Improvisus (probably not updating again)

Chapter 1(Revised)

I opened my eyes and as I looked around it appeared that I would soon die. The moon highlighted the vast flatlands before me that looked so small. I was standing on a cliff in the middle of the desert, the wind biting into my skin. I shivered as the cold spread, starting at my feet, up my legs, to my heart. It was a similar sensation to the nightmares that haunted me every night. But this time something was different; this time it wasn’t a dream, it was all too real.

I had imagined deserts to be so hot that a person’s skin would seem to burn within a few minutes of standing in the sun, but at night they were anything but. “Jump magician,” a voice that I had heard all too many times said, but this time it sounded darker, angrier. “Your time has come to die.”

“You haven’t killed me yet and no matter where you bring me I won’t let you win.” I screamed into the cold night, my words twisting into the howling wind. I nervously crawled over to the small edge and glanced over. I couldn’t see the ground. Thick fog blew in the wind as if a fresh white sheet had been laid over the golden sand. It almost looked beautiful and if I hadn’t been close to dying, I would’ve enjoyed the sight.

“Candace, you want to jump and you know it.”  His voice was hypnotizing; it stirred feelings deep inside my chest that I couldn’t resist.  “Don’t worry, the fog will catch you, you see it’s magical,” he continued. I looked down again and knew he was right, the fog would save me.  “It will take you to another world… and all your problems will disappear.”

Maybe my problems could go away and I could finally escape the dreams that tormented me every night.

I glanced over the edge again, but that time felt something different stirring inside of me: doubt. I closed my eyes, shook my head, and finally came to my senses. I realized the trick that had bestowed me. “What do you want from me?” I screamed, “Leave me alone!”

“I would but that could result in dangerous consequences. If you survive this night, you could cause me great destruction, but you could also help me.”

Despite meeting the strange voice for so many nights, I still never understood his motives. He liked to speak in riddles, and never gave clear answers. “What do you mean?” I cried in despair.

“One day you will know, magician.”

I was tired his mysterious words that didn’t make sense. “Stop tormenting me and just show yourself.” 

At first there was silence, and fear welled up inside of me, but the voice soon broke the silence, as if a gunshot had just gone off. “Just remember you asked me to.” I once again was unsure of what the voice could mean, but seconds later I instantly regretted my words as he shimmered into existence in front of me. The man, or more lack of one stood before me in torn and faded clothes. His right foot was twisted at a very strange angle and he had oddly shaped stumps where his hands should have been, as if they were gone and were now growing back. The right side of his face was melted like he'd been in a fire, the skin of is right cheek sagging lower than the left, almost transparent in places because it was so thin. His right eye was missing, and so was half of his nose.

I tried to back away, but was petrified by him. My brain and muscles seemed to be disconnected, as my brain urged me to move but my muscles wouldn’t respond. He slowly floated closer and closer to me until he was only a meter away. My muscles finally responded to my brains warnings and I began to move. I crawled backwards until the edge of the cliff was right behind me “Do you want to know why I look like this?” The incomplete man asked, as he stood in front of me. I chose not to reply. “Your kind did this to me. This happened so long ago that if I told you how long it was, you wouldn’t believe me.. One hundred years ago I was in far worse condition and no one, not even my superiors could see me without having horrible reactions.  I will make your people pay by losing you, their greatest…weapon.”