Holy CRAP but it's been a long time since I posted.
Anyroad, it's been an arduous journey (and it's not over yet) but one of love. I'm full of all kinds of tumultuous emotions right now. I just finished the edit on my draft of Blood Stone. I've included the first chapter, below, for those that are interested in it. Keep in mind that there will probably be a few more edits so the chapter you read below may not be the chapter that's in the final and I'm open to criticisms and comments (though please keep them constructive and germane).
Thanks to my friends in the Monday Night Writing Sessions for putting up with my maniacal laughter and constant reading aloud passages to them. Dennis, Googs, Dana, I appreciate your ear (and patience).
To all my friends, thanks for your support and to my wife and family, thanks for believing in me. I know it's not over, and I've still got a lot to do, but to come this far wouldn't have been possible without your faith and belief.
OK, enough sappiness, on with the fiction:
---
Blood Stone by Stephan Kelly
Chapter One
"No."
Years of state ordered therapy and foster care granted me the ability to show a distinct lack of emotion on my face as I spoke, even while the word carried with it a weight of weary denial. This was a pretty commonly used talent for me, particularly in my current situation. My foster parents call me Ricky, which I hated and my high school principal calls me Richard, which I also hated. It was with the latter that I found myself in a discussion with.
"So you're saying you did NOT provoke Mister... Cavanaugh and Mister... Richmond to throw a wastebasket across a school hallway filled with students?" Principal Bailey was what I would call an 'experienced' principal. He had been around long enough to know most of the stunts and lies students told and yet had not been around so long that his stress level rose high enough to give him any health problems. Yet. Still, he dropped his glasses on his desk and massaged the spot between his eyes.
"You are correct, Principal Bailey," I said with the same malaise.
"Richard," the exasperation in Principal Bailey's voice was evident and he still hadn't raised his head, opened his eyes or retrieved his glasses from the desk, so he didn’t notice my cringe at his use of my name. "You have been in my office three times over the past month. It's April. Spring Break is only a week away. Now I have twenty statements from other students saying that..." and at this point, Principal Bailey opened his eyes, replaced his glasses, ran a hand over his bald head and looked at the stack of papers on his desk, sighing. He grabbed one, seemingly at random and began reading it.
"...Rick was harassing Russ and Brock, saying awful things about their mothers and other family members." Principal Bailey looked up from the paper and stared over his round-rimmed glasses that were resting on his nose, at Rick.
"No." That same tone, that same blank expression, that same weary denial.
"Look, I don't have any proof other than that all these statements appear to coincide, and I am not so ignorant that I don't recognize that all of these statements are from associates of Mr. Cavanaugh and Mr. Richmond. Fortunately for you no one was hurt, otherwise there would be serious repercussions."
"Whatever." Again, no reaction but the distant voice.
"Richard! Unless you want to spend the entirety of your Spring Break doing nothing but dust-mopping the whole of this school, repeatedly, you will stop causing trouble and start behaving yourself. I do NOT want to see you in my office again this month, is that understood?"
"Yeah." My response was quick, too quick and it only further angered Principal Bailey, which was evidenced by the redness of his face that rapidly spread over his entire bare scalp.
"OUT!"
I quickly made my way with my hood up and head down. It may have been April, but in Michigan, the spring can be as cold as the winter. There were still small piles of snow on the ground, and the sky was gray and overcast, threatening snow.
Putting my ear buds in, I stopped at the vending machine for a few bags of corn chips and a soda and went outside. Not even paying any attention to the group lingering on the steps just outside the main door I pulled my hood down further over my face and stalked to the bike rack. In a few moments, I was pedaling away down the road.
More than a few miles later and I was no where near home. Sure, it took me nearly an hour to get here, but it's the only place I really felt safe. I coasted down the final hill toward the two towering structures, each separated by over a hundred yards of ruins. As usual, I ignored the 'No Trespassing' sign and shot down the dirt path toward the further of the two buildings, which was adjacent to the small lake. Mist hung low over the water and the slopping mud as my tires sloshed through it, making the downhill path a bit treacherous. Still, in the dusk at the end of the day the sight brought me some semblance of calm.
Once at the bottom of the hill, instead of taking the muddy path around the site, and right past a neighboring farmhouse with nosy residents, I dismounted and walked my bike straight for the ruins. Even though I knew the way well enough to navigate in the darkening nebulous environs, I also knew that there were things here I’ve yet to see and a misstep could land me in a silo below ground.
Rumor had it that this place was a cement factory that mined underground six or seven levels. All at once they broke the water table and flooded all but the first sub level, killing hundreds of workers. That was back in the Seventies, and they closed it down and knocked all but the two tallest buildings down, for safety reasons. They also took out the first section of ladders that went to the top of the buildings, but some inventive youths tied ropes to the next highest section and let it hang down for those that would seek out such heights.
I glanced back at the ninety foot tall towering silo that some brave soul had hung halfway down and painted in giant letters, "Jesus Saves" and smiled, the first sign of any genuine emotion to cross my face since before school started that day. I stopped at a piece of concrete jutting from the ruins and knelt down to tie my shoe. My eyes fell on the discoloration of freshly moved earth near my left foot and something oddly shaped grabbed my attention. A small stone circle with a hole in the middle on a leather cord. It looked old and the leather looked like it could have been stained, but it was hard to tell in the deepening dusk. Sure, I usually find things like broken tools or pieces of things one would find in a broken down old factory, but not usually by happenstance and not like this. This had a personal feel about it. Shrugging, I pocketed it like I had done with so many other trinkets I had found here and without any further thought to it, I continued on my way.
Looking ahead I saw the familiar tri-silo building squatting at the base of the small lake. This building was harder to get to the top of, but not impossible. It just took a bit of courage. Still smiling, I locked his bike to the skeleton of a tree that protruded from the ground between the building and the lake. The tree had its branches touching both lake and building and I climbed up the twenty feet to one such outstretched branch. Even though I’d done this a hundred times, I still took care as I balanced on the branch. I took two large steps and leaped toward the building, reaching for and grabbing a rusty metal railing of the walkway that jutted out like an odd growth on a perfectly rounded silo. I pulled himself up and over and then stalked inside the yawning doorway.
Once inside the vacant structure, I glanced down the thirty feet to the floor of the old workspace and noticed a few tracks and some remnants that were usually stacked up, knocked over. Probably some local kids trying to get up where I was. I allowed myself a gloating chuckle before I ascended the rusty metal stairway to the roof access.
I kicked open the door and at last I arrived at my sanctuary. The roof was flat, save for an old pump shed made from galvanized metal that leaned something terrible. I approached the edge and looked out over the ruins with sigh-worthy nostalgia. Not as tall as its counterpart across the way, it still had a commanding view of what used to be a thriving workplace. Not that any of that really mattered to me. All that mattered was that it was quiet, it was not school and it was not home.
The evening set in sooner than I would have liked no thanks to my meeting with Principal Bailey. Not wanting to waste any more time getting upset about either school or home, I sat in my usual spot, on an old bleacher cushion, dangled my legs precariously over the side.
I pulled out my makeshift dinner and munched away, sat and watched, allowing my eyes to get adjusted to the darkening sky. The ruins faded into the shadow of night and all of a sudden, my ear buds beeped at me a sound that informed me that my battery was about to die. "Great" I whispered to myself and with a frown I put them away and contented myself to sit and watch the night descend. I listened to nothing but the slight breeze, the creak of the old tree near the lake and the distant sounds of the highway nearby.
I’m not really what you would call a nature guy and so didn't really appreciate not having my music to pull my consciousness from the reality of where I was and what I hated about my life. In other words, it didn’t really make me happy, but it did allow me to hear things I wouldn’t have otherwise. Like the sound of rubble being moved.
The wind all but ceased to blow and the quiet that surrounded the ruins was almost invasive. It sent a shiver down my spine, so I sat, shivered and listened. I nodded to myself in the conclusion that there was definitely something out there, but the near darkness in the ruins obscured my vision.
"SONUVA..." came a deep southern drawl from somewhere within the ruins and instantly I held my breath. Here I was, sitting on the edge of this tower, thinking I was alone. I mean, I certainly hadn't seen anyone when I first got here or after I took my seat here on the roof.
Shortly after the first disruption, a roar ripped through the silence. I blinked as I watched a large shadow move in an arc and then a loud crash as if two very large stones were smashed together.
OK, at this point I wanted to leave, but couldn't bring myself to move. Half out of curiosity and half out of fear, I watched and waited.
There was silence for a long time, but then, closer to the building I was sitting upon, I heard it. A sniffing sound, directly underneath where my feet are dangling over the edge. Sure it's fifty feet down, but there's still something unnerving about that sound.
"I can hear your heart beat, boy..." comes the deep southern drawl from whatever is at the base of the silo and that was enough for me. I, not very bravely, scrabbled back up over the side of the silo, quickly gathered my things, strapped on my backpack, pulled out the pepper spray and backed towards the door.
The sound of clambering was heard and before I made it all the way to the door behind me a looming shape pulled itself up over the ledge in the very spot I was just sitting.
"Ain't no use runnin' since I'll catch ya anyway..." I looked full upon the towering giant of a man standing where I was just moments ago. The man, if it was that at all, was built like a body-builder on steroids. He must have been over seven feet tall with shoulders the size of basketballs and hands the size of, well, basketballs. He looked like he could rend steel with those hands and also, why was he out in only a tank top. It’s barely forty degrees outside and he isn't shivering at all. In fact, there was no steam coming from his mouth when he talked. That's odd.
As the creature, the giant man, looked full upon me, something flickered in his eyes as if a light was reflected but there were no light sources, anywhere, aside from the moon. Then, in what can only be described as sheer surprise, the enormous jaw on the juggernaut standing before me gaped open.
"Y...you." The giant just stood there in awe, staring, not moving, not breathing, covered in dust and dirt.
"Who?" I had finally found my breath and thought that if maybe I could keep this guy talking long enough, I might be able to keep him from ripping my arms off, which he looked completely capable of doing without much effort.
There was no response for some time... just this huge slack-jawed guy staring at me with a look of sadness on his face.
"Huh. Well. That's... somethin’." He closed his jaw and tilted his head to the side, looking me up and down. "I believe you have somethin' of mine, I'd like it back please." The giant took two large steps towards me and held out his hand, a hand that could easily crush a normal person's skull I noticed.
"You mean the necklace thing... yeah, sure, I mean, I didn't think it belonged to anyone so I just, you know kept hold of it." I tried to act cool, relaxed, but I was freaked out. Usually I don’t talk this much. I have rarely ever said more than a few words to anyone at school and here I am jabbering on at this behemoth who hasn't stopped staring at me... and also hadn't blinked once since he got up here.
I pulled the necklace from my pocket and felt a twinge of something, like when a chord is struck that really resonates inside you. This is where it got weird. I glanced down at the stone in my hand and noticed a slight change. Where the stone was a gray granite-like color when I had pocketed it, now it had taken on a reddish-brown hue.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one to notice the change. "On second thought, why don't you keep it. Call it a gift... so what's your name, kid?"
I froze, and then, feeling uncertain, I re-pocketed it. I felt compelled to fill the silence and really didn’t want to take any chances lying to a guy this big, so I answered, "Rick."
"Well, have a seat Rick and talk a spell, we got some time yet..." and with that the giant man cracked his knuckles that made a sound like metal breaking and sat.
Finding no real excuse not to, and not really wanting to upset him, I warily sat.
"Name's Jake. Good to meet ya. Oh, and in case you ain't noticed, yeah, I'm a vampire." Jake grinned and revealed canines the size of a roll of quarters, then chuckled.
