City of IF

[Idea master]

Chapter One - Go through a door

Just a small, quiet storygame that I'll do in my spare time. Boiling Cauldron will still go on, but this one is what'll go on in the background, what I'll fall back on when it meets it's end.

To pass a torch - Idiom. Usually means to ensure that a legacy will go on, more often that not from father to son, especially in the realm of business. However, there are those jobs where the ceremony is less known and much, much more of a surprise...

Harold Xavier was your average high school student. He was neither rich nor poor, genius or completely retarded, popular or unpopular enough to be picked on every day. He simply was, and that’s all that mattered to him. His hair was chestnut brown, his eyes were emerald green, and his skin was a tan-pink hue. He usually wore a black bowler cap atop his head, much like the ones that Mafia mobsters had worn a few decades ago and probably still wore. He usually wore a tee-shirt in the summer and sweaters all throughout the winter, nothing fancy at all, but not so worn that there were great big holes in it.

Harold Xavier was your average high school student.

The key word, of course, is was.

-----

Harold slumped into his seat near the front of the bus and sighed, fishing for his CD player. It was another boring day at school, but there was a bright side. Today was Thursday, meaning that there was only one more day until he could go home, goof off, and laze about. It was also one day closer to his birthday on Sunday. He’d be sixteen then, and like his parents always said, ‘You only turn sixteen once.’ They had said that every year, and thrown a party for him that he had never been able to forget every year. It generally marked the greatest day of the year.

He had, unfortunately, neglected to check the calendar, though it would probably make little difference to him if he had. Tomorrow was Friday the Thirteenth, and though he was not superstitious by nature, it may have served him well to be just a tad bit cautious. For this was no ordinary Friday the Thirteenth, but a Friday the Thirteenth when all the horrible, evil deeds that had ever been done had anniversaries. As such, malicious energy was on the prowl, and it would target one person...

Harold didn’t care. He was lost in a world of music, where guitar riffs formed massive waves before the bass came crashing down on him. The kid behind him, who’d been trying to get his attention for some time now, resorted to physical contact. This took the form of a sharp tapping.

“Eh?” Harold queried as he turned around to face the person behind him. It was another average teenager like himself, holding what looked to be a ring of keys in his right hand.

“Hey, can I ask you a favor?” The kid asked.

“Maybe, depends on the favor,” Harold replied evasively. This reply tended to get information while not committing him to the task, whatever it may be, immediately.

“I just need you to go to one place tomorrow, say between classes, and get something for me. I’m fairly certain I left a very important key in the janitor’s closet. It wouldn’t take you long.”

Harold thought for a moment. “Why can’t you get it?”

“Cause I get here halfway through the day and the longer it’s left there, the more likely someone else will find it. Can you please get it for me?”

Harold was a kind person at heart, so said, “All right, I’ll get it for you as soon as I can in the morning.”

The boy nodded. “Here, you’ll need these.” And with that, the boy handed the keys over to Harold. “The black one is the key to the closet. It’s usually finicky, so I tap the doorknob three times before I open it.”

“Which closet is it?” Harold inquired as he took the key ring.

The boy looked puzzled, or annoyed, for a fraction of a second, but the look faded so quickly Harold wasn’t sure he’d seen it. The boy merely said, “The keys will lead you in the right direction.”

Harold accepted this cryptic answer for what it was worth, namely nothing, and returned to his music.

-----

The boy smiled to himself as he walked away, watching the bus grow smaller in the distance. After a thousand years, free of that despicable job! And to think, he’d find such a trusting soul, willing to do his job for him!

-----

Harold stood in the school’s main doors on Friday morning, remembering a half-remembered task. He shrugged his shoulders, as his backpack was riding uncomfortably low on his back, and heard a jingling noise. Then it came flooding back to him as he reached behind himself and, with difficulty, took the key ring out. Now that he examined it more closely, none of these keys looked like they’d open a lock. Some of them were too bent or oddly shaped, and some of them had odd insets that he knew no janitor would use for the closet key.

He finally found a black key, though it oddly resembled a bone, and wondered at its purpose. He shrugged and found that the key was tugging him, pulling him in one particular direction, though not a sharp tugging. It was more of a ‘magnet near a large piece of iron’ tugging, when the magnet was just out of reach. It was striving to find something…

Harold let the key lead him on, though he knew not where, as the passageways became more and more unfamiliar to him. Finally, a door he swore he’d never saw before stood before him, and the bone-key leapt from his hands, taking the key ring with it, and somehow fitted itself to the doorknob’s lock. Harold, remembering what the boy had said, tapped the knob three times, then thrust it open.

Harold gasped at what he saw, because there was no way all of it could fit in a closet.

It was a world that sent his mind reeling, because now he knew that all those days long ago reading fantasy novels…well, he knew he’d be proven right one day, that fantasy was reality. And here it was, his proof…a large forest in their school’s janitorial closet. He grabbed the key ring from the doorknob and paused on the threshold…

He was…uncertain. Should he try to show this to someone, or go after that ‘important key’ like that kid had asked? Or should he even do that, and keep it a secret to himself? His mind reeled, not knowing what he should do.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
A small storygame that came to me while I was dreaming. I like it, cause it has great potential.
Anyway. Harold, our average boy, has stumbled across a great secret here: with these keys and that door, the laws of physics have been broken. Naturally, his mind reels at the thought. So, what does he do?
Suggestions, if you all don't mind.
F12
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[Chinaren]

What a wondeful little chapter IM. I enjoyed it through and through, from the fluffy topping, to the rich creamy underside.

Of course, he simply must proceed further. Although if a young and attractive lass, whom he had always admired from afar, but considered to be too far 'out of reach' was to happen past, then perhaps one more would fit into the forest...

I await your next chapter.

~Sits down, opens a bottle of drink, and waits~

[Lilith]

*purrs in contentment from her cushion* Absolutely delectable, IM! I would love to her more! But I think he should show someone, and as they approach the closet of fantasy, a school official catches them boots them off to class, so the door must wait until after school. Maybe the person he told tells others and when they met to go to the door, a large group awaits him instead of just his trusted individual. *curls up and awaits for more* :D ;) :cool:

[tramp in a storm]

*reads* ooooh Oi loik.
I was telling him to run far far away from the point where he was told
Quote:
“The black one is the key to the closet. It’s usually finicky, so I tap the doorknob three times before I open it.”

But soon as he didn't listen I say he might as well go through. Go through and lock the door before something comes out/in that isn't suposed to do so.
Anyway, usually with these things, if you tell someone they dissapear untill its just you looking.

Great chapter, fun to read. (I think i might bereading fatsre than I used to now yey! :D

[Guest]

Heya. Ok this is grrrreaaat. *sits next to lilith hopes she doesn't freak out or scream anything*

I think he should show someone it would be best. Still the key does have importance and some would try and steal it from your charrecter.

*F5 the others on their replies and freazes at china who is eye balling her* great replies after Nerc... I think. *thumbs up*

[Idea master]

I have PM'd the mighty mod Alegria for a poll in the near future. Hopefully my pleas of mercy are not in vain, and I shall return with a poll. One that looks nice, and isn't too expensive.

[Idea master]

Um, hello? We've been polling for a while now.

[Amichan]

I'm even blown away on this not a bad opening just kinda wish i had these kind of writing skills .. oh wait i do i haven't used then in about 15 years

[Masterweaver]

Kang, be quiet.

You have simply got to ignore the whole thing. Just walk away.

[Amichan]

what ever you give us should be an interesting read for sure