Thank you!

[deleted]

Sacrifice is power. The most powerful sacrifice is life. This is a universal constant of magic. The greater the magic to be performed the greater the sacrifice to be made.

• Understanding Basic Magic, vol 1

“Master, there are too many injured and just not enough life to heal them all. The wizards are passing out…. Some of them are even dying. What are we going to do?”, my young apprentice Howard begged of me. He was 25 years old but looked to be in his sixties. We sacrifice part of our life when we do magic. A week here. A month there. A year over here. We wizards may burn brightly but we do not burn for long.

I inspected the wound of my patient. A sword slice through 2 lobes of his lung, broken ribs, liver damage, massive blood loss. I tally up the injuries…. It would cost me 10 years of my life to heal him completely. It would cost me 2 years to heal him enough that he would survive. I prepare myself and sacrifice 2 years and let the magic course through me, shaping it, directing it, moulding it to my will….. and then I release it into the patient. I collapse to my knees panting for breath….. I have given up 20 years of life today. Almost 60 years worth since this damn war started. But today, today has seen the fiercest fighting yet. Our king is trying to push through the enemy lines even if it means burning out all of his wizards.

“Give me a moment Howard.”, I say as he helps me to seat. I take a few deep breaths. “How many more have come in?”, I ask shakily.

“About a hundred more.”, he says quietly. “The offensive is not going well.”

“Are there any new prisoners that can be sacrificed?”, I ask hopefully.

“The enemy fights until death and if they can’t fight any more they take a poison capsule and kill themselves. They won’t let themselves be taken.”

I raise an eyebrow at that. “That is a new tactic.”, I say simply.

Howard shrugs. “They die on the field or we capture them and put them to death to heal our injured. Either way they die.”, he says, “at least this way they aren’t helping the enemy. It is smart.”

“Wizard! I need a wizard!”, a courtier yells as he hauls in a member of the Royal court. Howard and I go over to him. “It is the Prince. His wound is infected.”

We quickly lay him down on a cot. “When did he get wounded. We haven’t seen him through here in weeks.”, I say to the courtier.

“The Prince is aware of the cost of a healing and would not ask it for such a minor wound. He would sacrifice is own life force to heal it but it isn’t allowed to sacrifice noble life for magic, so he decided to let it heal on its own.”, the courtier said.

“That is noble of him, but a clean would of this size would take a day of sacrifice. Now that it is infected it is going to take a great deal more.”, Howard said sadly as he looked at the grotesque wound. It was was oozing puss and the skin next to the opening was necrotic.

I probed the wound gently, causing the unconscious Prince to moan, the wound was deep. I tallied up the work that would need to be done…. At least a year worth of life. “Damn…. There is so much infection”, I said to myself.

“It is too bad infection wasn’t alive”, the courtier said.

“Oh, infection is alive. Thousands and thousands of tiny organisms that are feeding off of our Prince and making him sick.”, I said absently as I cleaned up the wound.

“Can you sacrifice the tiny organisms?”, the courtier asked

I looked at Howard. He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t remember any text ever saying it had to be human life that must be sacrificed. It was always just…. Implied….”

“Well if nothing else, sacrificing the infection would clean up the wound, even if there isn’t enough life there to heal it.”, I said, trying to convince myself of the merits. “Why not?”

“We should at least try it”, Howard said excitedly.

I pulled up a chair to the prince’s cot. I took a couple of deep breaths and then reached out with my senses to find all of the infection and the microbes that shouldn’t be there. It felt like it took an eternity. I had to identify each and everyone one separately. I took a steadying breath and sacrificed those lives entirely…. Not minutes or hours or days but extinguished those lives entirely. I expected a little bit of power but I was overwhelmed.

The power burned through me, setting every nerve ending on fire and making me ache to the very core of my being. I shaped the power to heal the prince, but there was so much more and there was no where for it to go! I started to panic. There was no more hurt on the Prince and I wasn’t in contact with anyone else that needed healing. The power burned and struggled, it wanted to be free. I clamped down on that power and forced my will on it and then swallowed it whole. My very soul felt like it was on fire. Then the world went black.

“Master! Master! Are you alright‽”, I heard Howard’s voice through the darkness. I opened my eyes.

“I am still here young man.”, I said to Howard.

The healed prince looked down at me on the floor. Then to Howard then to me. “You look a lot younger than him.”, the prince said.

I touched my face. The wrinkles were gone. I moved my legs experientially…. No aches or pains. “How old do I look, Howard?”, I asked cautiously.

“If I had to guess, I would say…. about 16 or 17, master.”, Howard said with a big smile.

“Send a runner…. Everyone of them we can find. We need everything they can find that is rotting… food stuffs, horse manure, people with infections, yeast….. all of it, any of it. We are going to turn the tide of the war, my boy!”

Now that's how you write a closing line!

Wonderful! I really enjoyed this.

I hope you don't mind me snooping through your post history and finding your subreddit... Will delete this comment if you say so

It's r/FroggingtonsPond, guys

[removed]

Adam stood, hunched in a fighting stance, his back to me.

I was speechless.

“We’ll talk about what an idiot you are later. But for now, get in the churchyard.”

When I didn’t move fast enough, he shouted. “Move!”

I didn’t protest.

I hopped the fence, landing next to a tombstone. A bronze angel stared down at me, arms outstretched, the oxidized metal like tear streaks down its face.

As useless as it was, I held my gun out, pointing at the guy Adam was facing off against.

It was the creep who chased the girl. His nice shirt drenched in blood.

“You’re boring.” He said to Adam. He smoothed his hair back like his hands weren’t caked in gore. Behind him, the three other vampires fanned out, surrounding us. “I’d ask if you wanted to have it for yourself, but Silas tells me you’ve gone soft.”

I guess I was the “it”. Fucking creature.

I gestured my gun at the vamp talking. “I got a stake about your size. Extra large, unlubed.”

“Shut it.” Adam snapped at me. Then he turned to face the leader of the posse. “I’m going to take her and go. You’re already outside your territory. Don’t turn this shit into an incident because you got some human blood for once, Eli.”

The one he called Eli smirked. “She’s seen us, we can’t just let her go.”

“You always were the dumbest in the brood, weren’t you?” said Adam. “Use your head. Kill a hunter and the rest of them will come down on this place like hellfire. Or need I remind you what happened last time? You’ll all need to change jobs. Those of you that survive, anyway.”

“She doesn’t have the symbol.” Eli protested.

“Yes, because every hunter is going to walk around advertising who they are for our benefit.”

Eli paused. You could almost see the gears turning in his head.

The three underlings watch him, tensed and waiting for orders.

Adam stands resolute, and only then did I notice the massive claws at the ends of his flexed fingers.

Then. Eli nods, a small smirk splitting his face. “We’ll let this slide for now. But Silas is gonna want you to explain this.”

“I’m not taking orders.” said Adam. His shoulders squared a little more.

Then, in the clock tower above us, five chimes rang out. Sunrise was coming.

Eli looked a little ruffled. “Silas is gonna find out you were in his territory - and that you interfered.”

“You can tell him to get bent.”

And with that, the three lackeys melted away into the shadows. Eli was the last to leave, sneering at both of us.

“See you later.”

I wanted to relax, to unlock my arms and release the death grip I had on my pistol. But as Adam turned to me, my blood ran cold.

He had a rage in his eyes that I’d never seen anyone have before or since. And they were red, his eyes. Like a pair of ruby coals burning underneath pale lashes.

“You are going to go home. You are not going to run. We are going to have a little chat.”

It wasn’t vampiric compulsion, but I knew I should obey. For one, he just saved my life. Two, we had lived for weeks together and he didn’t so much as sniff my direction. Three - if Silas was the guy from the porch… I’d rather have backup.

So, I just agreed. “What about you?”

“Hmm?”

“Sun’s coming up.”

“Oh, right.” He said, almost as an afterthought.“Don’t worry your pretty little neck. I’ll get home fine. You just get straight there - and don’t let anyone in.”

“Are you my dad?” I snorted.

It was a stupid, childish insult. But it had been a weird night.

“Considering you do things you are told not to, perhaps you need one.” He frowned. And with that, he slipped away behind a building.

I stayed in the churchyard until the first few rays of sunlight brushed the sky, pink and gold and glorious.

Better safe than sorry.

———-(continued)———-

Taking a break for the day. Burned out my eyes typing this. Honestly didn’t expect to write this much. Ty for reading!

Edit 2: Thank you so much for reading! I will be putting up more parts soon, had a lot of stuff to do today. Really appreciate the kindness <3

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Like the version of sandmans death. There to welcome the dead and help them pass.

Thank you, you don't know how much that means to me!

Now, being a vampire, Shadow was naturally in tune with his bloodlust and hunger. He couldn’t afford any risky moves if he was hungry after all. The last risky move was… Well it was moving into this dingy apartment in the middle of the city with… Her… Don’t get him wrong, if someone told Shadow years ago that he would willingly move in with a vampire Hunter, much less have any sort of romantic feelings towards them, he would most likely have laughed and tore out the throat of the fool who suggested it. Yet here he was.

All this set up to say, that when his tentative roommate came home at the brink of dawn smelling faintly of blood and frustration, Shadow was not happy. He waited in the dark living room, sat on a seat that he had brought in, claiming it on day one. Slowly dragging her feet over the floor, an unsteady rhythmic tapping against the carpet, approached the area. She appeared around a corner and Shadow gripped the arms of his chair tighter, leaving even more scratch marks on the wood. The women had her dark brown hair tied tightly into a bun, pins keeping hair out of her pale face, green eyes shifting across each room, bags heavy under her eyes. A product of paranoia, Shadow had surmised, having almost got shot the first time he tried to spook her. It had served her very well on a hunt, but at home…

A whisper of a breath passed through her lips as she looked up to where he sat. “Good morning.” Her voice croaked out, another strike in Shadow’s book. The vampire found himself standing, towering over the young hunter, taking long stride to where she stood, long dark hair flowing around his form like a cloak, wine red eyes gazing down at her. She was not in her hunting garb, confusingly, yet the scent of blood was still strong, disorienting. Regardless however, she pushed him to the side, weak, yet he moved as if he was just a curtain. It was then that he spotted the plastic bags in her hand. Ah, shopping. He should have guessed. Still…

“You’re late Kalia. Much to late in fact.” His voice rumbled through the room, deep and encompassing. The women, Kalia, made no sound as she trudged into the kitchen, unpacking groceries. “Got caught up, something unexpected happened…” She whispered, yet his hearing still picked it up. “Shadow, I know we have a sort of tension going on, but please… Just… Just leave me be…” Ah, a request from the human. Something he could use.

A huff escaped his tall frame as he left the doorway to the kitchen and wandered to the bathroom. He carefully plugged the tub and let it run warm, wandering off into his room, coming back with what could only be described as a care bag. Pouring in bubble bath and Epson salts, he carefully mixed it together, before slinking out and into Kalia‘s room. Normally? The pair had an understanding. No going into each others room, but today, today was different. He made sure to leave with a comfy pair of PJs, setting them safely away from the water. After taking a moment and inspecting his work, he left the bathroom once more and returned to the kitchen when Kalia was carefully putting items away, sluggish and tired. This would not do.

The noise Kalia made when picked up was that akin to a squeak, followed by squirming. “Shadow what the hell? I told you I am not in the mood!” She protested as he carried her to the bathroom. Upon seeing the warm water of the tub, however, she relaxed. “… S… Shadow why?” She could mutter as he set her down, about to close the door on her. He paused in the frame and was silent for a long moment. Why? Well, the same reason why he lived with her. Stayed near her. Made her life easier by being off the streets… He could have killed her much easier in the beginning, he didn’t honestly need a roommate… But… He grinned at her with half lidded eyes, almost a dreamy gaze. “Because you are mine my dear. I take care of what is mine.”

Thank you. I read the prompt and all I could think of was the End of Time, so I had to give it a spin. Glad you enjoyed it.

The twighlight ways?

Mission accomplished then. Good story.

That is the universe I based this in, so I'm glad it did!

“You are entering the vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster, or some kind of weird mirror. These are just examples; it could also be something much better. Prepare to enter… The Scary Door.”

Made me think of chrono trigger.

Wow I wasn’t expecting a entire story, reads like a Sherlock Holmes case

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>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include "[Poem]" >* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail >* See Reality Fiction and Simple Prompts for stricter titles >* Be civil in any feedback and follow the rules

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Ding!

(TW, sexual assault mention)

I’m not a super hero. I’m not even that good of a person. I can’t save everyone.

But I wanted to try, as best as I could, to lessen the number of monsters out to get people.

2012 was the year I got attacked.

I had just graduated high school. My friends and I were out late at a movie, enjoying our last summer before adulthood came and changed everything.

I wasn’t paying attention.

He came out from behind a car. I don’t remember much of what happened, but I ended up back at home. I was beaten bloody.

They took DNA. That whole ordeal made everything worse.

The guy was never caught.

It derailed my life.

I forgot everything I wanted to do. Everything I was supposed to do.

Instead I took martial arts courses. Gun safety. Anything to make me feel like I had some power over my life again. Like it wouldn’t happen a second time.

And yeah, some sick part of me hoped he’d show up again.

So I could put a bullet through his teeth.

I engaged in stupid, risky behavior that nobody in their right mind ever should.

I made myself a target. Loose purse straps, long hair, skimpy clothing. My family begged me to stop, begged me to get help.

Meds and therapy only took the edge off of everything - I couldn’t feel happy or sad.

But hate.

Hate was another beast.

Maybe it was God watching out for me, maybe creeps took one look at some chick dressed like a Barbie walking in the sketchy part of town with a chip on her shoulder and ran the other way.

But I never saw him again.

It was only after I got my shit together that I got attacked again.

I wasn’t carrying.

I’d been going to college. I felt safe enough to walk in my own shoes again. Had check ins with the family, friends waiting for me. People I could trust to give a ride.

It happened in October.

The bastard stalked me for blocks.

I wanted to get somewhere safe, but knew there wasn’t anywhere I could go. I was just going to walk to that Thai place a mile from campus.

Why?

Why do people do this shit? Why did I have to live in fear? Why didn’t the police do their fucking jobs?

I ran.

I put in a good effort, probably could have set a record, but he was faster.

He chased me, I lost my nerve.

Ran behind a building hoping I could shake him off and hide.

But he got my legs.

We grappled on the ground. I clawed, screamed, beat him in the face with my fists until my knuckles were raw.

Then I saw his face.

Hollow eyes, emaciated cheekbones. Fangs. His mouth torn and bloody like he’d eaten his own lips.

Fear gave me new strength and I managed to kick him off me.

I scrambled back only to hit a fence. He - it - lunged.

I’d only managed to grab a piece of broken fence off the ground and hold it up. He fell on it.

Straight through the chest.

Oily black sludge dripped out of his chest and down my hands. It smelled like death.

The thing gurgled. It gave a half attempted swipe at my face and went slack.

I threw it off me and rolled away.

And I really couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

It disintegrated. Fell apart like a sandcastle, then blew away like ash.

I just sat there. I don’t know how much time passed, but eventually I was found.

I thought I was going crazy. I thought I’d snapped.

The police that found me boiled it down to me having an episode of some sort.

They didn’t care that I had stains on my shirt that smelled like putrified blood, or claw marks on my body that looked like I fought off a cougar.

They didn’t care.

My parents didn’t know what to make of it either. Nobody would have believed me if I told them.

So, I left.

I quit school and moved to a small town outside the city.

Then I poured everything I had into research. Training.

Couple years later, I began to hunt.

I was wiser than before.

I took up odd jobs around the city. You won’t believe how easy it is to get the shitty night jobs. I’m not even sure they did a background check on me when I was hired by a janitorial company to clean banks.

I’d do my work, get my check, then use my resources to hunt.

Police scanners, news coverage. A pair of socks, coffee, and a sandwich to the right homeless guy and he’ll give you all the stories the news doesn’t cover.

Eventually, one guy I talked to said it wasn’t safe. Asked me why a woman was out there in that place at that time of night.

I didn’t have a good answer.

It was months before I found my next vamp.

He’d been feeding on some frat bro that had gotten drunk and wandered outside.

I wasn’t in time to save him.

I staked the bastard and moved the poor guy’s body somewhere more public.

I resisted the urge to cover his face. It was bad enough I moved the body.

Turns out he was studying to be a doctor. His obituary actually made me cry.

I try not to keep mementoes of the victims I find, in case the police actually start doing their jobs and somehow tie me to any of them.

But their faces. I’ll remember them forever.

So when I watched the top of that poor man’s head slide off, his jaw slack as if he could still say something, I knew I’d remember him too.

I knew I was fucked.

I had screamed. Any second now, I’d be swarmed by that bastards in the alley. I knew whatever happened to that poor girl was my fate next. I contemplated taking my own life, if I even had the time.

Then, a second instinct kicked in.

Rage.

Fuck this.

Fuck the bastards who think they can prey on whoever they want. Fuck the monsters who stalk people at night. Fuck. Vampires.

I slipped my flashlight out of my pack and held it up as I pointed my pistol around.

Everything I’ve learned told me bullets won’t kill vampires, but they’ll sure as hell slow them down if you hit them in the right spot.

I heard hissing from back in the alley. They were coming.

Sun was coming up soon. I had to live. I had to hold out. 5 am. Come on.

I did the number one thing you shouldn’t do when trying to escape a predator. I ran.

Whether it’s that invisible demon or the gaggle of bastards behind me, I knew it was in tough shape.

Stay and fight in the bushes where I can’t see shit or get somewhere where they are exposed.

I chose the latter.

Snapping sounds came behind me. They could have got me any second. Fresh off a kill, they wouldn’t be clouded with desperation. They were toying with me.

I’d never fought a group before. I had to adjust my strategy.

Up ahead, a church came into view. That’s right, I was in the Brownstone district! The old north chapel. Holy ground.

I pummeled the pavement towards the church, my lungs burned as I forced my body to move. Move. Live.

I knew as I got closer that they’d lose their patience for fun and wipe me out before I got there.

But I had to live. Not like this.

I was within six feet of the gate when I felt a force knock me to the ground.

I skid, peeling the skin off my hands and knees. my flashlight launched and shattered somewhere ahead of me.

I whirled on my back, aiming up at the aggressor with my pistol, hands shaking.

Then… I recognized the white hair. The shape of the shoulders.

Adam stood above me, but has his back turned.

“I told you not to fucking go.” He snarled.

——-(continued)——-

Thanks! That's funny cause I don't really like writing poetry but I saw this prompt and was inspired, so here we are. xD lol

Totally reminds me of the Dark Haired Teen. Dunno if this link will work, the sub bugged out and has a gibberish name and the guy who wrote it last posted in a suicide prevention sun a year ago.

r/thedarkhairedteen

Okay the bugged name but working sub is www.reddit.com/r/a:t5_34fjb

Heh.