UM(1) Creative Writing Club (Activity)

Nay Htet

Plot exchanged from FEMI. Written by N.C. Dare.

Will it be dangerous? Will it hurt? He didn't know nor he cared. He wanted to burst open that fullness in his heart to someone close to him. Is it good news? Is it bad news? He didn't know nor he cared. He had to tell.

1)
He told him. He remembered leaning against the cold metallic fence, his feet dug up into the coarse sand of the playground, and his hands snug down in the pocket of his trusty jacket. Josh stood in front of him, his hands folded, his face stoic and purplish from the cold winter breeze.

"Is that what you have to tell me?" He blurted out.

"Yes..." he wanted to continue but he was at a loss for words.

"I am very sure I feel that way, and that's the way I should be"

He frowned a bit. Toby was concerned that his best friend would be the first to reject him. That would become the worst of his nightmares.

A moment of silence transpired.

"I believe that every person should be in the position to decide what he wants his gender to be." Josh replied deliberately.

Toby felt a rush of warmth in his cheeks. He was immensely relieved.

A lonely leaf wandered about in the cold stream of twilight air. The sun was slowly setting in the western sky, splashing orange light over the faces of two young men.

It was a beautiful ending to one eventful day in December.

2)
"We heard you're gay" "Gayyyy" "Look that gay dude is coming" "Why not go sit with girls?" "You are using the wrong toilet" "What a shame"

What a shame....

Toby thrust his fingers into his ears as hard as he could, hoping he could bury into his own flesh and disappear. It was more painful to listen to the voices, those bitter sentences aimed and shot at him like cyanide-filled bullets. He was sentenced to this and he had no choice but to accept.

Toby remember walking in the hallway, his eyes dazed, the entire surrounding spinning madly inside a wall of sound. He sometimes forgot where he was and why he was there, the whys didn't mattered to him anymore. He needed to get through, get past, get up, and get well soon. But things weren't getting any better. In fact, they would never.

3)
It was Halloween.

Toby was staggering across the street, roughly pushed and pulled about by a group of rowdy boys in dark robes. Some were masked but he knew who they were — of course those big guys from school who kept stalking him time and again.

Not again.

He felt wet grass cutting against his feet, and immediately knew that he was in the park. But why in the park? What are they going to do to him? Perhaps....

He started to perspire uncontrollably.

Something was wrong. Something was coming. Perhaps everything was going to end soon.

He thought about running away, but his body was not responding. A big hand pushed him with an unprecedented force into a bush and soon he found  himself lying face-on-ground beside a small red lantern.

The robed figures circled around him, chuckling among themselves, until the leader gestured to hush down.

"Today, we brought you here for a game, which you will play, and we will watch" he announced.

"This game will purify your soul from the dirty gay that you are."

An evil laugh spread across the crowd. Toby felt raw electricity flowing in his skin. Looking back, he was greeted by seven pairs of feet aimed at him like frentic projectiles. What followed later was a mess, a brutal, bloody, noisy mess full of moving feet, verbal shaking sweaty bodies and then finally silence....ensued by darkness.....there was nothing more.

There was nothing more...until a blinding red light shone him in the eyes. Covering his eyes, he looked around and found that he was alone, alone with the red lamp, or is he?

A shadow sped across in the dark; someone was here. Who was here other than he?

He called out into the dark. A figure approached him with noisy steps.

There he emerged; a tall, bony figure with a skin as dark as the midnight sky and eyes glittering like stars, robed in flowing red and gold. For a moment, Toby stood there, transfixed in awe and wonderment, drinking in every bit of detail of the strangely beautiful creature.

"Who are you, beautiful one?" he uttered.

The stranger was silent. He held an air of an exotic being, full of mysteries waiting to be unraveled.

"I am a lonely soul, are you, too?"

The stranger was not responding.

"I believe you come from a different world. In our world, people hate each other when they are different in some way. For instance, people hate me because I am gay, meaning I have different gender"

The stranger's eyes focused at his for a moment. His face softened and his lips parted as if about to utter something.

"Satan ,too, is gay."

Toby gasped.

The little red lantern flickered faintly under the shadows of the two strangers.

4)
Toby was a new man.

He was a strange man...so strange that he was a complete stranger now to everyone he used to know, even Josh.

He would pop into class with floral pants and a leather jacket he probably stole from somewhere else, his nails glittered and his hair styled. He burned like a star. Wherever he stop, people around him would erupt into a roar of laughter, and he seemed to be enjoying it, even craving for it.

He was still alone, even more.

But wherever he went, he was seen talking to a non-existent entity.

People were now a bit creeped out and the school authorities were concerned that the boy was having mental issues so that they arranged counselling sessions for him.

Toby was happy. It was the best of times. Satan, too, was happy. They were everywhere together, and never alone....nevermore!

5)
Josh was crying.

He was crying like a kid, and making strange noises like a kid, his face red and swollen, the red light from the police siren making it look even redder and hopelessly pathetic.

The grassy plot below the tree reeked of an overpowering stench.

A crowd of people robed in white were gathering things sprawled on the ground: pieces of robe, strange liquids, torn fabric, a letter full of unintelligible words, and a phone with two missed calls.

It was 2 a.m., 2 hours into Toby's 16th birthday. But the birthday boy was missing, perhaps forever.

6)
Toby blew the candle on the cake.

He was 16 now, but his best friend just celebrated his 1600th birthday.

Satan gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"Congratulations Toby for your new post here in the department of infernal affairs. It's a pleasure to have you here as one of the first dead souls to be appointed as the senior supervisor, a position which had been filled for the past millenia by demons only"

Toby nodded with a proud smile.

"I'm willing to do anything to stay close to you, to be able to see you day to day, and to love you in all your ways" he replied.

Satan laughed heartily.

The men held each other hand in hand, basking in the warmth of the lava sky, and breathing in new hopes for a tomorrow full of unending love and undying joy.