3. Vaughan Wiliams: 6th Symphony

~~~ Sara wakes up in an alley after looking around, confused. She sees a tall woman in a white ceramic mask standing at the end.

"~~~~~~" she opens her mouth to call out, but no sound comes out. She looked again at the woman, and a smile formed on the mask as it brought up a finger on its lips. "Not yet," says the mask.

~hhhhhaa~ she gasps as she awakes. She looks around to see her room organized as ever, leaving much empty space to be filled by the darkness.

"I'd best go back to sleep," she said, the demons which lurked in the shadows just outside the room.

She did not sleep.

~~~~~~~~→ A ↓ → A ↓ Y L R Y L R~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sara stood up and got ready for her day, her movements machine-like. After brushing her teeth, she moved to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. She mixed the batter for the pancakes and poured it into the pan.

"Is something on your mind?" asked Nina.

"No... why do you ask" responded Sara concerned

"Cause your oven is on... off," mused Nina

"Oh, my bad," said Sara, turning on the oven

"So what's up."

"Nothing, just worried about today."

"What are you going to do about it."

"What?"

"I'm not going to say something stupid like what could happen; that is just asking to die."

~heh~

"So what are you going to do" questioned Nina

"Well, what can I do" asked Sara

"Flip your pancake, maybe," said Nina

~ ohhh~ exclaimed Sara, flipping the pancake to show a nice deep black from the castiron. "It's ok, we will just put some syrup on it and give it to Anna. She won't care,"

After that, the pancakes were prepared in silence, filling the flat with the smell of dough; after a sizable stack was made, they made it to Anna's door. Sara reached out to open the door and then stopped.

"I don't know," she answered.

Opening the door just as the alarm rang

~~~~~~~~→ A ↓ → A ↓ Y L R Y L R~~~~~~~~~~~~

"ATTENTION!" Screamed Mrs. Mac, baton in hand, to the line of students, all wearing the same uniform of gray camo in the form of light clothing except for a couple of people who were also wearing metal gauntlets over their hands and greaves on their feet.

"ARE YOU READY FOR HELL!" Screamed Mrs Mac

"Yes, ma'am!" screamed the soldiers at attention, breaking the stillness in the air.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!" screamed Mrs Mac

"YES, MA'AM!!" cried the the soldiers.

"ALTHOUGH THE CHANCES OF YOU DYING ARE SLIM. YOU MUST NEVER FORGET WHAT YOU ARE ENTERING IS NOT A TRAINING FIELD; IT IS A THEATRE OF WAR, SO THE CHANCES OF YOU DYING ARE ALWAYS PREEMINENT," informed Mrs Mac

"NOW FORM GROUPS," instructed Mrs Mac.

Sara looked around for her group. She saw Anna waving to her while Nina tuned her instrument, and Sam and I were talking.

As she walked towards the group, she looked around and thought about if she would ever see this place again, but no, this pessimism was not important right now; I must be ready to protect my friends so that we could continue to eat and talk and I can listen and take care of them. She thought as she arrived at her friends.

"Hey Sara, do you think we will find any trolls!" Said Anna energetically

Sara raised her shoulders

"Attention" screamed Mrs Mac.

" Please make your way to your designated theremin player"

She marched her way over to the theremin player who was, by all means of the sentence, a generic white dude from the brown hair to the face. It was the very essence of the writer not wanting to make a new character, so he will now refer to him as Mr. Therimin. "Hello, Mr. Theremin," "Hello, soldiers, we will now begin transportation in three two one." Then he played a sound which brought many words to mind: trek, beam, star, transporter.

Then, the moment the sound had stopped, we were surrounded by blackness.

In front of us, a tree stands alone, not as a symbol of resilience, but an omen of destruction; a beautiful red could be used to describe the tree despite not a single leaf in sight, for the tree had been dyed red by the blood of hundreds. Standing alone. What was it persevering for? She wondered. There were no saplings to raise, no birds to house, and no squirrels to feed, so what was its purpose to sit on a battlefield and watch the never-ending horrors unfolding in front of it?

"I hear the main force in the north. I suggest we head to the south and look for stragglers," I suggested

They began to walk slowly southward towards the blood tree, retaining a defensive formation in case of ambush.

As they walked towards the blood tree, it kept getting bigger and bigger, towering over them and passing the height of any tree they had ever seen. It began surpassing the height of buildings, reaching an overwhelming height of 43 metres.

"fuck !" said Mr theremin

"What is wrong?!" Sara questioned not daring to let the tree escape her line of sight

"We are in what once was the Republic of Congo," responded Mr theremin in fear.

"Fuck!" swore Nina in fear

"And what is wrong with that!!!" questioned Sam

"Places where deforestation is common can spawn dryads..." Mr theremin answered in fear.

"Oh shit!" swore Sam

"And they wear trees as crowns," finished Nina in terror

Just then, the tree began to rise and rise; below it was a shadow, its eyes glowed a forest fire orange in hatred, then the lower part of its face appeared a large gaping hole in its mouth curled into a smile. Just then, Mr theremin summoned his theremin and began to play the earlier tune. But the monster just calmly turned it's eyes towards the insect and a root raised from the ground behind him and snared the prey ending it's song, and lifted it slowly turning them slowly till his head touched the ground then Mr theremin's head was slowly brought into the magically receding into the ground the sole proble the hole was only large enough for Mr theremin's head so when it reached the shoulders it pushed down threatening to snap eliciting a scream from Mr theremin then snap his clavicle was broken also breaking the first few sets of ribs and piercing the lungs then the monster continued it's revenge despite the screaming snap snap snap snap snap snap snap snap each of the remaining sets of ribs snapped but there was no more screaming cause he had no air left to scream with, then as it continued to push the stomach began to expand due to all the organs being compressed downward until eventually ~pop~ the stomach popped releasing all the intestines inside in a confetti popper of blood leaving only Mr theremin's legs stook out like a deranged sapling then the monsterf turned to us with a new type of smile satisfaction.

The last thing they saw was their bodies, headless.