Summoner of the Stars |
Issue 6
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"So what’s the catch?" I asked. I remember those words so long ago, and yet I should have read all the rules, and I didn't instead I was careless, reckless, and stupid all because I wanted to turn back time. Now time is destroyed. How did I end up destroying time? How did one become one with the stars?
I remember I woke up in my normal place on my desk surrounded by a cluster of books and papers scattered around like clothing in a teenager's room. The room was dark and dank, giving me the same impression of dread. The air smelled like the bog I came from. Sour like pickles, but bitter like fresh coffee. I stood up and opened the window to see the kingdom surrounding me as I rub my eyes. The light shines on my burning pupils and I groan. I turn around and I see, The king, an old graying man that walked with a cane, looking at me with a nod as I nod back to him. I must get to work. My body aching from the spells I’d performed nearly exhausted me. I hop over to my desk and swivel into my seat, I lay my hand on my cheek and sigh. I had only wished I could have a more exciting life but I was just sequestered in my seat. I was just doing what was requested of the king with nowhere to go and nobody to see. It’d be a big honor for a large Saddleback Toad to work for the king. I was the first of my kind. The epiphany that I was there for my race and not my ability hit me well early into the job. I was the only Toad on his staff and he tried treating me extra special, all needs were met, though I knew he was not a pleasant guy toward others. Sadly, I don’t have a job for shit, it’s not exciting, it’s not fun, and it’s not thrilling. I just sit and wait to be told what to do. The only highlight is I have a place to sleep and food to eat. I always hear the laughter of fellow adventurers and warriors pass by as they talk about their quests. I’d mutter in anger while reciting a book I’d already memorized. One day as I was chanting, I suddenly sighed, stopping myself then from my chants. Then a thought grew in my head: there was a spell. I was told to never use it. No ordinary being knew of it, only wizards knew it. I hop up to the top of a dusty shelf and grab a weathered paperback book. It was beaten up and damaged like it had been taken with a baseball bat. The pages were thinner than hair and the ink faded. I gently opened it as dust made a mushroom cloud on my face. I slowly turn the pages with my sticky mucus hands smearing the ink. I gag and then sniffle from the collection of dust. I sometimes ruin the pages by ripping them or getting them wet, making the old ink get on my hand. I arrived at the page “Go back in time,” So, What’s the catch? I thought as I read the spells' Adverse effects. “Adverse effects: 1. If you change the past you’ll become one with the stars, 2. Change the passage of time, 3…”. I kept reading the list, which lasted far too long as I grew bored. I yawned and sat in my seat. Holding my hand in the air. Finally, I started reciting the chant, stood up, and raised my other hand in the air. I stopped. Did I want to do this? I look back as I hear laughter, happiness, and freedom. I took a deep breath. I was stable here, I was safe here, but I was unhappy. My mind was made. I recite the chant. “Take me to the time I know. Take me to the time I see. Take me for a time. I wish to BE.” I feel the earth beneath me quake, the ground shake, and the world around me disappear before my eyes, as I see the arms of a strange being grabbed me and pull me into a dark void, as it opens wider and wider. More arms of different kinds from humanoid, tendrils, crab-like, and various other monsters grab objects from within my realm and take them, sucking me within. I hear a monster’s blood-curdling scream as the world gets consumed before my eyes. I turn to see a beast with billions of floating blood-red eyes, a fanged toothy smile, and a black headless body, with four tentacle arms; that morphed into human hands and human-like legs, covered in white hairs. He bends down toward me and darts at me. |
GABRIELLA WILLIAMS won 2nd Place of the Fiction Writing Contest. Gabriella writeS for fun. She lives right off the coast of Maine, and travels across the east coast United States writing fictional stories.
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