Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-26840706-20170821085318



Hi there, this is a sequel to my original story Eclipse of War. I would like to know whether this is ok to post on the wiki







To whomever is reading this, I ask that you don’t follow in my footsteps because I know that what happened to me will happen to you too. My name is Brian Winfield, I am an ex-soldier who fought in Iraq, I’m not going into details with what I saw on the battlefield because that’s not what led me here, what happened wasn’t my fault, it was the fault of that thing. The only thing that you need to know about what I saw in Iraq is that for no obvious reason my commanding officer turned his own gun on our squad and I am the only one left, reports say he was shooting at a creature from his dreams; that couldn’t have been the case, could it?

As the only one of the squad left, I felt that I owed it to them to discover what really happened that day; if the commander was telling the truth, then what kind of creature could have driven him that insane? I went on various forums, asking if any other ex-soldiers knew about a strange creature manipulating them or their fellow soldiers to commit acts of treason, the responses were few and far between. Most would either be trolls telling me I was mental and other crap but some were genuine, people who experienced similar events. It was here I started noticing a pattern, it would only happen to one soldier in a conflict, and all in question were squad leaders.

Now if that wasn’t strange enough, someone who referred to themselves as “The Librarian” told me to meet him at a café a few miles away, he claimed to keep records of the phenomenon that I had experienced. I didn’t know whether he was serious or not but I was willing to trust him if it got me a step closer to finding my answers, I started my car and plotted the location into the SatNav. When I was about 10 minutes away I parked up and checked the forum for any updates, there was another message from “The Librarian”, he was telling me that his name was James and that the entity that the commander had encountered had existed for hundreds of years, its name is Eclipse.

As I walked over to the café, a rather young brown-haired man waved me over, “Brian, is that you?” he asked, “How did you know it was me?” I responded; he seemed to completely ignore my question and started telling me of an old friend of his was the one who introduced him to the existence of Eclipse, a World War 1 veteran by the name of Alexander Thomson. Now James himself never was a soldier, but he claimed to know a great deal about Eclipse from what Alex had told him many years prior and claimed that Alex had told him how to contact and communicate with Eclipse.

“Not far from here, there is an old abandoned theme park; Eclipse can sometimes appear in the hall of mirrors. However, I wouldn’t recommend going there until you truly understand what you’re dealing with, because if you survived it means you’ll harbor some desire for vengeance”.

“Before you even think of confronting it, spend the next few days with me and I’m sure I can explain why it isn’t the monster you think it is; its intentions are far less sinister than you assume, if you’re to follow me, you may find that you both have a second chance”.

“You were never meant to survive the encounter, you should count yourself lucky that you did”.

He could read me like a book, he knew exactly what I wanted with that monster. I told myself I was looking for answers; but could you honestly blame me for wanting revenge. I agreed to learn from James, to get a better understanding of what I was going to find, if I’d have known what was going to go down I’d have left the café and tried to carry on without him. He showed me reports of this creature dating all the way back to the Battle of Hastings, this thing had been appearing to people and manipulating them to murder their own friends since the knights of old. There is no way that anyone could justify what this monster was doing, yet James insisted that it was for a good reason, something about showing people what war really does to a man.

At this point, I was done; I couldn’t sit idly by while innocent soldiers would continue to be tortured by this entity, I had to do something. I thanked James for his time and tried to leave as inconspicuous as possible, James honestly tried to convince that a being that put his friend through hell was in the right; now I knew that I owed it to so many soldiers before me, to find this thing and kill it before it hurts anyone else. This wasn’t about revenge anymore; this was my second chance.

As I was walking back to my car, I turned to see a faint glint in the window of the library, a telescope perhaps? Or a sniper rifle? I carried on back to my car and proceeded to drive home; in my rear view mirror, I could no longer see the glint. When I arrived home, I researched the story of Alex, reports said he was murdered after attempting to publish his story; autopsy revealed he had been shot by a 7.62x51mm NATO round fired from a sniper rifle, if you didn’t think I distrusted James before you sure as hell know I did now.

James was trying to keep the public from knowing the truth about Eclipse, but why? Why would he reach out to those who survived an encounter with that monster yet murder them if they tried to speak out? Then again, how would I know that James is who he says he is?

<p class="MsoNormal">Now I knew I couldn’t face Eclipse without getting to James first, he would never help me willingly but maybe I could reason with him, as a precaution however I took my Glock 18 with me and headed for that library at the stroke of midnight. Assuming he knew I was coming, I had planned to stick to the shadows to avoid being spotted by him and his rifle, the thought raced in my mind that I was simply being paranoid and that James had merely left a telescope facing the street, he seemed utterly heartbroken when he told me of the day Alex died at the café, maybe this was all in my head. A bullet hitting the wall beside me confirmed otherwise.

<p class="MsoNormal">James knew how to use that thing, but he was no soldier; this was painfully obvious as I could sneak by him with relative ease and get in through the front door. The pumping of a shotgun and various profanities were heard upstairs as I cautiously ascended the stairs. Instead of potentially walking directly into a shotgun barrel, I tried to convince him to we could talk like civilized people and that there was no need for this pointless violence; of course, he was having none of it and tried to run up and shoot me, again he was no soldier and he most certainly wasn’t bulletproof.

<p class="MsoNormal">As I approached him while he was bleeding out he told me that for our world to be the way it is, Eclipse must be left to continue his work; that’s why Alex needed to die, the world wasn’t ready to know who Eclipse really was. I looked through James’ notes and it revealed a recurring name, James McCollins. I read more about this McCollins person and found that was the name of the private and Alex had befriended and allegedly shot unintentionally; that wasn’t how it ended however.

<p class="MsoNormal">Reports claimed that a James McCollins wasn’t assigned to his squad and that other soldiers had reported their commander talking to himself alarmingly frequently, come to think of it I believe my commanding officer claimed to be talking to a Pvt McCollins when there was nobody else around.

<p class="MsoNormal">Now I knew, digging into these reports, many others had claimed to see a James McCollins since Waterloo, the same person’s name varied depending on location and time; however, James McCollins was the most prolific. All this time Eclipse had a human name, and nobody even realized.

<p class="MsoNormal">I headed over to that theme park James told me about where of course, I found a dirty, rundown house of mirrors; Glock at the ready, I went inside. From this point on, I’m going to transcribe my conversation with it

<p class="MsoNormal">“Brian, you found me”.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Why are you tormenting people?”.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Because, sometimes to do some good, you’ve got to do something very bad”.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What do you mean?”.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Do you think people are good inside? No, they’re not; they just hide from the evil that lives inside of them, I show them the darkness within their soul and they decide the best course action. Nobody is born good Brian, but maybe we can teach them to be”.

<p class="MsoNormal">“You honestly think that you’re in the right”.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Well Brian, please tell how humanity has always been in the right; you know what you’ve done, I know what you’ve done. You can make amends right now”.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Image in the mirror then showed a candlelit room with a table and two chairs, sitting in one of the chairs was a black haired young man with blue eyes and wearing a WW1 era trench coat, this man was James McCollins. I stepped through this gateway that was opened in the mirror and went to sit in the chair opposite him. “You killed Kincaid didn’t you; shame, I liked him” He said to me “Brian you came this far for revenge, but if you quit now and forget you saw me; all of this will end quietly. You said it yourself, there is no need for this pointless violence”.

<p class="MsoNormal">I contemplated the offer, I really did want to put this behind me; but I was in too deep now and had to finish what I started. I reached for my gun but found it was no longer there, McCollins had grabbed it before me. “Looking for this” he taunted, surprisingly he placed the gun on the table and gave me a choice unload the gun and leave with closure or kill him then and there but never leave again. I made it seem like I had a choice but by the time I was considering my options I was already taking and the magazine. I told you before, none of this is my fault.

<p class="MsoNormal">My research tells me that he isn’t unkillable, if you find him in human form; he can be killed like any other man however, if you see him in his supposed other form a grotesque beast with spikes of bone piercing through his flesh and skin, you’ll find he can take a lot more punishment. That’s not his only weakness, you can see him as long as you know he exists; however, he doesn’t want you to know he exist so be aware. He can’t afford let anyone reveal his existance

<p class="MsoNormal">Eclipse is still out there because I failed to end him, I need you all to know that this isn’t over for the rest of you, but for me; well, let’s just say the faint whisper of my name outside my office room door tells me that my story is over.

<p class="MsoNormal">I had a second chance and I failed, now I’m passing it on to all of you. Best of luck

<p class="MsoNormal">Sincerely

<p class="MsoNormal">Brian Winfield. <ac_metadata title="Eclipse: A Second Chance"> </ac_metadata>