Wordzzle 84 - Breaking through

This is my contribution to this week's Wordzzle. Wordzzle is a game in which each week word lists, used to create stories, are given on the blog Views from Raven's Nest. Participating users post their stories on their own blogs.

This is my entry number 28, for Wordzzle week 84.


Ten Word Challenge:

plaster,
cottage cheese,
hallowed,
hard working,
food for thought,
blood drive,
broken finger,
ceiling fan,
pastry chef,
production

I'm no pastry chef, but even I know that tarts aren't supposed to have blades sticking out of them. Plaster in the cottage cheese is never a good sign either, I thought sadly, as I looked at the remains of dinner, with the fallen ceiling fan in the middle of the table.

The meal hadn't been any hallowed production, but it was all I had left in the house, and I just didn't feel in the mood right now to go get any more. Money was kind of tight, too. I'd been off work for several weeks now, because of a broken finger and the associated complications. They'd had to start a blood drive at the hospital, because I'd lost so much blood, and had an odd rare blood type. I hadn't been bleeding till they started work on me, and I still couldn't understand how I had started bleeding like that. The doctors had never been able to explain it to me in a way that I could understand. I'm not even sure they understood it. Then the finger had gotten infected, and then I'd gotten pneumonia, and then some disease I couldn't pronounce and had never heard of. At least I was back home now. Not that I felt real good about it at the moment.

A small demonic head peered out of the hole in the ceiling, followed by a small demonic body. "Enjoying your dinner?"

"Not too much at the moment, and getting steadily less."

"That's too bad, it looks pretty tasty to me." It crawled a short distance across the ceiling, then dropped to the table and began chewing on one of the fan blades. "They don't make ceiling fans like they used to," it observed. "Ceilings either. Still, it's not bad."

"I don't suppose that there's any chance you could be leaving soon."

"Not really. I'm a hard working imp, and I like to stay until the job is done."

"Well, your job was almost terminated early. I almost didn't make it out of the hospital."

"Oh, the plan was never for you to die, just to make you miserable. I think it worked out rather well." It leaped up on my head, dug its claws in, and started to lick the plaster dust off. Its tongue was long and wet and rough.

"Is there any chance you could do that somewhere else?"

"I can't very well lick the plaster off your head somewhere else, now can I? Silly." It leaned over and peered into my eyes, upside down. "Is there anything at all in there? Sometimes I wonder."

"Couldn't you please just go away?"

"Sorry, it's seven years bad luck for breaking a mirror, you know, especially for breaking that kind of mirror, and we've only just begun."

"Yes, it was an old expensive antique mirror, but I bought it after I broke it, that should have settled everything."

"I'm sure the owner was happy. I'm happy, too, for that matter. Breaking the mirror let me out."

"If you're happy, why are you punishing me?"

"Rules are rules. And, anyway, punishing you makes me even more happy. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself when the seven years are up." It leaped back onto the table and scooped up some plastery cottage cheese and began eating it. It then picked up the whole container and began pouring it into its mouth.

"Look," I said, "I glued it back together. You know I did, you watched me do it. Why won't you go back in it?"

"It hardly looks the same, now, does it? All those cracks and splits. You were pretty sloppy with the glue, too."

"It was my first time. I'm no expert."

"Obviously. Who would want to live in that thing? Not that I wanted to live in it before. I was bound within it, though, by the spell. That was broken with the mirror. You're not going to get me back in there no matter how nice you make it look."

It suddenly turned and dumped the rest of the cottage cheese on my head. "Here, have some food for thought. You need all the help you can get." Then it sat down and wrapped its arms around itself and laughed and laughed, rolling from one side to the other. I sat there and smoldered, cottage cheese dripping on my shirt. The laughter went on and on.

I suddenly got up and left the room, and came back pushing the mirror ahead of me. It was a tall oval mirror, almost full length, on a heavy wooden stand.

"Here! Get in it!"

"It isn't that easy, I told you."

I grabbed it with my good hand and jammed it against the mirror. Nothing happened. It laughed and squirmed around in my hand, then grabbed my index finger in both hands and casually broke it. "OW! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow..."

"Silly, silly boy. Now you really need an extra hand. Good thing I'm here to help out."

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow..."

"You didn't even glue this thing together properly, this big piece at the top is coming loose."

"I had to get more glue, and then I couldn't get it back apart to put the glue on it. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow..."

It pried the piece off the mirror and started poking me with the sharp end, then tried to work the point underneath the bandage on the finger I had broken earlier. I somehow grabbed the piece away from it, gritting my teeth against the pain, and held it far away, behind it. It laughed some more, the sound fading and then abruptly choking off. I looked, and saw that the demon was between the main part of the mirror and the fragment I was holding, and its horrified image was reflected back and forth between them, creating an endless series of small, receding, demons. It raised its arms, like it was trying to fend them off, then it screamed and blurred and somehow went into both sides at once. I saw it now in both of them, pale, almost transparent, writhing around. I slammed the piece I was holding against the face of the mirror and heard another scream, fainter and somewhat muffled. Wisps of smoke came up.

I carefully lowered the mirror to the floor, keeping the piece tight against it. Then I went and got the new tube of glue, put a liberal amount on the back of the piece, and fitted it back into its proper place. The image of the demon, looking very distressed, slowly flowed out into all the separate pieces, becoming more and more divided, and more and more pale and ghostly. I righted the mirror, and the images slowly slid down to the bottom in a jumbled heap, their horrified eyes, locked in pain, staring out at me. They slowly faded out, leaving just a fogged area in the glass, and then that, too, was gone.

Feeling kind of faint now, I made my way over to the phone and sat down by it. I dialed 911 and told them I needed an ambulance, and then sat there and waited for it. My finger had started to bleed again, but so far it didn't look like I would need a transfusion, so things were already looking up. Maybe I would even get to the hospital in time for dinner.


Mini Challenge:

the sky is falling,
variations on a theme,
bravery,
powder puff,
empty soda bottles

"The sky is falling!" someone screamed, and something hit me on the head. Then something else, and then they were falling all around me. They were just empty soda bottles, made of thin plastic, and didn't really hurt much, but it was annoying. Then some powder puffs started falling. Variations on a theme, I guess.

I looked up and saw a small craft flying around above me. I pointed my finger at it accusingly, then shook my fist at it. It flew around closer and then landed. A strange little being got out and stood by the craft for a minute, then slowly came toward me. It stopped about five feet away. I glowered at it. It looked back for a while, and finally, slowly, its head drooped, its eyes still looking at me. Its whole body seemed to sag. I pointed at the stuff on the ground, still glaring at it. It slowly took out a large bag, made of some shiny material, and began picking it all up. When it was done, its eyes, sad but tinged with hope, looked up at mine. I nodded and gave a grim smile, still glaring at it. It slowly turned around and made its way back to its craft, and put the bag in and got in and left. I watched it fade into the distance with smug approval.

I'm not noted for my bravery, but sometimes you just have to stand your ground.


Mega challenge:

plaster,
cottage cheese,
hallowed,
hard working,
food for thought,
blood drive,
broken finger,
ceiling fan,
pastry chef,
production

the sky is falling,
variations on a theme,
bravery,
powder puff,
empty soda bottles

"Blood drives will one day collect cottage cheese, and these hallowed walls will once again be plastered."

I had no idea what that meant, but so far it sounded good. I had driven a long way to get here, all the way to Broken Finger, Wyoming, to see the guru. I hoped it was worth it.

"You will one day be a pastry chef, and will make tarts in the shape of ceiling fans. Some will say the sky is falling, but you will know better. Never accept empty soda bottles, unless something is in them. It takes no bravery to fight powder puffs, but you will nevertheless need it. Hard working people will make much ado about something, and the production will be sold out."

There was more where that came from, variations on a theme that I couldn't quite catch. Food for thought, but it didn't really answer my question, the reason I had come out here. At least, not as far as I could tell. "This is all really interesting, but what I really want to know is if there is intelligent life elsewhere, and if it has come to visit us. Whether UFOs are real."

"I have already talked at length. Another forty dollar donation would be appreciated. Thank you. My answers float through the air, and find no safe place upon you. They lie all around us, waiting for eyes that see. Sometimes you just have to be hit on the head. That is all."

That is all? "Wait, I still don't understand..."

"Sorry, other people are waiting. Next!"

I left, feeling glum. What could all that mean? It sure wasn't likely that a UFO was going to come and hit me on the head. All that money for nothing. And I had to buy that broken mirror from him, too...