by Seth Nelson
The Journal of Prince
By
ScreamAid
The Journal of Prince
Copyright © 2015 by ScreamAid
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced without the author’s written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination.
The 6th of January, 2XXX
Hello. I just found a journal! It’s a nice one too. I hope these the people who live here don’t mind if I keep it. It’s a rather nice house, so I think they can get a new one. They already have so many after all. And this one doesn’t have any of the sketches or scribbling that the others one’s do, so it’s not like I’d be taking away anything personal, right?
I should probably leave. This house has lots of things that I could accidentally mess up. You should see what they’ve got in the basement! There are all sorts of fancy gizmos and beakers and burners! I got a little carried away when playing earlier and almost burned a hole in my suit! That was a close one.
I also saw this dictionary earlier, and was thinking about taking it too, but the people living here might still need it. I took a look through it and it had all sorts of highlights and underlines everywhere. I guess I’ll leave it, but you can bet I’ll be picking up one later. I want a dictionary to improve my vocabulary. I Just got this journal, and I think I should add something more to the way I write. I don’t want to look back at myself and think that I was such a bad writer!
The 7th of January, 2XXX
Well, I’m on the road again. The desert can be such a bore sometimes! I wish something interesting would happen every once in a while. There aren’t a lot of people out here. I wonder why. There are some nice things out and about most days.
Earlier I came across a small puddle along a mostly dried up riverbed. I saw some little minnows swimming around. They looked really cute, but don’t be a fool. I tried to borrow some water to clean my mask and gloves but the second I put my hands in the water they started to bite me! I didn’t really know what to do, so I started smashing my hands onto the ground to get them off. I got them off all right, but the puddle was gone after it slipped down the cracks I made. What a shame.
The only other thing interesting today would be the butterflies, but they’re scary. I don’t want to talk about them.
The 8th of January, 2XXX
I finally came to the end of the road today! I either had to turn left or right to continue. I chose right, because I figured right was the right way to go! Haha!
I like to make jokes. Here’s a good one: Why did the chicken cross the road? To get away from the butcher!
I don’t really get it, but that one always gets me.
I heard a gunshot earlier. Gunshots are loud and scary. I hid behind some rocks for a good 3 hours and a half! I thought it was the people after me, so I got scared. I found out after the people with guns drove by that they were just hunting. I swear the lizards are getting bigger every day!
I’ve just been walking ever since. I think I see another house or two in the distance! I think I’ll get there tomorrow. It’s almost night. I need to take it slow again. I think I’m not going to enjoy myself if I keep running past all the scenery.
The 9th of January, 2XXX
No one is home today. I searched everywhere and I couldn’t find a single dictionary either. At least not one I could fully read. It’s called a “Spanish to English Dictionary”, whatever that means. I guess I should bring it along with me. It still has lots of words and definitions. Maybe I can finally learn how to expand my vocabulary!
Most of the house was burnt down, but I guess I could spend a day searching the ruins for a cool trinket or something.
The 10th of January, 2XXX
I never found much that wasn’t burnt or melted. Oh well, off to search the other house. Hopefully people are home today!
They aren’t. I checked every room and only found a corpse. It’s a weird one though. It’s not rotting like the rest do. The blood was everywhere but one wall, so I just couldn’t resist finger-painting. I drew me defeating a butterfly and people being happy and liking me. I wish that would happen.
The 13th of January, 2XXX
Nothing interesting has happened over the past few days. It’s the same desert, same lizards off in the distance, and the same road. I always wondered where this road would lead. That’s why I began to walk in in the first place. I hope it takes me to a nice place. So far there haven’t been many houses, and all of those houses have been either burnt or trashed.
I walk a lot. I don’t have much else to do other than read my dictionary and write in my journal. I’ve learned lots of words, like apple, ax, and ant. I already knew what an ant was though. Those are the annoying things that always try to bite me! One time I was asleep and an ant almost got my whole wrist off before I woke up!
I also don’t like bugs. They have too many legs and always want to attack me. Animals too! None of them are friendly! They always try to get me with their fangs or claws. They can scratch me but it doesn’t hurt, so I don’t mind getting some cuts when I go to punch a stupid lizard. They don’t have very sturdy bodies. I can tell by the audible crack I hear when I hit them.
The 14th of January, 2XXX
I like the nighttime, especially when the moon is full and I can see where I’m going. I like the moon. It’s so peaceful and pretty. I hope I can go there one day. It looks like it’s too high for any butterfly to reach.
The only problem with the night is that the lizards like to come out, and also like to run across the road. They keep chasing bunnies and like to swallow them up in their mouths. I don’t know why they do that. It seems weird. Maybe it’s just a lizard thing.
I can see a fire off in the distance. It looks like a campfire. Maybe there will be people there!
The 15th of January, 2XXX
Today was my first time with humans, and it was terrible! By the time I finally got there it was morning. I didn’t honestly care because there are people here! They weren’t very friendly at first, pointing guns at me. I tried my best to hide but there wasn’t a rock big enough. They wanted to know who I was and who I was with.
I don’t know what a name is and I always walk alone, but they didn’t believe me! The man with a shotgun pinned me to the ground and told me that if I didn’t tell him what he wanted to know that he’d blow off my arm. I didn’t have any answer that they’d wanted, and if I struggled I might’ve broken a few of his bones on accident (He looked feeble. The lizards looked stronger than him!), so I let him shoot my shoulder.
It didn’t hurt. My arm was still half on by a few handfuls of tendons, so I was fine. When I got up and asked why he had to shoot me he got really scared. I guess he tried to shoot me again but all I heard from his gun was a bunch of clicking sounds, so I didn’t know what he was trying to do. Whatever it was, I don’t think it worked. At least that’s what his face seemed to say. He eventually ran away with his other friend.
Humans are just as mean as animals and insects.
The 20th of January, 2XXX
I came across a familiar word in my dictionary today. The word is “Name”. Apparently, a name is something that a person or thing is called. I don’t know what my name is. I guess I just don’t have one.
The 22nd of January, 2XXX
I’ve been wondering a lot about those people who shot my arm the other day a lot recently. Was it something I said? Did I not wash off all the blood after finger-painting? I can understand that looking scary.
I want to like people, I reall
y do, but what if all of them are like that? That’d be very scary. I mean, getting shot isn’t too bad, I’ve had worse happen, but why would they just want to hurt me? I just met them! I tried looking friendly!
Maybe I just should stop trying to find people. Those were the first two people I found who weren’t corpses. I guess I did get a little too excited. But still, what did I do to them?
The 23rd of January, 2XXX
I think see found a town in the distance. There are a few faint lights. A few campfires, maybe? Should I even bother? What if they pull out guns? There might be more of them this time. They might shoot me more than once! They might hit me with their guns!
I don’t think I should go, but maybe they’ll be different than the others. I think I just didn’t act nice enough. That has to be it!
It’s night right now, so I’ll wait until morning before going. That’ll give me time to see if I missed any splashes of blood on my mask and suit.
The 24th of January, 2XXX
It’s been a full night, and I think I got all of my blood off. My arm is better so all the bleeding has stopped. I think they’ll like me. I decided to pick them some flowers. People like flowers, right? I saw a pretty picture with flowers on it, so I guess people like them. Well, here goes nothing.
The 26th of January, 2XXX
Well that was weird. When I came in there, the people were crying around corpses. There was a building on fire, almost completely gone, but the rest were intact! It was the first time I’ve seen a house not completely burned down. It looked very nice!
A woman who was crying next to a corpse was the first one to look at me. She yelled her head off, pointing me and screaming something like “They’re back! They’re back!” I tried giving her the flowers, but she only cowered and cried more. I didn’t do anything to her, and I thought people liked flowers.
Then this guy came around the corner, and upon seeing me, shot me with his handgun! Right in the gut, too! It was unexpected, so I fell right on my butt.
He shot me again and again, and so I started asking why he’s shooting me. He started asking me why I won’t “shut up and die”. He eventually ran out of bullets, and tried to hit me with a bottle he had just picked up. It smashed against my hand, sending glass everywhere. Humans are crazy! And dangerous too!
The woman had stopped crying, and said that I seem off. She asked if I’ve seen others with my type of mask on, saying that they wear business suits instead of the “hazmat” one I was wearing. I don’t know what a hazmat is but I guess it’s what I’ve been wearing. I said no. I had never known anyone had any masks like mine. “Gas Masks”, as she called them. I thought maybe they’d be nice to me!
She told me that the men with masks like mine were the ones who had killed and burned to town, so I guess they’re not so cool people after all. She said that all they did was say, “Search the place”, and then decided to do this with the town. What kind of people would burn down such pretty houses and shoot people? They must be horrible people.
The man still seems pretty mad at me for some reason, but he stopped being violent, so I was happy about that. He asked for my name, and I hesitated before saying that I don’t have one, fearing he would attack me again.
Instead of attacking me, he just asked why I was here. I told him I was just taking a walk. He didn’t believe me when I said I didn’t have a destination. I told him I don’t know where I’m going, but that the road will take me somewhere, and that is why I follow it.
He asked asked how I was alive. I obviously had spilled blood, but I was still fine. I asked if all humans are like me, to which he replied with “no”. I don’t know why I’m strong, and I told him that. He seemed amazed and confused, saying something about how he’d seen a lot in his day or something like that.
I don’t know what he’s seen, but I feel pretty normal, so I guess humans are just weak.
It was becoming morning, and I really needed to continue with my walk, so I gave the woman the flowers (Which made her seem a bit happy. I guess people do like flowers!) and took my leave.
The 31st of January, 2XXX
I’ve been thinking a lot recently, and I think I need a name. I don’t know any names, so I guess my favorite word will be a good one. Now I got to find a favorite word. Hmm…
The 21st of February, 2XXX
After a lot of walking, I finally found it! My favorite word is… prince! I think it’s a rather snazzy name, don’t you think? I do. How could I not, though? It is my favorite word after all!
The 1st of March, 2XXX
The road I’ve been walking on has gotten pretty big compared to how it was a few days ago. Maybe there’s another town coming up!
The 3rd of March, 2XXX
I came across two crashed cars today. I searched through them to find some cool nick-knacks but I couldn’t find anything shiny. I did find some cool non-shiny thing though.
There was this full bottle of something called “Orange Juice”. Despite how it looked, it didn’t work well as a cleaner. Now I’m all sticky! I need to find something actually good at cleaning. Why do humans have these things?
The 4th of March, 2XXX
I see another town in the distance. It’s built under a town. I see some light, but no smoke. That’s rather odd. The only three things that make light are the sun, goop, and fire. It’s nighttime, and goop can’t make that much light, so I don’t know what could be making that light. I’ll go ask them tomorrow. I should spend the rest of the night gathering flowers, because I think that helped last time.
The 5th of March, 2XXX
This town is weird. I was immediately greeted by a man holding a book, not a gun! He was asking me about all the troubles I’ve had out in the harsh world, and that his friend can help me with them. I don’t have many problems. I think the only one I have is my sticky suit. I told him about that one.
Turns out I was just in luck! The guy said this place is the only place within a 20 quadrillion metric mile radius with a hot spring! He said that that was the reason why they were so clean. I like keeping myself clean. That’s why being sticky is a big problem for me.
He took me to a place to wash my clothes. It was a neat place, with a few women and men there washing their clothes as well. I didn’t know where the water was and the guy didn’t tell me, so I didn’t know what to do. A nice lady noticed that there wasn’t any water either and helped me find it. Turns out it was underground, and you had to pump it out with this weird metal contraption. What a weird place to hide your water.
I started to dip my forearms in the water when the woman said the most marvelous thing. She told me that if I’m going to wash my clothes I’m going to have to take them off. I never thought of that! I don’t know why I hesitated at when started taking them off.
I tried really hard but couldn’t take off my mask. I decided I could just splash my face, so I took off my suit. As I took it off the woman gasped, which scared me for a second, and a few others were looking at me. I looked at my body, which was scarred and burned and partially covered in scaly scabs. I was very unevenly colored and had weird muscles. I was much different from all the others.
It made me really nervous, so I quickly put back on my suit and left. I could deal with a sticky suit for a bit longer. I went back to the man asking me about my problems and asked if I could meet his friend. He was pretty excited about me asking.
He took me to his friend, but apparently that wasn’t the right friend. This friend asked me if I’d met God. He seemed upset when I said that I didn’t know anyone by that name. He showed me the book the first man was holding and asked me if I knew of it. Of course I did! The guy was holding it right as I walked in. How could I miss it? He didn’t seem happy with that answer either, and told me to leave.
I decided to stay in town for the night. It seems like a nice enough place. I’m thinking about going and washing my clothes my way later tonight, when it’s dark, but it’s never dark here! I found these poles of light
on the underside of the bridge. I asked a kid about it and he said that they run off of the load machine behind the reverend’s house. I wonder who the reverend is… Oh well, I should be cleaning up now.
The 6th of March, 2XXX
I decided I might stay a little while longer. This town is the most interesting place I’ve been to in a while. I found the noisy machine that makes light early this morning. It was behind the shack that belonged to the friend of the book-holder guy, who people of the town call reverend.
It was a loud machine, and a nice one too. That’s probably why they stored in in a basement with a padlock on the door. I opened the door and found the machine. It had all sorts of dials and switches and wires, which I had taken much pleasure in toying with until a few men, the reverend included. They all had guns except for the reverend, who had another one of his books.
I stopped doing things to the mechanism, and just looked at them and their guns. I really thought they were going to shoot me. They asked me to slowly walk away from the machine they called a generator, which I was obliged to do. They told me what I was doing, I told them I don’t know. They didn’t believe me until I told them I don’t know what the generator was or what it did, and that I wanted to figure that out, which was why I was messing with it.
