The Intangible Drabbles

One story told 100 words at a time

My goal here was to tell a cohesive story told in a series of 10 drabbles. The titles for each came from an ambient music album called Gods by The Intangible. When I listened to it, I closed my eyes and saw a whole story play out while I listened. Now, if that were not challenging enough, I also put in a little hidden message, using specific letters throughout the stories. They create a 3-word phrase. The first person to decipher it will receive one of my eBooks as a prize.

Gods

All are born into blinding light, screaming as we are plucked from the warmth and security of the womb. David arrived quietly, no fussing or crying to be found. It was as though he knew he belonged.

He could not yet quite make out the people towering above him, smiling down and crying tears that never touched his eyes on the way out.

David did not need to see them, for he knew them to be Gods. He would love them, and they would love him in return. Life began without fanfare, but the tears and fears would soon arrive.

Another Planet Seeded

Lou held his little boy and pointed up to the night sky. “There are billions of stars up there, David. All of them shining just for you. Can you see them?”

A smile touched the corner of the child’s lips, his eyes wide with the wonder of the beauty stretched out above.

“They are not all stars, little man. Some are bigger and brighter, but none as bright as you are going to be. You are another planet seeded here on our little patch of space, and you are going to do amazing things.” And so, the world kept spinning.

The Stars Had Come to Him

I’m not afraid. It was a mantra running through David’s head as he pedalled furiously, his little legs pumping wildly. As long as he could hear daddy’s footsteps, David knew the bike would remain steady.

Head down, he pedalled harder, and before he knew it, those heavy footsteps were gone, and he was on his own.

The wind whipped through his hair, and for the first time in his life, he felt free. It was a terrifying thought, and one that broke his concentration. He crashed hard, head connecting with concrete. His head spun, and he remembered seeing bright stars.

Long, Ghostly Corridors

Fear was not something David normally felt at school but today was different. The buses were gone, and every other kid had been picked up by a parent. David sat on a bench beside his teacher and waited.

“Your mom is caught in traffic. She’ll be here soon enough,” the teacher said, smiling tightly.

David nodded and looked back down the long corridor heading to his classroom. The lights were off now, and he swore he could see shadows moving in the dark. Even in bright daylight, he saw them, but they never seemed as scary as they did now.

Conduit Closing

Each day began with a muffled scream and the wiping away of sweat spilling from every pore. David sat up in bed and slicked back his damp brown hair.

A knock on his bedroom door startled him, but he relaxed at the sound of his mom’s voice. “You okay in there, baby?”

His face flushed red at being called baby, but there was comfort there. “I’m good, mom.” He didn’t need to door open to know that she was still there, worrying, the same way he knew the dark ones would return after the conduit opened again in troubled sleep.

Synapses and Stars

Leading his father out into the backyard, David looked up at the night sky and felt somehow drawn to the stars shining above. He couldn’t understand why, but those glittering, faraway diamond always felt him feel calm.

He applied the brakes on the wheelchair and knelt beside his father. The man he knew was gone, his brain turned to cheese through a bacterial illness that was slowly killing him.

Lou turned to his boy and spoke, for the first time in a long time, synapses firing to deliver a critical message. “I see the dark ones, too.” And then death.

The Lush Blue Dawn

Intimacy of any kind proved to be a problem for David, as he was never able to escape the night terrors. No woman stuck around long enough to calm him after waking up in the night, screaming and begging for mercy.

He stood by his apartment window, coffee mug in hand, and watched the sun rise, the orange rays reflecting off the crystal blue pond in the park across the street.

David tried to ignore the shadow figures flitting in and out the corners of his eyes, begging to be seen. He popped his anxiety pill, seeing them clearer still.

The Clues Are Subtle

Violet always knew there was something off with her son. He would never look directly at her, one eye always looking just beyond her right shoulder, a look of horror in simmering just below the surface.

She begged him to tell, to unburden himself to a loving mother, but he always stopped, even when it seemed as though he was ready to open up.

She looked for clues to his pain, to what made him anxious and on edge, but they were always just out of reach. When he stayed over, she lay awake and listened to his terrified screams.

An Inescapable Conclusion

Even when the curse was at its worst, David knew that he would be safe from the dark ones. For forty years, they had been a part of his life, growing more visible with each passing day. He saw the torment on their faces, sometimes heard their pleas for help.

In dreams, they became more insistent, speaking of unimaginable agonies. David blocked them out as best he could, but it became like some spiritual tinnitus, their fears ringing in his ears.

When they began to touch him, to leave marks, he knew he could no longer go on this way.

Messages

Dear Mom, the note began. Violet’s hands trembled as she read the words left behind by her son. His death was shocking, but in her mind, not totally unexpected.

The note was brief and to the point, telling of the figures that had haunted him since that knock on the head all those years ago.

Always spiritual, she took solace in the fact that David mentioned Lou being there to guide him to the “proper place.” She hoped one day to join them, to be together again. Her body jerked as something dark moved out the corner of her eye.