The Colonel & The Barracuda

The Colonel is feminine, supple & graceful, yet muscular & strong. She feels empathy & at times irrational irritation at others’ stupidity…she does not suffer fools gladly.

She stands on guard at the great castle entrance. The wind from the sea whipping her hair as she watches over the lands in her protection. She is at attention, every sense alert for action. All is silent, all is calm, yet she senses the brewing of trouble.

A faint sound is heard & then a distant explosion. There is the smell of acrid smoke on the air & the sight of raw orange fire rising over the outlying mountain top. This lithe & amazing creature sees, hears & smells it all & launches herself into action. Whilst calling out for back up, Colonel Vanessa Harcourt warps into time itself & teleports to the place of presumed destruction.

She lands on the balls of her feet; her knees bent, her back straight, her eyes sparkling with excitement, her mages’ staff primed in front of her & her whip on the ready behind.

He is there, his eyes glazed as the fire he has torched mesmerises & seduces him into a world where he has ruined the land & the lives of his enemy.

“Barracuda…you slimy scaleless sea leach,” she spits at the young vampire fish man.

He is startled & confused, wondering where The Colonel appeared from & how she was able to locate him so quickly. He is still hypnotised by the flames of destruction & does not have time to arm himself. With astonishing speed & dexterity The Colonel lashes out & the tip of her whip snatches away the remnants of the explosive devices in Barracuda’s grip.


Webs of steel fly from The Colonels’ staff & engulf the Barracuda into an impenetrable cage of rapidly heating metal. He is young & foolish, loud mouthed & undisciplined, for all the damage he could do with his expensive & lethal weapons, he can do nothing against the experience of The Colonel.

“You power hungry whore, release me!” he yells as he feels the cage slowly rising from the ground.

The Colonel lets out an ironic laugh, enjoying the sight of this traitor flopping about in his prison, unable to escape her powerful magic. “You fool” she chortles, “you attack our lands with no provocation & then call me a whore.” She finishes levitating the cage & places it high over the furiously burning fireball that Barracuda has created.

“You made this heat upon our lands Barracuda! Are you now prepared to melt within it?” a little closer to the inferno The Colonel sends him.

“You wouldn’t dare! I am & always have been lieged to your General, do NOT call upon his wrath!”

The great controlled power of The Colonel discharges, her head leans to one side & smirk covers her lips “Ahhh, my little fish fry, there you are mistaken. Your liege is no longer my General & you have pulled at his protection for the last time.”

The cage drops lower, closer to the molten hot heat that begins to penetrate his bones & sizzle his skin. “Nooo, noooo...let me go free Colonel. I promise to never return to your lands,” he screeched in absolute terror.

The Colonel extends her golden staff toward the encased & burning Barracuda, sparks fly, wind whips around them & a howling can be heard from the distance.

“You bitch, you cow, you whore of a mother-fucker, what are you doing to me?”

“You asked to be released, promised to never return to our lands again, I have simply ensured you never will.”

The cage had turned to hard ice, water at the centre & there swimming around & around in circles was the Barracuda, turned into a tiny little guppy, no longer man & never again able to walk upon the lands that The Colonel protects.

He tries to yell & scream….”Bubble, bubble, gurgle, gurgle.”

The Colonel points her staff at the cage, swoops her arm around in a huge circle & casts the icy encasement out to sea.

“Good bye, my little guppy,” she says as she turns to slaughter the fire.

Undead Children

I have over a century of sons & daughters, which may seem a lot but my life is many centuries long. Some live with my King & I, however many have “flown the coup” as I believe you humans are fond of saying. I am not altogether sure I understand why you say this as I have never seen a human that either lives in a coup nor has wings.

We vampires can fly, in fact we can soar to the milky way & glide around our mother earth from a very young age.

Our children are taught well; to respect themselves & others, to be accepting of all…no matter of race or breed, to never feed without the blessing of the donor & to be loyal to liege & family. Most of our children learn well, however some rebel as youngsters are wanton to do.

The rebel child can be lost to us, for they feel the lust of power & the greed of warm blood upon their lips. Their need grows bigger & swells, until larger than the lessons they have learnt. They must fly, spread their wings, leave the comfort of their parents’ dungeons & smear their lack of understanding throughout the world.

It is a vampire mother’s worst nightmare. The havoc they can reap amongst the weak & the sinners is immense & leaves blood, tears & anguish in its very wake. They are young but believe they are mature. They are dim-witted but believe they are wise & all knowing. They are independent & have lost the understanding of the need for family. Worst of all, they have turned their back on their mother’s love, left her to watch them stumble & fall as they experience life by themselves.

Their mother is wise for she knows she can fail, that she is not infallible. It is the support of her family that makes her the mother & the Queen that she has become. She prays & hopes that her young ones will also recognize the need for council from others, however has seen with her own eyes & heard with her own ears, that they believe in their own rulings & do not compromise their doings. For they are leaders & all MUST follow.

In amongst this swamp of power they can loose themselves to the thirst. Left unchecked they will turn beast & forever be hunting for their next meal. For the metalic taste of blood upon their tongue & the victory of the next soul they may take into their possession. They scavenge amongst the sewers & the dumps, drink blood contaminated by germs & disease & swallow souls that are past their use by date.

This in turn makes our children each day a little more feral, until we must call out the werewolves to bring them back into the fold & place them in isolation to purify their blood once more.

So you see my human friends vampire children are just as annoying & condescending as human children can be…however mine are undead for all eternity.

Sister Escapes the Grasp of Disdain

Disdain was angry. His eyes flared red & his voice was an echoing roar as he loomed over the one he hoped to keep under his domination.
She was no longer afraid for she had lost everything that was dear to her already…there was no more he could take from her as she knew she no longer wanted his love.

Calmly she looked him in the eye, his anger growing stronger in the face of her defiance. “You have taken from me all that I held dear & this I am happy to give for my freedom. You no longer have a hold over me Disdain, your grasp has weakened & our time to part is now.”

Disdain grew & changed before her eyes into the beast he had always kept hidden from her. She felt sick to the pits of her stomach as she came face to face with pure evil & realized their love had been an illusion.

“Go you bitch, leave my Clan. Go sniffling back to your bitch of a SISTER! One bitch deserves another!” He snarled, his huge mouth wide, his teeth bared & the terrible stench of decay drowning her.

She summoned the forces & drew in their strength as she fired her last & final words at Disdain.

“You will never win your battle Disdain. For your true nature you cannot hide for long. Soon all will see you as I have seen you this day, for the Goddess’s power is forever most powerful & strong. All my prayers & all my energy will never go astray, from the good I know is inside my heart. And slowly will your evil whittle away until your very core will throb with the pain of all those you have hurt & destroyed.”

A great white light flashed, blue at the centre. It swirled & twisted & as it did so did the light brighten. Disdain bellowed in pain & hid his eyes from the brightness that was enveloping him, consuming him, filling him with a pain he did not understand. It was the essence of all that is good, all that heals & all that is true that caused such pain. The light dimmed & mellowed, became faded & then disappeared & she was gone with it.

He fell to his knees howling & felt his physical form changing again into that of a mere human. “NOooo!” he cried as he realized the torment his future would yield.

The Knock That Changed Lives - Wednesday 29th July (Internet access denied)

It is late afternoon. Cariad hears a knock on the door, sees through the fly screen the blue of their police uniforms. Her little girl only just turned two years old giggling & saying “Hello” to the strange men.

They greet her formally, taking their hats off they announce their names & ask if she is the woman they seek? Yes, yes she says picking her daughter up & unlocking the screen door. She smiles a timid smile, a scared smile at the men in blue uniform & tells them she won’t be a moment. Primal instinct has set in; she knows whatever these men have to tell her is for her ears only, that her precious little girl must be passed into the arms of her neighbour until she has heard them out.

“Madam, we have to inform you that…..” She hears them, she understands what they are saying, and she accepts the phone number that is given to her. She can hear her little girl crying next door, wanting her mummy, knowing that mummy is in some kind of pain.

It was all so surreal; she wasn't really there at all. She stood looking at him, hoping to finally understand what everyone was saying…that he would not be coming back. Of course he would be back, he always came back. Wasn't he, didn’t he always show up just as his two ladies had almost given up hope.

He looks like him, but so very still & his colour just not right, his features waxen & his hair all wrong. Why no piercings & why wear a suit? His eyes closed & lips silently together. Wake up!!! She reaches out to touch his shoulder to gently shake him awake. Wake up!

Has he been indulging again in the vices he promised he would leave......wake up, please just WAKE UP!

How could he do this to her, to their baby girl? The baby girl he had wanted so much, that he had walked away from & returned to so many times. How could he be so selfish to walk away this time & never come back? He always comes back. The phone calls telling where he is & what he is doing, asking how his “Little Princess” is, how her mum is coping. Apologizing for not being there but not meaning it. Telling them he would be home soon but not sure when. The expectation, the waiting this was all a part of their lives…what on earth do you mean you won’t be coming back. Wake up! Wake up!

No time for taking drugs now, your addictions are finally over. Never…never will you wake again.

“Mummy?” a little voice so far away, “Mummy?”

She shakes her head & a fog lifts, she is standing behind a curtain, leaning over a coffin, sobbing, pain piercing her heart & her little girl is looking for her. She wipes her tears, but cannot stop the gasps & spasms that rack her chest. She must walk now past the other mourners, those that she has never met before, those that have despised her for bringing this child into the world.

She walks, head held high, her little girl running to meet her, to the place where her father waits.

The Penny Drops – Monday 27th July 2009 (Internet Access Denied)

In the blinking of an eye the marriage was over…or so it seemed. It had actually taken many years for the decay to finally set in, to take its unrelenting hold on what they had believed to be love. Was it ever a real & binding love for each other that brought them together? Or was it the need of their children from previous relationships? Did she sense a need in those children nurturing that was missing in their lives due to the loss of their mother to another life? Did she escape from the reality of her own loss by believing their need was greater than that of her daughter or her own needs?

She sits & reflects on the relationships of her past & realizes her failing in believing in her own self worth. She realizes she has accepted relationships not because they were right or filled with love & caring, but because they were better than living within her own skin, better than facing the task of life without a partner to share her life with.

However she has always been alone, for never has she found a partner that truly cared for her, that shared or placed any significance in her feelings, beliefs or interests, that was willing to experience the little things in life that partners are supposed to share.

The partners in her life have been selfish & self absorbed, allowed to wallow in their self absorption by her continuing need to “look after them” – but who looks after her? Who cares for her when she has been sent home from hospital & told to have total care? Her mother, her father, his mother, her daughter anyone but her husband, who occasionally sneaks into the room with take away fish & chips & a cup of tea – his duty to his wife for filled – for who does not like fish & chips? I said the wife who really just wanted her husband to sit & talk with her, to show some kind of interest in her.

She waits until he has left for work & eases herself from the bed, the cut in her abdomen throbbing. She clicks on the kettle, washes a cup, places in it a tea bag & stares around her in dismay at the mess that is her kitchen. After washing dishes & wiping benches, she sweeps the floor, takes her cup of tea to her bed. With tears trickling her face she eventually sleeps.

He comes home, no need to be quiet; she will have been resting all day. No need to make her a cup of tea or ask her if she has eaten today…look she is all better the kitchen in clean…of course she is well again.

“Dinner?” He asks when he finally sticks his head around the bedroom door. He’s been home approximately one hour, but who’s counting? “Hi darling”, she says “Umm, some dinner would be lovely. What did you have in mind?”

“Don’t know?” he says “Haven’t you already started a meal?” He leaves the question hanging knowing full well she will respond as a good wife should. “No darling. I’m sorry I have been resting, give me a moment to shower & I will start dinner.” “Ok, don’t be too long it is getting late.”

Late? Late for what? Late for her to realize that she is being taken for granted that this man does not care about her, only himself? No, no, much too early for that. So early in fact that it will take another full year before the penny has finally not only dropped but rolled down the pavement, into the gutter & down the dark murky depths of the sewer.