GG Creative Writing winners are revealed

          The sun rises, casting a glare on the polished plate mail peeking out of the closet. One would be proud of the noble shimmer, yet all Purist felt was remorse. It had been almost a decade since time had shown any use for it, not after the terrible act his mind fails to escape night after night.

          The alarm clock chirped, signaling the start of a brand new day, much like any other. Slapping the snooze button, he rises from another sleepless night,and, after preparation, heads outside to greet the general populace. After the battles of time immemorial, Purist had sought a stable line of work in this day and age, the field of medical practice. He had no trouble understanding the importance of a title such as this, as long as he could hide his true power from those he loved the most.

          The hospital was a bright affair of white walls and sick smiles, walking in a constant and slow repetition. Purist moves beyond the shifting faces to his office, his sanctuary for the time being. Lonely folders adorn his desk, one of which contains the case of his sleepless nights, an inerasable sin he couldn't stop reviewing. It told of a young girl, surrounded by family members, attempting to breathe. The girl had a twisted look on her face, as she helplessly choked in the arms of her mother. Purist had been in the vicinity, and, being the ambitious youth he was, took the girl into his arms. His hand shined with a piercing light, and the entire area was enveloped in the glow. When the light faded, the girl glanced silently at Purist and smiled, until she realized that everyone around them had been lost to the miracle.

          While conducting his rounds, Purist heard a slight chirp from one of the patient's rooms.

          “Remember me?”

          A voice as familiar as it is delicate greeted him as he entered the room. To his surprise, it was the same girl from the incident, now blossomed into a young woman.

          “We really need to stop meeting like this”, the girl playfully noted.

          “Exactly, why are you here?”

          Purist and the girl locked each other in deep discussion, catching up and explaining everything that had happened that fateful day. To Purist, this was a failure in disguise, his miracle should have saved her , it should have prevented a meeting like this. Deep in thought, a single phrase snapped him out of his debating mind.

          “It's Terminal, Doctor...”

          Walking home, Purist couldn't even begin to understand the situation he's been placed in, even for a second time. The slow downfall of rain didn't help clear his head, so he succumbed to a cafe for relief. Two creams swirled in the black coffee, lulling Purist into a trance, if not for the bickering of the other customers. Looking around, he saw several lone people, with the exception of one table. A family, happily discussing dessert, occupied the seat. Purist couldn't help but focus on the child, a small girl, happily dancing around to each of her relatives. The sight couldn't have had worse timing, alas Purist gets a page, breaking him from his catatonia. At a glance, Purist thinks nothing of it, but he knows what has happened, and the choice that must be made.

          Entering the hospital, one room draws Purist's attention immediately, the young woman's room, and the world comes to a slow as he pushes his way through the crowd. Reaching the room was one struggle, but the sight he witnessed was entirely different. The girl, laid out atop her bedsheets with several Intravenous needles in her arms. Every resource had been used, and nothing, not even defibrillation, could make her eyes open once more.

          Well...almost nothing.

          This was the manifestation of his fears, the day that he had begged to never come, but it came, and he felt history repeating itself in a cruel fashion. What could he do? Was he to stand and watch this poor woman die again?

          No.

          “Everyone, leave the room, now!” Purist blared at the top of his lungs, forcing everyone to evacuate the area.

          “But, Doctor, She needs help!” One of the nurses proclaimed.

          “I know, just trust me, please!”

          With that, not a soul lingered, and darted to the nearest stairwell to seek refuge from whatever Purist might have in mind.

          All was silent , save for the deep breathing of Purist's heavy heart. He knew that this would be the beginning of the rest of his life, but at what cost? He had worked so hard to construct the lies needed to erase the strain of the past.

          “May you live on, child.”

          Purist placed his hand above the woman's heart, and it began to glow, faint at first, but painful to view, even to Purist. The light grew stronger, and stronger, until the entire floor of the hospital was engulfed in the same light he so fondly remembers, only to erupt in a blinding explosion. Silence returned shortly after, yet Purist did not, all that remained was a single candle with a shimmering amulet wrapped around its base.

          No one had heard from Purist after that day, some say he left town, others make nonsensical tales of seeing a plated knight patrolling the corridors, but one thing was for sure, the Omniknight understood his purpose in life that day, and shall fulfill this duty until he draws his final breath.

          I woke up feeling dull and with bleary eyes. It was Saturday and I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. Taking my time in getting up, I eventually made it to the bathroom. I don’t have a mirror in my bathroom, not that I care much about what I look like anyways. After washing up and squeezing into a fresh pair of clothes, it seemed best to tidy up anything that was out of place so I proceeded to get the chores done. Things like cleaning dishes from the day before and feeding my cats. My pants didn’t seem to fit quite right and looked like they were getting a little stretched out.

          Having gotten through the basics, my sights were set on chilling out most decently. I called up a few friends, no response. Typical, no one ever wants to wake up at noon on a Saturday. Still, I had myself and that was technically all I needed to be entertained. I decided to take my bike to the local arcade. Now, up until this point nothing particularly peculiar had happened other than the fact that I felt like everything was situated a little more “to the right” than it usually was. More distressing was the fact that I was sitting a little heavier in my seat. Seemingly overnight I had gained a few pounds, probably from all the eating at my computer that I had been doing.

          As a whole, the trip was uneventful. My skewed vision didn’t seem to affect my ability to move in a straight line too much as long as I compensated by leaning to the left to offset it properly. Being a weekend, most people were still in their homes or out with their families doing whatever they liked to do. As a result, I didn’t really see anyone while I was biking. Upon arrival, I locked my two-wheeled transport and went in.

          Empty, but the clerk was still in attendance. I suppose he gave me a funny look as I approached the snack-bar area, but how was I to know that I wasn’t imagining it. “Can I get some change?” I asked. To which he responded “What?” I repeated myself and only got the same answer again. ‘Odd’ I thought to myself and tried asking a third time. On this instance he elaborated his response to “What… is… THAT?!” With an outstretched finger not pointing directly at me, rather to the space of air next to me, he sat there quivering. At least, I thought he was pointing to thin air. It should have been nothing but air.

          A bluish, one-eyed head turned towards me with a cheerful smile and said “Uurgu-urgu-urgu!” Did I want to run away? Yeah, but I was also frozen solid at the same time. This was the strangest sight I had ever seen and somehow it had both snuck up on me and was standing directly next to me. I didn’t dare look away and as I started to drink in the scene, it dawned on me that this thing was actually REALLY close to me.

          I tried taking a step back and to my horror the Cyclops matched my backwards pace exactly and stayed directly in front of my face. The next few moments flew by so quickly that it was hard to immediately grasp what had taken place. The monster made a quick motion in the air with its right arm and a glazed look came over the clerk’s face. It had hit him! It then looked at me and shook its head. “Stunned” it clarified in what, to my amazement, sounded like English. Reaching over the counter to grab hold of as many Snickers bars as it could, the thing then started to leave. I felt myself being forcibly pulled along with it and assumed it had decided to take me with to its den where I would surely be eaten as if I were one of the many chocolate-and-caramel candybars it now held in its other hand.

          We left the building on foot and continued moving until we reached a large, forested park. Continuing into the deeper areas of the grassy hillocks, we chanced across a wide stream of water. The creature leaned over and I was forced to stare at the reflection. Scarcely believing what my eyes told me, all too many things were made clear at once. When I looked towards the blue, oversized man that had taken me here, he merely nodded his head in solemn agreement. What I had seen in the reflection was beyond comprehension, the creature was not in fact a separate entity from myself. One blue half-body flowed seamlessly into the other, in my earlier state I hadn’t even noticed the light blue tinge my own skin had taken during the night. Somehow I had gained an ogre-like figure and further, I had been given a partner to share it with.

          Gathering my wits, it was plain to see that we were not about to be detached any time soon. Barring extreme acts of surgery, we were effectively attached for life. The only way things were going to return to normal was the same way they had occurred. And as far as I knew, that was by magic. He seemed to sense this as well, by way of our extraordinary connection. I got the feeling he knew how everything had happened and that it was not a permanent state, that it was something that would undo itself given an amount of time on the order of a single day.

          I had quickly taken to the positive nature of my magically instated half. There wasn’t enough time left to do much of anything, but we still set off in search of something to use our curious powers on. To our luck, we chanced across a mob of chickens that must have escaped from one of the local farms. The owner had probably given up on them by now, seeing as we had found them so close to the city. My inseparable companion looked at me with a single-eyed, knowing wink and waved his arm in their direction. In a puff of smoke and flames, they disappeared. The only remnant of the feathery flock was a single, cooked drumstick. Taking turns chewing on the delicious fowl and looking towards the sky, it seemed like we barely had any time left in the day and the sun was starting to dip into the horizon.

          As if on cue with my observation, he waved his arm once more and we felt ourselves gaining a natural increase in mobility. When we ran back towards where we had first truly met, we ran faster. We then climbed to the top of the tallest hill and sat there to watch the sunset. Sharing our last moments together, we awaited the end of our time together with our misbegotten chocolate in hand. Darkness fell and as I looked once more to my side, the friendly greeting that had awaited me there during the day was no longer present. A half-eaten Snickers on the ground, I looked at my hands and they were no longer blue. The magic had un-worked itself as promised and left me sitting in an oversized pair of pants, marveling on what I had experienced that day.