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What is your favorite kind of spirit?

Elves/Fairies/Elementals 0.18518518518519 18.5% [ 10 ]
Extraterrestrials 0.037037037037037 3.7% [ 2 ]
Dragons 0.055555555555556 5.6% [ 3 ]
Ghosts/Poltergeists 0.037037037037037 3.7% [ 2 ]
Deities 0.074074074074074 7.4% [ 4 ]
Angels/Spirit Guides 0.2962962962963 29.6% [ 16 ]
Vampires/Werewolves 0.092592592592593 9.3% [ 5 ]
Thought Forms/Mythical Entities 0.037037037037037 3.7% [ 2 ]
Demons 0.14814814814815 14.8% [ 8 ]
Animal Totems 0.037037037037037 3.7% [ 2 ]
Total Votes:[ 54 ]
< 1 2 3 4 5 6 >

Reincarnated_Alphonse
Undercover Yuuki
I may do this once I'm done revamping my thread


That would certainly be awesome! smile
smile

Rainbow Heckler

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I wrote an entry for the contest but...I kinda went overboard with it and really let my imagination go. I had so much fun writing it that I didn't know if I would ever stop and now it's, uh, five and a half pages long. sweatdrop Would you rather I post it up here or PM it to you?

Invisible Friend

Hikaru Seishin
I wrote an entry for the contest but...I kinda went overboard with it and really let my imagination go. I had so much fun writing it that I didn't know if I would ever stop and now it's, uh, five and a half pages long. sweatdrop Would you rather I post it up here or PM it to you?


Haha, that's your decision. It's still small enough that it can be posted in a thread, though there's a chance that it may need to be split between multiple posts. You just do what you're most comfortable with. Either send it to me, or post it here. We don't mind either way. smile

Take care, and congrats on entering the contest!

Melissa

Rainbow Heckler

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Alrighty! Then I'll just stick it on here...

Keys

“In every world, there is something called a key. Where there is a key, there is a secret waiting to be unlocked.”

It was something my mother always used to say. Back then, I’d always dismissed it as one of my mom’s favourite quotes. She had always been interested in what other people had to say. Being a lawyer, I guess she would be. But that’s not the point. Ever since I was little, I noticed things that nobody else did. The only person to ever believe me was my mother, and it was when I told her about what I kept seeing that she would tell me this. I never understood what she had meant until the night when our worlds would become one for just the night.

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

I was heading to dance classes on a beautiful fall day. It was close to Halloween and I was pumped. I was chattering excitedly about how I was going to be the scariest zombie on the block and no one would ever recognize me because they all thought I was going to be some kind of princess. I was never into that stuff, ever. As my mother listened to my ramblings, she smiled and said those words to me. It was a strange time for her to be saying it, but I only dismissed it and continued on with my childish rant.

As we crossed an intersection, I looked out the window to my left and saw a dull red car come barrelling towards us. The next thing I knew was that my car was upside down and my mom was nowhere to be found. Everything was throbbing and I was too dazed to realize that I should’ve be sobbing or crying or screaming for help. All I could register in my mind was that my mom was gone and that I couldn’t move. So, I closed my eyes again. I began to drift off into endless sleep.

But that’s not how this story ends.

I heard my mother’s voice say my name, “Allegra.” I weakly opened my eyes. I still didn’t know where she was, but then I heard a masculine voice mumble something. It took a moment for me to realize that they were arguing with each other. But over what?

“I will not hand her over to you! My daughter is not to be a part of your twisted world!” More mumbling. Then, “It’s true that I told you that. However, I never told you who you could whisk away. Take me instead.” The other voice sounded slightly panicky, but by then my mind was too muddled to register anything more than voices. A moment after the voices stopped, I felt something cold slip around my neck. My mother’s warm voice seemed to curl around me and the pain faded slightly. “I love you, Allegra. We’ll see each other again. This I promise.”

The chilly fall wind blew through the open windows of our trashed car, and I slept again. The next time I woke up, it was to bright lights and my father’s melancholy face which immediately morphed into a bright hopeful one. He asked me, “Allegra, how are you feeling?”

I croaked out in my tiny, little voice, “Is Halloween over?”

Over the years, people had considered the possibility that my mom had gotten away safely and that she was still out there somewhere. There was no body, so she couldn’t be considered dead. However, there was a lot of blood and it was confirmed that it was hers. That was the only thing she left. Witnesses said that she was talking to a man and that they ran off together, but we knew better than that. My mom had told me that people only saw what they wanted to see, so I subconsciously knew that it was an illusion. It seems my dad also knew this, maybe because my mom would tell him stories of her encounters with the strange figures I continued seeing. So, there was no trail, no scent, nothing. To this day, she’s still considered missing.

Years later, I was absent-mindedly playing around with the necklace my mom gave me - her last gift. There were three charms on the chain, all keys: one was of diamond, the other of silver, and the third was fashioned from brass. Fiddling around with it was a habit of mine. I can’t think without fidgeting with something.

It was Halloween again, and around this time was when the hallucinations really started to get bad. They were everywhere I went! In the living room, swarming around the kitchen, playing video games downstairs (without the volume of course; they don’t like getting caught). I even saw one taking a bath in my bathroom once! It was just lucky that my dad happened to be out of the house at the moment.

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my house?!” I flipped when I saw him. A blue skinned boy with the tail of a shark was just lazing around in the bathtub where I was going to be because this was my bathroom and I didn’t want to share it with some creepy blue kid in a shark costume. Even if he was just an illusion, it still creeped me out.

“I’m Eric and I’m taking a bath. What else would I be doing in a bathtub?” He – “Eric” – simply rolled his eyes and leaned back. Well, I wasn’t going to take that. I immediately got a bottle of hairspray and squirted some in his eyes. It definitely did the trick – Eric squealed like a donkey and disappeared in a cloud of sparkly blue smoke. It made me question whether or not sharks could actually make that sound.

As the moon began to rise, I found myself feeling strangely calm. I breathed in the scent of the night air and surveyed the bonfires in the field from my spot on the roof. As the sky darkened, the moon shone brighter and I started to feel jittery like every other Halloween. I hopped up onto my feet and started to climb down the trellis on the side of my house. There was something different about today; a strange feeling was creeping its way up my back, sort of like a banana slug crawling up your arm, only freakier.

Before I left the house, I took my Blackberry and slipped into a fleecy, too-large zip-up I could probably live in. My dad didn’t mind my leaving the house as long as he could get a hold of me, so I quietly slipped out the front door, the security system announcing my departure.

All this pent-up energy in me had to go somewhere, so I put it to good use. I sprinted across the front lawn and into the bonfire field, my long legs taking me nowhere. Being a basketball player, I knew how to run and it was one of the things I did best. I kept sprinting far after I passed the limit of the bonfires’ light. The elation I felt with having all this energy, all this power I had over myself, was intoxicating and I didn’t want to stop.

When I finally did skitter to an abrupt pause, it was because I found myself at the top of a cliff fifteen feet above the ocean. Strangely, I didn’t remember much about the trip here. It was all a blur. When I turned to head back the way I came, however, the forest was blanketed by a thick, purple haze. I figured it was just smoke from the fires and I ran back through it.

Only to find myself standing at the edge of the cliff where I started.

This is when I really started to panic. The haze had begun to close around me and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. If I couldn’t go back and I didn’t want to try diving into the water, where was I supposed to go?! I couldn’t fly! Then again, if I were to fly it would make commuting much easier.

Ding! A bell went off. No, I meant it literally. The sound snapped me out of my panicked reverie and I listened for it again. A heartbeat later I heard it, but this time they sounded more like wind chimes. The only problem was, it was underground. So, I dropped to my knees and started searching around in the grass as the haze began to choke me.

Then, I found it. Just before I could lose consciousness, I felt something small catch at my fingernail. I ripped away the grass to find a shape that looked oddly like a keyhole. I didn`t get why something like that would be there, but I didn`t care. My hands found their way to my necklace and I slipped it off. I jammed in the brass key and, to my surprise, I was able to turn it. I had no idea what I was doing, but it felt right.

A hole opened up beneath me and I fell in, screaming hell and yelling out words that shouldn’t ever be said. This tunnel went on forever before I hit something hard and I continued sliding down. It went left, right, up, down, up again and after a while I lost my sense of direction and I started feeling a little sick. After what seemed like two whole lifetimes, I finally hit the bottom. Still screaming of course.

“Lady Allegra? Lady Allegra Reali?” In the tangle of music – the source of the wind chimes – I picked out my own name being called. I reached out my hand towards the darkness and they found a wall. I slowly stood up, glad that none of my bones had broken on the slide down. I crept along the wall until I bumped into something with my shoulder. I carefully moved my hand over to it and found that it wasn’t a wall. It had skin, shoulders, a face…I jerked my hands back to my chest.

Luminous crystals in hundreds of different colours on the walls and ceiling slowly brightened. Slowly twirling around, I took in my surroundings. The tunnel was made of dark, polished granite with bits of quartz, feldspar, mica, and hornblende sprinkled in it. The floor was made of glass that ran like water and thin layer of fog swirled around my feet, adding to the watery effect of the floor.

“Are you okay?” I whirled back to the voice and took a couple of hurried steps back. I had no idea who this guy was, but I was sure that he wasn’t human. He had slightly tanned skin and gorgeous emerald eyes with bits of gray here and there. His hair was a bit long and it was a dark caramel colour that definitely complemented his eyes. His ears weren’t rounded like a humans, but pointed like an elf’s might be. The guy looked like he was seventeen. Everything about him said graceful and deadly. That’s when I realized that these people weren’t illusions; I could still feel his warmth on my hands.

I nodded, somewhat stiffly, and proceeded to walk past him. Now that I was away from the forest that nearly killed me, I had to find my way home. I didn’t need a stranger to find out where I lived. I figured that walking down the tunnel would be a good start and had just decided I would do just that when he stopped me again. But this time, without touching me.

I heard him raise his hand and I felt something in my upper back snap. I fell forward and landed face-first into a pile of dirt. He stepped in front of me and gently lifted my chin up so that I could look at him. “You really are hard-headed, aren’t you?”

“I haven’t said anything to you! How can you assume that?” I retorted. Glaring didn’t seem to have any effect on him, but I did it anyway. When I tried to move, I found that I couldn’t feel anything from where my back had snapped and he saw the panic in my eyes. Sighing, he gently picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. “HEY! Don’t just treat me like I’m some kind of potato sack!”

He began to walk silently through the tunnels that gradually turned into halls. Well, they had better acoustics than where I had first entered and my voice carried rather well so all I could hear were my insults and a bit of the music I had heard earlier and I continued vociferating because it was all I could do. I have to admit, he took it rather well.

I kept hollering at him even after I noticed that there were more of his kind. That’s the only I way I can describe them as I had yet to learn what they called themselves. There were many different beings there that I can’t accurately describe with words. Some were like fairies with sparkling wings, brightly tinted skin and large, bug-like eyes. Others were more elf-like, sort of like what green-gray-eyed boy here was like. Some were very pale, others with skin as dark as the night, but they were all beautiful and moved with such astonishing grace. There were goblins and dwarves drinking some really thick and interesting-looking fluid that wasn’t really wine and wasn’t really tar. It smelled like all kinds of different fruit and it was obviously making them more obnoxious than they were the times that I met them. The rest were half of an animal like Eric the Shark/Boy thing and they were conversing happily with the other beings.

We continued past them, many stopping in their excited chatter to point and laugh at my misery. It seemed like they knew me, but I’ve met so many of them in my lifetime that I couldn’t remember who I’d met and who I had yet to greet. Eventually, the elf carrying me came to a halt and I turned my head to see why he had stopped. There were guards in front of what looked like an entranceway and they let him pass after exchanging words in a language I had never heard before. Once inside, he gently propped me up against the wall in a sitting position and said a single word. Warmth flooded into me and I was able to feel my arms and legs again. I stood up, leaning against the wall for support and glared again at the elf.

“I’m sorry that you had to go through that, Allegra, but I figured you wouldn’t willingly go with someone you barely knew.” I heard a woman’s voice and I looked to the left where a beautiful woman was standing. Her honey coloured hair was put into an elaborate braid that ran down to her knees and she wore a crown of gold intertwined with ever-blooming flowers. Her gown was made of fine purple silk and she wore a sheer white robe over it. Her chocolate brown eyes shone and her lips were in a small, soft, smile. She was another elf, and her beauty rose far above the others. Oh, and she looked kind of like me, just prettier.

“She’s just as you said, My Queen – stubborn and loud. I think I would’ve lost my hearing had I wasted time carrying her here.” Green-gray-eyed guy gave her a lopsided smile and crossed his arms.

The woman, who I predicted was a queen, gave a hearty laugh that tinkled throughout the chamber. “That she is, Voronwë. She hasn’t changed a bit.”

At this point, you can probably imagine my confusion. They both talked as if they knew me, and yet, I was almost sure that I had never met either of them in my life…Almost. My uncertainty had probably shown on my face and Voronwë picked up on that.

“I can read minds, Lady Alassiel. It’s one of the reasons I’m the queen’s most trusted advisor. Your mind is so open that it isn’t hard to know what you’re thinking,” he said, cutting into my thoughts. He held out a hand and smiled warmly at me. Not knowing what I was doing myself, I reached out and grabbed it, steadying myself as I stood before the queen.

“Alassiel isn’t my name, Ver…Vor…um -”

“His human name is Caleb,” the queen interrupted. Her voice was oddly familiar and comforting. “Voronwë is just his Elven name. That’s what we call him in our world. Alassiel, as you may have guessed by now, is Allegra but translated. My name is Aeroniel, which translates to Marisa.”

Then, everything clicked. The argument at the collision site, the necklace, all the energy every Halloween, her familiar voice, and her knowing everything about me. She’s Italian although she may not look like it. She loves dancing and gardening and she saw the same creatures I did. She disappeared in a motor collision when she was taking me to dance classes because I loved dancing as much as she did. The queen’s full name was Adelaide Marisa Marta Reali. And she was my –

“Mom.” My eyes began to tear up and I ran right into her open arms. I knew she wasn’t dead! I told everyone that I knew I would see her again someday because she said so. I never lost faith in her and the necklace proved that. Now, she’s here, hugging me like I was the best present she’d ever gotten from someone.

She gently stroked my hair and I didn’t care that Caleb was watching. I sobbed and laughed at the same time, making it sound like I was choking. I was so happy and relieved and angry all at the same time that I didn’t quite know what I was supposed to say next. I didn’t have to, though. My mom did that for me.


“I’m sorry I left you, honey. Remember that car crash we were in?” When I nodded, she continued, “I knew it was going to happen because around every Halloween is the time when the Fair Folk would try to take you to their world. The eve of that day is when our worlds merge completely with the other and every human can see us because our power is strongest then. It’s even better for us if there’s a full moon that night.”

“Let me guess. Their old ruler was ill and they needed to find a replacement. They had me in mind and you made a deal with them but you twisted your words enough to trick them into thinking that they would take me. So when they came, you told them to spirit you away instead.”

She nodded and her face was solemn. That pretty much made me the daughter of a queen, which also meant that I was a princess, meaning that I was a powerful person. Lovely.

“If you’re an elf, then what would that make me?” She pulled my hair back away from my face so that my ears were showing and she made me turn and face a mirror to our left. They were perfectly rounded, like a human’s. When she snapped her fingers, however, my ears shimmered for a moment before they were just as pointed as my mother’s.

“You’re just as much an elf as I am. Your father is one of us as well, so now he’s pretty much the king. We just made it so that you wouldn’t be able to see through the glamours. Those are the illusions we make so that we’d stay hidden. They’re usually involuntary and they’ll make people see what they want, but with you we needed to use a bit more of our magic, seeing as you’re actually one of us.”

It was so much to take in that I just collapsed to the floor on my mom’s slippers and just sat there, giggling. My mom was here and she wasn’t dead. On top of that, I just found out that she’s the queen, my dad’s the king by law, I was the princess of what I once thought were illusions, and that I’ve been seeing glamours all of my life and that they didn’t include the creatures I saw most days. Oh, and I’m an elf.

Caleb/ Voronwë looked up and nodded to my mother, who crouched down and tapped my shoulder beside me. I turned and smiled, letting her know that I was okay. Standing up, she reached out a hand and I took it. Standing and looking at the mirror, I noticed how much I looked like her. Not quite as beautiful as an elf should be and much less graceful, but I could probably grow into it.

“It’s getting late, and you have school tomorrow. You should probably get some rest before then,” my mom quietly said, pulling me into another hug. I laughed then, and she did too. She sounded just like a mother should.

Before I pulled away, she whispered something in my ear and my smile grew even more. Voronwë looked perplexed, but he offered his hand, which I took and I quickly told my mom a quick “I love you” before I left her chambers. As I re-entered the hall, Voronwë leading me, I found that none of the Fair Folk were loitering around the tunnels anymore. As we walked through the halls that gradually grew into tunnels sloping upwards, he explained to me that today was when they all went out and enjoyed the evening in the human world. They aren’t usually able to do this because of certain…aesthetic differences that they have that glamours won’t be able to cover up. Because everyone’s in costumes that night, it’s not that weird seeing a girl dressed up as a fairy or a guy as half of a tiger.

After a series of tunnels, I found that we were in a tall and narrow space. He nodded to a small keyhole in the wall and I slipped off the necklace as I had done earlier that night. Taking the silver key, I stuck it through and turned it. To my surprise (and yes, things still surprise me), the wall swung open and I found myself in the same forest I had run through not some hours ago. The wall was actually the inside of a tree!

Stepping out of the tree trunk, I turned and found Voronwë watching me. He told me that whenever I wanted to return, I should find a keyhole like the one there and use the brass key. They pop up everywhere and I would be able to find them if I looked hard enough. The silver key was to return to the human world. When I inquired about the diamond one, he just shrugged and gave me that funny lopsided smile.

“And if I should come back?” I asked my last question before I would release him and go home.

“I’m the one that monitors the barriers, so I’ll know when you’ve entered our world. And there’s more to see than just underground tunnels, my Lady. What you just saw wasn’t nearly a quarter of the beauty of our world. If you would allow me, I’d gladly show you around.” He gave me a mock bow and I giggled, saying that I would enjoy that very much.

Walking home that night, I knew I would ask my dad about all of this. I mean, he was in on the secret so he would know more about it. I looked up at the sky and I ran through the events of the night over and over again, always holding on to the last thing my mom had told me before I left the mystical world that she ruled.

“In every world, there is something called a key. Where there is a key, there is a secret waiting to be unlocked. Doors are what hide those secrets and they do it well, so use your keys and become their master.”

Clutching the diamond key, I knew I’d be hunting down those secrets and unlocking them the rest of my life. Maybe literally, like I had just done that evening.


Hope you enjoyed it!
I feel really inspired by this topic. Count me in!

Invisible Friend

Hikaru Seishin


Excellent! Thanks for posting this, and good luck on the contest! smile

Invisible Friend

Darkboy013
I feel really inspired by this topic. Count me in!


Glad to hear it. I look forward to your entry. smile
Here is my story in link format. Hope everyone who reads it enjoys it!

Clue

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Only a few days left! How is everyone doing?
I would like to do this as well. I do not know if I need to reserve a spot, but I would like to enter. I shal write it as soon as possible and pm it to you, if that is alright?

Invisible Friend

goddesslover69
I would like to do this as well. I do not know if I need to reserve a spot, but I would like to enter. I shal write it as soon as possible and pm it to you, if that is alright?


So long as you PM it to me by 11:59 October 31st, it's fine. Or you can post it here in the thread if you're more comfortable. Either option is fine, just so long as we get the entry in time.

And reserving spots aren't required, but since you commented anyway, it does let me know to expect another entry, so I look forward to reading it! smile

Invisible Friend

Darkboy013
Here is my story in link format. Hope everyone who reads it enjoys it!

Clue


I'm sorry I didn't respond to this sooner. Gaia didn't notify me, so I apologize for that. Other than that, thanks for entering, and I wish you good luck on the contest! smile

Rainbow Heckler

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I just have a question, what day are you thinking of posting the results? (The day it closes, a day after, etc.)

Invisible Friend

Hikaru Seishin
I just have a question, what day are you thinking of posting the results? (The day it closes, a day after, etc.)


We don't have an exact day for posting the results since we need to talk over it, but it'll likely only take a few days at most. We'll let everyone know if there are any unexpected delays, of course, but there shouldn't be. wink

Rainbow Heckler

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Reincarnated_Alphonse
We don't have an exact day for posting the results since we need to talk over it, but it'll likely only take a few days at most. We'll let everyone know if there are any unexpected delays, of course, but there shouldn't be. wink


Oh, okay then. Thanks!

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