www.storymania.com
Storymania Logo

 

 

Short Stories




The Return To Narnia (Short Story Concept) by Nathaniel A Miller A concept story that sequeled loosely the last book of the Narnia Ch... [8,436 words]
The Hawk by Cari Graham We find our strength and healing powers in the strangest of places. [489 words]
She (The Short Story) by Jamie Goetz She is the short story of a girl who sees the apparition of a familiar female figure. She... [2,961 words]
The Clergyman And The Brothel by James Buchannon This is a scene from a book I'm thinking about writing. It's set in the future an... [2,684 words]
Warm Goo by Gregory Allen Oddly enough, this story has generated interest with a publisher (subject to some rewrite) [3,277 words]
The Convict by Gregory Allen In the mind of a serial killer. [723 words]
The Bookcase In The Basement by Francois Fouche A mystery tale developed around the phenomenon of books changing locations in a ca... [5,118 words]
The Sunrise For Lady May by Gregory De Feo - [1 words]
The Virgin Of Chelsea by Francois Fouche The Virgin of Chelsea is the story of Eoin Farrelly, a London oil painter obsessed with t... [2,527 words]
The Slow Man by Gregory Allen Story of unstable retarded man. [1,267 words]
Wicked They Come by Susan Brassfield Cogan What is making that darned noise? [2,930 words]
Why Did You Not Stop Me? by Animesh Kar He thought he knoew about all of them! but he was wrong till that morning ... which wa... [3,028 words]
What Is Love Anyway! by Shmuel Yacobi Gist of the story: Feggy and Phil became good friends through Internet chat. Feggy wanted... [1,975 words]
The Legend Of Yin by Michelle Jones A story of an assassin in ancient China, out for revenge on his father's murderer. [2,940 words]
The Lake (The V. D. P. Levon Version) by V D P Levon Except for exact words, the inclusion of a cell phone and an idea, and th... [757 words]
The First Night by Alvin Gladstone The couple have just got married and the night has began, as they get ready to sleep - the adve... [4,709 words]
The First Alex by Gregory Allen Does anybody review any stories? [3,985 words]
The Color Of Life by Shmuel Yacobi Gist of the story: An actress was kidnapped. She managed to escape into the forest area. She ... [2,073 words]
The Chinese Run Away Bride by Shmuel Yacobi Gist of the story: The wedding celebration started in a village in China. The commun... [1,351 words]
The Absent by Martin De Leon Taking place in a hallway, a young mexican math teacher and his wife--she a maker a videos that she ... [4,500 words]
Star Shining Masterpiece. by Bradley Grimes A man exposes his masterpiece, to an overly critical girlfriend. [3,953 words]
Shooting Birds by M B Barlow A SF story set in the world of Deus. [6,092 words]
Out Of Sync by Gregory Allen Maybe it was just a dream. [722 words]
Nothing But The Truth by Shmuel Yacobi Gist of the story: Willy was on his way to Las Vegas and met with an accident. Willy slo... [2,071 words]
Middle Aged Misadventure by Ryan Michaels A humorous and true story about a 50 something year old and his quest for a kinship wi... [6,156 words]
Man In The Bank by Alvin Gladstone An anxious man in a bank, something is worrying him. [824 words]
Lost In New York by Shmuel Yacobi Gist of the story: The beach cop finds a lost girl. She is mute. Beach cop took her to Dr. Sar... [1,574 words]
Letter To Dad by Cari Graham This is moving letter written to a father that has passed in hopes of bringing closure to the gri... [403 words]
If All Things Are Possible,� Why Can't I Balance My Checkbook? by James Snyder For me, the most terrible time of each month is ... [904 words]
How It Must Feel To Die Alone by Aryka - [484 words]
Girl Downstairs by Alice W-M A girl meets another girl who steals the love of her life. [707 words]
Fenrir Part 1 by George L Shultz Big man meets small girl and kills many bad-guys. [3,310 words]
Engagement Of Love by Bancy Mwihaki A short story about relationships - family, love, friendship - all involving one young woman... [2,755 words]
Enemy Inside by Shmuel Yacobi Gist of the story: The US National Security Adviser Raymond�s Chinese wife Joe had secretly hired ... [3,877 words]
Do You Think I Was Wrong? by Animesh Kar When the thin line between reality and dreams get crossed!!!! [2,991 words]
Dead Or Alive by Shmuel Yacobi Gist of the story: Draco is a hunter and a very big man. He went out into the forest for hunting.... [1,809 words]
Alternative Justice by Shmuel Yacobi Gist of the story: Two young fellows raped a girl and accidentally killed her. The police f... [1,821 words]
After Death by Animesh Kar How he wished to come with him. But they said destiny is much more powerful than one can imagine! [2,052 words]
A Special Day by Cari Graham Remember how it used to feel when you waited for that special someone to arrive. [376 words]
A Cup Of Joe Says A Lot About Us by James Snyder This week I came face-to-face with a genuine dilemma. I had several meetings a... [902 words]
This Story Will Never End by Elide Bors This is a story of love... It proves that even when the body is old, the spirit can l... [7,467 words]
The Weight Of The Past by Diana Blizzard A young biracial girl explores her past in an attempt to connect with her African Americ... [2,945 words]
The Nephilim by Clint Stutts A man reflects on the demise of the small town he lived in. Where did the giants come from? Can ... [2,369 words]
The Movie Store by Daniel Hurley When I wrote this story I wanted to make it as real as possible. I wanted to capture the every... [3,003 words]
The Lopsided Penguin by Lori Lorien A research scientist in Antartica takes a penguin on board. [1,491 words]
The Escape by Nur Syafiqah A Jaaffar A short tale of a prisoner's escape from jail. [964 words]
The Dream by Daniel Brown A short story with a surprise ending. [1,163 words]
Soap Machine by Alexander Petrov - [2,187 words]
Shadow's Adventure 2 by Maritza Vargas This is just basicly part 2 of the story!! Shadow is having no luck in finding Menchi. Oh ... [668 words]
Pay Dirt by Armand Waksberg To be different is not necessarily bad! [1,811 words]
One Friday Night by Kenneth MacLellan - [3,112 words]
Neuro by Martin De Leon A piece of microfiction that was a top ten finalist in the Austin Chronicle's 2004 Short Story Contest. I... [1 words]
Jai by Casey Lauber Jai is an average guy or so he thinks... [1,549 words]
I-10 Crash by Brittany Tellez On August 13,2004 my brother, me and my mom were driving home and their was a dust storm, and we wer... [800 words]
Hunger Pains by Riot "She was fat..." [495 words]
Her Last Breath by Ryne Hughes This is a story of me witnessing my own mother as she takes her last breath. Title pretty much ... [895 words]
Gardens by Alexander Petrov - [1,296 words]
Final Climb by Constant Ngozi It's all about a climb that was supposed to be the final. [1,894 words]
Falling Free by Sarah-Ashleigh Jones-West When a man numb with life, hopelessly in unrequited love discovers a woman also caught in the mund... [2,157 words]
Estrella's Walk by Skeeze Whitlow Sensual description of Central American Witch's walk to the sea. [629 words]
Drugged On Vengeance
Doctor Trek - Meeting The Grade by Ian Kidd Captain Who and his companions try to stop a band of crazed, time-travelling "D... [8,936 words]
Cheeku And His Jungle Friends. by Srija Bhattacharjee The story is about a intelligent rabbit who trys to solves problems and troubles... [142 words]
Capp Gun by Bryan King A story about a capp gun. [1,089 words]
Capp Gun (Extended And Edited) by Bryan King A story about a capp gun. [1,489 words]
Brothers Of War by Brett M Holden A Union Sergeant marches to war with a regiment of veterans and new recruits. He has no left a... [4,005 words]
A Story Of Warriors Rev1 by Albert Davis This is a revised edition of a short story I submitted several years ago. [3,373 words]
6 Billion Chances To Kill by Bryan King An inspector is comming to the grill. I wonder what he might find. [511 words]
6 And 1 Half Minutes by Bryan King Sheriff Lanson is a crazy man. [1,034 words]

Go to page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 [22] 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
TITLE (EDIT)
Drugged On Vengeance
DESCRIPTION
A son, father and uncle, poisoned by sweet stories of victory, courage and honour, decide to join the ranks of the army and become heroes.
[1,408 words]
TITLE KEYWORD
Fantasy
AUTHOR
Jack M Brown
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
19, studying Mathematics at Southampton University.
[April 2005]
AUTHOR'S E-MAIL ADDRESS
[email protected]
AUTHOR'S OTHER TITLES (11)
Cheese For Me' Crackers (Children) An old Elf called Teak awaits destruction from the moon that is gradually falling from the sky. [522 words] [Fantasy]
Doctor Who: Old Timer (Novels) The penultimate and last incarnations of the Doctor face very different battles with old friends and old enemies. Both are afflicted with the dangerous science project that runs between them so will t... [10,317 words] [Fan Fiction]
Flyby Of The Insect-O-Cuter (Short Stories) For five employees of a restaurant, their shift plays out very differently as strange personalities collide. Hector, Jessie, Eric, Gunther-Rudolf and Lovely all have different jobs and play out thei... [4,552 words] [Comedy]
Grake And Blues (Short Stories) Nama 'Magician' Ustinov is convicted of genocide and sent to Hell. To get out early, he sets his two friends, Grake and Blues, to a contest where they must kill everyone on Earth by hopping from body ... [3,960 words] [Fantasy]
Halls Of Residence (Short Stories) Blood, sweat, tears. The best of university education. But will the run-down Halls of Residence cope with an attack from the living dead? [1,968 words] [Horror]
Nth Floor (Short Stories) Welcome to Tower. Edward's just been employed in an office on the 100th floor, but he finds that the high-rise building is much taller than he previously expected. The quest for the top floor is liken... [2,614 words] [Mystical]
Siege (Novels) An army of thousands is sat on the doorstep of Castle Utter. A gung-ho lord, a rubbish wizard, a blacksmith, a young boy, an ex-prostitute, a mute and a foreigner live in the run-down fortress. Out of... [22,839 words] [Fantasy]
Slow Down (Short Stories) Peter's world speeds up inexplicably while his doctor tries to figure out what's wrong, watching him slow down till he hardly moves. [1,472 words] [Science Fiction]
The Happy House (Novels) A tale of friends, love and the greatest social lubricants. The Ruffled Fox is throwing parties nearly every night for his friends at the Happy House, the grand mansion on the hill, or on the Beacon, ... [21,519 words] [Drama]
The Trial Of The Smarty-Pants Dwarf (Children) Gomper the dwarf, a clock salesman, is convicted of murder but is too smart to be punished by the strict Mungle. [1,384 words] [Fantasy]
When The Blood Runs Cold (Short Stories) A murderer surveys his victim, while trying to certify that he has done the right thing and satisfying his twisted humour. [419 words] [Horror]
Drugged On Vengeance
Jack M Brown

Muted sunlight slipped through the clouds and gleamed brightly off the slender dagger in Neko's hand. I remember that image well. How godlike and wise in his suffering for his people, in how his power rust and corrupted to blacken his love, how he wept for his own blood trodden into the ground � as he stood over his son on that grassy field, as he stood over that fallen soldier, that fallen warrior, his child.

Vengeance can be such a satisfying thing. It can warp, distil and drug the strongest of wills to its heel. That is what it did to your father, to your brother, to his son � to me. Even your mother � and she understood the drug more than any other did having seen such things before, she saw it work its poison, she recognised its black slime that poured over and drowned the town, she saw what was to come. No wonder she sat back and watched, and wept. Everyone must face that desperate yearning; that adrenaline shot of needing pain, of wanting to inflict � your mother knew she could never hope to keep such dangerous drugs of the mind away from your brother; even her love for him could not do that. So she let it take hold, she let it find its grip, and then with one forceful tug, one great tearing through skin and bone and blood, our hearts were His.

The soldiers marched through the storm toward the town, their heads low, their faces sodden from the pelting rain, their boots trudging knee deep through thick mud. It looked like they were trying to get through a valley of melted chocolate. They brought such sweetness with them, such tasty morsels to soothe and melt in the mouth, such truffles of wonder and, true, horror, but revenge was honey-suckling confection like none other: a lasting taste between the teeth, a sugar lump of coppery blood.

They brought stories of glory and many of pain, of suffering, of other towns such as this that were shook to their foundations, burnt, blackened, you could taste the soot from these soldiers� breath, you could smell the thick clouds of smoke that were carried in their old clothes. Even the lowliest infant could smell the dried blood that held torn woollen shirts together. These soldiers smelt of death.

Yet this was not the blood of our own, this was the blood of enemies in conflict waged past � and these were simple people like us, simple farmers with simple values, simple people with great heroic stories to tell � and we wanted it. They told of a battle to come, of a great field bathed in blood to end all wars, of green grass flecked with crimson, of heroes and villains, of great, lumbering, perfect combat. Vengeance, you too could have vengeance, they said. Make something of your lives, join us, join our ranks, join us with swords and armour and let us do battle together, let us tear down our enemies on that great field, join our ranks and taste their blood between your teeth like we have, exact vengeance on those who have hurt us and would do us further harm.

We lapped it up like dogs with water on a hot day. The cool rain crashed about the windows and we sat in the tavern, your father, brother and I, our nostrils flared with the warm air of the flickering fire, our mouths dry with frothy ale held before us. We sat silent for many minutes, your father and I, lolling over the idea to take up arms and defend our land from an unseen aggressor, from an army we knew had done wrong to many towns like ours. Vengeance, you too could have vengeance. Your brother�s mind was already made, but he was young and hardy, ready for a fight he believed to be just. The temptation � no, lust, for power, for blood, for great stories, to become a hero like none other, was too great for his young mind, was too potent a drug.

Your father went to protect the boy, and I went to protect your father. Alas, so much for that last charge, so much for that last employment. We took the rain in hand and crossed the town, our soggy clothes brought up to our chins, our hair straggling across our faces, our hearts brimming with the tales of war and blood from the bottom of a tankard, our thoughts glazed with retribution, revenge � vengeance. We went straight to your mother and somehow, bless her, with her home smelling of delicate lavender, a vase of her favourite bluebells on the table, green stalks holding up a deep blue sky � somehow she knew what we would say, she knew what was coming � she had sat down already, the news daunting her like hearing that we were already dead. Perhaps she knew something we did not.

The morning was rich with the smell of displaced earth, thick with the probing air after a thunderstorm, the leaves and grass appearing more green than I ever saw them � but the blood from the weary soldiers no longer smelt of needing vengeance, of victory or of honourable and holy battle, instead pungent and sour like a morning sickness, of a diseased health, and once again they smelt of death. We joined their ranks.

Vengeance � it smelt more of misery now, of grey skies and bittersweet tears, of hearts broken and loves lost, of unrequited love. Where had that sweetness of chocolate gone to? How could we have been so deceived? Stories were no longer of heroes and villains, of great battles, of perseverance in the sight of loss, of life in the sight of death, but of despair, horror, blood, bones and of the loss of friends, of the disappearance of everything holy, of the waste of life. We had joined a troop of skeletons heading toward the great fiery mouth of hell, furnace of the dead.

I felt your brother�s fear as we stood on that great, golden field, unspoilt as yet, holding the two great armies in the palm of its hand, biding its time for the moment when it would bunch up its fingers and crush all. I felt your brother�s fear as he put on a brave face, trying to smile even, knowing full well that your father and I were only there because he was, because his hotheadedness had brought us to the green, because his youthful hardiness, his willingness to fight, his want to suck on the juices of the drug, to place that sugar lump on the back of his tongue and let it soothe his blood thirst, because he had not given a thought to his father or uncle and that he knew that we could all die, no wonder he was scared.

We listened to one last sweet story, one last great lie for a great battle, one last effort to distort our minds, one last taste and touch, like that of bear flesh, of one more thrust, of one more suck � we shall fight on this holy ground, this battlefield, this green that shall drink our blood and be merry, and we shall live on, ever fighting, till our land is retaken. We listened, we lapped it up and then we fought, crazed on sweet, sweet morsels, crumbs, enough to keep us going. We fought like those great warriors we envisaged, those that we heard so much about. We died like them too.

Muted sunlight slipped through the clouds and gleamed brightly off the slender dagger in Neko's hand. I remember that image well. On the ground was your brother, bloodied, the grass flecked with crimson as we were told it would be, the earth drinking his blood like we had drunk the stories of vengeance. Before I could stop him, Neko ran back into the fray of the battle and that was the last I saw of him, that was the end of your father.

I trudged away from that carnage carrying your brother over my shoulder, my boots slipping up to the knees in mud left from the rain, my clothes torn, foreign blood drying and entwining with the sinews of my makeshift armour, my own sweat and blood between my teeth and like a final rush of sugar from the chocolate it kept me going. It kept me trudging on homeward.

 

READER'S REVIEWS (5)
DISCLAIMER: STORYMANIA DOES NOT PROVIDE AND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIEWS. ALL REVIEWS ARE PROVIDED BY NON-ASSOCIATED VISITORS, REGARDLESS OF THE WAY THEY CALL THEMSELVES.

"You definately have a way with desrciption.But when I read a story I like to get something out of it.I don't get anything from this piece except a well desrcibed battlefield.If that was what you were trying to accomplish then well done, but if you were trying to convey some type of message then I didn't get it." -- Dave.
"It's supposed to explore the myth of honour on the battlefield and the 'eye for an eye' way of thinking, which can drive many to do the wrong thing." -- Jack.
"Wow, Jack, I didn't know you had this kind of writing in you. This was so well described. Most of the stories I've read of yours don't seem to aspire to this kind of description. But I gather now that you were just writing like that on purpose, either that or you have been secretly slaving over the last few months polishing this aspect of your craft. I personally seem to have so much trouble showing and not telling. And I could definitely see a message or central theme to this piece. Good job." -- Michael Harris, Detroit, MI.
"Yep, I've had the nose to the grind-stone. Cheers" -- Jack.
"Your response to Dave is good because it was not condescending. However, like most pacifists, your cynicism and obvious disdain for war (the "myth of honor" on the battlefield) merely mimics the rhetoric of naive' anti-war sentimentalists who I'm sure would love this piece. This could have been a civil war battle or perhaps another war, no matter, but what was their alternative? To walk away and forgive the enemy? To wait until another town or village was revaged? Or maybe just run and hide hoping the enemy will go away. Tentativeness and uncertainty cause more deaths in war than vengeance and fear. You do not enter a battle with half-assed notions. You must feel justified or you will surely perish. Vindication and retribution are goals. Vengeance is merely another motivating factor. The sad part of civil war is that the label of agressor can be applied to both sides. " -- Richard.

TO DELETE UNWANTED REVIEWS CLICK HERE! (SELECT "MANAGE TITLE REVIEWS" ACTION)

Submit Your Review for Drugged On Vengeance
Required fields are marked with (*).
Your e-mail address will not be displayed.

Your Name*     E-mail*

City     State/Province     Country

Your Review (please be constructive!)*


Please Enter Code*:

Submit Your Rating for Drugged On Vengeance

Worst     1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10     Best

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 2005 Jack M Brown
STORYMANIA PUBLICATION DATE
July 2005
NUMBER OF TIMES TITLE VIEWED
3197
 

Copyright © 1998-2001 Storymania Technologies Limited. All Rights Reserved.