Hello. I'm using my aunt's coma nd guess what? I have a LOT of unfinished stories here. One is finished though and it's a very short one. =D Yaya for you who don't like loooong ones. It was 'supposedly' submitted to teh Commonwealth competition. But I handed in a little too late, so I dunno if they did submit. I think not. =CCC
Anyway it's like a Morrison story.. if that IS his name. the guy who inspires people. It's a shorter version, and of course more juvenile.
Enjoy ;D
The Bargain Jim Matthews was dreaming. In the dream, he held the world in his hands. He dreamt that he started up a business and had his Masters done. He dreamt he became rich, bought a new house, married a wonderful woman, had two lovely children, grew old, and died happy and contented. Even in his dreams, Jim knew this could never be possible. For two weeks ago, he went to receive his test results, a test that scanned for abnormal cells that proved him positive. In addition to that two weeks ago, Jim realized he only had half a year to live. After two weeks, he still couldn’t get it all in.
Jim Matthews got up from the bed, feeling a little dizzy. His short breaths weren’t helping him at all. “If only- if only- if only,” he kept murmuring to himself in short tiresome breaths. If only he had time on his side. If only time didn’t seem to matter at all. He didn’t feel like working today. Not now, not ever. Nothing mattered to him anymore. “I’m so sorry, Jim. The test results proved positive,” Dr Will had said in his office, his hands covering his face. Jim couldn’t move. He couldn’t think. For a couple of minutes he just looked down, unable to decipher the words coming out of his doctor’s mouth. Then he thought to himself, with a final wave of goodbye to his doctor, “It’s over. My life is over.” Jim still remembered the day he broke the news to his family, which was, ironically, solemn, despite the fact that it was Momma’s birthday. “I have cancer,” he announced quietly right after his mother was about to feed him a piece of cake. The hall was deathly silent. Everyone was genuinely shocked. Some, including his mother, just sat down on their chairs, staring into space. How could someone like him encounter such a problem? Someone from such a respectable family with strong roots and values that were upholded throughout the generation. After that, Jim didn’t utter another word to them. He just couldn’t. Straightaway he left the house, leaving its occupants in such disarray that they actually forgot their initial intention of visiting. He went to the store, bought three bottles of beer and swallowed his sorrows the whole night. The following nights ended the same way. His relatives and friends kept calling, but he never called back. Many tried to visit, but he never opened the door to anyone. Not even his mother could persuade him to talk. All he could think of was that his life is over. He was going to die, very, very soon. Sometimes Jim would stand in the kitchen, holding a knife, thinking to himself. “End it now. It’s better than suffering until the end.” But his fear of the unknown stopped him from doing it. Jim ended up doing nothing, thinking only of death and how cruel life was to him. It was better not to have lived at all if it had to end this way. “What was the use of life,” Jim thought unhappily, “when everyone is going to die anyway?” Jim became lost in his own world, his entire mind in utter chaos. However, things changed when one night, he went out to buy beer yet again. This time he found his neighbour outside at his own garden, hugging his nine-year-old daughter, tightly, gazing at the stars. The pretty nine-year-old was just looking up intently at the iridescent stars, as if waiting to see something special. Her eyes glowed mysteriously in the moonlight, and her lips curved into a smile. “Daddy is there anything you wish me to tell Mommy when I go?” the girl whispered suddenly. Her father smiled, a little sadly, when he said, “Tell her I love her, and I love you too, darling.” And they just gazed at the stars, the cool wind whipping the small girl’s hair across her face. The following day Jim found out Jamie was dying. Her muscles were deteriorating. She could hardly move by herself. “The poor nine-year-old,” Jim would hear some say. And he would remember her, her smoldering gaze and starry eyes and her warm innocent smile. To Jim, to know that you were going to die was like dying a slow, painful death. Yet when he saw her out in the yard, playing, she was smiling all the time, happy and contented. She wasn’t moping around all day; unlike Jim, she was using up every last minute of her life to be happy, so she could leave filled with sweet, golden memories. To Jim, it was sad seeing her like that. He decided to visit her one night, and unknowingly he was actually visiting her on the night of her passing.
Jim had sat at the edge of her bed. They eyes met for a while, then Jim had said “I’m going too.” Jamie suddenly frowned, and then she said “So why are you here?”
Jim couldn’t understand her question. “What do you mean?” he asked, puzzled.
And Jamie had said her last wisest words of her life. “You’re still breathing, you know. Go tell your mother that you love her before it’s too late.” And that was when Jim realized how foolish he was to think that his life was over. He had wasted so much time doing nothing. Life is like a bargain made between God and his people. People are given a chance to live, experience, and feel in life. That’s what life is about. And in life, it is about moving on, overcoming challenges, and learning from mistakes to make people better, and learning the art of love. People live and die, and even in death, people learn that it is just another obstacle to overcome. In life, there is death, and in death, life. It didn’t matter when and how they die; what mattered was how and when they actually start living their life. People don’t live twice, so they have to make the best of what they have of this period of time.
Jim was on his bed, thinking. He thought and thought. What was he going to do with the rest of his life? What could he do with it?
“I could do so many things,” he murmured, “So many.” That day, he called up his family members and friends for a meeting at his house. He told them how much he appreciated them and how each of them had made an impact in his life. He enthused about his love for his family, his mother, his late father, and his siblings. “Whenever the time of my leave, I will leave this place with good memories, filled with love and happiness,” he said. Jim Matthews went back to work. He lived like he never lived before, and lived his life to the fullest. He visited his mother everyday without fail. In a couple of months, doctors had to amputate his left leg. Jim still kept on living. When he started sitting on a wheelchair, he was happy. In three months, he had to resort to staying in the hospital. Everyone he knew was by his side. He was still happy. When Jim Matthews died, he died never feeling happier in his life.
END Liked that? Comment please. Anyway the next one is uh, about anime. AND IT INCLUDES ME YANTI and SYAZ as the main characs. Did it after O's, I should think. LOL.
It was a quiet day. So far nothing interesting happened. Only a couple of laughs had here and there, but mainly teaching. What the hell! Prelims are over! Can’t they give us a break?? Azrina thought to herself. She had shut off from reality. Thoughts of going home, reading manga with the book in one hand and a cup of hot milo in the other filled her mind. A smile formed on her face as she remembered the newly-bought Vampire Knight Book 6 was sitting still in her bag. She sighed and placed her hand on her chin. Somehow her teacher seemed to notice her smile and her dreamy face. The teacher stared, annoyed, and said, “Yes Azrina? Got something to share with us?” The brown haired girl snapped back to reality. She shook her head jerkily. Oh boy. Can’t wait for this nightmare to end.
The black haired girl’s brown eyes were on her book, as if mesmerized with its words. She was studying intently a graph calculating lag time. Suddenly a hand came out from nowhere and smacked her book. She yelped and turned. “AZRINA! I was studying!” The short-haired girl crinkled her nose in disgust. “Geography. What a stupid subject. Syaz.. you’re always studying. You need to learn to relax.” “You on the other hand need to stop relaxing. Os are near!” she said indignantly. “Yeah whatever.” Azrina sat on a chair beside her and started picking at her geography book. “Say, this Saturday, want to have a Fushigi Yugi marathon? You need a break anyway.” Syazwani tapped the table with her pen thoughtfully. “Maybe… let’s get the others to come.”
So it was set. Azrina was to provide the cds. As expected she rented at the last minute. On Friday night, she remembered what she was supposed to do and hurried downstairs. She cursed inwardly at not having rented earlier. She doubted if the video rental shop below her flat was still open. Saturday was going to be a public holiday; Teacher’s Day. It was ten plus. Few people were at s11. She rushed up the escalator and turned to the left to look at the shop. Her heart dropped. It wasn’t open. Guess she had to call the gathering off. She wondered at how she would deliver this news to them at the least minute. She looked at the shop again, and almost yelped in surprise. It was open. And it wasn’t the same video rental shop; it was a different one. The rose, it was called. A weird-looking bespectacled lady was at the counter. She looked like she was dressed for a cosplay exhibition; she was a cross between Witchhunter Robin and Hell Girl. Azrina assumed that she was hallucinating the first time she looked at the shop. She went over to the counter to the lady, who had such an unnerving stare that her palms started to sweat. Azrina felt weird. She felt that something was going to happen. Something major. “What do you want, little lady?” the petite lady asked her. Azrina cleared her throat. “Fushigi Yugi?” she asked. The lady reached for under the table and emerged with a weird cd case. It had the picture of a rose as its cover. “I’m not sure what season this is,” I said. “Anything.” “What?” “It is anything.” “What season?” “Well, guess you’ll have to find out what you want, don’t you?” She whispered, sending chills up her spine, “It can be anything you want.” Azrina took a step back. She was careful. “How much is it?” “What?” “What is the cost?” “Whatever you wish and make of your decisions.” She smiled the widest creepiest smile Azrina had ever seen. Silence. Then… “I have to go now. “ “Go where? Who will take care of your shop?” “I don’t need to.” Azrina felt a presence behind her and turned. No one. When she turned back, the shop wasn’t there either. She dropped the cd case she was holding. Resting on the cold hard floor, the picture of the rose shimmered and glowed a deep dark red.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Syazwani asked. She was irritated. How could she rent a cd and not know the season? Furthermore Azrina was acting weird. She was awfully quiet. Huda was propped on a chair resting. They were in Huda’s house. The four of them- Az, Syaz, Huda, Yanti and Atiqah. Fezra, being herself, did not come for the marathon. She hated animes. Atiqah suddenly got up. “Toilet,” she mumbled and went off. Huda trailed after her, saying she needed to make some more coffee. Yanti was humming to herself as she took out the cd from the cd case. Her short hair was tied into a tiny ponytail. She spun the cd on her hand as she studied it. The cd was emerald in colour, and thre were no designs for it. “Azrina froze as she watched Yanti place the cd into the player and slapped the button PLAY. A lot of things happened at once. The tv flashed white, a voice came from the tv. It said, “Welcome to your destiny. We have been waiting.“ *
Azrina woke up with a violent jerk and realized she was in a different place. Suddenly she became aware of the group surrounding her. Right in front of her there was a beautiful woman. She smiled warmly as she looked at her. Somehow she had a feeling they weren’t having any evil intentions. She didn’t struggle as two of her guards helped her up. Then suddenly she found Syaz and Yanti curled up in a corner. She ran to them and woke them up. Syaz woke up and rubbed her eyes. She felt groggy and unable to move. Only then did she realize that she was in a state of shock. She calmed herself and sat upwards slowly, looking around. “Az… where are we?” “Conan.” She turned behind and found a pretty woman answering her question and some people who seemed to be her guards. She looked at Yanti, who seemed unable to tear her eyes away from the beautiful lady.
“NO. SHUT UP!” Azrina’s mouth was wide open. Her head seemed to be working well now. Her hand seemed to tremble uncontrollably as she spoke these words. “Emperor… Hotohori?” He nodded solemnly. “It is unclear where you come from and how you have come to know my name, but it is said in the scroll not to question or doubt you guardians, for fear of manupilating the threads of time, and destiny will change.”
Yanti stared at him. She still couldn’t get past her first discovery. “You’re a MAN?” *
“So we are here to protect the fate of the Suzaku warriors and its priestess?” Syazwani asked for the 32nd time. Hotohori nodded. However, I have yet to find them all. I have a ceremony tomorrow at a village nearby. I need you to help me look out for people with-“ “Signs on their foreheads, arms, et cetera. We know.” Syazwani slapped Azrina on the arm the second she spoke it out. “Don’t worry. We will find one or two of them by tomorrow,” Syaz reassured him. She noticed that he looked worried and there was a lot on his mind. “Leave it to us, Emperor Hotohori.” Her words seem to comfort him. He smiled slightly. “Thank you very much. I suggest you sleep early tonight as the ceremony is tomorrow morning. I should rest too. You especially,” his words were directed at her as he looked at her with his fierce blue eyes. “You almost fainted just now.” Yanti and Azrina saw their friend blush. They looked at each other. Hmmmmmm…
*
“What a nice dress,” Azrina commented as she studied her dark brown feet-length dress. It was simple with a sash tied to the middle of her waist with the ribbon at the back. “I finally look slender!” Yanti looked at herself in the long mirror. She looked great in royal purple. She studied her headdress that came with it. It was like a tiara except that she had to wear it like a headband. Small, sparkling red jewels glittered as the sun’s rays land on it. She wondered what the other Fushigi Yugi characters are like. Syazwani and Azrina had told her of their characters and habits, and how it will all turn out to be. “Nevertheless I suspect things won’t go exactly the same way as it did in the manga,” Syazwani had analysed last night. As for Syazwani, she was still in her own room, getting ready. She wore a raven black dress. It was long sleeve, yet awfully light and cool. “It was made this way,” the emperor had said. “There is a small amount of highly-respected people who possess unhumanly powers, such as magic. Some make use of it for good, some for evil.”
She twirled around. Her dress didn’t get in the way. “You look beautiful.” She turned around to see Hotohori looking at her with his unreadable eyes. Once again she blushed. “Thank you, Emperor.” “Promise me one thing.” “Yes, Emperor?” “Don’t call me Emperor. Call me… Hotohori.”
* The ceremony had started. “Please guys. Whatever you do, don’t interfere. Tamahome and Miaka will come to us.” Azrina remembered what she had said to Syaz and Yanti. She fidgeted nervously while walking around the streets, waiting for the incident to happen. Soon, she told herself, soon. *
It happened. They were now back at the palace. The two of them were imprisoned in a chamber near one of the emperor’s gardens. Emperor Hotohori was sitting down. His forehead creased into a line as he pondered over the three girls’ suggestions that they were the ones they were looking for. Finally he spoke, “It is evident that the boy is a warrior. But is the girl really a priestess of Suzaku? What do you propose then?” Yanti’s lips parted into a smile. “We talk.”
