Purgatory

We were the four guardians. Two women and two men charged with the duty of rehabilitating the eternally damned in a prison called Hell's Sanctuary which was home to some of the sickest and perverse minds to ever walk the Earth.

We were poorly equipped to keep thousands of psychotic prisoners in line. I had dual Desert Eagle pistols at my side. Rachel carried a crossbow and was a crack-shot. Sarah had two katanas slung across her back and was deadly with any blade. Michael's right hand was covered by a huge iron guantlet. Beyond these basic implements as guardians we were imbued with some supernatural powers, speed, strength, and other heightened abilities.

As long as we stood the walls of this prison stood.

This was our God-given duty or perhaps it was our punishment...

An armored car rolled up to the gates. We were there to meet it. Out stepped the driver, an old man with dark eyes dressed in a bland grey suit. A faded nametag on his shirt read Bob, along with the company logo a smiling delivery man with the words Delightful Delivery beneath it.

He hobbled to the back of the truck and unlocked the doors then handed me a clipboard and some forms to sign.

"Right here on the line" he said in an uninterested monotone.

I handed him the forms back and he rolled out our new ward encased in a heavy steel coffin.
I handed the forms to Rachel for filing and rolled him out to the yard. The other inmates were waiting in the yard for the fresh bait but as he lumbered out of the coffin they all drew back.

He stood over eight feet tall and weighed about 300 pounds of solidly packed muscle. His eyes were dark cavernous holes and he behind his dumb grin were what looked like a row of shark teeth. His entire body looked Frankenstein-ish and was covered in scars.

The other prisoners eyed the new arrival nervously and kept their distance. They were going to have to learn to play nice sooner or later.

Outside the gates some sort of commotion had started. I locked down the yard and turned back to join my fellow guardians. An incensed mob of protestors were rushing against the prison gates. They were demanding the release of our new prisoner. We were near the lawless outland and these were its dregs. They were ghouls and fiends, not human at all. They were rushing at us with scavenged weapons and bloody claws.

The walls of the prison were imbued with our life-force and the powers of Heaven itself. As long as we stood our ground no one got in or out without our say. But there was a limit to even our powers.

They were rushing towards the gates and pounding on the walls. My felow guardians were already outside the wall. I planted my feet firmly then leapt straight into the air, vaulting myself over the wall. We could move past the wall freely but our inmates could not.

There were ghouls everywhere at least a hundred of them. It seemed hopeless but we had no choice. We had to fight. I unholstered the Eagles from my side and charged towards them spewing out blessed bullets that never missed their mark. Sarah wasn't far from me standing with her crossbow and taking them down like a sniper. Rachel was in the midst of them mowing them down with her katanas. Michael stood at the front gate with a faceful of metal of fist for anyone who got too close for comfort.

Click. Click. My clips were out. I re-holstered my Eagles. The clips would recharge themselves automatically but it would take a little time. Until then fists would work too. One of the fiends leapt at me. We grappled and I spun him around and pinned him down on the ground. It struggled and hissed at me,

"Release him! Release the Lord of Plagues!"

I grabbed a hold of it's head and flung it like a ragdoll. These were not people. These things...were already dead but fortunately they could die again.

If what the fiend had said was true then we had some bigger problems brewing. A plague lord wasn't easy to contain and we had just released one into the general prison population.

Inside the prison a massive riot was going down. The few remaining fiends broke off and retreated. The prison was a now a scene of mass carnage. Blood and body parts spewn everywhere. Above the guard towers the prison lights began to flicker as a dark mass rose above the prison and began pounding against the walls. Millions of them...locusts...

We regrouped and turned back towards the prison. The gates would hold for now but I didn't know for how long. Our new ward was going to have to go into solitary and it didn't look like he would go willingly. I gritted my teeth as I jammed fresh clips into my Eagles. There was work to do...

The Dark Night

"Through the darkness you must fight, save the one, destroy the night."

My magic was still weak. I could barely muster up a small flame. I had no armor and my only weapon was a small katana the old man had given me. I still wasn't sure who or what I was looking for but I knew I was getting close.

I moved silently through the growing darkness. There was a clearing ahead and I saw them, a group of dark mages in dark purple robes gathered in a circle and chanting.

Well, this was the place. No point in treading softly at this point. I stepped out into the clearing.

"Hey! You guys started the party without me!" I yelled nonchalantly.

They all turned toward me.

"Defiler! Servant of the light! You will die!" hissed their Master. Suddenly, tendrils sprang forth wrapping themselves around his body forming a heavy armor suit, surrounding him. The staff in his hand transformed into a gigantic barbed scimitar. The others gathered behind their master watching and chanting some dark curse upon me no doubt.

With a sweep of his hand, he hurled a fireball at me. I knew there was no way I could deflect it's full force. I raised my free hand quickly trying to summon a weak shield. It shattered against the fireball's blast, covering me in flames.

"Ooh! Ooooh! So this is what fire feels like!" I shouted as I batted off the flames. "That smarts!"

"That was nothing child!" bellowed the Dark Master, "Just a test to see if you're fireproof or not! Now you will die!"

He leaped towards with the dark sword in hand. I raised my katana to defend knowing full well it didn't stand a chance of stopping the blow but as I did, engravings upon the blade began to glow. As the Dark Master's blade came crashing down upon my katana and they collided the gigantic cleaver shattered to pieces, leaving him in shock with nothing but a hilt in his hand as the pieces of his sword clattered to the ground turning to splinters of dead grey wood as they fell.

"Ha ha! Whose got the upper hand now?!" I exclaimed flauntingly.

Among the hooded faces that now stared glaringly at me, I saw one face among them that was not wicked but sad. That was the one. I knew it. I didn't have time to fight all of them. This would just have to wait. As I rushed toward them, their Master lifted his hands again and a wall of dragon fire sprang up before me.

Well, I knew what fire felt like now. I was sure this would sting a bit. I raised the katana before me and pierced the wall of fire. It cut through the dragon fire like it was paper. As I waltzed through the flames licked at me but I felt no sting. In fact, the flames from the wall began to coalesce in my hands as I passed through.

I gathered a small bit of air and with the fire in my hand shot a compressed blast of air and fire at the Master and his servants as they charged towards me again, sending them flying back. Cool! I thought to myself. That's a new one. I'd have to work on that and remember it for later.

My powers alone were rather meager. What I could muster up on my own amounted to little more than parlor tricks. My power lay in the presence of greater magic. To an extent I could absorb magic around me and magic used against me then redirect it, reflect it, re-use it, and find it's weak points.

This was all good fun. If I spent the whole day with them I could probably master dark magic but, the old man had said to waste no time. As my attackers lay stunned on the ground, I grabbed the hooded mage with the sad eyes, as I did his hood fell from his face. It was not a he but a she! And an incredibly beautiful she! Well introductions could wait for later I supposed.

Light, light, light, light, light, light, light, light! I scrunched my eyes and squeezed my fists and she was suddenly light as a feather and so was I. I hauled her over my left shoulder and as I stepped off in a dash, seven doppelgangers sprang from my feet all dashing off in random directions.

As I quickly put a safe distance between me and the mages, I let a smirk curl over my face. I could still see the twisted contorted look of anger, hate, and surprise across their Master's face, beat by my mere parlor tricks.

I chuckled merrily and couldn't wait to tell the old man.

The Approaching Darkness

I knelt down upon the ground and looked out through the land. The wind stirred and I wrapped my black cloak around. I spied a great city of trees before me. Surrounded by the wild on all sides save for the west where lied a good sized town not far. It was getting late, the hour where the day and night battle each other, both equally holding their ground. Then out through the midst of the trees I saw them. A great black snake winding through the trees. I laid my eagle eye upon it. They were riders, a great horde of them, a hundred or more. They bore steel armor, black as night, terrible weapons of blades and spikes, and through their helms breathed red fire, their steeds dark as night too, frothing at the mouth, with a wild look in their eyes. They were coming here...and approaching fast.

I called my mount and rode as fast as I had ever in my life towards the town gates. "Open the gates!" I shouted as I bore down upon the town wall. "A horde of Dark Knights ride here! Call to arms!"

No horn sounded but the call went out. Within minutes archers lined the walls and a host of rag tag warriors had been assembled, swordsman on foot, and armored knights on horses. Then we saw their approach. We could not possibly stand against them, they would tear through us as we were air.

Suddenly glowing runes appeared upon my palms. From the runes words sprang forth. I spoke the words and the runes glowed fiercer yet. I breathed a slow sigh then drew my hands in a large sweeping circle, slowly at first then quicker. Blue sparks began to crackle forth from my fingertips. They grew steadily and a stream flew forth and connected between my hands. My eyes began to take a blue glow. Quicker still I drew the stream and contorted it around and around.

The horde drew close, and their horses beat the ground, and rattled our walls

"Hold! Wait for my attack!" I screamed above the chaos that drew nearer to us.

The stream of lightning continued to grow and became more intense. My body surged with its immense energy building within me. They were now upon us, ready to crash into our meager forces and lay ruination.

"Now!"

I pulled back and released the stream and a miraculous sight was born from my hands. A giant dragon created of lightning streamed forth from my hands, its head, body, wings and tail. The dark horde reared for but a moment when they saw its terrible visage but had not time to stop the momentum of their assault.

The darkness now glowed with the light of the elemental dragon. Its body was white and blue and tendrils of electricity crackled all about it. Its breath was a blue fog and its eyes were as hot as the sun. It hung in the air for a second then swept down crashing upon them incinerating the first wave, their armor falling to the ground with nothing left inside it. The dragon surged through them and dissipated. From the surge however, were born smaller dragons who spiraled through the remaining ranks, wrapping their bodies around the dark warriors and crushing them to naught but dust. None remained. The demons were all vanquished. Their armor and weapons littered the ground. Those horses that had abandoned their masters bolted off into the forest in all directions being now bare of their possession and terribly frightened.

I collapsed upon the ground and looked upwards as the stars began to shine in the night sky, and breathed a sigh of relief.

That was pretty good...for my first spell.

Watch What You Eat

Two powerful and sophisticated but vicious corporations fought for control in this world. Vampire Hunters...and Vampires. Why...me?

I don't know how I got there but, I was just there wandering around without aim but a growing sense of where I was.

They got to me first...the hunters. A girl wearing rugged but fitting clothes, a heavily stocked equipment belt, and a crossbow gun shouted to me then quickly told me what was happening.

"Thank God, we found you. You've got to come with us! They're after your blood!"

Apparently, I was special. There was some kind of mutation in my blood that the vampires wanted and they wouldn't extract it nicely with a needle.

But before we could get to safety the vampires were on us. They surrounded us, with our back to an old apartment complex we backed inside. I bolted running up the stairs. I had nothing but the clothes I was wearing, and no feasible way to defend myself.

The hunters and the vampires were fighting each other but there were more vamps than hunters. Before I knew it, they were after me, I ran up the stairs quickly. I was almost as fast as they were and with a headstart was able to dodge them. The hunters joined me, up the stairs about five of them in all, and we burst into an empty large windowed room.

The vampire in charge of the gang leaped at the girl trying to protect me. He began to sink his fangs into her neck then suddenly recoiled, gasping and spitting and his neck suddenly beginning to melt away, as he was retching up blood. He writhed upon the floor.

She had been drinking holy water...a lot of holy water and her body and blood was filled with the blessed liquid.

The hunters surrounded me and the remaining vampires wouldn't progress with their leader so incapacitated. We had the upper hand.

Then there was a flash, and there before us stood another vampire. This one with shining grey hair slicked back, a slightly older look and a fine black suit complete with tie. This was their true leader.

The hunters were braced and ready for his attack but he simply stood still and said,
"Why don't we finish this some other time, eh?"

The vampire who had bitten the girl staggered raising his hand and cried,
"Father! Aren't you going to do something?!"

To which the head vampire nonchalantly replied,
"Didn't I tell you to watch what you eat?"

Its like someone is scripting my dreams and they have the same dry sense of humor I do. I guess that makes sense considering they're my dreams though.

Zombie City

I don't remember exactly how I got here but I had been kidnapped and brought to this place. Some dark arm of the government was responsible. They were bringing us here for testing, to watch how we died. It was like a small city but, overhead instead of sky there were walls. It was a gigantic building complex. It was night and dark but I could hear them. Zombies.

I don't know how many times I have to say this. I hate Zombies. I'm not into horror movies or books. I don't know why my dreams are so often zombie survivor horrors but I hate em. I once woke up so paranoid after a particularly vicious zombie dream that I grabbed a baseball bat and searched the entire house for zombies. (didn't find any)

My first instinct was to hunker down and hide in one of the quite, abandoned buildings. But these were more than your typical slow and dumb zombies. They had a heightened sense of smell and hearing and worse were very fast.

Before I even had a chance to hide, they were after me. So my next instinct kicked in...run.
The city was a maze of small buildings like a small suburban community. There was a large pool fountain in the middle of the city. Somehow, I thought the water might slow them down. Wrong.
They waded through just as quickly as I did but, I still had a little headway and a body full of adrenalin. After I ran through the city I came to a maze of pipes, ladders, boilers in a large hangar. Bolting up a ladder and down an access-way I kept running and they were still after me.
Then I found something I didn't expect but was thankful for, a rusted old maintenance door. At first it didn't budge but I stepped back, and kicked the door and it flew open.

I was outside. I was really outside! It was a gigantic. Apparently, they had been monitoring my progress from outside because I was immediately confronted by two men in suits with drawn pistols who told me to freeze. I wasn't going back in there. I ran straight at them knocking them down and kept running.

It seems the zombies had also found the same maintenance door I had and were now pouring out of the place, zombies and agents clashed but they weren't entirely occupied with each other. I still had both after me. Ahead of me was a forest, trees all around. I kept running into the wilderness, into the night...

Waking Up

Is life my dream or are my dreams my life?

Ever since I was a child I've had incredibly vivid dreams, ranging from loves you could never hope to feel to terrors you would never wish to meet.

I used to think it was the turmoil of my young mind that caused me to dream so wildly but even now as an adult the dreams continue, vividly and lucidly.

I dream so lucidly in fact that many of my dreams are interwoven into my actual memories and I often remember my dreams on certain days better than the days themselves.

While I have very lucid dreams its not always so much that I realize I'm in a dream but, I have a very heightened sense of control and power in my dreams. Its not that I realize I'm in a dream but I simply realize I can do things that I would physically be unable to do in the waking world.
More often than not when I do realize I'm dreaming is when the dreams begin to fade and I begin to wake. So while I remember my dreams almost all the time and realize I have power in my dreams, I don't necessarily know I'm dreaming when I am.

I've taken detailed notes on many of my past dreams, even thought I might be able to make a good book out of some of them. For some time they've been at me, pleading, begging, biting, tearing, nagging to get out. So I've decided to let them out.