Short story, this one took a bit of courage for me to pen.

Short story time....

This is quite a short tale, rather it is only part of a greater whole. You see, emotions can be a funny little thing, they make you do things that you never thought possible for yourself before. And sometimes, you get so worked up, you almost forget who you are for a moment, but maybe, you discover who you are. You see, there are many emotions one can feel, but the most powerful one of all is also the one that is most confusing. Love. Simple love can drive a person to accomplish great things, or cause terrible calamities. Love can be like oxygen to a person, keeping their dreams and hope alive, or yet it can be a deadly poison, intoxicating the person until their heart shatters. Love is a double edged sword, and this short little tale is about one such instance.

You see there once lived a man who was a simple, yet energetic young man. He had dreams of grandeur, and if he wasn't dreaming about some adventure he would love to be having, he was dreaming of his future. He was sure it was a simple path of work and reward until he could retire happily in old age. But his simple views on life would change oh so suddenly, and it was all over a smile.

Yes, a smile can be a powerful tool when it comes to the hearts of people. A smile can uplift a person's soul out of the depths of Hades itself and bathe his soul in a warm light. A smile so simple, yet completely sincere it nearly struck the simple man dumb at first sight. He was entranced by it, and he came to be enamored by it as well.

She was simply beautiful. Of course he could go over all the intricacies that he loved about the girl, but to make it simple, she was beautiful. A vibrant personality full of a spark of life that this man had never before seen.

He was dumbfounded, how could his simple heart so suddenly beat out of his chest for someone he had never met before. Someone he never knew. He had to find out why, why did his body suddenly tremble at the thought of her, his heart flutter in such a way he thought he could just pass at any moment.

You see this girl lived far far away from him, over mountains, rivers and a whole ocean, yet this man ignored the distance. To him, no distance was too great for him to try to find more about this beautiful girl. But how could he do it? He wondered for days and days, though he was a very busy man, any time he had a free moment he would think of new ways to grab her attention from afar, across the thousand miles that separated them he thought endlessly.

Soon enough, the man began to do things he hadn't done since his youth. He had been hammered into a shape his family and friends wanted him to be. When he was a younger person, he was always playing music, writing fantastic adventures, or even going on some adventures himself. He was fearless, confident and bold. But as he grew into the man he was today, he was constantly beaten down, abused, then eventually he gave into being a simpler soul.

But now that spark that he once had began a new, that smile that intoxicated his thoughts for so long had brought back the music, the art, the stories, the adventure! Oh, what adventures he had planned and all because he wanted to show that one beautiful girl how much she had helped him change back into something he once thought was gone forever.

He also slowly began to realize something as well. Not only did she help revitalize his lost vigor, his heart told him something else too. “Love.” Now when it came to this subject he became very frightened. He once thought he loved before but it turned out to be something that shattered him utterly, and was the catalyst for his previous downfall. He was scared because his heart was ready to invest into something he did not quite understand. He was also scared that he would frighten the beautiful girl away. He wished sorely for the beautiful girl to have some inkling of feelings toward him, but for now, just knowing that she knew he existed gave him hope, for he did not wish to rush or push her, but rather support her and hope things went naturally.

He loved the girl, she gave him a new ambition, something to strive for, something to reach out in his troubled dreams and to hold onto. He wanted to support her in hardship, love her unconditionally, and to make her smile again like the day he first saw her so long ago.  

Late night poetry, depending on how I feel is how much I'll post tonight....

I rest my fingers on the keys one more time,

Hands trembling, my mind blanks out.

What lies dormant in the recesses of my mind

Refuse to make way, my fingers fumble.

Cursing through clenched teeth, I try again,

The sounds in my head do not translate,

They fail to find their way out into music.

Again, fumbled fingers and another curse.

Why can I hear the music in my head,

Yet fail to reproduce it in real life.

Is this a curse set upon me,

Or is this just simple fate.

One thought races through my mind,

A beautiful smile, a wonderful voice,

A call of an angel, a slice of-

Heaven on earth itself.

I reach out, and my thoughts drift,

Drifting away to an endless spiral.

Emptiness, a void where thoughtlessness lie,

Maybe this once she can notice me.

Again, fumbled fingers, another curse.

An excerpt from a diary-style story I am writing. I hope I really caught the emotion for this scene.

  It had been some years after my new life when I created held an epiphany I had snuck into an orphanage one night. I had a new idea for my soul  research and I needed a child. Their medical ward contained the terminally ill children, and I melded into the shadows to find the child that would be dead, less blood on my hands. These….scam artists that tended to these children would give them false pretenses, they lied to them and would tell them that they would be ok; their sickness would just go away, that they were going to get cured soon. Filthy dogs, all of them. The kids knew their time was up, they were abandoned children, considered a burden upon their parents and dumped to die without having to pay a cent. These so called healers just took them in to use the money for themselves, letting the children die to make more room.

            A girl left in a solitary room caught my eye. I remembered how the room was an ugly canary yellow, with faded rainbows and dragons painted on the walls. I remembered the doctors telling this girl that she had Blood Lung, which I knew was a debilitating sickness that caused the afflicted to eventually cough up bloody chunks of their rotting lungs. It was a quite painful death that was lined up for that girl, but they just gave her a sugar pill and told her she would be fine, at least give the child some real medicine if you were going to lie to her....

            I waited for the doctors to leave, and I took my cue. It was late, the moonlight cut a beautiful glow from the window. I remembered how her skin glowed from the radiant moonbeams. I heard her weak coughs as she tried to sleep. I stood over her bed, and with one gaunt hand I lightly stroked her head.

            The subtle touch woke her from her sleep. I remembered those blue eyes of hers locking into mine. Then her gaze shifting to my smile, and she smiled back. I was confused, she had no fear, most children would cry out that the "Grinning Gheist" had come (I had become a sort of bogeyman for parents to threaten their kids with).

            “Are you a doctor sir?” She wheezed, her throat strained from her plague.

            “Yes my little cherub, I am Doctor Edgar Von Engel.” I cooed at her, one scrawny finger scratching under her chin.

            Her eyes lit up when she heard my name; she even attempted a weak giggle. “Your name means angel in old Elven!” she said with her smile, I noticed she was missing her two front teeth.

“Yes” I remembered saying while musing over my own name, “and this angel is going to make you better.” I said holding out my hand.

            She began a fit of coughing and her body went limp, passing out from the pain in her body. I recalled my sudden sense of urgency; I had to bring her back to the lab.

            Within a couple hours I remembered I had begun the process of strapping this young girl down to my work table.  I remembered hearing something that was in between the coo of a dove and the cry of a puppy, the little girl had awoken while I was preparing the vessels that I would house her soul in.

            “Mr. Edgar?” She coughed out, “Where are we?”

            “Like I said my dear, I am going to save you.” I remembered repeating that phrase  many times, I don’t remember if I kept repeating it in my head or out loud, but I remembered that she would always smile when she saw my face, and, as always, I wore my grin. I liked that way of thinking, she seemed to always grin and bear it, even though her body was wracked by terrible pain, she always found the strength to smile at me, a complete stranger that promised her “salvation.”

            The machine had prepared my greatest vessel to date. A small ruby, the size of a finger nail, had been energized by arcane electricity and previous soul magics. I was hoping to transfer the girl's soul into such a vessel, to hopefully anchor it to the material world.

            “What is your name my sweet?”

            “I-its Elheim, Elheim van Gottlieb.” She managed to wheeze out.

Her surname means God’s Love in the old tongue…is it fate that the Angel shall save god’s love? (I continue to muse this thought to myself to this day.)

            I did not close the mask over her face; I remember staring into her eyes, those bright blue pools, swirling with a maelstrom of life, full of love that would be forever un-shared. I remembered taking a moment to lightly stroke her face, it was then I had realized that she was running out of time. Her eyes were glazing over, and her breathing was becoming sporadic. I remembered not taking any joy into what I usually felt was the best part of extracting a soul. I summoned my blade, which at the tip contained the phylactery crystal, which could hopefully absorb the soul for me.

            I raised it slowly, and whispered softly, "one, two, and three…" then, silence. I remembered looking down, my dagger glowed a faint purple as the child’s body faded into dust.

            I broke the ruby off of the blade, letting the bleeding sword dissipate in thin air. I cradled the glowing gem in my hand, had I done it? Of course I did! But this was only a small essence of what I needed. The ruby was warm to the touch, I could almost feel it beating like a heart, and I felt.....happy? No.....it was more of a "free" feeling, like chains had unbound themselves to me. I felt...her. I was then brought back to the present.

(All writings and the characters are owned by me and do not redistribute without permission).

So I'm writing a new story. I'm thinking up ideas right now for my main character. I'm really upset I've never gotten to finish up developing my Edgar Von Engel character, and I might use him as a baseline for my new novel I will be writing in November for NaNoWriMo. So look forward to some interesting character ideas guys! :D