Dullahans and Tablets Read online

  For my parents,

  Who taught me there’s always a way. A path that can be taken, even if it’s the one less travelled by.

  DULLAHANS

  AND

  TABLETS

  © 2019, Daniel Kolade

  [email protected]

  Edited by Elise Reid

  Cover Art by Luke Valentine

  DULLAHANS AND TABLETS

  ISBN: 978-91-985275-1-3

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior permission.

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 1

  “Hyde… wake up…” a soft voice whispered. “Wake up, Hyde.” It slowly grew clearer and clearer as it welcomed him into the land of the living. His eyes opened and all he saw was blurry pitch-blackness. Little by little, the fuzziness yielded, giving way to more definition.

  Where am I? He thought, seeing nothing but a dark, rocky ceiling hanging over him.

  “Hyde?”

  He turned to see whose voice it belonged to. To his surprise he saw a brunette girl kneeling over him. But she wasn’t looking at him, something else had her attention.

  What’s she looking at? He thought and tried to see what it was that had her so worried.

  “Finally, you’re awake,” she turned and smiled. It wasn’t a normal I’m-happy-to-see-you smile, but rather, thank-goodness-I’m-not-alone.

  Hyde? Right, that’s my name… I think, he thought as he sat up.

  “We need to go,” she said, breathing heavier than normal people did. “Can you stand?” She was nervous and her words trembled slightly.

  She was scared… but why?

  “Yeah,” he said, and with her help he rose to his feet. He dusted off his clothes and looked from left to right and back, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, but the usual inside of a cave. Jagged edges ran across the cave walls and stone barbs hung from the ceiling forming a not-so-cosy corridor.

  “Where are we—” he began.

  “Here, Hyde, take this,” the girl said, presenting him with a stick.

  He glanced up from the extended hand and noticed the unknown face of the brown-haired girl.

  “Who are you—”

  “Take it,” she insisted. “You’re going to need it.”

  “Okay—” He accepted the stick. “Why would I need this?”

  “Look down,” she whispered and pointed at her feet.

  “What?” He followed her instruction and did as his curiosity asked him to. What he saw was again nothing out of the ordinary, or rather nothing that required him to use a stick.

  However, he saw something that resembled a furry carpet, it was slightly darker than the cave floor. He focused his eyes on one of the small bead-like things that made up the rug. It didn’t look like a pebble or a rock, nor a piece of rubble.

  He remained fixed on the small ball-like thing and after a moment, he noticed it move. It shook gently from left to right, revealing six glowing red spheres on a segmented body with a bulbous abdomen.

  For some reason he didn’t put two and two together. Maybe it was his lack of memory, or maybe it was just the overall strangeness of the situation.

  “What are these things?” he asked, interested in the small creature.

  Before the girl could speak, the furry carpet of small organic ball-like things underwent the same transformation as the first. All with six red beads on what was presumably the head. The sets of ruby spheres on the creatures moved at exactly the same time, disappearing for just a moment before they reappeared.

  “Spiders,” the girl said.

  “What?” he whispered, still not fully comprehending the word she’d spoken and the situation that he was in.

  But, in that moment, something clicked in him. It’s all purely speculative, but the blinking… it must have been the blinking.

  “They’re spiders,” she said again.

  The small furry bulbs approached him and that’s when he noticed their segmented limbs. The eight hairy legs that carried the small spider body forward sent shivers down his spine.

  It all became clear. He yelped and put the stick in his hand to good use as he smashed the arachnids. One after another the small spiders splattered underneath the blunt wooden bat. The little relief he felt was quickly drained as his act set off an army of spiders.

  “Nope! Just nope!” He shook his head backing away, grabbing the brunette girl’s hand and then making a dash for it. With the crimson-eyed spiders hot on their tail, they ran as fast as they could— more precisely, Hyde made them run as if their lives depended on it.

  He kept an eye on the marching arachnids slowly gaining on them. Each step they took with their hairy legs made his skin crawl and forced adrenaline to pump twice as fast into his limbs. Fear compelled his body into overdrive, urging his arms and legs to move faster.

  “Hyde! Watch out!” the girl in tow screamed.

  He looked ahead, taking his eyes off the sprinting spiders for a moment, but anyone with half a brain would know that the second his eyes left them, he was asking for a hairy surprise. The ground he raced on was about to end and a dark abyss awaited.

  Despite, knowing that he needed to stop, he couldn’t. They had already reached the point of no return.

  “Shit!” he screamed, falling into the void with the mysterious girl.

  The next thing he knew was that he was lying on his back with the girl lying comfortably on his chest. It was obvious that he was used to break the fall.

  “Hey,” he whispered, trying to wake her. “Hey.”

  She first cringed, and then her eyes opened. “Oh hey,” she smiled softly.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah, just a little dizzy, how about yourself?”

  “My head’s aching a bit, but aside from that I’m fine, I think.”

  “I’m glad.” She rose to her feet and helped him up as well.

  “So where are we?” he asked.

  “On the inside of a cave.”

  “I know that much. Where is the cave?”

  “Eden.”

  “Eden?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What—where’s that?”

  “Here.”

  “What do you mean here?” he exclaimed.

  “Hyde, shhh.” she whispered, pressing one finger against her lips.

  “Oh right, who are you exactly?”

  “Me? I’m—” Before she could introduce herself, something frightening happened. Much like the nightmare they’d experienced earlier.

  Sets of six huge red beads peered through the darkness.

  “Oh no,” he whispered looking around, hoping that those weren’t what he thought they were. His hope was quickly squashed as they blinked.

  “Oh no.”

  “C’mon, this way!” the girl said, pulling him away from the eyes that could only belong to massive spiders.

  The glowing red eyes escaped the veil of darkness, revealing the huge hairy spider bodies, along with a
pack of greenish-brown humanoids riding them.

  “Are those goblins?” he cried as he retreated with the girl. Something about the spider-riders was fascinating to him. It must have been the fact that the creatures chasing them weren’t part of the normal selection of animals that existed in his version of reality. Neither were the mammoth tarantulas for that matter. But something about the intricate saddles and reins, that domesticated the huge furry eight-legged beasts that inspired nothing but fear and repulsion in him, was in all honesty impressive.

  “Are they—” The mounted goblins drew wooden, well-crafted bows ready to unload arrows at them.

  “Are you kidding me!” he screamed, watching the first projectile fly through the air in hopes of drawing blood. The arrow zipped past his head, too close for comfort.

  The thought of getting crippled by such a painful weapon was excruciating in and of itself. The adrenaline in his body spiked and the will to escape the huge creeping spiders amplified.

  A storm of arrows were flung at them as they raced as fast as they possibly could. Some were miles from their targets and others grazed them, but none seemed to hit anything vital, until—a broadhead arrow dug into Hyde’s back, severing through his flesh. In that instant, the pain was indescribable, or, more accurately, it felt like an arrow in the back.

  It raced through the nerves, relaying the information to every part of the body and the agony spread like a high-speed infection. In a blink of an eye, his breathing stunted, his muscles weakened, his vision blurred and all that remained in his mind was the thought, I guess I died.

  “Hyde!” the girl screamed, realising that he’d been hit.

  Soon the pain was too much. It strangled his muscles and forced his body to surrender to it. His knees gave out, his feet stopped, his chest collapsed, but just as all seemed lost, a final spur kicked in and his will to live numbed him. On his ticket to the ground, his arms came to his rescue to catch his falling body, and after shifting his feet he regained momentum. He sprinted with the injury on his back, spelling out his demise in blood.

  “Just a little further!” the girl shouted, pointing at the light at the end of the tunnel.

  There was something in that moment. It wasn’t hope that filled him and strengthened his renewed resolve. And it couldn’t have been the grotesque thought of dying by becoming a meal for the freakishly large spiders behind him. It was something different.

  The beating in his chest grew louder and louder, until it thumped like the heavy steps of giants. It wasn’t just the adrenaline, but also something else that didn’t sharpen his senses or intensify the fight-or-flight mode he was in. It was like a warm feeling that didn’t just numb his pain, but… instead, healed it.

  “Take this!” the girl said, handing him something that he had no time to inspect.

  What is this—he accepted the item and looked to her for further instruction.

  “Jump!” she cried as they reached the mouth of the cave that led to the outside world. It was also, incidentally, a cliff.

  She did as she had commanded him to do. Without a shred of concern or fear, she jumped. It only took a second, but as she leapt off the hard rocky ground, past the cliff where a fall would mean a certain death—she drew, from seemingly nowhere, a paraglider. The open air quickly supported her as she glided down from the mountain cave.

  Without giving it a second thought, Hyde followed her off the cliff and held up the tool she’d given him. As he did, he too was carried by the open air, gliding freely after the mysterious girl.

  The mounted goblins stopped at the mouth of the cave and screamed all kinds of curse words in a language that Hyde only understood as grunts and moans.

  The two escapees enjoyed the breeze riffling through their hair and their clothes.

  “What the hell was that!” he screamed, unable to fathom what they had just been through. It wasn’t something that he was used to or even something he considered as a possibility in reality. It deviated greatly from his normal pedestrian life of school days and homework with the occasional visit to an amusement park or café.

  “Levi,” the girl said.

  “What?” he turned to her.

  “My name is Levi,” she smiled.

  “Levi…” he began.

  “Nice to meet you—I mean, what the hell is going on!”

  “We’re gliding!” she said, joyfully.

  “I know that much!” he exclaimed. “Where are we—” his voice stopped as he looked up and finally noticed what was around him.

  Trees. Hills. Mountains. Fields. Even in the far distance volcanoes.

  “Eden,” Levi whispered. This time, that word seemed so much more tangible. He finally realised that it was the name for a physical place.

  He looked from left to right, up, down and back. The landscape was diverse, endless even, as it stretched to the horizon and beyond. The forests, fields, mountains, hills and even the volcanos all worked together to make up a scene that was welcoming and new. It was one Hyde had never once laid eyes on.

  Something about it was majestic. The air was sweet and crisp, the sun gleamed like never before and for the first time the atmosphere seemed alive.

  In the forests and fields, squirrels, rabbits and deer roamed freely, like it was nobody’s business. The mountains stood with snowy peaks and also gave way to subtle waterfalls. Even the volcanos at the horizon were molten with lava drooling from their mouths as if at their limits.

  The country was so clearly divided with all kinds of landscapes that would have never connected to each other in such ways. But here, in Eden, it was different, the connection was seamless. Climates that would usually never stand shoulder to shoulder were now doing exactly that.

  “What is this place?” Hyde said, amazed by it all.

  “Eden,” Levi replied, as they reached an open field.

  Her landing was smooth and gentle, unnoticed by the soft grass and the small budding flowers.

  Hyde’s, however, was very different. With a little bit of a rumble, stumble and a tumble, he fell face first into the soil.

  Damn… he thought, wiping his face as he rose in shame. “Hey—” he froze, realising that the paraglider that had spared him a cliff dive, that would surely result in death, was gone. “Where did that glider-thing go?” He looked around, turning frantically, but there was nothing.

  “What do you mean ‘where did it go?’” she asked, puzzled by his question as though he was being weird.

  “Are you serious—” he began. “It was right here.”

  “Oh, it went back into your inventory,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone. “The same way the stick I gave you did.”

  “Stick?” he repeated. “Oh right—” He looked around, checking his pockets as though the thing in question could even fit in there. “You said inventory, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And where is this inventory?”

  “In the Status Tablet.”

  “Right… the Status Tablet—” he repeated. “What is that exactly?”

  With a smile on her face, she answered his question by pointing to her waist. He followed her gesture and looked down at himself. That’s when he first noticed the strange device that had been attached to his pants the entire time.

  He unhooked it from his clothes and held it with boths hands, first looking down at the dark screen, then at Levi.

  “What is this thing?”

  “That is the Status Tablet,” she said, gently tapping the screen.

  He looked down and watched the display light up. A model of himself appeared with a grid-like layout next to it with a series of tabs and the word Inventory titled at the top.

  “Is this me?” he said, fixed on the mannequin version of himself, dressed in a plain shirt and pants, along with some shoes. He looked down at himself and then back to the screen version and noticed that it was an exact replica of him and what he was wearing. “Why am I seeing myself on this thing?” Hyde looked up.

 
“The Status Tablet is used for a great many things, one of which is, storing your items,” Levi explained.

  He glanced down and noticed the icon, occupying one of the spaces in the grid. “Wow, you’re right, the glider is right here.” He fiddled a bit, touching different tabs in the Inventory, until—

  “And here’s the stick,” he added. After a short second or two of navigating around through the different categories of items, he asked, “So what exactly is this thing?”

  “It’s basically your way of accessing yourself and the system,” she began. “From what you carry in your inventory, to the map of Eden, to your friends list, to your adventure log, to your skill collection and even to the system options.” As she spoke she navigated through the different tabs, showing off the tablet’s functions.

  “Oh, okay, that’s cool—wait! Did you just say—” He looked up from the tablet and turned to Levi.

  “Yeah, that’s right.”

  “How can this thing affect all of that?”

  “Right now, we’re in the hereafter.”

  “What do you mean the hereafter—” he began. “You mean like heaven?”

  “It’s less dramatic than that, but sure, whatever floats your boat,” she explained. “And this place, it’s Eden.”

  “And what does that make this thing?”

  “Think of it like your life monitor. It tracks everything about you from the clothes you wear, to the things you carry, as well as where you’ve been, who you’ve met and where you might want to go.”

  “Okay, you mentioned system options. What system and what kind of options?”

  “Oh, it’s just some small stuff like the design of your HUD.”

  “HUD?”

  “Heads-Up Display.”

  “What the hell is that?”

  “That’s the stuff you see in the corners of your peripheral vision, for example, notice that thing on the top right?”

  He followed her instructions and found a slightly emptied red bar that slowly refilled with every second. When he finally become conscious of it, he noticed that with each second, as it filled, his body felt lighter and the subtle aches of the cuts and bruises he endured vanished.

  “Yeah, what is that?” he asked. “And why is it slowly filling up?”