I have been on the site for quite a long time now, and I have started a few projects, but I have never finished them. I really want to commit to this one though so that's why I am doing this. Anyway, tell me what you guys think. This the first page of The Curse of Grindale.
As you walk down the dark hallway all you can see are the majestic purple drapes lining three windows on the cold brick walls, and the one black door that leads out of the hall. The walls try to protect you from the winter cold, but it doesn’t do much good because the windows are open. The wind almost whispers to you. “Keep moving” it tells you. Or maybe you’re just imagining it. I mean the wind can’t really talk can it? You just know you are going to freeze if you stay too much longer. You start heading toward the door.
As you walk by the second window you see an image blur past your peripheral vision. You stop to look out the window but there isn’t anything there. You casual laugh at yourself as if trying to prove to the empty room that you weren’t scared and continue on your way. That’s when you hear her. She screeches from her perch on a tree outside the third and final window.
She sits on a branch of the dead old oak tree you used to play on as a child. As she starts to stand she unfolds two wrinkled leathery wings revealing to you that she isn’t wearing any clothing. You are frozen in terror. You haven’t ever seen anything like this before, and because of that you watch her. She looks over a hundred years old. Her skin looks like one of your shirts after it has came out of the dryer and you’ve stuffed in a drawer and forgotten it for a week or two. Her legs are long and skinny with dangling skin barely clinging to the bone. Her arms are to long for her body as the reach down to her knees with fingernails long and untrimmed. Her hair is bleach white and runs down her body to her waist. That is when you see her most striking feature. Her eyes. They are clouded up by the ages, but you can still see the icy blue that have long since faded leaving only small traces to prove color was ever there in the first place.
“KEEP MOVING!” she demands in a voice that to you sounds like she hasn’t spoken in a long time, but is still very authoritative. You back away from the window and she spreads her wings to there full wingspan that you can only guess to be six feet or so, and she jumps.
You turn, as you know what she wants you to do. The door still seems far away. Like you haven’t even gotten any closer as you’ve approached it. You start back on your way, but for every two steps you take the door seems to slide a single step further away from you. As you finally close in on the door you hear her screech again, but this time behind you. You turn to see the ancient winged woman standing in the hall only a few yards away.
“Keep moving, boy, before I get you.” You turn to run, but the door that was only a few feet away a moment ago is now half a football field away. You look back at the woman and she starts to walk slowly towards you with a hungry look on her face. Your heart starts to beat frantically and you start to sprint in the direction of the door. “That’s it boy let me chase you..”
As you run you hear the woman’s wings start to flap and you know without looking that she is now flying towards you. You’re half way to the door when you feel her stale breath beating down on the back of your neck. You close your eyes and pump your legs forward as fast as you can. All you want to do is give up and let this woman do whatever it is she wants to do with you. However you know that isn’t an option. You have to get to the door. You must.
That’s when you open your eyes again. You’re only a few steps away. You feel her elongated grip your shoulder and she tries to pull you back from the door. You are so close. You can almost reach it, but she has a hold of you. Her grip isn’t tight now, but even though she seems old to you know she is strong. If she was able to grab a hold of you better you might not be able to make it.
- Try to slip out of her grasp.
- Rush for the door anyway.
- Give in. She already has you.
