I Need You

Yey! I have done some writing! Big smiles everywhere!

So, on Gaia I'm doing a writer's tourney (don't get me started on that lol) that's finally getting off, somewhat. Anyways, I'm in the first battle, so I wrote mine today. I love it, actually.

Seth is mine, though I don't write it from his point of view. I wrote it from one of the other girl's characters, cause it puts more mystery on Seth. BTW, Seth is one of the MCs of my NaNo for this year. I'm so happy to have been able to use him and practice with him!

Also, this isn't edited, too lazy to do so about now. 

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Julianna screamed as she beat against the wooden coffin lid. This wasn’t happening; there was no way it could be happening. She could hear the dirt hitting the lid, shovel by shovel. She was being buried alive. 

Her screams stopped for a moment as she tried to catch her breath, but there wasn’t much air in the wooden box. Everything was closing in on her as the thuds from the dirt seemed to get farther away. The dirt was pressing down on the coffin lid, the wood buckling some under the weight. She was going to suffocate. She was going to die in this box. 

“Let me out!” she screamed in a shrill voice, thrashing around and beating on the wood above her. “I don’t want to die!” 

The thuds from the dirt stopped and she cried, thinking she was completely buried six feet under. No one could hear her screaming. Her hands throbbed in pain, her knuckles bleeding, her lungs stinging. She could feel the blackness closing in from the corners of her vision. Everything that led up to that moment played in her mind’s eye and she regretted every movement. 

---- 

Julianna and her brother Salem were in some trouble and in hopes to make it better they entered a contest: a tournament to fight for their very lives. She thought it was a stupid idea and that they were morons for doing it but as her brother pointed out: they didn’t have any other choices. So she went along with it. 

They had spent a little time looking around the area under the fighting arena, meeting a few of the people, possibly making a few friends. They couldn’t get too close to any of them seeing what they were there for. Then one morning, a man, who said he was one of the referees named Vole, or Mole, or something like that, came into their room and woke them. They were first up for battle against some guy. He said the names had been picked at random. 

She was hopeful. Vole-Mole had mentioned that he was only one guy, and there were two of them. One guy couldn’t take on both of them at once. For the first time since Salem had brought up the idea of this tourney, Julianna felt like they were really going to make it through this thing and win. 

Her hope only grew as they were led out into the arena by a girl who said her name was Jessica. She was a referee too. 

She looked around. The arena they were to be fighting in was and old arena, like the ones used in ancient Rome to fight lions. If this were ancient Roman times, she would say that her and her brother were the lions and the other guy was the poor, stupid soul who had to deal with them. 

She smirked softly to herself as a new voice spoke. She couldn’t find the man and figured he was above the crowd that was shouting and cheering all around them. 

“Here come our first fighters now! Let’s hear it for siblings Julianna and Salem!” 

The crowd’s applauding got louder. They were really excited. They must know what she herself knew: that they were the better fighters here, or at least had the upper hand. 

Salem was really eating up the attention. He was strutting around the little area they were told to stand, chest puffed out and hand in the air as he waved at the fans. Julianna rolled her eyes but didn’t stop his fun. After they won this battle, there would be no living with him and his ego, but she’d let him have it for now. 

“And now for the competition! Put your hands together for Seth Kerberos!” 

Julianna looked across the empty dirt playing field as another door opened. But there was no man that came out. Instead, it was a line of skeletons, dancing. Music carried out behind them, music that sounded like… like a carnival. 

“What the hell?” Salem whispered and Julianna shrugged, the look on her face mirroring her brother’s words. 

The whole place went silent, save for the music, as something that could only be explained as magical happened. Like in those movies where color washes over the black and white backdrop, the arena changed from a Roman style amphitheater to a giant red and yellow tent. The crowd was now sitting on bleachers around the center ring. The skeletons continued their practiced dance, boney arms going up then back down, their bones jittering as they moved. 

As the skeletons made it to the other side of the ring, all eyes on them, the tent finished building itself, connecting with a burst of what had to be shadow people. They began spreading through the tent, an eerie chant filling the room. It went in time with the music but added a ghostly haunt to the tune. “Welcome to the lower berth, the greatest show on earth…” It repeated as if they were singing a happy round of Row, Row, Row Your Boat. 

The crowd was eating it up, a massive combination of shrieks and ooh and awes. 

Julianna was losing her feeling of being on top of all of this. But maybe this was all just an illusion! Something in the water before they came out here, or the food from the night before! That had to be it. It would all be fine… 

Her thoughts were quickly changed as a new voice came over the speakers. The referees looked at each other, clearly confused by it. 

Her eyes went wide as a man began to appear from the ground in the center of the ring. No flames, no open trap doors, nothing. Just right out of the ground. 

“Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and ghouls! Step right up!” Bowler hat, head, black button down dress shirt with white suspender. “Within this tent lies a ghastly concoction of delight, horror, fantasy and terror! Your every wish is our command, your ever whimsical desire brought to life.” Black dress pants, fancy shoes, one of those podiums that ring masters stand on. One of his hands that was clothed in a black fingerless glove was gently holding the rim of his hat, head tilted down so she couldn’t see him well. His other gloved hand was holding an intricate black and silver walking cane on front of him. “But I’m warning you… There’s always a price!” He threw his arms open like a relative inviting in a hug, his head back as he announced to his audience, “Welcome to the greatest show unearthed!” The crowd erupted into cheers and roses, actual roses, were being thrown from the bleachers of people. 

“Where are those flowers coming from?” Vole-Mole said to Jessica, who shrugged, just as confused. 

“Thank you, thank you!” Seth said, bowing. “You’re too kind!” 

Even Salem was clapping. Julianna reached over and smacked his shoulder, her hand landing next to the sheathed sword her brother wore on his back at all times. 

Salem looked at her then cleared his throat as he realized what he was doing and went about looking as if he hadn’t been doing anything of the applauding sort. 

Julianna watched as Seth stepped off his ring master’s pedestal and walked towards them. “Welcome to the show! You two are my guests of honor!” His voice was still loud, as if he were talking into a microphone, but he wasn’t holding one and there wasn’t one taped to his face. 

“What happened to your stool thing?” Salem asked. 

Seth looked over his shoulder. His little stage had vanished. “You mean my estrade?” he asked as he looked back at the boy, his voice at a normal conversation volume. 

“Your what? Is that some kind of French dessert? If it is, I want mine with extra chocolate.” 

Both Seth and Julianna rolled their eyes. Seth, though, carried on with his show. He held his fist towards Julianna. She took half a step back, thinking he was going to hit her. Instead, he extended his pinky. “Pull my finger.” His voice was once again loud. 

Julianna made a face. “Ew no! My uncle used to do that! It’s gross!” 

Seth shrugged and turned to her brother. “Pull my finger.” 

Salem grinned brightly, his immaturity showing. “All right!” He grabbed Seth’s pinky and pulled some. 

There was a groaning sound from behind the ring master and Julianna gasped. Salem didn’t look at her reacting in her girly ways to the weirdest fart he had ever heard. 

“I think there’s another one in there, do it again.” Seth grinned, loving the boy’s obliviousness to what his sister obviously saw. 

Salem nodded and pulled his pinky again. There were two groans from behind him. This time the whole crowd gasped. 

“What did they feed us this morning? Really, I think mine was made out of road kill. Go ahead and give it one more tug.” 

Salem was laughing by now, finding this man hilarious. He pulled, harder this time. 

Seth made a slightly face and a loud groan filled the tent. 

Salem froze at that. Something had just popped up in his peripheral vision. He slowly turned his head then yelled and stumbled back towards his sister. 

Seth stood to his full height and frowned. “What? You don’t like my friends? They’re hurt,” he jested, his frown pulling into a grin. 

“Those are zombies!” Salem cried out in a mixture of disgust and horror. Sure, he though zombies were cool but he never once thought they were real! These real zombies were, well, real. And falling apart. 

Seth looked around his circle then really frowned. “Where the hell is he?” 

“Who?” the siblings asked in unison, looking around. Julianna noted that the refs were gone and they were left alone with this… this guy and his zombie pets. 

“Nothing,” the ring master growled and returned his attention to the kids. He was going to have to wrap this up quickly and get out there to find Marcus his stupid zombie that got out of his cage all the time. “Enjoy.” Seth stepped backwards and vanished. 

Julianna and Salem spun around, looking for him, but he was nowhere in sight. 

And the zombies were closing in on them. 

“Salem, what do we do? You love these things!” Julianna called to her brother who had his back to hers. 

“Gimme a minute…” he muttered and pulled his sword from his back, holding it at the ready in both hands. “Aim for the head!” 

“What?” Julianna looked over her shoulder at him for a moment, not sure she heard what he said. 

“The head? If you kill the brain then you kill the ghoul!” Salem sounded confident. “We can make it through this!” 

Julianna looked the zombies in front of her that were slowly getting closer. “You want me to touch these things? Ew!” 

Behind her, Salem shuffled, fighting with something. “Here, take the sheath.” She took it from him. “Bash their decomposing heads in with it! Hit them as hard as you can!” He paused as he looked around. “There are six of these things. I’ll get these three, you get those three.” 

Julianna nodded and jumped at the first one. She remembered from her minimal knowledge of zombies that if one bit her, she would become a zombie as well. She came up to the first one and kicked it back. It stumbled and she ran past it, skidding to a stop and turning around. “Come get me you rotting fucks!” 

The three that had been on her side of the circle turned their attention on her and with a groaned cry for brains, they shuffled towards her. Well maybe they weren’t shuffling a slowly as they did in movies, but still slow enough. 

She raised the sheath and bashed it into the closest zombie’s head. It cried out something that could only be compared to a death rattle and fell to the ground. It twitched and tried to get back up, it’s head still in decent contact. Julianna stepped up to the creature and lifted the sheath, wincing as the skull shattered with a gross squelching sound. 

The other two zombies were closing in on her as she fought to pull the sheath free of the now completely dead brain. “Come on… come on…”s he pleaded and it came out in enough time to swing it and knock one of the zombies away from her. Its grimy hands hand almost touched her, almost grabbed her. 

She turned her attention to the third one, conscious that the one she’d just hit wasn’t dead yet. She lifted the bloody sheath over her head and brought it down on top of the zombie’s cranium. It groaned and fell to its knees. She repeated her bashings until the thing moved no more in a bloody mess on the ground. Somewhere in her mind, a small voice told her she was sprayed in dead blood, but at that moment she didn’t care. She turned and took care of the last one, stabbing it through the skull. She decided her brother could pull it free when he wanted it. 

Speaking of her brother, she looked for Salem to make sure he was ok. He was, of course. His skills with the blade had all three heads removed and one was even half way across the ring. “We win!” he said when he noticed his sister was done with her half. 

She grinned. “Really?” 

“Well, that guy isn’t here anymore and we killed all of his zombies, so we won!” 

“Not so fast,” Seth’s voice announced to the whole tent. The crowd had gone quiet, enthralled with the show in front of them. 

“Where are you then?” Julianna yelled. 

“Over here.” A spot light clicked on and standing in the middle of it on the other side of the ring was Seth in all his ring master glory. He pushed off the pole he was leaning against and walked towards them. “I see you made quick work of my not-so-quick friends,” he said off handedly. 

“Of course,” Salem said with pride, puffing out his chest again. 

Seth snickered. “Think you want to pull my finger again, boy?” 

“Are zombies all you have?” Julianna scoffed. “We got those things easy-peasy.” 

Seth chuckled and shook his head. “Of course not, but this is only a teaser for my Dark Carnival and I don’t give away all my trade secrets.” He smirked and then was gone. 

Julianna and Salem spun around looking for him again, then she screamed as her braid was grabbed and pulled. 

Salem jumped at the man who had his sister but the two of them were gone. “Get back here with my sister, you bastard!” he yelled into the empty ring. It was just him and the bodies of the undead creatures. 

Then across the ring, a large fun house appeared and out of it stepped Seth. 

“Where’s my sister you sick fuck?!” Salem yelled and ran towards the fun house, stopping far enough away that the man couldn’t just grab him. He had the sword ready though if he vanished and popped up behind him, or in front of him. 

Seth tilted his head towards the well lit entrance to the fun house. “Why don’t you check in there?” He smirked as noise came out from within the fun house. It was screaming followed by Julianna’s voice. 

“Let me out of here! Help!” Bang, bang, bang. 

Salem looked at the ring master then ran towards the entrance. “I’m coming Julianna!” he said loudly as he entered the fun house. 

Seth snickered and took a few steps away from the small building. His estrade appeared and he stepped up on it. “Hat trick, anyone?” He pulled his hat off his head and held it out in front of him. “Within this hat are many, many glorious things. For you lovely people… A rabbit? Will a rabbit do?” 

The crowd was silent then one man yelled, “Rabbits are lame!” 

Seth turned towards where the voice had come from and bowed slightly. “Of course. Your wish is my command.” He stuck his hand into the bowler cap. Everything up to his shoulder vanished into the hat. “Give me a second… this thing is rather heavy.” He grunted as he tugged, his arm coming out slowly. 

The crowd held his breath, wondering what he was pulling out of this small hat. There surely couldn’t be enough room in there for his whole arm to fit, and they didn’t believe that he would pull anything of substance out of that hat. 

The gasped as he produced the top part of a coffin, the hat maintaining its shape. 

“Give me a minute.” He set the hat on the ground, grabbed the handle, and pulled the coffin the rest of the way out. Once it was lying on the floor, he walked over and picked up his hat, brushing it off and putting it back on his head. 

The crowd was stunned into silence. This man was… he was something else, that was for sure! 

“Now, to get my other guest of honor.” He walked away from the wooden box, ignoring the thuds and screamed from the girl locked within its depths. 

Juliana was gasping as her attack on the coffin lid got weaker, her yells for help dying out. Her throat was becoming dry quickly and her lungs stung. She was going to die in here and she had no clue what was happening to her brother. “Please…” she pleaded with the dirt on the other side, hoping it would take pity on her and let some air through, or maybe even let her out. “Let me out…” She dropped her head back against the velvet pillow that was small and thin. She wished she was dead, then maybe it would be comfortable. 

The darkness in the box was becoming darker and she could see her life flashing before her eyes: the good memories, the bad memories, her parents, her brother… all of it. Right there in from of her eyes. 

Then there was a bright light and someone was saying her name. 

“I’m coming…” she said and reached for the light. A hand grabbed hers and pulled her up. 

Her eyes focused and the light was less intense. She wasn’t dead! She was… she was in a coffin in the middle of the circus ring. She hadn’t even been buried! But she’d heard the dirt, felt the lid come in on her. 

“I… I’m alive?” 

“Of course,” the voice that had called her name said. She looked at it then yelled and flung herself at Seth, fists ready to pummel him into nothing. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Seth said as he side stepped, dragging something alongside him. “You wouldn’t want me to break this, now would you?” 

She could hear the smirk in his voice and was almost afraid of what he held that she wouldn’t want him to break. It was her breaking something that got her and her brother in this mess to begin with. She’d broken some rich guy’s car by falling on it and said rich guy wanted them to pay for it. As if he didn’t have enough money to do that. 

She slowly turned around then gasped loudly. He was holding a large mirror, like one from a hall of mirrors, but there was something in it, a picture maybe. At least, she hoped the form of her brother was a picture. Her hopes were shattered as He began banging on the other side of it, yelling but she couldn’t hear him. 

“These pesky mirrors like to gobble up lost patrons,” Seth said as if it were painfully obvious. “Your brother got lost… looking for you.” He looked from the mirror that he’d been brushing with his fingers, the walking stick held against his palm with the last two fingers on his hand. 

“Looking for me? But I was in a coffin! Why would he look in a fun house?” 

“Do you really need to ask that of me?” Seth shook his head. “And here I thought you were a smart girl.” 

She could feel her anger building higher and growled in response to it. “Let my brother go!” She clenched her fists, wanting so badly to beat his pretty face in, but that would make him drop the mirror and she had the strong feeling that it would completely shatter. 

“I want something in exchange.” 

She frowned deeper than she had been. “What do you want? What do I have that you could possibly want?” 

“First, you give up, then you give in.” 

“Give in to what?” She looked at her brother. She may not be able to hear him, but it seemed he could hear everything they were saying. He was mouthing ‘no’ but she looked away from him. She may have gotten them into this whole mess, but she was at least going to get him out of that mirror. 

He shrugged. “I don’t know, it just sounded like a good thing to say.” 

She rolled her eyes. “Fine, you win. You beat us.” She said the last part in a softer voice and dropped her head. 

“Good.” The mirror shattered and left Salem standing there. 

“Why did you do that?! You could have taken him!” 

Julianna looked up, anger on her face. She hadn’t wanted to give up, but her brother was more important to her than winning some stupid tournament. In her frustration, she pulled her fist back and slammed it into her brother’s face. 

Salem fell back, shocked that his sister had hit him. “What the fuck?!” 

Julianna pounced her brother and started hitting on him. Three refs came running out, one grabbing Julianna and another her brother. They were dragged off as the third lifted Seth’s hand into the air. 

“The winner!”

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So? What do you think? I'm rather proud of it! When I saw hers, I was all intimidated, and I hit a writer's block because of it. But I am so happy with this!

I didn't go to writer's group this week cause I wasn't feeling well. But I got the words. I still have to write a story for last weeks words. But here are this weeks words:

• Ruckus
• Extract
• Acclaim
• Soberly
• Cast

I need to write a story for these and the other ones from last week. I'm also looking for a new writing group because the one I'm in, while I love the 5 minute writing and the 5 prompts, there's no critique. Depending on when this other one is that I may or may not find depends on if I stay in this one or not. I like it though, for the two things I just listed.

That's all I got.

Laters!