Julius Rosenthal will make candy no more and other short stories by Nicholas Russell (young adult books to read .txt) 📗

“I remember you, you’re the gatekeeper, and I doubt that you remember me.” The gnome tossed the clock aside and rose to its feet. The Gatekeeper slowly brought his arms out from his side and as he did a faint white glow began to pulse through his hands. When the gnome saw this he stepped back, coming close to the edge of the table “Calm down, you don’t have to fear me. I know your power.”

The gatekeeper found his own voice weak, “Leave this place, now.”

“But what is this place?” The gnome stepped to his right, making sure to stay an arm’s length from the hulking presence before him. “I have lived in these woods almost as long as I have been in this place. This place has never been here before.” The gatekeeper stepped closer and the Gnome jumped away, landing in the ceiling rafters.

The tiniest creak from the door distracted both as the girl pushed the door open. Both pair of eyes flashed to her. A squeal flew from the Gnome’s mouth, “Well you have come with something special haven’t you.” He jumped again, this time over the Gatekeeper’s head landing only inches from the young girl. “You know a secret don’t you little one.”

The gatekeeper flew into a rage rushing across the room and with both hands grabbing the Gnome’s head pulls him high into the air. In a frantic rush of sound the Gnome pleads for his soul and barters where he can, “I know what she is, she can give us great power here.”

The gatekeeper turns from the girl and in a low rhythmic voice begins the incantation “Από τους κανόνες και τη δύναμη του συμβολαίου, του ι ο θυρωρός της κόλασης εδώ από το δεσμό disolve με αυτό και όλων των κόσμων.”

The gatekeeper’s hand begins to glow bright white and the gnome’s eyes burst open. The incandescent green is replaced with the faded hazel eyes of a man who had seen too much. His withered body begins to shrivel and contract. His mouth opens to a soundless scream as the last of his essence slips free and the gnome’s body becoming nothing more than an empty vessel. The gatekeeper releases his grasp and the body slips free. It hits the ground and shatters like a porcelain vase.

His hands are stiff, and waves of pain wash over him as he feels the fiend’s presence ever closer. His legs give way and he collapses to the ground, the gatekeeper’s body racked by violent spasms. Down on his knees his stomach begins to twist and knot before pushing him to a series of painful dry heaves. The girl looks to him and a sense of sadness comes over her, she crosses from the door, kneeling before him, and puts a hand to his face. The hand was cool and comforting bringing sleep. The sleep was deep and dreamless something none before had experienced in this place.

The hurried stamp of feet outside startled him awake. Franticly his eyes scanned the room, looking for the girl. He didn’t see her and panic blossomed inside him. Then he saw her, she was playing quietly in the corner. He stood and stretched his body, sore from the position he had slept in. The voices were loud, they were not even trying to hide their presence. He moves to the nearest wall and leans close. Two of them are positioned near this wall; he closed his eyes and strains to hear their voices.

“I always knew this one would be trouble, I told the master he could not be trusted.”

“You did no such thing I was there, you praised his choice.” The first voice was unfamiliar but the second was clear to him, the fiend had dispatched the Sycophants to retrieve him and the girl. “I just wish we had been allowed to deal with the Gatekeeper ourselves.”

He pulled himself from the wall; his mind going a mile a minute. It made sense; who else would the fiend send, the Sycophants where his most trusted rogues. A noise from the girl startled him, and he turned back to her. She had found two wooden blocks and was playing as if they were dolls. They were long charred blocks that in no way resembled dolls, but that didn’t seem to faze her. She looked from the simple toys and their eyes met. Her color faded and her bright hazel eyes dimmed.

He looked away. He shouldn’t have brought her here, it was a mistake. She was slipping, and with every gaze from him she became more a part of this place. The crossover scarred every soul who passed his way. He had never cared for a charge as he did for this one, the sadness of crossing had long since stopped affecting him as he too became a monster of this realm. But the girl, her innocence was so pure, she did not belong to this place. How had this mistake been made? How had he been dispatched to retrieve her and not the keeper of the other gate?

A voice pulled him from his thoughts, a voice he had long forgotten. He could sense the Sycophants pulling away, and a new presence came forth. It was a presence filled with deep sadness. It was not the Fiend himself, his was an arrival that pulled hope from your chest and filled it with despair. This new arrival had a voice of pure honey and as it drew nearer the gatekeeper heard nothing but its song, not a breath not a footstep. Nothing but the voice of pure delight.

“Gatekeeper.” The presence whispered just outside the door. The Siren’s words brought forth a flood of emotion and memories. Memories he had long since buried as they had become an unwanted torment. There she was in his mind’s eye, standing in her full glory. Her face held a beauty no living creature should possess. Her kindness graced his soul with