"Dramatic"
By: Halle Taylor
"Deep Breaths"
By: Halle Taylor
Reflection? Is That You?
By Mary Gunderson and Josh Williams
The Lutulentus Conlectus is “a very small pool of usually dirty or muddy water,” as Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines it. What Merriam-Webster doesn’t know is that these creatures are much more. Puddles have a long history dating far beyond humankind, taking them through many more forms than originally thought of.
Puddles eat anything from rocks and stray particles to smaller objects like socks, hats, and shoes. Puddles are often preyed upon by domesticated animals in cities, and by various ungulates in the wild. Its number-one predator is the dog.
At times made of juice or milk—but typically water—the puddle is generally described as shallow enough to walk through, and too small to traverse with a boat or raft. But how can us mere mortals even begin to comprehend something that has lived on Earth far longer than we have? Recent studies have even shown traces of puddles on other planets. Puddles can appear almost anywhere, but they disappear quite quickly; this is due to their evaporative nature. They have a tendency to be nomadic, as they do not create permanent shelter. Puddles are not very clean entities and often turn murky. They are naturally clear but because of what they eat, they may collect dirt and other fine particles.
Do not touch a wild puddle with your hands or bare feet; they may house bacteria and viruses. You may also notice after stepping on a puddle that your socks and shoes are wet due to the puddle trying to eat them. Please take extra steps at home to wash socks and put them through therapy; they may experience trauma, which might lead to holes and stray strings in socks and holes in shoes.
Puddles are also known for their passive, calm, and playful personas. Puddles do not mind violent actions such as being jumped/stomped on. It is not known why, but scientists suspect they may be pain absorbent.
Puddles were known in medieval times to be dangerous, but are known today by children as playful friends.
Puddles usually do not cause harm, as most humans have become immune.
Puddles are rather neutral creatures and, likewise, have little to no impact on today’s society other than the joy they now bring us.
By Mary Gunderson and Josh Williams
The Lutulentus Conlectus is “a very small pool of usually dirty or muddy water,” as Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines it. What Merriam-Webster doesn’t know is that these creatures are much more. Puddles have a long history dating far beyond humankind, taking them through many more forms than originally thought of.
Puddles eat anything from rocks and stray particles to smaller objects like socks, hats, and shoes. Puddles are often preyed upon by domesticated animals in cities, and by various ungulates in the wild. Its number-one predator is the dog.
At times made of juice or milk—but typically water—the puddle is generally described as shallow enough to walk through, and too small to traverse with a boat or raft. But how can us mere mortals even begin to comprehend something that has lived on Earth far longer than we have? Recent studies have even shown traces of puddles on other planets. Puddles can appear almost anywhere, but they disappear quite quickly; this is due to their evaporative nature. They have a tendency to be nomadic, as they do not create permanent shelter. Puddles are not very clean entities and often turn murky. They are naturally clear but because of what they eat, they may collect dirt and other fine particles.
Do not touch a wild puddle with your hands or bare feet; they may house bacteria and viruses. You may also notice after stepping on a puddle that your socks and shoes are wet due to the puddle trying to eat them. Please take extra steps at home to wash socks and put them through therapy; they may experience trauma, which might lead to holes and stray strings in socks and holes in shoes.
Puddles are also known for their passive, calm, and playful personas. Puddles do not mind violent actions such as being jumped/stomped on. It is not known why, but scientists suspect they may be pain absorbent.
Puddles were known in medieval times to be dangerous, but are known today by children as playful friends.
Puddles usually do not cause harm, as most humans have become immune.
Puddles are rather neutral creatures and, likewise, have little to no impact on today’s society other than the joy they now bring us.
Ben the Teddy Bear and the Nightmare Monsters, A Short Story
Mom crooned softly while carrying my friend to her bed. I watched Bethany, eyes closed, intensely. Without me, Bethany would be subject to the Terrors.
I would die before I let that happen. Mom set the young, sleepy girl down in the bed beside me.
“And Ben’s here.” Mom smiled. She picked me up like a rag doll and set me in Bethany’s arms. Bethany hugged her teddy bear. If I had lungs, I would be severely damaged. But I’m a teddy bear, so I am unbreakable. Invincible, because I need to be.
I looked at Bethany’s delicate features. This girl was my charge. She was the one I was invincible for. She was my purpose. Mom walked away, flicking the lights off, plunging Bethany and me into shadows, where the Terrors resided. The door clicked closed. I nestled close to Bethany. I relished these moments of safety before she fell asleep and the Terrors manifested. The only signal I would have is the appearance of pairs of red eyes, each belonging to a horror born in the flesh.
Bethany’s breathing slowed.
The storm was coming.
I am the storm. I am a storm of steel, suffering, and fluffy hugs.
I am pain incarnate.
A pair of red eyes appeared before me. The stitches at the end of my left hand unraveled. The fabric rolled back, opening up. A blade shot forward, a longsword. It rammed into the Terror, slaying it. It faded into the darkness and my sword fell onto Bethany’s arm. I winced. I waited a moment, hoping Bethany wouldn’t wake up.
She didn’t. I sighed in relief. I didn’t know what I would do if she had woken up. I wriggled out of the warm embrace, and picked up my sword, wrapping my puffy hands around the hilt. I waited for the next Terrors to arrive, staying observant and watching all around my charge.
A faint clicking sound filled the air. I checked the tone and frequency, trying to place it with a Terror variety I knew. Was it the Ticking Scorpion? The Giant Spider?
The door clicked open; soft light poured into the room. I dropped, relieving any tension stored in my limbs. I split my hand open and pulled the sword back in, all before the door finished opening. Dad walked in, ankles clicking softly. He softly trod close to Bethany and kissed her forehead.
He looked at me. Dad picked me up and put me back in Bethany’s arms. She shifted, rolling onto her side, entrapping me. Dad walked out of the room, closing the door. Immediately, a pair of red eyes appeared and jumped at Bethany, landing on her face.
I gasped and wriggled out of Bethany’s grasp. I grabbed the Terror and began pulling the mercurial thing, trying to free my charge. A force acted against my own, as the Terror began infecting her.
No!
The living liquid poured into her ears, pulling at me more than I could. My arms couldn’t take it. I stopped pulling and let the Terror pull me in.
I woke up in a different place than I had blacked out in. I was in my family’s kitchen, lying on the linoleum floor. I stood up and immediately noticed the lasers. A pair of red lasers were flying out of a person I vaguely recognized. I think it was one of Bethany’s friends. Charlotte, maybe? I decided it was. The lasers weren’t only coming out of Charlotte’s eyes, but everyone’s eyes, except Bethany, who was facing away from me. One of the laser pairs came close to me and I ducked. I didn’t know what would happen if the lasers touched me, but I knew enough about adventuring in dreams that I should limit my contact with constructs. Only the Terror, Bethany, and I were real. The rest was created by Bethany’s mind. The longer the Terror was here, the more it could control.
Wait. The Terror’s eyes were red, as were the lasers. I doubted that Bethany would imagine her friends with laser vision, so it was a safe bet that the lasers were Terror-born.
So, yeah. Touching those would be a bad idea.
I followed the trajectory of the beams, watching the thin red line. It landed on a bowl of fruit. Innocuous enough. The lasers swelled, becoming as wide as my wrist, rather than a straw. I looked at my hand.
Weird. I had fingers now. I guess Bethany imagines me more like a human than I am.
I looked back at the fruit bowl. The colors were fading, slowly being replaced with black.
Aw, strudels. That couldn’t be good.
The fruit bowl lost all rigidity, becoming a black liquid, darker than the space between stars. It poured onto the ground and began boiling.
Something told me that also wasn’t good. Bubbling liquid the color of pain never was.
I looked back at the girls at the table. Charlotte, Bethany, Amelia, Sophia, Mia. Charlotte was growing paler every second. Thankfully, this wasn’t the real Charlotte. Amelia looked in my direction. I ducked, leaning back as the lasers crossed the space above me, a wave of swollen light coming through. They passed back and returned their gaze to the table.
I looked behind me to see what had joined the liquefied fruit bowl. It was the cabinets and they began fading to black. I decided that no matter what happened, I would need my sword. I flexed my hand, trying to undo the stitching. It didn’t work. I smacked my hand on my leg.
My sword rattled.
Huh. My sword was on a sheath on my hip. I unsheathed it and noticed that I was much taller than normal. was three feet tall. So much taller than before.
Anyway, I watched the cabinets melt and roll off the counters. It joined up with the liquid already on the ground. I looked back to the table. All the girls except Bethany were paling, their eyes becoming black voids, lasers disappearing, their hair becoming the same color as the night’s blind fury.
The liquid on the floor ran across it, covering everything in the darkening room. Chills ran down the spine I didn’t have. My fingers twitched, cold sweat beginning to form. The liquid absorbed the table and chairs that the girls had been sitting on. The empty ones screamed in harmony, piercing into my head. The shrieks were static in my heart, spinning a needle in my head
Bethany’s brown hair shifted as she turned to face me. Fear shone on her face. My heart broke. The liquid flowed up, forming a cage. Black steel bars snapped into place.
It slowly sank into the blacker darkness, Bethany pounding on the bars. The symphony of screams faded as the shadows became silent.
Only Bethany’s cries for help were heard. Eventually, even those gurgled away.
The darkness consumed everything. Silence was the symphony of my heart.
Tears streamed down my face. The water mixed with the ocean of pain.
A pair of red eyes glowed up at me.
“Hello, Ben.” The Terror whispered.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
“Would you like to— ”
“Where. Is. Bethany?”
“ —find her?” the nightmare made manifest finished.
“Yes.”
The ground was hard beneath me as the blackness faded away. The ground was brown, but an unnatural shade of it. It was hard and dry. I hit it.
Where was I? I looked around, trying to place it. This looked like the place Bethany had gotten stranded and told me about when her uncle had taken the three of them back. If the Terror could replicate places from her memory, he could probably alter them in little ways too. I looked out to the horizon. I couldn’t see anything except endless brown. I grabbed my sword.
I picked a direction and started walking, dragging my sword behind me.
After several minutes, I encountered a strange engraving in the ground. It seemed like it was cut in the ground, a strange sort of little furrow. I knelt and inspected it, setting my sword behind me. After a few seconds, I picked my sword back up. As I turned to pick the sword up, I noticed that there was another piece of the strange thing in the ground there too.
Huh. It was like they were connected. Was I walking around the world? How small was this version of the earth? The dreamscape could only maintain one world at a time, so Bethany, the Terror, and I were all on this small planet. Now, to find them.
I finished the line, dividing the world in two. I would search one side, then the other. Once I was nearer to her, I would be able to sense her presence, my powers growing the closer I draw to the girl. I would search until I saved her, or I would die trying.
I looked over to the right, the first field of my investigation.
A nightmare stared back at me.
Well, that was easy.
I hefted my weapon and began running toward it.
Strangely, the nightmare was the same size as me. It had wings, extending outward, beginning the ascent of darkness. Horns adorned its face, a hundred tangled spikes. Scars marred its face. It was mostly humanoid, but its arms were a little bit too long. The monster’s skin was jagged scales, some adhering better than others.
My steel sang as it darted toward the Terror's heart.
It shifted slightly, moving a clawed hand and catching the blade of my only weapon.
It pushed it back, the blade buckling under the force. I pulled it away.
The beast took a breath in. It grew a thousand times larger, overshadowing the sunlight.
A massive foot the size of a truck smacked me. I bent over as my feet forgot the ground. Air rushed around me, darkness embracing me.
I died.
I woke up in a different place than I had died in. The sound of sloshing water accompanied the feeling of lying on logs. I looked at my hands.
Woah. Skin. I had skin now. Nice. I ran my fingers through my hair and stood up. The raft was unsteady beneath my feet, but that was fine. Saving Bethany was the only thing that mattered. Ahead of me, the shoreline waited. Beyond the sand, a lighthouse stood imposingly.
A beam of absolute darkness cascaded out of it. Somehow, I could tell that was where the Terror kept my girl.
I had to get there. I grabbed my sword. The glossy steel shined as I looked down into the water. Something about this water was not normal. I poked with my sword.
It clicked.
I knelt and watched the waves crash. I touched it with my novel fingers. It was hard, like glass, but somehow still flowed. This was very weird. I stood back up and tried to step out onto it. I didn’t fall, so I put my second foot out. I tapped it a few times, then went to step back onto the raft.
The raft was gone.
I looked forward to the lighthouse.
In the words of an ancient philosopher, “We have a thing to do.”
I ran forward. It was very strange. It was sort of like walking on a floor that kept changing, almost like a trampoline, sort of.
That didn’t matter. Only Bethany did. If I could find her, I could protect her from the Terror. Being near Bethany would increase my ability to fight the Terror. The longer I stayed in the dream, the more I begin to adopt the appearance of humankind. If I could hug Bethany, I could manipulate this reality like a Terror could.
I just needed to get to the shore as quickly as possible. I started running, carefully counting my breaths. I jumped onto the sandy shores. The Terror was here, standing beside the tower, still massively tall. I could sense that Bethany was near.
Bethany had to be in that tower, still in the midnight cage. If I could scale the tower before the Terror saw me, I could hug Bethany, activate my powers, and end this nightmare.
The Terror snapped toward me. Its red eyes glowed and burned.
“Hello, Ben.” It growled at me. It saw me.
“I have come to kill you!” I screamed at it.
“That was expected. I am terrorizing the one you love most. Why wouldn’t you want to kill me?” The Terror took a deep breath in.
“Only, Ben. I am not going to die tonight.”
Scarlet pain shrieked forward, covering the light with flames the color of blood. They surrounded me, forcing me to my knees. A visceral howl pierced the air.
It was mine.
The pain ended, silence reigning. A chill ran down the spine I had now.
I reached out, grabbing the stones of the tower. My smoking fingers dug into it. I hoisted myself up, sword hanging by my side. I could only keep moving.
“Why do you fight, Ben? What is your purpose?” I ignored the Terror’s taunting. I had to keep moving. I reached up, pulling my shaking body. My ash skin struggled.
My hand curled around the sill, pushing myself to save Bethany. I collapsed into the tower and looked to the right. Bethany was here.
My struggle had not been in vain!
I took a breath and stood up. Bethany was behind the bars. The Terror had done his job well.
Bethany’s fear swam in her eyes. I had to save her.
I unsheathed my sword and prepared to swing at the cage.
“Don’t worry, Beth—”
“We can’t have that, now can we, Ben?” It whispered.
A wave of invisible power hit me. My sword flew out of my hand, clattering to the cold floor. I crumpled and flew out of the tower. I collapsed against the ground, pain crippling me. The Terror appeared. It grabbed me by my hair. I was lifted off the ground, staring the beast in the eyes.
“I’ve been at this for so very long, Ben. I have studied the fears of many a civilization. The fears have been numerous and disparate. A few, however, have come up again and again. Care to take a guess?”
I struggled to free myself.
“No? I’ll tell you. Not knowing who you are. Not having a purpose. The unknown. All of these are felt by millions. Ben, what do you fear?”
“I fear nothing!”
“False.” The Terror’s eyes flashed as it breathed in. “Ah, you fear…
“You fear losing her. You fear me.”
I shook my head. “Half-right. I don’t fear you. Bethany doesn’t fear you, either.”
“Of course. I am just the bearer of her fear of the dark.”
“The dark?” I shook my head again. “Bethany doesn’t fear the darkness. She fears being locked up. She is afraid of small spaces. But most of all, she fears being powerless.”
The Terror laughed. “I did all of that.”
“You don’t understand Bethany like I do. When she is afraid, she doesn’t break or bend…”
I looked past the monster. In the tower, a light began glowing.
“... She rises.”
A blade sheared through the beast.
My sword. Bethany’s sword.
I fell back to the ground.
The Terror fell beside me. Above us, Bethany was flying, ethereal light around her. This was her dream. No nightmare could extinguish the fire within her.
For the first time, light encompassed me, instead of darkness.
I returned to the real world with a start. Bethany still slept, but peacefully now. The Terror was dead, finally.
I brandished my blade and began my vigil anew.
Mom crooned softly while carrying my friend to her bed. I watched Bethany, eyes closed, intensely. Without me, Bethany would be subject to the Terrors.
I would die before I let that happen. Mom set the young, sleepy girl down in the bed beside me.
“And Ben’s here.” Mom smiled. She picked me up like a rag doll and set me in Bethany’s arms. Bethany hugged her teddy bear. If I had lungs, I would be severely damaged. But I’m a teddy bear, so I am unbreakable. Invincible, because I need to be.
I looked at Bethany’s delicate features. This girl was my charge. She was the one I was invincible for. She was my purpose. Mom walked away, flicking the lights off, plunging Bethany and me into shadows, where the Terrors resided. The door clicked closed. I nestled close to Bethany. I relished these moments of safety before she fell asleep and the Terrors manifested. The only signal I would have is the appearance of pairs of red eyes, each belonging to a horror born in the flesh.
Bethany’s breathing slowed.
The storm was coming.
I am the storm. I am a storm of steel, suffering, and fluffy hugs.
I am pain incarnate.
A pair of red eyes appeared before me. The stitches at the end of my left hand unraveled. The fabric rolled back, opening up. A blade shot forward, a longsword. It rammed into the Terror, slaying it. It faded into the darkness and my sword fell onto Bethany’s arm. I winced. I waited a moment, hoping Bethany wouldn’t wake up.
She didn’t. I sighed in relief. I didn’t know what I would do if she had woken up. I wriggled out of the warm embrace, and picked up my sword, wrapping my puffy hands around the hilt. I waited for the next Terrors to arrive, staying observant and watching all around my charge.
A faint clicking sound filled the air. I checked the tone and frequency, trying to place it with a Terror variety I knew. Was it the Ticking Scorpion? The Giant Spider?
The door clicked open; soft light poured into the room. I dropped, relieving any tension stored in my limbs. I split my hand open and pulled the sword back in, all before the door finished opening. Dad walked in, ankles clicking softly. He softly trod close to Bethany and kissed her forehead.
He looked at me. Dad picked me up and put me back in Bethany’s arms. She shifted, rolling onto her side, entrapping me. Dad walked out of the room, closing the door. Immediately, a pair of red eyes appeared and jumped at Bethany, landing on her face.
I gasped and wriggled out of Bethany’s grasp. I grabbed the Terror and began pulling the mercurial thing, trying to free my charge. A force acted against my own, as the Terror began infecting her.
No!
The living liquid poured into her ears, pulling at me more than I could. My arms couldn’t take it. I stopped pulling and let the Terror pull me in.
I woke up in a different place than I had blacked out in. I was in my family’s kitchen, lying on the linoleum floor. I stood up and immediately noticed the lasers. A pair of red lasers were flying out of a person I vaguely recognized. I think it was one of Bethany’s friends. Charlotte, maybe? I decided it was. The lasers weren’t only coming out of Charlotte’s eyes, but everyone’s eyes, except Bethany, who was facing away from me. One of the laser pairs came close to me and I ducked. I didn’t know what would happen if the lasers touched me, but I knew enough about adventuring in dreams that I should limit my contact with constructs. Only the Terror, Bethany, and I were real. The rest was created by Bethany’s mind. The longer the Terror was here, the more it could control.
Wait. The Terror’s eyes were red, as were the lasers. I doubted that Bethany would imagine her friends with laser vision, so it was a safe bet that the lasers were Terror-born.
So, yeah. Touching those would be a bad idea.
I followed the trajectory of the beams, watching the thin red line. It landed on a bowl of fruit. Innocuous enough. The lasers swelled, becoming as wide as my wrist, rather than a straw. I looked at my hand.
Weird. I had fingers now. I guess Bethany imagines me more like a human than I am.
I looked back at the fruit bowl. The colors were fading, slowly being replaced with black.
Aw, strudels. That couldn’t be good.
The fruit bowl lost all rigidity, becoming a black liquid, darker than the space between stars. It poured onto the ground and began boiling.
Something told me that also wasn’t good. Bubbling liquid the color of pain never was.
I looked back at the girls at the table. Charlotte, Bethany, Amelia, Sophia, Mia. Charlotte was growing paler every second. Thankfully, this wasn’t the real Charlotte. Amelia looked in my direction. I ducked, leaning back as the lasers crossed the space above me, a wave of swollen light coming through. They passed back and returned their gaze to the table.
I looked behind me to see what had joined the liquefied fruit bowl. It was the cabinets and they began fading to black. I decided that no matter what happened, I would need my sword. I flexed my hand, trying to undo the stitching. It didn’t work. I smacked my hand on my leg.
My sword rattled.
Huh. My sword was on a sheath on my hip. I unsheathed it and noticed that I was much taller than normal. was three feet tall. So much taller than before.
Anyway, I watched the cabinets melt and roll off the counters. It joined up with the liquid already on the ground. I looked back to the table. All the girls except Bethany were paling, their eyes becoming black voids, lasers disappearing, their hair becoming the same color as the night’s blind fury.
The liquid on the floor ran across it, covering everything in the darkening room. Chills ran down the spine I didn’t have. My fingers twitched, cold sweat beginning to form. The liquid absorbed the table and chairs that the girls had been sitting on. The empty ones screamed in harmony, piercing into my head. The shrieks were static in my heart, spinning a needle in my head
Bethany’s brown hair shifted as she turned to face me. Fear shone on her face. My heart broke. The liquid flowed up, forming a cage. Black steel bars snapped into place.
It slowly sank into the blacker darkness, Bethany pounding on the bars. The symphony of screams faded as the shadows became silent.
Only Bethany’s cries for help were heard. Eventually, even those gurgled away.
The darkness consumed everything. Silence was the symphony of my heart.
Tears streamed down my face. The water mixed with the ocean of pain.
A pair of red eyes glowed up at me.
“Hello, Ben.” The Terror whispered.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
“Would you like to— ”
“Where. Is. Bethany?”
“ —find her?” the nightmare made manifest finished.
“Yes.”
The ground was hard beneath me as the blackness faded away. The ground was brown, but an unnatural shade of it. It was hard and dry. I hit it.
Where was I? I looked around, trying to place it. This looked like the place Bethany had gotten stranded and told me about when her uncle had taken the three of them back. If the Terror could replicate places from her memory, he could probably alter them in little ways too. I looked out to the horizon. I couldn’t see anything except endless brown. I grabbed my sword.
I picked a direction and started walking, dragging my sword behind me.
After several minutes, I encountered a strange engraving in the ground. It seemed like it was cut in the ground, a strange sort of little furrow. I knelt and inspected it, setting my sword behind me. After a few seconds, I picked my sword back up. As I turned to pick the sword up, I noticed that there was another piece of the strange thing in the ground there too.
Huh. It was like they were connected. Was I walking around the world? How small was this version of the earth? The dreamscape could only maintain one world at a time, so Bethany, the Terror, and I were all on this small planet. Now, to find them.
I finished the line, dividing the world in two. I would search one side, then the other. Once I was nearer to her, I would be able to sense her presence, my powers growing the closer I draw to the girl. I would search until I saved her, or I would die trying.
I looked over to the right, the first field of my investigation.
A nightmare stared back at me.
Well, that was easy.
I hefted my weapon and began running toward it.
Strangely, the nightmare was the same size as me. It had wings, extending outward, beginning the ascent of darkness. Horns adorned its face, a hundred tangled spikes. Scars marred its face. It was mostly humanoid, but its arms were a little bit too long. The monster’s skin was jagged scales, some adhering better than others.
My steel sang as it darted toward the Terror's heart.
It shifted slightly, moving a clawed hand and catching the blade of my only weapon.
It pushed it back, the blade buckling under the force. I pulled it away.
The beast took a breath in. It grew a thousand times larger, overshadowing the sunlight.
A massive foot the size of a truck smacked me. I bent over as my feet forgot the ground. Air rushed around me, darkness embracing me.
I died.
I woke up in a different place than I had died in. The sound of sloshing water accompanied the feeling of lying on logs. I looked at my hands.
Woah. Skin. I had skin now. Nice. I ran my fingers through my hair and stood up. The raft was unsteady beneath my feet, but that was fine. Saving Bethany was the only thing that mattered. Ahead of me, the shoreline waited. Beyond the sand, a lighthouse stood imposingly.
A beam of absolute darkness cascaded out of it. Somehow, I could tell that was where the Terror kept my girl.
I had to get there. I grabbed my sword. The glossy steel shined as I looked down into the water. Something about this water was not normal. I poked with my sword.
It clicked.
I knelt and watched the waves crash. I touched it with my novel fingers. It was hard, like glass, but somehow still flowed. This was very weird. I stood back up and tried to step out onto it. I didn’t fall, so I put my second foot out. I tapped it a few times, then went to step back onto the raft.
The raft was gone.
I looked forward to the lighthouse.
In the words of an ancient philosopher, “We have a thing to do.”
I ran forward. It was very strange. It was sort of like walking on a floor that kept changing, almost like a trampoline, sort of.
That didn’t matter. Only Bethany did. If I could find her, I could protect her from the Terror. Being near Bethany would increase my ability to fight the Terror. The longer I stayed in the dream, the more I begin to adopt the appearance of humankind. If I could hug Bethany, I could manipulate this reality like a Terror could.
I just needed to get to the shore as quickly as possible. I started running, carefully counting my breaths. I jumped onto the sandy shores. The Terror was here, standing beside the tower, still massively tall. I could sense that Bethany was near.
Bethany had to be in that tower, still in the midnight cage. If I could scale the tower before the Terror saw me, I could hug Bethany, activate my powers, and end this nightmare.
The Terror snapped toward me. Its red eyes glowed and burned.
“Hello, Ben.” It growled at me. It saw me.
“I have come to kill you!” I screamed at it.
“That was expected. I am terrorizing the one you love most. Why wouldn’t you want to kill me?” The Terror took a deep breath in.
“Only, Ben. I am not going to die tonight.”
Scarlet pain shrieked forward, covering the light with flames the color of blood. They surrounded me, forcing me to my knees. A visceral howl pierced the air.
It was mine.
The pain ended, silence reigning. A chill ran down the spine I had now.
I reached out, grabbing the stones of the tower. My smoking fingers dug into it. I hoisted myself up, sword hanging by my side. I could only keep moving.
“Why do you fight, Ben? What is your purpose?” I ignored the Terror’s taunting. I had to keep moving. I reached up, pulling my shaking body. My ash skin struggled.
My hand curled around the sill, pushing myself to save Bethany. I collapsed into the tower and looked to the right. Bethany was here.
My struggle had not been in vain!
I took a breath and stood up. Bethany was behind the bars. The Terror had done his job well.
Bethany’s fear swam in her eyes. I had to save her.
I unsheathed my sword and prepared to swing at the cage.
“Don’t worry, Beth—”
“We can’t have that, now can we, Ben?” It whispered.
A wave of invisible power hit me. My sword flew out of my hand, clattering to the cold floor. I crumpled and flew out of the tower. I collapsed against the ground, pain crippling me. The Terror appeared. It grabbed me by my hair. I was lifted off the ground, staring the beast in the eyes.
“I’ve been at this for so very long, Ben. I have studied the fears of many a civilization. The fears have been numerous and disparate. A few, however, have come up again and again. Care to take a guess?”
I struggled to free myself.
“No? I’ll tell you. Not knowing who you are. Not having a purpose. The unknown. All of these are felt by millions. Ben, what do you fear?”
“I fear nothing!”
“False.” The Terror’s eyes flashed as it breathed in. “Ah, you fear…
“You fear losing her. You fear me.”
I shook my head. “Half-right. I don’t fear you. Bethany doesn’t fear you, either.”
“Of course. I am just the bearer of her fear of the dark.”
“The dark?” I shook my head again. “Bethany doesn’t fear the darkness. She fears being locked up. She is afraid of small spaces. But most of all, she fears being powerless.”
The Terror laughed. “I did all of that.”
“You don’t understand Bethany like I do. When she is afraid, she doesn’t break or bend…”
I looked past the monster. In the tower, a light began glowing.
“... She rises.”
A blade sheared through the beast.
My sword. Bethany’s sword.
I fell back to the ground.
The Terror fell beside me. Above us, Bethany was flying, ethereal light around her. This was her dream. No nightmare could extinguish the fire within her.
For the first time, light encompassed me, instead of darkness.
I returned to the real world with a start. Bethany still slept, but peacefully now. The Terror was dead, finally.
I brandished my blade and began my vigil anew.
Socks Face de-Feet
By: Mary Gunderson and Josh Williams
Indumentum Sockius--also known as the Sock--is an article of clothing found in the dry regions of Dryer Vent located in the Laundry Room. They are also found in different parts of Dresser Drawers.
The Sock is a creature categorized under the family inhaere, containing other clothing-like creatures and accessories. The Sock weighs in at 85 grams on average. Their top speed is unknown, as they do not move when being observed.
Socks mate for life, although —strangely—not to reproduce. Socks do not reproduce by themselves. New Socks are created in a Factory outside of their nests; they come in plastic bags.
Many Socks spend most of their lives without a mate in the Dryer Vent, but 90% or more eventually mate. Once they find their pair, Socks migrate to the Dresser Drawer where they are likely to spend the rest of their lives together.
The average lifetime of a Sock is 4-7 months; in that time, the Sock travels vast distances. Socks are helper animals whose main purpose is to migrate with and aid other animals. In return, their dominating animal gives them shelter.
Many Socks travel over 50 miles in their lifetime. Yet due to natural selection, Socks that have lost or do not have a mate will often be neglected or sacrificed to the garbage can.
Socks do not need food; they use photosynthesis to convert foot fungus into energy. However, Socks left in the sun too long often experience shorter lifetimes and discoloration.
Socks are known to have a mind of their own. Recent studies show that nearly 15 percent of Socks escape to the wild during bathing and drying periods in the Dryer. They are also one of the world’s most excellent swimmers.
Sockicians and scientists alike are running tests to see what makes these creatures think they’re so independent. Although the Sock relies on other creatures, it is not entirely known if they can survive on their own.
They can be mysterious and many things about them are undiscovered. We as humans encounter them daily, yet we know so little about them. Yet scientists and many others are working to unearth the mysteries of the creatures that we now rely on—Socks.
By: Mary Gunderson and Josh Williams
Indumentum Sockius--also known as the Sock--is an article of clothing found in the dry regions of Dryer Vent located in the Laundry Room. They are also found in different parts of Dresser Drawers.
The Sock is a creature categorized under the family inhaere, containing other clothing-like creatures and accessories. The Sock weighs in at 85 grams on average. Their top speed is unknown, as they do not move when being observed.
Socks mate for life, although —strangely—not to reproduce. Socks do not reproduce by themselves. New Socks are created in a Factory outside of their nests; they come in plastic bags.
Many Socks spend most of their lives without a mate in the Dryer Vent, but 90% or more eventually mate. Once they find their pair, Socks migrate to the Dresser Drawer where they are likely to spend the rest of their lives together.
The average lifetime of a Sock is 4-7 months; in that time, the Sock travels vast distances. Socks are helper animals whose main purpose is to migrate with and aid other animals. In return, their dominating animal gives them shelter.
Many Socks travel over 50 miles in their lifetime. Yet due to natural selection, Socks that have lost or do not have a mate will often be neglected or sacrificed to the garbage can.
Socks do not need food; they use photosynthesis to convert foot fungus into energy. However, Socks left in the sun too long often experience shorter lifetimes and discoloration.
Socks are known to have a mind of their own. Recent studies show that nearly 15 percent of Socks escape to the wild during bathing and drying periods in the Dryer. They are also one of the world’s most excellent swimmers.
Sockicians and scientists alike are running tests to see what makes these creatures think they’re so independent. Although the Sock relies on other creatures, it is not entirely known if they can survive on their own.
They can be mysterious and many things about them are undiscovered. We as humans encounter them daily, yet we know so little about them. Yet scientists and many others are working to unearth the mysteries of the creatures that we now rely on—Socks.
- A standard men’s size homemade Sock has 64 to 68 stitches
- Ancient Romans used work Socks with their sandals.
- Lost Socks cost people over $100 every year.
What Gets Smaller After Every Mistake You Make?
By Mary Gunderson and Josh Williams
A common item used in our everyday lives is not what we think. What society knows it to be may be incomplete. Commonly seen as a pink, rubbery stump on your pencil, the history of the eraser actually stretches beyond human history. “[E]rasers as a general category are age-old,” says Megan Garber from The Atlantic. Scientists find her to be correct; they have analyzed eraser samples and corpses dating back to nearly 1 million B.C. This shows that there’s more to erasers than meets the eye.
The eraser’s scientific name is Roseus Deleo. Weighing a hefty 3 pounds in prehistoric times, the eraser has evolved and shrunk to avoid being targeted by predators. However, erasers shrink during their lifetime due to human abuse. Protests have risen to protect erasers as they are an endangered species. However scientists believe it to be a part of their life cycle and have come to the conclusion that they should not be protected.
Human interest in erasers began with interest in their chemical properties. They’re almost like sticky magnets. The erasers work because the polymers that make them up are sticker than the particles of paper- graphite particles end up getting stuck to the eraser instead.
Erasers absorb many materials during their lifetime and use them to reproduce. Erasers are modernly known to absorb materials such as vinyl and rubber. In order to fight back, erasers have been known to absorb and reproduce using latex, a natural material that is a threat to some humans.
Some erasers, through evolution, have learned to defend themselves by excreting particles of themselves to smudge the paper. Many humans find this annoying and will throw the eraser away, leaving them a chance to escape.
In the end, the eraser will be used by humans continuously. But humans will find that there is no erasing this creature. It will remain in our hearts and—for some of us, on our papers—forever.
- "Rubber" actually gets its name from erasers.
- Pencils with built-in erasers are an American phenomenon; most European pencils are eraserless.
- April 15 is National Rubber Eraser Day.