undeveloped film

spellbook pt. 1 // urban fantasy

A/N: I'll be posting shorts and story ideas here - lil babies that I may grow out one day. for example, this one is an urban fantasy(?? my fantasy is questionable at best) (basically fantasy elements like MAGIC coexist with a basic modern day world, except this one is going through a monster epidemic?? i dunno man, my fingers do the writing). it's also v much the beginning of story, but I'm not the most sure where i wanted to go wit it. so if inspiration strikes or you want me to continue, there may be further installments, but until then, here ya go! also if you have any question about this, pls ask, it's honestly quite confusing ngl. do good, be well. <3

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Not for the first time in his life, Nick cursed his luck and every bloody star that willed this life upon him, staring at the drop. Of all places for those wretched books to take him, why did it have to be a 40-and-something-foot deep ocean that he was staring at?

A violent roar that was not in the slightest friendly, sounded behind him, the ferocious tones echoing in the cave he had just ran out of, panting. If he lived through this one, he really should sign up for a gym membership. Or, he added dryly, deep-sea diving lessons.

Considering his hatred for swimming, it was a good thing he was likely dying soon.

Sighing, he took in a deep breath and dove, with the grace of a 5-year-old taking to water the first time, more concerned by not dying than any true finesse. And desperately praying that this monster didn't like to get wet.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. The pitch dark of the water glared up at him as he got closer and closer. He would really have to kill Jes for this one.

The cold water shocked his systems, but Nick was lucky enough to remember to not breath in or gasp in shock. If he wanted to find the book, he would need oxygen in his lungs and water out of it. He squinted open his eyes, scanning around. Shit, shit, shit. Where was it?

It was pitch dark. Nick could barely see in front of him, not even including the fact that he couldn't see that well underwater, he really didn't want to be here, and that damned light-

He stopped. The light.

He kicked frantically, using his arms to claw himself through the water. The book was emitting that buttery golden light, or whatever it was, which it always did when it was time to go back home. Thank god. If Jesse had somehow messed up, Nick would die and then come back as a ghost and then haunt that motherfucker, because dying was painful. Or so he heard.

Either way, he wasn't keen on finding out, finally reaching the rock ledge - likely the submerged part of the cliff he had just jumped off of - where the book was innocently perched, reaching out to grab it. Except it stopped glowing. Which meant no passage home.

Yeah, he was going to kill Jes.

He took the book anyway, recognizing it as the one to send him to this world, kicking up to the surface. His lungs were burning (he really should go to the gym and work on his lung-capacity, because his was shitty) and his legs were screaming from all the running he had just done. The monster in question today was a minotaur, the second Nick had faced since he started this whole thing, and he wasn't exceptionally happy about it. Because those guys were ripped, and their stamina definitely surpassed his. By a considerable amount.

The biggest concern now was that the bastard had jumped into the water after him (the monsters Nick always faced seem to all share that one trait: persistence when it came to trying to kill him). Because if it came down to grappling with the ridiculously jacked creature in the water - Nick's fatal element - on top of just being generally kind of scrawny, as well as holding a mythical book from his library back home, he was going to lose. Badly.