New life (sample) Marcel Admiraal Beneath Dark Waters New life (sample) Pondering the several options for tonight, he halted between two of the giant poplars that surrounded the area and, from the inside pocket of his jacket, he produced a crumpled up pack of cigarettes and one of the lighters his dad used for lighting the fireplace. He put one of the cigarettes between his lips and lit up, guarding the flame with his cupped hand against the breeze. The smoke irritated his windpipe and he coughed a few times, but then it went down smoothly. He didn't think he would ever smoke for real, but one cigarette per day couldn't hurt him, he guessed. He stood, lost in thought, sometimes inhaling deeply, sometimes just keeping the smoke in his mouth, trying to exhale slowly and confidently. It was then that his eye fell on the egg. At first he thought it was a stone, but quickly after pushing aside some shrubbery and fallen leaves, it was clear it wasn't. It was rather big, like a football, brown with strange sandy coloured speckles. He walked around it, inspected it, wondered what it could be. As he touched it, he was shocked to find it was covered in some kind of slime that stuck to his fingers. He tried to move it, but it seemed to be stuck to the ground somehow. Around it, the first buds of new life were springing from brown withered stems and between the rotten leaves of last years fall, he saw the dark green leaves of the creeping ivy. Next to the egg were some bones and a skull that looked disturbingly like a humans. Staring into the depths of the hollow sockets, he suddenly shivered in the chilly March breeze and as he looked up at the rigid branches of the leafless poplars, the entire place seemed very forbidding, like nature sent him a warning. As he stared back at the egg, it seemed to stare right back at him, its very presence was intimidating and with its inane stillness, it seemed to tell him that it indeed was best to stay away. Max quickly extinguished his cigarette between the wet leaves, stood up and turned away. As he slowly walked towards his bicycle, trying not to run, he could not shake the feeling that something living, something breathing, something very much alive, was watching him as he left.
New life (sample) Marcel Admiraal Beneath Dark Waters He quickly paddled on. The sun had touched the horizon by now and in the east the first streak of pure darkness had started to appear. The chill of the day had changed into a veritable cold and he felt it grip his body as he quickly made his way back to his home. Full story available from Floating Robes as of the 1st of March 2011. http://floatingrobes.blogspot.com