tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-309819142011-04-21T17:10:19.919-07:00Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.comBlogger241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-83954280148570399902008-07-28T07:46:00.000-07:002008-07-28T07:47:50.551-07:00Not like I've updated this any time recently, but this Jay sandbox is officially closed. I've moved my blogging to a new place mentioned at the end of this post. I may open a new sandbox, but for now, no more stories.<br /><br /><a href="http://kung-f00l.blogspot.com/">http://kung-f00l.blogspot.com/</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-8395428014857039990?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-30021876562013569642008-02-08T18:12:00.000-08:002008-02-08T20:45:23.961-08:00<p/>Tears still running down her cheeks, her boyfriend left behind in the crowds, Jenny walked through the still bustling streets of Bangkok. Unbeknownst to her, a dark creature followed her. He smelled her tears and smiled. Easy pickings.<br /><p/>"Excuse me," the smiling monster tapped Jenny's shoulder. She jumped as she turned around. All she saw was a young, smiling Thai man. "You look lost... oh. Excuse me, are you alright?"<br /><p/>"I'm just..." Jenny sniffed and wiped away her tears. "I'm fine. I'm just looking for my hotel." Jenny smiled, hiding her sadness. "I think I'm a little lost."<br /><p/>"What hotel?" the monster smiled.<br /><p/>"Oh, um... the Sukhumvit Hotel?" Jenny smiled at the monster. "Did I pronounce that right?" The monster laughed.<br /><p/>"Yes! Your pronunciation is very good," he smiled and Jenny laughed, her tears fading. "Your hotel is close by. Would you like me to show you?"<br /><p/>"Yes, please. If it's not too much trouble!" Jenny glanced to the side. <br /><p/>"Oh, no trouble! No trouble at all!" the monster laughed and politely gestured in the right direction. Jenny smiled gratefully and they walked a ways.<br /><p/>"You're sure you don't mind?" Jenny asked. <br /><p/>"It's really no trouble," the monster assured her. "Just down this way." He gestured down an alleyway.<br /><p/>"Down there?" Jenny asked. She glanced at the monster nervously.<br /><p/>"The fastest way to your hotel is down this alley and then three blocks to the left," the monster assured her.<br /><p/>"But... is it safe?" Jenny asked. <br /><p/>"It is totally safe," the monster assured her with a smile. He led Jenny half way through the alley before turning to her. <br /><p/>"What?" Jenny asked looking into his glowing white eyes before gasping with realization. <br /><p/>"Totally safe. For me anyway," the monster looked Jenny up and down hungrily. Jenny began to whimper.<br /><p/>"Please don't hurt me," she whispered. <br /><p/>"No pain," the monster smiled as he pulled Jenny's head to one side, fangs extending. "For me anyway." Lips twitching the monster reached for Jenny's inviting neck. He tried to bite in but found himself just short of her neck. He pulled harder and found he couldn't move. A hand was holding his hair and lips appeared at his ear.<br /><p/>"She asked nicely," the second monster growled in an almost friendly voice. Then the second monster hurled the first into the wall behind him.<br /><p/>"Please don't hurt me," Jenny begged again her eyes shut tight.<br /><p/>"Don't worry, he won't hurt you now," came a much friendlier voice. Jenny opened her eyes to find a young white man, American by the clothes, standing in a heroic pose.<br /><p/>"What?" Jenny blinked.<br /><p/>"I won't let him hurt you, don't worry," the second monster smiled at Jenny. <br /><p/>"Where did he go?" Jenny slowly backed away from the strange new man looking for the monster she'd just seen.<br /><p/>"Oh, he's right over..." the second monster turned to point at his fallen foe to find no one there. "Oh, gottsverdammten vampire. Where'd that bugger go?" <br /><p/>"Oh god," Jenny backed into the wall, shaking.<br /><p/>"It'll be ok," the young man said, standing in front of Jenny, looking around attentively. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled. "I'm Jay, by the way." Which was, of course, the moment the monster took to strike. The monster darted out of the darkness, snarling, claws reaching for this upstart.<br /><p/>Jay caught him by the throat without looking. While the monster struggled, Jay's head slowly turned. When the monster caught Jay's eyes they were glowing red and his fangs were extended.<br /><p/>"Bad move, brother," Jay winked at the monster before turning once again and hurling the hideous creature down the alleyway. He started to follow, but stopped when Jenny clutched at his arm.<br /><p/>"What did you call him?" Jenny asked, shaking still.<br /><p/>"Oh, a god damned vampire," Jay replied. "That was German, sorry."<br /><p/>"He's not a vampire," Jenny said quietly. Jay blinked.<br /><p/>"Not a vampire? Are you crazy?" Jay stared at Jenny, mouth agape. "What about the eyes? And the claws? And the scary?"<br /><p/>"There's no such thing as vampires!" Jenny insisted, backing away from Jay slightly. <br /><p/>"Oh, come on! How much more proof could you possibly need?" Jay complained. <br /><p/>"There's no such thing as vampires!" Jenny insisted more confidently. <br /><p/>"He disappeared again!" Jay gestured to where the monster no longer lay.<br /><p/>"That's because he ran off," a new voice came from the darkness. Jenny and Jay both turned to find a serious looking man walking towards them.<br /><p/>"You've got to be joking!" Jay grumbled as K walked up.<br /><p/>"He was trying to mug you, Jay here scared him, and he ran off," K said calmly to Jenny. Almost hypnotically. Jenny nodded absently.<br /><p/>"He was trying to mug me," the frightened girl agreed. "He ran off." K sighed at the girl.<br /><p/>"Your boyfriend is back there," K nodded back out of the alley. Jenny nodded and ran out of the alley.<br /><p/>"God dammit, K," Jay growled. Then he blinked, confused. "You didn't even use magic! How did you do that?"<br /><p/>"People believe what they want to believe," K shrugged. "Talk in a spooky voice and people will believe they're being hypnotized or whatever." K gave Jay a strange look. "Why were you so big on her thinking he was a vampire anyway?" Jay put on his innocent face. K parried with his annoyed face. <br /><p/>"Uh... well... you know... I just wanted her to believe," Jay looked down, embarrassed.<br /><p/>"Yeah, I got that part," K rolled his eyes. "It was the why part I didn't get." Jay sighed.<br /><p/>"I've just been thinking that if people started to believe then..." Jay paused.<br /><p/>"It would be easier for you to admit who you are to girls?" K guessed.<br /><p/>"Yeah," Jay admitted. <br /><p/>"I kinda figured," K gave his friend a sympathetic smile.<br /><p/>"Hey, what'd you do to that guy anyway?" Jay suddenly asked glancing around. K suddenly grinned.<br /><p/>"Remember how I told you about that shadow fire I was working on that gave off no light and transported the person on fire into the shadow realm?" K wiggled his eyebrows.<br /><p/>"Holy shit, that worked?" Jay laughed. "Freakin' awesome!"<br /><p/>"I knew you'd forgive me," K smirked. "I didn't know you'd be so quick about it."<br /><p/>"What are you... Dammit!" Jay groaned. K laughed and the two friends wandered off into the Bangkok night.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-3002187656201356964?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-35701361093012838912008-02-07T06:54:00.000-08:002008-02-08T07:58:49.449-08:00J: LET IT RAIN!!!!<br />K: Rain. You are aware it's sunny out.<br />J: Let it rain down on me?<br />J: 4 Strings?<br />J: I like to keep my pimp hand strong.<br />K: Four what?<br />J: lol<br />J: Follow! All my love it's you that I dream of, all my love since that day! Dancing with you in the summer rain!<br />J: *dance dance REVOLUTION!*<br />J: *has issues* :)<br />K: You don't really need to tell me that. I'm well aware of your mental state, or lack thereof.<br />J: *loves tacos*<br />K: And, as per usual, you bounce back quickly.<br />J: We're going out tonight, you in?<br />K: Not tonight, no. I have work to finish and a date later.<br />J: Ok.<br />K: Keep asking though. One of these days free time will be mine again.<br />J: No problem.<br />J: Make this girl write me back and tell me she likes me. DO IT! DO IT NOW!<br />K: What girl?<br />J: The one I mailed last night.<br />K: Yes, that narrows it down nicely. I definitely know what you're talking about now.<br />J: I showed you her profile yesterday assmuppet.<br />K: Oh, that one. That actually does help narrow it down.<br />J: The financial one. 32. Real pretty.<br />K: If I knew where she lived, I'd have a gun to her head making her like you already. That's how I roll.<br />J: Now that's friendship.<br />K: heh...<br />J: I'm listening to Pretty Women as we speak.<br />J: ROFL<br />J: LOLLERSKATES<br />K: You're sure full of energy today. And caps.<br />J: I'm just excited about the girl.<br />K: Oh good. Not like that's ever gone wrong in the past.<br />J: Shut it!<br />J: Monkey steals the peach!<br />K: No, my testicles are staying right where they are, thank you very much.<br />J: Dude, check out these hot remixes.<br />K: Techno?<br />J: Hot, kickin' techno. Two remixes of the same song.<br />K: Right.<br />K: The first one is awesome.<br />K: So's the second one. Two remixes of the same song that are awesome? This must create a rift in space-time or something.<br />J: I know!<br />K: I must say, I prefer the first one though. I like the use of the strings.<br />J: I like the use of boobs.<br />K: There's a boob remix?<br />J: I wish.<br />J: I want time to play with Sandy.<br />K: We all want that. Seems like you're the only one who has any potential to get that anyway.<br />J: Let me rephrase! I want play time AGAIN with Sandy.<br />K: Oh. Well, that's different.<br />K: Shall we add the addendum "right now"?<br />J: I thought I explained this whole thing to you.<br />J: Might as well add right now since it doesn't have a chance in hell of happening.<br />K: Right now? Or ever?<br />J: Unfortunately ever. "I got a little crazy", her words.<br />K: Sometimes... ok, frequently, I really wish I could punch the stupid out of the women you try to date.<br />J: It was the most fun I've had in a long time.<br />K: I hear you.<br />J: But she got all weirded out and was all like "I don't know if we can be friends" and what not.<br />K: Girls. Can't live with 'em, and if you bury too many in the basement, eventually people notice.<br />J: LOL.<br />J: So yeah, it's either be friends with no play, or not be friends with no play.<br />K: Given your shitty options, go with option A.<br />J: She's ignoring me anyway. Which she does.<br />K: So I've noticed.<br />J: She usually talks to me again. But doing fun stuff with her was like a ... horribly addictive drug.<br />J: You know the holocaust?<br />K: Total opposite?<br />J: Exactly.<br />K: I grok you, loud and clear.<br />J: Her skin is like liquid satin.<br />K: And now we've entered into the realm of STOP TELLING ME THESE THINGS.<br />J: heh...<br />J: I'm giving you book ideas.<br />K: I don't do bodice rippers.<br />J: You could. I have faith in you.<br />K: You are aware I can set you on fire from here, right?<br />J: Yes, but then I would get significantly less work done.<br />K: You're working? You're spending a lot of time IMing me here.<br />J: Spoke the pot to the kettle.<br />K: Have you heard my typing slow when you were composing your replies?<br />J: Oh, shut up you multitasking master.<br />K: Back to work with you!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-3570136109301283891?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-41128779039215588832007-11-15T11:20:00.000-08:002007-12-07T07:10:15.255-08:00<p/>"'Let's go to Paris!' you said. 'It'll be fun and educational!' you said. 'Nothing could possibly go wrong!' you said. 'The Parisan Catacombs Midnight Tours are totally safe!' you said. Yet, for all your annoying optimism, here we are, lost in the Catacombs, surrounded by zombies who are apparently retarded, with no food for either of us. What part of this was a good idea again?"<br /><p/>Jay sighed and gave K an unhappy look. They'd been wandering around the Catacombs for hours trying to find some rhyme or reason to the place as well as a way out. Not only that, but they'd been pushing zombies out of the way for hours. The zombies weren't the eating people kind of zombies, but seemed all to be merely wandering around aimlessly, which meant constantly in the way in K's eyes. <br /><p/>Paris, despite K's grumbling, had actually started out as a good choice for a holiday. The flight was startlingly easy to get onto and off of. The hotel was easy to find and had excellent service. The food made even K sigh happily, and Jay had found easy and safe meals quickly since landing. Up until taking the tour of the Catacombs, everything had been going well.<br /><p/>When Jay had noticed that a door that should have been locked was actually slightly ajar, he had dragged K off saying that it would be fun to poke around in the area the tours left out. K had protested, but swiftly gave in to Jay's curiosity. It was only ten minutes before the trouble started. <br /><p/>"So, I don't know if you've noticed this," K started with his 'not amused' voice. Jay grimaced.<br /><p/>"Noticed what?" Jay replied sweetly.<br /><p/>"We're stuck in an illusory trap," K replied with an exasperated sigh. <br /><p/>"What makes you say that?" Jay asked, frowning. Everything smelled normal and looked normal.<br /><p/>"Well, you see that door we passed back there?" K pointed behind them.<br /><p/>"Yeah, it's.... What the?" Jay's jaw dropped.<br /><p/>"Yes, lo and behold that there is no passageway behind us," K rolled his eyes. Jay ran back to where the passageway was and found nothing but solid rock.<br /><p/>"What the hell?" Jay asked.<br /><p/>"Like I said, we're in an illusion trap," K replied. "And an annoying one at that, since if I use magic while we're in the trap, it's guaranteed to have odd side effects."<br /><p/>"Why the odd side effects?" Jay asked.<br /><p/>"Simple. Whoever set up this trap was trying to be annoying, not so much dangerous. As such, he's set up some curses that are designed to have spells behave rather randomly," K scratched at his head annoyedly.<br /><p/>"So if we tried to poof on out of here?" Jay suggested.<br /><p/>"We'd probably either end up deeper in the catacombs with party hats on our heads or gravity would switch and we'd have to start walking around on the ceilings," K replied with a sigh.<br /><p/>"I guess we'd better start trying to just find our way out then," Jay offered. K shook his head. "No? Why not?"<br /><p/>"Like I said, this spell is annoying. It'll probably have normal signs and when we turn a corner like this one we..." K looked forward.<br /><p/>"What?" Jay demanded and turned the corner to see what K was staring at. Attached to the celing of the tunnel they were in was a large neon sign with several arrows pointing in different direction with the word "EXIT" flashing red.<br /><p/>"See what I mean?" K glanced at Jay who sighed. <br /><p/>"Wait, what if I tried to walk the shadows?" Jay asked, starting to step into the shadow realm without waiting for K's reply.<br /><p/>"No, don't-" K's unheard reply came too late. Suddenly, rather than the dark, dank, and somewhat ominous Catacombs, Jay and K stood in the brightly lit, cheerfully decorated Catacombs, with beautiful flowers everywhere and tasteful window treatmens adorning every grave. There were even small shadow acrobats performing on the walls now. <br /><p/>"Oh... oops," Jay grinned sheepishly at his friend who dropped his head into his hands.<br /><p/>"Let's just keep going," K eventually said. "That stupid sign might actually be pointing us in the right direction."<br /><p/>"It points in like six directions," Jay pointed out helpfully.<br /><p/>"Shut up," K replied and the two friends walked off in one of the many exit directions in silence. <br /><p/>After a few minutes, the brightly lit section of the Catacombs led into normal tunnels again, and when looking back, Jay could find no sign of the lighted section ever having existed. The tunnels, back to their dank and dark status, twisted and turned without apparant reason. Occasionally a sign would be visible and lit, but it never seemed to indicate an exit.<br /><p/>"Hey," Jay spoke after what seemed like a long time.<br /><p/>"What?" K asked.<br /><p/>"Why don't we ask for directions?" Jay suggested.<br /><p/>"And who do you propose we..." K's sarcastic reply trailed off as he noticed Jay eye a corpse meaningfully.<br /><p/>"You know... That's not half bad..." K admitted. "I don't think this curse is triggered by necromancy. It's worth a shot."<br /><p/>"Ha! Score one for Jay!" Jay grinned and marked one point in the air.<br /><p/>"Yeah, we'll see about that," K replied, much less optimistically. After concentrating for a moment, the corpse shuddered, then sat up to regard K and Jay.<br /><p/>"Bonjour," said the corpse.<br /><p/>"Yeah, hi," K replied brusquely. "Do you know the way out of here?"<br /><p/>"Excusez-moi?" the corpse replied. K stared at the reanimated body.<br /><p/>"You don't speak English do you?" K groaned.<br /><p/>"Vous ne parlez pas français?" the corpse replied.<br /><p/>"Dammit, don't you speak French?" K demanded of Jay.<br /><p/>"What? No. I never learned French," Jay replied defensively.<br /><p/>"But you know like every other language we come across," K pointed out as if that would help.<br /><p/>"I'm multi-lingual, yes, but I still don't know French," Jay grumbled. <br /><p/>"J'ai besoin d'une cigarette," the corpse commented helpfully. <br /><p/>"Wait, don't you know some magical spell that lets you understand any spoken language?" Jay reminded K helpfully.<br /><p/>"Given how well magic has worked so far, how well do you think that spell would work?" K gave Jay a baleful look. "For all we know I'd cast that, and then I'd only hear Portugese for the rest of the night."<br /><p/>"Oh," Jay said. "Good point."<br /><p/>"Excusez-moi, je dois aller," the corpse said suddenly. It stood up and began to walk away. <br /><p/>"Oh, that can't be good," Jay groaned. K just sighed the sigh of someone who expected things to get worse.<br /><p/>As soon as the first corpse wandered off, more began to stand up and begin to walk around. Try as they might, neither Jay nor K could find a single zombie that spoke English, or any other language that either man was familiar with. Within minutes, there were hundreds of zombies walking around.<br /><p/>"Ok, no more magic, we're just looking for a way out of here," K commanded. "We're bound to find our way out soon, and these zombies will probably wear off just like that light spell."<br /><p/>Many hours of pushing zombies out of the way later, to which the zombies invariably replied with "excusez-moi", Jay and K were at their wit's end. And K began to complain more vocally to Jay.<br /><p/>"Come on, can't you keep a vaguely positive attitude about this?" Jay looked at K reproachfully.<br /><p/>"A positive attitude about wandering around in freaking catacombs filled with zombies where your abilities and my magic count for nothing with no idea where we're going, how we're going to get out, or how we'll get food? You want me to have a positive attitude about that?" K glowered at his friend.<br /><p/>"Well... When you put it that way," Jay grimaced.<br /><p/>"For fuck's sake," K groaned before yelling, "LET US OUT OF HERE!" <br /><p/>With K's yell still echoing through the tunnels, both friends turned a corner and stopped in awe.<br /><p/>"Am I dreaming, or is that the entrance we used to get in here?" Jay asked of K. With a single glance behind them, both men noticed that the zombies were nowhere to be seen<br /><p/>"You ain't dreaming," K said excitedly. "Let's blow this popsicle stand." The two ran to the unlocked door and walked through. <br /><p/>"Please stay with the tour group," their tour leader said to them, beckoning them to join him. After sharing a confused glance, the two rejoined their tour group as if no more than a minute of time had passed.<br /><p/>"The hell?" Jay asked quietly of K.<br /><p/>"Don't ask," K replied.<br /><p/>"But-" Jay protested.<br /><p/>"No," was K's only reply. "I never thought I'd ever say this, but all I want to do is to get out of here and go eat some snails."<br /><p/>"That's just weird."<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-4112877903921558883?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-23260967414463035542007-11-14T15:37:00.000-08:002007-11-14T11:38:29.887-08:00<p/>Jay had never seen such destruction and chaos as the earthquake he had just survived wrought. The young vampire was probably in shock from the horrors around him. As luck would have it he was also stuck. The building he had been in had collapsed completely during the earthquake just as the sun was rising. Jay now huddled under a collapsed wall that gave him full view of the street beyond. He had considered escaping into the shadows, but one glance found the realm of the shadows to be just as dangerous and chaotic as the real world. Jay opted to simply continue to hide under the collapsed wall and wait until sundown. <br /><p/>Though many people ran through the streets looking for loved ones, many more less noble people moved about, looting what they could, stealing from the dead. Jay's lip curled but he kept to his hiding place. Few people were looking under his wall anyway, so he kept his disgust to himself and merely watched while waiting for dark. Hours passed and eventually the sun hovered high in the sky. Jay had to squint to see anything. <br /><p/>There were a few aftershocks here and there, nothing quite as frightening or dangerous as the first earthquake. There were some scary noises that Jay couldn't identify, but he assumed they were animals either dying or escaping from humans somehow. Only one noise filled Jay with a sense of dread: the scream of a young woman. <br /><p/>Jay crawled as close as he dared to the deadly sunlight and looked up the street in horror as a young woman scrambled desperately away from three men with dark grins on their faces. It was clear what they had in mind; it was also clear that the woman could not get away. She tried to scramble up onto a fallen wall, but it crumbled and she fell ten feet to the ground. She curled in pain, but still tried to back away, to try to find somewhere to hide. The wall that she had tried to seek refuge on now became her prison. The woman had nowhere else to go. <br /><p/>Jay shook with rage as he watched the three men close of any avenue of escape and close in on the woman. She screamed for help, but could not escape. There was nowhere for her to go. Then, as Jay watched in horror, more men appeared, some armed with knives and clubs, all apparently interested in the same thing. Jay closed his eyes and clenched his fists. Unable to do anything, Jay cursed his vampiric status and tried desperately to block the coming sounds from his ears. What he heard shocked him and he couldn't help but look up.<br /><p/>Standing between the mob of men, two of whom had been knocked down, and the young woman was a man of average height who was rather on the thin side. He had shoulder length blond hair, a rarity here, and was dressed only in soft leathers. Jay's sharp eyes and nose quickly identified that this man was actually an elf. As Jay's eyes widened, the elf calmly dusted off his shirt and simply stood between the men and their prize. The woman cowered behind the elf, too shocked and frightened to realize that the newcomer was here to help her.<br /><p/>Shouting something in a language Jay did not know, one of the largest men charged at the slight elf. The elf stopped the man with a casually placed kick, then struck the man perhaps three times. The big man crumbled and tried to crawl away from the elf. After some exchanged words, the group of men sent forth the men armed with clubs to deal with interloper.<br /><p/>Jay cringed, but watched in amazement as the elf fought. At first he ducked, and dodged, never giving ground while still never letting the clubs hit him. After one of the men tried to move behind the elf, he snatched away that man's club, accepting a strike to his shoulder, and struck the man whose club he had stolen hard enough to knock the man out cold. Now similarly armed, the elf swung back and forth, almost delicately knocking the other men's weapons out of their hands. <br /><p/>Suddenly the elf twitched left and stuck out his club catching the thrown dagger that was aimed for him. As he pulled the knife out of the club the now three men fighting him stepped back nervously. The elf glanced at the knife, maintaining his casual expression, then threw it over his shoulder far into the rubble. The amorous group backed away again to talk. <br /><p/>Jay inspected the sun and found that it had hardly moved. The fight, which had seemed to take forever, had hardly taken minutes. Jay growled in frustration and looked at the elf who, still without changing expression, stood calmly facing the men in front of him. The elf glanced at Jay for a moment, blinked once, then looked away without other response. Jay frowned, but could think of nothing else to do but wait and hope for the best.<br /><p/>The men with the dark intent came to a consensus somewhat later, and each man armed with a knife advanced on the elf. Still armed with his club, the elf took two steps forward before stopping again. Jay guessed that he was giving himself more room to battle these better armed men. The men with the knives advanced slowly, while the men behind them spread out both to trap the elf as well as to collect rocks.<br /><p/>The men with the knives advanced just outside of the elf's reach and began to slash towards the elf. When the elf didn't respond, the moved in closer, trying to cut the elf. Now the he faded and moved avoiding the knives relatively easily. Jay marveled at the creatures speed just long enough to forget about the other men. When the men with knives suddenly backed off, a barrage of thrown rocks was launched at the elf, who mostly dodged the attacks while knocking a couple of the rocks aside with his club. Only one rock hit the elf in the arm, but the elf grimaced when he was struck. Still, he caught that rock before it hit the ground and tossed it aside as well.<br /><p/>The group shared a dark laugh as the men with the knives once again moved towards the elf. A few rocks flew, and though the elf avoided or deflected them with his club, he was hard pressed to avoid all the rocks and knife attacks and came away from that skirmish with a knife wound to the arm holding the club. When Jay saw the wound, he pounded the ground in frustration growling dangerously loudly. <br /><p/>When the men backed off to plan another attack, the elf looked at Jay a second time with an appraising expression. He glanced at the woman behind him and then back at Jay with a question in his eyes.<br /><p/>"Yes, I want to help her," Jay growled. The elf blinked at Jay, looked skyward for a moment, then returned his attention to the small mob of men with evil intent. Jay blinked in confusion then rolled his eyes, muttering something disparraging about elves. <br /><p/>The men with the knives approached again, and this time the barrage of rocks did not come until the elf was very involved in the battle with the armed men. More rocks hit their mark, one glancing off the elf's forehead, though he looked no worse the wear. Two more knife wounds had joined the first, however, further angering Jay. He scrambled forward an inch or two more as the sky darkened. The men backed away, knowing that the wounds would take their toll on this dangerous opponent.<br /><p/>Then it hit Jay: the sky was darkening? Jay stuck his head out of his hiding place to find thick, rolling, black clouds blotting out the sun. It was slightly painful even with this cloud cover for Jay to step out from cover, but he endured that pain.<br /><p/>When Jay attacked the group of men from behind, they didn't know he was coming. Initially Jay was so fast in knocking out his opponents and pulling them away, that the other men did not notice his arrival. When they did notice him, Jay did not hold back from his savage attacks. Jay knew that he could not reveal that he was a vampire, and had to hold back his true strength, but Jay fought like a berserker, relying on anger and savagery to frighten his opponents.<br /><p/>Though the mob quickly turned it's focus to Jay, the young vampire had already broken legs, arms, and jaws as he tore through the crowd of men as quickly as he dared. The instant the men were distracted, the elf exploded into action attacking the men with a grim resolve, though he never tarried far from the young woman's side. Jay was struck several times, even hit by clubs, but never did he slow his attack. He fought his way to the elf, then stood shoulder to shoulder with the elf facing the much smaller group of men. <br /><p/>In the face of two deadly opponents, the mob quickly dispersed. Most men simply fled, though a few stayed to help the injured escape. In five minutes time, the only ones who remained were Jay, the elf, and the woman. Jay sat down heavily, breathing a sigh of relief. The elf calmly pulled bandages out of a pouch and began to calmly bind his wounds. <br /><p/>Jay looked up at the elf as he worked, but said nothing. He glanced at the woman, who was still huddled in fear, then back at the elf. The elf almost smiled at Jay before looking meaningfully up at the sky. The black clouds were beginning to thin out. Jay gave the elf a disparraging look before returning to his previous hiding place.<br /><p/>As the sun broke through the clouds, the elf walked over to the young woman and crouched beside her. When she did not reply, the elf gently touched her arm for a moment. After a long pause, the woman dared to peek over her crossed arms. The elf cocked his head to the side slightly, but did nothing else and said nothing. It took almost a minute, but eventually the woman slowly pulled her arms down and seemed to realize that she was safe. She brushed away her tears and looked away from the elf, embarrassed. <br /><p/>The elf stood, drawing the woman's eyes. He smiled and offered her his hand. The woman tentatively took his hand and, with his help, rose to her feet. Other than smile, the elf did nothing. Eventually the woman smiled back, and slowly led her protector away.<br /><p/>Jay smiled as they left, but had a momentary thought, wondering if it would always be like this, the vampire saving the day and the other guy getting the girl. Jay laughed and dismissed that despressing thought. Of course he'd get the girl someday!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-2326096741446303554?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-59020813986943345692007-10-18T19:24:00.000-07:002007-10-31T12:06:43.494-07:00<p/>"Two vampires cannot sire a single vampire. That is ridiculous. It is impossible," the pale skinned man insisted. Dressed all in fine whites and a white cape to boot, the man practically glowed in the dark.<br /><p/>"You question me on what is possible?" Axe spoke with a very convincing sneer on his lips. Jay grimaced. They were in an apparently abandoned part of town, but with the way things were going, Jay wondered if they'd get loud enough to call attention.<br /><p/>"Though I would not be so bold as to question you, I do have to admit that my pale friend here does have a point," the average looking man spoke meekly. This man dressed so that he would not stick out of a crowd. Jay thought that somewhat wiser than the pale man's approach.<br /><p/>"And why would you know anything of this? How could you possibly know who sired this sad little creature?" The pale man spoke again.<br /><p/>"You vampires don't know who it is that speaks to you," Axe's eyes glittered with something dangerous. "Let me show you..."<br /><p/>"Rasputin," Axe looked into the pale vampires eyes and the eyes widened.<br /><p/>"Gabriel," Axe looked at the meek man and he cowered away.<br /><p/>"How could you know that? How dare you look into my mind!" Rasputin stepped closer to Axe, incensed. One glare from the ancient dragon silenced the arrogant vampire. <br /><p/>"I know that one or both of you was involved in Jay's turning, I will have the truth," Axe growled. "The treaty has been broken by one of you."<br /><p/>"Treaty?" Rasputin laughed haughtily. "What treaty?"<br /><p/>"You don't know about the treaty?" Gabriel looked stunned. Rasputin affixed him with a withering glare.<br /><p/>"I know of the hunt. I know of the glorious taste of blood and the ecstasy of draining the life from another. I know of the power!" Rasputin roared into the night. "I know nothing of any treaty."<br /><p/>"The treaty with the dragon elders? Know you nothing?" Gabriel ran his hands through his shaggy hair in frustration. <br /><p/>"Oh, we should fear the dragons now? This fool of a dragon thinks I had something to do with this... Jay's creation!" Rasputin was going to use a much less kind word to name Jay, but a mere blink from Axe put a stop to that. Rasputin growled in frustration.<br /><p/>"Powerful he may be, but correct he is not," Rasputin insisted. "I had nothing to do with <span style="font-style:italic;">Jay's</span> turning."<br /><p/>"Deny it all you like," Axe said coldly. "You cannot lie to me."<br /><p/>"Um... in all fairness, I look a lot more like Gabriel than I do like Rasputin," Jay pointed out helpfully. Axe smiled at the young vampire. <br /><p/>"You will find that looks can be very deceiving," the ancient dragon pointed out to the young vampire. <br /><p/>"That's all well and good, but then how could both of these guys be involved in my turning and me not remember either of them?" Jay scratched at his head peering at both vampires in turn.<br /><p/>"Because of something they are both trying so very hard not to think about," when Axe grinned at the guilty pair his teeth appeared far too sharp to be human. Even as vampires, the pair seemed unsettled at the sight of those teeth. <br /><p/>"The blood orgy," Gabriel admitted. <br /><p/>"The who what?" Jay demanded, sounding very shocked. Gabriel rolled his eyes.<br /><p/>"The only way that you could have been turned as you were without your knowledge or ours is if it happened at that disastrous blood orgy that Rasputin threw," Gabriel explained with a dark look at Rasputin. The pale vampired was unimpressed. <br /><p/>"That blood orgy, as you so indelicately describe it, was a masterpiece," Rasputin replied haughtily. "It was one of the first times vampires were able to congregate together without ill effects."<br /><p/>"How could that be possible?" Axe demanded. "All know vampires cannot stand to be in the presence of another vampire for any length of time. Look at the three of you!" Axe did have a point, since Jay, Rasputin, and Gabriel were all awash with nervous twitches and often took involuntary steps away from one another. <br /><p/>"It is possible for one simple reason," Rasputin sneered. "I threw a normal human party of excess first, inviting the young and inexperienced and placed access to all manner of enjoyments at their fingertips. The vampires were invited in later to sup upon the blood of those intoxicated youths."<br /><p/>"You fool," Axe growled at Rasputin, his teeth once again a frightening array of razor sharp fangs. Rasputin held his ground in the face of the old dragon's wrath.<br /><p/>"You have no right to tell me not to have such a party," the pale man's smug face did not twitch, even when Axe took a step forward.<br /><p/>"According to the treaty, he is right, even if he was totally unaware of the treaty," Gabriel pointed out. <br /><p/>"So in this... orgy, you got young men and women all manners of intoxicated, mesmerized them, and then drunk of them freely," Axe stated what was not directly said. "And, because of their state, you vampires were calmed enough to stand each other's company and take part in this horrible debauchery?"<br /><p/>"Indeed," Rasputin sneered. <br /><p/>"What you said is true," Gabriel nodded. "It is possible that one or both of us fed upon Jay.<br /><p/>"How many of your unwitting victims survived the night intact?" Axe snarled. Somehow Rasputin grew more bold in the face of the dragon's anger.<br /><p/>"Oh, at least two or three made it out alive," Rasputin taunted. "It was such a wild night, it's hard to remember every detail. And there you have it. Jay must have been one of the young men at this party, and through sheer luck, must have been turned by a vampire who knew no better."<br /><p/>"That would explain why one day I was a normal man, and then after some hazy days, I was suddenly set on fire by sunlight," Jay grumbled. "Thanks a lot, whichever one of you two at fault for this."<br /><p/>"If I had a part in this, I appologize," Gabriel bowed to Jay. <br /><p/>"I guess it's not..." Jay started to speak but silenced when Axe suddenly took a step towards Gabriel.<br /><p/>"Very good, oh ancient one," Axe contratulated Gabriel. "Very good indeed."<br /><p/>"What are you talking about?" Gabriel asked, stepping back a step from the dangerous dragon.<br /><p/>"You know of what I speak," Axe gloated.<br /><p/>"I don't," Jay pointed out. He glanced at Rasputin. "Hell, I don't even think this arrogant idiot knows what you are talking about." Though he received a glare for his efforts, Jay blithely ignored the pale vampire. Axe smiled at Jay. <br /><p/>"This vampire you see, the so-called Gabriel, is more than he seems," Axe explained. Gabriel started to protest, but silenced at Axe's glare. "Gabriel was a vampire, and he may have even been at the distastefully named blood orgy, but what you see before you is no longer Gabriel. Another vampire, a much older vampire, has taken his identity."<br /><p/>"That doesn't sound possible," Gabriel, or apparently not Gabriel, insisited. Axe's eye's glowed for a moment.<br /><p/>"Of course it is possible, Roderick," Axe said triumphantly. "You almost had me fooled."<br /><p/>Any sense of medocrity or averageness melted away from Roderick as he let go his glamour, revealing the twisted and evil creature behind the illusion. The creature looked goulish, teeth distended, sunken eyes burning with horrible strength. A palpable aura of evil sprung up around the creature named Roderick and he backed away from Axe slowly.<br /><p/>"Roderick here is a very old vampire," Axe said grimly. "He may be older than I. And, unless I miss my guess, he is the self same vampire who is responsible for some of the most horrific testing in the name of science that our world has ever known."<br /><p/>Roderick hissed, but didn't respond otherwise.<br /><p/>"You have been hunted for a long time," Axe bowed to the ghoulish vampire. "It is an honor that I might finally destroy someone as long hunted and hated as you." Roderick suddenly grinned.<br /><p/>"You think that you, just you, stand a chance against me Thirax?" the creatures rasped out. Horrible laughter was what followed. "You are old, and, unlike you, I have only grown stronger as I have aged." With that Roderick surged forward, quickly even for a vampire, and slammed his arms into Axe. The ancient dragon blocked the strike, and though the ground beneath him crumbled, Axe looked none the worse the wear.<br /><p/>"A pity," Axe grinned, those horrible teeth peeked out again. "I expected more from you." Then Axe swung his arm in a circular motion, smashing down atop Roderick. The goulish looking vampire cracked and broke in multiple places, his desicated old body unable to take the sheer power of Thirax' mighty blow. The ancient dragon reared back and kicked Roderick's body and the ancient creature exploded into a hundred pieces of petrified flesh and bone.<br /><p/>"Hmm..." Axe glanced around at his handiwork with a frown.<br /><p/>"That was... Amazing!" Jay gasped. Even Rasputin's cold mask of a face had cracked with a bit of wonder.<br /><p/>"It's not over," Axe informed Jay, reaching over and picking up Roderick's head.<br /><p/>"What do you mean?" Jay asked. Axe tossed him Roderick's head.<br /><p/>"See something wrong?" Axe half smiled with a sigh of frustration. Jay frowned at the head for a moment before realization spread across his face.<br /><p/>"This isn't Roderick's head! It's the head of a statue!" Jay realized. With a quick glance around Jay realized that all the broken pieces of Roderick were nothing more than a shattered statue.<br /><p/>"Exactly," Axe nodded. <br /><p/>Rasputin laughed.<br /><p/>"I rather figured the old man would have something up his sleeve," Rasputin sneered at Axe. The ancient dragon frowned, then snarled, grabbed Rasputin and smashed him up against a wall.<br /><p/>"You know who he really was," Axe growled.<br /><p/>"I did," Rasputin replied, unconcerned.<br /><p/>"At your blood orgy, you knew what he planned to do," Axe accused.<br /><p/>"Guilty," Rasputin smiled.<br /><p/>"I should kill you for what you allowed to happen," Axe growled.<br /><p/>"But you can't because the treaty does not allow it," Rasputin sneered a triumphant grin. Axe glowered, but slowly lowered Rasputin to the ground and stepped away from him. <br /><p/>"Wait, you do know about the treaty?" Jay asked.<br /><p/>"I may play the fool well, but I am no fool," Rasputin grinned evilly at Jay.<br /><p/>"You mean, you knew what Roderick was going to do? Create me and abandon me to see what would happen?" Jay gasped.<br /><p/>"I did," Rasputin laughed mockingly.<br /><p/>"Damn you!" Jay swore and lunged forward only to be caught by Axe. <br /><p/>"Stop, Jay. You cannot fight him," Axe told him sadly. "I know that you would like nothing more than to take your revenge upon him, but he would kill you."<br /><p/>"Goodbye, young fool. We shall meet again," Rasputin mocked Jay one final time before floating up into the dark of the night and disappearing.<br /><p/>"Damn him!" Jay snarled and smashed his hands into the wall, cracking it in places. "Why did you stop me, Thirax? Why?" The ancient dragon sighed.<br /><p/>"How long have I known you Jay?" he asked.<br /><p/>"Uh..." Jay blinked, his anger distracted. "Two days?"<br /><p/>"In two days I have come to be fond of you," Axe admitted. "You are a good man, or vampire, you are honest, kind, and you think of more than yourself. I find those traits to be rare among your kind. If I let you fight Rasputin he almost certainly would have killed you. I'd rather that didn't happen."<br /><p/>"You honor me," Jay bowed his head. <br /><p/>"I merely speak the truth," the ancient dragon waved his hand to dismiss the issue. "Come now, my young friend. We have an ancient evil to expunge."<br /><p/>"I don't know how useful I'll be in this hunt," Jay said. <br /><p/>"I think you'll be more useful than you think," Thirax promised with a pointy-toothed grin.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-5902081398694334569?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-61163130926347705442007-03-22T19:30:00.000-07:002007-03-22T19:33:26.016-07:00There's an upside and a downside here. The upside is that this site, <a href=http://www.ficlets.com>Ficlets.com</a>, is a great place to write very short stories, ideas or scenes really, that is fascinating and totally addictive. The downside is that I am far more likely to be writing there, since there's a lot more variety and inspiration to be found on the site. Doesn't mean I've forgotten Jay! Just means he may not see quite as much love as normal. Which, admittedly, isn't much to begin with, but a man can only write so much!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-6116313092634770544?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-40819671338242729642007-02-13T11:47:00.000-08:002007-05-31T10:08:38.680-07:00<p/>"I hope you'll forgive my ignorance," Jay started.<br /><p/>"Of course. You are young after all," Thirax interrupted.<br /><p/>"Thanks. Anyway, what exactly are we doing?" Jay's question silently projected into the massive dragon's mind because speaking would have been pointless. Even with the incredible ears of a dragon, moving at the speed they were moving, the wind would have torn the words from Jay's mouth as soon as he had opened it. They were perhaps thousands of feet in the air, well above the clouds, moving at speeds unfathomable for the young vampire. <br /><p/>"We are seeking your ascendant," Thirax explained. Before Jay could even ask Thirax continued, "The vampire who made you what you are today. He appears to have committed a terrible crime, and I will have him answer for it."<br /><p/>"And that crime was making me?" Jay asked.<br /><p/>"Turning you to a vampire was not a crime necessarily, but the fact that you do not know who turned you only increases the likelyhood that the treaty has been broken," the ancient dragon spoke much more calmly about the treaty than before. "We will find your ascendant and if necessary he will face judgement."<br /><p/>"So, there's the question, that being how exactly are we going to find someone I don't even know? Or remember in case some kind of weird centered amnesia thing is involved," Jay sounded a bit confused. Thirax smiled.<br /><p/>"Your nose is very sensitive, is it not?" the ancient dragon asked.<br /><p/>"I get the feeling I wouldn't really need to open my eyes to walk around these days," Jay quipped. <br /><p/>"Very good," Thirax laughed. "I am much the same except that I don't need my eyes to fly."<br /><p/>"That kinda... oh... wow," Jay laughed.<br /><p/>"I am following your scent to where you were initially turned," Thirax further explained. <br /><p/>"That hardly seems possible!" Jay wondered. "Wouldn't all the, uh, smell particles be gone by now?"<br /><p/>"Don't forget that we dragons have as much magic in our veins as we do blood," Thirax told Jay. "The oldest of us, such as myself, are not so limited by what is possible."<br /><p/>"So you're smelling into the past?" Jay hazzarded a guess. <br /><p/>"That's an interesting way to describe what I am doing, and not so innaccurate!" Thirax laughed at the young vampire's description. "I feel that we will be successful within the hour, the scent is weak but the trail is not fading."<br /><p/>"Where are we anyway?" Jay asked. Sitting in the middle of a huge dragon's back did not provide many opportunities for looking down, and the incredible winds did not help either.<br /><p/>"We are approaching the human city of Amsterdam if I am not mistaken," Thirax replied, banking slightly.<br /><p/>"How in the hell did we get here so fast?" Jay gasped aloud. Thirax chuckled.<br /><p/>"I am flying very fast you know," the old dragon lightly scolded the young vampire.<br /><p/>"You're flying faster than I ever could have imagined possible," Jay shook his head. "Even for a dragon I imagined there would have to be limits."<br /><p/>"The limits of possibility are mere suggestions to a dragon of my age," Thirax smiled, though the young vampire could not possibly see it. "Please hold tight for a moment." Jay gripped the spike he had been holding desperately as Thirax banked into a sharp turn.<br /><p/>"I'd like to get off the ride please," Jay groaned as Thirax slowed and began to descend. Thirax chuckled as they landed, and seconds later, Jay stood next to a man with odd brown hair who had been a two hundred foot long dragon mere seconds ago.<br /><p/>"That's handy," Jay commented as the green faded from his face.<br /><p/>"Indeed," Thirax agreed inspecting his human form. "I have not taken this form in a very long time. It is good to see I haven't lost my touch." Thirax flexed and walked about, seeming to remember how to be a human. While he did this Jay looked around. As was right with Jay's destiny, he found himself in an alley, presumably in Amsterdam. <br /><p/>"Uh.." our young vampire friend was at a loss for words.<br /><p/>"Yes, we are in Amsterdam," Thirax informed Jay. "Your ascendent is here. Finding him may be difficult, but I assure you we will find him."<br /><p/>"Actually," Jay said after a moment, "I was more wondering what I should call you if we're going to be wandering around the streets of Amsterdam. I can't just call you Thirax, as that will probably stick in people's minds."<br /><p/>"Thirax has served me well in my centuries of life," the dragon almost sounded miffed at the idea that his name was somehow unbefitting this current time. Jay glanced the seemingly young man next to him. Aside from the hair, Thirax's human form looked normal, though very muscled and tough. Jay smiled suddenly.<br /><p/>"I got it, I'll just call you Axe," Jay suggested. "You look tough enough to be a biker, so people could totally go for that. You'll probably want to change your clothing to leather though."<br /><p/>"Axe, eh?" The dragon looked amused. He shook his head then his clothing blurred into something more appropriate. Jay blinked.<br /><p/>"You look exactly like I was imagining you might," the vampire commented.<br /><p/>"Well, since I was not quite sure what would look appropriate, I simply took your idea and ran with it," the dragon newly dubbed Axe replied.<br /><p/>"I didn't know anyone could get into my head that easily," Jay looked disturbed.<br /><p/>"I understand your concern," Axe attempted to mollify the young vampire. "Your defenses are well designed, but I have centuries of skill to your years. I will help you strengthen your defenses another time if you wish."<br /><p/>"By 'another time' you don't mean like an elf's 'another time', do you?" Jay asked warily. Axe laughed.<br /><p/>"No, I was not vaguely referring to the coming century, as 'another time'," the dragon turned human chortled. "We dragons are far more reliable than elves, and we do understand time much more as humans do. I meant after we have finished what we have to do here and have returned to my lair that I might assist you."<br /><p/>"Ok, just checking," Jay nodded. "I once had an elf tell me he'd get right back to me, and I haven't heard from him since. That was almost six years ago."<br /><p/>"Sounds like an elf to me," Axe rolled his eyes. "Shall we seek your ascendant?"<br /><p/>"Sure, let's get this party started," Jay agreed. Though Axe had never heard the term, it was easy enough for him to glean the meaning and nod. The vampire and dragon in disguise walked into the Netherlands night.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-4081967133824272964?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-61023184686797421122007-02-02T14:21:00.000-08:002007-02-02T14:22:08.041-08:00<p>Something dark flitted from shadow to shadow, barely gracing the light with its presence. Many people glanced over when they saw movement out of the corner of their eye, but as none saw more than that, they shrugged it off as nothing more than a flikering light. Had they known what lurked in those shadows, none would have been so calm. That which lurked in those shadows moved with one purpose: murder.<br /><p>This creature moved through the shadows seeking the perfect prey. A creature of the night, it hunted as it always hunted, slowly picking its prey. Though it did not need to kill, over time it had grown to love to kill. Its hunger for murder had grown through the ages, and tonight that hunger had to be sated. It sought what it always sought: an innocent, pure and clean. They were rare these days, but that made the hunt all the sweeter.<br /><p>Unbeknownst to the creature, another creature of the night was hunting as well. On his mind was not murder, merely dinner. Jay hummed to himself as he wandered the streets of Philly looking for a good place to eat. He knew that there were other vampires about in Philly, so when he first noticed something in the shadows he thought nothing of it.<br /><p>The second time he noticed a flicker, his eyes narrowed. That was no vampire. Though Jay was rather hungry he felt he should investigate. Eternity gives one a lot of time to be curious. Jay slipped into the shadows and quickly sighted the other hunter. He glided gently after the creature not wanting to alarm it. It could be nothing to worry about.<br /><p>The creature noted the vampire following him, but did not care. No vampire could interfere with this hunt. It continued to flit from shadow to shadow, tasting the air for innocence. At long last, the lovely flavor of truly innocent blood. The creature moved with purpose now, leaving the vampire far behind.<br /><p>Jay smiled a dark smile as the creature moved away. Clearly this creature wasn't concerned about him. Though the creature moved faster than Jay could follow, the trail the creature left both in the shadow and not was easy enough to track.<br /><p>Ignoring the vampire, the creatured flitted to a shadow then finally once more to find a shadow just behind it's prey: a mother walking with her young son. The creature shuddered with anticipation, its claws extended painfully slowly. The monster slavered at the coming violence and surged out of the shadows towards it's prey.<br /><p>"Oof," Jay grunted as he slammed into the shadowy creature and dragged it back into the shadows before the woman could tell what had made the noise behind her. The creature shrieked in anger as it thrashed in Jay's arms.<br /><p>"What the fuck do you think you are OW!" Jay tried to talk to the creature as it slashed open his chest with its deadly claws. The creature pressed his advantage opening up with a barrage of claws and bites. Jay dodged desperately, even returned a few blows, but the creature quickly succumbed to the hunger and slashed through the shadows, now openly racing after the woman and her child. Jay desperately raced through the shadows, using every trick he knew to keep up, but he couldn't stop the creature before it snatched the boy and plunged into the shadows with him. <br /><p>The young boy screamed as the creature swirled above him, drinking in his fear. The monster dove at the child only to be torn down to the ground by a red eyed Jay. The two monsters slashed at each other while the little boy sobbed on the ground, screaming for his mother. Every time the shadowy creature tried to escape the snarling vampire, Jay ignored his wounds and dragged the creature to the ground once more.<br /><p>Outside of the shadows the boys mother grew more and more frantic looking for her son. Other people on the street stopped and tried to help the terrified woman, but none could see the vicious battle in the shadows over the little boy. The boys screams grew increasingly desperate as the battle raged on. <br /><p>"Could you give it a break kid?" Jay called to the kid while trying to strangle the shadow monster. The child stopped crying suddenly and blinked at the monster who had spoken. Then with the strange calmness that only a child can muster at the oddest of times, the child reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny flashlight before turning the flashlight on the fighting monsters. Jay flinched but the creature shrieked in agony and ripped away from Jay desperately trying to escape the sudden light.<br /><p>"Woah! Keep doing that!" Jay yelled at the kid. Somehow remaining calm, the child kept trying to shine the light on creature. The two combatants, child and monster, moved back and forth vying for position. Slowly but surely the monster grew ever closer to the child. The child began to panic, but still tried his best to keep the light on the monster. Eventually the game was over and the monster moved to slash the child's face.<br /><p>"NOW KID!" Jay suddenly surged out of nowhere to hold the creature still. The child dully did as he was told and turned the flashlight on the shadow. It shrieked and screamed, struggling desperately to escape, but within seconds there was nothing left of the smoking monster. Jay fell to the ground panting as he healed the injuries inflicted by the shadow. As soon as Jay looked at the child, the child began to sob once more. Jay laughed and shook his head.<br /><p>"You get rid of the monster and now you start crying?" As Jay healed, his eyes returned to normal and claws receded. This did not stop the kid from crying. Jay sighed, stood up, and dusted himself off. Then he offered the kid his hand. The sobbing child took the hand without question. Jay glanced around and found, surprisingly enough, an alley to re-enter the real world from. Then he walked the child out of the shadows and around the corner towards the sobbing mother.<br /><p>"Is somebody missing a flashlight? It seems to be attached to this loud kid," Jay laughed as he walked towards the small crowd around the sobbing mother.<br /><p>"Kristoph!" the mother sobbed more happily. Jay's face twitched as he heard that name. "My baby!" The mother tried to talk, but what really mattered to Jay was her holding her son. Everyone in the crowd seemed just as happy.<br /><p>"Hey... what happened to your shirt?" one of the bystanders suddenly asked Jay. The vampire glanced down to find his shirt shreded from the fight with the shadow monster.<br /><p>"Well, I-What in world could that be?" Jay pointed off to the left adding a hint of command to his comment. The entire crowd, mother and child included, looked to where Jay pointed. Jay took the opportunity to quickly slip into the shadows and escape the questions he'd have to face. He turned back to a normal night of eating and then gaming. The first thing he said to K when he found him?<br /><p>"Hey K! I think I saved your life from a shadow monster when you were a kid!"<br /><p><br /><p>* * * * *<br /><p><br /><p>From the tattered pile of shadows that remained after the fight, something stirred. Soaking in the darkness around it, the creature slowly rose from the ground. It healed slowly, but it healed eventually returning to its original state. It sniffed the air and quickly found a very familiar scent. With what may have been a smile, the creature slowly drifted off into the night to finish what it started.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-6102318468679742112?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-52207603925715923992007-01-05T13:08:00.000-08:002007-02-02T13:13:55.216-08:00<p>Thirax, an ancient and well-known dragon, slept as he had slept for nearly a year. At this age even dragons began to need more sleep than not. Thirax roused to eat not nearly as frequently as he once had, and each time he woke the world seemed odder to him. Humans and their cities were growing more complicated than ever before, which did not encourage Thirax to wake any more often than necessary.<br /><p>Today, however, Thirax did wake, not out of hunger, but because someone or something had entered his lair. Something intelligent and dangerous, but not quite intelligent enough to avoid Thirax' wards. Without opening his eyes, Thirax inhaled long and slow trying to determine what had entered his domain. After a few moments his eyes popped open in surprise.<br /><p>"A vampire?" Thirax' curiosity was immediately peaked. Another long breath and Thirax realized that this vampire was young as well. Thirax closed his eyes again and waited for his guest to arrive. Some moments later, a small creature, at least small by Thirax' standards, tumbled into his antechamber with a curse. Thirax opened his eye closer to that chamber and found what appeared to be a young man, dressed mostly in black, rubbing his posterior and grumbling to himself.<br /><p>"Ow ow ow," the vampire repeated. Thirax almost smiled, but chose not to move to better determine what this vampire was interested in. After a moment, the young man reached into a pocket and pulled out a very detailed map of Thirax' lair. The old dragon couldn't remember ever authorizing such a map. He made a note to find out who had mapped his home so thoroughly.<br /><p>"There be dragon here, huh?" the vampire commented to the map. After looking around the large cavern that Thirax made his home very carefully, he turned back to the map with a grumble. "Dragon here my ass. Unless he's in disguise as a rock, he's not here. Well, maybe I followed the directions wrong." The young vampire sat spread the map in front of him and began to carefully inspect the map and his path through the caverns.<br /><p>Thirax took the opportunity to pick his head up from the ground and snake his long neck behind the vampire to get a better look at the map. The vampire didn't notice the stealthy and conveniently rock colored dragon move whatsoever. Both creatures sat inspecting the map for a moment. Then Thirax tired of waiting and openly adjusted to a more comfortable speaking position. Oddly the vampire did not notice that either. Thirax sighed a long deep sigh, and that did get a reaction of the vampire glancing around with eyebrow raised. The young man still did not see Thirax.<br /><p>"What is it you want?" Thirax asked aloud the best he could manage English through his ill suited mouth. Speaking directly in the young man's mind might have been more polite, but Thirax did not yet know if he could trust the vampire with that simple contact.<br /><p>"Yip!" came the rather comical reply as the vampire tried to jump up, slipped on some gravel, fell down, rolled around for a moment before scrambling backwards into a large rock while gazing upon Thirax in all his glory. The dragon tried not to let his lips twist in amusement as he was certain the expression would seem much more threatening than he intended, but this amusing young man was too much.<br /><p>"Where the hell did you come from?" the vampire asked gasping, one hand on his chest.<br /><p>"There be dragons here indeed," Thirax spoke aloud again, chuckling. "Your map is very accurate."<br /><p>"How in the hell did I not notice a two hundred foot long dragon?" The vampire was still gaping at the massive dragon.<br /><p>"We dragons have lived for thousands of years. If it were so easy to find us, don't you think that more anti-dragon crusaders would have killed more of us?" Thirax asked of the vampire.<br /><p>"Oh... That makes sense," the young man blinked a few times. "Still, you're bloody huge and I somehow missed that. Makes me feel a little silly."<br /><p>"You're a bit less melodramatic than some of your kind, I note," Thirax smiled at the young vampire.<br /><p>"Uh, thanks? I guess?" Thirax had not often met a vampire who seemed to honest and simple. This was a nice change from the usual by the ancient dragon's estimation.<br /><p>"You were telling me why you were here?" Thirax prompted, speaking in the vampire's mind for the sake of simplicity.<br /><p>"Oh yeah, right. That," the young man hemmed and hawed a bit. Thirax peered at the little man for a moment before figuring out what the young vampire was working towards.<br /><p>"You are unhappy being a vampire?" Thirax asked. <br /><p>"Well, no," the young man said. "Not exactly. I mean, there are some very interesting aspects of this new nature of mine. But I could see certain downsides. I never really disliked the sun, and the idea of never seeing it again is a little troublesome."<br /><p>"I see," the ancient dragon nodded sagely.<br /><p>"I've more or less gotten past that, but I wonder sometimes, if some vampires don't make mistakes of who they turn," the vampire looked to one side, as if embarassed.<br /><p>"Mistakes?" Thirax asked curling his tail into an even more comfortable position. Then his eyes shot wide with surprise. "You are not here for yourself!"<br /><p>"Uh... no, I'm not," the young man admittted.<br /><p>"You turned someone who now wishes it had not happened?" Thirax asked carefully.<br /><p>"No! God no!" The young vampire seemed disgusted at the very notion.<br /><p>"Good," Thirax growled. "One thing long agreed upon by dragons and vampires alike is that no one, no one, will ever be turned against their will. A long standing treaty between us and your kind is that any vampire found to have turned another against their will is to be killed immediately."<br /><p>"Hey, I didn't turn anybody!" Oddly enough the vampire had enough courage to growl back at Thirax. The ancient dragon relaxed and flipped his tail lazily.<br /><p>"I believe you," he nodded slightly in supplication. The young man relaxed.<br /><p>"I don't think anybody has been turned entirely against his will," the young vampire explained. "It's just, this friend of mine, doesn't seem to be adjusting well. It's hard to watch him struggle. I just want to find out if there is any way to help him... well..."<br /><p>"To turn him from a vampire back to the human he once was?" Thirax suggested. <br /><p>"No one I've talked to yet has ever even heard of it being done successfully," the young man nodded. "The best suggestion I got was to ask the wisest dragon I could find for help." Thirax smiled slightly.<br /><p>"By wisest, of course, you mean oldest," the ancient dragon chuckled softly. When the young vampire grimaced, Thirax lifted a clawed hand to calm him. "I take no offence. And whoever suggested you seek me out was wise indeed. I know many things. However, I cannot help you." The young man's face fell.<br /><p>"I guess I'm probably not the first person to ask you this, am I?" he asked sadly. Thirax shook his head.<br /><p>"There is a reason why every vampire made is told to choose so carefully who they turn should they choose to turn anyone," Thirax told his guest. The young vampire frowned.<br /><p>"Who tells who what now?" the young man seemed confused.<br /><p>"Do you mean to tell me you were not told this?" Thirax' jaw dropped open.<br /><p>"No, I figured out on my own that most people couldn't handle the change?" the young vampire replied. Then he recoiled as Thirax growled.<br /><p>"The treaty has been broken!" Thirax felt rage growing within him. Long had he hated the manipulative nature of men; in the vampires of old it seemed to be intensified which is why Thirax and other leaders of the dragon clans had created the treaty with the few remaining vampires. <br /><p>"Eep!" the young vampire backed away from Tirax' obvious rage with the eerie speed that only vampires are capable of. Thirax seethed, but calmed himself for the sake of his guest.<br /><p>"Please, do not be alarmed," Thirax called to the young man currently hidden behind a large rock. "My anger is not directed at you. You could not have broken a treaty that you were never told of."<br /><p>"What the hell treaty are you talking about?" the now much fiercer looking vampire demanded. "It's not like there's any kind of leadership among vampires. We're all on our own out here!"<br /><p>"Who was it that turned you?" Thirax asked after a moment's pause.<br /><p>"I'm... not really sure," the vampire admitted.<br /><p>"WHAT?" Thirax roared surging to his feet, his tail lashing in rage. "YOU WERE TURNED WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION?" With this latest outburst the young vampire slipped into the shadows. Thirax had to vent his rage and uttered a prolonged earth-shattering roar. The entire cavern rumbled as Thirax' tale lashed from wall to wall, crushing the rocks it encountered. Unable to hold back the ancient dragon unleashed a hellish blast of fire away from where the vampire had disappeared. The farthest wall melted to slag within seconds. Slowly the entire chamber began to crumble, the ceiling begining to fall. Thirax calmed himself and repaired the damage, calling upon his powers over the earth. Within a few seconds the cavern returned to its original state. Thirax stood and breathed slowly, his tail seething back and forth deceptively languidly. <br /><p>"You can come out again, young vampire, my anger is once again under control," Thirax announced to the room. When there was no immediate reply, Thirax smiled. "I know that you are still here. I can smell you, even in the shadows." A moment later the wide-eyed young vampire stepped out of the shadows near where he entered the cave.<br /><p>"Please, I did not mean frighten you," Thirax appologized. "Long have I hated those creatures that would maniuplate others. Vampires have long been tempted to use their powers in such ways. The treaty exists for a reason. The last time it was broken, nearly every vampire in the world was killed, and a fair number of my brethren did not survive the experience."<br /><p>"So what does this mean for me?" the young man asked nervously. Thirax eyes narrowed.<br /><p>"We are going to find your ascendant..."<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-5220760392571592399?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-4224937607953603692006-12-06T13:14:00.002-08:002006-12-06T14:11:49.283-08:00These past two stories might seem like I planned them in this order. In fact, I started the Council's Decision a long time ago, like three months ago. That's the story I managed to break my continuity with. After writing Unexpected Background which I'm fairly certain was forced out of me by my being reminded of a recent (though far less dramatic) loss in my life, I figured out how to fix the first story. So two depressing stories in rapid succession. And in case you are wondering, no I am not typing particularly faster, I just felt the itch to write and it overruled my disdain for typing slow.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-422493760795360369?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-81626776430244283592006-12-06T13:14:00.001-08:002006-12-06T13:14:41.849-08:00<p>"Run!" came the cry, and the vampires fled. There are few things more feared than an vampire. Their speed, strength, and blood-lust is legendary. These monsters are the cause of more nightmares in more countries that perhaps any other creature of myth and lore. That these most feared monsters were fleeing, desperately trying to escape what followed, should explain just how horrible an Inquisitor can be.<br /><p>"Shit, shit, shit, shit," Jay chanted, running as fast as he could manage, ducking into the shadows to move faster at every chance. Even for all his speed, white robed men with deadly expressions were never far from his sight. Running with him, were three other vampires, two he did not know, and one he knew and loved: Claire. <br /><p>"Why tonight?" Claire moaned again as they fled. "Why did you tell me tonight?" Jay smiled weakly to his love as they fled.<br /><p>"Bad timing?" Jay joked. Bad timing indeed.<br /><p>"I will find you!" one of the Inquisitors roared after the fleeing vampires. This man, more than any other Inquisitor, was what the vampires feared. With a growled chant and sudden explosion of magical energy, every vampire in the entire city was denied entry to the shadows. A malicious laugh escaped this most deadly Inquisitor's lips as he twisted reality and simply appeared behind the fleeing vampires who scattered before his wrath.<br /><p>"Oh hell," Jay groaned when he was denied entry to the shadows. Then, after seeing who followed, he growled, grabbed Claire's hand, and leaped into the air, vaulting over the side of the fire escape eight floors from the ground. Claire stumbled after Jay, white faced and breathless. Vampires have no need to breathe, but some frights still leave any person breathless. The other vampires that had been with them could not follow Jay's desperate leap; they searched for their own escape.<br /><p>Jay did not slow for his love's sake. He knew what it meant to stop; more than anything else he did not want Claire to fall to the Inquisitors. On Jay ran, up the stairs of the escape to leap off the escape and soar into the air onto the roof of the adjacent building. Even for all his speed, the Inquisitor was fast enough to appear on the roof mere seconds after Jay and launch a powerful blast of air meant to knock Jay from the sky. <br /><p>Jay, rather than leaping again, crouched low and skidded under the blast of air before leaping off the side of the building, Claire still in tow. Claire, though terrified, had the wherewithall to cast a malestrom of wind that kicked up a huge cloud of dust obscuring their escape. Jay made good use of the distraction, bouncing nearly directly to the right after careening into the side of the taller building. He reached out and clawed desperately at the building to slow their fall long enough to leap again into the fifth floor of a parking garage. <br /><p>Claire shrieked a word and every light in the building shattered instantly. The two vampires were plunged into darkness, sadly not the comfort that it would normally be, but enough to keep the Inquisitor from immediately following. Across the city, a simlar destruction of lights took place, evening the playing field if only for a moment, and for that long moment, silence ruled the night.<br /><p>"Are they gone?" Claire asked, shaking with fright. Jay put one finger to her lips to silence her. Though he'd always had impressive ears, even for a vampire, Jay tried that much harder to listen tonight. He could hear many of his friends and allies on their escape; he heard the confused shouts and cries from humans out trying to have a normal night; what he could not hear was what scared him. Jay could not hear any Inquisitors.<br /><p>"I don't hear them," Jay whispered, clutching at Claire's hand. They shared a look of horror, but slowly began to sneak through the garage, looking for the fastest escape from the city. Jay led his love silently, passing between cars and humans alike, leaving no trace of their movements, no sounds of their pasage. The two reached the far side of the garage, and peered over the side. For a long moment nothing happened.<br /><p>"Wait or run?" Jay asked quickly and quietly. Claire did not immediately respond. She was listening too, though in a very different way from Jay. Her love did not miss her expression of horror as it blossomed across her face. <br /><p>An explosion of magical not two blocks away was followed a horrible scream of fear and anguish. That scream was quickly cut off. The Inquisitors had captured their first quarry. <br /><p>"Oh no," Claire whispered in horror. Jay growled and pulled his love away. They ran away from the screams cut short. Jay scooped Claire into his arms as he vaulted the side of the garage to plummet to the street below. They hit the ground and Jay was already running. Claire buried her face in Jay's neck and held him close for an instant, before falling from his arms and running along side him. The two fled in silence, dodging their way down the street, unconcerned by who might see.<br /><p>Jay desperately put his heels to the ground and screeched to a halt when a man in a white robe walked out of an alley not two blocks ahead of them. Jay dragged Claire down a side street even as the Inquisitor turned and hurled a blast of magical power after them. Claire twisted and the attack missed, but the man was already on their trail calling out for his brethren to assist him.<br /><p>Claire's eyes glowed red with rage as her fear was finally overrun by anger. She shouted a word and shattered every window in a hundred feet. Those shards of glass became deadly missles that pelted the ground behind the fleeing pair. Two Inquisitors tried to persue, but could not step into the hail of deadly glass and were forced to wait for the glass to run out. Claire had bought them precious seconds.<br /><p>Jay took the momentary distraction and exploited it as best he could. He careened right into an alleyway between two very tall buildings. Jay then jumped from building to building, each jump throwing the pair higher and higher into the air. When he finally ran out of wall, they were hundreds of feet in the air soaring through the night. <br /><p>"I hope you know a way for us to fly, otherwise this landing is going to hurt," Jay commented to his love. Claire gave him a look.<br /><p>"Couldn't you have asked that before we were plummeting to our deaths?" Claire teased him weakly before casting a curtain of air that led their descent towards a small park close to the edge of the city<br /><p>"I was a little busy," Jay pointed out as they coasted across the air. Then he smiled at Claire and squeezed her hand. She smiled back as best she could. Jay blinked as he realized...<br /><p>"They're down there, aren't they?" Jay asked, already knowing that at least one Inquisitor waited for them in the park. Claire closed her eyes and bowed her head, blood tears flowing. She knew what was coming. They had no sooner touched the earth before they were violently parted by a blast of energy.<br /><p>"Run away!" Claire screamed at Jay, knowing he would not. Even in the face of these odds, the boy who had professed his love for her, the vampire whom she'd realized she'd come to love, Jay would not back down. When the Inquisitor saw the horrible demon that charged him, eyes blazing red, for the first time this night an Inquisitor knew fear.<br /><p>"No!" came the cry. Jay skidded to a halt, not by choice, at the command of his love and her magical will. With a flick of her wrist, Jay flew back from his goal. The Inquisitor stepped forward and tried to reach his prey, but to no avail. Claire slashed a hand and the Inquisitor fell back from the assault of pure power. The vampire sorceress took her love's hand and they disappeared into the night once more.<br /><p>"Do not hurt them!" Claire demanded of her love when they appeared some ten blocks away.<br /><p>"What?" Jay gaped.<br /><p>"Do not hurt them," Claire repeated softly. <br /><p>"How can you-" Jay spoke, but his love placed one finger on his lips to silence him.<br /><p>"It was a lie," Claire told him. "None of ours attacked any of theirs. They follow orders, but they are not to be blamed, not to be fought. For our survival, we must have peace."<br /><p>"They've already captured-" Jay protested but Claired slienced him once more.<br /><p>"They will capture one more," she said sadly, "but to fight is to give the lie credence. We cannot fight them. We cannot survive against the full fury of the Inquisitors. No Inquisitors can die at our hands this night." Jay growled, but said nothing. The two sat and stared at each other for a long moment.<br /><p>"Why tonight?" Claire asked suddenly, quietly. With a sudden burst of energy she slapped Jay and screamed, "Why tonight? Of any night you could have picked-" Jay held her before she could go any farther. She struggled for a moment before sagging into his arms, sobbing. Jay started to answer, but tensed as he noticed they had been sorrounded by grim faced men in white.<br /><p>Chief among those surrounding was the cruel man who had denied the vampires the comfort oy the shadows. His face was no less cruel or confident than before. Most of the other men stood impassively, simply watching the two vampires. Jay could tell from the way Claire sagged against him, sobbing more bitterly now, that she knew their brief freedom was at an end.<br /><p>Jay glared at the Inquisitors and tried to find some escape, but there was none. As he looked on, an older limping man joined the group. That man walked up to the cruel man and quietly ordered the other man to stand down. He recieved an angry glare for his trouble, but the older man was obeyed. The old man turned to Jay with a sad look on his face.<br /><p>"Tell her, lad," the man told him. "Tell her or you will regret that you didn't for the rest of your life." The old man's face was cold, but compassion leaked through the cracks. Jay sighed. He looked down at Claire whose sobbing had calmed and hugged her close.<br /><p>"I told you before," Jay told her. "I love you. I have loved you for a long time and I was a fool to not tell you before now. Why tonight? Mostly because I am a master of shitty timing, but tonight because I could not wait any more. Because I couldn't go on living without you knowing how I feel."<br /><p>"You do have bad timing," Claire sniffed through a weak smile.<br /><p>"I really do," Jay tried to smile. <br /><p>"I do," Claire said after a moment.<br /><p>"Do what?" Jay asked blankly.<br /><p>"Love you," Claire smiled and shook her head. Jay smiled, kissed his love, then hugged her for what he knew was probably the last time he ever would.<br /><p>"It's time lass," the old Inquisitor told Claire gently. Jay tensed but relaxed when Claire put her hand on his chest. Emotions raged on Jay's face, but he stood and watched as Claire backed away from him, tears running down her cheeks, then turned and walked away with the dour Inquisitors surrounding her. The only man who remained wan the old man with the limp who sighed then turned to look Jay in the eye.<br /><p>"What?" Jay asked of the old man. Jay was considering attacking the man just so he could vent his rage and stave off the wave of sorrow.<br /><p>"This," the old man said simply. The man removed his robe, tossed it negligently to the ground, and set it ablaze. "To hell with the Council. I quit." The man informed Jay with an angry shake of his head, before turning away and walking into the night. <br /><p>With nowhere for his rage to go, Jay fell to the ground and sobbed till he could cry no more.<br /><p>Claire died the next day. There was nothing Jay could do.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-8162677643024428359?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-28840969950626043292006-12-04T12:33:00.001-08:002006-12-04T12:33:57.197-08:00I blame Xmas.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-2884096995062604329?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-91393984332773774072006-12-04T08:10:00.000-08:002006-12-04T12:33:19.033-08:00<p>"You're kidding, right?" K asked of Jay. <br /><p>"No, I'm not kidding," Jay insisted. "You deserve to hear the truth from me from time to time. This is one of those times."<br /><p>"Next you'll be telling me that the earth will be crashing into the sun is a few minutes," K laughed.<br /><p>"Ha ha prick boy," Jay grinned at his friend. The two letters had been drinking at a party since about nine the day before, and now sat on the back porch of their friend's house talking at nearly five in the morning. It was another winter session that Jay had convinced K to switch his sleep schedule for, so the two of them were able to out last all but the most hearty of drinkers. <br /><p>Light had just barely begun to appear on the horizon of the unseasonably warm winter night, but Jay was hours away from needing to seek shelter. The porch was littered with cans, bottles, cups, and the occasional passed out girl in clothing that would normally be very ill advised in January. The two letters had found where the lawn chairs had been stashed and were currently lounging in comfort with their respective drinks.<br /><p>Drinking was still a slightly dangerous activity for K, as drinking and magic don't mix well. K got around this problem by gaining an affinity for sipping whiskey and sipping very slowly. This fairly well kept him out of trouble.<br /><p>Drinking, alcohol, was no trouble for Jay as when he drank his tasty beverages his body did not absorb the alcohol the same way a human body does. However, Jay had also been drinking blood at this party, and drinking the blood of inebriated young women had far more affect then beer, so Jay was a little more talkative than normal.<br /><p>"You're really going to tell me about a girl you dated?" K's eyebrow was hovering mid forehead.<br /><p>"Yeah, well, sort of, that is if you will shut up long enough for me to tell you," Jay gave K a meaningful look. K smirked, knowing that he could stave off this conversation for hours if he were so inclined, but as he did have the usual curiosity about his friend, he did keep his mouth shut. It's not every day your remarkably tight-lipped friend actually volunteers information you normally couldn't drag out of him with wild horses.<br /><p>"First of all, she was one of us," Jay began. K correctly interpreted this to mean that the girl in question was a vampire, which didn't make sense.<br /><p>"Wait, how does that work? I thought you guys couldn't..." K tried to clarify, but Jay interrupted.<br /><p>"I can't explain it, but just trust me, it wasn't an issue for us," Jay waved his hands around to keep the topic in place. "Anyway, when I first met her, she was, her name was Claire." K fought the urge to roll his eyes at Jay's inebriated attempt to explain. "She was beautiful. Not just like pretty, or hot, but like really beautiful. She looked maybe five, ten years older, but she was really much older than me. I was young and stupid by her standards, and she was so much more than I could possibly know what to do with. I really was young by those standards too.<br /><p>"When I first met her, I was a tongue-tied idiot. I couldn't string two sentences together to save my life. I really don't think she had a clue about me. She was polite but we never spoke for more than a minute or two once in a while. I guess that saved me from looking like a total idiot since she was always too busy to stay around and watch me fail to talk to her. She was always doing something important and I just did grunt work in the background.<br /><p>"I tried to convince myself that I was just crushing and that the feeling would go away, but months passed and it just got worse. I eventually got to the point where I could talk to her without looking like a total idiot, but we still never talked for very long. A couple of the other people around figured out what was up and tried to get me to give up hope, but I just couldn't.<br /><p>"After like a year of that, I eventually got up the nerve to ask her to talk to me alone. It was a bad night to ask cause something big had happened, but it was the night she agreed.  She agreed, as she had no clue still, and we had a nice walk in the jungle. I asked her about what she was working on, and told her a little about what I was doing, and that part of the walk went ok. She laughed at my jokes, seemed to like talking to me. Eventually though she realized that something else was up and asked. So I told her.<br /><p>"It wasn't that bad at first; I tried to play it off as the crush I knew it wasn't and she believed that I think, but she started asking questions, and eventually I just cracked and blurted it all out. I wasn't sure how she was taking it, but when I was finally done talking like an idiot, she didn't say anything for a long time. She just stared at me, in disbelief I think.<br /><p>"After a few minutes she told me it wouldn't work, that I was too young, she was too old, that everything was wrong, and then she excused herself and ran away. I didn't run after her at first, I just cursed my big mouth and wandered around kicking myself. Eventually I figured out that I needed to talk to her and that I probably should have chased her in the first place. It took me an hour, but I eventually tracked her down and found her crying alone in the middle of nowhere.<br /><p>"She told me to go away, but I bet you can guess how well that went for her," Jay winked at his friend.<br /><p>"I wouldn't take that bet," K quipped back. Though he kept his manner light, in truth K was a little worried. Jay was never this forthcoming. Though the intelligent section of his brain truly wondered if when Jay sobered up he would regret what he shared in this conversation, the less intelligent sections of his brain were throwing around theories involving roofies. K managed to keep a straight face somehow.<br /><p>"Anyway, after trying to get rid of me, which took a while, then she got mad at me and started yelling things like 'why did it have to be today', stuff like that. Then she started hitting me while yelling and eventually just kind of fell on me crying. I held her for a while and ended up sitting leaned up against a tree while she cried herself out.<br /><p>"At some point in there I told her I loved her, and she kind of froze. After a minute she pulled away to look me in the eye and asked me if I meant it. I told her I did. She started to cry again, but I headed that shit off by finally just kissing her. The crying stopped while she figured out what just happened. Then she pulled back to look at me again. I gave her this weak, kind of nervous smile and she kissed me back. She was pretty intense about it and... well... I suppose you know where it goes from there." K nodded but said nothing as he watched his friend's eyes slowly fill with blood tears.<br /><p>"When we were done she cried more. I made a joke about ruining the mood and got her to laugh, even with the crying," Jay blinked away some of the accumulated tears and continued. "I asked her why she was so upset. She got all still for a minute, then told me the last thing I ever wanted to hear: that she wasn't going to survive much more than a day longer. I told her I would do everything in my power to help her, but she sighed and told me there was nothing I could do. I made some comment about how unfair life was and she asked me how I thought she felt? She'd avoided love for just this reason only to have me come along and fuck things up." Jay thought for a moment. "She probably didn't say fuck though." K smirked and shook his head at that totally inapropriate comment. <br /><p>Then for a long time Jay didn't say anything.<br /><p>"Then what?" K prompted. Jay gave his friend a long sad smile.<br /><p>"She died," he replied simply. "And there was nothing I could do."<br /><p>"There's more story to that part I reckon," K commented gently.<br /><p>"Another time perhaps," Jay whispered.<br /><p>"Another time then," K nodded. Given that Jay had just revealed more about his earlier life to K than he had since the day the two had met, K wasn't going to push Jay for any reason. Then both friends were startled when one of the presumably passed out girl's tear streaked faces suddenly appeared next to Jay.<br /><p>"That was so sad!" the scantily clad girl informed Jay before surging into Jay's lap, kissing him. The letters shared a confused look followed by a very amused look over the girl's head. Jay's suddenly twinkling with amusement eyes suggested to K that he clear out; K grinned and winked in reply, quietly rising and walking away. Before totally losing sight of his friend, K looked back with speculative eyes.<br /><p>"Yeah," K sighed as he turned to walk home. "I'm never going to hear the end of that story."<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-9139398433277377407?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-10130234536446465032006-12-01T13:34:00.000-08:002006-12-01T13:35:29.446-08:00I'll get back to Jay's wacky adventures when I can type on my Dvorak keyboard ever so slightly faster.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-1013023453644646503?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-1157581740562322032006-09-06T15:28:00.000-07:002006-10-11T07:29:03.651-07:00So after writing 1500+ words in a short story I rather like, I realize that I wrote something that doesn't make total sense in my own world. It's quite annoying. I think I can fix it, but I really liked it the way it was. Changing it to make more sense is kind of annoying, but since I realize that I want to actually keep these damn short stories straight with my world I'm going to have to spend the time to fix the bloody story. I'm also having problems with keeping the stories from revealing details from books and and such. All in all, this Jay stories idea is challenging, but quite fun. Hopefully I can manage to keep things going without revealing anything too bad.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-115758174056232203?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-1155687742651254652006-08-15T15:42:00.000-07:002006-10-11T07:29:03.512-07:00<p>"What do you think you're doing?" A dark sinister voice floated out of the shadows behind Jay. He took a moment from his meal to glance over his shoulder.<br /><p>"Snacking," he replied with a slight growl.<br /><p>"You are 'snacking' on one of my flock," the voice stated haughtily. "You will stop immediately and leave my domain."<br /><p>"Will I?" Jay asked sarcastically as he released his meal and compelled her to move on without remembering. "There's a slight problem with that idea."<br /><p>"Indeed?" the voice behind him sounded rather amused. Jay sighed, cracked his neck, then was simply in front of the source of this voice in the manner that vampires can move.<br /><p>"Too slow," the voice mocked, once again behind Jay. Jay growled and turned to regard the source of this voice. A ghostly vampire dressed in a very fine suit and flowing black cape regarded him with dead red eyes. Jay smirked.<br /><p>"Nice glamour, loser," Jay mocked. <br /><p>"You will leave my domain," the vampire told him. "You will do so now."<br /><p>"That's funny I thought you were the protector of this campus," Jay said with a dark edge to his voice.<br /><p>"I am," the ghostly vampire replied, confused.<br /><p>"Then I guess you're not a very protector then," Jay mused, leaning against the wall of the building.<br /><p>"What?" the ghostly vampire demanded, his patience expired.<br /><p>"Well if you're supposed to protect the students here, you're doing a shitty job as I am a student here," Jay grinned nastily.<br /><p>"What?" the suddenly less ghostly vampire snapped irritably. Jay laughed.<br /><p>"Your glamour is slipping," Jay teased. "And yes, I am now a student here. Studying computer science to be precise. So you can't get rid of me that easily."<br /><p>"You could have said so," the once again ghostly vampire told Jay. "My flock is mostly of the southern campus. You may feed north of campus without concern."<br /><p>"Er... thanks?" Jay was confused. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting you to be reasonable."<br /><p>"Your temper is a trifle sharp," the ghostly vampire mocked as he faded into the darkness. "Perhaps you should work on that."<br /><p>"Yeah," Jay glowered at nothing. Then he sighed and walked away. After walking half a block, he was joined by a friend.<br /><p>"You didn't have to be so mean," his friend said sadly. Jay sighed.<br /><p>"I know," Jay admitted. Then he sighed again. "Thanks for sticking around Dave."<br /><p>"I am still Dayvid; I am still your friend even if I am leaving," Dayvid replied. After a monent's silence he added, "Even if you do scare me sometimes."<br /><p>"I'm sorry, Dave," Jay shook his head sadly. "I really don't mean to scare anyone." Then he gave his friend a slight smile. "Though scary or not, I still wish you would spell your name like a normal human being."<br /><p>"Should I remind you, yet again, that I'm not a human being?" his friend replied with a smile.<br /><p>"I'm sure I'll remember that sometime, Day," Jay laughed. His friend sighed. For all of Jay's levity, Dayvid knew his friend was in pain. <br /><p>Dayvid and Jay had met one day when Jay had failed to mesmerise his intended victim, Dayvid, and was curious enough to talk. The two had forged an unlikely friendship, vampire and faerie, but eventually their tentative friendship grew strong. Dayvid and Jay supported one another through tough times, but those tough times had been endlessly trying for Jay.<br /><p>Jay was a long conflicted man. On one hand, Jay had adjusted well to being a vampire; he loved to wander the night experiencing with new senses all which he had experienced before. On the other hand, Jay felt the pain of being a vampire, of no longer being trusted, of friend's fears and betrayals, and felt this pain deeply. <br /><p>Dayvid had helped that, overcoming his initial distrust, even helping Jay to meet more people who would not cringe in fear from a vampire. Dayvid had supported Jay the best he could for the flighty, distractable creature that he was. But Jay had a problem: Dayvid was leaving. <br /><p>Dayvid had spent nearly a century away from his family and finally could no longer ignore their calls. Jay was losing one of his only friends, and he was not taking it well. After much discussion, Dayvid had convinced Jay to go to college. Jay had never sought higher education before, and Dayvid was sure that Jay would find friends through the support groups run at colleges. But as the day came closer, Jay's temper had grown as short as it had been before he had met Dayvid. <br /><p>Though Dayvid had stayed as long as he dared, Dayvid had to leave tonight. After securing the location of the support group, Dayvid had convinced his friend to go to the group. Dayvid only hoped that his friend would find someone that he might get along with that night. Without a friend, Dayvid worried that his friend would slip into despair.<br /><p>"You will try?" Dayvid asked his friend plaintively. Jay smiled.<br /><p>"Of course I will," Jay assured his friend. Then the vampire rolled his eyes as his small friend hugged him tightly.<br /><p>"I will miss you," the faerie assured him. <br /><p>"I'll miss you too," Jay said softly. "Go already." Dayvid gave his friend one final smile, then walked into the night. One sniff later, Jay turned and walked into the room.<br /><p>Dayvid walked slowly away, fearing for his friend. Though Jay had promised, his temper had grown so short, Dayvid worried he would make a mistake and lose any chance of friends. <br /><p>"Hey," said a passing young man to whom Dayvid nodded. The faerie continued to walk, thinking to himself for nearly a moment before suddenly stopping dead in his tracks. He turned and stared at the distant young man walking away. He had a palpable air of magic about him, he fairly well glowed with power, and his stern and humorless face had given an impression of a man not easily frightened.<br /><p>"A wizard..." Dayvid mused. And then the faerie was gone, invisible, flitting after the young man. Wizards were notoriously curious, fearless, and fair creatures, if typically crabby and short tempered. But there was the advantage, or so Dayvid felt. A short tempered wizard might been a good possiblity. Dayvid would have to be very careful to avoid his vampire friend's sharp nose, but the faerie couldn't stand to leave before he saw this through, one way or the other.<br /><p>After alighting atop the building, Dayvid used his innate abilities to cast a magic eye to look in on the group meeting occuring below. The faerie nearly shook with delight when he saw the wizard had sat next to his friend.<br /><p>Jay regarded the sour looking young man as he walked into the room with a vaguely irritated look on his face. Then when the guy looked at Jay, his eyebrow raised as an amused smirk spread across his face. Jay nodded to the new arrival, noting that when this new guy smiled, it was one of the most genuine smiles he'd ever seen. The young man nodded back and sat down next to Jay. After a moment or two of no one taking charge, Jay turned to the new guy.<br /><p>"Dude," Jay said calmly.<br /><p>"Uh, hi," replied the confused young man. Dayvid cringed. So far not so good. But Jay was smiling, so it could be worse.<br /><p>"So, uh..." the young man floundered for a bit of small talk. "Why are you here?" Jay replied by pointing to one of his incisors and extending it. Again, Dayvid cringed. But to the faerie's complete surprise, the only response from the young wizard was to widen his eyes, not in fear, but out of curiosity and surprise.<br /><p>"You?" Jay asked calmly. The wizard grinned a truly evil grin and summoned a small fireball in the palm of his hand. Jay grinned, "Dude! Sweet!" As he wasn't familiar with many wizards, Jay was glad to meet someone competent and potentially dangerous enough to not be frightened by a vampire. Jay glanced quickly into the wizard's mind and found no fear at all. Somehow Jay managed to sublimate his shock.<br /><p>"Not exactly the response I was expecting," the young man commented calmly as he extinguished the fireball. Jay grinned.<br /><p>"What you mean since vampires are basically like kindling soaked in lighter fluid?" Jay asked through his grin. Dayvid smiled hopefully at the humor.<br /><p>"Basically," the wizard nodded.<br /><p>"Eh, most vampires are afraid of everything that can hurt them," Jay shook his head dericively. Then he thought of a great story. "I actually met one vampire who lived his life like that dude in the Nosferatu movie: no sunlight, drinking the blood of virgin Germanic girls, couldn't get near garlic, and what not."<br /><p>"Wait, you're not affected by those things?" The wizard's expression took on a very curious flavor. Jay laughed.<br /><p>"I light up like a roman candle if I get too close to fire sources, and sunlight is even worse! Personally, I think vampires can't stand garlic just because our sense of smell is very intense; doesn't both me that much. However, Germanic virgin girls are highly overrated, what with their very high pitched screams and tendencies to know mobs with pitchforks and flaming torches." Jay winked to which the wizard grinned.<br /><p>"I'm Kristoph," the young wizard introduced himself as he extended his hand. "Call me K." Jay grinned a very big, pointy-toothed grin, and took the wizard's hand.<br /><p>"I'm Jay. Call me Jay," he said. "And this could be the start of a beautiful friendship."<br /><p>Davyid watched as the meeting progressed. Jay and his new friend K got along wonderfully, sharing amused glances and grinning at the same times. Dayvid cringed yet again when Jay introduced himself as insultingly as possible, but smiled hopefully as he realized the young wizard was almost helplessly trying not to laugh. Though there was a serious moment or two, Jay managed to irritate a young lady so much that the wizard could no longer hold back and laughed. Jay joined in the laughter, the most genuine laugh the faerie had heard Jay utter in month in months, and Dayvid finally smiled a true smile. <br /><p>Though Jay was very nearly incinerated by the young lady dragon for his troubles, Dayvid took to the sky no longer concerned for his friend. Vampire and wizard alike shared the same horrible, evil sense of humor. And the wizard K had saved Jay from the fire without a second's hesitation. Dayvid was sure that, indeed, he had witnessed the birth of a beautiful friendship.<br /><p>After being thrown out of the meeting, Jay sighed happily and waited in the shadows for the wizard to leave. Though he'd walked into the meeting nearly ready to give up on the college thing entirely, now he looked forward to seeing just what this new friendship of his could lead to. The totally casual way that the wizard had treated Jay resonated in him in a way he could not describe but would never forget. Oh what a start to a beautiful friendship...<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-115568774265125465?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-1153450831351158602006-07-20T19:59:00.000-07:002006-10-11T07:29:03.444-07:00Book Three is completed! Woot! And I think I know how to make book four work. Not sure if I'm going to start that or my high fantasy book next, but either way, I'm just happy that my third book is FINALLY finished. It's a bit short, but at this point, I just don't care anymore. It's a good book, even if it is shorter than the other two. The next one should be hella long, so that works out just fine. Happy day!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-115345083135115860?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-1153335610842302672006-07-19T11:50:00.000-07:002006-10-11T07:29:03.357-07:00<p>Jay sat, staring fixedly at his University owned terminal. It was old, it actually smelled weird, but it was Jay's favorite place to code because it was in the deepest corner of the lab where, theoretically, he would recieve the minimum of distractions. Jay had been working for hours on a project for his Computer Algorithms class and he simply could not get it to work.<br /><p>Actually, Jay had completed the assignment within fifteen minutes of it being assigned. Jay, while strange, is a very good programmer, and it wasn't all that hard of a problem. Unfortunately Jay had shown his answer to K, who had finished the project within two minutes of the project being assigned. K had nodded his approval.<br /><p>"Yeah, that's how I did it," K told Jay, who groaned. You see, Jay is not a programmer like K. Programming doesn't not come as naturally to Jay, so he really has to work hard at it. Unfortunately, he also refuses to do any project the same way K does, because, inevitably, K's answer is perfect and everyone in the class who gets the answer the same is viewed with suspicion. So Jay always has to do things differently, because if he gets it to work differently from the way K did it, Jay feels he really learned the material well. Getting to annoy teachers and TAs was just a bonus.<br /><p>K wasn't really aware that the reason Jay worked so hard at programming was partially to be different from K. K also wouldn't give two shits if that was his reasoning. All K really knew was that Jay's answers to computer problems were creative, bizzare, or just plain incomprehensible. But they almost always worked, which pleased and sometimes amused K, which immensely pleased Jay. Jay's work was almost universally hated by his professors and TAs, but that didn't slow Jay down in the slightest. Professor Bissell, one of Jay and K's favorite professors, had laughed so hard he fell down after seeing one of Jay's projects. When Professor Bissell let class out immediately after getting his breath so that he could continue to laugh, Jay became something of a hero, and Jay tried that much harder to make his projects needlessly complex.<br /><p>So Jay had actually been working on this project that he had completed in fifteen minutes for several hours so that he could get a different answer from K while possibly irritating a different professor. He hadn't expected coming up with an alternative answer to be so difficult and now the project was due in under an hour so Jay was starting to get impatient. Being bothered now was the last thing he wanted.<br /><p>"Hi Jay, what's up?" asked Megin, a friend of his. Jay tried to ignore her, staring fixedly at the line he was positive was the problem.<br /><p>"Uh... Jay?" Megin didn't give up that easily. Jay sighed. <br /><p>"Hi Meg," he said, reluctantly turning away from the programming dilemma. <br /><p>"Am I interrupting something?" Megin looked slightly pouty, which was a sign that Jay needed to talk to her or else he'd have to listen to her whine about it later. <br /><p>"Nothing I can't ignore for a minute or two," Jay told her. "What's up?" Megin beamed.<br /><p>"Well, I was wondering if you'd read the passage for our english class," Megin told Jay. When Jay nodded, she continued, "What did you think about that part in the middle when the two pigs were talking?"<br /><p>"I actually didn't like that part at all," Jay told her. "Whatever concept it was we were supposed to get from that set of dialogue was way above my head. I couldn't even find it funny it was so confusing."<br /><p>"Good, I thought I was the only one who didn't like it," Megin smiled at him. "I just thought it was such a convoluted mess that it-" Megin did continue talking, but Jay just stared at her blinking and thinking. Megin noticed after a few minutes.<br /><p>"Jay... You're staring," she blushed slightly. <br /><p>"That's brilliant!" Jay congratulated Megin, and turned to his terminal to type furiously. "If I just clean up this mess... and that... Yes! I think that will work!" Jay turned to smile at Megin. "I think you just made my life much easier!"<br /><p>"Well, I'm always glad to help!" Megin smiled a cheery smile. "Even if I have no idea what you're talking about."<br /><p>"You don't need to understand, just understand me equals happy," Jay laughed. <br /><p>"Ok, I guess I'll let you get back to it!" Megin told him with a happy smile and walked away.<br /><p>"See ya," Jay called after Megin, turning back to his now much improved program which he compiled. And it didn't work. "Aw, son of a..." Jay went back to scouring his code for these elusive damn errors. He sat, scrolling up and down in his code for several uninterrupted minutes.<br /><p>"Hi Jay," interrupted Jason the shadowmancer. He and Jay were not the closest of friends, but they still got along well enough. <br /><p>"Mmm..." Jay replied not looking up from his code. Jason gave Jay a sidelong glance, then slid into the seat next to Jay and logged into the network. Jason busied himself with email, which let Jay sit and continue his seemingly futile search. A moment or two later, a new mail notification appeared on his screen, and without thinking about it, Jay switched to his mailer to check the new message. It was from Jason.<br /><p><em>Jay, do you have that stupid pig book on you? Jason</em><br /><p>"Yes, I have the book," Jay sighed, his concentration defeated, and dug into his backpack for the book. After locating it, he turned it over to the slightly smug looking Jason. "Why do you need it anyway?" <br /><p>"Normally I wouldn't read the stupid assignment at all, but I heard there was going to be a quiz on it today, so I thought maybe I should actually read the stupid book," Jason replied. <br /><p>"Well, don't get your hopes up, the chapter sucks," Jay reported with a smirk. <br /><p>"Every chapter of the book sucks as far as I can tell," Jason grumbled. "I swear, whoever wrote this book was insane. He can't put two subjects together in the same sentence without it exploding in his face." <br /><p>"I'll say, he..." Jay started to reply laughing. Then he paused, realizing something. "Two subjects in the same place... Yes!" Jay turned triumphantly to his terminal once again, typing furiously. <br /><p>"What's wrong with you?" Jason asked curiously. Jay ignored him just long enough to finish what he was doing.<br /><p>"I think you just helped me figure out what was wrong with my stupid algorithms project!" Jay grinned at Jason. "That's the second time that book has helped me figure something out!" Jason gave Jay a strange look. <br /><p>"You're insane," Jason told him, not in an unfriendly manner. Jay just laughed as Jason got up. "I'm going to go suffer through this crap now. Later."<br /><p>"See ya," Jay waved to Jason before turning back to the project. He compiled and... fuck, it didn't work. "Aw, not again." Jay growled to himself and went back to staring at his code, searching desperately for that error. He glanced at the clock and found that he only had fifteen minutes to finish the project. Jay sighed, but kept searching. That error had to be somewhere. <br /><p>Several minutes later, Jay found an error and corrected it, but didn't bother to compile since he knew it wasn't the error he needed to find. But he was almost certain that the error was near that line so he double checked the logic of that section of code. He had nearly finished mapping all of it out in his head when...<br /><p>"Hey Jay," came Omar's friendly voice.<br /><p>"What?" Jay snapped, not looking away from the code.<br /><p>"Woah, sorry, what's up your ass?" Omar sounded irritated.<br /><p>"Sorry, Omar, I didn't mean to snap at you," Jay sighed and smiled weakly at his friend. "I just can't figure out what this fucking code error is and it's driving me crazy."<br /><p>"More crazy," Omar corrected with a laughed. Jay didn't bother to deny it. <br /><p>"You need something? I really need to get this done in like ten minutes," Jay asked hopefully.<br /><p>"Nah, I just wanted to see if you and blondie would be at coffee tonight," Omar told Jay, glancing at Jay's screen.<br /><p>"I think that's the plan," Jay confirmed. Then he frowned noting Omar's raised eyebrow. "What's up?"<br /><p>"Well, I'm no computer guy, but does it matter that you misspelled continue?" Omar asked pointing to one of the very lines Jay had been inspecting. Jay stared at Omar in amazement. Then he turned and looked at that loop.<br /><p>"Son of a bitch! I did misspell that!" Jay laughed. He turned to Omar with a big smile, "Thanks dude! I never would have caught that in time!"<br /><p>"Wow. I helped you do something computer related. That's a switch," Omar laughed. "Ok, I'll catch you at coffe tonight."<br /><p>"Sure thing," Jay replied as Omar left the computer lab. Jay noticed that K was gathering his stuff behind the tech support station in the lab, which meant his time was low.<br /><p>"Work dammit," Jay demanded of his program before compiling. And now there were more errors. "Oh god fucking dammit." Jay frantically looked through his code again, trying to find these tiny errors. The fifteen tiny errors. He heard K walk up behind him.<br /><p>"We're going to be late," K said.<br /><p>"I know, I know, I just have to find these last few errors," Jay said, again not looking away from the code. K sat in the chair next to Jay, and looked at the code Jay was staring at.<br /><p>"Compile it again," K commanded, and Jay complied without thought.<br /><p>"Ok, why did I compile it again?" Jay asked of K.<br /><p>"Because now you should be able to find the line that is missing a semi-colon," K explained. Jay glanced at the compiler messages.<br /><p>"There's no missing semi-colon," Jay insisted. K gave him a look.<br /><p>"Look harder," K told Jay, who sighed a frustrated sigh and looked at the error list more closely. Then he noticed an error out of place. He pointed to that error and glanced at K for confirmation, who smiled and nodded.<br /><p>"Ha ha!" Jay said triumphantly, fixing that error and compiling again. Success! But when Jay tried to run his project, it looked like nothing was happening. "God dammit."<br /><p>"Well, now you're really close," K told him while checking email for probably the hundredth time this day. "Just finish up those two logic errors and you're in the clear."<br /><p>"Logic errors?" Jay asked, killing his project's process and looking to his code again. In six minutes they would be late for class. K probably didn't mind, but Jay was insistent about being on time and usually managed it. No pressure.<br /><p>"Your second loop," K said after one minute of searching. Jay glanced at him, then the loop.<br /><p>"Nothing's wrong with the loop," Jay said, confused.<br /><p>"Nope, nothing's wrong with the loop," K agreed. "Just one question. When will i ever equal seven?" <br /><p>"Well it..." Jay started to say. Then he smacked himself in the forhead. "Right, if I always add by two, it'd be awful hard to get to any odd number, huh?" K grinned and nodded. Jay compiled and ran the program again. Again it seemed to freeze. "What now?" Four minutes to go.<br /><p>"Check your final loop," K suggested. Jay glared at the final loop.<br /><p>"Ok loop, you don't like me, and I don't like you, but if we work together, we can go our separate ways," Jay told the loop. It didn't bother to reply. Jay looked closely. Three minutes to go.<br /><p>Two minutes.<br /><p>One minute.<br /><p>"Oh," Jay said ruefully. "I suppose it would help if I actually incremented my counter, huh?"<br /><p>"Now you've got it," K laughed as Jay frantically tested (successfully) his project, printed it, and ran to get his print out. K met Jay on the way out of the lab.<br /><p>"So let me get this straight," K said, sounding curious.<br /><p>"What?" Jay asked. <br /><p>"We were asked to make a simple functional red-black tree in code," K said.<br /><p>"Right," Jay agreed.<br /><p>"And you decided it would be a good idea to make a wildly over complicated red-black tree actually builds the red black tree in a directory structure in the directory that you run the program in and eats up huge amounts of memory?" K asked. Jay laughed.<br /><p>"That's fairly accurate," Jay admitted. K laughed and shook his head.<br /><p>"I think the TA might kill you for this one," K told Jay. "Especially if he tries to run it with the values the professor said our projects had to work with and it takes as long as I think it's going to take."<br /><p>"Exactly thirty three minutes and thirty three seconds?" Jay waggled his eyebrows.<br /><p>"Sounds about right," K shook his head, smiling. <br /><p>"He might," Jay admitted. "But no one else will have any project nearly as creative as mine." K laughed.<br /><p>"Yeah, he's gonna kill you," K told him. Then they walked into the classroom. When K turned in his single page print out, the TA grunted. When Jay turned in his six page print out, the TA groaned and glared at Jay. Jay grinned. Mission accomplished.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-115333561084230267?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-1153150277009759312006-07-17T07:34:00.000-07:002006-10-11T07:29:03.268-07:00<p>"And I still think you're bloody crazy," Aimer said to Jay. Well, technically Aimer didn't say anything, since dragons have a terrible time properly prounouncing english words while in their native form. Dragons have developed a form of short range telepathy for communication with non-dragons. It used to be "for communication with lesser races", but after a few humbling battles through the ages, the phrase was changed.<br /></p><p>"I'm telling you I smelled her," Jay insisted, peering over Aimer's side in an attempt to see. Jay was perched on Aimer's back, and Aimer was flying in a cloud to avoid being seen. It was the black of night, but...<br /></p><p>"If I get seen because you thought you smelled a girl you once knew, we are in a heap of trouble," Aimer pinted out to Jay, only a hint of his Irish accent coming through. After spending enough time with the likes of Jay and K, his accent had nearly disappeared. Jay took great pleasure in pointing out how he'd helped "Americanize" Aimer. Aimer sometimes fantasized about chewing on Jay's head. They had a wonderful friendship.<br /></p><p>"Look, I don't know how good your sense of smell is, but mine is frankly incredible," Jay told Aimer. "I have to be able to tell, by smell, if my prey is actually safe to drink from with very good accuracy. It's usually strong enough to let me know if I'm drinking from another vampire's flock. I can tell when K is walking towards me from blocks away if he's upwind, because I can recognize nearly everyone by smell alone."<br /></p><p>"Great," Aimer laughed. "All my impressively large olfactory glands let me do is locate a carcass at several miles, or the general location of what are probably prey herds."<br /></p><p>"You eat roadkill?" Jay laughed, then grabbed desperately for a hand hold when Aimer "forgot" Jay was on his back and dove into an aerobatic flying roll.<br /></p><p>"Not normally no," Aimer informed Jay while returning to gliding. "Pushy, obnoxious vampires aren't on my usual menu either, though perhaps tonight I'll make an exception."<br /></p><p>"Bah. If you did that, who would help you through your intro to computers class?" Jay laughed.<br /></p><p>"K would," Aimer said dryly.<br /></p><p>"Ahh, yes, but who would make it more fun?" Jay asked with a big superior grin. Aimer sighed, but did not reply. They flew quietly for a while, the only sound being Jay's deep breaths.<br /></p><p>The night was beautiful. It was dark and clear and ever so slightly cold. Premium flying weather except for one, minor, detail. There were almost no clouds. That makes flying stealthily a little difficult for a dragon with a thirty-five foot wingspan, but Jay had called in a favor that Aimer could not ignore. Besides, even with the sparse clouds, the night was wonderful for flying. This time Aimer really did forget that Jay was there when the aerobatics began.<br /></p><p>"Hey!" Jay protested, clinging desperately to a pair of scales. Aimer snickered, but said nothing. Then Jay froze and took several quick breaths.<br /></p><p>"Now, dive! Get me down there!" Jay insisted. Normally this would be harder, because Aimer would have had to look very carefully to find both a safe place to land and a place where he could get from sky to ground in as little space as possible. It's hard to miss a dragon diving from the skies. However, thanks to their wizard friend K, Aimer had learned to make himself invisible for short spans, just long enough to land. Seconds later, Jay and Aimer, now in his familiar human form, and horrible pants, were on the ground in a lightly forested area.<br /></p><p>Aimer rolled his eyes as he followed after a rapidly sniffing Jay. Jay moved now, not so much like a dog on a hunt for a bone, more so like a wolf on the hunt for dinner. Given that Jay was supposedly looking for an old flame, Aimer wasn't quite sure how to take that reconcile that mental image. After a few minutes, Jay froze.<br /></p><p>"Don't move," Jay told Aimer. "Give me five minutes. If a girl runs through here, grab her till I get back, ok?"<br /></p><p>"I'm not very fond of holding lasses against their will," Aimer pointed out. The red-glowing glare Jay turned on Aimer was enough to cause even the dragon to take a step back.<br /></p><p>"Just do it," Jay commanded before running into the forest. Aimer shook his head. Jay had even managed to make his command a true command by accident with his mental powers. Aimer was able to shrug the half-hearted attempt off fairly easily, but now Aimer was just worried Jay would go and get himself hurt. Aimer sighed and leaned up against a tree while he waited. After maybe three minutes passed, something ran towards him making a great deal of noise, obviously not Jay.<br /></p><p>"Perhaps he's startled a deer," Aimer mused as he stood up away from the tree. His surprise was total when a young woman, dressed as goth as goth could be, stumbled into the clearing eyes glowing a silver color, fangs and claws partially extended.<br /></p><p>"Excuse me lass, could I-" Aimer tried to calm the woman down, but when she noted his presence, a desperate look crossed her face and she leaped to attack, swinging her claws wildly. Aimer was used to Jay, who moved with frightening speed and ferocity. This slow and seemingly desperate woman was nothing like the Jay he knew, as far as Aimer could tell. In an effort to not hurt the woman or get himself hurt in the process, he pulled upon a suggestion from one of K's ex-girlfriend, and grabbed the woman by the forearms just under the elbow. This grip made it almost imposssible to reach anything with claws, and was helpful for stoping lunges with teeth. Holding Jay in place like this even Aimer would have struggled, but with this woman it was no more than holding a squalling babe.<br /></p><p>"Please calm down, lass. I'm not for hurting you," Aimer assured her, but she still struggled, trying to jerk her hands away. It was only when Jay seemed to materalize next to Aimer with a concerned look on his face, that the woman suddenly froze. She looked terrified.<br /></p><p>"Nancy?" Jay asked hesitantly, quietly. Her frantic demeanor suddenly diminished as she looked at Jay. The glow in her eyes dimmed.<br /></p><p>"You..." she said, her mouth hanging open in surprise.<br /></p><p>"Yep," Jay replied. "Me." He sounded flippant, but Aimer could tell that he was anything but. Aimer was just about to let go and introduce himself to the young lady when she desperatly tried to throw herself at Jay, eye blazing.<br /></p><p>"It was you!" she screamed, her feet scrabbling at the ground as she tried to escape Aimer's grip. She even managed to drag Aimer a few feet before he dug his heels back in. Jay's surprised and dismayed face was sight Aimer never expected to see. However, given the angry woman in his arms, Aimer was a bit busy to pay too much attention to his friend.<br /></p><p>"Lass, please! No one here wants to hurt you," Aimer tried to calm her down. She snapped her blazing eyes to Aimer and growled.<br /></p><p>"You're the one who grabbed me, you maniac," she snarled back at Aimer. She wanted to be angry, but Aimer's nearly magical charm with people was not to be denied.<br /></p><p>"As much as I'd like to be grabbing at a lovely young lady, such as yourself, these are hardly the circumstances that I would hope for," Aimer told Nancy in a very reasonable and friendly tone. She calmed slightly. "I only hold you like this, because I'd rather not spend my evening bleeding because of a case of mistaken identity. I'd gladly release you if you would but promise not to attack me again." Aimer smiled a wide smile that softened Nancy's expression. Then her eyes narrowed.<br /></p><p>"Can I attack him?" Nancy asked. Aimer wasn't quite sure if she was serious or not. However, Aimer let nothing impede the potential for humor.<br /></p><p>"I'm fairly certain he can fend for himself," Aimer replied with a laugh and released Nancy from his grasp. "Though the only reason I've stoped holding you for him is because you've asked, and I have such a hard time turning down such a beautiful woman. I'd rather keep ye all to me own, but a gentleman I must be." Jay smirked and rolled his eyes at Aimer's little speech, but no one could deny that it managed to calm Nancy down enough to not immediately try to kill Jay. Aimer was not an unattractive man unless you looked at how he dressed.<br /></p><p>"Nancy, are you ok?" Jay started what was likely going to be a string of questions, but Nancy started shouting almost immediately.<br /></p><p>"Do I look like I'm fucking ok?" the young woman sobbed, her eyes glowing as she held up her still clawed hands. "I have claws, and fangs, and everyone hates me! I can't even hide because my stupid eyes glow now. And it's all because of you!" Then she started screaming. "It's all because of you and your stupid problem! Tell me you love me and I find out you want to kill me? What the hell is wrong with you? I hate you!"<br /></p><p>"Kill you?" Jay yelled, mostly so he could be heard. "I never wanted to kill you!" Though Jay didn't actually say "you idiot", the implication was very strong.<br /></p><p>"Why would he want to kill you?" Aimer asked with by far the most reasonable voice here. "He seems to be quite the pussy-cat when I spend my time with him." Nancy turned her silver glare on the Irishman, but it weakened quickly as her face shot from anger to fear.<br /></p><p>"You're one too, aren't you?" she whispered, backing away. Aimer exchanged a glance with Jay.<br /></p><p>"One what, lass?" Aimer asked calmly. At least Nancy stopped backing away..<br /></p><p>"A vampire," she said. Aimer laughed.<br /></p><p>"No, I've a much bigger problem then that," Aimer told her. Jay snickered in the background. "But, you have my assurances that you are safe with both of us. Now, would ye be willing to tell us what exactly is going on?" Nancy's legs seemed to fail her and she thumped to the ground. She wrapped her arms around her knees and sat there hugging herself, silver tears rolling from her eyes.<br /></p><p>"Nancy, what's wrong?" Jay asked, moving to touch her, though he backed off when she snarled at him.<br /></p><p>"Why are you crying, dear lass?" Aimer asked in a voice that women simply couldn't deny. Jay took a moment to remind himself just how much he hated Aimer's voice when women were involved.<br /></p><p>"Because of this," Nancy replied between sobs. "Because of him."<br /></p><p>"Lass, that's technically an answer, but as of now, I have no earthly clue what is bothering you," Aimer told the young woman.<br /></p><p>"I think I know," Jay said sadly. "She is a vampire, and she somehow blames me for it." Aimer frowned at Jay, thinking he was perhaps jumping to conclusions, but the sobbing Nancy nodded her assent, then buried her face in her hands.<br /></p><p>"Did you...?" Aimer gave Jay an inquisitive look, but Jay shook his head emphatically no with a disgusted look on his face. As far as Aimer knew, Jay had never given unlife to another vampire. Aimer had also almost never seen a subdued sad Jay either, so tonight was a night of discovery for Aimer. Nancy's sobs slowly weakened. The two boys waited in silence for her to decide to speak again.<br /></p><p>"It's his fault," Nancy moaned, eventually breaking the silence.<br /></p><p>"How is it my fault?" Jay asked a bit hotly. <em>Oh, these two have history</em>, Aimer thought to himself. Nancy glared at him through her tears.<br /></p><p>"How long did we date before I found you out?" she demanded. "How many times did you tell me you loved me before you turned out to be a liar?"<br /></p><p>"I wasn't lying!" Jay insisted. This merely incensed Nancy.<br /></p><p>"You were going to kill me!" she screamed at him. Aimer took a step back after that shrill scream. "That's what vampires do. That's what they all do." Nancy was starting to cry again, but Jay managed to cut it off this time.<br /></p><p>"Like hell they do!" Jay yelled. "I have never, ever, killed someone I was feeding from. Ever! Not once. Less than ten have ever even realized I was feeding on them, and only one still has that memory. And I wasn't feeding on you at any point to begin with! My flock and my friends are totally separate. I never feed on a friend." Jay paused, his anger dying down. "I never feed on those I love either."<br /></p><p>Nancy looked at Jay, mostly in disbelief, but glanced to Aimer for confirmation. Aimer nodded his asscent. Nancy, frowned, essentially asking Aimer to confirm aloud without actually saying anything. Aimer sighed.<br /></p><p>"Lass, I have never seen him feed," he told her. "Not once. His very best friend in the world has only seen him feed once, and even then it was only in a time of duress. I couldn't point someone he's fed on out in a crowd if you paid me a pot of gold coins."<br /></p><p>"And he's never fed on you?" Nancy asked quietly.<br /></p><p>"Oh, he'd find me a difficult meal if he tried," Aimer laughed. Jay smiled at that, and punched Aimer in the arm.<br /></p><p>"Why?" Nancy asked. Jay and Aimer both hesitated. In the way she asked, they both knew she was very serious and very desperate. Her stability, even her sanity, hinged on this question being answered just right. Aimer sighed, and looked to Jay for permissions. Jay's eyes widened, and he shrugged.<br /></p><p>"You're no help," Aimer grumbled, then he looked into Nancy's eyes. They were desperate, but for the first time, almost hopeful. Aimer never broke eye contact as he changed. When he was done, Aimer's long lean body circled the small clearing they stood in. Aimer cringed and shuddered, which on a his size dragon involves millions of scales ruffling, worrying that he had frightened this timid young woman. But her open mouth and eyes filled with wonder calmed him down. Aimer gave his body a little shake and preened his wings a bit.<br /></p><p>"No wonder you aren't afraid," she said, tentatively, then more confidently running her hands over Aimer's scales.<br /></p><p>"I'd have nothing to fear, even if I wasn't a dragon," Aimer told her again, firmly, not using his mouth though. Trying to speak in english in this form out loud scared even Jay.<br /></p><p>"Why not?" Nancy asked, looking up into Aimer's eyes again.<br /></p><p>"Because Jay's an soft-hearted idiot," came a harsh irritated voice from the edge of the clearing. Aimer looked up as K crashed into the clearing muttering curses to himself. Jay grinned.<br /></p><p>"Nancy, meet my best friend, Kristoph," Jay told her. K scowled.<br /></p><p>"Call me K," he insisted. "Anything else is far too much typing." K joined the group, gave Aimer a withering look, then turn a slightly friendlier glare on Nancy. "Now, tell me why I had to find my way out here in the middle of the goddamn forest in the middle of the goddamn night so I can find some chick oggling a dragon who should know better than to be in this form." Nancy looked slightly worried.<br /></p><p>"Don't worry," Jay leaned in closer to Nancy, who for the first time didn't back away, "K's not always like this. I kinda woke him up and called him here." K snorted.<br /></p><p>"There was no 'kinda' you asshole," K told Jay darkly.<br /></p><p>"Why did you call him?" Nancy said to Jay, actually continuing to remain calm. Aimer took this moment to return to his human form.<br /></p><p>"This should be good," K said, while glowering at Jay.<br /></p><p>"Because he's a plain old human," Jay replied. "He can vouch for me. Also, he's enough of a jerk when he's tired that he's distracting your irritation with me onto himself."<br /></p><p>"Have I set you on fire lately?" K said, mostly to himself.<br /></p><p>"You're human?" Nancy demanded, turning to K.<br /></p><p>"Uh-huh," K responded shortly.<br /></p><p>"He's never fed on you?" she asked, referring to Jay.<br /></p><p>"No," K responded shortly again. Then, after taking a look at the young lady's tear stained face, he sighed and continued. "And I've only ever seen him feed once, during an emergency. Jay was very embarrassed about it too. He never wants his friends to see him feed. Not that I get why, but that's just him I guess." K seemed to be a bit more reasonable now that he realized why he was here. Nancy stared at K for a moment, then burst into tears again.<br /></p><p>"Oh, great, I'm making chicks cry," K rolled his eyes, then glared at Jay. "This was totally worth getting out of bed for, asshole."<br /></p><p>"Lass, why are you crying?" Aimer asked gently, this time touching her arm. When she didn't jerk away, he sat down beside her and hugged her to him. She sobbed for a moment. Jay looked a bit jealously at Aimer till K swatted him in the back of the head, prompting an irritated look, followed by a look of understanding, followed by a look of contrition, followed by another swat to the back of the head. Jay glowered at a suddenly beaming K.<br /></p><p>"I'm such an idiot," Nancy said quietly. This quieted the letters of the alphabet.<br /></p><p>"How can you say such a thing?" Aimer gently rebuked her.<br /></p><p>"No, I am," she insisted. "After I found out what Jay was, I never went anywhere without a cross and garlic. Then one day another vampire found me, listened to my story, then turned me into this as some kind of sick joke."<br /></p><p>"What, unwillingly?" K broke into the conversation. He looked pissed. Nancy nodded mutely. Jay's eyes suddenly blazed red.<br /></p><p>"Who was it?" Jay asked in a horrible voice. Nancy cringed away from him, and Jay visibly had to control his anger. When the glow left his eyes, he looked to Nancy again and asked, "Who was it that changed you?"<br /></p><p>"Why?" Nancy asked.<br /></p><p>"Because no wise vampire ever turns a person against their will," Jay told her. He was trying to control his anger, but red was starting to seep into his eyes. "That is unforgivable."<br /></p><p>"Weren't you going to turn me?" Nancy suddenly asked nastily.<br /></p><p>"No! I wasn't!" Jay insisted hastily, mortified. The red glow had totally dissipated. "I would never curse anyone like this."<br /></p><p>"What was his name?" K asked this time, his voice had a deadly serious quality to it that stopped everyone in place. When everyone looked at him, they found a very intense and angry look on K's face.<br /></p><p>"I think it was something like... Raz," Nancy told him, her voice soft and hesitant.<br /></p><p>"Rasputin?" Jay asked. When Nancy nodded, Jay shot to his feet and stalked away, shaking with anger. K growled, and pulled a pda and portable keyboard out of his pockets. After attaching the two, he began typing furiously.<br /></p><p>"What's going on?" Nancy asked Aimer.<br /></p><p>"Now, my friends are overreacting," he told her calmly. "But if I'm not mistaken, Jay is facing away from you because he's too angry to think and doesn't want to scare you. K, on the other hand, is signing Rasputin's death warrant."<br /></p><p>"You're goddamn right I am," K replied, not looking up from what he was doing.<br /></p><p>"All because Ras turned me into this?" she asked. Jay stormed back up, somehow controlling his anger.<br /></p><p>"Because Ras took your free will, turned you against your will, then obviously let you out on your own after playing with your mind," Jay replied. "He's probably been stalking you and watching you blunder through unlife." Then Jay froze. "Have you ever fed on anyone?"<br /></p><p>"Only animals," Nancy replied, starting to cry. "But I had to kill them to do it. I didn't want to, but I couldn't stop myself." Jay tightened his fists so hard that his claws burst through the backs of his hands, he stalked away again, lighting up the forest with his rage.<br /></p><p>"Don't worry babe," K spoke up. He had a self-satisfied look on his face as he returned his geek-gear to his pockets. "Ras won't be around much longer. He'll never do this to anyone ever again."<br /></p><p>"See, it's good to have friends like us," Aimer told Nancy giving her a friendly squeeze." She smiled. Jay started to say something, probably comforting and friendly, but then he froze and looked into the air.<br /></p><p>"Except when old friends show up," Jay informed everyone with a snarl before suddenly seeming to disappear as he ran up a tree so fast neither Nancy nor K could follow. Aimer looked up to see Jay fighting with a white shade floating above the trees. Whatever he was fighting threw Jay into the ground hard enough to break several bones. A ghostly white monster floated down from the sky, his claws streaming with Jay's blood.<br /></p><p>"Rasputin I presume?" K asked in a very dangerous tone of voice. Aimer had guessed that based on how Nancy had suddenly started panicing, desperately trying to crawl away from the white monstrosity. Rasputin looked much like Nancy, very pale, with silver eyes. Rasputin, however, was much better dressed, all in white, and practically glowed in the dark.<br /></p><p>"Silence mortal," Rasputin turned his silver eyes on K. At first nothing happened, then K clenched his fists. Aimer realized that the vampire was trying to dominate K's mind.<br /></p><p>"Stay here, love, this won't take but a moment," Aimer told Nancy, who looked to him in fear. Then her eyes widened as she realized what Aimer had in mind. Rasputin and K were locked in mental battle, Rasputin clearly the stronger, but as yet unable to break through K's formidable mental defences. Their fight was so intense that Rasputin did not notice Aimer take his true form until he saw Aimer's tail whipping through the air. To his credit, Rasputin caught Aimer's tail and held it away from his body, but to Aimer's credit, the ground was much harder than Rasputin. Though the broken monster healed quickly, as soon as Aimer's tail was clear Jay pounced on the vampire and the two tore at one another with a vengence.<br /></p><p>K shared an irritated glance with Aimer. With Jay in the way, dealing with Rasputin became difficult. Aimer could not breathe fire, nor K use his considerable magical repetoire without possibly endangering Jay. And it appeared Rasputin had the advantage. He was likely older, looked to be faster, and stronger. His wounds healed faster than Jay's, though both their sets of clothing were fast being destroyed. Things looked bad for Jay.<br /></p><p>Then Jay tore Rasputin's head off and kicked the body away. The head gasped horribly and the body disolved to ash. Jay growled at the very surprised looking head and pulled back his hand for one final blow.<br /></p><p>"Jay!" K called sharply. Jay stopped instantly, and looked to K as he stalked over. By the time K had reached Jay's side, all Jay's wounds had healed.<br /></p><p>"Give me that," K insisted, swiping the still living head away from Jay. Jay was so surprised he only stood and blinked.<br /></p><p>"Can you talk?" K asked the head. Rasputin's eyes swivelled grotesquely towards K and his face crinkled in confusion. K rolled his eyes, and looked at Jay. "You. Translate." Jay blinked more, then shook his head and stared at the severed head of Rasputin.<br /></p><p>"No, he can't talk, but yes, he can understand you," Jay told K with something of a smile on his face. "He's in quite a bit of pain, so concentrating is difficult."<br /></p><p>"Whatever," K shrugged, and turned back to the head of Raz. "Did you turn this girl against her will?" K was never one for mincing words. And this time it was likely with good reason, since Rasputin's neck was slowly healing downward. In time Rasputin could have completely regrown his body. And Rasputin knew it.<br /></p><p>"Answer him or I'll tear out an eye," Jay told the head. Rasputin's silver eyes turned to Jay filled with fear, then unfocused. Jay growled and reported, "Yes, he did, and he's proud of it. It was the most amusement he's had in a while, as he described it." K nodded and pulled out the pda again. He poked at it for a moment.<br /></p><p>"Lass, why have you not put your claws away?" Aimer asked the strangely calm Nancy, trying to distract her from the horrible sight of a living severed head.<br /></p><p>"How do I do that?" Nancy asked, confused. "I thought they were permanent."<br /></p><p>"Rarely they are, but normally not," Jay informed her. "You should be able to do anything Rasputin could, so theoretically you can put your claws and fangs away at will, do his creepy eye thing, float around, all kinds of stuff." Nancy stared at Jay open mouthed. Then she looked at her claws. Nothing happened initially, but after a moment or two they slowly slid back revealing normal human hands. Nancy followed the same tactics with her incisors, and shortly her teeth looked perfectly normal.<br /></p><p>"I doubt flying will be that easy," Jay laughed, "but I bet you'll pick it up." As Jay spoke, K beeped. Or more accurately, his pda beeped. K took it out again and poked a few times. Then he grinned evily.<br /></p><p>"Put Ras on the ground please," K requested of Jay. The eyes of the severed head took on a terrified expression and began to cast about, looking to the others in the clearing, probably begging for help. They found little sympathy.<br /></p><p>After Jay dropped the head unceremoniously to the ground, K stood over the head. He thought for a moment, then elbowed Jay and glanced at Aimer. When he had both their attentions, he spread his fingers wide, thumbs touching, and pointed his fingers at Rasputin's head. Jay and Aimer, both recognizing what K was up to, laughed.<br /></p><p>"I don't know, K, do you think 1D4+1 damage will be enough?" Jay chortled. K gave him annoyed smile, but a smile nonetheless. When K looked down, his expression turned serious, and a gout flames shot from his fingertips completely enveloping the severed head in fire. When the flames ceased nothing remained of Rasputin's head but a fine pile of ash. As K turned back to the group, a stiff breeze blew all the ashes, both from the head, and from the body, into the air and out of sight.<br /></p><p>"As you can see, Rasputin won't be doing that to anyone else, ever again," K gave Nancy a little bow. "Now I'm going back to bed." And with that K turned and crashed back out of the clearing. K was not a master of the covert.<br /></p><p>Aimer turned and watched as Nancy and Jay shared a moment of intense embarrassment, then turned and walked several yards away so they could have some privacy. Aimer grinned at Jay's fortune. His grin faded as he listened.<br /></p><p>"We can't be together can we," Nancy asked of Jay. They were hugging, they had been kissing, but that was what she asked first. Jay sighed.<br /></p><p>"No, we can't," Jay told her. "The only thing I can think of that you can guarantee in a vampire is that no vampire wants to spend any more time than is absolutely necessary in the presence of another vampire."<br /></p><p>"So even though we're able to spend eternity together, we aren't," Nancy sounded disappointed.<br /></p><p>"Yeah," Jay replied. They were silent for a moment.<br /></p><p>"I'm sorry I tried to kill you," Nancy said quietly. Jay chuckled.<br /></p><p>"It's ok, I get that a lot," Jay replied wryly. Another quiet moment, then, "I love you Nancy. I'm sorry things turned out this way."<br /></p><p>"It's not fair," Nancy whined. Then she sighed and looked deep into Jay's eyes. "But you did something tonight that I'll never forget. Even if we can't be together, I'll think of you like I always should have: fondly." Jay smiled.<br /></p><p>"That means a lot to me," Jay told her, and they separated. "Be careful out there. And try to find some friends like us, ok?" Nancy nodded mutely, then she turned and walked softly away. Aimer, ever the soft-hearted one, stood blinking away the moisture in his eyes.<br /></p><p>"I take it you heard all of that," Jay asked when he walked over to join his dragon friend.<br /></p><p>"Aye," Aimer said huskly. "I'm sorry, my friend." Jay shrugged.<br /></p><p>"After this long, I'm getting used to not getting the girl," Jay said, sadly. Aimer clapped him on the back.<br /></p><p>"Well, there's only one cure for a situation like this," Aimer said, "One that is mystical, magical, and has been passed down for generations in my family." Jay raised an eyebrow, as Aimer grinned. "Home-brewed whiskey." Jay laughed, and the two friends walked out of the clearing and into the night.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-115315027700975931?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-1152817838993805982006-07-13T07:24:00.000-07:002006-10-11T07:29:03.170-07:00<p>"Don't say anything and I won't hurt you," began the scene about to unfold. A grimy man with a gun, down on his luck, and desperate for a lay lied to the woman he'd pulled off the quiet street into his alleyway. Raping a woman hurts her immesurably, but anything to keep her quiet. The woman lay quietly whimpering under the gun, obviously too frightened to move. The man grinned a dark grin and began removing the neccesary bits of clothing to get what he wanted. When the woman realized his true goal, she began to thrash wildly attempting to escape.<br /><p>"Stop that, bitch!" The horrid smelling man held her down with one hand for a moment, but when he realized she would not stop struggling without an object lesson, he pistol whipped her face. She was not totally unconscious, but her feeble attempts to resist were no longer an impediment to this desperate man's goals. <br /><p>"No... Please...." came her quiet moaned plea. The woman was crying as the blood from the wound on her temple bled down into her eyes and her mouth. "Please don't..."<br /><p>"Shut up," the dark man insisted as he finally reached the point where he could get what he wanted. The woman tried to fight, but there was nothing to stop him now. He growled as he got what he wanted, ignoring the feeble cries from the woman. When she tried to push him off, he pistol whipped her again, this time knocking her totally unconscious. <br /><p>"You shouldn'ta struggled, bitch," the man laughed at the unconscious woman as he pulled up his pants, satisfied with his work. He turned away and began to walk out of the alley. Then he gasped as a hand plunged out of the shadows and grabbed his chest. He felt like he'd been punched. He looked down and realized that the fingers on the hand in his chest had punctured to the first knuckle. He was then lifted off the ground by his rib cage, and few of his ribs survived the trip.<br /><p>"And you shouldn't have raped one of my flock," snarled the horrifying creature that melted out of the shadows, still holding him in the air. It looked like a man, but his skin practically glowed white. The creature's hands ended in wicked sharp claws, his incisors were as long as fangs, and his eyes glowed firey red, as if flickering with the rage of the creature holding him. <br /><p>"Fuck you!" the grimy man said before pumping the two bullets in his gun into the creature's chest. The creature snarled and stumbled back with each impact, but after the gun clicked empty, the grimy man felt himself fly though the air before he felt a sudden impact with the alley wall. It was a short, but bone crushing trip.<br /><p>The man looked up in horror as the monster stalked after him, shaking with rage, licking the blood from his claws. The creature cast about before finding a short piece of rebar and retrieving it.<br /><p>"No! Please!" the grimy man begged as the monster approached. "Please don't-"<br /><p>"Funny hearing those words coming out of your mouth, isn't it?" the monster snarled with a glance towards the woman. "Do they sound familiar?" Then the creature drove the rebar through the grimy man's shoulder and into the alley wall. The pathetic man screamed as much as his traumatized body would allow him, which wasn't much. The tiny punctures in his lung left behind from the creature's claws didn't help.<br /><p>The monster, confident that the rapist could not escape, turned his attention to the woman. She was regaining consciousness, but slowly. She was obviously groggy from the pair of blows to the head, but the horror of her situation was returning. She started to desperately scuttle backwards with her feet and hands till she thumped into the alley wall. <br /><p>"It's ok, now," the monster, who now looked like nothing more than a sad young man, told her. "He can't hurt you anymore." The woman, looked at the young man with bleary eyes for a moment. <br /><p>"He... that man... he..." the woman started to say before bursting into uncontrollable sobbing.<br /><p>"Shh... I know what he did," the young man replied. The woman noticed that, a dark note entered his voice. When she looked up she saw a simmering red glow in the man's eyes, and watched as the man's face turned into a monster's face when he growled at the greasy man, now whispering bubbling screams.<br /><p>"What..." the woman started to ask though her tears, but the monster's face turned to her and all she saw was a sad young man again.<br /><p>"He won't hurt you," the young man told her. "Never again." The woman took some comfort in that reassurance. For some reason, those words spoken by this young man held in them a promise written in blood.<br /><p>"You... Who are you?" she asked.<br /><p>"My name is Jay," the sad man smiled slightly. "I am your friend Karrin." The woman blinked away tears, surprised, but before she could speak, Jay continued. <br /><p>"There are a couple of ways we can proceed from here," he told her. "I could go, call the police, and let them handle this. You'll say that after he finished and stood, you kicked at his legs, and he fell onto the spike on his own. He will see normal justice, and so will you. The evidence here is farily incontrovertible." Jay's eyes began to glow again as the woman began to cry, the enormity of the situation beginning to overwhelm her again.<br /><p>"There is another option," he said quietly. The woman cried for a moment, but sniffed loudly, pulled her self together again for the moment, and looked at Jay. <br /><p>"What option?" she asked shakily. The glow in Jay's eyes burned darker.<br /><p>"Two things will happen," Jay replied. "I will give this... creature... what he deserves. He will die terrified and alone without hope." The woman's face hardened as Jay spoke. She liked that idea. "The other thing is that I will make you forget."<br /><p>"What?" Karrin gasped. "How can you think I could ever forget this!" Her rage held off her horror momentarily. Jay, eyes blazing red, replied by turning to the whimpering man.<br /><p>"Pull the rebar out," Jay commanded casually. The grimy man's hand shakily reached up to grasp the rebar, then slowly pulled it out of his body. The man shook and rasped with agony, but the man did not stop until the rebar was completely out of his body. The man curled into a ball as the rebar clanged to the alley floor beside him. Jay turned back to Karrin with a sad and compassionate face.<br /><p>"I will make you forget," he told her quietly, gently. Karrin looked at him in shock for a moment. <br /><p>"But..." she touched her head, the blood. Jay looked away from her wound.<br /><p>"You will remember him grabbing you, trying to take your purse," Jay told her. "When you resisted, he hit you, twice, but ran off when you didn't let go. You'll be woken up by a good samaritan who will take you to the clinic down the street." Jay turned back to her with his sad eyes. There was no unearthly glow, just two brown sad eyes rimmed with tears of blood. He blinked and a blood tear ran down each cheek. Karrin reached out to touch his face, but he turned away, hiding his tears.<br /><p>"You're a vampire?" Karrin asked. Jay wiped his face clearn and nodded, still not facing her. "Why would you do this for me?" she asked, confused. "I thought vampires were bad people."<br /><p>"Vampires are just people," Jay told her as he turned to face her. The slightly bubbling breaths and coughs of the man dying in the alley were getting shorter and his eyes getting more desperate. Blood had begun to dribble out of his mouth after his racking coughs.<br /><p>"But why me?" she asked. Jay sighed.<br /><p>"Because you're part of my flock," he replied. He looked her in the eyes. "Because I feed on you." Karrin's eyes widened, but she blinked and regained her calm. Jay sighed before continuing. "I don't want any of my flock hurt. If I did nothing for you, I would be that evil vampire you thought I was. I had to do something." <br /><p>"You feed on me, but you also protect me," Karrin more stated than asked. More tears fell from Jay's eyes.<br /><p>"I was too slow," Jay said to the floor. "I'm so sorry, Karrin, but I was too slow." This time when Karrin reached out to touch him, Jay did not shy away. He simply sat silently as she rubbed his tears away.<br /><p>"You did what you could," Karrin told him. She took a deep breath. "And I can forget." Jay looked up at that comment, his face stained with blood.<br /><p>"That's what you want?" he asked. Karrin nodded.<br /><p>"But one more thing," she said. Jay nodded, wiping his face clean again. Karrin's face grew hard. "I want to see what you do to him." Jay leaned back in surprise, then a truly evil grin spread across his face, any hint of tears or compassion buried under the cruel face of a monster. Karrin almost took back her request when she saw this. Jay, no longer a young man, but a terrible monster, rose and stalked to the man who had gathered the will to try to crawl out of the alley. Jay kicked the man in the chest hard enough to throw him to the alley wall again. Then Jay crouched in front of the man claws bared, fangs dripping, eyes blazing red.<br /><p>"I'm not going to kill you," Jay informed the man. While the man gasped, Jay cupped his hands under the largest wound and gathered a mouthfull of blood, drank it, then started to get more. "Killing you is too easy, and I don't kill my food. I'm going to take you into the shadows and let you die. And I don't mean pull you out of sight; I mean take you into the world of shadows. You will feel nothing but your pain, see nothing but shadow, hear nothing but your own dying breaths. You won't be able to escape or do much ov anything else. If you are very, very lucky, you will die before the living shadows find you." Jay drained the remainder of the blood from his cupped hands and stood, licking his hands clean. The man began to cry helplessly as Jay grabbed him by the collar and started to drag him to the back of the alley. As he walked into the shadow on the wall, Jay paused to look back to Karrin. She had a horrified, but satisfied look on her face. Suddenly sleepy, the last thing Karrin saw was the dying man's shoes disappear in shadows.<br /><p><br /><pre><strong> * * * * * </strong></pre><br /><p>"Shit lady, are you ok?" The young man asked as he gently shook Karrin's shoulder.<br /><p>"My head... got hit..." Karrin gasped through the pain. She tried to explain as quickly as possible. "Mugger." <br /><p>"Well, you still have your purse," the nervous looking young man told her while looking around. "Looks like he ran off without getting what he wanted. But anyway, we have to get you some help. I think there's a clinic around here."<br /><p>"Down the street," Karrin told him, feeling stronger. "About two blocks." Karrin wasn't sure why she remembered that, but she didn't question it.<br /><p>"I'll get you there," the young man promised her. "Can you stand?" When Karrin nodded, the young man helped her to her feet as gently as he could. After a few hobbling steps, the young man said dubiuosly, "I could try carrying you." Karrin smiled.<br /><p>"It was just a couple of bumps on the head," she scolded her samaritan. "He didn't hit me in the leg."<br /><p>"You must be feeling better if your sense of humor is back," the young man smiled at Karrin as he helped her towards the alley's mouth. <br /><p>"I'm just lucky you happened by," Karrin smiled weakly and stopped hobbling for a moment. "What's your name, oh knight in shining armor mine?" Jay smirked.<br /><p>"Actually, my armor is in he shop," he told her jerking his thumb over his shoulder. "Jousting accident, you know. But my name is Jay."<br /><p>"Thank you, Jay," Karrin told him firly. "Thank you for helping me."<br /><p>"I live but to serve you," Jay replied almost seriously as they walked, together out of the alley. Karrin glanced back into the alley, feeling strange for a moment, but as they walked away from the alley, that feeling disappeared. <br /><p>As they walked screams Karrin could not hear, reached Jay's ears. He smiled an evil smile. Apparantly the man did not die before the living shadows found him. The screams followed till Jay walked Karrin into the clinic. His smile did not die for some time after.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-115281783899380598?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-1152645558496386532006-07-11T11:29:00.000-07:002006-10-11T07:29:03.064-07:00<p>It wasn't so much the cracking of bone or tearing of flesh as it was the bits of brick and mortar that fell down from above that reminded Jay just how strong drunk men could be. Two large men, one scrawny looking boy, and a toss down an alley; clearly they had expected Jay to be at least somewhat winded by the throw, but Jay's vampiric body had fully healed before his attackers could take two steps.<br /><p>"Come on guys, lighten up," Jay said in a mollifying voice, holding his hands up half peacefully, half defensively. "I didn't know she was your girlfriend, sister, mother, aunt, fiance, cousin, friend, or newphew." That provoked a few seconds of blinking.<br /><p>"She's my girl!" one of the men insisted loudly, to which the other man grunted firmly in agreement.<br /><p>"Of what type I'm still not sure, but I'm certainly willing to let that go and stop talking to her if that's your goal in dragging me out here and throwing me into a wall," Jay smiled amicably. Jay hadn't so much been talking to the girl as feeding on her, when the men took offence. All they saw was a pale young man talking quietly to a girl who was in close. If she was a girlfriend, Jay certainly saw how that could be taken in the wrong way.<br /><p>"I don't think we're quite through with you boy," the larger man said with a dangerous glint in his eye. "I don't like it none when you young fellers come in and try to take our women."<br /><p>"Your women?" Jay raised an eyebrow a bit too calmly. "I'm beginning to wonder if they're even aware of that honor you've bestowed on them." And there, as usual, Jay's mouth got him into trouble. <br /><p>"Don't matter if they're aware," the smaller one growled and pulled out a knife.<br /><p>"They're our women because we say so," the larger one grinned evilly and slipped on a set of brass knuckles. This situation had just escalated from slightly upsetting to dangerous. To most people it would appear that Jay merely shifted nervously and pulled his hands in towards his body, but to anyone watching closely enough, they would have seen his eyes narrow slightly, his canines extend, and his fingernails begin to delicately sharpen into claws. <br /><p>Normally Jay would have tried to simply dominate the minds of these not quite gentlemen and force them to back down without a fight. However, they were drunk, which makes controlling them much more difficult, they were angry and already planning on violence, another wrench in the wheel of peace, and lastly, Jay really doesn't like men who treat women badly. It's one of his very few easy hot buttons. <br /><p>"What the hell do you think you're doing?" came a sharp voice, cutting into the scene and breaking the tension. Jay's teeth and nails instantly returned to normal as he assumed an innocent expression. Before the two men could turn all the way around, the very woman in question stormed out in front of them and placed herself between the men and their prey. The bigger man scowled.<br /><p>"This doesn't concern you, woman," he told her sharply.<br /><p>"Yeah, leave us men to our business," the shorter man chimed in, gaining strength from his larger friend's presence.<br /><p>"No no! Feel free to intervene!" Jay insisted with a nervous looking smile. The woman glanced at him with a smirk, then turned back to the drunks with her hands on her hips and an unimpressed expression.<br /><p>"You boys should get smart and get out of here," the woman insisted. Jay smiled as he gazed at his ally. He congratulated himself, while checking out the woman's ass, for picking such a fiesty bit of lunch. The tight jeans, leather chaps, and heavy leather jacket, while all quite fetching in a biker sort of way, should have told the drunks something that apparently they weren't listening to.<br /><p>"Here, get you gone," the shorter man insisted, walking up as if to grab the woman. She took one glance at the knife in his hands and swatted it contemptuously away. Jay's eyes widened as he watched the knife thud into the wall of the alley. The shorter man did not miss the implications and quickly backed away from the tough woman. The larger man, however, was unimpressed and advanced on the woman.<br /><p>"You best be leavin' fore you stick your nose too far into man's business," the large man sneered. The woman took two hip swaying steps closer to the man and put her face an inch from his.<br /><p>"And you should have backed off when you had the chance," she informed mockingly him before she kneed him in the balls hard enough to lift him to his toes. Jay winced at that blow, but winced further when he noticed that the large man was not falling down as he should have been. <br /><p>"You bitch!" he yelled as swung his brass knuckled fist back for a huge hook punch. The woman sneered in return and drove a straight punch directly into the man's solar plexus, another blow that should have driven him to the ground. However, some combination of arrogant, drunk, and stubborn let the man weather the second blow as well, though he stumbled back to be caught by his crony. After shaking his head once the man roared and stepped into a powerful hook punch that would have crushed the woman's face. Even as she tried to block she closed her eyes and turned away.<br /><p>For a moment everything was silent. Then the large man and his intended target both looked at the fist that Jay's small, pale, and clawed hand had caught mid-swing. Then the both looked at the livid face with red glowing eyes of Jay, his true nature revealed.<br /><p>"You should have gone down," Jay told the man before hurling him bodliy into the same wall Jay had been thrown into at the start of this debacle. This time, however, the crunch of bone and tearing of flesh wasn't remotely as negligable. When Jay turned with a snarl to glare at the smaller man the knifeless wonder took a moment to scream then run aimlessly and desperately away. With a deep breath Jay calmed and the harsh glare in his eyes dimmed.<br /><p>"You didn't think I could take him?" the woman asked shakily, partially out of pride, partially out of a need to say something instead of screaming. It is not easy to stand firm and confident in the bared presense of a vampire. Jay looked at the woman as the red flowed from his eyes.<br /><p>"I just really wanted to hurt him," Jay shrugged before relaxing back into himself and smiling at the woman. She looked him in the eyes carefully for a moment, then smiled back.<br /><p>"Wow, you really tore him up!" Jay congratulated the woman, who sneered down the alleyway at her defeated foe. Then she laughed.<br /><p>"Ain't you gonna be a bit embarrassed to tell people how a woman came to your rescue?" Jay smiled at the woman who now believed that she had thrown the man down the alleyway.<br /><p>"I could have helped, but you didn't even give me the chance!" Jay laughed. "You're too fast, and tough, and I was far too distracted by your stunning good looks to react quickly enough." With a starry eyed smile he coaxed hearty laughter out of his recent prey.<br /><p>"Well, you be more careful about who you talk to without his permission," the woman snickered as she jerked her head to indicate the fallen man.<br /><p>"I don't reckon that'll be a problem," Jay winked and smiled. With a final parting laugh, the woman returned to the bar they'd all left. Jay waited till she was inside before approaching the man who looked on in fear. Jay's eyes glowed once again, and he extened his claws and his fangs and kneeled before the man who was now whimpering in fear and pain.<br /><p>"I would love nothing more than to tear out your throat right here," Jay coldly informed the terrified man. "But I won't. Leaving you here broken by a woman is almost as satisfying." Jay stared into the man's eyes for a moment while returning to normal, then suddenly grinned.<br /><p>"Damn, boy! You got knocked the fuck out!" Jay laughed in the man's now confused and pained face before turning and walking out of the alley. Though he'd rather have gone back into the bar and back to his meal, he had a loser to catch. It wouldn't do to have vampire rumors starting up. With one final glance at the man in the alley, Jay stepped away from the bar and into the shadows with a feral grin. It was time to hunt.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-115264555849638653?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-1152641968791270362006-07-11T10:42:00.001-07:002006-10-11T07:29:02.969-07:00<p>"Entropy does what now?" K asked of Jay, who laughed a familiar and ever so slightly irritating laugh. K rubbed his face knowing that the coming explanation was going to be partially truthful and interesting, but largely grandiose and fictional. He glanced up at the grinning vampire who was leaning over the computer help desk at an unnatural angle to get a view of K's computer screen. <br /><p>"I'm just sayin', is all, that entropy and vampires makes a lot of sense," Jay insisted returning his body to a more normal angle as a student walked into the computer lab. Jay had taken a physics class to fill one of his required classes for graduation. K had declined Physics for Chemistry, as it was by far the easier class, but with as much Jay liked to talk about his Physics class, K felt he was learning almost as much if not more than Jay was, excepting of course that K could never really be sure which parts were true without actually borrowing Jay's always conveniently missing Physics book. <br /><p>"Since I'm fairly certain there's no way you'll let me get out of this conversation, and the general lack of people bothering me with questions right now, why don't we go take a smoke break?" K suggested, locking his computer. Normally, leaving a computer locked in a college computer lab was a sure way to get your information stolen, but K's eight digit password would take a Cray super computer eight hours to crack. Both K and Jay had learned some valuable lessons from their Intro to Cryptogrophy class.<br /><p>"Yay, smoke break!" Jay grinned at the inside joke. K didn't smoke and neither did Jay. Not that either of them found smoking particularly objectionable, that is. Jay had smoked from time to time before, and probably would again, and though K never smoked, he never minded it either. But it was an excellent excuse for taking a five minute break from the computer lab. And, like all true smokers, those five minutes were taken in perspective of a smokers five minutes, that being, "I'll be on break for as long as I god damn well feel like it."<br /><p>"So entropy," K prompted as he leaned comfortably up against his favorite place on the wall in front of the lab's building, ironically right next to the ashtray set out for smokers.<br /><p>"Entropy affects vampires, as it does with many apex predators, in that to create a more balanced eco-system vampires need to be spread about to keep their respective packs safe from over feeding," Jay explained. "This works similarly in hunting and killing in that leopards and panthers and the like have large and non-overlapping hunting ranges, such that no one group of prey is over hunted.<br /><p>"Of course, there is the occasional overlap, and since no one is getting killed, vampires have to be extra careful to keep to their territory. Since we don't really have to fight to figure out who the stronger person is, and we can be reasonable, normally these border disputes get quietly and quickly handled when the other vampire is found.<br /><p>"But most interesting is-" K cut Jay off with a beleaguered sigh.<br /><p>"Jay, you do remember that you only need a D minus to pass this frickin' class, right?" K reminded Jay purposefully. Jay only laughed again.<br /><p>"Just because you're not enjoying your Chemistry class is no reason to steal my fun from having taking the more interesting hard science," Jay, ever the gentleman, stuck his tongue out at K, who rolled his eyes and sighed. K glanced left as a female student entered the building. <br /><p>"Hi K, Jay," the young lady smiled at the two letters of the alphebet. Her smile widened as she noted the pained expression on K's face. "Smoke break?" K nodded while massaging his temples which provoked a peal of laughter as the young lady continued on into the building.<br /><p>"One of these days you're actually going to let me get her phone number," Jay commented, leaning right so he could watch the young lady walk into the building and down the stairs to the lab.<br /><p>"And one of these days you'll believe me when I say she would set you on fire as soon as talk to you if she knew what you were," K shook his head and smiled, his first smile in several hours. "We'll find you someone nice who isn't going to freak out when you off handedly comment on the flavor of male blood versus female blood." Jay scowled.<br /><p>"You've been promising me that for months," Jay pointed out. "And I see her on her way into this building far too often to continue to be patient."<br /><p>"If I didn't think I'd have to help you recover from burn wounds, I assure you, I'd be pushing her at you," K shook his head helplessly.<br /><p>"She's pursuing you then?" Jay asked, eyebrow raised. He was always shocked how K's seeming total lack of interest in girls was like a beacon in the dark to them.<br /><p>"She's certainly trying," K admitted. <br /><p>"And the fact that you currently have a girlfriend gives her no pause?" Jay asked, pursing his lips.<br /><p>"None whatsoever," K sighed. <br /><p>"Well, you do kinda go through girlfriends like fasion fads," Jay teased. K affixed Jay with a glare.<br /><p>"You don't make fun of my girlfriend habits and I won't remind you what president was in office when last you had a girl," K grumbled. Jay held up his hands in defeat.<br /><p>"So anyway, because of the apex predator status..." Jay started again.<br /><p>"Oh no, not this again! Break's over! Back to work!" K waved his hands around in a futile attempt to get Jay to stop talking, even as he realized it would be a wasted effort. K stalked back into the office with Jay spouting his physics/vampires theories the entire way. The fact that this was so normal that not a single student so much as batted an eye should tell you something about the usual smoke break conversations Jay inflicted upon K.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-115264196879127036?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30981914.post-1152639696675728202006-07-11T10:38:00.000-07:002006-10-11T07:28:58.874-07:00Jay is a character I created for the first book I ever wrote that is thus far unpublished. I love Jay as a character, and as I have some free time at work, I figured I'd try putting up short stories to amuse myself and keep my creative juices flowing, or some such. Since you may not know, Jay is a vampire set in a world that is exactly like normal life. Just with like wizards and shit who try to hide from the public eye. Jay is also a very strange if amicable guy, with an odd sense of humor. That's probably enough to get the idea across. I will probably have him interact with existing characters from my world as well as have stories from all walks of his life. If I get bold enough I might even get some back story written for a character I have precisely zero back story even thought of. Who knows?<br /><br />I don't expect these little writing forays to be good. In fact, I imagine they might be very bad, or at least uninteresting. Writing take a lot of work, this is some of the work that need to be done. All writers have to learn how to take any scenario and make it interesting. Doesn't mean I'm good at it yet. So if you plan to post a comment about how bad the writing is, don't bother. I probably know already.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30981914-115263969667572820?l=jaysshortstories.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ethyachkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14712504605795788469noreply@blogger.com0