One thousand years ago, there lived a group of humans who all worshipped two goddesses, who were in fact, phoenixes. Their names were Phoebe and Luna; Phoebe was red and orange and radiated fire all around her. Luna was blue and cyan and radiated water all around her. There was also a secret race of demons who lived underground that disliked the phoenixes. Together the phoenixes dominated the earth’s surface, kept the demons at bay, and provided heat, light, and water for the life that lived on the earth’s surface as such they made up the sun and moon. The only problem was there was only a small group that believed in them, while everyone else thought it sounded ridiculous. Our story begins in a small town in Oregon, where the only religion was this religion. Anyone who would visit would believe that they were insane for worshipping the phoenixes, however, a fate much worse than death was in hand for the rest of them.
We begin with the young visitor named Calton; He had blond hair with green eyes and wore a jaggy shirt with a red plus on it and typical blue jeans, he also wore a scruffy old brown backpack. He always loved to visit small towns all around the United States, and this town was no different for him. He came to this small town in Oregon called Brothersville all the way from Alabama, and the first place he arrived at was a small hostel. It wasn’t like the big modern hotels you see nowadays, it was like a giant barn with rooms. There wasn’t even any electricity, there were only candles to illuminate the way. As he reached the hotel, he heard a peep from one of the villagers, “Welcome to our town traveler! How may I help you today?”
“Could I get a room, please? I plan to stay for a few days,” he said calmly. “Alright, that’ll be $15.” the clerk said as Calton was reaching for my wallet. He opened his wallet and grabbed 3 $5 bills, and as he was reaching toward him, the clerk said “Thank you, your room is room 6.” He gave him a key as Calton thanked him and went on his way. As Calton approached the door, he grabbed the key and placed it in the lock. As he opened the door, a strange sight crossed his gaze in the room. There was only an old bed, no tables or chairs or even a single light. All there was, was a single candle that hung on the wall, and it wasn’t even lit. The only thing that was illuminating the room was the single windows that barely put out any light. “What kind of hotel is this? I’m still in the 2020s, right?” He asked himself as he walked around in confusion. He finally settled and decide to take a little nap which lasted for around an hour and a half.
When he woke up it was completely dark, he could barely see anything and had to shuffle around to find his backpack and grab his cell phone. He finally reached the backpack, which inconveniently was by the door. He turned his phone on and put the flashlight on which illuminated the nearly empty room, unfortunately, his phone’s battery was at 7% so he had little time to have light. He went towards the door and before he could even reach the handle he heard a shatter as if someone had gone in front of his door only to smash a vase. He took a step back, thoughts racing through his mind until finally, he decided to just get back to his backpack and search for a lighter so he can light the candle that lie above the bed. It took around 35 seconds of searching to finally discover a barely working lighter which barely even lit. He tried his best and managed to get a good bit of fire to which he lit the candle. After the candle was finally lit he turned his cell phone’s light off and went to lie in bed. After a few moments of brief internal thought, he finally drifts off to sleep.
He is woken up by a beam of sunlight bashing against his face with warmth. He looks around in a daze before finally gathering his strength and getting up from the bed. He tries to check his phone, but it died sometime throughout the night. After a bit of “waking up,” he decides to leave his room and figure out what the loud shattering sound was. He opened the door, and to his surprise, there was nothing, no sign that anything broke. He decided to start asking around and everyone he asked only replied with “Shattering sound? I didn’t hear anything like that”. With each person he asked he grew more and more suspicious, it was as if they were all under some sort of spell. Could it all have been in his mind? Could it have been close and quiet enough only for him to hear? He decided enough was enough and asked the clerk who had greeted him what had happened. He simply replied: “A shattering sound? Well there was nothing broken throughout the night I assure you, I was awake the entire time and would have known if something had been broken.” This piqued his curiosity and began to give him a feeling of trepidation as nobody had heard the sound. He raced through his thoughts and only 2 thoughts hit his meter. Ghosts or a figment of his imagination.
After giving himself anxiety over the thought of an angry spirit haunting his room at night, he decides to grab some lunch. He walks out of the hostel and peruses the number of shops that are around this small town. He eventually finds a very tiny restaurant called “Brothersville burgers”. He waltzes right on into the restaurant, goes to the clerk, and takes a look at the menu before making his order. He decided to order just a simple cheeseburger with some french fries with a bottle of water. “That’ll be $8.64.” the clerk squeaked out. Calton reached into his pocket and handed the clerk a $10 bill while the clerk gathered some change. “That’ll be out in just a few moments, your number is 194!” the clerk shouted. Calton thanked the clerk and began his wait for his food.
After about 7 minutes of leaning against the wall waiting, they shouted Calton’s number and he grabbed his food with anticipation of the deliciousness that was in store for him. He took a single bite and was enthralled by the taste that he barely even noticed the large poster of Phoebe, the red phoenix. After he finished off the last fry, he began cleaning up after himself. After a few moments of cleaning and just digesting, he notices the large poster and is captivated by its mysteriousness. “What in the world could this be? Is this just some mascot for the burger shop?” he began thinking to himself. After a bit of pondering, he decides to go to the clerk and ask about the poster. “Hey, I like your poster, is it your mascot?” he asked. “No sir, that is our goddess, Phoebe.” the clerk replied. Confused, he turned back to the poster. “So you worship this bird?” he insensitively asked. “You best be careful around here, folks don’t take kindly to having their religion insulted.” the clerk told him. Calton apologized and went on his way out to explore the small town.
This ends part 1 of this story. It is all based on one single prompt that I will reveal once I finish the ENTIRE story.