Cairon And The Insects

fracture_childWed 16/01/08 18:26

This one was written with a young adult audience in mind.
Hope you enjoy it!

CAIRON AND THE INSECTS

Everywhere in the world there are monsters. Even amongst the insects. They never knew where it came from. It was very old and very hungry and very, very cruel. The ladybirds said that it had crawled from the box opened by that foolish woman, Pandora. The flies told a different story. According to their insistent buzzing, there had been a beetle that had once lived in a butcher's shop. It had been a harmless thing. But the butcher was a selfish and spiteful man. When he died, the beetle had eaten him and absorbed all his malice. The dragonflies and centipedes had yet other tales. But wherever the monster had come from, all the insects feared it. The monster had no name of its own. The cockroaches called it the Kara-za-Chintar, which meant the Great Eater. As it grew bigger and began to hunt humans, it became known simply as the Insect.
It devoured souls, gobbling them down insatiably and always wanting more. The people who were unlucky enough to cross its path were left as just hollow shells; still walking, talking and breathing but without any feeling. The Insect liked to stalk the vulnerable, the forgotten and abandoned. A damaged soul smelled to it like the sweetest cinnamon. The scent drove it into a frenzy.
Of course, through the long centuries that it had hunted, many had tried to kill it. Heroes and heroines, knights and mercenaries had faced it in battle. They had all died. None of their weapons could harm the old, twisted bug. Eventually, a Grand Council of All Insects was called. The woman whose house they used as the meeting place had a heart attack and died when she saw them all gathered there. They were sorry for that. But this creature had been one of them once and so it fell to them to do something about it.
This tale takes place on a night you've tried to forget. When you were scared and didn't know why. When all the sights and sounds of the world seemed like too much and you wanted to hide somewhere safe.
A boy was walking home through the darkness. It was a cold night. There was a remorseless chill in the air that cut through the duffel coat that he was huddled in. The boy's name was Cairon. He wasn't particularly good looking or ugly. Most people who spoke to him tended to forget that he existed not long afterwards. A few months ago he had left school with unremarkable exam results and now he worked in a fast food restaurant. The customers that he served treated him with the same disregard that his teachers had. Cairon didn't mind. There were worlds in his head that he could escape into. Places were elves, goblins and dragons lived. The adventures that took place there were nothing like the stories he had been told that he should like by people more clever than himself. But they were his.
He was dreaming of them now. He was walking, head down, mouth gaping slightly open, through a busy part of the city. The passers-by were all far too drunk to notice him or wonder what he was thinking about. He heard shouting as two burly men squared up to each other outside of a pub entrance. The lights flickering around the door illuminated their angry faces. A little further away, a girl was sitting on the pavement, somehow sobbing, shouting and laughing all at the same time.
Cairon turned a corner. The street ahead of him was empty. Every shop was shut, the windows dark. In his mind, he was entering the world of a demon, to retrieve the unicorn horn that it had stolen. The demon had sent out its minions to try and stop him but…
A hand pressed against his chest. Cairon looked up in surprise. Standing in front of him was a very tall, very thin man. His hair was pure white though he didn‘t have an old face. . Both his chin and nose were ended in a sharp point. He had a small mouth and large, grey eyes. The man was wearing a long, tightly buttoned, light brown coat, the tails of it reaching down to the ground.
‘You might want to go a different way' he said.
Cairon was puzzled. For a start, where had the stranger come from. He was sure he hadn't been there a moment ago. And why shouldn't he use this street? Any other route would mean a longer journey and he wanted to get home to the warm.
‘Why?' he asked.
The man shrugged.
‘No particular reason. But empty streets can be dangerous'
His voice was soft, with a curious rustling quality to it.
‘I always go this way' said ‘Cairon. ‘I'll be okay'
The strange man nodded. He reached out a gloved hand and touched Cairon's shoulder. His fingers were extraordinarily long.
‘Very well. But be quick and be careful'
Without another word, he hurried away. Cairon waited until he had heard the echo of his receding footsteps fade away behind him before continuing slowly down the street. What an odd person, he thought. The warning drifted through his mind. Be quick and be careful…
Half way along the street there was the entrance to a subway. The fluorescent lights cast a harsh glare on the steps. As he descended, he imagined he was now entering the demon's dungeon. The floor at the foot of the steps was littered with buckled cans, screwed up crisp bags and worse. The long tunnel stretched ahead of him. It stank of piss. As Cairon made his way along it, he hardly took in the things he walked in and around. He was battling monsters.
There was a hiss.
Cairon froze. Television reports about muggers and gangs replayed in his mind. It's nothing, he told himself. Just a car on the road above probably. He made himself start walking again. In his head, his heart beat like a drum.
There was a scuttling.
He stopped again. Forcing himself to look up, he saw in the tunnel ahead nothing that could have made the sound. Yet he was certain that was where it had come from. There was a pain in chest and Cairon realized that he was holding his breath. He let it go and tried to think of the adventure he'd been dreaming of. If he thought of that, he would be safe.
And then there was laughter, resounding the length of the dirty tunnel.
The lights went out.
He broke into a run, whimpering with terror. Almost immediately, he collided with something and rebounded, collapsing into a deep puddle of rank water. Cairon wrapped his soggy arms over his head, sobbing with terror. He screwed his eyes to shut out what he might see, even though he was in pitch darkness.
‘Look at me, child'
The voice was low and cracked, as though the throat the words came from was burnt. It could not be disobeyed. Trembling, he looked up.
The lights had partially returned to life, illuminating the Insect. It was huge. It's body blocked most of the tunnel. The battered, brown carapace was supported on long, multi-joined and thickly veined legs. By comparison with the rest of it, the angular head was tiny, the features lost amongst wrinkles. Trembling feelers sprouted from the face, caressing the walls to either side of it. The Insect laughed, a repulsive, choking, bubbling sound.
‘Am I not a wonder?' it asked.
Cairon felt the life draining from his limbs. In his mind, a fog was enshrouding him. He couldn't even remember how to scream.
‘So many dreams you have, waiting to be eaten' drawled the creature. ‘Such a feast to savoured'
‘Leave the boy alone'
The Insect reared up slightly at the new voice. It was staring at something back the way Cairon had come. It chuckled.
‘Another morsel, I see'
Freed from it

fracture_childWed 16/01/08 18:27

Freed from its attention, Cairon felt a fraction of strength coming back to him, He twisted round to see who the Insect was talking.
It was the man with the white hair. There was no fear in his face. In his left hand he was carrying a small blue box. The surface of it shimmered hypnotically, as though it were a liquid.
‘You're hunt is over' he said.
The monster's hideous laughter rang in Cairon's ears. He tried to move away from it, but a leg darted out and pinned him to the ground.
‘You think you can stand against me?' it screeched. ‘You? Which are you, a fool or a madman?'
The man took a single step forward.
‘I am unique' he said calmly.
Reaching up with his gloved hands, he unbuttoned the front of his coat. The material fell away to reveal his bare chest. Cairon had to blink several times before he could take in what he was seeing. The man's ribcage protruded through the pale skin . The bones were brown and marked with criss-crossing indentations. Beneath this latticework, the torso seemed shrunken and under-developed. Cairon thought he could make out the shape of the heart and the lungs, even the blood that pumped through the veins.
‘Blasphemy' gasped the Insect.
The figure with the exoskeleton shook his head and smiled.
‘Necessary. The other insects have failed against you and they knew that all humans would too. So they made a combination of the two worlds to defeat you. Only such a creature could wield this'
He held out the box, rattling it gently. From it there came a faint whispering noise. A shudder ran through the Insect, shaking the ground beneath it. The feelers jerked spasmodically.
‘This is what you want' the champion told him teasingly. ‘You know you can't resist so many'
The monster shrieked and kicked out with the leg that had been pressed into Cairon. The blow caught the man in the stomach and sent him staggering back along the tunnel. The box flew from his hand and landed with a splash in the puddle, close to Cairon's face. Now indifferent to the boy, the bug was scuttling over him, only narrowly missing stamping on him as it did so. Its voice had degenerated into continuous snarl of hatred. Another blow from its foreleg sent the man sprawling to the floor. The Insect stood over him, The top of its shell scraped against the ceiling as it craned up to its full height.
The feelers began to pound at his body, fast and hard, tenderising the meat.
Cairon stared at the box, laying only a few inches away from him. It was important. Somehow the bug-man had planned to use it stop this horror. He found himself reaching out towards it. He thought he heard voices calling out from within it. His fingers fumbled with the catches. They seemed to respond to his touch, as though eager to be released. The blue metal felt warm and re-assuring against his skin.
He was standing up, water dripping from his soaked clothes. The Insect paid him no attention. It was roaring with triumph.
The lid of the box opened. An unbearably sweet odour filled the air. The creature turned from his victim, hurried shifting its quivering bulk to face the boy. The irresistible cinnamon scent of souls pouring from the container he held, drew it slavering toward him.
It was beginning to grow. The metal was suddenly burning hot and he dropped it quickly. As he watched in amazement, The walls burst apart, revealing a maelstrom of twisting shadows, each with a mouth crying out in rage and pain. Unable to stop itself, the insect plunged into the chaos. The six sides of the box began to fly back together, ensnaring the monster between them.
The foul beast did not notice at first. It was trying in vain to devour the forms flying all around it.
‘Shades' it howled ‘Just miserable shades'
Then it felt the touch of metal against its body. It turned desperately from side to side, but they pressed down remorselessly upon from every direction.
The Insect emitted a despairing, terrified scream as the walls slammed shut. The box began to shrink, diminishing until finally it had returned to its previous size.
Silence.
Cairon walked slowly over to the white haired man who was climbing slowly to his feet.
‘Is it gone?' he asked, his voice sounding tiny and weak in his own ears.
The hybrid warrior nodded.
‘Yes. Gone forever. It can never escape the soul trap'
‘Soul trap?'
‘A prison for the very worst monsters of all worlds'
The man walked along the tunnel, scooped up the box and placed in a pocket of his long coat.
‘Only a very special kind of being could wield it as a weapon' he said.
He looked curiously at Cairon.
‘I suppose that must make you very special'
The boy felt a warm glow inside. He had fought a monster and won! He was a hero, even if no-one else would ever know about it.
The insect that was a man was buttoning up his coat.
What happens now?' asked Cairon.
‘I don't know. I don't belong to any particular place. And neither, I suspect, do you now'
Cairon nodded. He wasn't afraid. He had experienced his first adventure and he knew that there would be countless more to follow.

By Damian Whittle