Alcohol and Cigarettes = Stories

Blood fills her cupped hands dripping on to the pristine tiles. Smeared marks cover her face and hands while blood still trickles from self-inflicted incisions on her wrists. Her crystal blue eyes are fixed on the blood as it draws the strength from her body. Hands reach out from about coiling fingers around her torn up wrists. Her eyes break off her wrists and move up to figure standing above her. The bright burns of the florescent lights make it hard for her to look for long. A searing pain is transferred through the hands into her wrists, she tries to struggle but the hands and a strange feeling of trust keep her in place. Braving the lights pain she looks back up pain shooting through her retinas but it does not out way the burning on her wrists. The figure above her moves closer, shielding her from the florescent lights. Her eyes focus and behold the glory of the beautiful man with messy curly black hair and awful pretty smile. He lets go of her wrists leaving two cauterised hand prints where the incisions were. ‘Come.’

He extends a hand out towards her. Befuddled she reaches back out towards it hesitating before touching his hand. In a snap he moves his hand wrenching her forwards as the room tears away. The walls peel away releasing the potential chaos that lies beneath them. Together they start to plummet with no sign weather it is down. Air rushes past her ears making it impossible to hear anything other than the wind tearing at her face. ‘WHO ARE YOU?!?!’ She screams trying to aim her words towards the man.

A smile appears upon his face as he turns his back to the directions they are falling. He clicks his fingers and a shockwave flies from them forcing her to close her eyes tight. All of a sudden she feels her feet on solid ground. She opens her eyes and sees she is back in the room she started.  Her mind is trying to comprehend the situation burning through everything at 200 miles per hour.

All she can splutter out is ‘Wha-?‘

‘You can call me Samael and I just want to show you something, something spectacular if I do say so myself,’ He spoke with a calm enthusiasm. She just looked at his with angry disbelief. ‘I’m sorry but I had to do that or you wouldn’t believe anything that is going to come next.’

The blood on the floor started to creep up the walls creating a beautiful crimson landscape with flowing rivers and lakes pulsating with every beat of her heart. Pictures started to create out of the blood around it almost like as if the blood was multiplying and expanding. People and creatures started to form some of them were joyous others melancholic but all of them she recognised.

‘Your blood is your life force everything you have done is carried through your blood. Watch the stories of your life and the souls you have encountered as I tell you the true power of your blood. In the beginning was god and she was the most beautiful floating within pure nothingness. Now I don’t know how she came to be but I know she was. Pure loneliness started to drive her mad so she started to claw at her body wishing for the release of death but as soon as she broke through her skin her blood started to bleed into the nothing creating the cosmos. Finding a new lease on life she started to explore the universe but it seemed empty. She scoured the cosmos looking for any life she could, still bleeding as she went creating with every drop. As her wounds started to heal the blood flowed less and so did her hope for finding life. However the last 8 drops crated 8 beings. 7 great archangels all were surrounding a brilliant light. God hid behind a great celestial body and watched in awe of her children as the light opened and out of it stepped out Lucifer. Lucifer called out to God.

‘Mother where are you?’

God flew towards them obscuring her face from her children. When she was close her size differed from them so greatly they looked like specks in comparison to her majesty. One of the arch angels spoke out to her and asked her why she covered her face, this arch angel went nameless at this point as with the other apart from Luicfer.

‘My son,’ her voice boomed with glory as the cosmos quaked at its sound, ‘My face will simply drive you insane. Upon my face you shall truly understand justice and be blind to everything else.’

He looked up to where she hid her face and asked her, ‘Please mother let me see your face, let me see your visage in all of its might,’

Firewall

By Bartholomew Walter

  We set our scene in Lucifi, a small borough of the greater New Seraph city. Lucifi was always seen as one of the more dangerous areas in New Seraph gaining its name from Lucifer himself, the angel of light. Neon flowed through the borough like veins carrying the lifeblood to the seedy bars and strip clubs. Deep beneath the dives and whorehouses there was a building that took you off the streets and into a world of jazz, liquor and sequins. A neon sign outside burns Miss Rose’s Ruin into the night air. The cold metal door gives way to velvet and hundreds of little lights. A sign at the front desk orders no cameras to be taken into the viewing room and all electronic devices to be switched off and after that? You are in Miss Rose’s world now, her and her girls bend reality to their will making you feel what they want and see what they want you to see. Burlesque becomes are form of magic within these walls and the customers know this using Miss Rose’s as an escape or a drug just to get those few minutes of relief that they have been craving. One of the girls known only as Lola la Neon, a girl who was brought up by Miss Rose and who only knows the life of burlesque, can hypnotise an entire room when she starts dancing. Every step and mistake so well planned weaving worry and excitement through your mind and deep into your wallet.

Above the stage in a small office sat Miss Rose every night watching her girls whispering all the words to the songs, to the same audience in her head every night. Reliving her days as a lounge singer was her on release. However tonight no matter how much she sang she couldn’t shake the words she had heard from two business men on the floor. Their words lingered in her ear,

‘It’s a shame this place won’t be around much longer, it’s actually a redeeming feature of this shithole,’ carelessly spluttered the fatter business man.

‘What do you mean it won’t be around much longer?’

‘What, do you live under some rock or do you just not notice anything other than yourself?’ The fatter man was getting louder and more obnoxious.

‘Why should I care about these fucks? Just tell me!’

‘Language boy, we’re in a classy joint. I will tell you but you have to listen, this is the last time…’

“Okay Cap’n’

‘Some of the boys above us have this little game, they call it the rapture or something because they are overly religious fucks and have this little god complex. Anyway what they do is they will chose a random small borough and decide that is the field. Then they pay the law enforcement to get distracted for a week or so while their personal armies battle it out and kill whoever gets in their way. Last man to withdraw wins and gets to decide which borough they attack next year and this time they picked Lucifi. Except this time they don’t just want to cleanse the land they want to fucken purify it and then erect something to forget it was ever there.’

‘When did they ever tell us this crazy shit at work?!?’

‘Well they never really told you guys, they just said from the 25th to the 31st of March stay out of the Lucifi borough. I keep forgetting shit is above your pay grade, sorry kid.’

‘Shit we better get out of here then!!’

‘Calm down kid, it is months away we are only in November; just enjoy the gems of this shithole while you still can.

The conversation was burning itself deep into Miss Rose’s mind. She could just move on like she used to and just start again but there was something about this place, something about the people that made her wanted to stay. She had to do something but what? There was no possible way she could save the borough with a troupe of burlesque dancers, but they might have some ideas she could use. Closing her eyes softly she let the music sail her away. She would ask them after tonight’s show had ended.

Just as Miss Rose’s mind had let go of her worries and drifted through peaceful bliss the final number came to a close and silence drafted through the club usher in the external noises of machines and the mechanical building clunking away. The sound awakens Miss Rose with a scream, just as the internal world is shattered. Reality bleeds in her room the potential future of Lucifi is like pus oozing through the cracks in the ceiling. Miss Rose swore she could see the borough lying in ruin, her livelihood tossed aside by mindless construction drones with no sense of the lives that were once here. She had to do something; she could never let that happen. Lola entered the room very cautiously, lingering on the door sensing something is wrong. ‘Miss, Miss Rose?’ She timidly posed the question.

‘What is it my dear? How may I help you?’ Miss rose spoke with her back to Lola which she only did when she had something to hide.

‘The night went well Miss, clients were all very well behaved and the earnings were a record high,’ she tip toed around the elephant in the room. Lola knew Miss Rose better than anyone, she knew everything would be revealed at the right time. Everything was so perfect with Miss Rose she always thought of everything and everyone and always thought many steps ahead, Watching her was like watching a mater chess player in the days before the computers outranked the humans too greatly.

‘Thanks dear, I will be out in a minute. Gather the girls up for me, would you dear?’

‘Yes Miss’ Lola removed herself with the room and disappeared down the stairs to the club. Miss Rose Took a deep breath held it for a few seconds and released it into the room.

Her lip quivered which his everybreath. shaking arms held her inches above his chest. symphonic sounds fill the room as the credits roll. The laptop screen dims the room light, some light escapes and catches on her lips and dances through her eyes. his heart was stolen in this very moment. Their lips were never destined to touch, he couldn't do that t her. She was in love with another she wasn't happy but he wasn't the kind to do that sort of thing but oh  boy did he wish he was. their eyes were fixated on each others but he could feel her breasts moving upon her exhaling under the flimsy blouse. a jolt snapped him out of his daydreaming. He awoke and after a breif moment of bliss his heart broke again. depression set in right on cue everything had its mourning routine and it always ended in his head hitting the pillow again as he couldn't muster up the strength to leaave just yet. A few hours and the depression is out weighted by a great hunger so he drags him miserable body past the unwashed clothes and empty cartons of cigarettes that litter the room. the lounge is well kept by his flatmates but it does nothing to improve his mood, it drains it as jealousy takes over. Why were they so fucken happy dances around in his head going from a little imp to tower demon causing massive destruction to his mind. No no no no NO FUCKEN NO he wasn't going to do this shit today. It was all in his mind wasn't it? if that was true then couldn't he control it? master his own destiny? astounded by his own burst of energy he decided to seize this moment. He had already called into work sick today, why not?

He grabbed the one carton of cigarettes that actually had something in it. Through some clothers into the wash. while he was waiting on that he chucked himself onto a couch outside that had been discarded by some teenagers party a few nicghts before. H lit a cigarette and basked in the sun till the wash was over. then grabbing the clothes and nestling them in the dryer as to waste as little of his mood boost. while they dried he jumped in the shower taking his time so when he got out everything had finished. Just as he got dressed in his clean clothes one of his flatmates arrived home from work.

'You going out tonight?' questioned the very slim flatmate of his 'Probably not,' seeing her had already thrown him a curve ball, 'just thought I'd just clean some clothes."

'You might as well come out then, you are all clean now,' She said it half heartedly, she had tried many times but never got anywhere so she had really given up hope. 'Yeah, k,' he peeped out, 'If I have a bad night that is it though, I can't take much more.'

My Fellow human I write these last memoirs from civilisations last relic, Raqia metal asylum. They tell me I have lost my mind and I must believe them for how can you trust an insane man? I do ot know when my sanity left me maybe I never even had it but as I was once called sane I write these words hoping that one day someone may pin point the moment I was driven mentl and they can continue on from where I couldn’t. I will not write about my childhood for if that was when I went crazy then it doesn’t matter this will all sound like the cries of a mad man but I will write about my last journey out of these acient walls.