UNICORNS

My species is the only type on the whole Earth. At least for now. We live together and try to live a happy, beautiful life.I am a young unicorn, in the process of going to school to learn to be a proper grown up unicorn. I only started training last week and it goes on for weeks.   

I stare blankly at the creature clearly an alien from who knows where.  What is this? Who is this? Those are the first questions to pop into my head. It is a creature with shaggy brown fur, but what it is doing here I have no idea. 

I have never seen a creature like this one, never in my life. As a matter of fact I have never seen any other creature in my life other than my species. Pink and white beautiful creatures take up the my whole world. At least, that's how it used to be before this.. creature.

" Hello?" I murmur, almost a whisper hoping that nothing bad will happen. What should I do? If I run, than I will be a coward, and I don't want to be a coward. I want to be brave. I want to be smart too and friendly. But how? 

I

when life gives you lemons, make lemonade

People say, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Well, what if you are the lemon that life gives people? What if you are the lemon, and people are constantly trying to add some sugar to you and turn you into lemonade? How do you deal with that, especially when you have an identical twin sister that is perfect at pretty much everything, and your 8 year old brother is better than you at math and science? How would you deal with that? I mean, sure, people suffer from lack of food, and lack of shelter, but I think I am suffering from lack of attention. I always feel bad when I say this, but I don't really like Chloe or Mason. I think I only love them as siblings, and not as actual human beings. 

But I feel awful every time I think it.

"Charlotte, sweetie, come down to dinner. Now." I use my great art pencil from the set Leo got me for my birthday to add on to a sketch of Chloe. "Just. a. SECOND!" I yell. "NOW!" My mother and father shout in unison. Arrrrgh. I toss down my sketchpad and inch towards the edge of the staircase. I listen to Mason show mom and dad his report card. "Aw, honey, look what the math teacher commented!" I can hear the pride in my mom's voice. "Always has his hand up, and everytime he is called on the answer is correct! An unbelievable student and child!" I can hear it in my dad's voice, too. I bite my lip and slither down the stairs silently and unwillingly. As I creep closer I hear Chloe telling Mason how good he is at math. I sit down silently and my parents and siblings don't not notice me until my fork scrapes against the plate. I shiver under their gaze. I really am not used to being in the center of attention, not even for a second. "There you are!" My mother says. everyone else goes back to complimenting Mason. "Char!" I wince. "Don't call me Char." I say coldly. Chloe shrugs. "Okay, whatever, Charlotte! look at Mason's report card, it's great, all fours, not one single-" "3, 2, or 1. yeah, I know." Chloe hesitates, not sure if I was being sarcastic, then smiles and continues eating her dinner.The dinner goes by like every other dinner. Chloe and Mason blabbing about their wonderful days and when mom and dad ask me how mine was, I shrug and they don't care. when dinner is finally over, and Mason and Chloe have gone through the kitchen and to their bedrooms to sleep, I go up to my room and spend until midnight working on my math homework. I am about to crawl into bed when I hear screaming. Lots of it. I am suddenly wide awake. I dash out of my room and leap down the stairs and encounter flames. I yelp as my hand gets a little burnt by the swirling sea of orange. "Charlotte!" It is Mason and Chloe, hugging, wide eyed, crying... trapped. Behind the flames my siblings are trapped. I hear the ringing of a smoke alarms and sirens. But I can't see anything but my sister and brother. "No." I whisper. I won't accept the truth. "Go." Chloe looks down and sobs. "Please go, Charlotte." I scream. "I won't!" A hand grips my wrist and I am pulled into the sharp cold air. I look around and everything is silent, empty. My parents are crying. I know, suddenly, that I did love my sister and brother. I was just jealous. In fact, I loved them more then I loved myself. And that was my problem. Now they are dead, and when they were alive, I didn't know I loved them. And the worst thing is, they didn't know either, because I never told them.

The First Forbidden: Trial Two

The demon was running at a tremendously fast speed. Richard could hardly escape due to his injuries from the train wreck. He had no idea where he was, but he knew he was on the other side.
<MURDER> <HATRED>
The voices were amplified. The demon and the other side- it was all too much. Richard thought he was losing his mind. he found a doorway and he ran through just as the wretched beast was about to cleave him.


Richard didn't stop, even to catch his breath. He ignored the slowly-magnifying pain until he passed out in a dark hallway.

Richard was in a dark room, naked and strapped to a chair. he was terrified because he knew he was in the real world, but he knew he was still on the other side as well. "Hello?" he called. No answer. 

Suddenly, he wasn't able to breathe. He saw horrid hands stretching from every corner of the room, grasping his neck. He heard voices calling to him. This dream was more torturous than being whipped and burned alive simultaneously.

he saw faceless heads. Heads that were coming straight at him. he could not beg for them to stop. A the faceless heads, now with bodies, began to come closer.

With all his breath, Richard screamed until a voice told him,

I will be free. And you will be forgotten- and Forbidden.
   Richard woke up after that, shivering and bleeding profusely.


You have taken the first step. But you can stay here no longer.

"Who.....who are you?" Richard wheezed weakly.

Silence. And then a flash off in the distance.



Richard then woke up in a time of happiness. Ten years ago. He was at a dance with his wife.

"Oh, darling," His wife said. the two of them smiled. They danced alone in the moonlight. They were outside his old house. They poured each other a glass of wine and fed each other fruit. This was a normal tradition for 5 years before this, and 2 years after that.
His wife went to meetings from 8:00 to 7:00. The two loved each other. Richard was happy.
"I love you," he said, and they kissed
Immortal ταλαιπωρία καλεί την αληθινή βασίλισσα
Immortal suffering calls the true queen(Immortal talaipo̱ría kaleí ti̱n ali̱thiní̱ vasílissa)
After hearing that, his wife rushed inside.

Richard woke up in his bed. he felt fine. He was dressed neatly and there was no blood on him. He heard a scream from outside. He rushed outside and saw......

He saw chaos. Buildings crushed or turned into ashes. Burning people. Gunshots and explosions. The whole world was a warzone.
He heard one last voice.
This is the price for your stay. Ten thousand years of bloodshed and murder.
he could only utter one word.
"Impossible.

thicker than blood

1.

First time I asked about my brother, I was five and sitting on Momma Penelope’s knee. She was one of the nice ones, kept me ‘till I was seven years old and had skin like paper that’d been folded too many times.

I didn’t remember my brother much, still don’t, but Momma Penelope knew enough to not want to talk about him. I remember her mouth pressing tight when I asked, and her looking down at me with those old eyes.

“Luz, mijo,” She’d said, “You don’t want to know about your brother. He was a hard man.”

She shook her head slow, and even then I knew not to pry, but privately I swam through my memories and plucked out the ones with my brother in them. None of them seemed “hard”.

I remembered eyes that glinted like junebugs crusting the windowsill in August, rough hands on the ends of wiry arms. I remembered burying my face in the crook of his neck and listening to him shout out the lyrics to songs I didn’t know. Memories that had been run through my mind too many times and were beginning to bleach of color.

Then I remembered that he was gone, and that he didn’t say goodbye, and that his rough hands hurt me sometimes.

I rested my cheek against Momma Penelope’s chest and didn’t talk much until bedtime.

2.

I meet him at the playground.

We’re both too old to be here, him more than me ‘cause I can still pass for twelve if keep my head down. I’m here because the man running my current group home gets irritable after a couple beers and really, where else would I have to be. I wonder what his deal is.

He’s a scary looking guy, the kind I usually steer clear of. A tattoo’s peeking out from under his shirtsleeve, and he looks like he hasn’t shaven in a hell of a long time. I must have been staring, because he catches my eye and looks away quick with something like guilt on his rough-hewn face. I make sure to keep him in my peripherals after that, but it’s hard when we’re the only two left in the park.

I’m not a wimp. I’m not. But the man scares me, just a little, with the murky night-light background of the inner city and swings creaking in the mellow August wind. He just keeps right on staring, not even trying to hide it when he thinks I ain’t looking.

I go back to the home around ten thirty because I got school tomorrow and my social studies teacher’s been on my case lately about sleeping in class. The man stays in the park, leaning on the jungle gym, and even though I don’t look back, I feel him watching me leave in the pit of my stomach.

3.

I go back to the park on Wednesday and the man’s still there. This time he’s wearing a tank top that shows off the tattoos on his shoulders and his wiry arms, rough hands. Looking at them too long makes my stomach hurt a little, so I snap my head away and take a seat against the fence.

It’s still early, so kids are at the park with their jangly keychains and missing teeth and hand-me-down backpacks, and parents who aren’t much more than kids themselves scattered through the mob like chickpeas in the rice a foster mom of mine used to make. There’s an amiable rustle in the air that seems to radiate away from the man, leaving him in his own on-edge bubble.

And he’s still staring.

The First Forbidden: Trial one

No one knew what was on the other side. And no one who tried to find it came back. They lived in squalor and naivety.

A young man named Richard began to have visions. No one knew what they were. Not psychiatrists, not churches, no one. Richard had no one to turn to.

"It's all right. We are here for you my friend. This church will pray you find the answer," stated Father Sapriva.
"Thank you Father," Richard said. He left the building to head home. He passed the border on his way home. He saw something unusual. He saw beasts and horrid demons on the other side. he ran home in fear as if he were being chased. Was he having a vision? He was too close to the other side.
RUN. It will do nothing for you.
He froze. That voice.... he had heard it. He ran home.
As he headed to the front door, he saw a man talking to his wife.
"Who are you?!" he yelled opening the door. No one was there.
"I must be seeing things." He paced around the apartment.

Open your eyes to truth. Close them to lies. Hate them for your prophecies.

Richard looked behind himself. Nothing was there but a letter from his wife.

My dear husband,
By the time you read this, I will have vanished from the earth forever. Do not try to find me alone.
You must seek out the First Forbidden. Your greatest enemy, but your only hope. As soon as you finish this letter, go to the other side. It is the only way to find me.
                                                                           Love, Elana


Richard stared at the letter in shock. He trembled. And then, he screamed.

A Forbidden? Everyone knows those creatures are entirely mythical.

Oh, we are real and we are everywhere. And you are the next in line.
Be wise and never badmouth me. I am the First Forbidden. You must know this already. Seek me out to gain your true desire. The ticket is already with you.

"Ticket? What ticket?"

Find out yourself.

"Wait! Tell me more! What are you?

Do not get too greedy. I can't answer all your questions here. You must come to me for the truth. Come to me for everything.

the voice faded. Richard searched for his ticket. Where? Where was it?

The letter shifted. It shined and changed form into a ticket.

Richard took it and heard a whistle outside. It was a train.

No conductor. He got on and the doors closed. He heard one final voice before the train began to move.

Let all hope stay here.

The train roared through the streets violently toward a brick wall. Richard cowered in fear. The train rammed through the wall. The train was in the air, but now it was burning as it flew towards the ground.


The train was a total wreck. Richard climbed out of one of the cars, bleeding. He got up and stared around.

He was on the other side.

He looked around and found an eye staring right at him.

It scurried back. Richard sighed in relief and then walked away.

And then fangs bared and claws sharpened, the demon pounced.

Three years later, I am still pondering over that moment. It is my only memory. Before that, I just don’t know. But it’s the only thing I have  been thinking about for the last three hyears, begging the past for more details.

I am riding as tram back to Salsiva from Lina where I serve as a maid to a rich family so that I can make money for my family. My face burns with anger whenever I walk into the McShones mansion. The disparity between the rich and the poor is very immense. Salsiva is the poor district where I live and Lina is the wealthy district. I stare glumly out of the small dusty window at the grey thundering sky not even caqring whether it rains tonight. The bus beeps signaling my stop so I jump up with only the stars to guide me not even caring that it is now pouring out and I am getting soaked through my skin. Within seconds, I am at my door step taking off my shoes, and pushing the door open.

“Chloe, you’re home!” my mom says ecstatic, and cheery as always. “Dinner will be ready soon! I can’t wait to hear all about your day honey!”

“ I’m not hungry,” I mutter which is a lie the second the word pour from my mouth. I’m staving actually. But, I don’t say anthing because really, I’m not in the mood to hear everyone talk about their days, and then have them ask me about my day and have to talk about cleaning the McShones house. It’s no that the Mc Shones are mean, it’s just that cleaning all day is not the most fun thing to do every day. When everyone else has something interesting to talk about. “I’m going to bed, I don’t feel so good,” It’s a lie, and my heart aches from saying it but I really do just want to go to bed.

“Oh honey do you want me to bring you a little dinner?”

I can’t stop my stomach from saying yes so I obey it and say, “Thanks , Mom! That would be great.”

I go upstairs, climb into bed, and have oon fallen asleep. It is not until eleven ocklock at night when I qake up again in my rickity wooden bed. I have woken up from the sound of voices. At such a late time of night, this Is a rare occurance. My curiousness  gets the better of, so that I climb out of bed onto the creaky wood floor where I beg it not to crack so I am not heard. I creep down the hallways toward my parent’s room or should I say closet. I stand at the door pressing my ear against it listening intently to the voices insidfe. It’s my mom and my dad.

“ You know where she’s from don’t you Bill?”  my mom says. It’s a few minute s before my dad ansers and I’ve almost thought that he had fallen asleep.

“ Of course I do honey.” My dad respondes, “ And she deserves to know,” She must be suspecting that there is something suspicious going on.”

What in the world are they talking aabout? I mutter to my self under my breath. With in seconds my question is answered, but it leads to so mony more questions.

 "Yes, but Chloe is still so young, she's only qe. She won't understasnd." The blood drains from my face, leaving me pale white like a ghost. I feel myself falling to the ground, and don't even try to stop myyself. I land with a thud on the ground. Honestly, I don''t even care about the noise. Let them discover me, and then they'll have to explain. Explain everything. A second after I thud to the ground, the door bangs open It's my mom."What are you doing here Chlo0e? What did you hear?" she sounds scared.

Instead of answering her I say, "Why wr you guys talking about me?"

"So you heard?" she says in a cold voice that I din't think she was capable of.

"Yeah, yeah I did, and I have a lot of questions, first I wnt to know..."

"Honey I'm going to ask you not to ask questions for now until I think this over. You have to stay with us." she interupts me her sugary and sweet voice back that makes me feel like a pancake beoing covered in brown sticky maple syrup. "Go to sleep Chloe, we'll see you in the morning, and please don't tell your sibling."

I try to utter good night but when I attempt to, only a squeaking sound comes out. So instead I stagger down the hallway not  even caring that my siblings may still be asleep. UI even hear one of them  cough. Suddenly a question comes into my head. Why is everyone here have brown eyes amd tje [erson in myu one memory before Salsiva had green eyes? Other than that, I have never in my life seen another person with brown ehyes. And then it dawns on me, I have green eyes. But why? I wonder. There must be some reason. As the days go by things make less and less sense. I just don't belong. 

                                                         ***************                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Mom said that I should just go to bed. I did that that one night but for the past month adna half I have heard nothing at all of interest. They go to bed and I know it for sure because they snore when they are sldeeping. It is not until now the 44th day that anything has happened. For the past month and a half life is as normal as it has been for the past three yeats. Until this night. I sit in the pure dasrkness of the hallway in only my linen night gown sitting, listening for knowledge, covered with only a thin wool blanket. I am shivering but my craving for knowledge keeps me there sitting in the darness listening intently for any knowledge. Recently, I have been so tirede bdcause I hyave not been sleepin gat night that I have fallen asleep during some of mhy jobs at the McShone house and as consequences I was yealled at by the head sefrvant Louisa. I could sto coming here at night, but this is the most lead I have ever had on any idea in three years so if I wan tknowledge, this is  what I have to go through until I actyually find some information out. "This is my past that we are talin about, and I don't want to have to rive  a life not knowing what happened to me before I was eleven . I want knowledge. Sometimes I want to scream with frustration! It is not fair that I know nothing about my past when everyone else could tell you a woud by word account of their oif.

Anyway, I was sitting out in the cold in front of my parents mi ni sleeping chamber when suddenly I heard voices. But, they are not the voices of my parents, well it was mhy parents but alsosomeone else. Itr was a woman. AndI knew here. Not from Salsiva but from somewhere else, a land far off from a land far off. Itr   skimmed a memory from far off. 

"Hoq is Chleo doing her/ She was so young when they canme. Too yound. her fathere and I thought, well that she should move to somewhere safe until she is a little older. I just wanted to come see if she doing weelll here, or else we can move here swomewhere else.  We hope she is not too big of a pain." the woman says.

It takes me a full minute to proccess what she just said. Bjut when it does, my body goes numb with shock. I'm not from here. Well if I'm not where am I from?I'm not from Lima! I can't be. Even those snobs have brown eyes. Amd then another question dqwns on me. Why has nobody ever said anything about my green eyes? Are they all io on a secret that I don't know about? I'll find out tomorrow.

                                                            ******************                                                                    I wake up the next morning to find out that with all the shock last night, I had dozed off. It is now very early morning, a little after the time the chickens would crow if we could even afford them which obviously we can't judging by the fact that I live in a closet. jSo that nobody notices that I was not in bed last night, I crawl down the hallway, silently praying that the floor does not creak beneath me, or worse break. As I creep back to my room I start to plan out my mission. But, the second that I put my head against my pillow, I am asleep. I can really use some sleep. I have a very action packed day tomorrow that I need to have rest for unless I want to end up in a black hole for the rest of my life. 

     
When I wake up again, the sun is up and rising, and it is time to get up. I stretch my legs, and walk down stairs as ready as I ever will be for my mission. I walk down the stairs, grab a piece of toast, yell hello to everyone, and bolt out the door. At first, I thought about testing my siblings as part of my experiment but then I decided for the better that they might blab about it to our parents. Instead, on the way home from work I'll do it to some of my friends.

After five tiring hours of cleaning the McShones house I am finally on the way back to Salsiva. I run off the bus and find my first experimentee. Her name is Elizabeth. We have known each other since I got here. She seems to know me from before them but right now, we'll find out.

I walk up to her and say calmly, "Hey Lizzy." My hands our white and my body is shaking. I do my best to calm down but it's not easy.

"Oh hey Chloe, how are you doing?" she responds.

I decide to take it easy and calmly so that she acturally answers me when I get to the punch line."I'm doing well. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing well."

"Hey, you should come over tonight for dinner."

"OK." she responds

"Hey do you remember my zoo party when I was eight?" This is a complete lie. When I was eight I wasn't even in Salsiva. "On June. 8th from 4-6."

A flicker of confusion passes on her so fast that I though it was my imagination. ∫ut \, it was there. I saw it with my own eyes. It is a full minute before she responds. "Oh yeah! I remember that! We had so much fun!' She is lying. I can tell she is from her clammy hands to her pale face.

I pretend that I don't notice. Instead I say, "Let's meet at my house in two hours at seven?"

"Sure," she responds. Before I can say anything else, she runs into the evening towards her house. I back up against one of the fences protecting one of the houses. All I want to do is jump and scream in excitement. Lizzy knowws something. I'll ask her tonight. Night is the time for secrets to spill. As I am walking I run into Agatha who I have also known for as long as I have known Salsiva. I take it casually just as I did with Lizzy. I do the same thing until I get to the important part. I ask her to dinner as well.

"You remeber that time when I was eight? We had such a fun time at the beach! On june 8th from 4-6?

"Oh yes. I remember that." she says without any hesitation but her face pales ever so slightly.

                                                         ***********************

"Youre having friend over?" My mother asks. I never have friends over. she looks appalled. I'm not such of a friend kind of person. More like an investigator whcih is exactly what I will be doing- investigating.

"Yes." I respond. "I hope that it's OK. I should have asked first."

"No. It's Ok. Don't worry. You just don't usually have friends over."

"Yeah, well i though that I should have Lizzy and Agatha over. I have not seen them in a while.

                                                      *****************************

The door bell dings. Agatha and Lizzy are here. I answer the door, and usher them up to my room. I'm sick of being casual. I jump straight to the punch line. "Guys, I think that something strange is happening to me. You don't know anything about that do you?"

They look at each other before Agatha says sweetly, "We don't really know a lot but, in Salsiva, we really just try to enjoy our selves and forget about all the strange things that happen."

I think about that for a long long time after.





EPILOUGE- 2 years later.

It is 2 years later, and my whole life has changed just because of what Agatha told me. It took me a very long time to realize what she really meant, but I took it into account, and now I am a completely different person. I have realizd that all that investigating made me not so friendly. I now know that I just need to live my life, and forget about all of the confusing things in my past, and I have. I am a new person for the better.

UNTITLED

friday, may 31, 2004

Ceciltheturtle is now offline

"CECIL!" I jump, quickly shutting the computer off. "okay, okay..." I mumble. When I get to my mom's room she has 2 dresses sprawled on her bed. I roll my eyes. Not again! My mom has a panicked look on her face. "Which one???" she asks frantically. I look at the 2 dresses. One is slim and black with a huge black rose on the left side of her chest, and one is red, swooshy and sequiny with a bow in the back. I didn't really like the red one so I pointed at the black one. "Beauty isn't everything, mom." She glares at me. "sometimes, it is." she says it like it was obvious, when it really wasn't at all. I can't even believe she just said that! I storm off to my room to start IMing Ally to complain, but then I get a genius idea.

friday, june 2, 2004

I wake up, I get out of bed, but I don't pick up the brush. I pull my  ugly tan corduroy pants on and then roll one leg up. I put my blank blue shirt on and then yank my sister's Dora and friends T-shirt over my head. I grab rainbow striped suspenders and clip them on. I pull my hair into a ponytail (which I look horrible in) and than put an ugly beige and dark green headband on my head. I put on a jacket, grab a banana and dash out the door screaming "BYE, MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!" than I arrive at the school that has a sign on the gate "yearbook photos for 8th graders: friday, june 2nd! wear something nice!" oh, by the way, I'm an eighth grader.

Tuesday, June 26, 2004

I unlock the door and clutch the yearbook in my hand. I dash upstairs to see my mom in my room doing her makeup. I toss the yearbook with the page with my picture bookmarked onto her bed and say "Beauty isn't everything!" and run into my room. Soon enough, my mom opens my door and looks surprised and happy. "Your yearbook... you dressed up like that for me?" I look at her and nod. Soon I am walking my mom out the door of the house looking beautiful, but not like she tried to look beautiful. Because now she knows that beauty isn't everything.