aden in the classroom. A vicious smile with those hideous pointed teeth splayed across his face as he spread his wings and with a thrust, pushed forward readying the sword to strike. Aden just stood there defeated. He couldn’t keep running like this; he would only be followed still until the demon finished his business. There was no place to go, no place to hide; he was going die right then and there and nobody would notice because nobody could see him! He stood stock still, watching in what seemed liked slow motion the demon flying towards him when he saw out the corner of his eye a white streak come across the lobby and crash into the suited man, sending him into the wall with a crash. The wall he crashed into crumbled around him.
In the space previously inhabited by the man in the tuxedo stood Elizabeth, clothed in a white dress with a gold and silver breastplate. Above her white boots were shin-guards made of the same material as her breastplate, gauntlets and gloves. In her hands she held a beautiful looking scythe. The handle was made of some kind of strong, white material painted with odd runes. The blade affixed at the top of the pole was a crescent shape that was so sharp it could easily cleave a head off like a hot knife through butter. But the most awe-inspiring feature of Elizabeth’s changes was the two elegant, white angel-wings spreading from her back.
She clenched her weapon as she saw the pile of rubble start to move. Anger had replaced the sadistic giddiness of the fiend as he slowly rose from the pile of rubble.
“I’ve finally found you, General Pluto!” Elizabeth shouted, holding her curved weapon at the ready, preparing for any attack her opponent might make. A smile replaced Pluto’s smile as he spoke.
“And I have finally found you, Lieutenant Elizabeth Martin Venetia as the mortals call you,” he glanced at Aden as he said the last couple of words. Elizabeth ignored the comment and responded.
“So, what brings you out of the fiery depths of Hell?”
“I was just doing a little scouting for our invasion of Wrath when I saw this mortal looking at me and I decided to have a little fun,” the demon smiled cruelly. Aden couldn’t believe what he was seeing. By this exchange of small talk Aden had moved himself up against the wall behind Elizabeth for as much protection he hoped he would receive. He wiped his eyes to see if he was really seeing clearly. Nothing had changed. Elizabeth was an angel about to face off against a demon or the devil; he didn’t know what the thing was he just wanted him to drop dead and leave him alone so that his life could return to normal. Though he didn’t think it was going to be that easy. He sighed and listened to the rest of their conversation.
“What about you?” The imp pointed his gnarly sword at the angel. “What are you doing here?”
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes as she spoke.
“To. Kill. You.”
With that she lunged forward, using her wings for speed and brought up her scythe to strike only to have it glance off Pluto’s weapon as she forced it down with a roar and then receive a punch to the gut, which with a flap of her beautiful wings, she easily absorbed. The general went on the offensive with a slash across the seraph’s chest that was countered with a block by a gauntlet that sent a shooting pain up her arm and a twirling slash that impaled the scythe through the demon’s shoulder. Acrid smelling blood oozed from the wound and washed itself over Elizabeth’s blade. Pluto gave a quick cry of pain as his smile increased in size. He retaliated with a lung that Elizabeth easily knocked away and spun around and embedded her weapon in his back. Another blood-curdling scream filled the air as more blood that smelled of rotting flesh oozed out of her victim.
Anger and revenge took over the fiend’s body as he swung wildly at the cherub, nicking her wing and slicing her across the stomach. Red stains covered her once white dress as blood ran from her wounds to the ground. With one final furious slice, Pluto knocked away Elizabeth’s scythe and kicked her down on her back with an angry shove of his foot. He raised his sword for the final stabbing blow. Elizabeth’s eyes glazed over as she readied herself for defeat when the demon suddenly froze and fell sideways revealing Aden who had snapped out his frozen terror and disbelief when the scythe landed in from and delivered the final blow to General Pluto by slicing off his head. The sharp-dressed headless body oozed and spurt blood from the wounds as the head, still frozen with a face of shock, rolled off to one side. Then after a couple of seconds the body and head disintegrated in a plume of smoke never to be seen again.
Breathing heavily and still clutching the scythe in a frightened vice-grip he spoke, shakily at first, then into a full-blown fit of rage.
“Tell me, WHAT THE ******** IS GOING ON HERE?!”
Well there ya go. ^^ I hope you liked it!!!! Please tell me what you think and what could be better about it. ^^ I take any and all critsicism. Again I hope you enjoyed it. ^^
meta out!!!!
Community Member
I liked it, it does have a few confusing/rushed moments though.
: D