The Monsters of Plyskiv

A young boy was sitting at his desk with a rather old, flickering lamp shedding some light on some very complicated maths homework. The boy, with short, messy blonde hair huffed and laid his head down on his desk, his brain straining from the stressfully difficult sums. He'd always hated maths, it reminded him of his father, who would help him with it, and his father had gone away for a very long time, he mother had told him.

A medium-level accented voice comes from downstairs.

"Alexandrov, dear, you can go and play now!"

"Woohoo!" The boy kicks his flimy wooden chair across the room, nearly smashing it, and jumps down the stairs and attempts to run out the door, only to be met by his mother.

"Now, where do you think YOU'RE going without a hug, mister? Hmm?"

"But muum..-" Alex was cut off by his mother, who picked him up and squeezed him against her.

"Ooooh, I love you so much. Now, go off and play, you little rascal." And with that, the boy's mother gives him a pushing start, leading to him sprinting out the door, and along the damp, odd-smelling slums.

It wasn't the nicest place to live, but as far as Alexandrov was concerned, it was the only place in the world, or atleast the only place worth caring about. The boy looked around, looked around to see the old, rotting buildings, the dirty torn clothes hung from washing lines twenty feet in the air, the people selling suspiciously old looking fruits and vegetables, the people struggling to make a living. But despite this, everyone seemed to be happy. In the small town, people all knew and liked eachother, it was like one big family.

Finally, worn out and sweaty, Alex reached the overgrown, wet, park; where all his friends were waiting patiently.

A boy with spiky black hair and a thick accent spoke up.

"Well, you took your bloody time didn't you?" The boy said, looking slightly annoyed. "Sorry," Alex said, "Maths, y'know?" "Ah, you got your excuses, haven't you Alexie? Right, well, we know what we're doing today, don't we boys?"

A boy who looked smaller than everyone else, with very greasy and messy hair, pushed a couple of the others out of the way and snapped at the boy.

"Oi, Adrian, you stupid Ruskie, who gives you the right to boss us around?"

Adrian was about to speak when Alex butted in.

"Screw you, Denis, you're half Russian. Stop being an asshole. We do what Adrian says because he's a good leader with good plans, not because he threatens us."

Denis seemed like he was going to talk, but was met with so many glares he stopped. Adrian gave Alex a small thumbs up, and continued.

"Right, so, we know what we're doing. Igor's bakery will be unattended while there's a meeting at the town hall. We've just got to nick some sweet treats."

"Oh baby, my mouth is watering already." "I call shotgun on the bakewells!" "Screw you Gavrill you always call shotgun!"

"Alright." Adrian shouted. "Let's go", and with that, the group began jumping over fences, and running along the slums of the village.

Eventually, they made it to a degraded, mouldy, pink bakery, with no-one inside.

"Okay, give me a leg up.", Alex commanded, and he was boosted through the window. "Oof. That hurt."

Alex sneaked through the shop, and walked into a freezing room.

"Shit, it's freezing in he-" "Alex, are you alright?" One of the boys said. "OH YEAH, BINGO!" Said an ecstatic Alex. The boy then came out, carrying 3 huge ripped up boxes, visibly full of cakes, tarts, buns and other sweet treats.

"Oh baby!" "Hhh-oly mother of god..." "This was so worth it..."

After a considerable amount of time sitting in a shady hole under a tree stuffing their face with treats, one of the boys speaks in an inquisitive tone.

"All the parents were going to the town hall today. Why are they all going there? I heard it was a meeting, but about what?" "Who cares, shut up and ea-.", snapped Denis, but "SHUT UP DENIS."... he was promptly cut off by all the others boys. "Yeah, that is pretty weird, all of the parents, flocking to one location." Said one of the boys. "Shit,", cursed Alex. "I need to get home. I'll see you tomorrow bros. "See ya" "Bye, Alex" "Later bro."

Alex ran down the streets and reached his house. He was about to open the door, and then heard people talking. "We does no care. It iz itz ourz now." Said a heavily accented man, but he didn't know what accent it was. Alex opened the door, to see his crying mother, and then the thing next to her. It was horrible. The man, no, monster, it was completely grey, there were demonic symbols all over it, and there were strange metal things he'd never seen before hanging from its sides. Then it snapped at him. "Junge, raus hier, bevor ich dich getroffen!". In strange tongues, it sounded completely demonic. Then it spoke again. "Junge, das ist die letzte Warnung...", Alex just stood there, motionless. Then, the monster hit Alex, he went flying. Alex started crying and went to his room, he didn't care about the monster or his mother, he was just in pain. After what seemed like hours, his mother walked up.

"Alex, listen honey, we're going to go somewhere, okay? We'll be leaving home." "MUM NO WHY WOUL-"

"I'm sorry baby, but we have to." His mother said, teary eyed.

Sure enough, in the middle of the night, Alex and his mother walked along the road for hours, until they reached a strange building, where there were more of the demons waiting, along with a weird long tube with wheels, and metal lines on the floor.

Alex pushed his mother away and tried to run, only to be caught by one of the demons, sharply hit and thrown into the strange metal tube. And then he looked. There were people who looked like monsters, but a different kind. There were saggy lines all over them, they were covered in blood, and were shivering. And there were weird things sticking out of their skin slightly. They were everywhere, mums, dads, kids, all of them. Alex sat in the corner crying for hours and hours. It smelled terrible. Then finally, they stopped. The demons outside pointed their strange metals things at everyone and everything.

Looking around, Alex saw fences with strange vicious-looking curls, demons everywhere, and the monsters he saw on the train in larger numbers than even the demons.

They were shoved into the room, and through a series of gestures, made to undress. Then they were forced into another room. It was so dark. After a few minutes, everyone started screaming, Alex didn't know why, he couldn't see his mother, he didn't know what was happening.

Then Alex opened his eyes. He was lying down. His mum and dad were there, there was white everywhere. Alex was so happy.

The old man pours the last shovel of dirt into the hole, wipes the sweat of his brow, and walks between the grim objects. His eyes wander to some dirt-covered text. He wipes off the dirt. Some of it was rubbed off, but he managed to see this.

Alexandrov E--

Born --

Killed in the Holocaust.

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My first Pasta. If you didn't understand the concept or have any questions, go ahead and ask.

Eco.