An Odyssey of Words

For my English class, I read the Odyssey, and we had to do a project. We had to write a story of our own Odyssey toward one of our goals. I chose my goal of publishing a book and becoming a popular YA author. Unfortunately, my teacher gave us a maximum of 2 pages. I wrote 4. Instead of cutting out all of the good stuff that isn't nesicarry, I decided to post it here. You don't have to read it, but I thought you might like it.

        ~Izzy

                Humming, I waited for my laptop to turn on. It was time to do some writing.

After a few seconds, the screen brightened, but instead of my home screen, all I saw was a glowing blank screen with three small, white dots growing in the center. I squinted at the dots as they slowly took the form of three women who appeared to be clawing their way out of a pit.

“Is this some kind of virus?” I asked aloud. That was when something really scary happened.

“We are far worse than some petty virus,” they hissed in unison, “We are the Computadoras, the three sisters from the Depths of Chrome.

Then two of the women disappeared. The remaining Computadora was as tall and slim as a model, and her neon blue eyes seemed to glow supernaturally, but she was practically dripping in gaudy gold jewelry. Her aurora of confidence was almost over powering. She reminded me of a celebrity.

“I am Phantroyler; let us go to the internet,” she offered with a smile. Images of my favorite Youtubers appeared on my screen. Subconsciously, I smiled back at them.

Maybe I could just watch a video or two, I thought to myself.

“No,” I forced myself to say, “I have to write.”

Phantroyler looked like she wanted to say more, but one of her sisters appeared, and she disappeared in a dramatic puff of red glitter and smoke.

The second woman coughed and fanned away the sparkles. Then she- a person who had obviously had practice at being antisocial- forced a smile and said, “I found a few good fan-fictions, and they are not going to read themselves. You should probably check your Wattpad account; I think somebody just posted a new chapter.”

Now she wore a real smile, and her voice was rising in volume and pitch as she squealed, “I know all of your favorite pairings, and I found a really fluffy fic you might like!”

This time, I was even more tempted, but I shook my head.

“This is why I hate people,” she grumbled, adjusting her fuzzy robe, “Every time I try to be social this happens.”

She simply walked across the screen and disappeared. To my dismay, the third woman appeared in an explosion of black smoke. Leaning on a wooden staff, she smiled cruelly.

“Hello,” she purred, “You may have banished my sisters, but I will not be as easy to defeat.”

“And who are you?” I laughed nervously.

“I am Tumblina, and I suppose you can guess my domain- Tumblr,” she answered.

I paled. If she was as powerful as Tumblr, I was doomed.

“So you recognize me?” she laughed, “Perhaps you should log into your account.”

Imminently, the log in page appeared. Against my will, I began to type my password.

“No,” I struggled to say, “I refuse. I need to work on my book.”

Tumblina screamed and dissolved as if she had been thrown into a vat of acid. Tumblr surrendered to Microsoft Word. I silently cheered to myself.

I celebrated too soon. This time, the threat was outside of my computer screen. I was suddenly tackled off of my chair and onto the floor. My head hit the corner of my desk with a soft Thump! I looked up at my attacker, who had pinned me to the ground, but I had been rendered dumb and could not form any words.

The beast was thin as bones, but heavy and surprisingly strong. Sharp claws dug into my wrists, drawing blood. Its icy breath froze the air around my face. One of the creature’s legs squashed my gut, reminding me of the time I drank three cans of soda in one sitting, but worst of all were the eyes.

If you asked me to describe monster’s eyes, I could talk for hours and never properly explain their terror, but I will do my best now. There was a sense of deadness to them, and I felt all of the sorrow, pain, and numbness that a corpse might feel, but there was also a feverish glow. I felt overwhelmed by anxiety, worry, and stress. While I locked eyes with the creature, I was a zombie who had yet to start a fifteen page essay about the science and history of potato farming that was due the next period.

Time was different. Each second was like months, and I could feel myself aging.

“I am the Academian Hound! Bow down to my power!” It shouted, hurting my ears, “You misspelled hippopotamus in fifth grade, you stupid child! That quadratic equation was factored incorrectly, idiot! Are you even trying?! Do you want to be successful or do you want to continue to be a failure?! With all of my tests and quizzes, you will never have free time to write, and you can kiss soccer practice goodbye.”

After what should have been a few seconds- but was instead a few years- of scolding passed, I realized that the eyes were the problem. Struggling to break eye contact, I searched for something to solve my predicament.

Finally, I found the mirror that I had thrown to the ground in frustration this morning. Grasping the handle with both hands, I thrust it out in front of me, breaking the line of eye contact.

“I am not as stupid as you say!” I yelled back at the Academian Hound, “I did all of my homework! I knew all of the answers! Your tests and quizzes cannot destroy me!”

With a terrified scream, the monster vaporized, returning to wherever it came from. I pulled myself to my feet. My vison was a little blurry, but my head was buzzing with new ideas.

Sitting back down, I settled in for a long night of writing. Covered in blankets and surrounded by snacks, I finally opened my word document to start a new chapter of my book. I had a lot of work to do.