Blog Story #13

With a soundless scream, the body plummeted into the shadowy recesses of the thick layer of darkness. Falling, falling, . . .

*     *     *

Lucersatz curled his moist lip at the scene before him. A strange boy in foreign clothing was rebelliously refusing to impart information that Lucersatz's men required. Obviously, Lucersatz thought, matters must be taken in to my own hands. He stepped forward.

     Cody stood resolutely, his face betraying no sign of fear. What could these weirdos in armor do to me? He thought. Some sort of medieval world? Then he saw a shadow, dressed in an azure cloak, slowly stepping towards him. Cody's throat constricted and it became increasingly harder to breathe. The shadow halted before him, barely revealing a pair of cold, flinty eyes. Suddenly, before Cody could react, a shadowed arm flung a handful of loose, dry powder into Cody's face. He gasped for breath, inhaling some of the powder. The last thing he remembered was the salty taste. 

     When he awoke, he appeared to be floating in a violently spinning chamber. As the chamber slowed down, Cody noticed a small, hairy man to the side. 

     "Pardon me, sir, but could you please stop the spinning? I've acquired a rather painful headache." Cody queried.

     The bespectacled man chuckled softly, muttering something under his breath. Cody automatically disliked the strange little man, for laughing at his plight and not sharing the obviously funny joke.

     Suddenly the man spoke, "What do you, young sire, know of the wizard Morthrox?"

     Cody was incredulous that anybody could name their son Morthrox, but after the spinning room and medieval setting, he could believe quite a bit. But he decided to play along. "Oh, Morthrox? Yah, we were best chums, back in the day. He used to make the best mud pies, always setting off sparks, you know-"

     The fuzzy man abruptly cut him off, "I'll have no impertinence from you, young miscreant. Are you in rebellion to His Majesty, Venespessant?"

     These names just keep getting weirder and weirder thought Cody, as the room continued spinning. "Oh you mean the king who beheads those in rebellion to him. What do you take me for? A fool?"

     The man muttered a soft "yes" under his bad breath. Cody was enjoying himself.

     "What kind of a man are you, who answers obviously rhetorical questions? Oh, and by the way, that was a rhetorical question so don't answer it."

     The man sputtered and fumbled for words, "I . . . I . . . KEEP QUIET!"

     Cody would have taken a step back if he hadn't been spinning, because he was shocked by the incredible velocity with which the man uttered his words. He instead chose to saucily respond, "Sure, I get it. You accidentally swallowed a megaphone, and are suffering from exemplified vocal chords."

     "How about you answer one little question and we'll let it go at that? The powder should force you to tell the truth. Now for the question: What are your fears?"

     "Ugh, hard question. How about dying, my belly button unraveling, losing necessary organs, girls, head lice, sticking my hand down the sink drain to unclog it, drinking out of another person's cup, ruining a friendship, studying for the wrong test for a whole school semester, being hungry, confusing whip cream with shaving cream, having all my hair fall out, being unable to go to the bathroom, somnambulism, being attacked by 10-ft tall puppets or clowns, having an insect keep coming to life when it was killed, having proof that my best friend is an escaped convict, plagiarism fines, wiggling a tooth to get it out only to discover that it was an adult tooth, dislocating my jaw, drowning in a bathtub, my stuffed animals coming to life, having no Internet, being judged by my pets for my treatment of them, lose my gravity, and last but not least, be stuck in a spinning chamber with a super-fuzzy dude."

     Silence.

     Then. "I surrender," came the entirely cowed voice of the fuzz-man.

     Cody grinned. "Hey, wait, wasn't that supposed to be my line?"