A Rather Creative Story

Amy Park had amassed all the ingredients for the spell to work; now all she needed was for the spell to work. She checked and double-checked her moon-metre, and tapped on the coiled glass network of tubes connecting her blood and perspiration samples to the time-pressurifyer. It was all functioning correctly, she assessed. It was time to trap the entity that had been following her around, causing havoc. 

She eyed the big red button labeled "Are You Sure?". She knew the foe would descend upon her the moment she pressed the button. It was drawn to self-confident behaviour. Amy closed her eyes and breathed deep, calming her mind and pushing the hunger in her belly to the side for a moment. One last battle and this thing could be beaten, she was sure.

As the moon-metre chimed midnight, she opened her eyes and jabbed her finger down hard. She had barely pressed the button down for a moment when white sparks erupted with a BANG, in a large circle around her workstation. The traps had activated! Her antagonist was here. Amy's makeshift reveal-o-matic whirred to life, and the thing was revealed in a puff of grey and white static. It was a monstrous gelatinous goop, black as a black hole and floating in the air above Amy. Round ruby eyes and a mouth full of sharp yellow teeth floated in the middle of its undulating mass of black tentacles, and it hissed an evil sound that would have turned H.P Lovecraft white as a sheet. Amy had heard it many times before. 

"How dare you fight back, you scuummmmm." it whispered. 

"Enough," Amy interrupted calmly. "Time for you to get out of my way, I've got important things to do."

"You're a ninny! You don't deserve what you want!" it screeched, its eyes widening in a menacing glare. "You suuucckkkk!"

"We'll see about that," she said, picking up a small raven's feather quill and an empty inkpot from the edge of the table. She strode over to the oily creature and jabbed it with the sharp end of the quill. It squealed pitifully, but she didn't care. This thing did not deserve her sympathy.

Amy stirred the quill-tip into its body and murmured the incantation she had deciphered recently, which had been written in the margins of an ancient scroll given to her by a lover from another life. She then whipped her hand back, and the blackness followed the quill's tip in an inky ribbon as she arced her arm up and over to the mouth of the empty bottle.

"I can't believe you've done this!" it wailed in despair as the bulk of the mass swirled violently into a black tornado, getting smaller and smaller until all of it was contained inside her bottle. She plugged it with a cork and gave it a little shake before stashing it in her pocket.

"Goodness!" came a good-natured voice from behind Amy. 

"Shopify! How good of you to meet me here in this old forest setting," she turned to welcome the newcomer, palms out. I know it isn't the most traditional place to meet, but I do appreciate it."

"Indeed," he said. "As long as there's an internet connection here, I don't see a problem." As he spoke, Amy's reveal-o-matic gave a little splutter, and Shopify flickered with blue static.

"Fascinating," she said, staring intently at the man. "A free-roaming hologram... I would love to figure out how this works."

"All in good time," he said, leaning back. "Tell me, is that entity safely contained?"

"Oh yes, yes. But he won't be sitting around in here waiting to escape," she chuckled. "I'll be using this experience to complete one of my most amazing inventions." Amy pressed a blue button on the reveal-o-matic. A large machine slowly faded into existence beside them on the grass, but the details of it were obscured by a large white sheet which had been draped over its lumps and bumps of various sizes. One bit in the middle seemed to be glowing.

"What on earth is that?"

"Well..." she hesitated, tugging gently on a corner of the sheet. But before it could slip off of the machine, she stopped. "it is my most prized development. My best work --" she was interrupted by an exceptionally loud growl. Shopify jumped, startled.

"That was the goop monster, wasn't it?" Shopify asked, staring at the pocket which contained the bottle with its black liquid contents sloshing inside.

"No," she said, blushing. "I'm just hungry." She pulled the sheet off the machine with a flourish. It was an odd shape, but generally resembled an oven. It was made entirely out of brass and copper pipes of varying sizes wound up tightly together. There was a small space between tubes in one section, where she slid in the little bottle. It popped into place with a tiny clink, and the light behind the glass oven door glowed even brighter. As the machine began vibrating and clinking, the black liquid goop was sucked up into the machine, and seconds later it all stopped with a loud POP.

Amy undid the latch on the front of the glass, and reached in to pull out a little plate. It was a cooked chicken, several little potatoes, and some chopped asparagus. Steam rose up in gentle curves.

"All of that just to make a little food?" Shopify said, raising an eyebrow.

"I told you, I'm hungry." Amy said unabashedly. "But there are all sorts of things I would love to make!" As she inhaled the sweet scent of the chicken, she got a dreamy look in her eye, imagining. "I wrote a book. Edited and formatted it, put it through a printer, figured out the software required to get it looking the way it should. It's a book of poems but don't hold that against me, it's something that I'm proud of. A project I accomplished without any motivation other than my own need never to stagnate. Black Goop monsters don't all look the same... I'm getting pretty good at turning them into fuel for my inventions."  

Shopify cleared his throat, bringing her back to the present moment. "I understand you wish to join my team?"

Amy could not prevent the look of hope from spreading across her features. 

"I could detail my practical experience, if you'd like. Just click here to follow me..."

She twisted a knob on the reveal-o-matic, and vanished.