Weekly Prompt Story: Vacation

http://oneadayuntilthedayidie.com/?p=23438

All I Ever Wanted

By Christopher Munroe

I haven’t had a vacation in four years.

I mean, I’ve been unemployed, and that’s technically time off, but it hardly counts, does it?

For a vacation, you need to be able to relax.

Similarly, I’ve taken a number of three day weekends, for weddings, comic expos and the like, but is three days really a vacation?

I would put it to you that it is not.

A vacation is a week, minimum, off. In which you vacate. This is the reason it’s called that, after all.

In that light:

Vegas.

Woo.

Now I just need to figure out when…

Copperfield Vs. Angel

When the MGM Grand booked David Copperfield to perform, they knew that Criss Angel was doing Believe down the street at the Luxor. But they didn’t see how the two magicians playing within blocks of each other could possibly be a problem.

They even comped Angel into opening night.

That night their battle raged across the Las Vegas Strip. For hours the two dark sorcerers, each attempting to outdo one another, fought for stage-magic supremacy. Angel hurled fistfuls of conjured, burning protoplasm, Copperfield effortlessly deflected them with nothing but the power of his mind. Copperfield summoned demons from unknown dimensions and Angel, with a wave of his hand, melted them away. Hotels burned, and tourists ran, screaming, from the raw display of pure, primal, magical force.

Finally, Copperfield misdirected Angels attention by animating the Statue of Liberty in front of New York New York, causing it to attack Angel, and simultaneously opened a portal into a shadowy netherworld just out of Angel’s view.

While Angel busied himself with defence against the angry statue’s attacks, tentacles from within the portal snaked out and encircled him. Before the Mindfreak could so much as open his mouth to spellcast, he was pulled back into the portal, the former superstar and enchanter now nothing more than a snack for some ancient, eldritch abomination. Copperfield stood alone atop the MGM Grand Lion, knowing he had finally won the day.

Looking around at the wreckage that mere days before had been the most expensive blocks of real estate in the world, he couldn’t help wondering if the battle had been worth it.

But there was nothing he could do.

There could, after all, be only one.

Know When to Fold 'Em (with apologies to Kenny Rogers

“Of course I know to quit while I’m ahead,” he barked at me, “but I’m not ahead, so it doesn’t apply! Now leave me alone!”

Staring at him, I considered arguing the point. But I was tired, I had a show to get to, and most of all I was on vacation. I didn’t want to deal with this. So I left.

He was still at that slot machine when I got back from Cirque de Soleil.

And came down for breakfast the next morning.

And left to catch my flight three days later.

I wonder if he’s there still…

The Quest Not Taken

He came, beaten and bloodied, crawling out of the woods by my house, dressed in dented, old fashioned armour, an old sword which seemed oddly familiar draped across his back.

“Praise God!” He cried upon seeing me, “Finally, ’tis journey’s end! I‘ve quested god knows how many years, to give you…”

He coughed then, then coughed, then coughed up blood, and then he fell to his knees, then to the ground, where he lay silent.

I called an ambulance, but by the time it arrived he was gone.

Sometimes I wonder who he was.

I hope his message wasn’t important…









....on an unrelated note, no updates for a few days, since i'll be in Vegas. Hopefully i'll get up something new Saturday.