The Door In The Tree

The Door In The Tree

Before I get started I want to tell you a bit about me. My name is Tucker Lahriue and I was born and raised in a little town called Thompson Pass. Now, don’t look for it on a map…you ain’t goin’ to find it. It is small and hidden at the end of a box canyon in the mountains of Tennessee. I grew up there, went to school, a single- room schoolhouse with just four students, there and lived part of my life there until I moved away and went to a big city in Alabama. Anyway, one thing I like doing was hunting in the mountains around there. I usually caught my limit and left a few for the other guys, (That was the decent thing to do.)

I went out once when I was something around 15. Young,  but I was eager to get my first deer. I was out about three days when I happened on this old elm tree. It must have been old. It took a lot of time just to walk around the truck so, tired as I was, I sat down for a meal of dried pork I brought with me when I saw it, a scar on the tree about three feet wide and six feet tall and it was a perfect rectangle. Strange,  but I thought little of it until I saw a strap of leather sticking out of the ground at the root of the tree. It was old…I mean really old. I pulled it up and found a leather bag fastened to it. I opened it and found a scroll written on some yellow paper. I was afraid to touch but something told me I had to read it. So, I pulled it out, sat down and started to read it.

It was written by a man named Thomas Jefferson. No, not THAT Jefferson;  but a man who lived in the area who people knew about and talked about but no one ever seen. All I knew was the he could and outdid out Davy Crockett in pretty much everything. The date on the document was January 16^th, 1895.

I started reading it and once I finished I knew that I had to tell everyone about it. So, here it is in his own words.

“I started out a normal person. I lived in a house in a small town. I was married, worked in a store and stayed the pure Christian life. One day a voice in my head told me that that I needed to be closer to nature so I quit my job, left my family and went out to wander and learn about the world around me.

I must have been up in those woods pertnear 20 years if you can go by the changes in the seasons.

I hated poachers. When I caught one I didn’t hurt them. That wouldn’t be the Christian thing to do despite the fact that they were killing just for the fun of it. I took them tied to a tree and sent a pigeon back to have someone come and arrest them. Me, I never killed any animals myself. I lived off of the plants of the forest and if I needed a tree for shelter of a fire on a winter night I made it a point to always plant a new one in its place.

I think I was getting  to be about 45 years old when I was walking on Fireback Mountain and I saw the damnest thing…a tree with a door in the trunk and it weren’t no ordinary door. It looked like it was a black wood…strange since it was in the trunk of an old elm…and it was surrounded by a silver frame.

Now, I wasn’t a busybody. I leave that job to the ladies, if you can call them that, back in town but when you see something like that you have to know what kind of person would live in a tree and what kind of a person would have such a valuable door in the middle of nowhere.

I yelled out loud to see if anyone would come and see what all the noise was about. I knew that whoever lived there might come out with a gun and start shooting but I was a friendly type person and I could usually talk my way out of things but just in case I was ready to duck down behind an old stump that was nearby and try talking from there. I yelled a couple of times with no answer so I knocked on the door and it swung open.

When I stepped in the door, it closed behind me and I saw two staircases and a hall to a big room. I don’t know how but it was bigger inside that it was outside.

One of the staircases head up, the other down and the room down the hall seemed to have a big party going on. The thing was the stairs going down and the hallway to the room was blocked. I started up the stairs…there was absolutely no sense standing in a small room like that when there was somewhere I could go.

Just then a voice came to me telling that they were waiting for me at the top of the steps. “What about those other ways,” I asked.

“The one going down is for those who do not care about the suffering of others,” it said, “The room is for those who care but did not do anything about the pain they inflected. Neither place is meant for you.”

I walked up the steps. It was a long walk but, funny, the more I walked the less pain I felt. My arms and legs stopped hurting, I could breathe easy and I didn’t feel my heart beat every time I took a step. By the time I reached the top I was feeling pretty good…actually I felt like a twenty year old again.

I turned at the top of the steps and there was a man standing behind me. He had long brown hair and a beard but he was dressed in jeans and hunter’s vest. “Thomas,” He said, “do not be afraid but look at the base of tree.”

I looked and saw my body being carried away by three hunters.

“Thomas,” He continued, “You have lived your life in a way that very few do. You have helped those in pain. You have never caused anyone pain, you have never killed and if you needed anything always made sure that life continued even after you had left. That is the way that My Father and I wanted the Earth to be. Because of that you will be rewarded.”

He took my hand a led me up some more stairs and we were gone. I wanted to come back and write my story so that others may learn from it and He allowed me to do so just one time so if you find this please share it with as many others as you can.”

That was all that he wrote and like I said I found it a few years ago and I have been sharing it since. Now, I know that you aren’t going to believe me so if you want I will show you the scroll…all you have to do is ask. I carry it with me everywhere I go…right next to my bible and picture of Christ and as for that…that is all I am going to say.

Traveling To Black Mountain

Traveling To Black Mountain

By R.e. Taylor

I love to travel so when I got the chance to see the Black Mountain in Australia I jumped at the chance. Of course, my trip started with 100+ degree heat and that was quickly followed by a hurricane that flooded most of Queensland. That was just my luck. I stopped in Brisbane to plan the rest of my trip. It was about 1,500 miles away and I wasn’t driving so I got out a map and figured out how long the trip might take me. I figured a couple weeks at the least.

I spent a couple days hanging out at the beaches and the bars. There was one I liked a lot but for the life of me I cannot remember its name but it had beers that were so cold they burnt my fingers and sandwiches that made so much of a mess I spent time everyday washing my shirts.

I had heard so many stories about the mountain. Stories about people going into to explore and never finding their way back out…just like the Bermuda Triangle but the best one was that no one or nothing would go anywhere near the place…not even a fly. Maybe the natives knew something no one else knew because they would go nowhere near the place.

Everywhere I stopped, everyone I spoke to told me not to go…to turn around and go back to Sydney or maybe go out west and have a shot at the opal fields but the more they told me not to go the more I became resolute that I was going to go no matter what.

I got a ride from Prosperpine to Cookville. The woman’s name was Renee and she was the sweetest person I had ever met. “I had a brother who went up to the mountain,” she said. “He heard some crap that there was gold hidden up there. I don’t know where he heard that but no one I spoke to ever heard of such a thing. I tried to stop him, I really did but there was nothing I could say. He left one night about three years ago and he never came back. There were rescue efforts and I even went up there but there was nothing that could be done…he was just gone!”

We spent the rest of the trip just talking. We stopped at a Macca’s to get something to eat…I got a hamburger, fries and a coke and she had a salad. It was really a nice trip, especially having her as a companion. When she dropped me off in Cookville she explained that she couldn’t go any farther and that was something I could understand so she gave me her phone number and asked me to call her when I got back into town. Of course I said I would…even with the area’s reputation I had hopes.

I was still a distance away about 25 miles away…not that bad of a walk but I figured there was no way anyone from this city was going to drive me any further toward the mountain. I was right so I just started walking.

The walk was pretty nice. It wasn’t hot but it was cloudy. I guess that kept the temperatures down. There were a lot of animals all around. I saw hundreds of wild lizards running back and forth across the road and the birds made it so hard to hear anything because of their chirping and squawking. I could not believe that is was so loud. I made it about 20 miles by nightfall. I was quite tired so I just stepped off the side of the road and fell asleep leaning against a tree.

I was up with the sun thank to a couple crows who decided that they liked the tree I was sleeping under. I swear I caught them looking down at me as I opened my eyes. I thought for sure that they were laughing at me but a shift throw of a rock scared them away but I was awake and there was no way I was going to get back to sleep so I got up, ate and started on my mission.

Once again the birds were making as much noise as they were the day before but that couldn’t have been right. Maybe I just thought so but who knows.

I walked about 3 miles when I decided to sit down have some water and rest for a few minutes. It was then that I noticed that the animals were all gone and there was not a single noise coming from the trees. It might have just been a coincidence I thought that had to be it…a total coincidence. I put my hands around my mouth and yelled “cowards” as loud as I could. I knew there was no one around but it made me laugh anyway.

Finally, I was within a mile of the mountain. It was hard walking and I started seeing things I never expected. The path was lined with crosses, wooden markers and stone tributes that looked centuries old. The stones were covered with markings that showed some kind of beings and others had spirals covering their entire surface. I took some rubbings, folded them up and placed them in my backpack. The closer I got to the mountain the more monuments I could see and they were a lot more detailed than the more distant ones. They were actually beautiful to look at but I knew what each of them meant. Each one was there to remember someone who had gone beyond and never came back. There were hundreds of them but suddenly, about a quarter of a mile from the mountain, they stopped as did the path I was walking on. Trees, that had been so prominent, turned into dead grey skeletons and then they completely disappeared as I kept walking.

I had no idea at the time that I had wandered into an area that had been deemed off limits by the Queensland government as a religious site for the local aboriginal peoples. Caucasian people and travelers were NOT allowed to go in and, especially take rubbings from the area. It turned out that the aboriginal people were the ones who had placed the monuments in honor of those who came before and they were not to be seen by the general public. Actually, later on, as I was walking off of the mountain I was stopped by the Queensland State Police and cited for being in a restricted area. It cost be $400 but it was worth it.

Anyway, before me was a field of black stones of every size. Some were as small as a baseball, others were the size of a small car with some even bigger. The thing was they were solid black. There was no sign of any other color…just black. It was actually scary looking at them. They looked as if they were burnt but the kind of heat that could blacken every stone in the area could only come from one place…the Center Ring of Hell.

I wanted so bad to see the place where legends were written I just took my first steps between the stones and the second I did my body started tingling. It wasn’t painful and yet it wasn’t pleasure but it did have my whole body experiencing a whole new sensation that, I believe, no human should ever experience.

I didn’t want to stop so, no matter what my body was feeling, I just kept walking, making my way through the rocks. It was in the rocks for about an hour when I decided to take a break and have a Coke and a sandwich. I took my time eating, after all it was noon and the sun was right above me and the temperature must have been near 100 degrees and with no trees around there was no shade to take refuge under.

I took a drink of water, collected my wits and started out once again. The closest people were quite a distance away and I was alone when I found the entrance of one of the large caves in the mountain. The entrance was small but once I got inside I found a spacious room that looked like a church except there were no pillars. It was just large rounded rocks that went from floor to ceiling.

As I walked deeper into the cave the ground changed from sand to rocks. They were slippery and covered with some kind of slime that made it hard to walk but I kept going. By that time my skin was tingling so bad that I could hardly bear it. My thoughts went to turning back but my heart overrode my smarts and I kept going.

The room kept getting larger and larger as I walked farther but then I heard something strange. The ground beneath me was cracking as I stepped like I was walking on eggs. I took my flashlight out of my pocket, lit it and saw the truth. I was standing on a field of human and animal skulls and bones hidden deep within the mountain.

I remember that I started to panic but I remember where I was, how far underground I was and that those people died in the exact spot I was standing.

I reached down and picked up one of the skulls. It was gross. I was not sure but I am almost sure that the skull was still covered by remnants of skin and tissue. I took it, looked for just a second eye to eye and placed it in my backpack. Then came time for me to get back out.

Although it was a straight path in, the way out seemed more like a maze! I got lost a few times and hit my head more than a once but eventually I found my way out. Luckily, it was after dark when I finally made it back to the surface and I was hungry, thirsty and sick at the same time. I knew that there was something wrong…something seriously wrong.

I went to a nearby hotel and checked in for the night. After ordering some food I spent the rest of the night puking my guts out. I also saw something that scared me…I saw burns all over my hands and arms and it wasn’t just sunburn…it was severe second degree burns. I couldn’t sleep that night but I waited until morning before making my way to a local hospital. The minute I got there the doctors locked me in an isolation room, took my clothes and started scrubbing my body with “sponges” that felt like they were made out of barbed wire.

I was in the hospital for more than a year before they finally released me with a diagnosis of severe radiation poisoning. The doctor knew where I had been and what I had been doing. “They tell people to stay away from there for a reason,” he said. “You are one of the few who make it back here alive and, to be honest, you were almost too close to death to be brought back.”

I sarcastically thanked him for saving me and then I asked for my backpack.

“Oh,” you probably want that skull,” he said.

“Well, yeah,” I replied.

“We took that last night,” he said. “It has been returned to the mountain. That site is a burial site and very sacred.” Just then a state trooper walked in and handcuffed me to the bed. “It is a crime to take body parts from a grave. Didn’t you know that?” The thing was I never thought of the Black Mountain as a burial site. To me it was just a place like Loch Ness or the Bermuda Triangle.

I was arrested and, in addition to the $400, I also spent six months in jail for removing an object from a grave site but, all in all, it was worth it because I found out the truth about Australia’s Black Mountain.

Once everything was over and done I went back to Renee and told her what I had learned. Yes, she was sad, almost heartbroken, but she appreciated knowing that might have been the closest possibility as to what happened to her brother. At the end she kissed me on the cheek, thanked me and drove me to a nearby train.

Me, I returned to the U.S. I still travel but I go to the normal places and try not to go to places where people die or disappear. Personally, I think that is a good idea…at least for now!

The Flower Girl

The Flower Girl

By R. e. Taylor

After a week of work, family, money problems and just life in general Joshua would get up early on Saturday morning, hop in his car and just start driving. It didn't matter what direction he drove in, he just wanted to get away for a few hours. But, on one Saturday morning in June something changed and after that he took the same route week after week until the leaves had all fallen from the trees.

That day he left as usual after rolling a set of dice to see what direction to travel in. He thought it maybe was silly to do this, but hell he did it every week. Highway two through four would mean travel east, five through eight meant south and nine through twelve meant west. Anyway, he rolled the dice as usual, and a one and a three came up so east it was.

He had his usual places to stop once he got started. When he was going east, it was a little mom and pop diner that specialized in three egg western omelets with a heaping pile of fried potatoes on the side. Joshua knew the waitress, so she always made sure that everything was covered by a thick layer of homemade Greek sauce. The thing was, he knew that if he survived breakfast he would have a great day. That morning was going to be a little extra great because the waitress walked over and told him of an estate sale going on about a mile away.

Joshua finished his breakfast, left a couple dollar tip and started off for the estate sale. He found it about a mile away just as the waitress had said. It was in a very old building that the city had condemned after the owner died, but the furnishings and everything inside was beautiful and a lot of it was museum quality.

There were people sitting on the porch behind a sign that read, “Anything you want $20.” The woman behind the table said that you had to pay $20 to get in, and you can take anything you can carry at no extra cost. Of course, Joshua thought that was the best deal he had heard in years so, he gladly paid the money and walked in. He saw so much that he wanted and so much that he couldn't have but when he hit the second floor he accidentally found his prize for the day.

He walked into the last bedroom on the right. There was a door that led up to the attic and a bed that was easily seen to be a boy's bed. The dust was so deep on the floor that Joshua caused a cloud to form just by walking around. He stepped gingerly across the floor until he heard the creak of a loose floorboard. He stopped and looked down. There were no nails holding the board down, so he reached down, grabbed the end and lifted it up. Under the floor was his treasure. There was a jar, sealed with wax that held hundreds of coins. He could see pennies, two and three cent coins, silver dollars and even a few gold five and ten dollar coins. From the dates that he could see all of the coins were of the civil war era, up until the mid 1880's.

He grabbed the jar and walked back downstairs. Thanking the women, he got into his car and drove off continuing his eastward journey.

Twenty miles down the road he was going through another little town when a farmer's market caught his eye. Of course, he stopped and started walking up and down the rows of vendors. There was everything there anyone could ever want. The Amish were there, with handcrafted baskets, jellies and organic vegetables. Farmers were there selling everything from their own produce to all-natural honey and candles made of pure bee's wax.

Joshua had spent nearly $100 on different things that caught his attention. His favorite was some honeysuckle honey from an old woman who probably spent her life at and this or any other farmer's markets somewhere in the area. Joshua usually paid $9.95 for an eight ounce jar, but that old woman was just so darn cute that he didn't mind paying the $9.95 price she asked. Then he saw a little girl carrying a bundle of flowers.

She was about ten years old, had fiery ginger hair which she had tied into pig tails that reached down past her shoulders. Her face was covered with freckles from the summer sun and she was wearing a cotton dress in pastel pink and violet. “Would you like to buy some flowers,” she asked with the most adorable smile.

Joshua was hooked. “How much are they darling,” he asked. She replied that they were 25 cents a piece or five for a dollar. He started looking through his money when his thought went back to a day when he was just 7 years old. He, along with his little brother and their friend, set up a Kool-aid stand in front of their house. They charged ten (s) cents for a small glass. Anyway, this car pulled up in front of them and asked for a glass and when Joshua asked for the ten cents the man gave him a dollar bill and told them to keep the change.

“My mother said that if I earn enough money this summer I can buy a bike,” said the little girl…

Joshua had the money in his hand. “I'll tell you what,” he said. “I take one flower.” He reached over and took beautiful rose, held it for a minute and broke the stem off and slid it gently into one of her pigtails. She laughed so hard, but the laughter ended and instead turned into the most beautiful smile when he handed her a ten dollar bill and told her to keep the change.

Week after week Joshua stopped at the same farmer's market just to buy one flower. He always paid with a ten dollar bill and refused any attempt of her's to give him any change.

The last week of the summer, the little girl, was at the market just as always except this time she didn't have any flowers, but the second she saw Joshua her face brightened and her freckles seems to dance on her face and her smile was back bigger than ever.

“Hello Little One,” Joshua said as he pat her on the head “How are you today?”

“I am doing great,” she replied. “I am so happy!”

“Did you get your bike,” he asked. Just then he could see a young boy, maybe five years old, riding a silver and red bike out of the corner.

“It was never for a bike for me,” she said. “My baby brother was born with a problem in his brain and the doctors said that he would never walk much less ride a bike. I promised him at the start of the summer that I would buy him a bike if he learned how to walk. We played and practiced all summer and then suddenly he stood up against a table and took two steps, so I got him the bike I promised him.

Joshua was so taken with the story that you could see tears running down his face, at her generosity and love for her little brother, and it got even worse when he found out that the little girl, due to her unselfish sacrifice, still didn't have a bike of her own.

“Do me a favor, please” he asked. “See that little purple flower next to those stairs.” She looked and saw the exact flower that he was looking at. “Now, Little One please pick it and bring it to me.” She did as he asked. It was a tiny little flower, no bigger than the eraser on a number 2 pencil.

He took the flower in his hand and broke the stem off. The little girl was watching and smiling the whole time. He took the stem and placed it gently in her ponytail just as he had done so many times.

“How much do I owe you,” he asked.

“Well Sir, it was always one flower for 25 cents,” she said with a smile.

“I don't have any change right now,” he said with a sad look on his face. “Will you wait right here while I get some change from the store across the street?” She said that she would wait. He was gone almost a half hour. Joshua made it a point to come into the park from behind her. “Now, close your eyes.” Once again she did as she was told and when she opened them Joshua was standing in front of her with a brand new mountain bike. “Little One I want you to have this so you can go riding with your brother.”

She had no idea what to say. She just stood there and looked at the bike while her brother rolled up beside her on his. Finally, Joshua broke the silence and told the little girl to keep the change. She said a quick thank you, but the joy on her face was one he would never forget, before she and her young brother rode off into the sunset.

Now, Joshua still drives by that farmer's market every once in a while. Occasionally during what was left of the nice weather he would still drive by. Once, he did see that little girl riding through the park. He stopped to say hi but, by the time he got out of the car she was already long gone. Still, he keeps on looking to see her with that ginger hair, freckles and her contagious smile just one more time. But, he never did sadly, in all the years, after that one very special summer.

In The Time Of Eiddoel Ohwydd

In The Time Of Eiddoel Ohwydd

by R.e. Taylor

On every planet in every galaxy throughout the universe, there is a time where the people celebrate the midpoint in the coldest time of the year, the point where day and night are the same length, where the dark time fades away, and the light takes over. On Earth, that time is called Christmas or the winter solstice. On the planet of Aragonia, it is called the Crystal Night.

Aragonia has a population of exactly 3,983,725,406 and out of that number 3,983,725,405 celebrate the holiday...as a matter of fact, it is the one day of the year, that the Aragonians most look forward to. Starting at sunrise, parties, parades and any kind of celebration you can think of takes place. It is a day where all of the races and species on the planet play together until the sun sets. It is then when a bonfire is lit in every town, village and city on the planet and they are kept burning until the sun rises once again. They are lit to honor the coming of longer days and life for the planet.

This is the story about that one person in Aragonia who does not like the Crystal Night. His name was Eiddoel Ohwydd, he was the 75 year old descendant of Aragonian royalty. His father, Emperor Renfrew VII, was known as the most generous leader the planet had ever seen. Every Crystal Night, Emperor Renfrew made sure that every house had a big meal and a supply of wood for the cold nights, and his mother, Empress Crystyn, made warm clothes through the year to keep them warm from (in) the bitter cold.

Eiddoel, on the other hand, was a miser, despite his station in life he felt that the planet owed him anything and everything he wanted without a thought to anyone else. He never gave anyone a single piece of brass, nor would he ever buy anyone a meal (lunch)...Not even his own mother and father, and he would laugh his head off at the suffering at anyone worse off than he was. To say that he was the opposite of his family was to be gracious...he was as rotten as a piece of meat that was left to spoil, and that is why his parents disowned him and left him destitute and living on the streets.

It wasn't too long before he managed to open a small shop. No one knew what he sold exactly, but he always managed to have whatever his customers wanted or needed. The thing was, his prices for everything, were at least twice what any other shop in the area charged, and he never ever allowed anyone to buy anything on credit, but he almost always had customers...especially in the time before Crystal Night. On the actual night, Eiddoel would keep his shop open, but his prices increased. Still he had customers. Eventually he became one of the richest men in the town.

Once the shop was closed he would wander the streets alone, mumbling and knocking little children to the ground as he passed. Then when he got home, he would order his servants to continue working throughout the night, as he went into his den and drank a full bottle of Darcasian rum, and as always he would pass out as the alcohol ran out.

The night of Crystal Night, Eiddoel did his usual ritual, but this time the rum hit him harder than usual. He was sitting in his chair watching his fish swim back and forth, when the alcohol hit him, he slumped down and fell into a deep sleep. It was so deep that his snoring could be heard more than a mile away, when suddenly he heard a voice in his room. Thinking it was one of his servants he just waved it off, but the voice became louder and more insistent.

“Eiddoel,” it yelled. “It is time that you come with me.” He woke up and stared at a shapeless black figure who was standing by his fireplace. “It is time.”

“Time for what,” Eiddoel asked.

“I have been watching you since you were a child and I do not like what you have turned into,” the figure said as it reached out its hand. “You have a lesson to learn.” Eiddoel felt powerless for the first time in his life as took the figure's hand and they walked together through a mirror at the other end of the room. When they emerged what Eiddoel saw was completely unfamiliar. It was Aragonia, but it was different.

“Where are we,” he asked.

“Do not ask questions,” the figure said in a very stern voice. “Just watch and think.”

In front of them was a boy, Eiddoel guessed that he was no more than 15 years old, he watched as the boy, wearing a large red cloak, went from child to child giving them pieces of chocolates, hard candies and some small toys. The boy never said a word. He just continued to do what he was doing, and as he did the faces of the younger children lit up with smiles wider than even the river that flowed just a block away. All of the shops were open, and some of them were handing out little tokens that the kids would grab and stash in their pockets before running into the darkness.

“See that boy,” the figure asked. “Do you know his name?”

“No...Should I,” he replied.

“No one ever knew his name,” the figure replied. “He did the same thing year after year. He never asked for a thank you and he never wanted fame. He just wanted the children to be happy for one day out of the year.”

“So,” Eiddoel asked.

“Because of him the holy day of Crystal Night was born. It was more than 1,000 years before you were ever a thought in your mother's dreams.”

“What happened to him,” Eiddoel asked.

“He died after a long life. He was never a rich man, but every year throughout his life he made sure that every child knew what it was like to have a smile. He lived, penniless for 373 seasons, and in his will he asked to be buried in an unmarked grave, and that wish was granted. It was the least the town could do for him.” He took Eiddoel by the hand, “Eiddoel, what was your Crystal Nights like? I know that you had more presents than you could handle, and you were like those children. You had a smile that would last for days. Now, come with me.” The figure pulled Eiddoel and the walked through another mirror.

They emerged into a world that Eiddoel knew all too well. Walking around were hundreds of children, most of them were crying and the others just looked catatonic.

“What is wrong with them,” Eiddoel asked.

“People like you, destroyed the true meaning of Crystal Night,” the figure said. “Everyone has lost the spirit of giving. You have made it so that profit has become more important than the happiness of even the youngest child.”

Eiddoel stood there looking at the children, they looked so sad, “But profit is what keeps our society going,” he said.

“Eiddoel, how could you look into their faces, into their eyes, and say that any amount of money that you have made or will make means anything compared to those helpless children?”

“Is this...,” Eiddoel asked.

“Yes...This is your Crystal Night,” the creature said. “There is your house up on the hill. It is impossible to see the suffering of the people down here when you put yourself so high above them.” Then it told Eiddoel to follow it, and it led him to the gates of his factory. They looked through the gate, and they saw hundreds of people working hard at their jobs. “Don't you think that those people would rather be at home with their children, celebrating Crystal Night in the best way they could?”

“I have to keep the company running,” Eiddoel said. “The town needs the income that I pay out.”

“Come with me,” the figure said in an extremely firm voice.

“Where are we going,” Eiddoel asked, as they walked into a store and stepped into a mirror.

The trip was fast and when they stepped out they were standing in the middle of a cemetery. In the distance was an area that was fenced out. Inside the fence were graves marked by simple wooden crosses. There were people there. Some of them were digging up the graves and piling the bodies onto a horse drawn cart. Others were placing newly dead bodies into the graves, where the bodies were removed. Surrounding the area were thousands of people...Most of them crying and shouting out their goodbyes to their families and friends.

Why are we here,” Eiddoel asked as he started shaking. He thought that it was because of the cold, but it was obviously summertime and the air was somewhere around 86 degrees so it couldn't have been that. Maybe it was nerves...Yes, he thought, that was what it was...It was nerves, and he could control that.

“Look at those people,” the figure commanded. “They are the ones who give you the life that you have, and they cannot even gain rest from their poverty even in death.” The figure grabbed Eiddoel's arm hard as he continued. “That is because of you Ohwydd. You have taken everything including their lives. Is worth being the way that you are when so many have to suffer for it?” Then he swung Eiddoel around, and he was then watching a funeral ceremony. There was only a priest and the coffin… and the priest was having trouble granting the soul eternal rest.

Eiddoel looked up at the tomb, It was as tall as a two story home and as wide as it was tall. It was made of sparkling black granite, and the doors were lined with gold and red gemstomes from a mine more than a thousand miles away. “Whose is this,” Eiddoel asked.

“Can't you tell,” the figure asked. Eiddoel stood there for a moment and didn't say a word. Irritated the figure grabbed Eiddoel and threw him to the edge of the grave. The casket was open out of tradition...It was closed only after all of the right prayers were said. Eiddoel's eyes opened, and he was looking into his own face and eyes.

“I'm dead,” Eiddoel asked. “That can't be me. I was alive when we left.”

“Eiddoel, that was a year ago,” the figure said. “You died three days ago, and this is your funeral and your tomb. Doesn't it please you?”

“No it doesn't,” Eiddoel said. “Where are all my friends and my family? I know that my kids would be at my funeral...They loved me more than anyone else ever could.”

“They are fighting over who gets your money,” the figure said with a laugh. “All of them want everything they can so, just like their father. Look over there,” he said pointing at the poor section of the cemetery. They have so many people who will miss them, and will love them, even after they have died. You get a priest and a tomb that is twice as large as their houses.”

“Why,” Eiddoel asked

“Because you have a life of hurting those who depended on you,” it said. “You deserve, what life has given you.”

“How old was I,” he asked.

“You were 378 seasons when you died.” Eiddoel started crying. This was completely out of his nature, but he couldn't help it. “You died of sloth, greed, envy and gluttony. But you do not have to.” Then there was a flash of light and Eiddoel was back in his chair. He was drooling, and his neck was sore, but at least he was back at home.

He looked through his living room window and could see the children of the town lined up against the company's gate. It was the night before Crystal Night, and he could see everything. They were all kissing and hugging their fathers and mothers through the metal bars. In the distance, he could see the cemetery with the mourners standing over the graves offering gifts and singing songs to their family members and again he cried.

The next morning he closed the factory and walked down to the town square. There was 3 feet of fresh snow on the ground. He told some of the people there to gather everyone up...He wanted to talk to them. It took about an hour to get everyone together.

“I have been a tyrant,” he started. “I have been killing this town and all of the people. Starting at this moment I am giving the company to the people who work there. I will just keep a one percent ownership to have money to live on. Other than that the money will go to the people. I will move into a small house in town. The house on the hill is going to the kids of the town so that they may have a decent school where they can learn and grow.” He pointed toward the cemetery. “Those people who are buried in the poorer section of the cemetery, will be moved and given a decent, free funeral, and there will be no bodies ever removed from their graves, ever again.”

The crowd was more than excited, you could hear the celebration throughout the entire town, and within a few minutes Eiddoel Ohwydd went from the most hated man alive, to the savior of not only the town, but the entire planet.

He thought back to that creature and everything he had been told. He did change his life, and the lives of everyone he could see… and when he died 80 seasons later he was buried in a plain grave with a small stone to mark its place. But when he died he had 10,000 mourners at his grave site. No one knew whether Eiddoel was happy or not, but he did good, and he was buried with a smile on his face and thousands of flowers in his casket, and he will be remembered.

The German/English Glitch

I've had the same little laptop for more that six years now. Everyone jokes with me about it being a “dinosaur”. Well, maybe it is but it has traveled all around the world with me. It has helped me study and learn other languages, helped me talk to my family at home and it even has every one of my travel pictures stored in a Zip file hidden deep on the hard drive...which is the only upgrade I have lovingly made on the machine. After all a five hundred megabyte drive isn't much use now-a-days. Basically, it has been my companion and friend for the last six years.

It was back in 2006. I had spent a year traveling around Europe when I met a young fraulein named Edith in a small town south of Munich. It was love at first sight so I took a job with an English language newspaper in Munich. Now, German wasn't a language that I was strong in. I knew enough to get along and maybe get my face slapped but that was about all so I picked up a CD Rom that taught the German language in about a month. Needless to say it did work and I went out feeling secure that I could do interviews with Germans in their own language.

The thing was about that program you had to install set of files on the computer and they remained there even after you were done using the program.

My first article was with a brewer down on Oberunger by the Marrianplatz. Actually, the interview went very well. My German was strong and, since he couldn't speak English I did the entire interview in German...including writing his responses not in English but in German.

The brewer told me about his beers, his awards and lastly his new oatmeal/rye beer that would, as he said, “would sweep every competition in Germany, in Europe as well as in America.” Then he took me on a tour and we spent a couple hours drinking beer and talking about beer. It was fun but I had to get the article done so I excused myself and went back home to write.

The article had to be 2,000 words and I had to have it done by 4:30 so I kissed Edith, grabbed a sandwich and locked myself in my office, which doubled as our bedroom but it worked well in either situation. It didn't take long...about an hour...but I got it done and emailed off to my boss I had it done at 2:30 so I went down and watched some TV with Edith.

A few minutes later I heard an alarm going off on the computer. I rushed in and saw that there was an email from my boss. I opened it and it just had two sentences. It said, “Are you being funny sending me your article in German? Rewrite and send in English od don't expect to write any anymore for us!

I quickly got to my emails and opened the one I sent to my boos. I opened the file and saw that it was written as I had written it. It was there and it was in German. “What in the hell,” I said. Then I opened the file that I had saved on my desktop and it too was written in German. “I know I wrote this in English,” I yelled.

Then I decided to perform a test. I wrote a small sentence into my word processor. It read, “The dog ran across the grass.” Then I saved it to my computer. Okay, I thought, that should work. But when I opened the file I saw that it read...”Der Hund lief über den Rasen.” That was strange and there was no explanation as to why it would re-write itself.

I spent the rest of the day and all of the night trying to figure out what was going on. I called some computer expert friends of mine and they couldn't offer any help. Finally, a teenager from next door, who had heard me yelling, came over and he told me that the German language program I had used put a translation program into my computer so that anything I wrote would automatically be rewritten into German. Then he came up with an idea that, for all the pain of this glitch, it could be fixed rather easily.

He and I went down to a computer store and looked around until we found what we wanted...an English language program from the same publisher. We thought that if it worked one way it just may work in the opposite way once it was installed.

I got home, installed the program and rewrote the article, in German this time. I didn't wait. I just emailed it right off to the newspaper. A minute later I got this email, “Even though you are late, thank you for rewriting the article. At least now I can read it. Will send your next assignment tomorrow.”

The thing is, for it being a pain in the butt glitch, it worked rather well. If I was writing to a German I would type the letter in English and mail it off and the same if I am writing to a person who speaks English. The message would be written in German and received in English.

All I can say is that if programmers keep making glitches it make make communicating between countries a lot easier.  

Mission To Mars

Mission to Mars

by Robert Taylor

DAY 1

APRIL 2, 2037

ENTRY 1

13:52:35

I cannot believe my luck. I am the first person to travel to Mars and back. I was told that they had developed a new engine that will make me go faster than any person from Earth had ever gone. I should make it to Mars in about a month, circle it a couple of times and then be back here in time for the 4^th of July. Won't that be great! The problem will be I will miss Easter. It is little Laurie's first one and I would really love to be there to share it with her but I should be far from Earth by the time Easter comes along. I left her a recording on the computer where I told her how much I love her and how much I miss her. I just hope that her mom will read it to her. Well, it is almost time to launch so I have things to do. I do hope that this goes well.

ENTRY 2

17:23:01

Lift off went as expected. They can simulate all they want but there is nothing that will train you for the stress and the sounds of lift off. I am now in orbit 564 miles from Earth and traveling at roughly 18,000 miles per hour. Great Britain, Germany, Russia and China have flown by the window in the last 20 minutes. No one who doesn't come up here will believe how beautiful our planet is. I have two days to orbit Earth before I start the trip to Mars. God, I hope I can see my house when I fly over it. I know that I can't but it is nice to imagine that I can.

DAY 4

APRIL 4, 2037

05:15:45

ENTRY 1

Today is the day. I just got off a talk with Mission Control. Everything is going fine and the burn is set to take place at 05: 45:12. That gives me a half hour to get my last looks at Earth for some time to come. I can see a hurricane starting up in the Atlantic. I sure hope that it doesn't hit Florida too hard. This will be the first one that they will go through without me there to protect them.

ENTRY 2

06:02:15

The 60 second burn took place right on schedule. I am on my way to Mars. Honestly, I can't believe it...I was chosen. Now all I can do is look back and watch the Earth disappear behind me. Believe me it is hard to see but this mission has to be done.

DAY 31

MAY 3, 2037

ENTRY 1

08:35:12

God, it is so lonely out here. Yeah, I get messages from Earth but nothing else. I would love to have a call from Steph but having a conversation is next to impossible because of the distance. I never realized how important Laurie and Steph are to me. They are so far away. No one has ever been this far away before. They surely don't know how to train you for this. Next week is Easter. I hope that Laurie gets something good. I brought a chocolate egg with me so I can imagine that I am here eating candy with her. I wonder...did Steph play that tape I made for Laurie. I know she won't understand but it was more for me than it was for her. I close my eyes and I can see her smile...I can see her smile.

DAY 28

May 4, 2037

ENTRY 1

20:56:38

I am here at last. I am the first human being to see Mars this close. It is amazing...it really it. There are mountains and valleys, things that look like rivers flowing down from the polar areas. God, it is beautiful. I can see faint clouds, red clouds but clouds none the less, floating across the surface. That was something that no one ever saw from Earth. I am scheduled for ten orbits. I'm going to take as many pictures as I can before I leave. They are not going to believe this at home!

ENTRY 2

21:30:15

The rocket just fired and I am finally out of Martian orbit. God, it was so beautiful. I took more than 100 pictures. I cannot wait to show them to Steph...she is going to be so happy. I miss them so much. I have never been away from her for so long. I look out the front window and I can see the Earth, It is just a small blue dot in space but it is home. I can't wait to feel grass again. Yeah, I am suffering from major cabin fever but I can't go outside to cure it and the sun isn't giving me enough light to get rid of the feeling of loneliness. If I could hear her voice or see a picture of how much Laurie has changed it would help but I don't think mission control is going to go for that. Dammit, I should have brought a picture with me but we hadn't taken one yet. God, I am a freaking idiot. Oh well, 30 more days and I will be holding her again.

DAY 39

May 29, 2037

ENTRY 1

11:23:56

I am well on my way home. I heard something strange this morning. There was a loud bang that came from the back of the ship and I saw some metal fragments fly passed the window. I don't know what it was but the Earth is still in front of me. Radar says that I am traveling at more than 155,000 miles an hour. The way I figure it I am still about 115 million kilometers from earth it is very possible that I should be home on time. I wonder if Laurie remembers me? It has been so long since I have seen her. I know that I am low on fuel. I am not sure how much I have left. I hope it is enough to make it back home....I can just hope. That is all I have left.

ENTRY 2

18:35:45

Whatever that was it damaged the ship. I still have power and life support but I have been knocked off course by 10 degrees. With the distance I have yet to travel I may miss Earth entirely. I will try some maneuvering thrusters to see if I can get back on course. A five minute burn should get back on course. If it doesn't burn long enough I will miss Earth and if it burns too long I will crash, most likely in the Pacific. I know one thing...it would not be good to strike the ocean at the speed I am traveling. I can only hope that. I have to do everything just right.

ENTRY 3

19:21:00

Just received a message from Mission Control. They said that I was struck by a micrometeor that ruptured the skin of the ship. They also said that their computers show that I have enough fuel for one try at correcting my course after that I am at the mercy of space. I am so glad that I am them only one on this mission. I could not stand myself if there were others on board. Yeah, I have been lonely and I do miss my family but if things don't work...I am the only one to give up my life.

ENTRY 4

19:35:21

I just did the burn. I was going to run it for 5 minutes. That was what the computer said that I had to do to correct my course. The burn only lasted for 1:30...not near enough to make the correction. I am going to try to release oxygen through the vents to try and turn the ship. I doubt that it will work but I have to try.

ENTRY 5

20:01:45

It worked just a little. Still a few degrees off course. I am hoping that Mission Control can come up with something up to correct this. The good news is that I still have enough air to make it home.

DAY 64

JUNE 6, 2035

ENTRY 1

08:27:00

I am getting more and more anxious. Mission Control hasn't come up with anything yet. They said that they may send a mission to rescue me but I doubt that it would work. I am going faster than anything they have setting around. It is going to be so close. I can see the Earth coming toward my ship. It is so beautiful and blue. Even the storms over the Atlantic are making my heart beat stronger. I want to go home. I want to kiss Steph and I want to hold Laurie. Why did I volunteer to take this mission. I didn't land. I took pictures. A fucking robot could have done the same thing. What am I going to do?

ENTRY 2

12:45:15

I got a message today. Mission Control let me talk to Stephanie. It was only for 5 minutes but for me it was forever. I love her so much. How could this be happening to me. I looked out the window and the Earth is so close I could reach out and touch it...I could reach out and touch Steph.

DAY 65

JUNE 7, 2037

ENTRY 1

13:45:01

I am watching the Earth fly by me. The corrections didn't work that well. The computer's telling me that I am still 125,000 from Earth. The funny thing is...the Earth is on my right and the moon is on my left and I can't land on either one of them. My family is so close and I can't see them...I can't hold them...but I can love them and I always will.

ENTRY 2

18:51:42

I am going to shoot this record out of one of the vents. I hope that someone someday finds this and if they do soon enough I pray that they will they will make a copy and give it to Laurie to listen to when she gets old enough. Laurie, I love you and I always will. You were just a baby when I left but please know that you will always be in my heart. Tell your mom that I love her. I just have one more thing before I open the hatch. This path will take me past the Earth and into the inner planets. I would rather die in the light of my home than on some deserted ball of rock. I miss my family and I miss my planet. Good bye to all. I am opening the hatch so I have one second to say....

© Robert Taylor 2012 

Party Of All Parties

When you're in high school and college you get invited to parties every Friday and Saturday nights and, if you're really lucky, maybe one or two on the weekends. Now, the parties can and will range from a quiet get together where everyone discusses the newest books to hit the Barnes & Noble to a frat party where more than a thousand college and high school students will pass through the door and leave a lot drunker than they were when they got there. Of course there were women at the drat parties so, once they got drunk, no one left who didn't have a smile across their face.

The thing was there was another kind of party and that was that hid away. No one would ever admit going there. They were impossible to find and, if you were blessed, you'd get a cell phone 15 minutes before the party started with directions how to find them. All that I heard about them was that the party turned into a freakin' blast and it was a very exclusive crowd.

I was a junior in high school when I started going to the many parties around town and eventually I got the reputation of being young but being one of the strongest party animals in Cleveland. My name is Randall Thornton but everyone who was worth knowing me called me R.T.. In a lot of places if you said you were a friend of R.T.'s you were on the VIP list and you were limited to that crap kids drank...you could get the good stuff that got you drunk in half the time..

About the time I got to college had outgrown even me. I was invited to every party anyone was holding. I went to about half of them and ignored. Then one Friday night I got the call I was waiting for. It was a man giving me direction to a warehouse down in The Flats. “Don't tell anyone else about this. You have to come alone. We have a full night of entertainment planed for tonight,” the voice said. He didn't give me a chance to ask any questions or say anything. He stopped talking and the line went dead.

A friend of mine wasn't standing too far away. He and I had plans to go over to Delta Tau Chi later that night...after all they always had the hottest girls and the most booze but I had other plans.

“Who was that.” he asked. “I didn't hear you say a word,”

I knew that I had to lie and make it a big one. I thought a second and come up with something that he might just believe. “That was the girl from town,” I said. “She calls me all the time to play me her new favorite song.”

“What song was it this time,” he asked with a kind of laugh in his voice.

“I don't know some song by Katy Perry,” I said. “God, I am getting so tired of getting calls from her.” I had to make an excuse to get away from him so I pretended that I was angry. “I'm going over there and tell her face to face that I don't like the music she is sending me and tell her to stop. He offered to go over with me but I told him that it would be better if I went by myself. He reluctantly agreed and told me where he was going to be later that night. Of course I told him that I would meet him but I really wasn’t sure if I would or not.

I had just about 10 minutes to make it 14 blocks so I hopped in my car and took off. I did 60 all the way across town. Running red lights and shooting through stop signs I made it with a couple minutes to spare. Thinking back now I was risking my life just to get to a party but God knows that I made it safe and I was going in.

There was a bouncer at the door and he wasn't checking IDs. When I got to the door he asked for my cell phone so I took it out of my pocket and handed it to him. Now, he never said a word after that. He looked at my received calls and then opened the door and let me in.

Inside it was dark...very dark. There was a string of red neon tubes as well as along the ceiling. On each table was a small candle that lit the entire table. I don't see how but it did. As my eyes cleared I could see more. The walls were decorated in black. I could see the edges of stone but even they were black. Gargoyles watched from every corner of the room and the strangest thing of all...there was a huge vulture resting on a perch on the bar.

I was too busy looking at the decor to notice the people. They were strange to say the least. There were about 200 people in the place and it looked like it was pretty much even. There seemed to be just as many women as there were men. The thing was, outside of a few of us nearly every one of them had pale skin.

“R. T.,” I heard a woman say from the bar. “I am honored to have you at our party. Please mingle and get to know some of us...I am sure you will have fun.”

The thing was I didn't know her. I never even met a woman with the eye color she had. They were pure white. No definition at all...just white spheres and, man, that was freakin' strange.

“We have a full bar,” she continued. “Since this is your first night there is no charge for anything for you.” I thanked her and, just as quickly as she appeared, she disappeared into the crowd.

I got me a Bloody Mary and started walking around. I do have to say that they did have women and they were all sexier than any model I had seen anywhere and they seemed eager to please because there was a constantly a flow of men and women going through a set of doors at the left end of the bar. I had to know so I stopped one of the waitresses and asked her what was behind the door.

She smiled at me and kissed me so hard that she bit my lip. I tasted my blood coming from a small gash on my lip before she answered in a very sexual accent. “Darling,” she said as she licked my blood from her lip. “That room is where you go when you want to experience pure, unlimited nirvana. No one who goes in comes out exactly the same.” Then she kissed me again and I felt her tongue parting my lips. It was the most passionate kiss I ever got from a woman I didn't know.

I hung out for a while and talked to some of the other people. All in all it was a fairly nice party. The people were strange but friendly, like I said the girls were hot and the drinks, although the Bloody Marys tasted funny, were for the most part as good as any bar in town.

A few of the girls tried getting me to go through the door with them but since this was my first time I just wanted to see what the party and the people were like. I was there until about 3 a.m. And when I tried to leave the woman who talked to me when I came in stopped me.

“R. T.., what did you think of my party,” she asked. I told her that I had a lot of fun but I had to go. “We'll have another one next week. I will call you to let you know when and where.” I asked her if I could bring a friend and her answer was short and sweet. “No...you have to be invited. We know your friends and none of them are worthy to be invited. Maybe one day I will invite one of them but not today or tomorrow.”

I didn't say another word except to thank for the invite but before I got out of the door she reminded me that I was not to tell anyone about what I had seen or heard. “We do not want our parties to be known by anyone who is not one of us.” I just nodded my head and got my ass out of there.

It was a hard week for me. I couldn't stand the waiting...waiting for the phone to ring to give me the time and location of the next party.

Of course, my friend was bugging me all week to find out where I disappeared. He was quickly approaching the verge of madness but I never said a word about what I had seen. It was, to a large part, that I was listening to what that woman told me but also I really didn't think that he would believe me and if he did, even just a little bit, he would follow me and try to crash the party and I wasn't sure how they would react to that. It may come down to he, I or both got hurt or even worse. They did seem like nice people but some of the nastiest mass murderers ever seemed like nice people until they were pushed too far and I didn't want to take a chance.

Finally, on Saturday I got the call. The party was being held in the basement of one of the buildings down at Public Square. I knew the building and there was a club on the first floor so, although there would be thousands of people walking around no one would notice anyone walking into the building.

I didn't care about driving. I was going to have a few more drinks so I hopped on the RTA and took the train into town. It was just a 10 minute ride so I was going to have plenty of time to get to the party and maybe find out what all was going on behind that door. The more I had thought about it during the week the more I needed to find out and it was going to be tonight.

I got to the door a full 3 minutes before it was going to be locked. The doorman looked at me and immediately said, “Mr. R.T. It is so very nice to see you tonight. There is so much going on in there I know you will have fun.” I just nodded at him and said that I was sure I would and I went in.

The woman I spoke to the week before wasn't there so I just walked over to the bar and ordered a Bloody Mary. It tasted the same as the ones I had earlier but there was still something strange about them that I just couldn't put my finger on. As soon as I took my second sip a woman walked over to me.

Her skin was pale as the others'. Her hair was long and wild. It was also black. Now, I am not talking about the brown black that most people have. Her hair was indigo blue black. As a matter of fact I could see that there was a few small streaks of actual blue in the front of her hair. She was dressed in all black and it was like a tight cat suit with some studs around the wrists and neck. She also had black eye liner and lipstick to round out her appearance. Wait, I forgot one thing...she had a pair of earrings that were shaped like cobras with faceted rubies in their eyes and their mouths open showing some really nasty looking fangs. Even with all that she was a knockout so I decided to start talking to her.

“Hello R. T.,” she said. I had no idea who she was but I let her keep talking. “I hope that you are having fun so far tonight.” I nodded that I was having fun. She smiled at me and got very close...close enough to whisper in my ear. “Well, if you want we can get together and I know that I will change your life.”

“How,” I asked.

“Just give me 15 minutes and I swear that you will be changed,” she said as her smile got bigger. Then she kissed me more passionately than the woman had the week before but it was oh so much more fun. At least this one didn't bite me but what she did do was get me another Bloody Mary and, as she did, she kissed me again and just walked away.

Now, I was a normal boy. It was so hard not to follow her right then and take her through that door. While I was standing there at least 7 men walked in through that door but the funny thing was only the women came back out. I did notice that some of the women were taking two, maybe three, men into that room.

I was talking to myself. “Is this some kind of a brothel,” I asked. What in the hell was going on in there.

I stood there a couple of hours just watching. It was so strange. I had hosted a lot of parties in my young life but whenever we had a room like that...whoever when it was damn sure to come out. I made sure that nothing this strange ever took place. Something like that could ruin a party goer’s reputation.

During all of that time I was hit on by so many women it was actually silly but I wanted the girl that I had met earlier but I had a lot of trouble finding her. Finally, I was over by the door and she approached me. “Are you ready,” she asked with a big smile on her face. I nodded my head and she opened the door.

Behind the door was a hallway with three black doors on each side. They were black which was a stark contrast to the blood red carpet and walls. We walked to the second door on the left hand side and as she opened it another woman walked out of the room next to it. They shared a slight smile as they passed and from what I could see the lipstick on the one...not mine...was smeared. I had an idea what she was doing but I wasn't since a man never came out of that room...at least not one I could see.

Anyway, she held the door open as I walked in. Inside the walls were the same red as the hallway and inside the room was a bar, a couch and a single candle lighting the room. The funny thing about it was that the flame was not orange/yellow the way most flames are...it was a black flame that still put out enough light that made it easy to see.

“R. T. please sit on the couch.” she said as she crossed the room. “You are going to experience things that you have never dreamed of before.” She smiled as she slowly removed the cat suit and let it fall to the floor. Her body was beautiful to say the least. The light reflected on her skin so that she looked like a living diamond and her bra and panties were made of the sheerest lace I believe could ever be made by man.

I did as she said and walked over to the couch as she walked over to the bar to pour us each a drink. I don't know what it was but the second I drank it all of my senses were heightened to a point where I could hear music coming from the party just as if it had been playing in that room. The only thing was that all of my inhibitions disappeared just as fast.

I laid back on the couch as she walked over and kissed me as her hands held me tight to the back of the couch. “I hope you like this,” she said as she straddled my waist wrapping her legs in with mine. “I really do think that you will like this.” I wanted to say that I was sure I would but I was totally speechless. My eyes closed as my body reacted to her sensuality.

Her nails clawed into my shoulders and I could feel the blood flowing down. She ripped the sleeves off of my shirt and began kissing the wounds, letting her tongue clean the blood that was flowing from my body. Then she tipped my head back and she drove her teeth into the side of my neck. It was very, very painful but it was more erotic than it was hurtful. I could feel my heartbeat and the blood flowing through my arteries. It was warm as it left my body. I wanted her to have all of it. My life was hers. She drank, rather fed, from me for several minutes. I wasn't sure exactly how long but I knew I didn't want it to stop but she did and all she could say was, “Please come and see me again. This will be better every time you come here.” Then she just left, closing the door behind her.

I was there for about 18 minutes until I got my strength back and was able to move. I opened the door and was escorted out of a door. The door opened and I was back in the parking lot near the back of the building. I went back a few more times and I went into the room with a different woman every time. They would feed from me and then leave me just as that first one did.

The last time I went as a guest I found that I didn't want to go into the room with one of women I had seen so often. I had developed a hunger that I could not explain and my skin was not light brown that I was so proud of. It had turned as pale as most of the people attending those parties.

I started taking the young women who had come and did not know what this place was. I would take them and feed from them just as I had been fed upon. Some nights I would feed on 10 or 12 women in one night and that would just barely cure my hunger.

Now, I am not warning you not to come to the party but if you get a strange phone call early on a weekend evening telling you a place and a time for the party of parties....take care. It could be me looking for someone to feed up. I do promise that you will enjoy the experience but your life will never be the same.

© Robert Taylor 2012