Post by me on Oct 3, 2007 20:37:46 GMT -5
Winner, once more by default, is Sphinx!
She won with the following story
The Demon Within
Congratulate her when you see her!
She won with the following story
The Demon Within
The halls were packed and stuffy. Nobody wanted to be back in school, but they all knew how vital these final years would be to the rest of their hollow existence. "Humans," she thought with a bitter distaste, "are meant only to work, feed, and breed; what a meaningless reason to live!"
Cheap cologne and putrid body odor mixed in the most repulsive manner imaginable. Her thick tongue chocked inside of her throat, trying to force the rancid fumes back out of her nostrils.
One male, drenched in numerous scents, waddled by the woman. She snarled sarcastically to him, "Oh what a glorious fragrance you are wearing today, good sir!"
"Karu! Karu, slow down would ya!?!" A familiar and friendly voice rang through the air. It was recognizable only by the shrill sound of joyous sprightliness that the woman, Karu Isami, had once associated with her so called "soul sister."
"Miochi?" Karu wheeled around on the heel of her foot to see that the small elf-like woman who bounded happily through the hall had changed just as much in appearance as she had in voice. Her once platinum main was now a fiery red and styled in such a way that the fine strands appeared to have an almost fluid texture; dark freckles were sprinkled across her round face and arms. Perhaps the only thing that had truly remained constant with this woman would have been her sparkling sapphire orbs and comical personality. It would not be suggested to mention her chibi appearance, lest you wish to have your skin pulled off and boiled before your eyes.
"It's been three years Karu! Where have you been?"
At the beginning of her freshman year Karu supposedly dropped out of school. Her parents had actually shipped her off to military school for attempted assault against her Science teacher, Coach Burris.
On the fourth week of school Mr. Buriss, the varsity football coach and ninth grade Biology teacher, took her out of the classroom for disrupting the class. The words exchanged between the coach and our lady Karu, could scarce be repeated even by the foulest of scoundrels without sacrificing their dignity and soiling their name.
A long low sigh emitted from her deep gullet and her reply came bluntly, "I've been away for some time it seems." Her soft, frail voice seemed to drift away, lingering on her thin, rosy lips as she spoke.
Miochi started to respond, but having been given no opportunity before her sister resumed her stroll to class she decided against using any form of fresh remark.
Once inside of the classroom, old feelings of disgust came flooding back. Swamped with the thoughts of a rancor, Karu hardly noticed the sudden drop in temperature upon entering their Math class. "God! Why is it that math classes are always so damn cold?" Miochi laughed picking up on Karu's elevated stress levels; it was her way, to try and lighten ones mood. As long as you were happy, or could be made happy, Ms. Miochi Hanura was satisfied.
A bright light flashed across the girls eyes, she had not realized that she and Miochi shared any classes together this year.
Since the fourth grade Karu and Miochi always had the same classes, or at least the same teachers; before Karu went off to military school anyway.
It had been so long, Karu nearly forgot how much easier classes were when exposed to Miochi's childish games and humor, something she sorely missed while in military school. A narrow smirk split Karu's face as she set her books down on a solitary desk that hid itself in the corner farthest from where she presumed the teacher should be standing.
Slowly Karu began to drift off to sleep, eyelids like heavy stones. She had not rested at all after her return home three nights ago. Something horrible had been publicly discovered about her during her time away. The commandant relayed the news to her parents, who now deemed it necessary to keep their "little angel" awake as often as physically possible.
A high pitched echo split Karu’s ears. They were keen and very sensitive, throbbing with pain, screaming in agony; it felt as though her ears would soon peel away from her face. She raised her head only a few inches off of her arm, which made for a suitable pillow, to glare loathsomely at the purple book Mrs. Hindley had brought forcefully down on the wooden desk.
“Wake up now.” The low airy voice of her teacher reminded her very much of a drug addict for reasons unknown to either of them at the time.
The lighting in the room was dimmed; a slip of clear paper covered the overhead, which provided the only source of illumination in the class. Small black numbers that adorned this translucent sheet looked more like ants from the back corner of the room where Karu sat.
“Alright class, thanks to Karu you will be having homework tonight.” Mrs. Hindley said this as though she expected Karu to care. Karu never did her homework anyway, so it was no more than a vapor in the wind in her dark eyes. Generally speaking, on the first day back to school none of the, Orsmen High, teachers gave out homework; Karu had a way of changing such rituals.
Miochi glanced around the room frantically as the other students groaned and eyed Karu with a searing fire. If ever there was a person Karu might call a geek or a nerd it would be Miochi, she always did her homework, even if it meant staying up all night without playing any video games.
In fact the only reason Miochi didn’t ask for homework anymore was because of the brutal beating Karu had so graciously given her when their sixth grade English teacher assigned them the entire glossary to copy word for word out of the back of the text book.
It wasn’t until the next day when Karu finally realized that there was absolutely no way Mr. Thomas would even think about looking over all of their papers. Unfortunately what she failed to realize was that due to her constant lack of work curiosity drove him to thoroughly examine her vocabulary.
As soon as the bell rang more than half of the students bolted through the door of the Math room; only a handful remained, including Karu and Miochi. A quiet creaking noise sounded to the left, signaling lady Karu to brace herself. She expected one of the preps, which had previously decided to situate beside her, to come drilling into her with their typically shrill voice.
A sharp blow numbed Karu’s arm; she had not braced physically. It was not a physical attack that she had anticipated, rather a mental scorching.
Cold brown eyes averted to the red whelp which now sweltered beneath her skin. “Hnn.” She scoffed as if the collision of Lira’s small fist to her arm only felt as painful as a feather landing on her blouse. Lira was a prep, and possibly the most childish seventeen year old human Karu had ever met. She had what Miochi referred to as “knuckles of steel”, they were hard and sharp, though they did not appear to be. Her punches caused a considerable amount of pain compared to what would be expected from her.
“Karu Isami! If you ever, ever do something that stupid again I’m going to slit your bloody throat!!!” Lira’s loud voice pierced the air easily. She was prone to threatening people; all bark and no bite. Karu raised her eyebrows as if to say, “So you honestly believe that you stand a chance against me, huh?”
Rising to her feet Karu threatened back, merely with her height. Miochi shoved Karu back into her seat thinking that a fight would break out. “She’ll be careful not to upset you again Ms.” The small girls hands flailed about, drawing an invisible impression of how Karu would supposedly try to please Lira in the future.
“What?” Karu snarled angrily at Miochi. She towered above the little woman, a dark tone in her voice. “Never again Miochi!” She lifted her by the collar of her shirt. “I decide what I will and will not do, not some little snot nosed brat like that!” Her voice rumbled like that of a giant beast; it sounded larger even than the room which confined it.
Silver lined tears flooded Miochi’s eyes. “I was only trying to help.” She whimpered quietly, being sure not to look away from Karu’s eyes. It was a hard learned survival tactic to never release eye contact when Karu was angry, Miochi knew how to sooth the beast.
The tardy bell rang, a rather annoying gurgle-like sound. Miochi had already left for her next class, but Karu had a much different idea. Home was little more than two blocks away from the building, the walk wouldn’t be far.
No one seemed to mind Karu’s leaving, some people actually seemed relieved to see her heading towards the exit.
A security guard followed her outside of the building, or at least he looked like a guard. He had a peculiar stance, hands shoved in his pockets and his shoulders rolled slightly forward; this was the only thing that made her question his authenticity as an officer at the moment.
Walking up briskly behind her the tall muscular man continued to follow her until she reached her block; now Karu was sure he couldn’t be an officer. Avoiding the strait path home Karu turned to go to the graveyard.
Growing ever more suspicious of this strange man, who seemed to be attempting to stay out of detection, Karu sat by a half rotted tombstone to watch him from the corner of her eye. The city couldn’t afford real tombstones so most were made of wood, but those that could afford the extra expense managed to get limestone and sometimes even marble stones.
After a few moments Karu relaxed into the situation, she began wandering around plucking the petals off of random pink and yellow flowers; oh how she hated those colors. As an infant the colors resembled love and happiness in her eyes, now they had been defiled b the “prep” social class.
The preps believed that they ruled the school, they scowled at punks, Goths, and emos like Karu. Every social class seemed to be above what should have been the ruling group, the geeks and nerds. Karu knew all about each class, meaning that she was one of the few who actually understood the power of intellect. Don’t get me wrong, just because she knew how important it was to be smart doesn’t mean that she was willing to put forth the effort in becoming one of the “intelligents”, after all she did have a reputation to uphold.
An hour passed and the guard was still hovering around, Karu barely noticed him. “It’s pointless going home at this hour.” She determined glancing at the elegant silver watch which adorned her wrist, it read 12:53 p.m.; she had roughly two hours before the journey back home would be suitable for the hour.
Recognizing the rumbling of her stomach as a symbol of hunger Karu laid out her empty back-pack to use as a pillow and fell into a deep sleep, to take her mind off of her famish.
Cheap cologne and putrid body odor mixed in the most repulsive manner imaginable. Her thick tongue chocked inside of her throat, trying to force the rancid fumes back out of her nostrils.
One male, drenched in numerous scents, waddled by the woman. She snarled sarcastically to him, "Oh what a glorious fragrance you are wearing today, good sir!"
"Karu! Karu, slow down would ya!?!" A familiar and friendly voice rang through the air. It was recognizable only by the shrill sound of joyous sprightliness that the woman, Karu Isami, had once associated with her so called "soul sister."
"Miochi?" Karu wheeled around on the heel of her foot to see that the small elf-like woman who bounded happily through the hall had changed just as much in appearance as she had in voice. Her once platinum main was now a fiery red and styled in such a way that the fine strands appeared to have an almost fluid texture; dark freckles were sprinkled across her round face and arms. Perhaps the only thing that had truly remained constant with this woman would have been her sparkling sapphire orbs and comical personality. It would not be suggested to mention her chibi appearance, lest you wish to have your skin pulled off and boiled before your eyes.
"It's been three years Karu! Where have you been?"
At the beginning of her freshman year Karu supposedly dropped out of school. Her parents had actually shipped her off to military school for attempted assault against her Science teacher, Coach Burris.
On the fourth week of school Mr. Buriss, the varsity football coach and ninth grade Biology teacher, took her out of the classroom for disrupting the class. The words exchanged between the coach and our lady Karu, could scarce be repeated even by the foulest of scoundrels without sacrificing their dignity and soiling their name.
A long low sigh emitted from her deep gullet and her reply came bluntly, "I've been away for some time it seems." Her soft, frail voice seemed to drift away, lingering on her thin, rosy lips as she spoke.
Miochi started to respond, but having been given no opportunity before her sister resumed her stroll to class she decided against using any form of fresh remark.
Once inside of the classroom, old feelings of disgust came flooding back. Swamped with the thoughts of a rancor, Karu hardly noticed the sudden drop in temperature upon entering their Math class. "God! Why is it that math classes are always so damn cold?" Miochi laughed picking up on Karu's elevated stress levels; it was her way, to try and lighten ones mood. As long as you were happy, or could be made happy, Ms. Miochi Hanura was satisfied.
A bright light flashed across the girls eyes, she had not realized that she and Miochi shared any classes together this year.
Since the fourth grade Karu and Miochi always had the same classes, or at least the same teachers; before Karu went off to military school anyway.
It had been so long, Karu nearly forgot how much easier classes were when exposed to Miochi's childish games and humor, something she sorely missed while in military school. A narrow smirk split Karu's face as she set her books down on a solitary desk that hid itself in the corner farthest from where she presumed the teacher should be standing.
Slowly Karu began to drift off to sleep, eyelids like heavy stones. She had not rested at all after her return home three nights ago. Something horrible had been publicly discovered about her during her time away. The commandant relayed the news to her parents, who now deemed it necessary to keep their "little angel" awake as often as physically possible.
A high pitched echo split Karu’s ears. They were keen and very sensitive, throbbing with pain, screaming in agony; it felt as though her ears would soon peel away from her face. She raised her head only a few inches off of her arm, which made for a suitable pillow, to glare loathsomely at the purple book Mrs. Hindley had brought forcefully down on the wooden desk.
“Wake up now.” The low airy voice of her teacher reminded her very much of a drug addict for reasons unknown to either of them at the time.
The lighting in the room was dimmed; a slip of clear paper covered the overhead, which provided the only source of illumination in the class. Small black numbers that adorned this translucent sheet looked more like ants from the back corner of the room where Karu sat.
“Alright class, thanks to Karu you will be having homework tonight.” Mrs. Hindley said this as though she expected Karu to care. Karu never did her homework anyway, so it was no more than a vapor in the wind in her dark eyes. Generally speaking, on the first day back to school none of the, Orsmen High, teachers gave out homework; Karu had a way of changing such rituals.
Miochi glanced around the room frantically as the other students groaned and eyed Karu with a searing fire. If ever there was a person Karu might call a geek or a nerd it would be Miochi, she always did her homework, even if it meant staying up all night without playing any video games.
In fact the only reason Miochi didn’t ask for homework anymore was because of the brutal beating Karu had so graciously given her when their sixth grade English teacher assigned them the entire glossary to copy word for word out of the back of the text book.
It wasn’t until the next day when Karu finally realized that there was absolutely no way Mr. Thomas would even think about looking over all of their papers. Unfortunately what she failed to realize was that due to her constant lack of work curiosity drove him to thoroughly examine her vocabulary.
As soon as the bell rang more than half of the students bolted through the door of the Math room; only a handful remained, including Karu and Miochi. A quiet creaking noise sounded to the left, signaling lady Karu to brace herself. She expected one of the preps, which had previously decided to situate beside her, to come drilling into her with their typically shrill voice.
A sharp blow numbed Karu’s arm; she had not braced physically. It was not a physical attack that she had anticipated, rather a mental scorching.
Cold brown eyes averted to the red whelp which now sweltered beneath her skin. “Hnn.” She scoffed as if the collision of Lira’s small fist to her arm only felt as painful as a feather landing on her blouse. Lira was a prep, and possibly the most childish seventeen year old human Karu had ever met. She had what Miochi referred to as “knuckles of steel”, they were hard and sharp, though they did not appear to be. Her punches caused a considerable amount of pain compared to what would be expected from her.
“Karu Isami! If you ever, ever do something that stupid again I’m going to slit your bloody throat!!!” Lira’s loud voice pierced the air easily. She was prone to threatening people; all bark and no bite. Karu raised her eyebrows as if to say, “So you honestly believe that you stand a chance against me, huh?”
Rising to her feet Karu threatened back, merely with her height. Miochi shoved Karu back into her seat thinking that a fight would break out. “She’ll be careful not to upset you again Ms.” The small girls hands flailed about, drawing an invisible impression of how Karu would supposedly try to please Lira in the future.
“What?” Karu snarled angrily at Miochi. She towered above the little woman, a dark tone in her voice. “Never again Miochi!” She lifted her by the collar of her shirt. “I decide what I will and will not do, not some little snot nosed brat like that!” Her voice rumbled like that of a giant beast; it sounded larger even than the room which confined it.
Silver lined tears flooded Miochi’s eyes. “I was only trying to help.” She whimpered quietly, being sure not to look away from Karu’s eyes. It was a hard learned survival tactic to never release eye contact when Karu was angry, Miochi knew how to sooth the beast.
The tardy bell rang, a rather annoying gurgle-like sound. Miochi had already left for her next class, but Karu had a much different idea. Home was little more than two blocks away from the building, the walk wouldn’t be far.
No one seemed to mind Karu’s leaving, some people actually seemed relieved to see her heading towards the exit.
A security guard followed her outside of the building, or at least he looked like a guard. He had a peculiar stance, hands shoved in his pockets and his shoulders rolled slightly forward; this was the only thing that made her question his authenticity as an officer at the moment.
Walking up briskly behind her the tall muscular man continued to follow her until she reached her block; now Karu was sure he couldn’t be an officer. Avoiding the strait path home Karu turned to go to the graveyard.
Growing ever more suspicious of this strange man, who seemed to be attempting to stay out of detection, Karu sat by a half rotted tombstone to watch him from the corner of her eye. The city couldn’t afford real tombstones so most were made of wood, but those that could afford the extra expense managed to get limestone and sometimes even marble stones.
After a few moments Karu relaxed into the situation, she began wandering around plucking the petals off of random pink and yellow flowers; oh how she hated those colors. As an infant the colors resembled love and happiness in her eyes, now they had been defiled b the “prep” social class.
The preps believed that they ruled the school, they scowled at punks, Goths, and emos like Karu. Every social class seemed to be above what should have been the ruling group, the geeks and nerds. Karu knew all about each class, meaning that she was one of the few who actually understood the power of intellect. Don’t get me wrong, just because she knew how important it was to be smart doesn’t mean that she was willing to put forth the effort in becoming one of the “intelligents”, after all she did have a reputation to uphold.
An hour passed and the guard was still hovering around, Karu barely noticed him. “It’s pointless going home at this hour.” She determined glancing at the elegant silver watch which adorned her wrist, it read 12:53 p.m.; she had roughly two hours before the journey back home would be suitable for the hour.
Recognizing the rumbling of her stomach as a symbol of hunger Karu laid out her empty back-pack to use as a pillow and fell into a deep sleep, to take her mind off of her famish.
Congratulate her when you see her!