Text Message Stories: 160 Characters or less

As a person who has committed to writing as a career, I am always looking for ways to challenge myself and hone my skills. Over the weekend, I exchanged text messages with friends and I realized that many of my friends break the character limit (160 characters) during their messages. I thought about how I text and how often I break the character limit. Quite often.

This got me thinking about how to tell a story, and how much space is necessary. Many people, writers especially, know the (tall) tale of Hemingway writing a novel in six words. While "For sale: baby shoes, never worn" has passed into legendary status, I'm looking for something a little more manageable. I present to you "Text Message Stories: 160 Characters or less." Let me know what you think.

I'm running late. It's 3:55pm. The bank closes at 4pm, and I'm 3 minutes away.

The light changes to green. I'm off down side streets.

3:57pm. Will I get there??

My head nods as my eyes close. I'm jarred awake by the motion.

The computer screen slowly fades into focus.

Project Development Budget.

I sigh. I need coffee.

I press send, now I'm waiting. Will she respond? How long will it take?

Is she expecting me to text?

My phone buzzes in my hand. A smile dances across my face.

Perhaps now it is your turn, dear reader. Try your hand at this type of "Flash Fiction," but remember the rules. Your story must not be longer than 160 characters (including spaces). Use the text message function on your phone to check yourself. Feel free to leave your stories as comments. I look forward to seeing what you create!

Phreelancerz: Skolas's Revenge pt. 2

Read this first.

"Prison of Elders welcomes you..." Variks' voice booms over some external comm system in the airlock as FreakyBalloon, Zwazo and I drop in from our ships. It's a simple circular room, four large doors dispersed around it at even intervals. As I check my weapons, my HUD links up with Freaky and Zwazo and I catch the tale end of a conversation.

"We're gonna get it done," says Freaky. Zwazo is nodding his head.
"Should have killed him when they caught him," Zwazo say. I agree. A lot of good Guardians went down trying to capture Skolas.
"Let's finish the job," I say as one of the doors opens to reveal a large glowing servitor.

Variks says something about undead Hive and then the servitor disappears. I turn towards the door and begin to jog down a tunnel that ends in another door. Freaky and Zwazo catch up to me as I move down the tunnel. We reach the far door and it opens onto an arena that reminds me of parts of Crota's Abyss. The ground is littered with bones, and debris from past battles. There is a murky haze in the air which makes me glad my helmet has air filters and purifiers built in.

My ghost gives me a quick layout of the space, there are three other doors in the arena, each of them registering enemy activity. I can hear the unnatural sound of thrall screaming and clawing behind a closed door I run past. There are a lot of them. We jump onto a ledge in the left corner of the arena and prepare for engagement. My ghosts begins to say something to me, but I can't hear it. The two closest doors open, and thrall  and acolytes come pouring out in a swarm. Void energy shots careen off the ceiling and floor as the Hive locate us and begin to hone in. We return fire, My Abyss Defiant spits bullets, rapid fire, cutting down thrall as they attempt to take us down using their claws. We don't let them get that close.

Suddenly, there is a roar. "Ogre!" Freaky yells over the fray. Large beams of void energy strafe my body pushing me back and down. An ogre, the Hive's heavy artillery, has appeared. I check for damage and realize my shield has taken the brunt and withstood it. Odd. That many direct hits from an ogre should have put me down. I'm not complaining, it's just strange.

I crouch behind cover waiting for my shield to recharge. "Wizards too," says Zwazo. I never know how he manages to sound so calm. My shield isn't recharging. Now I'm concerned.

"Check your shields. Make sure it's working," I say. My ghost speaks up again and explains that shield recharge has been suppressed, but will take more damage before breaking. Also, apparently, our melee strikes are stronger. Typical. As if fighting hordes of enemies isn't enough of a challenge, Variks has added modifiers. Oh, and there are web mines. I'm a little pissed off.

We fight through three waves of enemies, each one getting progressively harder. I'm not sure if my shield will ever recharge, and these thrall don't quit. I snipe an acolyte from across the map. Next to me, Freaky stabs a thrall. Suddenly, Variks is speaking to us, his voice wheezing through the translator device over his mouth.

"They are dead... You are not..." Variks says. "Need you back in the airlock, Guardian," he finishes.

We run towards the airlock.

"How many more rounds of this?" I ask no one in particular. Zwazo answers.
"Five."

F#$k....

Phreelancerz: Skolas's Revenge

I'm F@#ked.

Every alarm in my HUD is going off. I've been poisoned, my shield is down, and I'm low on ammo in my primary. I'm sprinting, running for my life across the Fallen arena. Sand kicks up in my wake, both from my sprint and from the Shanks and Dregs firing at my back. I duck in between rusted old ships, planes, I think they're called, centuries old Earth aircraft. Where does Variks find this stuff? A solar explosive goes off a few yards to my left and throw myself into a boost jump aimed at a ledge in the corner of the arena. I land in a crouch and slide into cover.

F@#%king Skolas.

My ghost informs me that the poison will kill me in twenty seconds. Typical. I'm not sure where Ti Zwazo, or FreakyBalloon are, possibly on the other side of the arena? It's hard to hear over the cacophony of Scorch Cannon shots Skolas is firing at me. I hear him laugh, it's a strange sound that grates on my ears. Why do Fallen sound so odd? Ten seconds left on the poison. I take a breath and exhale slowly, checking the clip in my Oversoul Edict. Nine rounds, that's three bursts.

 I can hear Fallen captains shouting and moving closer to my position. Skolas is trailing behind them. There is no way I'm going to survive this, and I'm not sure I care at this point. I ready a sticky grenade and lob it over the low wall I'm hiding behind. The grenade explodes twice; Dregs scream in pain. five seconds until the poison kills me. Might as well take a few of them with me. As I step from behind cover, readying Oversoul Edict, I ponder how I got into this situation.

Phreelancerz pt 3

Begin here, then read this.

Being revived sucks. Boston tells me it feels like coming up for air after being under water for so long that your lungs are about to burst. He says it almost burns. I never really understood Sunsinger warlocks. To me, it feels like being kicked in the chest repeatedly until you wake up screaming from pain which is always how I feel. This time is no different. There is a flash of blinding white light, and suddenly, I'm on my feet, coughing inside my helmet, and disoriented. I'm inside Zwazo's bubble. Safe.

"We gotta move. Now," Zwazo says to me. "Vex teleported in behind Fallen defense line. We never saw it." I nod.
"Must have been the bombardment and the mines that got me," I say. He just looks at me. No need to answer a rhetorical questions.
"Boston and Kittyy?" I ask. He points off the way we came in. They are crouched behind a cracked barrier firing in different directions at dregs and goblins.
"Heads up," Zwazo says. Two dregs leap inside the bubble, intent on knifing through us. We side step and let the bubble work to our advantage, blinding the dregs as they land. We each melee one of the dreg and watch them scatter into arc and void damage dust. Then we sprint out of the bubble towards Boston and Kittyy who have cleared our retreat path.

There isn't enough space for all of us to find cover behind the barrier. We need a new plan. They aren't saying anything, but everyone is waiting for me to give orders. Comes with being Clan Leader. My HUD begins to light up with enemy presence. My ghost tells me that more Vex are inbound along with Fallen. Not looking good.
"Where are reinforcements?" I ask no one in particular.
"Bailed," Zwazo answers. "Drop zone is too hot. They can't land safely" he finishes. I curse to myself.
"Ok, we're heading west. There is a bridge a few clicks that way, we can try to flank," I say. Boston and Kittyy just stare at me. I repeat myself, but get the same reaction. Boston taps the side of his helmet.
"...lo? Can you... ear me" He asks. I shake my head. My ghost says there is interference on the comms due to all the electricity in the air. Great. I point west then summon my Time Breaker speed bike. Everyone follows my lead and we jet off westbound towards the bridge.

We speed off through the outer edges of the abandoned settlement, bombed out buildings hulk and crumble on both sides, grim reminders of golden ages long past. Along the river, the Fallen and Vex exchange gunfire and explosions. If we can get to the bridge, we can flank all of them and push them back off the river. It's a gamble, but if it works, and we secure the area... My mind boggles at the potential strategic advantage.

We pull up to the bridge just in time to see a squad of Fallen get blown up by a group of Vex Hobgoblins and Minotaurs. This just keeps getting better. We ditch our speed bikes in a small grove of trees and make our way towards the bridge. As we move closer, it becomes obvious that the Vex are taking control of the area. Fallen bodies lay strewn about the streets. They threw tons of dregs at the Vex with no success. From our approach, I see vandals and captains attempting to retake the bridge, but instead, they are being pushed back, forced to retreat in our directions.

"The Fallen are trapped," I think out loud. Kittyy responds.
"We can cut them down, as they fall back." Comms must be working again.
"Yeah, ok, let's set up here," I say. "Heavy weapon volley, Kittyy, clean up the stragglers by sniping."

We get in to formation, Zwazo, Boston, and I crouch in front of Kittyy. When the vandals and captains come into range, we let loose. Lighting rounds from Thunderlord as well as Gjallarhorn and Truth rocket rounds seek their targets. No Fallen survive. We reload and advance towards the bridge. The Vex have taken notice of us and the Hobgoblins begin to fire, their single-shot Line Rifles gauging the distance. Boston takes a shot in the chest, cracking his shield. He laughs over the comm and takes a knee. We circle up to protect him while his shield regenerates and return fire. An old mantra pops into my head as I aim through my scope. Something we used to say when I was in training, To kill a Vex, the chest is best. It brings a smile to my face as squeeze the trigger and watch goblins shudder, twitch, then burst with a sizzling pop as my bullets pass through their central processor.

Boston is back on his feet and sprinting ahead, shotgun in hand. He makes quick work of the Hobgoblins who attempted to hide behind their energy shields. Kittyy lays down cover fire with her sniper rifle, keeping the Minotaurs from getting too close. Zwazo and mop up. It's over almost as soon as it starts. We reload, I check our coordinates and begin to setup an uplink so other Guardians can lock onto our signal and drop in on our location. It's just in time too. As soon as I finish, the air gets dim and there is an odd energy that causes interference with my HUD. It can only mean one thing. Vex are teleporting in.

"Incoming," Zwazo says. I look up and watch as a Vex Cyclops appears at the north end of the bridge surrounded by Goblins, and Minotaurs.
"Hydra and Harpies approaching from south," Kittyy says.
"Plan?" Boston asks me. I check the uplink and start to laugh. Everyone stares at me.
"Relax, guys, we've got help coming," I say.

On cue, as if dropping into the Crucible, Guardians appear and drop to the ground, locked, loaded, and ready. They take up defensive positions, each fireteam leader directing their crew. A lone Hunter drops in near me, salutes, and approaches. His name is Demonbreun, he's in the clan. He joines our comm channel.

"Greetings, Phreelancerz. Minding the small fry, are we?" He asks.
"Demon," I say. "Here to lend us a hand?"
"No, I've been put in charge of the bridge defense," he responds. "I also have a message from the Vanguard for you."
"Oh really?" I'm skeptical. These always involve retrieving something for them.
"Yeah, they need you to take your team to Venus. Skolas sighting."
"F@#$king Skolas," Zwazo spits. I know what he means. Demon presses on.
"Uplink with Petra from the Reef when you hit orbit. She has details. Good luck."

I nod and tell my ghost to bring us to our ships. No one has caught Skolas yet. It would be a major triumph for Phreelancerz Clan. Let's go to Venus.

Phreelancerz pt. 2

Start here

At the Tower, I have a few stops to make. I talk to my Vanguard rep, Commander Zavala, to bring him up to speed on the situation. He nods and tells me to get back out there. Typical. Next, I give my engrams to Master Rahool. He gives me back a Strange Coin and some guns I break down into glimmer and weapon parts. Last, I check my vault to store those extra materials and see if there are any guns I want to take with me. My vault is full, I need more space. Zwazo is arguing with the Frame that runs the bounty board. I think he's losing. I turn away and walk towards the railing that runs along the edge of the Tower, as I approach, Boston and Kittyy drop in from their ships.

Phreelancerz Clan. Greetings are exchanged. Zwazo and I wait while they grab supplies, check for available bounties, and prep for what is coming. I do a quick tally, two Titans, one Defender Class, one Striker Class, One Warlock, Sunsinger Class, and a Hunter, Gunslinger Class. A solid load out of power, defense and recovery. Once back in low orbit, I bring Boston and Kittyy up to speed on the mission brief and our new strategy of hard contact to force the Fallen away from the river. Boston is all for it, Kittyy, naturally more cautious, has questions.

"Do you have a count on how many Fallen are present?" She asks. I don't.
"My ghost says several hundred, all ranks including servitors," I reply. Kittyy is quiet on the comm and Boston speaks up.
"Won't be a problem, Dash and I will take point, Zwazo is mid coverage and Kittyy, you can tail and snipe from distance," he says. It's as good a plan as anything I've thought of.
"Fine, just don't get so spread out that we can't revive each other," she warns.

We dive in low through the atmosphere over the open plain, as we hit the ground, all of our ghosts go crazy blaring warnings about incoming enemies. The sky darkens as several Skiffs, Fallen drop ships, appear overhead. One of them is carrying a Walker, a six-legged tank with a mounted plasma cannon. The Walker drops to the ground with a thunderous impact, releasing Shanks. We scatter, trying to find what little cover is available. Zwazo creates a protective bubble made of pure energy. Boston, Kittyy, and I all slide inside to avoid getting cut down by Shank fire.

Enemy fire echoes off the bubble as we cower inside. I crouch next to Boston who is laughing. I look at him.
"So, that didn't go so great," he chuckles. I can't help but smile inside my helmet. His enthusiasm for battle is contagious.
"Yeah," I say. "New plan: Kick Fallen ass." Boston nods, stands and steps out of the bubble, firing Red Death, the staccato bursts are loud compared to the "pew, pew, pew" noise of the Shank firing mechanism. I step out of the opposite side of the bubble from Boston, level Vision of Confluence at the same leg he is shooting and squeeze the trigger. The gun pushes against me in a steady rhythm. The Walker staggers, emitting a burst of electricity, then bows its head to reveal its weak spot along its "neck." Zwazo's bubble dissipates and I hear familiar sounds. Thunderlord, Zwazo's heavy machine gun, whines and rattles off several arc rounds. The high-pitch whip crack of Icebreaker, Kittyy's favorite sniper rifle, completes our well-orchestrated take down. The Walker never stood a chance.

When the Walker explodes, it's just a matter of clean up with the Shanks. We collect some glimmer and other materials and then it's back to the river mission. We move in formation towards the river, ready to cut through Fallen and establish a beachhead. We arrive just in time to see another Fireteam of Guardians make an attempt at breaching the Fallen defenses. They have some success and we follow close on their heels to support their efforts. Then the sky lights up. We're all caught by surprise.

Web mines and shock grenades go off, as we stagger back and try to regroup. My head is ringing and everything sounds far away. Kittyy is waving her hands frantically at me. I can't tell what she means. My ghost says my shield is down. Suddenly, my left shoulder lights up with pain from impact. I go to one knee. Shoulder stings and burns at the same time. Arc damage. Kittyy raises a rocket launcher to her shoulder and lets loose. Something behind me screams in agony. Everything starts to fade.

Phreelancerz pt.1

The mission brief is always simple, go defeat this, or collect this material. This one was no different. The Vanguard requires tactical knowledge of the area near the river for strategic deployment...  Recon mission. As straightforward as it gets. You hardly ever listen to the end, it's always something about Reputation and glimmer. My ghost handles those details. There was something different about this brief, though. Hold and fortify position at river. Wait for reinforcement arrival at 22:30 hours Interesting. Scout and Control. I contact Ti Zwazo to see if he wants in on the mission. He's gearing up at the Tower. We link up in low orbit, then it's dropping in through the atmosphere, scanning for a space to park, and locking in the descent trajectory.

We're boots on the ground around 15:00 hours, plenty of time to trek to the river, scout out a spot and hold position before reinforcing Guardians arrive. After a quick gear check, we head off across an open plain, used to be some type of grassy common area.  We make it close to the river before we contact the enemy. Fallen have have setup a blockade. Squads of captains and vandals patrol the area around the river, making it impossible to recon without being seen. Neither of us have cloaking and we can't afford direct engagement; their forces are too strong.

Tactical retreat, nothing wrong with that. Zwazo and I move back to the open plain and set up an uplink with the Tower to appraise the Vanguard of the developing situation. We're told to sit tight and wait for reinforcement. Typical. My ghost informs me that some of the Fallen have moved away from the river and towards our location. Maybe we were spotted. The plain is too open, we need to find a better place to fight. My ghost says the Fallen are two minutes away. I look at Zwazo, he nods and points off to the southwest.

"Abandoned settlements that way," he says. "Probably find a burned out house. Make for good cover." I nod, his idea makes sense. Fallen are less then a minute out and closing fast. My ghost is getting nervous.

"Let's move," I say. "Leave the uplink active. We can draw them away with gunfire." We take off in a dead sprint towards the abandoned settlements as the Fallen enter the far side of the plain. They spot the uplink and head towards it. Can't let them scavenge our tech. I boost jump, turning in midair and fire off three quick shots. The Vision of Confluence thumps against my shoulder. Twisting as I descend, I land in a run and follow Zwazo into the settlement. I can hear the Fallen unleash battle cries. I think I got their attention.

We find shelter in one of the buildings. The front has been sheared off by bombings and time, leaving overturned tables. It will work for our needs. I crouch next to Zwazo behind a table and reload. He's checking the rounds in Fatebringer. My ghost begins to tell me how close the Fallen are when their movement pings on my radar. Six Fallen, two dregs, three vandals and a captain. I nod to Zwazo, this won't be an issue.

As the dregs pass by the opening, I toss a flash bang. It bounces once and then goes off. The dregs' bodies cartwheel off in different directions. Two down. Zwazo stands, Fatebringer barks and vandals fall. One left.  I vault the table bringing my shotgun to bear. As I the fit the stock in to the crook of my shoulder, I can't help but notice the inscription written down the barrel. Be the Bull. I chuckle and pull the trigger when the captain flashes across my HUD. The Matador roars and the the captain staggers away from me. Zwazo attaches a sticky grenade to the captain. Game. Set. Match.

We rifle through their bodies for glimmer and other materials. You never know. After picking up some engrams, we head back to the uplink and we're thinking the same thing. The Fallen weren't that difficult, maybe we can take them and move them off the river. "We need at least one more," Zwazo says. He's right. A fireteam of three will be enough.

"Let's check the uplink. See what Guardians are nearby," I reply. The next few minutes are spent checking Guardian profiles. Zwazo and I have standards. Gotta have fresh gear.
"This one doesn't have any exotic gear!" I exclaim. "Swipe right," Zwazo says. We send out a few messages and wait for a response. It's not looking good.
"Tower?" I ask Zwazo. He nods.
"Breakdown these engrams," he responds. I nod.

As we pass through low orbit and into space, my HUD blinks with an incoming message. It's MissezKitty.
"Me and Boston are headed towards Earth from the Reef. Where should we meet you?"
"Tower. We'll resupply and head back out," I reply.
"Roger that. See you shortly," She says. I nod to myself. Phreelancerz Clan is linking up.  

Story Time pt. 6

[What you need to know... First. Second. Third. Fourth. Fifth.] 

My head really hurts. The pills have long since stopped working but I'm afraid to go to the doctor because of what he might say to me. This whole week is going poorly but today it took a turn for the worst. I came back to my dorm room after turning in a paper to find a message on the answering machine. Nothing odd about that except that the message was from the Dean of Students and it was telling me that I needed to come in to her office at nine in the morning tomorrow to discuss something of importance. She ended the message by saying the meeting superseded everything else including a final. Now, I've never had to go see the Dean of Students before so getting a message of this nature was a bit shocking. I listened to the message three times on the pretense that one of my friends had called and was playing a really sick joke on me, but that was not the case.

My roommate came in about an hour later and would hardly look at me, much less speak to me. He definitely seems scared of me. I asked him what was up but he only gave me monosyllabic answers and avoided me as much as possible. I told him about the phone message and that seemed to make him happy. He said, " really?" It was the longest response I got out of him all night. Around six he got up and left the room. He didn't say anything about coming back or where he was going. I thought that was odd but I didn't really care. I turned on the TV to distract me from the meeting tomorrow but it didn't help. As I flipped through the channels, I caught a news update in the middle of a breaking story about my school. Apparently a female student had been attacked recently and some people were concerned about the welfare of the students. The student was an attractive black girl named Victoria who lived on campus.

They showed a picture of her in a slinky black dress, and then the news did a live segment with Victoria from her hospital bed. They talked to her about the attack. Victoria was the girl from my dream. In the live segment, Victoria sat up in her hospital bed with two black eyes and a bandage patched over the bridge of her nose. She still had bruises on her cheeks and chin and mouth was a mess of gauze but she spoke about being attacked in her dorm room and how she tried to fend him off by scratching his neck and shoulders. At the end of the piece, the reporter talked about how Victoria was a close friend of the victim who was found in the main dining hall. Then they showed a police sketch of the person they were looking for in connection with the crimes. It looked a lot like me. That's when my head started to hurt.

I turned off the TV and went to get some Advil, but felt paralyzed. I slouched into the couch, thinking about all the hallucinations and how they all seemed so odd. I thought back to the night in the dining hall. I remembered seeing a girl in a "Hello Kitty" t-shirt. I had hit on her but she had blown me off. I had seen her later that night with that black girl, Victoria, Victoria had gone into the convenience store in the building while the girl waited outside. I had grabbed her and dragged her up the back stairway to the track level. She had tried to crawl away but I caught her and started to push her over the railing. I touched my shoulders where she had dug her fingers into me. She was small so I had no trouble pushing her over the railing until she fell. I watched her hit her head on the table then I walked away, locked all the doors and when back to my office.

I shook my head. I killed that girl. I kept thinking back. Fifteen minutes later, Victoria, had come by my office and asked if I'd seen her friend in the "Hello Kitty" t-shirt. I told her that I hadn't. Victoria didn't believe me. "She was just in here, she had to leave through this door, you must have seen her." She argued. She had asked me to let her up to the track area so she could look around. I had lied and told her I didn't have keys to that area. "Well call someone who does, I'll wait." Victoria responded. She was being obstinate and I was getting frustrated. I had asked her where she lived so that if I did see her friend I could contact her. She told me which dorm, the one with bay windows.

A week later, when I saw the article in the newspaper, I knew I had to speak to Victoria. The student who wrote story had talked to Victoria about her deceased friend. I went to visit Victoria  in case she thought I had killed her friend. I had intended to kill her too, but someone stopped me. Her roommate had come home so I had put Victoria in her bed and left. The roommate must have seen me leaving and then found Victoria all beat up. They go to the hospital, get a sketch drawn, now the Dean of Students wants to see me and the police are looking for me.

I didn't mean to kill that girl, I just wanted to scare her, but she fell. With Victoria, I had to cover my tracks. they found my skin under the nails of Victoria's friend. Things are starting to make sense now, why my roommate has been avoiding me and all these hallucinations. I'm scared and I don't know what to do. I'm sorry for what I did but there is no way to back and undo it. I should have never gone into the elevator room when I heard those odd noises the first time, but feels like it happened so long ago.

On my way up to my room, I noticed the roof access door was open. Maybe I'll take a trip up there. It's a long way down.

Story Time pt. 5

[Get caught up: pt. 1, pt. 2, pt. 3, and pt. 4]

The pills aren't working. I'm still seeing things that I don't want to see. The doctor gave me some medicine to help calm me. I'm not sure what it is exactly, Haldol, I think. I wasn't paying close attention when he was talking about it. All I know is that I take two a day, one around lunch and one before I go to bed. It sucks because the pills aren't working. Last night I had a strange dream. It started with me waking up in the middle of the night because I wasn't along in my bed. The girl next to me was lying on her side turned away from me. I called out to her but she didn't move. I tapped her but she still didn't move. I began to get frustrated so I shook and pushed her. After that, she rolled over and looked at me.

She had two black eyes, the result of a broken nose that was still bloody. She also had bruises on her cheeks and chin. Both areas were red and raw and looked puffy. Her lip was swollen and split where someone had hit her. Her neck was by far the worst. It was heavily red and showed serious bruising as if someone tried to strangle her to death but did not finish. She opened her mouth to talk and I saw that her teeth were bloody and missing. She spoke to me as well. She kept repeating, "stop. Please! No!" Just like the other girl. I jumped up out of bed and backed away from the girl. She turned fully towards me and then began to crawl out of the bed. She fell from the bed to the floor and stopped moving for a second, but then suddenly she was on her feet and in my face. I backed away but there was a wall behind me. Looking around, I realized that I was no longer in my dorm room, but a much smaller cramped room of another dorm on campus. I looked out the bay window on my left over the darkened field behind the gym facilities. That's when the first blow struck me on the cheek.

My head bounced off the wall I was leaning against, causing my vision to double. I felt myself sagging towards the floor so I put my hand against the wall to brace myself. Before I could recover my senses, the second blow caught my chin making me slump fully against the wall. In a daze, I looked up at the ceiling of the room and wondered what all the glowing green dots on it were. Then I couldn't breathe. Someone was choking me, and pulling me off the wall by my neck. The shot to my nose came next. Upon impact, I could feel my nose change shape under the assailant's fist. My eyes began to water so I closed them. The next two hits came to my mouth, causing my teeth to move. The coppery scent and salty taste of my blood filled my mouth. As if hitting wasn't enough, my assailant kept choking me.

I struggled, clawing at my assailant's neck and shoulders but they were too strong and without air to breathe, my muscles were quickly losing strength. I opened my eyes but the edges of my vision were becoming fuzzy and dark. As I looked up, all I could see was that whoever was choking me was bleeding from their shoulder and neck where I had scratched them. Then something happened. Just as everything was going black there was a pounding at the door to the room. The choking didn't stop but for a second it relaxed. When the pounding at the door was followed by a key being inserted into the lock, the choking stopped completely and I fell to the floor.

My roommate helped me up and asked me if I was alright. All I could mutter was that someone was choking me. He said I must have been dreaming because no one was in the bedroom except me. I looked around to see that I was back in my dorm room and, besides my roommate, i was alone. I told him that I was cool and just needed to relax. I gave him some nonsense about being stressed out over finals and then went into the bathroom and closed the door. I opened the mirror above the sink to find my pills, and then decided not to take one. I turned the faucet and bent down to splash cold water on my face. As I was wiping my face, I noticed new scratched on my neck and places where it looked like the older scratches on my shoulders had been reopened.

My roommate has been looking at me funny ever since then. I think he's scared of me or knows something but is afraid to tell me. Whatever, finals are almost over and then I'm going home. I think all I need is to be away from this school and I'll be fine. Until then, I really don't care what people think.

Story Time pt.4

[What the what? Start here. Then read this! Now, click here.]

I went to the doctor. These hallucinations have become an issue. That is what the doctor called them, these dreams or visions or whatever I'm experiencing. He called them hallucinations. He asked me if I experimented with drugs and other stuff. I told him I didn't but he wanted a urine sample anyway. I can tell he doesn't believe me. He also thought it was strange that I seem to be present at places that later turn into accident scenes. I asked him what he meant and he asked me if I read the newspaper. I said I was joking and knew what he meant but was trying to forget about it. He seemed to buy that.

After the appointment, I picked up a local newspaper and skimmed the headlines. Nothing major but there was one story that caught my eye. The morning after I worked in the dining hall one of the morning workers came in and found the body of a young girl. Apparently she had fallen, (though there was speculation she had been thrown), from the track level of the dining hall. She hit her head on a table during the fall and the impact killed her. Sources for the story mentioned that the victim had skin under her nails, indicating a struggle. This worried me. The bruises on my shoulders still hurt, and that morning I noticed that there were small scrapes on the top of the bruises as well. I just don't want to think about it.

Story Time pt. 3

[Confused? Read this first! Then read this second!]

Some strange stuff happened again. It wasn't like last time when I saw a creature, which I think might have been a gremlin. I know this sounds weird but I put the description of what I saw into Google and it came up with a bunch of lizards like Kimono Dragons and Godzilla. But, it also came up with gremlins, fictitious creatures that like to damage and destroy mechanical objects. It also said that they enjoy causing mischief among humans. The sad reality is that the explanation of gremlins that I found online accounted for everything that I saw that night. I also learned that gremlins are harbingers of psychosis, going crazy. I'm not sure how that makes me feel, especially in light of the elevator accident that happened two days later in the student center.

I heard some of the building staff was moving some equipment from the third floor to the basement. They loaded the equipment on to the elevator and then got on themselves to ride it down. When they pushed the button for the basement, all the lights in the elevator flickered and the emergency bell went off. Then the elevator dropped to the basement as if the cable and winch system had given out. Apparently, it crashed down pretty loud and scared a bunch of people who have offices in the basement or were walking around at the time. Luckily, no one was injured in the accident but when the maintenance crew went into the elevator room they found the elevator control panel a mess of wires and fried circuitry. The cables had been almost fully cut. They also found a wrench...

But that has nothing to do with what I saw last night. Last night I was working in the main dining hall. Around ten at night we are supposed to lock all the doors except for the one that opens near the building manager office. It's one of those safety precautions that let us see who is coming and going from the building. I was locking the doors when I heard some noise upstairs near the dining hall entrance. Usually this means that someone has taken the elevator up to the third level of the building and is hanging out on the "track" above the food service area.The dining hall used to be a gym. Technically, the whole dining hall space belongs to the company that supplies food for the campus so we building managers only have keys to back stairway for emergencies. The rest of the area is locked. But, the elevator goes through all levels so they're still accessible. What was odd, though, was that the noise sounded like a door opening and closing which didn't make any sense because anyone who would have keys to that area had left around six that evening.

I went upstairs to the track level and found the door ajar. Moving onto the track, I did a quick sweep of it to see if someone was sitting on one of the many couches that are up there. No one. I even walked around the entire track once to make sure no one was hiding from me. Still nothing. As I was leaving the way I entered, the door to the back stairway clicked and swung open. The dining hall has those halogen lights that never go off, you know the emergency lights or whatever they're called. Some corners of the space are dark, but most of it is well lit from these "always on" lights. When the door to the back stairway opened, the emergency lights flickered and dimmed, making the already dimly lit track area even darker. The lighting from the stairway was the only source of light on the track level and even that seemed dimmer than usual. Then she appeared in the doorway.

She was young, no more than nineteen or twenty and she was wearing a pair of jeans and a "Hello Kitty" t-shirt. I couldn't see her face because her long black hair covered it. She took two steps toward me and fell; she began to crawl towards me, pulling her legs as if they didn't work. I took a step back unsure of what to do. I could hear her mumbling something as she crawled towards me. This was a little much for me so I pulled out my walkie-talkie and called for the police officer who is on duty at night. I got nothing but static. I radioed again and got more static. The girl kept crawling closer, until she was close enough for me to hear what she was saying.

"Stop... please! No!" She kept repeating. I backed up some more until I felt the crash bar of the main door in the small of my back. She looked up at me and through her hair I could see one of her eyes, all white with a small black pupil. That was enough for me. I turned and pushed the main door open and moved forward to exit the track area. But then I felt pressure on my shoulders.

I turned and was face to face with the girl who, just seconds before, had been crawling. She dug her fingernails in. As she leaned toward me, the one eye I could see looked directly at me. I watched in terror as the pupil widened to take up the entire space of the eye. I screamed and screamed and staggered backwards with the girl still clutching me. We twisted in an awkward dance and I struggled against her weight, but I couldn't shake her off despite being bigger than her.  She forced me back to the railing that ran around the track. I felt myself slipping over the railing but I couldn't get from underneath her. Her strength was overpowering and I felt my lower back reach the edge of the railing and I knew I was going to be forced over it. Our combined weight was too much. She leaned in and we both toppled over the edge.

I hit the floor of the building manager office pretty hard. My head snapped back and the world swam in and out of focus. It took me a few seconds to realized that I had fallen out of my chair. I sat up but there was no sign of the girl I'd seen and when I went back up to the track level all the doors were locked. There was no sign that anything had taken place. At the end of the night, I locked up the rest of the building in a daze. I guess I could have fallen asleep and dreamed the whole thing but that doesn't explain why I have bruises on my shoulders. Something is going on here and I'm not sure what it is. But it's affecting me and I need to do something about it before it get more out of hand than it is now. I'm not crazy. I know what I saw, but...

Story Time pt.2

[Lost? Start here.]

I was going down in the elevator to my office, it's in the basement, when the elevator began to make strange squealing noises as if it was straining to move. This didn't bother me at first because the elevator is old and is always making some kind of odd noise. However, this squealing was new and different and my gut told me that it should be checked out. So, I went back into the mechanical area and let myself in to do a quick check, expecting nothing to be out of order. I was walking back through the mechanical area and as I suspected, everything was fine. I got to the elevator room and just as I was about to turn and leave I heard the same squealing noise that I heard before when I was in the elevator. I turned and unlocked the elevator room door and opened it.

For some reason, it is always really hot in the elevator room. The heat hit me immediately and I began to perspire. It's also really dark. I could just make out the two steel cages that take up most of the small room. they separate the electrical and mechanical stuff from the path that leads through the room to the other side. There is also a smaller path that cuts between the cages so that a person can reach the circuit breakers and elevator controls, which are on the wall between the two cages. I stepped into the room and looked around for the noise. The further I went into the room, the hotter it got. At first, I couldn't hear anything except the hum of machinery so I turned to leave but then I heard it again, just a little way in front of me, the squealing, but this time followed by a clicking sound. I moved closer to the noises, which I could tell were coming from between the cages, but I couldn't see who or what was causing the racket.

"Hello? Is someone in here?" I called out. The squealing and the clicking stopped, but no one answered me. It was at this point that I realized I had stopped perspiring and was now sweating full out. I was also breathing hard. I stopped and took a few deep breaths to calm myself and then proceeded forward to the gap between the cages. I took out my cell phone and used the screen as a makeshift flashlight so I could see down the path. Looking down the path, I saw circuit breaker on the wall and the elevator controls beneath it. I couldn't see the entire set of elevator controls because something was blocking it. I thought it was a stepladder but then it moved and began tinkering with the elevator controls; it appeared to be hitting the elevator controls with a wrench. It hit the controls again and some sparks flew out of the control panel, lighting the area up. I screamed. I couldn't believe what I'd seen. I staggered back and tripped on the edge of one of the steel cages and fell. It reached out and pulled at the exposed elevator wiring, causing a stream of sparks to fly out, creating a flickering light that made the shadows dance in crazy patterns. It turned around and looked at me and I screamed again.

In front of me, standing no more than two and a half feet high, was a dark green scaly creature. It's eyes were a blazing red without pupils. It had no lips and many jagged teeth jutted out of its mouth in different directions. It's head was shaped like a cross between a human and a lizard, with broad flat features and two holes above its mouth where a nose would be. It tilted its head and looked at me almost intelligently and took a step forward, dropping the wrench it was holding. I tried to back away but the wall opposite the steel cages stopped me. It took a step towards me and opened its mouth to reveal rows of jagged, sharp teeth. Then it squealed and ran towards me. I freaked out and covered my face only to feel the creature jump on my chest and then over me and scurry towards the door.

In a daze, I scrambled to my feet and followed it but when I got to the door and opened it, there was no sign of the creature in the hallway. I checked all the exits from the mechanical area and there was nothing, no sign of passage, no footprints in the dust, nothing...

I locked up like usual that night and went home. Nothing else weird happened that night or the next day at work so I'm not sure what to think. I know what I saw, and I'm certain it was there, I mean, it jumped on my chest. I felt its weight. I drink occasionally, but never at work and I don't do any drugs. I'm not sure what to make of what happened so I'm writing it down. I doubt anyone would believe me if I told someone. I'd probably just end up in the psych ward. I'm not crazy.

Story Time

I don't believe in ghosts or monsters, and I'm not afraid of the dark. When I was younger, some of my friends told me about the boogeyman in their closets or under their beds and I remember thinking that it was stupid of them to be afraid of something they couldn't see. I do enjoy scary movies. But not because they scare me but because of the way they scare other people. It is quite interesting to me to see how some people can let themselves get so involved in something that is obviously fake that they jump and quiver whenever something scary comes on the screen.

I'm not very religious, though I do believe that our actions in life will have some consequences after we die. Some people say that I lack faith. I don't think that's it. I do have faith, but I don't have time to believe in things that go bump in the night. It just seems pointless and trivial. That's why I'm writing this down now, because recently I've seen something that has made me question my sanity. Let me explain.

I'm a college student and my school is a bastion of intelligence and rational thought. All things considered, I feel the school has done well by me. I'm a majoring in psychology and I'm looking to go into counseling as a profession. I think, and I've been told that I am fairly normal when compared to other students at my school. I enjoy hanging out with friends and partying, but I also know when to sit down and study. After three and a half years at my school, I've finally figured out the perfect balance of studying and partying. Of course, partying costs money so I have a student job on campus. In fact, I'm told it's one of the best student jobs available. I'm a building manager for the student center and the the main dining hall on campus.

It's a good job with good hours and pay. I like it because I can set up how many hours I want to work in a week so if I need money for something I can schedule a heavy work week or if I need to study I can take fewer shifts and not worry about my boss thinking I'm slacking off. One of the few drawbacks is that it requires me to work late. The closing shifts don't end until two in the morning and on a weeknight that can be difficult, especially with morning classes. I wish I could schedule so that I could get as many hours as I want without having to work closing shifts, but to make it fair to all building managers, we all have to take closing shifts. The issue with the closing shift is that after a certain hour the building empties out and hardly anyone comes in. I've always wondered why we need to keep the building open so late when hardly anyone is in it.

I'm digressing. My job makes me work late and the place gets empty. Now, a part of the building manager job is to walk around the building and make sure that everything is in its proper place. This basically means that if the various student groups use a room in the building we have to make sure they straighten up the room and leave it looking decent. We also have to walk around in the mechanical areas of the building to make sure that no one unauthorized has been or is back there. Normally, this only takes a few minutes because these areas are locked and only a few people have keys to them. Last night, when I was working a closing shift, something strange happened.