Monday, August 30, 2010

Hard Candy

This is a drabble I was working on a little whiles back as a  possibility for the Darkella contest. I just unearthed it today, and am thinking of turning it into a novella – maybe.

He stirs.

The light seems to burn his closed eyelids. In the back of his mind, warning bells are going off, because did he really drink that much yesterday? The thoughts are foggy and half-formed, though, and he reaches up to rub his eyes open.

There is a tug at his side. His hand doesn’t move from where it is pressed against the mattress – uncovered, no sheets for his fingers to yank at in his sudden moment of panic. His limbs feel achy, restless, pins and needles rushing up and down his veins.

There is nothing to suggest paralysis, injury; anything that could explain his immobility, the fact that though he struggles – like a beetle attempting to turn itself back over and regain its bearings – nothing happens.

“Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty.”

The voice is low, husky, and feminine in a way that reminds him of tequila shots and dim bar lights. There is a movement at his side, the heady aroma of freesia and sweat before he feels lips pressed against his bare shoulder.

“You’ve been holding out on me for a long time. It isn’t nice to keep a lady waiting.”

She moves away.

His eyes fly open.

The room seems to swim around him. It is overwhelming, the fluorescent light making the walls, the furniture, and the pale face that sits before him smiling invitingly, all glisten like fresh snow. He closes them again, but in that moment he has seen enough to know that he is in his bedroom; and that the girl perched on the edge of his mattress is a stranger.

She laughs. There is something unnerving in the sound, chilling, and he wants to ask her why she is here, in his room, in his house on the fringe of civilization – isolated, forgotten, his oubliette outside of the world.

“That’s my fault. I put you on the good stuff. Helps with the unconsciousness, but it gives you a bit of a hangover the morning after.”

He finally manages to open his eyes. She isn’t what he was expecting when he heard that voice. She is small, paper-white and nearly as thin, wrapped in a blood red hoodie that seems to engulf her form. Snarled brown hair curls around her ears.

red riding hood

A dim recollection tugs at the back of his mind, but he cannot put his finger on it.

“W-who are you?”

His voice is hoarse with disuse. He vaguely remembers too much to drink, threatening to be thrown out. Small fingers wrapped around his forearm, a shot pressed into his hands, a pale body underneath his, head thrown back, screaming in ecstasy.

He feels sick.

She cocks her head to the side, smiles at him as though he’s a child that has said something rather cute.

“I’m your worst nightmare,” she says, as easily as though she is introducing herself at a cocktail party, voice sure and firm and serious.

It is then that he sees the blade between her fingers. She twists it, back and forth, and in the flood of light it glistens menacingly. He cannot take his eyes off it, off her, even as the realization throbs through his brain like the blood swelling uncomfortably in his fingers, as he yanks at his bindings and realizes that he is restrained against the bed, that he is completely naked and there is no one to scream for, no one to come and rescue him.

She can read it all in his eyes, and her eyes glow as a smirk curls up her lips. She knows the defeat that crashes over him, drowns him in fear and desperation – and shame, shame that he could not see this coming.

“Y – you’re making a mistake,” he stammers, his voice halting, tongue twisting. He remembers another girl who shared this bed, a single night’s mistake, legs bound and a high voice in his ear: You’re nothing like I expected.

You’re nothing like any of them expected.

He remembers stuffing the pillow in her mouth, watching her lips pressing again and again against the white fabric – a desperate kiss, like the ways her nails scrabbled against his skin, tearing and rending. He hated her voice, her touch, and he pressed the pillow down, watching as her mouth went limp and her eyes glazed over.

She has moved, taking advantage of his clouded faculties, the dawning panic spreading over his face. She straddles him, giggling, the blade grazing up his chest to rest against his bobbing throat. She is on top of his cock, and he hates that even in this situation he can get hard.

He hates the look she gives him, triumphant, eyebrow raised – pitying, condescending.

Utterly disgusted.

“Again? I’m flattered that you even have the stamina left. But,” and her voice drops and her eyes flicker, “then again, I’m pretty sure that you don’t remember what happened last night.”

He watches her, eyes darting wildly from the blade slowly cutting into his tanned flesh, to the half-lidded gaze, the heavy stare of a snake as it eyes its unsuspecting prey, gauging it before it opens its mouth and swallows it whole.

“Please,” he mouths. His tongue is dry, and he fears that if he speaks the words aloud, he will choke. “Please.”

Her eyes soften. She brushes her free hand through his hair, and his eyes close as he feels her hand, palming his hard-on – sickening and satisfying and seductive.

“Poor baby,” she coos against his cheek. “That must be painful – especially for you.”

He can feel the scaled tail winding around his legs. His mind is a clouded numbness. He can no longer feel his hands, or feet.

He wonders if the other girls felt the same way.

“Don’t worry,” she breathes against his mouth. Her lips brush against his, and his eyes roll back as her hand presses harder, just enough to make him forget. “I’ll be gentle.”

Friday, July 23, 2010

A.L.I.C.E. Prologue

The noise is clouded, but the girl is still aware of it, shrouding her in hushed voices and the constant stoic beep of machines. The silence bothers her more, in the end. She knows that when the silence falls, when she is alone, she will be able to sense the blankness that bothers her the most.

The lack of a heartbeat.

“They won’t be able to understand it,” the first voice promises. It is raspy, soft, the sound of disused wires and cords, something that was once appreciated but left behind and forgotten to rust. Something about the voice soothes her, like a familiar lullaby in a strange key.

“Scientists tend to become more attached to things that they don’t understand,” the other voice snaps back, rough and impatient. “What if they become more vigilant as we wait? We need to strike now, while they aren’t expecting it. Listen to the silence.”

They both hush. Still lying on her mattress, her hands wrapped her knees, she listens too. She knows what she will hear, and what these strange people that only she is able to hear will be aware of as well.

“Yes,” the first voice hisses. “Yes, that is a problem.”

The nurse that is adjusting the needles piercing her delicate skin pauses, tilts her head as though she hears something. She won’t hear anything, though. The girl is sure of that. Normal people, ordinary and wrapped up in their hazy worlds of work and home – and their machines, always clicking on keyboards and checking monitors, making sure they still had command over the creature called technology they could barely understand – were too focused to notice the smaller details around them.

“We take her now,” the second voice presses again. There is an edge to his voice, a pained sharpness to his tone, like he has been waiting for something for months, and now that it is in sight, he cannot bear to wait any longer.

She understands that.

She has been waiting for years.

But she will not have to wait any longer.

The nurse wraps the sheets around her, pats her chest awkwardly, but pulls her hand away quick. None of them are sure what to do with her. She is an abnormality, an arrhythmic heart beat on their monitor that they could not seem to smooth out.

Anomalies are not appreciated, not in this time.

That is how she ended up here in the first place.

“Do you need anything?” The nurse asks. She is pudgy, doughy red face and fingers that the girl sometimes imagines breaking off, one by one, wondering if they would feel like Play-Doh in her grasp, if she could roll them out and press them back onto on the woman’s hand.

She tried it once, with one of the girls in that place she couldn’t remember the name of. It was no different from these rooms she was locked in now, all whitewash and starched uniforms and rules that weren’t meant to be broken.

She didn’t mean to break any of them.

She didn’t mean to break the girl’s arm off, either. She promised to fix it, but they wouldn’t bring her glue. They brought her another needle though; another intruder to pierce through her defenses and leave her in a dim, glowing state.

The nurse’s face floats in and out of vision, like a camera focusing and blurring with the twist of a finger.

“Anything?” She repeats.

Another voice, from the past, seems to add onto the sentence.

Beer, drugs, sex? You don’t have to be afraid here, girl. Nothing is taboo. You can have anything you want here.

She doesn’t know that voice, so she ignores it. She ignores the nurse too, and after a moment the woman sighs, a deep breath that deflates her slightly. She is gone then too, and the girl is alone in the dark, glowing slightly, hibernating and waiting for the touch to wake her up.

It comes gradually, the hand stroking her face, the other touching her wrist.

She smiles.

They have stayed.

They will take her with her, the way that they promised.

“It won’t be long,” the second voice, so harsh and angry before, now soft and cooing, seems to spread over her like a warm blanket. “I’m sorry you had to stay here, my child. It won’t be long now.”

“It’s been damaged,” the first voice hisses. “What now? She is useless without activation.”

There is silence, and then the hand covers her eyes, whispers words that she understands and remembers.

And then the girl is dead.

“State your name and code,” the voice says gently.

The eyes open, liquid gold – utterly blank.

The heart monitor’s beep slowly picks up speed, faster and faster until it is a blurred hum around them. There is the vague cry of nurses and outraged doctors, feet racing down the hallway.

“ALICE,” the voice comes, dead, hollow – the voice of a robot. “Prototype A, Model 5.”

The first voice chuckles.

“She will do,” it says softly. “She will do.”

And then, it is black, and silent.

She doesn’t mind at all.

The living dead don’t mind the night.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Pic Prompt Monday: Looking for the Golden Life

Hollywood infected your brain

You wanted kissing in the rain, oh oh
I've been living in a movie scene
Puking American dreams, oh oh
I'm obsessed with the mess that's America
I'm obsessed with the mess that's America

{Hollywood - Marina and the Diamonds}

The problem with Forks is the lack of public relations.

But, whatever. I can totally handle that. Besides, the whole 'small-town kid hitting it big' cliche that Hollywood's got going on isn't too far off the mark. If Miley Cyrus can shake her ass into fame and fortune, what's keeping me?

It would help if Dad and Mom were willing to let me go to the talent show tryouts voluntarily. I really didn't understand their problem with music. Well, maybe I did. In my opinion, there's not much a Saint of Forks church member can do without pissing off God, the Archangel, and Jimmy Swaggart. Apparently rocking it to Billie Joe screaming "Holiday" was a big no-no with Reverend Webber, which meant that it was a sin worthy of Hell to Mom, which meant that Bella was going to have to miss out on the tryouts and find something more suitable for a lamb of God.

Like lanyards.

So maybe that pissed me off. And maybe I snuck out using that cloth ladder Emmett made in fifth grade to sneak out to the parties where they spike the punch and play Seven Minutes in Heaven in their elder sister's bedroom closet - but what was the harm in that?

Jesus died for our sins. Doesn't that mean that God could cut us a little slack when it came to the fun stuff?

Anyway, there I was, my guitar hanging off my shoulder, hair spiked and nails carefully painted a special onyx, waiting for my turn to wow America and live the dream I was created for.

There was  just one problem.

"Bella? Aren't you supposed to be at home?"

I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth, resisting the urge to scream. The plan was genius - waiting until Mom turned on Nightly Devotionals and Dad started his imitation "Life with Father" act, putting his feet up and reading the newspaper in his armchair. Neither of them would hear a bomb go off. Emmett was in his room jacking off to porn most likely than not, and I doubted he'd give a damn if his poor misguided sister indulged in her passion for an hour or so. 

But still, I had forgotten the crucial part of living in Forks: everyone knows everyone.

And the 'everyone' in this case was Jasper Whitlock.

Something you need to know about Jasper: until probably like two years ago, we were tight. Like seriously tight. Like 'Bridge to Terabithia, he'd cry over my dead body if I drowned in some stinky river' tight. I stopped planning out our wedding though after I realized one thing. 

Jasper is seriously attached to Forks. I can't understand why, seeing as his life is probably worse than mine. See, his grandmother is crazy. She lives in this houseboat out near First Beach on the La Pushe reservation, selling cigarettes and 'novelty' items to the Quileutes while she practices her religion, a weird mix of voodoo, Wicca and Hinduism. 

She thinks that Jasper's dad - who ran off with some traveling salesman back before gay rights were vogue, or something - died, and his soul lives in Embry Call's Golden Retriever.

Seriously.

With that sort of mixed-up shit going on, you'd think that Jasper'd be trampling me in his haste to get the hell out of America's sponge and into a spotlight at Beverly Hills.

But he doesn't. He actually, quote unquote, "likes taking care of Grammy, and besides, you're not sugar, Bella. You won't melt."

Things between us pretty much ended at that point.

At least, they did for me. Jasper still functions under the belief that we're taking some sort of break in our friendship. 

But that didn't matter. My problem was the fact that Jasper is seriously the world's worst tattletale. I mean, he'll tattle and not even realize he's doing it. Everyone pretty much figured that out in second grade; all a parent had to do was ask Jasper how their child was doing in school, and he'd totally spill his guts out - and theirs - without even blinking.



"Hi, Jasper," I forced out through gritted teeth. I didn't smile. That would just be encouraging him. "What are you doing here? You don't play an instrument."


Jasper smiled at me, his braces catching the stage lights as he pushed his glasses up his nose. I wouldn't call Jasper a looker - he's vintage Nerd, without the pocket protector and the weird accent - but he's not that bad looking either. I have it on good authority that Lauren Mallory fantasizes about yanking those wild blonde curls while Jasper...well, never mind. 

The kid's not my friend, but I certainly wouldn't wish the Slutmeister on anyone.

"Oh, I'm not here to try out," he replied. "James is performing with his band as a big finale gig sort of thing, and I just dropped by to wish him good luck and all that. But the real question is, what are you doing here? I thought I heard that your parents weren't letting you come."

Right to the point, that boy. I could appreciate such bluntness, from anyone else.

"Things change," I snapped, and then added as an afterthought, "And I hope this doesn't mean that you're going to be running to Grandma and blabbering about this."

Old Lady Whitlock might be crazy to most, but my mom, oddly enough, considered her as a 'touched spirit'. 

Go figure.

Jasper held up his hands in the sign of surrender, his eyes widening.

"No, of course I won't! Scout's honor!"
Psh. Didn't believe that one. I narrowed my eyes at him, before I decided that it wasn't worth it and turned my attention back to the line of performers streaming on and off the stage. The competition didn't seem too much for me to handle. I could cut over all of them, easy. This was my moment to shine. I wasn't going to let some two-bit Carrie Underwood wannabe steal my spotlight.

And definitely not Jasper.
 

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