HFA Creativity Contest: Prose
This spring, UCSB’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted a creativity contest to highlight creative student voices across the UCSB campus. The following story won third place in the prose category.
3ND PLACE WINNER
The Eidolons: Prelude
By Charlie Prindle
Fouth-year music student Charlie Prindle placed third in the prose category of this year’s HFA Creativity Contest.
Jenny ran through the alleyway as fast as she could, her breath streaming past her in the cold night air. The monster followed, sounds of enraged scraping against the worn gravel pushing her forward. She couldn’t hear her squad’s footsteps anymore, but she didn’t dare look back to see if they were still there.
Keeping her stride, Jenny reached for the small circular buckle on her belt, pressing it inward and allowing the belt to expand as she ran. Small pouches from her skin-tight gray suit pushed outwards with a hiss of air. Reaching into one of the pouches, Jenny pulled out two small slate gray pyramids. Gripping a device in each hand, she concentrated, reaching deep within herself to find her unwanted companion. Her well of power. Energy flowed like water through her, its direction and velocity tempered by years of training. Using her hands as channels, she poured some of her power, her edyllic energy, into the devices. A low drone emanated from them; powerful redlight poured outwards from the pyramids’ seams, splattering the dark brick alleyway with crimson. With her hands alight, Jenny threw the devices from her sides.
Almost instantly, the two devices repelled each other, each one positioning themselves where the walls of the alleyway met the ground. The redlight shot out from each of the devices, colliding with the ground and surrounding walls; spreading dust and small bits of brick. The redlight expanded, connecting to itself as it knit together a grid-like wall. The wall quickly began to climb, rising well above the enclosing walls of the alleyway.
Good, that should hold, Jenny thought to herself.
A twisted shriek penetrated her solemn panting as the creature made contact with the barrier. Jenny recoiled from the intensity of the impact but forced herself to keep running. The redlight flickered behind her before fading away into the darkness.
Jenny doubled her efforts, forcing her body to run even faster than before. She could run faster than most people; she was in excellent shape and had imbued herself with some of her now dwindling edyllic energy. But she was exhausted from her mission, from trying to fight that horrid thing. Her breathing strained further as her remaining strength began to waver. As she turned a corner, a massive deformed claw snapped at her ankle from the depths of the dark brick abyss behind her. She skirted away from the claw, narrowly jumping over its attempt to grab her.
Oh crap.
SMACK.
Jenny fell to the ground, the wind knocked out of her. Her momentum slammed her head first into a wall of the alleyway. Her pale hair hung in long strands in front of her face and along the ground as she struggled to stand.
Get up.
She lay still on the floor. The scraping sounds were right beside her. It was playing with her.
I have to get up.
Her muscles refused to listen. Her head pounded in pain. Her whole body protested despite knowing it had no choice but to move.
“Get up!” Jenny yelled out loud, pushing herself up from the floor.
She fled with all her might, trying to ignore the scraping sound just behind her. It pounded the walls in anger as she ran away, causing bits of dilapidated brick to fall from the narrow walls. As she rounded another corner she could see the exit of the alley. The soft light of dawn broke over the horizon, blanketing the ground before her. She felt some of the exhaustion leave her body as sunlight slowly crept towards her, welcoming her into the open air.
The slight relief vanished as she felt an icy claw on her ankle. The monster wrapped its misshapen appendage around her, heaving Jenny back into the shadows of the alley.
Seconds passed.
An explosion of redlight came from deep within the alleyway, shattering the last of the darkness of night away. It crackled in the air, popping and shrieking its own call at the beast. Jenny burst forth from the alleyway with large chunks of the adjacent building flying outward with her.
Parts of her skin pulsated with a dark red glow. The red swirled and danced along her body in unnatural patterns, hardening her skin as it shifted positions with erratic speeds. Bits of debris bounced off of her hardened skin like a rubber ball against steel, impaling itself into the ground below. Jenny twisted in the air, gracefully landing on her feet, her instincts taking hold of her body's movements.
The thing chasing her moaned in pain, like a wounded animal scorned by its master. Jenny narrowed her eyes at the alleyway. All she could make out was a single wickedly curved claw jutting from the edge of the darkness. The claw protruded from brown, amorphous flesh that hung loosely around an exposed, curving limb. The monster wailed as the claw slowly scraped along the ground, retreating deeper into the alley.
Jenny quickly looked around, noting an abandoned parked car that was now smoking— a larger piece of brick had impaled the hood. To her right, she noticed a nearby gas station, just a few feet away from the smoking car.
That could have been so much worse.
Jenny internally flinched, reflecting on how flippantly she had used her abilities. Her squad would never let her do something so rash. Her knees suddenly felt weak, as though they couldn’t bear to hold her weight. Jenny locked them in place, forcing herself to stay upright.
Stop, I can’t think about them. I don’t have the time.
Jenny turned towards the gas station. Her face hardened as she realized what she may have to do.
There can’t be any witnesses.
She carefully started to make her way across the parking lot. She had used the last of her edyllic energy in that last attack. She was vulnerable.
Hopefully that thing is gone.
Jenny quickly made her way towards the gas station, moving silently and low to the ground. She hardened her heart in anticipation of what she might find inside.
Please don’t be here. Please don’t anyone be here.
She suddenly stopped, sensing something moving behind her. She turned to face whatever was skulking in the last vestiges of the night.
“No… it can’t be,” she said, falling to her knees in despair. “Not you…. not like this.”
Fire engulfed Jenny as the gas station exploded, wrapping her in a scorching embrace.
Charlie Prindle is a fourth-year student majoring in Music Studies. Prindle's story is the prelude to a trilogy of novels he is writing called The Eidolons. He plans to complete the first novel by the time he graduates from UCSB's Raab Writing Fellowship.