By request. This is the stuff I wrote on NaNo day 1 of this year.
Not planning on posting up the rest.
Words here: 2,079
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“What’s wrong oh mighty ‘wizard’”
The male voice mocked at me.
“Are you really nothing with this? Nothing without this tome of yours?”
My vision continuously blurred in and out and I could barely distinguish between the figures that stood in front of me. But I wasn’t so beat up that I wasn’t able to distinguish the dark shapes in front of me from what I had seen for a good minute or so moments before.
There were 3 robed figures in front of me. One being the closest to me and obviously making the most movement…anyone could easily surmise he was the type to wave his arms around and stuff when he talked….or at screamed. The type that was very energetic and…’emotional’ with everything he said or did.
Another of the 3 figures I guessed was a female…or perhaps a male with a very pretty face. For now I’ll stick with assuming it was a female…but honestly you never could tell these days…
Moving on though…she was standing behind the loud figure a distance away, unmoving and did not appear that she would speak up soon. She was also the one holding my ‘tome’ –as the loud one referred to it—in her arms. She held it tightly in her arms….if you could call that a ‘tight grip’…
She appeared to be a little wary of it. At the time I did not know why. It was after all the least of my worries.
The last robed figure stood opposite of her. Unlike the other three he was looking away towards me. Because of their hoods I couldn’t tell why he was looking away. Was he indifferent or bored? Again though…at the time, that was the least of my concern.
The loud one again shouted at me, “Why won’t you speak wizard?! Or do you have too much dust in your mouth?” He then let out a cackle and a second later I felt a strong inpact on my back that forced me into the soft dirt some more. Judging from how hard it was I surmised that it would be very very very painful as well if not for the fact I had been knocked numb the moment I had hit the dirt the first time and… I do have to admit… I was probably grateful for that as bad as this situation was turning out.
“Stop.” The robed female figure finally spoke up and appeared to take a step closer.
“Our goal is not to break him physically but mentally.”
Oh I never would have guessed I thought to myself. I mean…considering the state I was the moment I gave them an answer they have disagreed with.
The loud one let out a scoff in response and appeared to step away from me. I took that moment to attempt to roll over onto my side and attempted to curl myself inward to see check if all my ‘body parts’ were responding and still attached.
Before I could process anything or the situation I was in however there was sudden movement as I was lifted up off the ground. One of the three had apparently rushed up to me in the blink of an eye (quite literally), grabbed me by shirt collar and raised me up above their eye level.
My vision was still blurry and the rest –or rather most—of my body was still numb that I was unable to tell who had lifted me up off the ground. I coughed and gagged a few times as I strained to open an eye to look at whom had their grip on me and why. I managed to crack it open just enough to see that it was not the ‘loud’ one that had grabbed me but surprisingly the quiet one that seemed to be looking away previously.
I then heard some muttering between the figures. They appeared to be either discussing or arguing about something. My head started to feel dizzy at the same time so even though they weren’t whispering in particular I was unable to make out any of their conversation. The quiet one who had a hold of me suddenly shook his arm a bit as if to get my attention again and to shake me awake…or conscious. I looked back down again and for a moment my vision focused and I finally caught a glimpse of what was under the hood. It appeared to be a long haired male with white or silver hair staring back at me. He wore a large set of goggles of some sort so I was unable to clearly see his face or expression.
As the three. .. or rather two since the goggled-one did not seem to be paying attention to what the other two were discussing.. continued to discuss and mutter about something the feeling suddenly slowly came back in my arms and out of mostly pure willpower I managed to finally get them to move and started to raise them up towards the hand that had such a firm grip on my collar.
If I could loosen the grip somehow…maybe I could get away was all I could think about. But then, the arm shook a little as if to signal me that he knew what I was up to, and before I knew what was happening he pulled me back up right in front of his face stared right into my eyes and muttered a “sorry” before I suddenly felt an impact in my abdomen… and everything quickly blacked out…..
As dire and hopeless is this situation I have appeared to have found myself in... it was totally not my fault and unexpected. Before I explain it any further perhaps I should start from the very beginning.
My name is Dylas. I am not a ‘wizard’ as these robed people have dubbed me. I am a regular guy in his early 20s living on his own like most people my age are probably. I was never that close to my parents –though my old man was the sort to think kids should be independent by the time they’re 7—so it’s as expected that I’d be living alone and out of contact with them. I should add though that I do not have any malice… let alone strong sense of attachment towards them either.
So how did a regular guy like me end up in a situation like this? It all started one day when I was at the library…
I should mention that I work part time at a library as a library page. That’s the title for one of those people that help shelve and re-shelve books. The pay is not that good but the hours are very flexible. One of these days I aim to be one of those people working at the counter perhaps but a part of me thinks there is no point since this is just a temporary job. After all, I had a 2nd part time job at a small 24/7 supermarket down the street of my apartment as well. Normally I try to arrange it so that I can work the “graveyard shift” at the supermarket and the “day” at the library but unlike the library, work hours at the supermarket can be a lot more unpredictable at the drop of the dime. Hence this is also why I haven’t attempted getting a 3rd job… even though in my opinion I barely get by with the jobs I currently have now.
In my spare time right before or between shifts I borrow books from the library to read. I wouldn’t say I’m a lover of books but there are a few authors here and there whose books are pretty interesting to read.
The sequence of events that had led up to this… (or to be romantic… “my story starts”) on an unusually warm Friday afternoon….
“Hey Dylas.”
A voice called out from somewhere behind me. I flipped around to find the source of the voice and found my supervisor Mark behind me. He motioned me out of the corner I had found myself in trying to get the cart of books out and put his hand on my shoulder.
“We’re a little short up front and I want you to work at the computer for the remainder of your shift.”
I looked at him questioningly. “But sir…I’m a library page…that’s not part of my duties…” I explained to him.
“You don’t want to do it?” He asked me. I couldn’t tell if his voice was being commanding or sarcastically.
“Well…no….” I explained to him as I shook my head at the same time. “It’s just that…well….” I wanted to say how he should just call in a sub to do it rather than making me cover for it but then he added. “I’ll give you a bonus, don’t worry about it!” He added in a lower tone.
I blinked and nodded. Technically, in writing, you weren’t supposed to do such a thing but I could only surmise that Mark needed a replacement desperately at the moment. In fact, from what I could tell, Mark hated the whole –needing to call in an outside to sub- system. Every library has it’s own way of doing things and Mark was the type that didn’t like to change abruptly from a set pattern. Thus why, in my personal opinion, was the reason why Mark did not want to call in a sub.
Without any further objections I headed to an open check-out desk and sat down and let Mark give me a quick run through of how to work it even though it was pretty self-explanatory and I had seen how others had done it many times. Mark also had the courtesy to tell me how to check in books if the line for book check out disappeared. Afterwards he proceeded to direct/signal people that I was ‘open’ and after watching me attend to a few people he went off in the back again to do whatever he had originally been doing –I assume.
After helping a long line of people (I almost felt like I was manning the entrance of a football game right when the gate opened to the public or something like that) there was finally some downtime. I looked at the clock and noted that the time was 5:30pm. Even with this “overtime” task I had signed up to work until 6pm. I looked over at the cart of books that I was previously going to re-shelve and to my surprise found that they were all gone. Most likely Doug had cleaned it up while I was manning the front desk. Doug was also about the same age as me but for some reason every time I see him I get annoyed and aggravated. Doug for some reason always tried to compete with me as well, wanting to see who the fastest was at re-shelving books, even after I insist on not competing we usually end up competing anyway. I even had a feeling that he tried to always work whenever I signed to work –on purpose.
I sighed and turned back towards the desk and looked at the cart of books people were returning and a grin came over me. Perhaps if I was able to clear it all out before I was off work I could piss off Doug… since he was most likely lounging about somewhere in the back gloating that he has finished re-shelving all the books solo.
I proceeded to quickly, yet carefully, go through the books and re-checked them in. My grin growing wider and wider as I piled more and more books into the cart for needing to be re-shelve.
When I finally reached the last book a feeling of success came over me. I proceeded to check-in the last book but then realized the strangest thing. The last book had no bar code on it. I looked all over the outside and inside cover and there was nothing. Actually when I looked inside the book the pages of it were all blank save for one…. I pondered a bit about what sort of book this actually was but noticed some library patrons needed to be attended to and I quickly shut the book and placed it to the side to help them, keeping in mind that I would need to ask Mark about it later….
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