The Traveller (working title) - ORIGINAL FICTION - beginning of story

This writing is my original work, do not copy or use it

The muscles in my neck are so sore. How did I get talked into doing so much free labour? Oh, that's right, it's for the so called "greater good". I wake up every morning at 5am, before any hint of the sun appears, and I lift blocks of metal that are to be forged together to create an unpenetrable fence around our town. This routine has been going on for a few weeks now, yesterday being the final day of construction. Once we finished forging the last block to the rest of the wall there was a unanimous sigh of relief from the workers and a cheer of joy from the rest of the townspeople. Now noone could ever get in.

You see, this fence became very important to us. It needed to be built. Prior to the commencement of this project of wall building, we all lived fairly comfortably as a town without borders. We often housed travellers that were passing through in our own houses, treating them like family. But all that has come to an end, for fear of the same incident happening again. We are a very hospitable type of people and other people from out of town seem to overlook our sutble differences, due to our pleasant nature and overall kindness. That is, until the incident.

I remember it was the eve of the bright moon, what we call the night of the full moon. The people here believe that it is the ending of a cycle and that it cleanses everything it's light shines upon. Anyway, we were graced with the precense of a traveller that night. He was in his late 20's or so and carried with him a brown bag made of hemp fiber. I offered for him to stay at my house, to spend the night and join us for breakfast, a custom we all pride ourselves in practicing with strangers. But, he did not accept the offer. He did not accept any of the offers he was given. Instead, while he slowly walked through our town, he never once spoke. He would stop and stare at anyone who speak to him. He looked at me with a penetrating gaze, like he was searching for my hidden secret. No emotion in his eyes, or a tinge of human behaviour was shown. He looked like us but didn't act like us. He hung around our town, slowly walking everywhere he could. When night fall came we all slept, except the traveller. As he hung around a second day, still with no verbal conact of any kind, he stopped walking and instead stood in our town square - staring.

I had passed him several times that day, visiting my favorite shops with my family, returning them home, and visiting a friend. Each time experiencing the shock of the traveller standing in the same spot staring. I spent a few hours with my friend Manx, it was already quite past dark when I headed home. I had to walk through the town square to get to my home, usually a very short walk to my house, although the town is not very large to begin with. In the same spot, there he was; the traveller. The square was quiet, deserted, since no one else was out except him and I. Something did not feel right. I cautiously decided to approach the staring traveller, to see if he needed assistance.
"Good Evening". I said with a delicate smile. He acknowledged my presence and stared into my eyes.
"How are you doing tonight?" I asked.
No answer, just an in-depth stare. What is going on here? He continued to stare, as he looked into my eyes. I stood there and met his gaze, without a word.

That's when I saw it, the yellow flickering fireburst in his eyes, like a symmetrical circular fire made of pulsating yellow. He continued to stare. He slowly opened his mouth like he might say something. Although the towns square was always fairly well lit, the gap in his open mouth seemed dark, like an intense black. Focusing harder, I could see small pointed white teeth, a full set of jagged knives.

"He knows. He comes soon". He almost hissed.
"Who is HE? and what does he want?" I asked.
"Your powers' strong. He wants. He gets what he wants."
"And how does he plan to take them?" I said firmly.
"You know soon". He hissed as the corners of his mouth turned upward into a human looking smirk.

Still staring back at him, his eyes became brighter with the flickering yellow flame. I watch it as it flickered from yellow, to orange, to red, to crimson, to black. I never realized it before but his entire eye was black, no white anywhere, no color left anymore either, other than black. I couldn't stand to look in his eyes any further so I looked downwards. I realized he was shoeless, sporting elongated thin feet with pointed toenailes and bony toes.

I look back up to his face, now a totally different sight. Where there once were eyes, there were now empty holes. Where there once was a mouth with sharp jagged teeth, there was just lips and a gaping open space filled with darkness. His hands reached out towards me. In an instance I felt a shiver through my body and I stepped back.

An unexplainable hiss of fury came from the creature, as I now knew a real person this was not. Then it crouched and ran. Faster than I could see, it was gone, but in it's place...fear.