The Body

by Stefanie A.

My note: Wrote this last year for my creative writing class.

“You really think you can get over your drug addiction after a year and automatically think you can be a mother again?” Greg had told her a few weeks ago. “I’m sorry but being her biological mother does not mean you are entitled to see her again. You’re broken, Stella.”  

Stella opened her eyes to the floor, rope entangled around her entire body on a chair. A man in a brown leather jacket, and a long tattoo of a dragon on his left arm, walked toward her. “If your ex-husband hadn’t spoken to me with cash in his hands, I wouldn’t even bother doing this. Who would have thought a goody two shoes lawyer would get his hands so dirty?”  “You are low-class criminal. I have worked HARD for a year to kick the heroin habit.”  The man shook his head. “You should have thought of that before you took the drug those years ago.”

 Stella knew her ex-husband’s game. She wanted a custody battle for her daughter, Anna, and Greg, being the snake he was, set her up so the thug could make her drug habit return.  The man put the syringe into Stella’s neck. She cringed but could not pull away. “Screw. You,” she grimaced. The man held two more syringes, putting each one into the side of her arm. Her eyesight became blurry, as it would when she used heroin. Her nose started bleeding, and her head slumped forward.

*

Why wasn’t Jason done? He was supposed to do his part and leave. But he never texted him back on how it went with Stella. Greg’s palms were sweating, as he started the car to go look for him. Maybe he was still with her in the abandoned shed…

What if he beat her and never gave her the drug? Beating her up was never the plan. Simply having her use heroin again was the only plan to keep her from Anna. Maybe he never did it… but he would never have gotten the money if he didn’t. 

Thunder clouds rolled in, rain beginning to hit the car’s windshield. Greg’s foot pushed onto the gas pedal hard, as the shed was at least 45 mins out of the city. 

He cursed to himself. Hiring Jason for the job was the biggest mistake he ever made. A criminal hired to drug up Stella. He should have hired a hit man, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and he would never allow that woman near Anna ever again. No matter how many times Anna begged to see her. At sixteen years old, she was still his child.

He could protect her for a few more years until she turned eighteen.

Greg gripped onto the steering wheel. The rain hit the windshield harder, and he wasn’t sure if they were mixed in with hail or not, but judging by the supercell clouds, a storm was coming.  The wind rocked his vehicle back and forth along the highway to the point the car hit the rumble strips on the side of the road. 

And there it was. The left turn leading into the shed. 

He took it without so much as a glance to see other cars coming the opposite way. 

The path was bumpy, and he almost regretted taking his own vehicle through here with rocks and trees in the way.

At last, the path was blocked by a fallen tree. Greg turned his car off, running while the rain hit his face like a punch of ice pellets. He breathed in relief when he saw the shed was close by but there was something… wrong.

The door was open, the wind blowing it almost off its hinges. 

Greg’s sprint turned into a full-on race toward the shed, almost tripping over a large rock on the way there. Nearly stumbling, he managed to find his way inside… but it was dark. No signs of blood anywhere on the floor, but there was a sign of a struggle. Syringes were littered all over the moldy floor. One of the syringes had broken, and the floor was still wet with the heroin substance. 

Something wasn’t right.

And that was when he saw it. Stella’s body on the floor.

“Shi- Greg?!” He heard a voice from behind him. 

“Jason, what the hell did you do?!” Greg shouted, grabbing Jason by the shirt collar. “Why is she unconscious? We made an agreement!”

“I know, man. I’m sorry. I… think… I accidentally caused an overdose. She isn’t waking up!” “How do you cause an overdose? You had SIMPLE instructions!”

Jason shook his head. “I became a too happy giving her the heroin. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for this to happen…”

Greg tried feeling for Stella’s pulse. It was gone. Completely gone. Greg cursed out loud. “She is dead,” he confirmed, his hands shaking. He could have blamed Jason all he wanted but knew he could only blame himself for her death.  

The End.

Dawning Part IV

by Stefanie A.

The crowd was quiet, but their whispers between each other felt more like chanting. The guards led Alaesa’s grandfather to the pyre. They tied rope around his waist against the wooden pole.

Kyrt Blackwell stood facing the crowd, with the newly appointed king beside him. He read, loudly, about her grandfather and his crime. Most people remained quiet, their complexions pale as bed sheets, but there were also those who wore smug expressions. Her grandfather had his eyes closed the entire reading. “Gabriel Damon Hall, you stand accused of treachery. How do you respond?”

Her grandfather did not open his mouth at first. The anxious crowd watching remained silent. Alaesa gripped onto the tree branch, clutching her cross bow, as he spoke in another language she never heard of.

She aimed the bow at the guards but knew it wouldn’t work with several of them there. It’d be disastrous. She had only been trained for a year. She trained for a steady hand, but the aim needed work.

It didn’t stop her.

Alaesa kept her eye on target, the man began lighting the pyre underneath. Her grandfather’s stoic face did not change. The man with the torch kept moving. She couldn’t hit him, and one mistake meant it was all over. What am I supposed to do? She thought.

He soon changed his expression, wiggling his body and trying not to scream. No, no, no! She thought. Alaesa aimed the crossbow again, but realized: It was too late, the fire had been lit. She couldn’t risk stop the fire now.

There was one thing she never considered, and it was risky but might be worth trying. She wasn’t sure if the idea would work until she heard her grandfather screaming in pure agony

She closed her eyes, recoiling the arrow back against the crossbow string. The choice her grandfather mentioned she’d have to make… it was time.

As the flames began nearly covering him, she shot the crossbow a few times. The first hit his chest, and the second hit him in the throat. She didn’t know if it worked until he lowered his head and ceased all movement. The crowd gasped, most of them sounding relieved. Kyrt Blackwell, on the other hand, was the opposite of relieved. His face went from pale, to red in all of one minute.

“I demand to know who shot that arrow!” he shouted. But no one gave any names or stepped forward. “If you don’t, I will do something much worse than burn this village to the ground.”

Alaesa made her way through the crowd, a crossbow in her hand. The villagers made a clear path for her. “There is no need for violence,” she said, raising the weapon high for all to see. “It was me who shot him.”

“You?” he said. “What’s your name?”

“Alaesa Menthial.”

“You were the one visiting him yesterday. I ought to slit your throat right now,” Blackwell said, taking out his sharp dagger from his side scabbard, and aiming it at her throat. Alaesa stood there in front of him completely still, her arms trembling, but he lowered it. “I can’t kill a child, at least not directly.” He looked at the other armored guards, who stood at complete attention. “Salt their grounds. Make sure no living thing grows here.”

No! She thought, attempting to call out to him, but one of Kyrt’s guards seized her, pulling her back. She heard shocking gasps arise from people’s mouths, their fiery gazes frowning upon her.

She had made a choice, and there was nothing more she could do.

Dawning Part III

by Stefanie A.

Alaesa stepped toward the guarded dungeon, looking up at the armored soldiers. “I would like to speak with my grandfather,” she said to them instantly before they could nudge her along.

One of them chuckled. “He is off limits right now, young lady.”

“He deserves final rites,” she replied.

“What do you suppose we throw you in there?”

Before she had a chance to figure out a response, another man from the shadows said, “Leave the girl alone. She can visit him if she so pleases. But mark my words, it will be the last time you ever see him.” The man was the Captain of the guard, Kyrt Blackwell, the one who arrested her grandfather. She blinked away any tears, and headed through the open gates where two more guards led her downstairs towards the dungeon.

The guards stopped at the third to last dungeon towards the end, with one of them opening the gate for her. “Prisoner, you got a visitor. You only have five minutes. Use it wisely.” The cell definitely had a strange iron rust smell to it, but she couldn’t tell if it was blood or metal actually rusting. The only thing in the cell was a bed, and a bucket, along with uneaten food on a tray laying on the floor. A small barred window was the only source of light in the dark jail cell, and even then, it did not even come close helping against the dark.

“Alaesa?” her grandfather said, lifting his head. His grim expression changed into a brightened smile.

She hesitated walking into the cell, finding it strange to see him in a dungeon in the first place. “Grandfather, I… I came to see you.”

“I’m surprised your parents allowed you to visit me.”

She shook her head. “They don’t know I am here.”

He raised an eyebrow, and then gave her a warm smile. “Turning into a rebel already, are we?” he said, and chuckled. His smile soon faded, unable to meet her gaze. “I am just sorry you have to see me like this. How is crossbow training?”

“Well,” she replied. “Very well, actually. Father says I have to learn how to stay still better. It’s… different from a bow and arrow.”

“Are you enjoying it?”

“I prefer reading about herbs,” Alaesa said. “I am being sent to a school that specializes in training healers.”

“That’s wonderful news!” His face glowed, the smile brightening up what was other wise a darkened room. “You will enjoy it, and you know so much about the subject. It’ll be good for you.”

Alaesa took his hand and squeezed it gently, abruptly changing the subject of the conversation, “I am not letting this happen to you.”

“There is nothing you can do,” he said. “I made my choice.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“Sit down next to me,” he said, patting the cot he sat on. “You will one day make a choice, as I have done, that will have dire consequences. It may not be to the extent of what I did, but you will have to make one, and it… will definitely be hard.”

“When will I make this choice?”

“I don’t know. Could be days, weeks, months, or years from now. I am no fortune teller.”

She continued holding onto his hand with a firm grip. “I could help you escape,” she said, but he shook his head. “Why?”

“I can’t let you,” he said, gently. She released her hand from his. “Not only could you end up executed alongside of me, think of how devastated your mother and father will be. Is that what you want?”

“No, it’s not…”

“Live your own life, Alaesa. Don’t worry about me.”

“You got two minutes!” one of the guards shouted from outside.

She didn’t know how she would get him out of the dungeon, but she had to try something. “Who wants to see their loved ones burning alive?”

“I suppose nobody does. It will be painful, but I did what I had to do.”

Alaesa took a step back from him. “And die for it?! Why?”

He patted her on the shoulder, while she looked down onto the dirty floor. He wouldn’t listen. Why? Why did he not want to live? Her father would do nothing, and now, neither did her grandfather. “You’ll understand when you are older. Much older, perhaps.”

“You… won’t even do it for me?” she asked.

Her grandfather let go of her shoulder, not speaking for the longest time. She waited for his response patiently, even as the end for the visit drew nearer. Alaesa rubbed her hands together, the draft from outside blowing in between the bars of the tiny window. “I am doing this for you,” he replied at last. She heard the loud armor rustling toward the cell, knowing her time was already up. “For your freedom.”

Dawning Part II

by Stefanie A.

Her mother would not speak the rest of the evening. During supper, there was little conversation between the three of them. Awkwardly, Alaesa picked at her food on the plate, listening to the silence. She waited for one of her parents to break it, but nothing came out of their mouths. “Are you planning on eating, Alaesa?” her father finally spoke up.

She nodded, quickly picking her fork up. “Sorry, father, I was thinking.”

The rest of the dinner returned to silence again, with her mother excusing herself from the table and putting her plate away. “How are your studies?” he asked, picking up the cloth to wipe his mouth.

“Very well.”

“Your tutor tells me you are improving every day.” He smiled, scratching his shorn beard. “Keep up the good work.”

“Thank you.”

She looked up from her plate, meeting eye contact with him. She wanted to ask him what he and her mother fought about. She opened her mouth to speak, her heart hammering against her chest, and fidgeting with her fingers. “Is… mother feeling okay?”

“She did not sleep well. Don’t worry yourself over it.”

Alaesa cocked her head slightly, raising an eyebrow. He lied. As far as she knew, her father never lied. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” he confirmed. She kept staring at him, while he ate until he finally stopped eating. “Look, Alaesa, I’m serious. Nothing is wrong.”

“You would tell me?”

“Of course, I would.”

He continued, dragging the lie on. “There is something I need to talk to you about, though. Your education.”

“What about it?”

“You seem to have a lot of interest in herbs, and healing. There’s a school in Hueîl for young people such as yourself…” Alaesa did not reply, knowing where the conversation was heading. “I have already sent your application in, and you’ve been accepted. You leave before the end of the week.”

“You can’t just ignore what’s going on!” Alaesa exclaimed, throwing her napkin on the table. “I heard you and mother earlier! You lied to me. Grandfather is going to die and you are just going to send me away to a school?”

“For your own benefit, Alaesa,” her father replied, calmly. “You don’t know the details about the situation.”

“You lied to me!” she exclaimed. “How do you defend yourself knowing that? I heard both of you discussing my Grandfather’s execution. That’s why she is upset! How will sending me away help?”

“It will give you a new start,” he said. “I’m sorry about lying to you, and we were planning on telling you…”

“But you didn’t.”

Her father crossed his arms, no longer eating. Alaesa watched him carefully as he walked toward her, taking both her hands. “It’s true. He is going to be executed tomorrow at dawn. He refused to bow down to the new king, and it is plain and simple: he faces the consequences. I would send you to the school sooner, but… I can’t. They don’t allow applicants until later this week.”

The old longcase clock ticked loudly, filling in the silence between them. “You told me once you would do anything for this family,” Alaesa said. “Why can’t we help him?”

“I told you why.”

“But that isn’t a valid enough reason!”

“Does it matter now? You know why.” Avoiding the question. She shook her head, finishing her meal in complete silence. “You aren’t to attend the execution. Understand? Finish your food and pack.” Alaesa stopped in the middle of cutting a piece of turkey meat. “Remember, I am doing this for your benefit.”

It occurred to her… that he was not the man she once thought he was.

Dawning Part I

by Stefanie A.

Alaesa opened the book, reading where she left off from last night, ignoring the increasingly loud voices from the lower level. Despite trying to concentrate on the words, she could not help but over hear them.  “Cath, you are aware your father is sentenced to death, right?” Her father said, impatience slowly making his way into his words. The muscles in Alaesa’s body stiffened, trying to comprehend her father’s words. Maybe it was a mistake, or… a joke. Her father joked all the time with the family. She continued reading her history book and attempted to turn the next page, but the walls were thinner than a wafer.

“It isn’t right! All he did was say no to…”

“That is a bigger crime than stealing,” her father replied. “He should have known better!”

She closed the book, slowly opening her door to hear them better. Her father did not sound like he was joking around. “You know my father. He’s stubborn as all hell. He will not bow to anybody he doesn’t respect.”

“It’s still his own fault! Look, you’re just going to have to accept this, I’m sorry. Unless you want them after us next.”

“What if we escaped? And took him with us?” her mother asked. “We could all start over in another country!”

“Are you serious? You would put a target on our own daughter’s back just because you want to save your father from doing something, he knew would get him killed?” her father said, his voice now raised. “What the hell are you even thinking right now?”

“A way to save my father!”

He glanced at the large portrait of a middle-aged man, with similar features. He would tell Alaesa and her sister stories of how her great grandfather defended the kingdom. “He is sentenced to death and there is no saving him now,” Alaesa’s father said. “He wouldn’t bend the knee and will face the consequences.” She couldn’t find it in her to move any part of her body. She had been listening for a while, and yet the only word she heard was ‘death’. “I’m sorry, Cath. I really am, but I will not risk our family and destroy everything we have worked hard for.”

Pillars of Eternity

by Stefanie A.

Chapter One: Gilded Vale

“I want to burn that tree,” Alaise says leaning up against a broken stone wall and not realizing there’s a man next to her, listening.

“Yes,” the man replies, “because burning it would definitely not also burn down the town.”

“Or just break the branches off. Then no more people left to hang.”

“…Off the tree anyway.”

“True, but to leave them there… hanging. Uh.” She shakes her head. “Pun not intended. It’s disgusting. No one else reacts to it with the same distaste as I have. Urgeat seemed just as happy to see them all hang.”

“Welcome to Gilded Vale, then.”

She stops herself short before speaking again, turning her head towards the peculiar looking gentleman smoking a pipe. “Sorry, I-I didn’t think anyone was listening to me.” The left corner of the man’s mouth curls into a smirk.

The man chuckles. “Oh, I definitely was,” he says. “I appreciate the daring, colorful ideas you have, though. I believe the villagers including Lord Raedric would not think the same way. What would I do without my crops?”

“Right… I – uh – was not actually going to burn it. Or anything… Ever.” Alaise scratches the back of her head, a little embarrassed she spoke the way she did before. “I’ve been through a rough day or two of travelling so I am a bit out of sorts.”

“A traveler, huh? Where are you from?”

“Old Vailia.”

He nods his head, taking a few puffs of smoke from the pipe. “Old Vailia… Always wanted to travel there, except well, I guess most places would be better than here.” He held out a hand. “Name is Edér.”

“I’m Alaise,” she says, shaking his hand.

“I was actually just counting the number of people hanging on the tree,” he says. “I counted Nineteen… I think? Though to the people around here, might as well be Nineteen.” Edér’s friendly smile turns into a grimace, looking

her up and down. “Don’t think I’d put you much higher than Twenty-Two, Twenty-three tops. You look like the sort that likes to get involved.”

She nods, guessing it’s true she did get involved… with a lot of things. The reason why she nearly got kicked out of her home village. “Yeah, that’s probably why I didn’t suggest burning the tree, but I don’t plan on staying long,” she says, still looking out at the tree, the dwarf woman she spoke to not too long ago still there, her body moving in gentle lifeless swings.

“You were talking to the dwarf woman. I saw you… You were trying to figure out whether to count her as a person. I think you oughtta.”

“What makes you think I was interested in the dwarf woman?”

Edér’s smirk broadens. “I was smoking over here, saw you staring at her. Twice I refilled my pipe. You never so much as blinked. Your mouth was so slack I took you for a Raedric at first.”

Alaise took offense to that. “Impossible, I don’t drool half as much.”

“Ha! So you’re already familiar. Still, you’ll have to forgive my curiousity. ‘Round here we prefer to turn a blind eye to our dead.”

“I never noticed,” Alaise replies, cynicism lacing her tone. She recalled how people went on with their business not so much as even staring at the rotting corpses. She almost called Urgeat out on it had the bell not rung to indicate something terrible happened to Raedric’s new heir. “Like I said before, I’ve been out of sorts lately.”

“Course. We all got our bad days when we stand perfectly still and stare at corpses for a while without blinking.” Edér adds a wink. “What’s your real reason for being here?”

Alaise sighs. “Well, it’s a long story, but to sum it up, I was offered, along with others, to settle in Gilded Vale from Lord Raedric. However, my caravan was attacked, and I ended up here alone. I’m actually kinda in a bit of trouble right now.” Edér doesn’t say anything just yet, Alaise still tries to figure out how to tell him the next part of the story. “Do you know what a Watcher is?”

As if taken by surprise, Edér’s eyes widen, and looks around. He leans into her ear, whispering, “Careful, friend. Best not use that word ‘round here. Could be any number of Raedric bootlickers within earshot. Ciphers, animancers, Watchers… same thing in the eyes of folks around here, Raedric especially. They come through these parts all the time with their ‘cures’, preying on the desperate. None of them are who they claim to be.” Animancer. The title sounds familiar to Alaise. The dwarf woman she spoke to said she was one, but she did not seem like the type of person who took advantage of others. Quite the opposite from her. “Course seeing you with that funny look, I’d be halfway inclined to believe you WERE having some kind of communion with that dwarf. Heh. Either case, maybe I’m not Nineteen after all. No offense.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shrugs. “Hey, don’t blame me, I don’t have a say. You can take my word for that. This town’s had it in for me for a long time now. Only fella who ever stuck up farm, well… he’s number eighteen up there. My headman on the farm. Used to be my captain during the war.”

“And what does your town have against you?”

“I think that may be a story to tell you over a pint…” he says, “or maybe two.”

Warcraft Fanfic #1 – Forsaken

by Stefanie A.

    Zellatia stared on into the forest that once belonged to the humans. How lively, and energetic it still was regardless of the events. But it belonged to the Forsaken now. She clutched her staff, her minion Pizjub close to her side, scanning the area for nearby enemies.

    The day soon became night, which meant it made helpless Scarlett crusaders an even bigger target. She smiled to herself when she already spotted a few Crusaders talking to one another. Scarlett Warriors. Even better. She grinned, knowing how she would make each one struggle for their life until eventually giving out.

    She moved forward but a tree branch snapped under her feet. She hid behind a nearby tree, the crusaders picking up on the noise. “What was that?”

    “Forget it,” another member said. “We leave tonight. The camp isn’t protected enough.”

    They wanted to escape? How pathetic. “What about the others? What about the plans?”

    “Our superiors underestimate their abilities. They have proven they have strength in numbers. We can’t survive another raid.”

    Zellatia waited until all three had their backs facing her to come out of hiding, stunning them all with a bolt of lightning. Pizjub snuck in front of them to stun them further. It did not take long before all three were on the ground, with two of them in pain and the third knocked unconscious. Her minion threw a ball of felfire at the ones were awake. They tried grabbing their weapons, but she kicked them out of their view.

    The felfire absorbed the first two, their bodies dissolving into ashes. She turned to the unconscious one.

    She thought it wouldn’t be kind to kill him while he wasn’t awake. She wanted to see him groaning in pain until he couldn’t take it.

    The final warrior woke up suddenly, aiming his hands for her throat. No amount of strikes from Pizjub made him stop. Zellatia pushed him off and got back onto her feet. The push forced him backwards, landing on his back and remained helpless once again.

    She wouldn’t stop hitting him with her staff, no longer caring how it was done. She heard a few of his ribs crack, which only made her grin more. The Scarlet Crusader put his hands up. “Please, give me mercy!”

    Zellatia chuckled. “Why would I want to do that?” she said. With one final blow to the head, the final Scarlet Crusader’s head rolled back, no longer breathing. She looked back at her minion, who stared back at her with wide glowing eyes. “Let’s go.”

    Before she could walk away, a hand grabbed her bony leg and pulled it back. “You were human once!” the man she thought she killed shouted at her. He had streaks of blood rolling down his face from the sides of his head.

    That was when the realization hit her.

    The man she nearly murdered… was no ordinary man. He was a former companion of hers, before the Val’kyrs resurrected her from the dead. “Zell…a… tia,” he said, barely able to speak properly.

     “I am no longer human,” she growled. “I am apart of the Forsaken and now, I serve the Dark Lady. What I was before, is not who I am now.” Her own anger boiled inside of her, taking the staff and hitting him several times over the head. By the time she was through, he was barely recognizable. His entire face collapsed inside of itself.

    She trembled, gazing down at her bloodied hands.

    Zellatia noticed the Scarlet encampment not far from here. Whatever came next, she knew she was at the point of no return.

    She continued down the path, with a thought that no Scarlet Crusader would leave the Trisfal Glades that night.

    New Website!

    by Stefanie A.

    Hello there, My name is Stefanie Alexander, and I have created this website for some freelancing in writing. I am going to post my short stories here as a portfolio, as well as post some of my art as well!

    This website isn’t specifically just for writing, I will be creating book covers for people, if they want it. I haven’t figured out pricing yet. When that happens, I will make a Fiverr account and post the link here. 🙂 So please, enjoy this website! I put A LOT of thought into it, and wanted to launch it on a day I’d remember: St Patrick’s Day.

    I also made the background in Photoshop! 🙂 I wanted a sci-fi sort of theme since I love that genre!

    Anyway, thanks for reading this, and I will be posting at least once or twice a week with a short story.