Before Exam

            I lay down in bed. Pulling up the black sheet of night. Couldn’t sleep. The clock read, ’12 am’. The stress from the following day’s exam took over my mental and physical state. Over the past month, I had turned my brain to mush with textbooks and notes. The flipping of pages, the scratching of my pen against paper, lasting all day long.

            The next day would be the time to prove my hard work. My mind was spinning. What if I hadn’t revised something? What if I had lost a note? What if I hadn’t started early enough? What if… I couldn’t bear to think. All I could do was to sleep. I gazed upon the midnight moon.

            5 am. Time to wake up. I sleepwalked to the refrigerator, took out a bottle of iced coffee and had a sip. I was squeamish at the bitter taste of the black mixture. Now that I was awake, I had to continue my struggle. “Chinese history,” I moaned, “why today? Why did anyone make this subject up? Come on…” Under the faint light from a small desk lamp, I studied.

            7:30. I crawled from the study to my bedroom. I slipped myself into my shirt, fastened my belt and finished everything unwillingly. Mom’s voice boomed across the hallway, “Breakfast!” It was like a knife cutting through the darkness and I finally came to. I rushed into the living room and sat down. ‘Eat, eat, eat…” my mind read. But my hands wouldn’t budge. I was too nervous to eat. I did nothing but stared at the plate of ham and eggs. Mom shook her head, “Exams nowadays. They take too much toll. Come on, son, just take a bite.” I nodded and ate.

            I opened the classroom door. Everyone was silent, nothing but the flipping of paper. I sighed, “Why did exams even exist?” Everyone seemed to be against them, but they somehow managed to survive under all that pressure. Nevertheless, it was not the time to talk about the issue. It was the time to prepare ourselves for the firing squad.

            The teacher’s footsteps entered the room. No one gave the teacher even a glance. The dreadful exam regulations started ringing into our ears, “Please put all your notes, pieces of paper, diaries…” Soon, we were all set and ready to face the trigger. The papers upside down, like a monster at bay, ready to attack at any second. The second-hand on the clock stopped, as if time had stopped itself. I looked around. On my left, Alan was so scared that he wetted his pants. I turned to my right, Bun was trembling with fright. Drops of sweat rained down his curly hair, splashing onto his sweater. The bell rang.

Kestrel's Cliché Theatre: The Final Showdown

General Evil D. Arkness' strongest bodyguard burst through the door, unconscious. He frowned, leaving his throne of bones (and questionable structural integrity) to investigate. A figure walked past the unconscious guard, passing the empty doorframe an into the grand hall of the General's throne room.

The hero unsheathed his sword and pointed it at General Arkness, "General Evil D. Arkness, you killed my father, and my family, and my village, and countless others..." His voice trailed off as he struggled to name the cities the General has destroyed. The hero's voice regained it's firmness as he continued, "anyway, your evil reign ends now! I won't let you hurt anyone anymore!" 

General Arkness frowned, "What are you going do, kid? I'm not in the mood so go home and play with your wooden sword." He turned, preparing to return to his throne.

Suddenly, the hero dashed, jumping upwards and swinging his sword whilst letting out a semi-impressive war cry. The General turned, intercepting the strike with his trusty battle axe and released a surge of darkness, forcing the hero back.

"It's useless, Generic Hero! I am too powerful! You will never defeat me!" The General snarled, letting out a manic laugh. 

The hero stood up, facing the General. He prepared his sword once more and charged, his weapon glowing with energy. The General blocked his dash and parried the sword with his axe, launching a counterattack. The hero dodged at the last second, the General's attack missing his neck by an inch. The hero stepped back a little more, shooting a bolt of lightning from his palm, trying to distract his opponent. The General stepped forward, swatting the bolt of lighting away as dark energy swirled around his axe. The hero prepared himself, raising his weapon in a defensive stance when the General disappeared, appearing behind him.

"You're too weak!" He yelled, catching the hero in the shoulder with his axe. The hero screamed, falling to the ground. He dropped his sword as he did so, lying before the mighty General of Doom, leader to 77 apocalyptic armies of demons. He started to lose consciousness and the General stood before him.

"You're only human." The general said. That was the last thing the hero heard before he blacked out.

The hero woke up, finding himself in a  grassy field, the warm sun shining above him. "Am... Am I in heaven?" He muttered as he wandered aimlessly. Suddenly, he found himself face to face with a beautiful woman in a robe, radiating divine light.

"You are, but your mission is not over yet, you must defeat the general. That is your destiny. Here, take this. It will help in your last battle with him. Now, go before your soul is lost forever!" She handed the glowing silver sword to the hero, disappearing as suddenly as she had appeared.

He woke up, still lying on the ground of the throne room. He stood up, the wound on his shoulder already healed, leaving nothing but a scar. He found himself wielding the sword he took in his dreams. He faced the bored General once again, yelling with all his might as he ran towards the throne, his whole body enveloped in a blue light. The general looked up at the last possible moment, jumping away as his throne of questionable integrity shattered. He landed, taking out his axe.

"You're not dead?" He asked, surprised. "Usually it would've killed any person I've encountered... Whatever, I'll just kill you again." He sighed, charging again. 

The hero raised his sword and effortlessly blocked the incoming attack, swatting the general into a wall. The general stood up, his armor cracked and his covered face showing disbelief. He studied the hero, his eyebrow scrunched, and for the first time in too long, he felt fear.

"This... This is impossible!" He exclaimed. "Your... Your power level..." He gulped, "it's over ten thousand!!!!" He shook in disbelief and convinced himself it's impossible. 

The hero charged again, sword swirling with white light. The general blocked with all his strength but could do nothing as the sword slowly penetrated his shield of darkness.the moment the shield broke, the sword came at him with full momentum, breaking through his demonic armor and sliced through his flesh, a gasp escaping his mouth as he fell to his knees.  

"Im...impossible...!!" He yelped, falling to the ground.

The hero stood before his dying opponent, sword sheathed. "No evil can beat justice. I've won, General." The hero walked away, leaving the dying general to suffer.

那年。初遇

那年。初遇

我閉上了眼睛，但眼淚還是不自覺地從眼角流下來。

她只是一名普通的女同學但到此刻我才懂得愛她。

我和她是在大學一年級註冊那天認識的，那時她排在我後面。由於人多，太擁擠，我不小心踩了她的腳，我急忙回過頭和她道歉，我怔了一怔，她有烏黑的長發，絮成一條馬尾,她笑了一笑說，沒關係。嘴邊的兩個小酒窩，更添她傾國傾城的美色，從那天我便對她一見鍾情。

她是我們班中的女神，談過幾次戀愛，我從不敢表達我對她的愛慕，每次她的戀愛結束，我也暗暗的慶幸，希望她會眷顧我。

四年如一日，眨眼就過，始終我都沒有和她表白，而她在大學畢業後，結了婚，而我則去進修，在英國唸書，在沒有跟她聯絡。

她邀請我到她的婚禮，那年今日，我佯裝著笑，上台致辭，祝福她幸福快樂，這時這刻我心裡流血。

她習慣了我對她的細心照顧，體貼和無時無刻的陪伴，但她的丈夫，卻不能那樣的關心她，那樣疼惜她，但她是個企業家，根本沒有心思去經營她的婚姻。

三十年後，她離開了我，是一種離別，永別。

現在，我打開信箱，看到一封信，我怔了一怔，這封信並沒有署名，只有收件人。

俊浩：

想必你看到這封信的時候，我已經死了，天堂的生活很好，你呢？

從你大一註冊那天您踩了我的第一腳，我便是喜歡上你，看到你那健碩的身材，總能給我一種安全感，溫暖感。

你總是那麼沉默。到了最後一天了，我還在等……

我等了四年大學畢業典禮那天你紅著臉跟我說你拿了獎學金要去英國深造。我表達了我對你的祝福，而向你表白的勇氣卻逃在心裡，這時我才知道我失敗了……

我等了整整兩年，哪怕是一句話，一個長途電話，一次的會面都能令我心滿意足，但你放棄了一次又一次的機會，而我就經歷了一次又一次的挫敗。

牽掛你的日子很難捱，但於此同時另一位男生開始追求我，我是不能無了期的等。於是我發了一封信給你，請您來上台致詞，你為什麼沒有回心轉意?

你的回信，只有簡短的一句。你如果沒有時間見我難到連關心我，體貼我的心也淡了嗎？

輕輕的我走了，

正如我輕輕的來，

我輕輕的招手，

作別西天的雲彩。

但我不能放過，

悄悄是別離的笙簫，

夏蟲也為我沉默，

沉默是今晚的康橋！

VS Writer's Block

I flipped to a new page of my notebook, my pen in my other hand. I could feel it, I was low on inspiration. I needed more to effectively finish it off but it was tough. It extended its tendrils of shadows, grabbing my pen. I felt the familiar but unwelcome surge, draining me of my inspiration.

I looked at my watch, realizing I now had less than 3 hours until the deadline. I looked back at the hulking monstrosity before me, a dark violet void I call "Writer's Block". I put on my headphones, gambling on the off chance that it could provide enough inspiration for me to start a fluid process of writing a composition of half decent quality.

Once again, I felt it. The inspiration surged through me, filling me with vigor. I stood up, facing the Writer's Block, notebook in one hand and pen in the other. I started writing, each sentence coming out smoother than the last one. I raised my head, the walls surrounding me and Writer's Block crumbling, the small area starting to brighten up as the small cracks illuminated the interior. It was shrinking, turning from a faceless void to a small blob of purple.

I was glowing with divine light. I could use it again. I looked at my pen, overflowing with a blue aura. The inspiration grew stronger inside me, and I felt a rush of energy. I pointed my own at the Writer's Block, the tip of the pen discharging a giant blue beam of light. It hit, connecting with the blob's surface. It Implode and scattered sweet blue inspiration everywhere. Strange, I never associated inspiration with blue. The area finally lost all it's darkness and the blob faded into nothing, the bright area cousin with inspiration and power for me to use.

Gathering all the inspiration it took from me, I finally sat back on my chair, preparing to finish my writing, ignoring the 10+ texts my friend sent me about my writings.

Don't go ahead and say "WTF" yet. I have this battle with myself every time I try to write but nothing comes up, albeit a lot less epic. Trust me, it happens. In fact, it just did. Don't blame me for the quality, blame Writer's Block. That wriggly, spontaneous black hole where inspiration go to die.