Rune

By Top Writers Block

Runes were used by Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons from about the 3rd century. They were formed mainly by modifying Roman or Greek characters to suit carving, and were used both in writing and in divination.
Top Writers Block has found its own use for Runes in this collection of short stories.
Short stories are made for breaks, so why not sit for five minutes and enjoy each tale!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Top Writers Block
• Release date: Aug 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311470287

Top Writers Block

Top Writers Block is a diverse and eclectic group of talented writers who decided to write stories together - just for the fun of it! We are happy to announce that authors proceeds have always gone, and will continue to go, to Sea Shepherd.fr every time Smashwords has made a payment! Thank you to those who have supported the group, independent authors, and Sea Shepherd. Our collections are usually written with one theme or genre in mind. Each author contributes when they have the time, so some of the collections have as many as twelve authors participating. Every collection has something new, with stories and poems ranging from romance, drama, and adventure to mystery, fantasy, and horror. All the Top Writers Block's proceeds will go to Sea Shepherd, so by buying you are helping to keep our oceans alive! Thank You all so much!

Book preview

Collection of Short Stories

by

Top Writers Block

on the theme:

‘Rune’

Copyright©Aug. 2014 Top Writers Block

Published on Smashwords

ISBN: 9781311470287

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

http://suzystewartdubotbooks.weebly.com

Smashwords License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

Credits

Cover design : Suzy Stewart Dubot

Photo : Elizabeth Rowan Keith

Table of Contents

Keep Your Hands Inside The Ride Vehicle At All Times by Melissa A. Szydlek

Pebbles of Destiny by Tracey Howard

Go and Return – Goth and Rune by Suzy Stewart Dubot

Davey's Field by Barnaby Wilde

Odd Angles by Elizabeth Rowan Keith

Rune by Don Bick

KEEP YOUR HANDS INSIDE THE RIDE VEHICLE

AT ALL TIMES

by

Melissa A. Szydlek

Copyright © 2014 Melissa A. Szydlek

Melissa Szydlek lives in the United States. Originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she survived Detroit for many years and has settled into a quieter life in North Carolina.

KEEP YOUR HANDS INSIDE THE RIDE VEHICLE

AT ALL TIMES

In Brown Mountain, on North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Parkway, the lights come. Milepost 310 is especially vivid for those who pull over on the twisted, winding road and stand on the elevated trestle overlooking the mountain. Brown Mountain is like a bird fighting a predator, spreading its wings to appear larger than it is. The mountain, with its deep valleys, pitched inclines, and so much deep and vivid color from the evergreens they almost blind the introspective viewer, is actually in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Parkway, though it appears to rise above it. Its elevation is only 2,600 feet, but when you stand on the side of the road and look at all that green, at all those peaks, you feel like you are on top of the world. The smell of the earth, the trees, and the grass culminate into an almost hypnotic tonic. You feel at peace, but uneasy at the same time.

Legends of the lights have been told for hundreds of years in these parts. The Native Americans even passed down stories of such things. The Cherokee tribes in the region still tell stories of great battles between the Cherokee and the Catawba. Some elders describe the lights as the souls of the fallen warriors, forever locked in battle. Others say the lights are the broken hearted women of the tribe, still searching for their lost husbands or sweethearts. Others still say the lights make things disappear. A small band of the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina continue to share stories of the lights that made both the Cherokee and Catawba warriors disappear, taken away in a bright beam of blinding yellow and white.

Modern day scientists either dismiss the stories of the Brown Mountain lights as fairy tales or try to explain them away. Some insist the area has a unique combination of gasses and deposits of uranium and phosphorus. However, phosphorus has a fast rate of oxidization and the element itself is not even found on or near Brown Mountain. Others say the lights are reflections of automobiles or trains. But the lights were reported years before the invention of such transportation. Cherokee tribes described the lights as fire dancing in the sky. Geologists in 1913 and 1916, on expeditions to conduct geological surveys in the area, reported balls of fire falling and then ascending back into the air. The lights, despite their speed and size, are silent. No noise has ever been reported with a sighting.

Locals are used to the odd reports here and there over the years. However, people never came in hordes or large groups. Reports of the triangular grouping of rotating and pulsating lights usually come from the lone driver, the pair of friends, the family of tourists just passing through. But not now. Now, the hordes have come. Starting at milepost 290 and traveling for miles up the Parkway people stand almost shoulder-to-shoulder watching the lightshow, the fire in the sky. It’s not just lights now, either. Large metallic objects are clearly visible, hovering in the air above the Parkway. People come, and watch, and are horrified. The United States Military is trying to deem the spaces on and around the Mountain, including the Parkway, as a war zone. They say the United States is being attacked. Deployments of armed soldiers from several military branches are being ordered to the area. Until they are forced out, however, the people come and watch.

The Parkway is lined on both sides of the road with stationary vehicles. Tents, lawn chairs, blankets, and the odd camp stove can be found along the route and the people, standing on the road, go on for miles. It was too new, too soon, for the true crazies to have arrived. No end of the world cults had started protesting yet. But the people are still everywhere and Tashamoto does not like how close some of them get to her, invading her personal space, as if getting a better look at the lights and the metallic objects are more important than common courtesy. When did anyone ever really show her common courtesy she thinks?

A car accident when she was young left her without her left arm. She has no memory of the accident but her parents told her no memories were for the best. She may not have to relive the trauma of the accident but the ensuing years subjected her to taunts from fellow classmates, especially in elementary school. Why were children so damned mean, especially to each other? She had survived, however, and couldn’t complain about her life, her education, or her place in the world. She was content. She felt distant from most people and had no close friends, and had never been much of an UFO buff, but these lights…these lights…they fascinated her. Since the metal objects, what the government officially called ships, appeared and made no