Short Story Milk Bar

  The Gunnleifsson Manuscript Translated by Paul Gunnleifsson Jr I had originally thought to just translate the journal, but I did not want anyone to think this was a work of fiction, so I decided to include some footnotes and thoughts as I translated. I suppose my first note should be how I came across the journal, but now knowing what the journal is, I may need to start with explaining who I am in relation to the journal. I am or will become the journal’s author. I know this is hard to understand but though the journal is four hundred years old, proof of the carbon dating has been included with this manuscript, I will in two years time write the journal. You can see how this would sound like fiction. Because for me 2 years will be 2050, for me. In October of 1944, the United States came to the Philippines to fight WW2 against the Japanese. In 1945 my mother would meet my father, a Seabee on the USS Alabama III. She would give birth to me in 1946. The only thing my father gave me...

  My mother owned a 400 year old book that hasn’t been written yet. I don’t mean not published, I mean not written. It is a journal with dates starting at 2050.  But I’m getting ahead of myself. If I could prove this story wasn’t fiction then I’d probably win a Pulitzer. It would definitely change how the world views a few historic if not all events in the past along with the ideals of parallel dimensions. However I feel I have to get this story out there, get it to readers, get it into minds, get it debated and attempt debunking. People already talk and have theories, but what if they discovered their theories were true? Where to begin? Do I start with my discovery of the manuscript? Do I begin with the USS Eldridge and my grandfather? Do I start with the history of the manuscript showing up four hundred years ago? I want to include everything in this story, including the narrative of Paul Gunnleifsson Jr. My mother’s brother who does not exist, who at the writing of the man...

  The seat of the Kostyan empire is Clayaire, named after the wife of the man who won Kostya's freedom from Adroitaca. Sadly his name has been lost to time. Clayaire is also home to Sanctuary, the main headquarters of the Holy Order. It has been passed down that the first angels who left heaven to become paladins touched earth where Sanctuary now stands. Weeks ago I'd have called this foolish fantasy of the peasants. – From the Journal of Severah ajal Binoch.   Clayaire had gates, guards and several walls, each built as the city expanded beyond the last. They were unmolested by the guards as they passed through the open gates and into the main street. Each wall's gate was staggered so that any attacking army did not have a straight path to the castle that dominated the center of the city. Not far from the castle was the tall spire/steeple of Sanctuary. "What are we doing here?" Severah asked Xandria. "Should we not be going to rescue Zazael?" Xandria whi...

  The Great City of Xandria was the vanisakara stronghold. It took the largest army Saint Thomas had ever commissioned to destroy it. For Feyd, the god of Man, it was the greatest victory he'd ever known upon the plague known as vampires. It was not always a city of vampires, but once a city of demons . – From a History of the Great City of Xandria written by Iardwei de Moor. Xandria stood on the cliff that overlooked her oasis and sucked in her breath sharply. The oasis was more than quadrupled in size when she'd lived there forty years ago. A massive fountain stood where the poisoned well had been. The fountain was a winged woman holding a scepter rather than a sword. Across from the fountain was a building that could easily have worn the title 'palace.' The palace was under construction and slaves were on scaffolding being whipped to work harder. The palace was perhaps the most complete and normal looking building in the oasis even though more than a third of it was ...

  DAMNED WE ARE DAMNED WE ARE DAMNED WE ARE DAMNED WE ARE DAMNED WE ARE DAMNED WE ARE DAMNED WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE – From the journal of Severah ajal Binoch There was no jail cell for Xandria to sit in, so she was chained to a tree instead. In her being led down the hillside she'd seen that Gedstru's guards had taken over the entire camp. Soldiers were drilling in the meadows, the grass now trampled to mud. More tents had been erected. A guard was placed on Xandria and Severah was not allowed to see her. "I will speak on your behalf at Clayaire," said Quarrion. "I'm a captain of the Holy Order, they'll listen to me." Xandria hadn't looked at him. "I wasn't given a trial the first time, Captain. Unless things have changed in forty years, I don't expect one this time either." "You were convicted of your crimes against the Holy Order before you were even caught. The imprisonment was supposed to have been mercy." "...