Young Writers Society

I awoke with a fright, a scream is all that I could muster up but the sheer monstrous site of what lay in front of me had paralyzed me, it never let the scream become more than a fleeting thought.

My gaze followed the monster and that's when I realised something, my pets and friends were nowhere to be seen.

at the top of the tower when i heard a wail.

This pet is a tortoise I named Levy, he was made through genetic engineering by SpiRint, the oragnisation that controls the Spirit Academies around the world. Levy is able to absorb water from its surroundings by trapping moisture, he can then use this water to attack predators or competitors.

"A monster? I'm talking about the big cockroach"

"I never knew you were the type to be afraid of cockroaches Misha"

I think its unlikely

"Good thinking Misha, so there's 3 more rooms on this floor that we haven't seen, lets go and look in those before going lower.".

*NW Chronicles* - Book 1 - The Shuji Tower
Chapter 1 : A Monster & A Friend
I awoke with a fright, a scream is all that I could muster up but the sheer monstrous site of what lay in front of me paralyzed me with fear, it never let the scream become more than a fleeting thought For me, this was an awfully long first sentence x) I would rephrase it, so that the idea is broken up into a few separate sentences. Maybe ‘I awoke with a fright. I tried to muster up a scream, but the sheer monstrous sight of what lay in front of me had me paralyzed with fear.’ . In front of me was a seven foot tall monster; it was maroon in colour, had what seems seemed (you’re working in past tense, seems is present tense) like a furry coat of black feathers around its arms and legs, its face was like that of a lion’s and it had small prickly horns joint to its ears.
The monster moved around the room trying to find something, I guess it was also interested in my pets or friends. My gaze followed the monster and that's when I realised common spelling mistake x) should be realized something, my pets and friends were nowhere to be seen.
Just then the monster turned around and fixed its gaze upon me....our eyes met....I saw blood red eyes piercing into me. A second later the monster came running towards me, once again I became paralyzed by fear and closed my eyes, hoping for a miracle.
Silence came in the form of a miracle, I opened my eyes and the monster was gone, the ominous presence it brought with it left too. I decide to rush out of the room at the top of the tower when i capitalize I heard a wail. The sound was unmistakable, it was one of my pets; I had to find it at once. I ran towards the door of the room I woke up in, well what was left of the door after the monster broke it.
It was Rey’s idea to break out of the spirit academy to explore the forbidden tower, I too was excited about doing this so I joined him and so did Derek, Misha and Lia. We’d decided to get back to the spirit academy by sunset, but something had happened that made us stay here. Now it was too late, the night had come and with it, the monsters.
I found my pet in the room next to where I woke up, it was near the door of the room, the monster was on the opposite end illuminated by the moonlight. This pet is a tortoise I named Levy, he was made through genetic engineering by SpiRint, the oragnisation organization that controls the Spirit Academies around the world. Levy is able to absorb water from its surroundings by trapping moisture, he can then use this water to attack predators or competitors.
As I got into the room he sprayed water on the monster with great force, the stream of rushing water hit the monster in the stomach and made it fall right onto the window. The glass shattered but the sheer size of the monster stopped it from falling out of the window and down ten floors to its death.
I was glad Levy’s attacks were working and he also has an impenetrable shell if the need for defense arose, I thought Levy could buy me time, I had to look for my friends and their pets; I was growing increasingly concerned about their safety this was another long sentence to me. I think you could also summarize this into a few statements, and save yourself all the stress with commas x) ‘I was relieved that Levy‘s attacks were working. It also crossed my mind that the turtle was made of impenetrable shell, and I wondered if the reptile could buy me some time. I was growing increasingly more concerned about my friends and their pets, and knew I had to go look for them.’ . Just then I heard something give out a cry, it wasn't Levy or the monster...it was a girl's cry. Misha was in trouble!
I ran out of the room leaving Levy to fight on his own,I had to find Misha you don‘t need this last bit since it was obvious that they ran out of the room to protect Misha. The doorknob hit my hand on the way out and I cursed under my breath as my hand throbbed in pain. I always wondered why they made these things so heavy.
The scream came from the opposite end of the tower, probably on this floor. I rushed towards the opposite end. The tower itself was circular in shape and had six rooms along its circumference, the central part of the tower was hollow and filled with stairways which acted as links between floors. As I was running I glanced into the darkness below, for some reason I couldn’t see the ground floor. I passed two rooms on my way to the opposite end of the tower, it seemed like both the rooms were empty.
I got to the room where the scream came from and found Misha standing up.
I ran towards her while panting and spoke at once, "Misha are you all right? Did the.."
Misha interrupted me, "Joe it was huge, I mean I woke up, saw no one else in the room and then just saw it, I'm so sorry I screamed!"
"I saw one of them too, it was right in front of me when I woke up; Levy’s fighting that one right now," I replied while breathing heavily, that run was quite a distance.
Misha rolled her eyes and said, "Levy’s fighting it? Come on Joe all you have to do is step on it to kill it.".
"Step on a monster, are you crazy Misha?", I replied while laughing a bit.
"A monster? I'm talking about the big cockroach period"
We both looked at each other for a second and then burst out laughing.
"I never knew you were the type to be afraid of cockroaches Misha period"
“Forget it Joe, first of all what the hell are we doing here, the last thing I remember was looking out of this window towards the Alps. That was around three o’clock though, how did I fall asleep?”
“I have no idea, I’ve been thinking about the same thing. Didn’t we all say we were going to leave by sunset, what made us fall asleep?”
Just then when we heard Levy’s water hit the monster in the room on the far side, the sound reached this room.
The sound had worried Misha so she changed the topic, "Right we’ll think about that later, first tell me more about this monster...wait since we have been students of the spirit academy for like a few months now, lets call them by their spirit name. How tall was this Shuji?"
I described the Shuji to Misha. She was right it was amateurish of me to call it a monster, learning about Shujis was the first thing we did at the spirit academy. Professor Yuri still keeps reminding us of the definition every day, "Shuji are the souls of humans who spent their lives in great misery, they become shadow creatures that stalk this tower till a soul can give them redemption. Shuji are more than capable of killing a human being as when they were alive most of them suffered grief that was caused by other humans; this makes aggression towards humans natural for them.".
What a different place the world was now, the last ten years had changed everything. Eleven years ago out of body experiences became widespread as awareness of these grew these what grew? What are you talking about? and people realized they could do them easily in their sleep; in a matter of a few weeks most of the planets population was able to do them in their sleep do what in their sleep? Just clarify these few parts and it‘s alright. . At first people loved them, the experiences were a way of getting out of the physical form and enjoying a painless and almost euphoric feeling while traveling the world on the Astral plane. Of course all that ended as soon as people began to take advantage of this and began to use the astral plane to influence all sorts of wars, business moves and even murders. Sleep itself became a fear for everyone as many people were harassed during their out of body experiences as well. Anyway this was no time to reminisce about the past.
My eyes turned to Misha who seemed to be deep in thought, It was good I'd found her, she was the smartest one in our small group of friends and really attractive too. She had an average height, brown hair, expressive eyes and a beauty spot above her tempting lips, I pretty much fancied her since the day she got to our academy; she was a day late when she joined. I loved how she narrowed her lips while thinking, put her index finger over them and looked down as if the answer was imprinted into the floor. I was glad that I could get some time alone with her, even if the situation we were in was pretty bad.
My thoughts were interrupted by Misha, "It would be really helpful to have Derek here right now, he’s the one doing the shuji communication course. Anyway from the stuff you told me its a big shuji which means the amount of misery and grief that it endured while it was human seems to have been quite a lot".
"You've been reading ahead of class again Misha?", I said acting as unsurprised as I could.
Misha hit my arm lightly and said, "No Joe, this was told to us last month...you would've known if you and Rey didn't talk about computer games all the time in class! Anyway we need to find the rest of our friends quickly, Levy will get tired after a while. Oh and where are Odi and Ixi?"
"I haven't seen Odi or Ixi anywhere, while I was coming here I glanced at the rooms on my way, they weren't in there. I dunno where the rest of our friends went either, maybe they ran when they saw the shuji.".
Misha paused for a second and said, "Well either way Joe we need to find everyone. After the way I screamed I think its unlikely that any of our friends are on this floor, I mean I hope that they would come here in concern if they were," we both laughed a little.
"Good thinking Misha, so there's 3 three, all numbers should be spelled out in writing. more rooms on this floor that we haven't seen, lets go and look in those before going lower.".
"Okay but we need a strategy,” began Misha in her usual to the point voice, “So each floor has six rooms, Levy’s fighting the Shuji in one of them, both of us woke up in different rooms and you looked into two rooms on your way to this room. That leaves one room on this floor that we haven't seen, not three."
I sighed and said, "Ah my mistake, anyway lets get going then.".
We decided to stop talking and start looking, Misha said she would check out the room we hadn't seen yet, I said I'd re-check the two rooms I glanced into on my way to where Misha was, maybe Ixi or Odi (two other pets) were in those rooms, maybe I just needed to look more properly.
Misha was about to leave the room, but then she turned and said, “Joe, there is one thing that concerns me, these Shuji usually roam in packs, if this Shuji that we’re dealing with has made the other Shuji afraid of it then we have a real difficult one on our hands. Anyway best of luck, lets meet back here in ten minutes.”.
A second later she left the room and turned right, I follower her out of the room and turned left.
As I went towards the first of the two rooms that needed to be inspected I looked up at the broken ceiling of the tower and saw the moon looking down on me and let out a sigh, this little expedition to the tower was a bad idea after all. After walking a few more steps I noticed something glistening on the ground, I stopped and bent down slowly to get a closer look...it was blood; neither me nor Misha were hurt and our pets didn’t bleed like this. At that moment I just hoped Derek, Rey and Lia were safe.