A couple of nights ago, Robotic Animals

I was a detective. There was a mole in our department. Our offices had grey walls, grey carpet. We were in an interrogation room. It was me, my partner DCI Garret, and our chief. DCI Garret gave me the look and I knew what I had to do. I pulled the phone call records from the previous night, and circled one call in particular. The chief looked at the record, the neon green highlighted number, and he panicked. He reached out of his suite for a remote control and a secret door emerged from the wall and he was gone.

It didn't take too long to follow the rat. He was running towards an old abandoned building on the university's campus. It was scheduled to be demolished. As we approached the building, the door flew open and a strange light began to pour out. We drew our guns and approached with caution.

Garret and I stepped into what appeared to be a entryway and behind the glass doors was a beautifully decorated entrance room. It was like a museum from the 19th century, hard wood floors and red curtains and salon style hangings. We looked at each other with surprise. As we headed down the first large hallway, we had no idea what we were in for.

In each room there appeared to be a large dioramas of habitats filled with taxidermy animals. The dioramas were enclosed with wall to ceiling glass windows. The animals though...there was something horribly wrong with the animals.

Instead of standing still with glass eyes, the animals eyes were alive. They were moving as if they had been slowed down by an editing software. Their necks and paws were at times bent in the wrong direction. Giraffes, hyenas, wolves, tigers, horses, peacocks, pandas...the hallway lead to other hallways which lead to more rooms. The animals faces grimaced in confused pain. As we continued to explore, the animals grew larger and more distorted. Heads were too narrow, necks seemed broken, bodies too large and skinny, ribs cages showed through sleek fur. We found a large white dog with bent legs dragging its tail. The dog's face was elongated. Its fur glimmered under the track lighting, his whiskers twitching. The dog's one left paw was in a glass of unusual looking liquid. It was then that I noticed a glint of metal below the dogs chest. There were moving parts inside, like a clock, running smooth and silent. The dogs mouth was crooked, its yellow eyes began to water.

We cornered the Chief. He had the same unusual looking liquid in a vile. It was a bluish green milky substance that had shades of grey. It glowed and seemed to be ice cold. He looked at us with a strange smile. We raised our guns, calling out to have him put his hands on his head. Instead, he chugged his mysterious concoction and reached for something underneath his jacket. We fired.

As we approached the body, instead of flesh and blood, his torn shirt revealed fur and gears. His eyes darted around the room and he gave us one last smile before the blue liquid began to trickle from his ears.

Last Night, cloning, freedom fighters, pesticide and Rainbow Brite Cosplay

Corporations were in control. One had begun experiments with cloning. They made four clones. They were split into pairs and raised as sisters. One pair became the might behind the corporation, the other, fighting against its use of deadly pesticides. I was the pair that had been deemed "eco-terroists" by the corporate owned media.

My group, including my twin, had just bombed the research facility of one of the corporations. We were getting away in our truck over flooded wetlands when the other set of twins released the guards.

There was a chase, through the marshes. Water was spraying everywhere. Our escape route had been compromised. The other twins gave the order to have us sprayed with pesticides. It rained down on us, we tried to cover our heads, but the pesticide leaked through the truck and poured down on us.

We managed to get away and escape into a spa. We ran into the showers, but it was too late. We had pesticide poisoning. Our hair was streaked with neon rainbows, our eyes glowed and our heart rate was too fast. I went from shower to shower, trying to get off. I couldn't. I exited into a mall and ran into a  Rainbow Brite cosplay. No one noticed my unusual look and I escaped the corporate guards.

Some Nights ago, Santa Clause was up to no good

I was at an amusement park. I got separated from the crowd. I wondered into the "Holiday Exhibition" where there were displays of different holidays. One was Christmas. It was the size of a small room, and inside there was an animatronic Santa Clause and Mrs. Clause. There were in a cozy one room cabin. Mrs. Clause was busy at the stove while Santa was sitting at a small wooden table going over his list. The detail was amazing. I looked around and saw no one in the hall. I climbed over the railing to get a better look. I carefully walked around Santa Clause and a badly recorded voice kept repeating, "Ho ho ho, merry christmas..." I was peering at the details of Mrs. Clause's ornate apron when a voice behind me said, "So, you have arrived." I turned around, and the hallway to the amusement park was gone. I was in a small cabin. I was starring at a real person. THE Santa Clause.

He said that I had traveled through one of eight secret entrances to the North Pole. And it would take at least two weeks for the portal to reopen, so I might as well make myself comfortable. He began to open the door and my heart leapt as images of a cozy, magical town raced across my brain. But the door opened to something quite different.

I stepped out onto a balcony. I looked across and to what I thought was a building with a dozen floors. But as I looked around, I realized the North Pole was built in a hole. I giant hole with buildings and homes and shops built and attached to the walls, spiraling up and down. I looked up and could see the gray sky, as I peered down, the spiral walkway, leading to shop entrance, to home, kept spiraling down and down. There were bridges crossing the gap, and a string of lights crisscrossing in every direction. How far down this hole when I could not say. There was smoke and smells and music and people talking, shouting, dogs barking and chickens squawking all the way down. The people were dressed in a wide range of styles. The buildings at the top seemed more refined and larger. Santa Clause, after reaching for the door to his ornate home, turned around and said, "Go explore, I have work to do."

I walked down the path, going ever down, and explored the various businesses. The people were all busy and seemed to come from all over the world. I stopped for dumplings and grabbed a cookie at a bakery. As I was exploring, a deep low boom would rumble from below. No one seemed to notice it, or care. I stopped a woman selling books and asked what the sound was. She said, "The mine newbie," and walked on. I stopped into a glass blowing store, inside were amazing sculptures and snow globes. It was the first time I had seen snow. I asked the clerk about the mine but he pretended not to hear me. . It was here that I first started to notice the cracks. There was small cracks in the floor, on the walls and the ceilings. But these cracks seem to shimmer. I began to ask the store clerk what they where, and he dismissed me. "Nothing to worry your head newbie.""How can you tell I'm new?" I asked. "You ask questions."

I left the store only now to notice the cracks wherever I went. Some where small, no bigger than a hair, but some where huge, all the while shimmering. I kept going down further. The shops got more narrow, the walkways more busy. Here I began to see people with mining gear on. I stopped for a coffee while I listened to some miners talk. They mentioned this section going dry, that section barely producing. They made a joke about Santa Clause drilling in their skulls for time gold. Some laughed, some said they wouldn't put it pass him. I leaned in and asked what time gold was. A miner looked at me, up and down, and said, "How do you think Santa gets around the world in one night? Flying Reindeer?" They all began to laugh. As the miners left, a mousy looking girl ran up to me. She had papers in her arms. She sat down and said. "I've seen you looking at the cracks. No one here believes me, but maybe you can help. Santa Clause is destroying time!"

She laid it out before me. Santa Clause was mining for a rare mineral that allowed him to manipulate time. He wasn't just the jolly gift giver the world had come to know, he was also a power hungry mayor of this town. He was brutal, unforgiving and paranoid of a coup d'etat. His mining scientist had tried to warn him again and again, but every time Santa refused to believe the facts. He sent them all to the South Pole. This scientist new if she went to him he would surely send her away. What could she do? We walked up talking about possible ideas, but she told me we had to be careful because Santa's guards were everywhere and loved to report whispers of time cracks back to him. Time cracks...the rumors had hit the streets but anyone who publicly discussed them found themsevles in jail or packing or worse. But the evidence couldn't be ignored. The shimmer was growing brighter, and things began to slip through the time cracks. Ideas, images, even things. I walked along the path and began to notice technology I hadn't noticed earlier. It seemed it was common knowledge not to touch one of the cracks. They made you younger, or older. Or gave you ideas. The rate of change in this town was extraordinary. Soon someone had invented the telephone. A shopkeeper was working on a small car. The machines began to become more advanced, while other things seemed to be forgotten. The scientist said it was getting worse all the time. Santa Clause was destroying time, and it wouldn't just stop here. He was mining too much of the mineral, and the cracks would soon spread out. Santa clause was, if not stopped, was going to destroy the world.

Last Night, attack from mutant crocodiles.

Living in the floating city a few miles over and west of the jungle was splendid. I was a young girl with purple hair and an orange bomber jacket. I loved slipping out and exploring the jungle below. It was easy, I had my transporter and could easily zip around at will.

One day my transporter broke and I was stuck on a cliff lover over a full and lazy river. I was starring at the water trying to solve the problem when a noticed a crocodile swimming about. Then two, then five, then fifteen, then thirty, then the river seemed to be teeming with them, at least fifty. Then they all turned around at once, as if hearing some distant command. Slowly, the water began to tremble. Out of the murky depths a giant monster arose. A white crocodile, the largest animal I had ever seen.  It was as big as an apartment building. It's skin was shiny and its eyes were a deep blue. It looked up and starred at me. It made some kind of horrible sound that was less an animal cry and more like a voice giving a command. The little crocs began to swarm and head in my direction. I knew I had to get the hell out of there.

I ran through the forest as fast as I could. The noise of leaves being brushed and ripped from their stalks followed me. The crocs could run, and they could run fast. Lucky the monkey inside allowed me to climb a fence that said, "RESTRICTED< GOVERNMENT PROPERTY: DANGEROUS."

Where the hell was I? Before running, I grabbed my phone. I hesitated to call Charlie because going down to the Jungle was strictly forbidden but I didn't have a choice.

"YOU ARE WHERE?"

You could say he was upset. Or you could say I spent the next five minutes listening to an arrangement of noises that occasionally sounded like a mixture of swear words and "WHAT WHERE YOU THINKING!?" There was no chance for me to speak in his rant, so I waited till he tired.

I gave him my location and told him that I was in trouble. It was hard to describe exactly what I had seen since I didn't even believe it.

His heli landed and he was still red in the face, a big cigar in his mouth puffing smoke fast. As he was yelling, his eyes drifted to the fence and his cigar dropped out of his mouth. I turned around, and saw exactly why his face looked terrified. The crocs had not given up. They were piling on top of one another to form a mound in order to get over the fence. "What the..." He didn't have time to finish the question, I pulled him back into the heli and we took off. The wind blew the grass and as I looked down the crocs had made if over the fence. Their black eyes looked up, their white shark teeth shinning... this was impossible.

Instead of going back to the city we went to Charlie's hotel, floating over the ocean just a mile past the coast. His hotel had been surrounded by a kid theme entertainment complex called Kippos as well as a medical research corporation, with restaurants scattered around the kiddo place. Why he had bought a hotel in the middle of nowhere was a mystery. But thanks to meddos and kiddos, he was now getting a lot of business. I leaned over the balcony and looked down at Kippos. I giant black cat building with anime eyes looked up from the center. Bright colors and garish patterns radiated from the place.

 I could see the mouth of the river meeting the ocean. The Delta was called Kuri. Charlie was on the phone and seemed to be also pissed at whoever he was talking to. As I looked into the distance, my heart sank. I could see them. The crocodiles. This time in the hundreds pouring out of the Delta like ants from an ant hill. And then, there she was. The white crocodile. She was somehow bigger than last time, and her blue eyes were scanning the sky. It was impossible, but it was like she was starring right at me.

The news blared behind. Crocodiles were destroying the stabilizing instruments below the city. There where thousands of them. Charlie pulled me from the balcony and we ran towards the heli.

Moments ago, an island full of scared dragons

It was a peaceful island with a King who loved to plan parties. His castle was the tallest building on the island and his subjects visited often during social gatherings the King would invent. They had not build the castle, but the people could not remember who had. The people farmed rice and made fabric for their clothes. They made instruments for their music and painted their houses bright colors. The town was full of dragons. These green and sometimes blue beasts were friends of the people, but had a lot of anxiety. During an evening of festivities someone had the strange idea for a dragon to play a part in his dramatic and fantastical play. It got many laughs, for the dragon was suppose to play a mean and terrible beast, yet during the performance he squealed at the sight of a mouse who decided to make an unexpected cameo.

The King had a dream that night. He was running in his kingdom and in one great hallway the walls had turned to melting sheets of silk. He ran through them, the long pieces of fabric falling over him and obscuring his view. He could see a balcony up ahead. His desire to reach the daylight filled up him, and he ran all the harder. Yet the faster he ran, the faster the sun began to fall. He was rushing for daylight but reaching only the night. When he got to the balcony it was night. He looked over the ocean and a storm was approaching.

The King awoke for the first time afraid.