Blood River

The chains chafed his skin and bit into the bones on his back. Sometimes pain can bring euphoria...


Not this pain...His was the kind of pain that one feels when stabbed through the chest by a soul-mate...the blade itself doesn't really matter...the motive is what kills...the hand that held the blade is what stings...the eyes that stare into yours, full of love and hate and passion for your demise...

No... his pain was of the mind and there's no cure for that...no opium can turn this breed of pain into a dull throb. How was he to know what was coming? He was too blind to see the undercurrents of anguish and despair in her actions and words. She had veiled her tormented soul and cut her wrists to remind her of her hatred for this man who seemed bound to her with a love that she did not share. He had displaced the one she had her heart set upon...taken away her one chance to be happy for a lifetime...and replaced it with venom disguised with a kiss.

She had once known peace, happiness and true love. The daughter of the king...a princess to her people and to her parents...she had been an angel among angels and they worshipped her with loyalty and genuine love. The wild tribes took everything away from her in one fell swoop...crushing her father's army...destroying her people and their lands...they took her and her mother along with the rest of the women and killed everything that was male...including the one she loved. She watched him as he lay on the sodden earth twitching in his last moments...a long saber buried one side and thrusting out the other...A grisly sight she would see and remember forever in her mind.

She was 15 years old when they took her...and she was 25 when they brought her to his bed trussed up like the day's catch. He took her into his arms and told her "You are mine...and I will have you forever...until you try to run and die by my sword...or until you become useless to me and die by my sword." She never ran...and she did all she could to keep him happy.

"Fool!" She thought. He made the mistake of falling in love with her beauty and her compliant demeanor. She was cleverer than any tribal could ever be and her culture and education stayed on with her to keep her sane through torrid times in the hands of a hostile and lawless tribe. She'd learnt to wield a broadsword and a saber just like a man...practicing in the dark when the rest of the tribe slept...blissfully unaware of the growing storm of malcontent and dark anger in her heart. She gave herself to him...whenever he asked for it...she wove a web of romance and passion until he truly gave himself to her. He believed her...loved her...and he wanted to be with her forever. He fought off the younger males who wanted her delicate body for themselves...He killed other men who dared to look at her with anything less than complete respect. She used his power and his passion to learn the ways of the tribe...and to find her way out of their lands when the time came...

The sound of flesh sticking to the metal blade and sucking at it as she drew it out of his body caused her to shudder...It had been harder than she imagined as she thrust the blade in and upwards from his belly through his thoracic cavity and into his heart. He did not resist, which surprised her, to her sudden lunge and vicious thrust. His eyes sparkled in recognition of an act of war..but the blade had delved into him before he could react. As his eyes lost their sheen and as the life ebbed out of him...he felt the pain as she chained him up and left him there to die.

As the blood ran out of his body and into the sand in rivulets of rouge...The chains that held him disappeared...they had been but a figment of his imagination...he'd felt chained to this woman whom he loved so dearly that he hadn't thought of fighting back. He knew she loved him...she just needed time to know it...He knew she would realize it sometime...

As she rode away into the darkness and towards her lands...her heart filled with hope for the future and the relief of escape...a tear fell from her eyes surprising her enough to come to a halt at the valley of two perfect sand dunes...More tears followed...and then she knew...

She moved on slowly through the dried up riverbed...as red as the minerals that the waters once carried down from the mountains...as red as the blood she had smote upon the sands...

She rode along the blood river...

La Voce

They were puppets in the hands of a master puppeteer...

His voice penetrated the atmosphere which was rank with fear and disbelief. The first few notes shook the hearts of the audience and forced them to sink into their seats, reeling under the pressure of the passion and anger of his voice. He played with them…giving them hope and respite before plunging them back into sorrow so deep, it seemed like there would never again be joy in their lives. He raised them up to the heavens to show them the pearly gates…before bringing them down crashing through the doors of hell. They tried to close their ears to shut out the beautiful sound that threatened to strip them of their souls…and yet…they paid to be seated in front of this young man who exuded such sadness, anger and hate.

He had sworn to make them all suffer as he had. He was too weak to hurt anyone physically but what he was doing instead was just so much worse. He was drilling into their psyche and unraveling them like a ball of yarn thrown into the thick of a hurricane…twisting them…turning them inside out…making corpses of living flesh.

They walked in silently confident that they were stronger than those that went before. Friends and family had come back completely changed and frightened of their own shadows…they had stories to tell…tall lies and fabrications. The newcomers were always those who had decided to see for themselves. They walked into the auditorium wearing expensive clothes and jewelry apart from a knowing, smug expression on their faces. They held hands and laughed in glee, whispering about the stories they would carry home, the taunts they would channel towards their hapless friends…

He would show them all how base and evil life could be if it wanted to. He would epitomize his tragic past and make it their present. He would show them the nadir of humanity as he had seen it. He would do all this with his beautiful voice. He was gifted with the kind of voice that would melt butter…and he turned it into the kind of voice that would freeze a flame into unmoving attention.

They would suffer as he had…

All of them…

Deadly Shadows

The clarity of his thoughts frightened him…reminded him that he was wide awake and not dreaming like he hoped he was.

Suspended between two towers that rose towards the heavens in a hurry…competing with each other to get there first…dreams had no prayer here. Any loss of focus would result in a loss of balance and…subsequently…after an interminable fall…loss of life…But that was not exactly something he was worried about. Life meant nothing to him and he had been living a mission ever since he could remember. No one knew him…he was born and bred for this one inevitable end…and he was ready…

Doing what he does best he expertly put one foot ahead of the next using his muscles and arms to steady the rest of his body. Like a squirrel bridging the gap between two branches his dimunitive silhouette slithered across the chasm at a surprising pace. Then, as he reached the middle and without warning, he dropped down off the rope and proceeded to free-fall towards certain death…

5 seconds would see him cover half a mile and come to rest within a 10^th of an inch after touching solid ground…his internal organs congealing from the impact…his bones turning into dust…

4 seconds… He reaches into his breast-pocket and pulls out his weapon and fires into one of the windows with confidence and deadly accuracy…

2 seconds… He fires again into another window several floors below…it would be his last act as a living man for moments later, his pathetic body crumples into the ground upon impact…A second silhouette rapidly moves up to the mess and removes the weapon before disappearing into the darkness…

The screaming began moments later…