The Gates - Book 1 (Chapter 1)
Welcome to the first chapter in my new book. I say new, but in reality this is a story that I have been writing bits and pieces now for over 5 years here and there. I keep coming back and trying to flesh out the pages.
One of my goals for 2023 is to finally get all the chapters done in the rough form you will see in this newsletter. I will be tidying up each chapter as I finish writing them and immediately posting them up on here with the aim at the end to collate them into an ebook at which point I might even be able to afford an editor to go through it.
I hope you enjoy the story as it evolves and please do let me know what you think.
CHAPTER 1
The two moons were shining their glow upon the side of the dwell. A stranger, wet through, crawled out of the shadows from the sea edge and into the light. The shadows that evaded the moonlight slightly hid his face and the bruise which was covering the left side. His eye was so swollen that he could no longer raise an eyelid. But even though it was bruised and swollen from some recent trauma it had been a very long time since any light had registered on the retina and sent a signal to the man's brain.
He pushed his hands into the wooden floor and raised up onto one knee and took a deep breath. Then with the last of his inner strength raised himself slowly to his feet. He attempted to take a step forward, his ribs suddenly seared with pain, confirming his earlier suspicions that he had indeed broken several of his ribs in the same incident that resulted in the face bruise.
The stranger's once-navy shirt was now seeping with blood from the various wounds inflicted across his whole body, a body that by now should have its life slowly ebbing away and fading into nonexistence, but this body was holding on: something inside this outlander was alive, cheating death, giving him the necessary strength to complete the task at hand. Not one for defeat, he tried again, this time tentatively placing his next leg forward, but as his heel hit the slippery smoothness of the wet wooden floor, his ankle painfully twisted to one side and he was suddenly face to face with the ground yet again. The harsh smell of saltwater burned his nose as he inhaled and his mouth was filled with the acrid flavour of fish and something else. “Strange, is that polish?” he thought to himself. The stranger staggered to his feet and achieved four uneven steps before collapsing again but this time onto a door set into a dark wooden structure. Using the door to support his weight he looked up and down seeking some sort of handle. Just one gleam of moonlight was slicing the door in a sharp diagonal line and in its light hit upon the shiny metal surface of a handle and with it he reached out, gripped the handle and with the little strength remaining in his wrist, he twisted. It rattled but did not open; it was clearly locked. Examining the door more closely he noticed the door handle and its hardware was maintained to a gleaming bright white steel, and, although it was difficult to ascertain in the semi-darkness he thought he could make out the faint etching of what looked like a single word: 'Elrik' scratched into a door header. He banged feebly against the metal and tried to gather a scream that never came. The last of that unnerving energy which seemed to be keeping him going now started to fade away. It seems that his strength has reached its destination.
His legs gave way first and his face crashed into the door and he fell uselessly to his knees. His fingers scraped the steel with the harshness of paper on rock before his knees gave way. Laying on his side his fingers stroked the door edge once more before his vision faded and the sound of crashing waves grew fainter. He drew back his fingers in an effort to make a final knock before his eyes closed and he could see the smiling face of the moons no more.
If you enjoyed this chapter and would like to support me in my work, here is a few ways…
1. You can purchased my comics from https://arackley.gumroad.com/
2. You can support me by purchasing a coffee :) https://www.buymeacoffee.com/aaronrackley