Storyteller (340 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 2 on 12 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by GravityPurple (View user info) at 2008-01-26 21:28:55 EST
"You can leave if you tell me a story." It was at that time that I truly noticed how pale the small boy was. He smiled, showing how sharp his tiny teeth were, as if they had been filed to a point.
"How did you get here?" I was trying to stall. At any other point in time I could have told stories all day. Stories my mother told me, stories from the Bible, even stories I had made up during the long winter days when I had finished all my chores and had nothing else to pass the time.
"Alright. I'll tell you about this castle. There was once a rich man. He married a beautiful African woman who bore him three sons and two daughters. The first was a handsome man who looked more like his father; bronzed skinned with light hair. This son was an expert at fighting, best when using the sword. He was the finest in his classes and soon beat all the trainers. The second was dark, with his mothers' small build. He was a great hunter and could trail the stealthiest of animals. The heads of many creatures graced his fathers' halls. The third son was small like his mother, but fair of skin and hair. He was very smart, but could neither fight nor hunt. He was the disgrace to the family." At this point the boy started to look upset, his small face twisting into a scowl, making him seem even more ghostly that before.
"The mother died of a coughing sickness and drowned in her own fluids when the last boy was still young. His brothers hated him and his father was ashamed of him. So the boy hid himself away in the castle his father had built many years ago, where he spent most of his time reading and learning of the world. His father grew old and one day passed on, leaving the three brothers to divide the land and money equally. Of course, because the first two brothers hated the third, they didn't want to give him anything. Barely after their father had been buried they filled the castle up with whores and entertainers. The third brother once again hid himself away in the library of the castle until finally he could bear it no more. He went to a witch and she gave him a potion to kill his brothers.
"He gave all the servants some coins and told them to leave and never return. They were more than glad, for they were tired of the brothers and their friends. He also told the entertainers to leave and told them to go to the nearest inn and that they were no longer welcome. The third brother went to his other two brothers with a bottle of wine, which he had poisoned, and offered the wine to his older brothers, giving a toast to long life. The brothers drank it and died almost instantly. The third brother rejoiced at the freedom he now felt, but then remembered his sisters, who had become whores themselves to the entertainers that stayed at the castle. One was even with child. He went to the kitchen and took the sharpest knife he could find and sneaked up to his sisters' room. He slit ones throat quickly. The other, the pregnant one, he cut open her stomach and beheaded the bastard child. He left her to bleed out."
I did not like the tale one bit and wished for the boy to stop. But if he stopped, then I would have to tell him a story and I could still not think. It felt as if someone had stuffed cotton into my head, and my thoughts had to struggle to get through.
"He went back to the dining hall, where he left his brothers. One of them moved; the wine had diluted the poison. He slit his brothers throat using the knife that still dripped with his sisters blood. He did the same to his other brother, just to be safe. The boy soon became lonely though and talked to the bodies of his family just to keep his quickly dwindling sanity about him. After awhile though, that even became boring. So the boy decided to go to the village. It had been a long time since he had eaten or gone outside so his skin was nearly translucent and so pale he looked dead. He started to think that maybe he was when no one noticed him in the village. So he went back to the castle and talked to his family some more.
"After many years though, their bodies crumbled to dust, and the boy was all alone again. Then some travelers came along. They didn't tell stories, so they didn't leave."
"What happened to them?" I couldn't help but ask. I thought I should have some understanding of what I was in for.
"They soon went mad and killed each other," He waved his hand nonchalantly in the air, dismissing it as if it were an every day occurrence. "The last one left lived for a while on the flesh and blood of his dead friends, but he too died and their bones crumbled to dust after many years. This has been going on for longer than you'd think."
"How do you know all this?"
"I am that boy. Now tell me a story, or you shall end up like all the others." My brain still felt fuzzy and I couldn't understand why I didn't figure it out before. I knew that I had to escape the boy though. I tried to dart around him to reach the doors, but he was much faster than I would have thought. I crashed into him and the brittle bones of his leg shattered. I quickly jumped up and reached the doors, but they were tightly shut. I couldn't get out. I looked back in disgust at the boy, now on the floor. He stood up, balancing on one leg.
"Now look what you've done." He was terribly angry now, his face red with non-existent blood. He advanced towards me, moving easily enough on the one leg. I tried to run away, but didn't know where each room led to, and he never seemed to tire. The boy finally cornered me in one of the rooms and I could run no more.
"Accept it. You will die here and you will tell me stories. Now start! 'Once upon a time'..."
He ripped open the skin of his shattered leg, it was as thin and weak as paper. Pulling a butcher knife I hadn't noticed before from his belt, he started to cut open my leg. Under the pain, I assumed it was to replace the bone I had broken.
"Once upon a time, there was a young gi- AHH!" I screamed as the blade cut through my flesh.
"Keep speaking," The boy said calmly.
"There was a young girl with raven black hair and a ready smile. She could speak with animals and frequently went into the forest to escape her mother, who was cruel and hated to girl for her beauty." And so the story continued, tears streaming down my face. After he removed the bones he needed, he started to place them in his own leg. I continued telling the story until I finally died of blood loss. My bones are still there, but they will soon turn to dust, like all the other travelers that stopped at the castle for shelter or a place to sleep.
I watch as a girl and her brother enter the castle, now crumbling with age.
"Will you tell me a story?" A young boy with pale skin and fair hair asks the two travelers.
"Alright," the girl says to the seemingly innocent young child, "Once upon a time..."
User Reviews
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-01-29 13:25:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by PerkMan (user info) at 2008-01-27 07:12:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I don't know why but I cackled and laughed during this story. I guess I must be a bad person/
Submitted by PukingDog (user info) at 2008-01-27 05:57:37 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ChaosJester (user info) at 2008-01-27 05:49:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
http://www.sfgate.com/n/pictures/2006/05/12/cacho12.jpg
That's cute, right?
Submitted by Gravity_Purple (user info) at 2008-01-27 05:39:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by ChaosJester (user info) at 2008-01-27 05:04:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
SubmissivePenguin would have been an awesome name.
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But slightly awkward when you get a mental image, right?
Submitted by ChaosJester (user info) at 2008-01-27 05:04:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
SubmissivePenguin would have been an awesome name.
Submitted by Gravity_Purple (user info) at 2008-01-27 04:17:03 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by experima (user info) at 2008-01-26 23:46:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
i love your name
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Thanks. Sadly I didn't come up with it myself. I googled something like 'Username Generator'. I'm pretty sure the three words I entered were 'Purple', Penguin', and 'Submissive'. And since I didn't want to go with SubmissivePenguin [I mean, really...] I decided that this one would work out much better.
Submitted by experima (user info) at 2008-01-26 23:46:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
i love your name
Submitted by apollo88 (user info) at 2008-01-26 21:58:05 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2008-01-26 21:56:08 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2008-01-26 21:51:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Ltap (user info) at 2008-01-26 21:36:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Cool.