Jack hummed as he tinkered with the watch in his hands, glancing at the face constantly. He was on edge, he couldn't eat, he could barely breathe. Jack sipped his now cold tea, his foot tap-tap-tapping on the hard wood floor. He scrubbed at his face, kneaded his hands and jumped about a foot in the air when he heard a loud bang echo from the back of his house, near the garage. A shiver of fear slithered down Jack's spine as he stood up from his chair and went to investigate the noise, his heart thrumming in his ears. The storm outside had already passed. It wasn't anything special, just a light sprinkle and a few sparse flashes of lightning.
Jack stepped into the garage, flicking on the light and sighing when he saw the opened side door. The hinges were old and could barely keep the door closed, so he just propped a chair against the wood. Jack lived right outside the kingdom, in no-mans land, where most people, and even animals, feared to travel. Yet, there were dangerous creatures hidden in the trees, and in the ground, and in the sky. Jack walked over to the blown open door and was planning to close it when he caught a strange smell. He had smelled it often before, in the kingdom, when the queen was mad and wanted to discipline her subjects.. It reminded him of fire, sulfuric and acrid. No person would dare to enter his house, and the kingdom was more than a day away on horseback, so he shrugged it off and set the chair down to keep the door from reopening. It could just be his sense of smell was being affected by the storm, or he was getting sick again. His senses were jumbled when he caught a virus. Jack went to the kitchen to try to make himself some dinner, but he knew he would be unable to eat it.
YOU ARE READING
The Kingdom
FantasyTwo strangers meet each other in a dark, enchanted forest and are forced together in order to survive the creatures and surprises the forest has to offer.
