my first story

in slient places, places cold and dark, places of sheer death, crowds swarm and gather. sad souls stand still as if mourning on a battleground. they shed their blood on the ground as they put their hearts on the line just to determine their own fate. they call it their Sacrifice Theory.
so one by one they wearily enter the cage. few come out alive. some come out alive and yet are very dead. all feeling and thoughts drained forever. those who remember what happened come out sickly looking and claim they "went under". everything goes cold, almost like suffocation. hands from below, clammy skeletal hands, pulled them under. darkness swallowed them up. images flashed through the mind; images of death, brutality, and annihilation, then white blazing light, brighter than the sun. it was the Morningstar. and it saved few worthy ones.

of course this was just a story. a story told by a person obviously hilucinating, devoid of all sense. rambling meaningless words forming useless clauses. this supposedly happened 100s of years ago. musings of old folks say a curse was put on the families of those who came out of the cage. the survivors ended up taking their lives anyway. later generations lived through depressions and hardships. many died early from sickness, hysteria, or corruption. this curse was soon known as the Tortures of the Damned.

it wasnt until 2010 that this curse would possibly be broken forever.

Rob Minstrel woke up to find his world turned upside down again. it was dark out and freezing yet he was sweating buckets. the house was empty but was filled with creaking and groaning. damn storm. he got up and went to the bathroom. he felt feverish so he splashed cold water on his face and looked in the mirror. he didnt look well. his skin was too pale and he had huge purple circles under his eyes. on top of that his nose was covered in dried blood. another random nose bleed. he cleaned himself up and headed downstairs.
it was pitch dark downstairs and it took him awhile to find a light. once in the kitchen he decided to fix himself some food. a spider, big and hariy, scuttled across the grimy counter. once again the food in the cupboards was shifted and some of it crawling with maggots though it was bought just yesterday. any other person would be freaked out at this, but Rob had lived this way his whole life. he had once tried moving to get away from it all but no matter where he lived he would live in a curse.

everyday his schedule was the same:
1. get up too early to fix the house yet again
2. attempt normal life of work, etc.
3. back home for more odd disturbances
4. another day done; time for sleep.
always the same.

Rob remembered when his life took a horribly dramatic turn. he was in the 8th grade and alone. those who knew he was a desendant of a Survivor had stayed away. unfortunatly, but not surprisingly, his parents had died. Rob's father owned a lumber mill but it was doing poorly. he felt everything was his fault and after the sudden death of his partner, the stress took over and he took his life. he left Rob and his mother with little to live off of. they had a very small house and soon were finding themselves deeper in debt. one day widow Minstrel came down with a flu .
this turned into pnemonia and she too passed away about a year later. by then Rob was 15 and without parents. he went to live with his uncle untill he turned 18.
this was no better. his uncle was just as depressing as his dad had been. Rob had started failing classes and was becoming more secluded, never feeling or expressing emotions, coming home and locking himself in his room the rest of the day. eventually he dropped out of school to help his uncle whose health was failing. 2 years later and a few months shy of his 18th birthday his uncle, his last relative, passed away.

Rob, now nearly 18 would face life in a new light. he was the last of the Minstrels and he was determined to break his family's curse.