Organization: Penn State University
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 11:07:21 EDT
From: <JMH131@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.horror
Subject: The Last Of The Vampyrics (a novelet)

                            The Last Of The Vampyrics
 by John Holes
An L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest loser
written 1990


     The vestigial light of sunset slowly faded into deeper nightshades.
 Darkness softly filtered into the outlines of the city street, making the
 buildings and the sidewalks gloomy and pale.
     Along one of the sidewalks, four people were chatting lightly as they made
 their way to the intersection.  Not one of them knew that within minutes they
 would be fighting for their very lives.
     The leader of this group was a middle-aged woman whose face still showed
 the warm glow of youthful vigor.  She turned when they reached the inter-
 section and pointed ahead.  Anyone looking in the direction her finger
 indicated would know that she was pointing to the city park, where the light
 of streetlamps glowed softly.
     John studied his aunt's face as she spoke to them.  Her green eyes gleamed
 within the beams of the city streetlamps and her reddish-blonde hair moved
slightly within the cool, night breeze.  As her lips moved, he was vaguely
 aware that she was talking about the fair in the park.
"--now if we can just get across this busy street, all we have to do is
 climb over the guardrail on the other side of the highway to get into the
 park.  You have your money?"
     John and his two friends nodded.  THe one was a girl of sixteen who John
 was fondly attracted to.  The other was John's best friend Mike.  Mike and he,
 both seventeen years of age, were students in the same school, and had shared
 the same classes for as long as John could remember.
Mike spoke, a whimsical smile on his face, "We could walk out around to
 the bridge.  I mean, that water is probably pretty deep this time of year."
     John suddenly rememberedthe time he was the manager for the girls'
 softball team at his high school.  As manager, he had the job of keeping track
 of the girls' equipment:  bats, balls, helmets, first aid kits, water jugs,
 the whole works.
     The girls had been playing an away game at another school.  The high
 school's softball field ran near a sewer creek.  Foul-smelling, to say the
 least.
     When the gils on his softball team kept hitting the softballs into the
 weed-infested creek, and as the softballs began floating downsteam, there was
 nothing John could do other than to jump into the ice-cold water after them.
     Later, he had found out that their softball team had a net to get the
 softballs out of the water.  That fact did not make his stinking, wet clothes
 any cleaner or dryer.
     "I doubt it will be any problem, Mike.  At the most it will be up to our
 knees."
     "Yeah, and besides, this way we don't have to pay the admission fee."
 This was Stephanie that had spoken.
     John could not get over how good-looking Stephanie was.  Her face seemed
 to have an enchantment all its own:  smooth, creamy-white complexion;
 scintillating, blue eyes that reflected the smallest hint of light from her
 pure soul; hair of light amber.  John always thought she was part of his most
 wonderful dream, his most wonderful inspiration, for she was the stuff dreams
 were made of.
     Mike looked at Stephanie with a hint of chagrine.  "What admission fee?"
     Stephanie giggled and looked away.
     John handed Mike a key.  This was the key to the car they had come in.
 "Here, Mike.  You had better take this car key.  These pants that I'm wearing
 are too tight and the keys will get squeezed back out of my pocket."
     Mike took the keys and put them in the breast pocket of his blue-jean
 jacket.  Mike's elven face held a look of concern.  He slowly looked up at
 John.
"Uh, John, you had better remind me not to leave this jacket anywhere.
 Someone could pick it up and they wouldn't be interested in your keys to your
 great car, and they would probably just pitch them, but they would be sure to
 take this precious blue-jean jacket."  He could not hold back the smile any
 longer.
     "Yeah, right," John said.  He took Stephanie by the hand.  She didn't
 resist.
     Mike just rolled his eyes up in his head at this.  He thought girls were
 trouble, or at least it seemed that way, because every time he liked a girl,
 he would get in trouble going with them.
    "We had better go," John's aunt said as she turned back toward the
 intersection.
     Because of the congested traffic of the evening rush hour, a street cop
 was directing the onslaught of traffic.
     The middle-aged woman, whose name was Felicia Calice, led the group across
 the road, and down over the guardrail into the park's misty twilight.
     Rock music could be heard faintly in the distance.  The breeze seemed to
 blow faster now, allowing the leaves to cavort with the beat of the music.
 The light had all but faded, and the goup had to strain their eyes in the
 darkness.
     The river which Mike had been referring to earlier could be heard gurgling
 in the darkness.  They would not all reach that river.
     With a total absence of sound, Felicia was whisked from the ground and
 slung over a branch in a tree to the left of the group.  She did not scream.
 She did not struggle.  She was dead, her throat slit wide by the fangs of the
 creature that now turned to judge the rest of the group.
     Not much could be seen of this creature of the night.  Its body was
 cloaked in darkness.  All that could be seen of it was its glistening teeth.
It swooped from its perch upon the tree and picked John up by the arm.
 John wailed in pain and struck the creature a glancing blow to its abdomen.
 The creature latched on tighter and flicked a wing tip at John, knocking him
 unconscious.
     All of this happened with seconds.  Stephanie had just begun to realize
 that she was a main character in a nightmare role.  She screamed wildly when
 it came down to the lime light.
     Mike was all instincts.  His thinking brain had stopped to let a deeper
 primeval thought flow forth.  He leaped at the creature as it passed by.
     Mike collided with the creature, causing it to barrel roll in mid-flight.
     John lapsed back to a dim wakefulness.  He was aware of the piercing pain
 and the warm blood blowing into his face from his extended arm.  Now, when
 action was needed most, John could not struggle against his plight.  He
 weakened steadily within the creature's grip.
     The creature was caught for a moment in the hazy beams of a park lamp and
 the true nightmare of its gymnogenous body was revealed.  The creature was
 covered with hackles of tawny-green flesh and partially covered with gray,
 feathery hair.  Its beak let forth a guttural cawing.
     Mike had scrambled to his feet and leaped at the creature once again.  It
 was enormous in size, its wings spanning at least ten feet.  Mike had a hold
on its neck and clung there tightly.
     The creature turned its head from side to side, trying to focus in on
 Mike's neck.  The creature's whip-like tail wound around Mike's leg,
 splintering the bones encased inside.  Mike cocked back his head in a gasp.
    The creature's long, sucker-tipped tongue lashed out at Mike's throat and
 dug in.  A crimson flow could be seen filling the interior of the creature's
 translucent tongue.
     With tremendous force, the thing reeled its tongue back into its mouth,
 bringing Mike ever closer to the creature's quivering beak.  It gloated over
 its feast.
     Mike thrust a fist into the monster's mouth.  The creature clamped its
 fanged beak down upon Mike's arm.  Its upper jaw and lower jaw moved back and
 forth, opposite each other, sawing through the flesh of Mike's arm.
     Stephanie was the creature's next target.  Its membranous wing enwrapped
 her.  With such maneuvers it was hard for the beast to stay in the air.  It
 plummeted to the ground.
     Mike kicked sporadically and wrenched the sucking tongue from his throat.
 He held both hands to his neck and tried staunching the flow of blood.  His
 leg was racked with pain.
     Stephanie tumbled out of the creature's reach and clambered to her feet.
 She was the least injured of the group.  The creature eyed her steadily,
 daring her to attack it.
     Stephanie, fearing for John's life, risked her own.  She picked up a dead
 branch and flung it at the beast.  The creature caught the stick within its
 jaws and snapped it in pieces.
     Stephanie, who had been pitcher on her girls' softball team for two years,
 aimed a well-placed hit at the creature's head with a rock.  The rock imbedded
 itself in the creature's elasticated cheek.  It made a shrill whistle of pain.
 It looked upwards at the treetops above.  A red light as of dying embers
glowed within its eyes and began to intensify into a brilliant red.
     There was movement from above.  Felicia's body had lost its lifelessness,
 and her head snapped down to look at Stephanie.
     "You will die, girl.  As will all humans.  Tonight is your chosen night.
 The Vampyric wills it," Felicia murmured and leaped from the tree at
 Stephanie.
     Felicia pounced at Stephanie.  Stephanie stumbled and fell to the ground
 with Felicia on top of her.  Felicia opened her mouth to show her glistening
 white teeth.  She straddled Stephanie's waist and leaned forward to sink her
 teeth into Stephanie's neck.
     John had regained consciousness and the ability to think.  He sized up the
 situation.
     The Vampyric was crouched over John's body, but its attention was diverted
 to Mike.  The Vampyric kept lashing out at Mike with its tongue.  Mike was
 bleeding from a dozen wounds and a gaping hole in his neck.  Mike couldn't
 figure out how to fend himself from the Vampyric.  He looked very dazed and
 confused.
     John saw Stephanie trying to push his aunt's face away from her.  John
 yelled, "Aunt Felicia!"
     The Vampyric glanced down at John.  It laughed eerily because it knew it
had won the battle.  The Vampyric raised its foot and shifted it into position
 above John's face.  At any moment, it would lower the foot to smash John's
 skull.  For the moment, it was savoring John's fear.
     John pathetically lifted his hands up to stop the Vampyric from lowering
 its foot.  "Don't kill me," he stated weakly and started crying.
     The Vampyric laughed and lowered its foot slowly.  The creature bent its
 foot, tracing circles on John's face with the largest talon on its foot.
 Blood welled up in the gashes the talon was carving.
     Stephanie was weakening in Aunt Felicia's grasp.  She could no longer
 hold Aunt Felicia back.  Stephanie moaned.  Suddenly, Felicia got off of her
and stood up, a confused look on her face.
     Felicia looked to where John was pinioned under the Vampyric's talon, and
 where Mike was lying, both hands clutching his throat.  Sudden human memories
 came rushing back to her.
     She remembered how much she had loved her nephew, John.  She remembered
 how John and Mike used to play together in her backyard and how she had taken
 John in as her son when his parents were killed in a car wreck.  She would
 not let him die now, for he had called to her for help.  She suddenly knew
 that she meant all to John.
     Felicia fought against the crippling mindlock of the Vampyric.  Her only
thought was to help her own blood.
     She rushed at the Vampyric, slamming into it and knocking it off balance.
 The Vampyric stumbled backwards and struggled to remain on its feet.  It
 whipped its tongue out and lashed it around a tree branch for support.  The
 branch bent under the massive weight.
     Felicia jumped at the creature again, her fists outstretched in front of
 her.  She collided with the thing, causing it to snap the branch and sent it
 falling backward.
     The creature threw the branch in its tongue at Felicia.  It grazed
 Felicia's face causing a somewhat small wound.  But, oddly enough, there was
no blood.
     The Vampyric fell onto the bank of the river.  The water was rushing very
 close by.  As the sound entered the creature's subconscious, it made a hiss of
 abject terror.
     Felicia suddenly felt a surge of fear rush over her.  She could percept
 the movement of a rushing liquid.  It threatened to burn her, to purify her.
 She realized the terror was not her own.
     The Vampyric whimpered and dug its claws into the soft riverbank.  It
 clung on as if the earth would throw the creature loose and toss it into the
 roiling waters of the dark river.  It would sink, never to rise again.
     Felicia had found the creature's weakness.  It was terrified of the river.
 Why?  She didn't know.  She didn't care.  The creature's mind beckoned to
 Felica for help, but Felicia's maternal love for John still riveted her to
 destroy the thing which threatened her nephew and took her life.  She began
 to walk toward the creature to tear it loose from the ground and roll it into
 the rushing water.
     She suddenly sensed another presence within her mind.  "What are you
 doing?  We have been summoned to serve the Vampyric, and here you are
 rebelling against it!"  It was Mike's voice.
     Mike had risen to his feet.  Dried blood stained his shirt.  His eyes
glowed a brilliant red, the same color mirrored in Felicia's own eyes.
     Felicia sent her thoughts back.  "You don't remember?  We are human!"
     "No, Felicia, we are dead!" rasped Mike aloud.
     Stephanie took advantage of the turn of events and rushed to John's side.
 John embraced her and held her to him.  His body relaxed and secured, he fell
 into a deep slumber.
     Stephanie was weary too.  She layed her head upon John's chest and gazed
 at the quarrel between two of her dearest friends, who, she was sure, no
 longer lived, but who spoke and moved of a volition not their own.  She slowly
 closed her eyes and welcomed the comforting blackness known as sleep.

     The Vampyric had succeeded in saving its own skin.  It had used its power
 to put both of the living humans to sleep.  It had also brought the dead human
 known as Mike under its will to halt the other dead human called Felicia.
     The creature contemplated on its struggle.  These humans had advanced in
 the time of its hibernation.  They had evolved into a thinking species, one
 that threatened the Vampyric's race itself!
     It had to contact its brothers still in hibernation in the Home Nest.  As
 it was the youngest, it had risen early from the age-old sleep they had used
 to insure that they had a well-stocked larder when they awoke.  And the planet
was indeed stocked with a plentiful abundance of human flesh.
     The creature felt a stirring of its stomach within.  How it craved human
 flesh!  It had been so long.  The Vampyric could still taste the warm human
 blood which had passed into its innards earlier this night.  Now it was time
 for flesh.
     The Vampyric's hunger was so great, that it was oblivious to the danger of
 the water or what its mission was.  This was, perhaps, the thing's greatest
 weakness.
     It clucked its tongue in a gutteral caw.  Felicia would not respond to it
 at the moment, so it summoned Mike forward instead.
     Mike came at the creature's bidding.  The creature suddenly struck at Mike
 with its fanged beak and removed a large strip of flesh from Mike's arm.
     This seemed to excite the creature all the more, for the taste of the
 flesh drove it wild.  It leaped at Mike, knocking him down.
     What followed was too ghastly for Felicia to look at.  The creature could
 be heard ripping Mike to pieces behind her.  "So, this is what the Vampyric
 brought us back for," thought Felicia, "To serve the needs of its belly."
     Felicia was not about to be destroyed in this fashion.  "Hey, I already
 have my throat slit.  What else is there to be afraid of?" Felicia thought.
     Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through her whole body.  That was when she
 realized that she had lost contact with Mike.
     Felicia looked at the spot where Mike had been.  All that was left was a
 pile of hollow, shattered bones and an empty skull with the cranium smashed.
     Felicia screamed in horror.  It was a near-silent sound, for her vocal
 cords had been partially slit by the Vampyric.  She rushed the creature and
 rocketed into it, sending it tumbling headlong into the river with her
 following it.
     The creature let out a scream of immense proportions and began to dissolve
 within the water that it feared so much.  The water seemed to swirl through
 the creature as if nothing could keep the water out.
     Felicia also screamed a death-cry.  The water burned her skin, her
 muscles, and burrowed in among her clothes to continue its task of
 purification, of cleansing.
     All that remained within the water was some matted, dirty feathers and
 some vestments which had recently been the attire of a woman who no longer
 dwelled within the land of the living.  She was now part of the water as it
 continued its journey forever onward.

     The cavern had long been abandoned.  Deep within the depths of earth
 miners had gone, but their excavation had been discontinued.
     What was the reason for their hasty departure, for the cavern was still
 rich in minerals?  Could it perhaps have been the very last tunnel they had
 dug, which had ended in a gauzy, white membrane?
     Not to mention, when they had cut through, the sight they visualized
 within the cavern was far beyond human description.  Bones were heaped and
 stacked in layers.  Bones stretched off into the distance for an
 undeterminable distance.
     Or, considering the irrationality of people in shock, may one of the
 miners have explored the ghastly crypt to stumble upon the palace of skulls
 which ascended up through the darkness, so that the height could not be
 judged?
     The immensity of the skull palace was now the amplifier of a massive
 stirring of the other Vampyrics that still remained.  Five of the horrors now
 emerged, each at varying stages of maturity.  The largest of the ones that
 flew forth was at least five times the size of the one that had already gone
 forth to its doom.
     The creatures mourned to loss of their brother, but within their unity
 was tremendous power.  The Elder had awakened with and strengthened their
 mindlock with one another.
     The Vampyrics' craving for flesh was altered by the power of the Elder
 within the palace.  The Elder would not let its brothers be consumed by the
 same lot which took their brother.  Now that the Vampyrics had their hunting
 ground replenished, they could fly forth to gather the ripe crop of a new age.
     The creatures began to tear at the edges of the rock corridor, enlarging
 it to fit the entirety of their bodies into the tunnel.  They started to
 burrow their way to surface of unsuspecting world.

     John felt himself being shaken awake.  The first thing that entered his
 mind as he came back to consciousness was the safety of Stephanie.  He bolted
 up from the ground.
     Stephanie was standing there looking frightened.  John looked to where he
 had been lying.  A policeman was keeling there, still in the same position he
 had been in when he woke John.
     "What happened to your friends?" the policeman asked.  "I saw four of you
 enter this park, and after I heard the screams, I came down here as quick as
 I could."
     "They're dead," Stephanie whimpered.  "I don't know where they are!"
     "Dead!  How?" the policeman asked sharply.
     "Some giant bat-thing killed them!" John said.
     "A bat-thing?  What on earth are you talking about?" the policeman asked
 in disbelief.
     "I don't know what I'm talking about!  All I know is that my aunt and Mike
 are dead, and we desperately need your help!" John broke into tears wishing
 this was all just a bad dream.
     Two hours had passed since the beginning of this nightmare scene which
 John and Stephanie had been subjected to.  The park lights were fully lit in
 the dark night.  Now the fair was set alight and glowing, and the silhouettes
 of people could be seen along the outermost edge of the fairground.
     The policeman glanced about.  "Well, you have undergone a tremendous
 emotional shock, and who knows what killed them, but I suggest we go to a
 center of life and talk about this."  He motioned in the direction of the
 fairgrounds.
     Stephanie began to lead John toward the park.  She knew how much he loved
 his Aunt Felicia.  He didn't grip his hand in hers, he just let it hang limply
 in her grasp and continued to walk just the pace to keep up with her.
     A loud crunch was heard and the policeman screamed.  He jumped back a
 couple of feet and looked down at where he had been standing.  A pile of bones
 and a skull were heaped upon the ground, skull on top, as if the skeleton had
 been disintegrated while standing up.  The policeman, to his horror, noticed
 that they were human bones.
     "What is going on here? he asked, incredulity stressing every tone.
     "Oh--" Stephanie started and pointed at the skeleton bones.  Something
 glistened within the pile of bones.  It was a ring.  Mike's class ring.
     The policeman cautiously approached the skeleton.  He bent down and picked
 the ring from the remains of the dead.  Engraved around the stone was MIKE
 WORLEY 1991.
     "This was your friend?" the policeman asked hesitantly, trying to take in
 the gist of what had happened, but not sure whether this had really happened
 or not.
     "We don't know," Stephanie whispered.  "But what if it is?"
     "It's gruesome," John said and turned away, nausea overcoming him.
     Mike's clothing lay in tatters around the general area of his consummation
 by the Vampyric.  His bloodstained sneakers were lying several feet to the
 left.  The policeman could not tell whether the clothes were Mike's or not.
 He could not remember.
     He did know that the slaughter had been recent, for the clothing had not
 completely dried.  Blood still lay in puddles on the ground.
     The policeman beckoned for them to follow.  They reached the river's edge.
 The soft bank was torn up in several places.  The signs of a struggle were
 also evident.
     Several large clawprints festooned the very edge of the river as if
 something had struggled to keep from tumbling in.  Nothing else could be
 found, so the policeman, John, and Stephanie waded across the river and into
 the fairgrounds.
     "Well, it looks like your evening of fun has been shot," the policeman
 said and just as quickly wished he hadn't.
     The New York State Fair was immense, with a number of rides that
 outsurpassed most large amusement parks.  Rock music blared from several
 booths creating a cacophony of sound.  Screams echoed from a House of Horror.
     The policeman pointed in the direction of the House of Horror.  "At first,
I thought it was someone screaming at the fair, but when I heard some really
 odd, shrill screeches, I figured I should check it out."
     They reached a tent-covered pavilion filled with picnic tables.  People
 had brought their goods purchased from the various food booths to partake of
 them here.
     The officer, John, and Stephanie picked a table in a remote corner of the
 pavilion and ben to discuss at length what exactly had come about.
     "Why did you walk through the park to go to the fair?" asked the officer,
 his keen blue eyes studying them thoroughly.
     "It was a short-cut," Stephanie replied, and then she began relating the
 whole incident to him.
     John took advantage of Stephanie's willingness to explain to examine the
 situation for himself.  He regarded the police officer with interest.  The
 officer's name was sewn of the breast pocket of his jacket.  "McKray," the
 candid stitching spelled out.  The officer had sandy-blonde hair which was of
 a shortened length.  His hairline was receding slightly and John judged him to
 be in his early thirties.
     John noted with some interest that the policeman had no gun, or at least,
 didn't show one visibly.  He would have been completely unarmed, but for the
 fact that he had a small nightstick strapped on his belt.  Of course, why
 would a traffic officer need more to protect himself on an ordinary day in an
 ordinary turn of events?
     Would the traffic officer be able to help them, even?  Well, maybe.  Who
 knows how tough that creature really was?  He certainly couldn't handle this
 on his own, but he was willing to do almost anything to avenge the death of
 his Aunt Felicia.
     This creature they had come in contact with, was it even an inhabitant of
 this world?  John thought it was.  After all, the Earth had been in an
 expanding technological era for at least the past eighty or so years, and if
 there was any intelligent life in outer space, it would have contacted them
 before now.
     So where was the creature from?  Was there only one of them?  How deadly
 was it?
     John had no answers to these questions.  And those questions were just
 basic.  How, for instance, did the creature reanimate Aunt Felicia, and why
 did she attack Stephanie?  John thought his aunt must have been trying to bite
 her.
     John noticed that Stephanie and the police officer were both staring at
 him as if he was supposed to answer a question.  "Uh, sorry.  What was the
 question?"
     The police officer repeated, "You were closer to the creature.  Did you
 see it well enough to describe it?"
     "Yeah, it was a feathered bird-thing with a large, hooked beak.  Sort of
 like a huge barn owl.  But it was the largest flying creature I've ever seen!"
     "Before you said it was a bat-thing," the police officer, McKray, reminded
 him.
     That was when John remembered.  "Actually, the creature made me think of a
 vampire!"
     "Yeah," Stephanie added, "It swooped out of the tree and grabbed Aunt
 Felicia, but I noticed that when it slit her throat there was no blood!"
     McKray just sat there, pondering.  This was way out of his field.  He was
 a traffic officer, not a paranormal investigator.  But there were two deaths
 involved.
     McKray looked at John.  The boy was again slipping away into his own
 thoughts.  His brown-green eys stared at the picnic table, uninterested in the
 surrounding environment.  His red hair was a copper color.  McKray watched
 John nod off into sleep.
     "What is the matter with your friend?  He isn't in shock is he?" McKray
 asked.  McKray had no idea what the symptoms of shock were, so the least he
 could do would be to ask Stephanie's unprofessional advice.
     Stephanie eyed John, slumped there in what seemed to be uneasy slumber.
 His face kept contorting into images of fear and pain.
     "I don't know," she stammered.  She tapped John on the arm.  "John, wake
 up!"
     John didn't even react.
     Little did she realize that John was fighting for his very life in a
 battleground of another mind.  A mind within a creature older than time.

     It was dark.  It was always dark her.  It was a world of night that didn't
 exist, that shouldn't possibly be able to exist, but it was there.
     John was there also, clinging to the handlebars of a bike.  He was on an
 old, dirt road.  The ground was cold and hard.  The trees were green with
 foliage, but the leaves were frost-covered.  It was like winter had hit
 rapidly.
     The bicycle was in good condition.  It was shiny red, with heavy treads.
 It looked to be suited for rough terrain like John was on now.
     To his left, a forest of the frost-covered trees stood.  The undergrowth
 was so abundant that it would be too hard to penetrate.  To his right were
 some abandoned buildings, built out of heavily decayed wood.  Some looked as
 though they had been scorched with fire.
     John focused on what was ahead of him, however.  It was amazing to grasp
 the idea that what was before him could possibly exist.  So fantastic was the
 distant castle, that it didn't even match the surroundings.
     The castle was beautiful.  The stones which made up its walls were made
 of translucent, violet crystal.  It covered most of the skyline with the
 immense bulwarks and towers.  The towers were highlighted by the spiral
 staircases which wound around their exterior.  The outside was was virtually
 unscalable by a human.  But the outside wall could be climbed by the
 staircases and enclosed hallways along its walls.  In other words, it was a
 palace of the uncomparable.
     It shone with a radiant purple light and glowed within the darkened
 violet sky.  Nothing could be seen beyond it from John's perspective.
 Something about the scene seemed uncanny, though.
     Two, large, baleful, yellowed eyes sparked an existence within the air
 before him.  They glowed within the hazy twilight.  A voice boomed in the air
 around him.
     "Pitiful human, do you even think you can begin to penetrate my thoughts?
 You are weak, and my kind will destroy yours.  We have been the masters since
 the beginning.  We are the Vampyrics."
     John was in rage.  He spoke through clenched teeth, "You are not in
 control here.  We humans are.  You had no right to intrude on what is ours!
 You had no right to kill my aunt and my best friend, Mike!  You shouldn't even
 exist!"
     "Ah," the creature's voice drawled.  "Long have we slept, waiting for the
 right moment to emerge again and reclaim what is rightfully ours.  We are
 your masters!  We have control!"
     "I'll fight you!  Our race will fight you!  And we will be the victors,"
 John yelled.  He swung his fist at the eyes.  They receded into the air, and
 after he swung, they came closer again.
     "A pitiful attempt, human, but without your strength you will die!" the
creature roared.
     With that, John's bike vanished into thin air, and he tumbled to the
 ground.  The moment John's hands came in contact with the ice-cold ground,
 they stuck fast.
     John bellowed in pain.  Ice-cold needles shot through his hands.  His
 fingers grew numb quickly.  He could feel the cold seeping through his
 clothing.
     He tried to pull himself free of the ground.  He couldn't.  He was stuck
 fast.
     "You will die, human!" the creature's voice echoed through the darkness
 and the glowing eyes faded.
     John strained at the icy bonds which held him to the ground.  "This can't
 be happening," he thought.  "I was in a fairground.  My girlfriend,
 Stephanie was there.  Officer McKray was there.  So why am I in this forsaken
 place?"
     John looked once again at the castle in the distance.  It was so
 beautiful.  The violet hue of the blocks was almost a blood-red.  The castle
 looked lifeless, but John thought of it as being alive for some reason.  He
 lay there and contemplated his fate.


 { I will finish typing this story in at a later date.  It is not supposed to
   be a cliffhanger, but my wrists are sore from typing, and they keep telling
   me I can do no more right now.  I'll try to get some more entered when I
   get the chance.  The copy I have is finished, so it is not like you have to
   wait very long. ;-) )
 --John.