Cthulhu's Box

[The True Ace Attorney]

Well then... Considering that Cthulhu is a pseudo-god that can world-jump and is currently lying dormant within the planet's crust, it needs to kill some time, as it's finding that merely torment ing the minds of countless sea-faring folk is causing some degeneration in it's brain. Therefore, Cthulhu thought, why not partake in an online forum that has a plethora of fiction. Basically, This'll be the area where I put random short stories or fanfics. To start things, here's a spoiler box.

[spoiler=And here's a short story. It was used in my GCSE coursework and was probably the best GCSE work I've done. Hoorah. It's also unnamed.]
I can feel it. The blood pumping through my veins. My heart, throbbing. The pain, intensifying. The sight is morbid. As far as the eye can see there are bodies. Hundreds of them are just burning in the fires. Surely this cannot be true? But it is. Hundreds of bodies being tossed into the fire like litter. I hate the sight but I can’t turn away, my head won’t move, my neck has stiffened and everything’s as clear as daylight. This is the sight that stands in front of me. How did this all happen? Well here's the story. No, my story.

1 Year Earlier...

Hi. My name’s Jak. I’m sixteen and just left secondary school. Live in a simple little farming town in England that’s pretty much been untouched by industry apart from the odd tractor. There’s nothing special about it or me. At least that’s what I thought until the day the sky turned red.

It was just like any other day. Sore head in the morning and ate breakfast. After breakfast I had to get out and get a job. You see that’s just me. I never plan ahead. I didn’t get good GCSE grades so no college for me and the chances of me getting a well paying job are slim. The only thing that’s getting me along is my Mum but then again she’s the one nagging me to get a job. Either way it doesn’t matter, as long as I work somewhere and the pay is even slightly decent I’ll be able to scrape through. The only problem is that everywhere I turn to I can’t seem to get a job. Whether it’s a supermarket or a fast food restaurant I just seem to have trouble getting a job. When it comes to this desperate measures are in order.

Ah! The city! The polluted air and the noise of traffic, such things are only here. Another thing that’s also here is my good friend Jon. Jon owns a large media company that pretty much airs all of the UK’s television channels. He didn’t work his way to the top, he inherited it from his Dad. At the start most of the workers hated him. They didn’t think he deserved it but he ran the place well and now they either like him or hate him even more.

The reason I’m saying this is because I’m going to ask Jon for a job there. The only problem is getting into the building. The workers that hate Jon are on strike. What for? I don’t care but it seems to have got out of hand. It’s like a freaking mob war out there. Except there are no guns firing only rocks being thrown. Getting in is like trying to run through a waterfall without getting wet. By the time I got in I had been pelted with so many rocks that they’d worn my suit. I had to ask someone where Jon’s office was. I felt like an idiot, especially when they pointed out that it was written on the notice board directly in front of the entrance. So gathering up my courage, it was time to meet a friend.

As I came towards Jon’s office I saw a recent picture of him. He didn’t seem anything like what he had been in school. There he was a quiet guy with a face many people avoided looking at but obviously his job pays well and he’s gotten a full makeover. His face has been operated on to make him look ten times better and it’s worked! He’s not quiet anymore either because he yells orders down the many microphones he has. He seemed severely stressed, probably because of the strike, but he looked well.
As I approached his office I was greeted by a stressed out secretary.
“What do you want?” She rudely asked.
“I’m here to see Jon.”
“Why do you want him?”
“I’m an old friend of his just dropping by to see him.”
“Yeah, of course you are. Just like the other hundred beggars scrounging for jobs off of him.”
“But I am. Ask him.”
“Ok then.” she said. Then she held down a large orange button and spoke into a microphone, “Jon, there’s someone here claiming to be one of your friends.”
“What’s his name?” said a familiar voice on the other end of the speaker.
“What’s your name?” she asked me.
“Jak. I was his friend from school.”
“He says his name is Jak and he’s one of your friends from school.”
“I don’t remember any Jak’s. Tell him to go away. I’m very busy.”
“You heard him. Leave.”
Annoyed at this I ignored what she said and just burst into Jon’s office.
“What the hell?” Jon turned around as his office door swung open and he looked at me.
“Remember me I said?”
“Of course I do,” he replied, “Nah, I’m just pulling your leg so leave now.”
“Well then, I’m Jak. I was your only friend in school, the only person who helped you when you were getting beaten. And after that you forget me like a piece of rubbish? You disgust me, you think because you’ve got money you can forget your friends?” I turned to leave and as I got to the door it swung open and knocked me over. I fell to floor, knocked out cold.

“Oh, my head.” I groaned as I stood up. When I was up I noticed that there was something different. There was a smell in here that wasn’t here before. It was a stagnant smell but I could remember it from somewhere else. Driving everything out of my head I thought back to the day I went to the butchers. I was in the backroom where they hung some fresher bodies. Then it hit me.

It was the smell of blood.

But not only that, it seems that everything was a lot more quiet than before. I had a quick look around the office and what I found shocked me more than anything else I’d seen. Jon’s body was huddled into a bloody mess underneath his desk. He’d been scalped, skinned and whatever over form of mutilation you can come up with. His jaw had been ripped and he had deep cuts all over his body.

While I was looking at this terrible sight I heard footsteps approaching. I quickly hid behind the door and waited for the source of the noise to either enter the room or go away. Unfortunately for me, it was the first option. Several large men entered the room wearing what appeared to be army uniforms but they were much darker and had a green tinge to them, they were also wearing some strange gas masks that were sort of floppy. They had a look around the room and found Jon’s mutilated body. As they looked at it they seemed to laugh. How could something like that be humorous to any one? I didn’t wait around to find out. I tried to quietly sneak out of the room but my luck turned against me and I fell over. The thud was loud enough to announce my presence to the odd soldiers. They spun around and looked at me and while they were I realised that something wasn’t right about them. They also seemed to think I was odd. They shuddered all at the same time in perfect synchronization, started breathing heavily and then their floppy gas mask opened up where their mouths should be to reveal their mouth. They didn’t have faces like people but their masks were their faces. The inside of their mouths were lined with small, razor-sharp teeth. Then they made the most horrible noise I’d ever heard. It shattered the windows around the office and deafened my temporarily.

I quickly stood up and tried to run away but before I even got out of the door they were already upon me. I yelled and was surprised to see what happened. They all immediately jumped off of me and held down on where their ears should have been and rolled around on the floor screaming. I was about to run away when a little thought went through my head.

“Out of the window.”

I know it sounded crazy but I didn’t think I had much of a chance running through the entire building with those things chasing me. I ran up to the window and stood looking out of it amazed at the view. It was horrifying yet beautiful. The sky had turned a blood red colour and so had most of the streets. All over the city people were being chased by those crazed things. Most were being slaughtered but it seemed that a few people had held a defence and were holding the monsters at bay.

I had been looking out for too long. The creatures were getting up, some were still a little dizzy but they had a look of determination on their face. I quickly did what I had thought of a few seconds ago and jumped out of the window. The wind was rushing through my hair and over my face. The speed was so intense that I wondered if I made the right choice as I was sure I was going to die. I felt so stupid but at least I didn’t care as much as the feeling of fear was much greater. I was only a few seconds away from hitting the floor when it happened. I was saved.

A blue light flashed before my eyes and then I landed on the floor. Not the cold hard stone floor of the pavement but rather a soft and fuzzy carpeted floor.

When my sight cleared I stood up and had a look around. There wasn’t much. I seemed to be a small bungalow with at least three rooms. The room wasn’t the best looking place in the world but it was homey. There was a large bookcase full of books much larger than any others I’d ever seen and definitely larger than any I’ve read. There was a table in the centre of the room. It was bare apart from the cloth covering it. And finally there was her. A woman was standing just a few metres in front of me with her arms crossed. She was fairly tall and had rather pale skin, which was largely contrasted by her dark brown hair. My first impression was that she was judging me. Her eyes were darting up and down looking at me. I was about to ask who she was but she already knew.

“I’m Eliza,” She said plainly, “I’m the one that summoned you here. The reason you are here will be explained later when the others get back.” She said it as if I knew what she was talking about. I couldn’t help but ask.
“How did I get here?”
“Magic.”
Magic! Was that her idea of an explanation? I wanted to carry on pressing her for information but decided it wasn’t wise. If she could use magic she could just send me somewhere where I’d be killed on the spot so it was best not to bother her.
Several hours passed with neither of us saying anything. It was long and boring but after a while the door started to rattle.
“Who is it?” Eliza asked.
“Bruno.” The voice on the other side of the door said.
Eliza immediately opened the door for him. It wasn’t only him but a couple of other people. They were all dressed similarly in large fur coats.

I couldn’t have been in the city if they’re all dressed like that, it was too hot to be wearing fur coats. They all went into another room leaving me on my own. I could here them talking but I couldn’t make out any of the words.
They were in there for around thirty minutes then I was told to sit by the table. Bruno walked up to me and started muttering to himself under his breath. While he did this I got a good look at his face. It wasn’t a pretty sight. He might’ve used to be attractive to the ladies but now it was a mess. He had black skin but it wasn’t the natural black colour rather the charred surface black and the scars over his face didn’t help. They were a horrible pinky colour and some seemed like fresh cuts. After he had a look he nodded to himself and seemed satisfied with what he saw and walked to the others and spoke to them about something.

They all moved around me to form a circle. Most had their hoods up and were wearing masks apart from Bruno, Eliza and another person.

He was an old man but well built. He had large muscles with some looking larger then my head! Despite his apparent strength his legs were wobbling as if he was carry something really heavy.
The silence was broke by Bruno.
“Do you know why you’re here?” he asked me.
“Because she summoned me.” I replied.
“But do you know why she did that?”
“No.”
“You haven’t been told?”
“No.”
“Ok. I will tell you why you’re here myself and listen to me because I won’t repeat myself. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Now then, you have seen those creatures?” I nodded. “I thought so. Those things are called Gretons and they’re nothing more than drones for a much more threatening figure. You see, they’re part of a large army formed of much more dangerous and much more powerful creatures. They are called Lechtorns. They all serve under the most evil one of them all, Lord Gwycchtus. His aims aren’t clear but we know he wants something in this world and he has been sending almost undetectable amounts of his army into remote locations to look for it. Us five have been holding them back but that’s only because there were only small amounts being sent through but we’ve never had to face a full scale invasion such as this. The reason you are here is because Eliza detected something about you. Nothing noticeable to an average person but she saw something special about you and she’s never been wrong about these sort of things before so she brought you here. She believes that you will play a vital role in whatever is to come, whether it be good or bad, and we feel that it’s best that you stay here so we can keep an eye on you.”

He went into more detail about what they did, how they did it and what I should expect should I choose to help. They also told me that they were going to find out what was special about me before I left this place, it was better for them to know what I was capable of and work plans around that rather than leaving it to chance and risk everyone’s death because of it.

After Bruno had finished he introduced me to each of the people there and what they did. The large, old man, whose name was Billy, wasn’t what I expected. His large muscles were really large bulging sacs under his skin containing an odd fluid that he could use to control time momentarily allowing him to slow it down, reverse it to a certain extent, he couldn’t reverse death or go back or slow down any more than 3 minutes, and while doing these he could allow people to travel with him or force them to move at the same pace as everything else.

Eliza’s powers were much more complex than I had thought. She could transport things through space but under strict conditions (much like her other powers). She couldn’t do it for personal gain or for someone else’s, she also couldn’t be forced to do so or comply with someone else’s orders. So in other words, she could only do it by her own free will but it must be beneficial to a large group who’s benefit’s aren’t personal to her (for example, she couldn’t bring in a doctor for herself even though it would benefit the others as well). Another of her powers was telepathic communications with only those she chose to but were also willing to accept it. Apparently the consequences for disobeying the rules were quite gruesome, she wasn’t entirely sure what they were but she had a vision which showed a particularly horrible thing which she didn’t want to chance so she just doesn’t disobey the rules.
Bruno’s powers were quite simple compared to the other two’s. Basically he could alter his shape, size and skin material, to reasonable limits. He usually used it to become a human tank by becoming metallic and increasing his muscle mass to charge into the enemy and pulverize them.

The last two, Dave and Wayne, were quite strange. They used to be the same person but a near fatal accident separated him into two. Despite them being essentially the same they had their own personalities and rarely got on with each other. They were like complete opposites, especially when it came to fighting but the one difference between them when they were and weren’t fighting was that, while fighting, they would be in sync and communicate effectively. Dave would dash in with his enchanted twin scimitars, which he dubbed Agni and Rudra, fighting the enemies up close while Wayne fired at them with his enchanted machine-pistols, Lugdrey and Firthen. Their fighting was legendary and won every battle they had fought.
After the introductions I trudged off to my appointed bed and slept, knowing that tomorrow the training, testing, began.

I had lost track of time in the house. Day melted into night and hours became days became weeks before I knew it. Well, at least that’s what it felt like. I had no idea how long I had been there but my days were always full and kept me too occupied to worry about time. It was a fairly simple routine. Wake up, train, and sleep. I had to train in a large hall hidden underground which was hidden behind the bookcase. The cloth on the table covered runes carved into it that had magical properties, for example it cloaked the building we were in. I didn’t have to worry about food or water. I wondered why and asked Eliza who either didn’t hear the question or just didn’t answer, I guessed it was the runes and left it at that.

Training was tough and hadn’t shown any special powers in me. To me it just seemed to be a lot of sparring which was impossible to win. I was obviously no match for the battle hardened warriors. I was floored every round I attempted proving nothing except that I would be killed within the first minute of real combat.

Despite the fact that I was losing hope that anything would happen the others didn’t seem the least bit put off. Their efforts were finally rewarded one day when I was sparring with Dave. We were fighting with our weapons, I had been given a longsword to fight with, and I had been knocked over. Dave had knocked me over with the sheer force of his slashes, he could cut a wall without having to touch it, and I had fallen, cut up and bruised, Dave had jumped in for the kill, I had panicked and held my hand out in a pitiful attempt at blocking his blade when just before it came into contact with the palm of my hand something happened. It happened so fast, a bolt of green lightning burst from my hand and struck his blades causing the supposedly unbreakable weapons to crack! Everyone, including me, was stunned at this. Finally I had revealed a power!

Dave said that the crack was no big deal and would eventually heal itself so I should continue sparring with the others. Now that I had shown that I had powers the others fought me a lot more serious than before and sometimes even two at a time! Using my power efficiently took time but eventually I had control of it and could use it at my own will. The lightning didn’t only have one effect but rather whatever I desired at that time. I had been able to shake off the others easily apart from Eliza. Her magic could defend her from my blasts and sometimes she even shot them back at me!

A few weeks (months?) later we were getting ready to leave the building and set out to a place closer to the focal point of the invasion or at least a more defensible one. I’d been told that we may encounter survivors but that they may be less than happy about us as they’re probably a bit shaky about the fighting.

As we were about to set out I realised that Wayne was not with us. Just as I did he burst through the door, pale and distraught, and yelled at us something so shaking, so mind-numbing that we had all frozen.
“They’ve found us! An army of them, they’re coming!” And with that he dropped to the ground. Wayne was dead.

After Wayne’s shocking news we all ran outside and as sure as sunlight, or whatever it was, the area was covered in fleshy, bloody creatures. We had nothing to take so we fled without giving it a second thought. As soon as we moved they did to. A sea of creatures, big and small, headed towards us in a wave of blood, flailing weapons and battle cries. We were the only ones that could stop them and they were going to sacrifice everything to kill us. We would stand no chance against an army of that size so there was no point in trying to fight. There was blood all over the fields we were running through and moving became hard as the amount of it thickened.

We tried our hardest to delay them by spreading the rubble we found or raising large rock pillars from the ground but no matter how hard we tried capture seemed inevitable. We kept moving for several minutes, with many of the monsters catching up to us. The ones that came within range were taken down before they had a chance to take down us. Just as we were getting tired out we came within the city limits and the buildings (what was left of them) became more common which worked in our favour. As we were getting further in the sky seemed to get redder and it rained with what seemed to be blood. We took refuge in one of the less destroyed buildings. We waited for several hours listening to the pitter-patter of blood rain, feet and the occasional hoof.

I woke up after a few hours of sleep and decided to have a look around. I went up a few floors of the building (turns out it was an office building) and went through some of the offices, looking through the drawers in hopes for food, leaving the bungalow made me feel unusually hungry, but I didn’t find anything. I carried on looking and saw something outside that shocked me. In the middle of the city, a large, bloody, seemingly alive tower protruded through the ground reaching past the clouds. Hundreds upon thousands of monsters were leaving it, some through the large, blistery caves around the top and others through the mangled tunnels below.
We were clearly outnumbered.

We had to move frequently to avoid detection. It was never easy. The horrid, deformed creatures were a lot more dangerous than those I’d encountered before. They were much larger, stronger and faster making it hard to avoid detection and a couple of times I think they saw us but waved it off as a mouse or something. We had to move closer to the tower as that was probably the opening to the other world. Getting inside was the largest problem, the continuous flow of monsters mad it hard to force our way in so we had to search around for an opening. We eventually found an exit that wasn’t frequently used but it was still the closest thing to an empty opening. We were going to wait until it was dark until we realised that the dark didn’t seem to bother them. We decided to move in when it was brightest in hopes that it would work to our favour.

Eventually we made our move. It was simple at first and it seemed that it would all go smoothly until we realised what the empty tunnel was used for. As we approached it we heard an ear-splitting roar pierce the air causing us all to stop moving and look towards the darkness of the tunnel. The ground started to shake and then a giant worm came speeding through the tunnel towards us. It was a mass of what seemed to be contorted bones with a large human-like mouth. We couldn’t run or we’d die so we had to fight. We pulled our weapons out and gave it everything we had. Unfortunately that wasn’t enough. Bruno was brushed of like a minor itch, our blades didn’t even leave marks and the blasts of magic and lightning did absolutely nothing to hinder its progress. We had to resort to indirect combat. We had to cause a cave in around the things head. We smashed the surrounding walls and caused some gigantic stalactites to fall from the ceiling and miraculously pierce the worms head. It died with a horrible high-pitched scream that shook the very building.
We had dealt with one problem but who knew what would come next.

We’d been moving deeper into the tower for several hours now and had to stop to rest. We found a large nook in the tunnel and decided to stop there. While we were resting I had a chance to think about things, the constant moving was too distracting, and realised how bad things had gotten. Wayne’s death suddenly hit me. Although I had not known him well I still considered him to be a friend. It seemed I wasn’t the only one thinking about him, Dave was moping near the back of the nook. Bruno seemed annoyed with something and after half an hour he sighed heavily and said, “It seems we’re stuck. The tunnel seems to end a few miles down and there’s no hope of breaking through. Unless anyone has any ideas I suggest finding a different entrance.”

Everyone was silent and nobody answered. Bruno was drawing in breath to continue with something else when Dave cut him short with, “No. If that worm came from down here there must be a way out as I don’t think it’d be able to live in a single tunnel, especially with it’s large size. The rest of you can leave but I’m not. I’m certain that there’s a way through and I’ll find it.” Bruno seemed amused with what he said and just smiled. I thought he was going to laugh at Dave but instead he said, “I suppose you’re right. Going with the worm’s size it must be able to move around freely so there must be an opening but I’ve looked and there doesn’t seem to be one. We’ll have to thoroughly check the tunnel but if we find nothing we’ll have to leave. Agreed?” We all nodded and set off to check the tunnel and look for any exits.

The tunnel did seem bare just as Bruno said but that didn’t seem to put off Dave. He was a man on a mission and would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Unfortunately there was no sign of an exit of any kind so we had to leave but just as we were the ground shook and there was a horrible sound of breaking bones. We ran back to the dead end but instead found a longer tunnel that led further than we thought.

We had gotten quite far through the tunnel and were seeing an unnatural red light at the end of it. We all saw it and ran towards it in hopes of it being some form of portal that we could close off. We got to the entrance when... Fire. We were engulfed in flames and couldn’t see each other. I couldn’t feel the flames, it was as if they weren’t there, and then I felt something. A large amount of force slammed against the back of my head and I fell.

And here I am. Frozen and unable to move. I can smell burning flesh. I can see the tortured bodies of the others. I can hear their screams and it tears me apart. I’m powerless to change anything and that’s what hurts the most. I want to end it all, the suffering, the screaming, everything. Then I hear something loud. It’s like the roar of a lion and the screech of an eagle and it splits my head like a sword. The pain is unbelievable and I look around for the source of the noise. I can see a large set of stairs and at the top a large figure. It looks like a Minotaur of the Greek legends but with large brittle scales that were a dark, blood red colour. It ran down the stairs with the speed of a world class sprinter and was in front of me in a matter of milliseconds.

Now that it is in front of me I realise just how despicable it’s appearance is and before I attempt to say something dreadfully rude to it, it says, “Ah. So you are the one who was prophesised to defeat us. Unfortunately for you we manipulated the events of your life to bring you here. But enough chatter, I’m going to end this here and now.” It pulls out a large, broadsword that has a jagged evil look to it. It seems to be made out of it’s scales and sharp enough to split a diamond with even a weak swing. He lunges at me at rams the sword through my heart. I can’t feel it and I don’t think I want to.

So there’s my story. It ended horribly and miserable but that’s how many peoples lives end but with less severe consequences. I don’t think I’m going to pass on to a second life but I don’t want to. The first was filled with enough for me to be sick of life. And that’s how this ends, in the worst possible way. It was anti-dramatic and terrible and everyone will suffer for it but there’s nothing I can do and now it’s over.[/spoiler]

And remember that everything is subject to comments and critique, just as everything should be, but please don't just insult. That's quite rude.