EDITOR’S NOTE
When our team is putting together an issue, we have a lot of things to worry about. How many submissions do we need? Who’s writing the ad for the announcements? Is the district gonna block us again? But thanks to all of you wonderful people, we have never had to worry about receiving bad work. Our school is talented, dedicated, and we take our job of displaying that talent very seriously. But really, it’s all due to you. So thank you. Thank you for being brave enough to share your wonderful work with us. This magazine lives on for you; we sincerely hope you enjoy the read. Sincerely, The Team of INK & VENOM
Featured Pieces
LOCKDOWN by Kiefer Hinton
Prologue: The Dream by Rohan Garcia
I was once again roaming the meadow, filled with deadly floral arrangements. Yet, my body moved across the field like it knew where to go. The field went on and on, but I kept moving. I knew I had to find something, but I didn’t know what it was, at least not yet.
Then, suddenly, I sensed something, the thing I was looking for, and I turned around. I saw a figure in the distance, and I immediately moved towards it. But, for some reason, I felt like I wasn’t supposed to go towards the figure. It felt like the thing I was searching for wasn’t something I should’ve found, much less have.
As I moved closer, images filled my mind. In one, I was with 3 figures who were mostly shadows, except for the lower leg area. In another, I was fighting one of the figures, and it looked like a training match. In the third, I saw the figures again, but it was so deep red that I couldn’t make out what was happening. Then the images stopped and I got closer to the figure in the meadow, revealing it almost completely, except the head and shoulder area was still shadowed.
Then I saw more images. One where I was dancing with the meadow figure. Another one showed me fighting alongside the figure. A third one was a view of the figure training, but it was still shadowy. A fourth was completely blood-colored. Then I managed to get closer, but the images worsened. One, I was trying to revive the figure. Another one, the figure was falling towards its doom. And the final showed something that felt heart wrenching.
In that one, I watched as I tried to protect the figure, but failed, and I watched as I lost control of my emotions, and I felt the sorrow and the hatred from that image flood me. And then I knew. I began backing away from the figure, and I ran. But after I got 5 feet, the world broke under me. I fell into a crevice that was expanding as I fell.
Then I heard the voice. “You will lose the thing you seek most, and it will break you. Question is, will you be able to repair yourself?”
Then I woke up.
Anything (Anonymous Submission)
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