Loch Rannoch (short story)

About 400 years ago (it might have been 450 or 350 years, doesn't matter, Jezus Christ just keep reading) a family lived near Loch Rannoch. Just a regular family, with a father, mother, son and daughter.

They made a living by selling thistles. A lot of thistles have always grown in the surroundings of the loch and it has been a source of income for generations of locals. From the age of five onwards, the children helped out with collecting thistles to sell them to salesmen that travelled across all of Scotland. One of these salesman, named Justus, was a regular customer. When the son of the family, Andy, celebrated his eleventh birthday, Justus was there with the family too. In the evening he took Andy outside of the cottage and took him to the loch. Justus told Andy that he would teach him something, now that he had reached the age of eleven. "It's a magic age, dear Andy. Eleven is a magic number." Justus continued in a low voice. "Now that you are the age that you are, I can teach you about magic. But only if you will not tell anyone about it! It's a secret and sacred knowledge that gets handed down throughout the generations to those who are deemed worthy of possessing it." Andy promised to not tell a soul, and Justus started telling him about magic spells, ancient wizards - both men and women, mind you!- and then told Andy the magic words to use for his first spell. Andy was glowing with excitement, and Justus was relieved he had found someone to pass his knowledge on to.

After about forty seconds (it may have been 35 or 45 seconds, but shhh!) Andy, uttering his first spell ever, turned Justus into a cloud and then accidentally blew him away with an exasperated sigh. Not knowing what to do now and being afraid of getting punished by his dad for getting rid of his favourite customer, he started walking and kept walking and walking. Many days later he had reached Hadrian's Wall. He then started walking on top off the wall, not knowing exactly why. After a couple of miles, he suddenly fell. He hit his head against a sharp rock, and died instantly. He was never heard of again by his family, who were very distraught by the loss of both their only son and their favourite thistle buying customer.

Some time later, the daughter of the family, Andy's sister Angie, also ran away. When the water in Loch Rannoch reached a temperature of 4,0 degrees Celsius (it might have been 3,5 or 4,5 degrees, nobody gives a shit so stop doing the math), she started walking into a slightly different direction than Andy had done some time ago. However, many days later she also reached Hadrian's Wall, but arrived at the other end of it. She too started walking on top of the enormously long wall. After a couple of days, she came across something very strange. She noticed a little cloud lingering clumsily close to the wall. The sky was a perfect blue, except for that strange little cloud hanging very low. When she came closer, she noticed that rain was coming out of the cloud. A light but steady drizzle kept pouring down at the same spot. She tried scaring away the cloud by blowing hard at it and waving her arms in a frantic fashion. Reluctantly, or at least so it seemed to Angie, the cloud drifted away. She got down from the wall and examined the place where it had been lingering.

It didn't take long before she discovered the dead body of a human being. She got closer to take a better look and then saw something what made her whole body shiver. A necklace still around the neck of the dead person glistened merrily in the sun, as if it were mocking the grotesque greyness of the decaying body underneath it. Angie had immediately recognised the emblem that made up the bright jewel: A small sword with a two-headed snake hurled around the blade. She then noticed for the first time really the size of the corpse. "It's just a boy..." she whispered, before realising the awful truth that the lifeless body in front of her is her missing brother. Was her missing brother...

After gathering her wits, she gently took the necklace off her brother's body, said a little prayer for him and blew him a kiss. Burying him all on her own her was not an option, so she started walking home again. She needed to tell her parents, they had to know about Andy, so at least they could find a cold and sad comfort in knowing he would never come back anymore. After two days of relentless walking, without getting any sleep, Angie reached a small village called Ardveich. She decided that she would stay the night here, to regain some strength and get some rest. She got a room in an inn called 'Smoky Sleep', not giving the rather strange name a second thought. 

After a hearty meal she quickly went to bed and almost immediately fell into a deep sleep. Soon, she started dreaming about a strange little cloud hovering close to the ground. She saw the cloud entering a building through an open window. Once inside, with what looked like a menacing grin, it started to spill little flickering flames all over the place. Suddenly, Angie woke up. An enormous heat lay on top of her like the heaviest of blankets. The last thing she heard before fainting in an ocean of pain, were screams of pain. And then, above all the others, a scream of a different kind of pain. A pain both hateful and sorrowful, a pain filled with loss and deception. A pain nonetheless, that was destined to kill anything related to its own cause. 

Angie died that night in the fire that burned down the entire inn. 

Ayren and Allie, the parents of both Andy and Angie, never heard anything ever again about their two lost children. But every year, on Andy's birthday, there was a strange little cloud lingering above the shores of Loch Rannoch. If you looked at it long enough, it seemed to drizzle down little drips that every now and then appeared to change into small flames...

(Text: Niels Tubbing)

From Lonely to Life

From Lonely to Life

Millions of years ago the earth was completely dark, there was absolutely nothing except for this dragon creature. The dragon was all alone, nothing and no one was around him. His name was Lonely. One day, when he was gazing upwards into a black sky, he saw a star falling down to earth. The star crashed into earth without any sound, and the dragon hurried towards the spot where the star fell.

The dragon was excited -he had never met anyone or anything in his entire life. The star saw the dragon and smiled at him. "Hello there dragon, my name is Wonder", said the star. "My name is Lonely", the dragon replied timidly. The star then told him that she came down to earth with a specific reason -to make the dragon wonder. She told him of dreams, of hope and light, of stories and songs, of waterfalls and forests. The dragon and the star spent hours and hours talking and listening, crying and laughing, singing and dreaming.

While time passed, the earth began to blossom with the dragon's dreams and hopes. Light was born, and water, noise and silence, and other creatures too. Colours embraced the once so empty and dark planet. The dragon gave life to earth with his hopes and dreams, gave soul to the planet, by wondering what kind of things there could be.

After some time, the dragon began to wonder about himself, and he came to a conclusion. He looked the star deeply into her eyes and said: "Wonder, I have changed. I am not me anymore. I am no longer Lonely. Who am I now?" The star replied with a smile full of life. "You are no longer Lonely indeed, my dear dragon friend. From now on, you are hopes and dreams, love and joy, imagination and the birth of your soul. From now on, you are Life". The dragon smiled and knew, he knew he was Life.

The star then started to ascend into the sky, telling the dragon she was proud of him. Now came the time for her to move on, to make other planets wonder, to make other dreams flourish into life. The star and the dragon said goodbye, both knowing that their lives were forever intertwined.

Long after the star Wonder was out of sight, the dragon turned around, sighed happily and muttered to himself his new name. "Life..." Now, it was time to live.

Think up your existence (part 7)

He heard the rain before he felt it. Slow at first, but soon it came bursting out of the dark sky like there was nothing else on earth that mattered. For a second he thought that it was some sort of sign, telling him to hurry up. He ran through the streets, desperately looking for a phonebooth. He knew there had to be several in the vicinity, but somehow he couldn't remember where exactly. It was as if the rain washed all his memories away. Except for the word "phonebooth" there was nothing in his mind, yet he kept on running.

Suddenly, he stopped.

He fell down to his knees, in the middle of the road, in the middle of a big puddle. He closed his eyes, lifted his face upwards, facing the sky and opened his mouth.

For a minute he devoured the taste of pure, sweet rain. With a shock he opened his eyes and came back to his senses. He stood up, looked to his left and noticed a phonebooth. Quickly entering it he tried to remember what number he was supposed to call. Or who. All he knew was why -it had started. He dialed a random number and let it ring for several times. No answer. He let it ring longer. He became aware of a strange noise, slowly getting louder. He listened intensely when suddenly a voice spoke, scaring the hell out of him.

"The dice has been thrown, the sand has started to fall, things are happening and things will keep happening. You know why, you know what, we know who. You don't need to know, you just do. Remorseless, without questions, without thinking about escape. Without you there is no escape. Without escape there is no us. Without us there is no world. Now go, go and talk to whomever you think can give you valuable information. Talk to the beautiful girl selling flowers, talk to the grumpy mailman, talk to the priest and talk to the thief. Look, also. Look at the cow, look at the scenery, look at the crack in the wall, look at the light and the fading shadows. Listen, too. Not just to people, not just to sounds, listen to every essence around you. Feel. Feel will be the keyword. Now go".

He stepped out of the phonebooth, without even wondering what was going on. He knew now. He had known all along. With his hand on his stomach he turned right and started walking through the rain, disappearing in the cold, wet night.

(to be continued)

Embrace your body (part 6)

The little creature felt slightly odd. He tried his best not to pay attention to the weeping man, to only watch the girl and indulge in all her sexual energy. He couldn't, though. The noise the man was making irritated him, but somehow it did not make him aggressive. Instead, it made him sad. He couldn't understand what the man was feeling, but even with his primitive instinct he knew that the tears this man was crying were of great importance, that his sobbing and wailing could be a key to the answers to a lot of ancient questions. He shook his head fiercely and returned his gaze to the girl. An other instinct got a hold of him, the one telling him this was the moment for action. The creature closed his eyes for a second, smiling its wicked grin, indulging in what was going to happen. Then, with a burst, he ran forward, ran straight into the girl and disappeared into her body.

The man suddenly stopped crying. He was convinced he had heard something. The girl. Syrill! It was her voice, her scream he had heard. He looked up to her, looked straight into her eyes. The fear that hit him in the face was overwhelming. With a quiet moan the man lost consciousness. 

The creature looked at its new body. A drip of blood near the belly button of the girl was the only evidence something had happened . She was still there, buried in the mind, fighting the occupant. A wicked grin appeared on the face that was so sweet and girl-like only a moment ago. This was the creature's first body transfer, but he had succeeded. He was slowly starting to become aware why he was here on this planet. A short memory flash showed him other creatures of his kind. A spaceship. A dark whiteness. Then nothing.

A memory of memorial moments

(Written some time ago, in a galaxy not too far away... )

I found myself sitting in my brother's car this evening, right when the memoriam started for the victims of World War II. We parked the car on the side of the road and listened to the two minutes of silence that are held annually on the 4th of May.

The silence somehow seemed so more meaningful this year than other ones, at least to me. A silence cloaked in the sound of wind and rain. I followed the raindrops dripping down on the windshield, fighting the wind on their way down. All that could be heard was the rain and the wind. Perfect sound of nature to remember the victims of one of the most brutal acts of mankind. And it made me so sad. Not necessarily the WWII rememberance an sich, but the entire picture that filled up my head.

I thought about love. How it once slumbered somewhere deep within my heart, until it was awakened by a certain spark. How it then peacefully dwelled on the surface of my soul. How it was bombed to a thousand pieces, fighting to survive. Fighting against enemies that once were beloved ones, fighting betrayal and knives in backs, fighting against the loss of reason, against an overwhelming hostility.

How it eventually survived, deeply scarred, emotionally broken, dried up and completely devoid of trust. How it tries its fucking hardest to cling on to that tiny spark of hope still to be found deep within. How it realises it has to learn to trust again. How it realises living in the past and holding on to grudges doesn't get anyone anywhere.

And I realised how difficult just that is.

And I thought about The Perks of Being a Wallflower. How Charlie wonders why broken hearts have to be so personal, since someone else would have broken your heart if it wouldn't have been that particular person.

And I thought about the millions of personal tragedies during war. Of the millions of personal tragedies today, anywhere. And I had to fight my tears because it really made me so sad.

So I looked at the rain, listened to the silence, and felt really bad for this world we have created.

And all I hope for right now is a smile from anyone, just a heartfelt smile, sparkling into my eyes. Because then I will know that hope is still alive, within this world, within my heart.

I haven't felt like this in so long
Wrong, in a sense too far gone from love
Strong, I haven't felt like this in so long
Wrong, in a sense too far gone from love
That don't last forever
Something's gotta turn out right
   -Alice in Chains

Romantic dinner

"You're holding me captive yet you wish for me to have dinner with you? What's up with that?"

"I'm trying to make you fall in love with me. I saw that once in a movie -it can work that way."

"Well, I once saw in a movie that a man ate another man's brains out while talking to him! And do you see me doing that?"

"I did, once. I didn't like it that much though."

"Oh... I see. Well, I still think it's morally wrong to make someone love you by holding them hostage and demand that they have fancy dinners with you."

"Oh, but that's ok. I don't do morals, I'm actually pretty immoral."

"I see... But being like this won't do you any good. I don't think I could fall for someone like you."

"My personality isn't really the issue, because I am stunning to look at. Plus, I can make fancy dinners."

"That's probably both true, but I think I am going to have to decline your offer for dinner."

"It's not an offer."

"I see... But do you really think you could be happy with me, if I don't really love you?"

"I'm pretty good at lying to myself."

"So basically there's no hope of escape for me?"

"No."

"What's for dinner?"