Not a short story, just part of a much longer story. Figured this was the best place to put it.
my gmail account draft thing wrote:Being alone in a big house is frightening. Being alone in an apartment is... much less so. Or so I observed as I stared at the blank walls, practically mocking me with their emptiness. I have this thing about being alone, and I usually can't take it for a long time. So I'd been reluctant to move even to such a small space as this apartment, even with only one tiny closet-sized bathroom, a kitchen with little to no room for dining, a living room just big enough for a couch and TV, and my own bedroom. It was a Sunday. I hate Sundays. There's that dread of having to go to bed early and wake up even earlier. Tomorrow's Monday, the walls whispered to me at that moment in time. In my opinion, they should just rid of Mondays. But then we'd have the Tuesday Blues, wouldn't we? There was just no winning. I sighed and leaned back on the couch. It was lumpy, but comfortable enough for me to rest.
My name's Alex Shine. And to clear it up, no that is not pronounced your typical conventional way. Somewhere back in the deepest bowels of time my ancestors thought it would be funny to pronounce it like "sheen." These are the types of things I contemplate in my downtime. Really, when you have time to be shrewd and wry, you should practice as much as you can. You never know when you'll need it in life. I guess you could say I'm your typical fresh-out-of-College youngster. Straw blonde hair that goes to my shoulders, a little taller than average, a little bulkier than average, and a face that in the wrong (or right, depending on how you look at it) might be described as handsome. It's hard to be naturally pop flyin' when you go through life looking as normal as I do, and my "blending into the crowd" skills are beyond exceptional. But as I lounged contentedly in the comfort of my own home, things started to go wrong.
There was a knock at the door. There's always a knock at your door, when things start to go wrong. It's like a pager saying "Hello, here's trouble." But it had been several years since my last experience with adventure, so I was hardly expecting it right that instant. I got up and answered it, barely even sighing, which is a first for me. It turned out to be a ratty-looking man with a package. My first thought was, I didn't order anything. And then he spoke. "Alex Shine?" He asked. That was when I knew something was up.
He'd pronounced it the right way.
I studied him for a second. I was taller than him by a few inches, and he regarded me nervously, hat dropped over his eyes. His eyes. They were a deep, dark red. I took a step backwards, grabbing the door handle, twisting it, ready to slam the door in his face. No. I was not going back. What did they need me for, anyway? I was used to being fast enough to escape, so it took me by surprise when he grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the doorway. He yanked hard enough to make me fall from the doorstep to my knees, and I swore under my breath. And then, before I could even shout for help (not that it would have been of much use), I felt a dropping sensation in the pit of my stomach. Despite my terror I felt as if I should be holding up a sign with "Uh-oh" written on it. And then everything went black.
But not the black you get when your mind blanks out and you collapse. Oh no, it was pitch black, but I was still very much awake. This made me panic much more than it would have if I had, say, seen different colors dancing around me. Colors means a bad trip; black means something ominous approaches. And I felt like I was falling, although no wind whipped around me. I contemplated all of this rather quickly, given that time doesn't pass in what by common definition might be a wormhole in the fabric of the universe. I tell you, when you pass through that hole and back to reality, you'd best close your eyes. The first time it happened to me, I'd been blinded for almost a whole minute. When I opened them again, I was in a circular room. And surrounding me on all sides were monsters of all different shapes and sizes.
