Post by Witcher Wolf on Feb 16, 2005 9:24:14 GMT -5
Ok I decided to set a different kind of story for Whisper City, this marks a rare departure for me as this particular tale is a complete one, it's not a serial - it can be read and enjoyed as a whole segment.
Consider it as just a tiny part of the big picture that's my dark future.
It was written with the aid of Avril Lavigne's song: I'm with you.
If anyone has this song, see if you can spot the references in the story and yes, the song itself inspired me to write it.
Well that's the blurb over and done with, the usual copyrights apply and kleenex are available at the back of the theatre.
It's a damn cold night!
The night was no longer silent and the bridge that spanned the Freeman River became lost in the haze of a driving rainstorm. There were barely enough lights to illuminate the grey rolling fog that drifted in from a poisoned sea. Like a gathering of crows a plethora of emergency vehicles stretched out in a macabre daisy-chain across one of the lanes, blocked by several burning wrecks.
The flashing red and blue of the ambulances and police cars threw spiralling patterns of colour over the road; they danced like mad-eyed Harlequins against the windows and shells of more than a dozen stalled vehicles.
She watched this with a detached air her dress billowing like an ethereal shroud against her legs, the wind was chill and the rain soaked her to the bone. Her corn-blonde hair was almost silver against the barest hint of the moon, tears of water streaked down her face and mingled with her own.
She looked down from her vantage point on the side of the hill and tried to decipher what was going on, what had happened. Her memory was thrown into a vague puzzle-cube of fragments; she was also curious as to why no one had tried to find her or tried to take her home.
She turned soft blue eyes to the heavens and looked at them accusingly, moving slowly and carefully down the hill where she’d seen the accident happen. Perhaps she could offer some help, the driver of the offending car – the vehicle now no more than a twisted mass of broken steel and glass had obviously been drunk.
She had seen it all; the car swerved in a lazy sweep of motion and impacted the back of the lead vehicle at over a hundred miles an hour. The light was all she could remember and it was blinding-white as the world turned through three hundred and sixty degrees, a sickening carousel of kinetic force.
Along with the sounds of a child screaming there was the sound of metal under tension, breaking in a whip-lash crack and the tinkle of glass shattering as the windscreen was punched through by a flying object.
Her breath joined in with the fog as the woman made her way from the muddy hill to the edge of the road, and then in several dainty sure steps even through the torrential downpour she traced her path upon the bridge itself.
There for a moment she stood shivering and looking over the side at the dark waters below. Her boyfriend should be around here somewhere, that was her sudden and very real concern, but she couldn’t see a face or a person around this mess that she knew.
Other people were milling about as well, some of them looked as lost as she did but her thumping heart wouldn’t let her approach, so she just held onto the bridge and looked down at the river below.
Dimly she became aware of a feeling of emptiness and a gnawing growl in the pit of her stomach, her hand went down to the middle of her dress and came back up as red as a crimson dawn.
She panicked and the easy breaths she took before became laboured and suddenly difficult, her vision swam and she looked around imploringly for someone to help her.
There was no one. No one seemed to care and as she vented a frustrated scream she suddenly heard a babble of voices.
“Just hold on!”
“Don’t move her!”
“She’s coming round, come on…come back to us sweetheart!”
The last voice was vaguely familiar and held a special note of interest; it stirred some kind of feeling inside her mind and a name. David! He was her boyfriend and he should have come to take her home.
Why hadn’t he come?
“She’s lost a lot of blood.” This voice was austere and had the edge of command; she couldn’t quite tell if the speaker was male or female.
“She is going to be alright? Isn’t she?” It was David’s voice again and he spoke through a well of tears.
“I can’t say for sure.” The austere voice spoke again sounding irritated.
“What do you mean, you can’t say?” David’s tone sounded panicked now and there was anger rising in it.
“Calm down Mr. Morris.” This was definitely a woman’s voice; the speaker couldn’t have been more than her own age. “Let the Paramedic do his job.”
“I said is Carolyn going to be ALRIGHT?” David’s voice shot up into a high pitched wail at the end.
“That does it, Officer, in the best interest of the patient…get him away from here and calm him down!” The Paramedic snarled and she heard a sob from somewhere else.
The pain returned and became almost intolerable for a moment. Carolyn looked down again and saw a shard of silver-like glass protruding from her stomach. Then the world kicked in and she opened her eyes to the truth.
Pinned by a seven inch long knife-like triangle of glass to the passenger seat where it had penetrated her stomach and caused gouts of blood. Her pretty white dress was stained to a deep crimson in ragged splotches.
She couldn’t breathe and the pain caused her to scream out loud, she could see David being lead away and one of her hands snapped forwards to reach out for him.
The Paramedic took a deep breath and pumped her full of more pain-killers and sighed. “What a night.”
“Where am I?” She asked feebly.
He couldn’t answer straight away and bit his bottom lip. “You’ve been in an accident. I’ve done the best I can but with this heavy storm and weather, we’re waiting for a medi-vac to come.”
Another spike of pain shot through her and the world fell away into darkness, an all-encompassing blackness that drove away all light.
She was once more standing on the hill and looking down through the rain and fog. She wondered why her boyfriend hadn’t come to take her home on this damn cold night. Then once again a perfect replay of everything that had transpired before began to unfold, the same thoughts and feelings.
Perhaps she could help after all she’d seen the accident? One foot started to move towards the bridge in a timeless echo of a forlorn memory.
“I wouldn’t go down there again if I were you.”
Carolyn stopped for a moment and turned on the brow of the hill. Before her stood a figure dressed in a long flowing coat and sporting a wide-brimmed hat.
He seemed to be more real than any of this and a lazy drift of cigarette smoke curled from a black Russian held between the nimble fingers of his left hand. He also had the most soul-disturbing eyes she’d ever seen, warm hazel but with depths that went beyond normal eyes and into another realm.
“David?” She said weakly as a memory surfaced breaking the waters of her mind for a moment.
“There’s nothing you can do, nothing anyone can do. Not now, you’re dead Carolyn.” His voice was honest and it stripped away all the illusion around her, the bridge was no longer crowded with people – there were no cars, no crash and no David.
The spectral illusion that the trauma of her demise had created was gone, torn away like a jagged flag in a ragged harsh wind.
“It felt so real. I could feel the water on my face and the ground beneath my feet.” Carolyn cried a little and then walked closer to the mysterious man in black.
“It’s time to go.” He said and threw the cigarette into the ether; it vanished with a spark of dying embers.
“Go where?”
“You’ll see when you get there…” He offered her his hand and smiled the smile that could win the heart of the devil herself. “Take my hand?”
Her confusion remained like a stubborn stain to flow over her mind for a while until she saw that hand. Carolyn hesitated for a moment until she put her fingers in his and her vision lit up with a picture, beautiful blue skies and scudding white clouds.
Nicholas Winter let go of the billowing ethereal dress and turned to look out across the sea for a moment, a slim smile fell onto his lips. There were times when being an angel really meant something, especially in the darkness that the nearby Whisper City boasted.
She’d be safe away from the squabbling demons and their soul-catchers, a prize like her would have brought rewards a-plenty. She was a true innocent…one of the rare ones.
He gave one last look to the dark waters and tipped his hat to the skyline, then as a fading shadow he turned and walked the road behind him into the waking sun.
Consider it as just a tiny part of the big picture that's my dark future.
It was written with the aid of Avril Lavigne's song: I'm with you.
If anyone has this song, see if you can spot the references in the story and yes, the song itself inspired me to write it.
Well that's the blurb over and done with, the usual copyrights apply and kleenex are available at the back of the theatre.
It's a damn cold night!
The night was no longer silent and the bridge that spanned the Freeman River became lost in the haze of a driving rainstorm. There were barely enough lights to illuminate the grey rolling fog that drifted in from a poisoned sea. Like a gathering of crows a plethora of emergency vehicles stretched out in a macabre daisy-chain across one of the lanes, blocked by several burning wrecks.
The flashing red and blue of the ambulances and police cars threw spiralling patterns of colour over the road; they danced like mad-eyed Harlequins against the windows and shells of more than a dozen stalled vehicles.
She watched this with a detached air her dress billowing like an ethereal shroud against her legs, the wind was chill and the rain soaked her to the bone. Her corn-blonde hair was almost silver against the barest hint of the moon, tears of water streaked down her face and mingled with her own.
She looked down from her vantage point on the side of the hill and tried to decipher what was going on, what had happened. Her memory was thrown into a vague puzzle-cube of fragments; she was also curious as to why no one had tried to find her or tried to take her home.
She turned soft blue eyes to the heavens and looked at them accusingly, moving slowly and carefully down the hill where she’d seen the accident happen. Perhaps she could offer some help, the driver of the offending car – the vehicle now no more than a twisted mass of broken steel and glass had obviously been drunk.
She had seen it all; the car swerved in a lazy sweep of motion and impacted the back of the lead vehicle at over a hundred miles an hour. The light was all she could remember and it was blinding-white as the world turned through three hundred and sixty degrees, a sickening carousel of kinetic force.
Along with the sounds of a child screaming there was the sound of metal under tension, breaking in a whip-lash crack and the tinkle of glass shattering as the windscreen was punched through by a flying object.
Her breath joined in with the fog as the woman made her way from the muddy hill to the edge of the road, and then in several dainty sure steps even through the torrential downpour she traced her path upon the bridge itself.
There for a moment she stood shivering and looking over the side at the dark waters below. Her boyfriend should be around here somewhere, that was her sudden and very real concern, but she couldn’t see a face or a person around this mess that she knew.
Other people were milling about as well, some of them looked as lost as she did but her thumping heart wouldn’t let her approach, so she just held onto the bridge and looked down at the river below.
Dimly she became aware of a feeling of emptiness and a gnawing growl in the pit of her stomach, her hand went down to the middle of her dress and came back up as red as a crimson dawn.
She panicked and the easy breaths she took before became laboured and suddenly difficult, her vision swam and she looked around imploringly for someone to help her.
There was no one. No one seemed to care and as she vented a frustrated scream she suddenly heard a babble of voices.
“Just hold on!”
“Don’t move her!”
“She’s coming round, come on…come back to us sweetheart!”
The last voice was vaguely familiar and held a special note of interest; it stirred some kind of feeling inside her mind and a name. David! He was her boyfriend and he should have come to take her home.
Why hadn’t he come?
“She’s lost a lot of blood.” This voice was austere and had the edge of command; she couldn’t quite tell if the speaker was male or female.
“She is going to be alright? Isn’t she?” It was David’s voice again and he spoke through a well of tears.
“I can’t say for sure.” The austere voice spoke again sounding irritated.
“What do you mean, you can’t say?” David’s tone sounded panicked now and there was anger rising in it.
“Calm down Mr. Morris.” This was definitely a woman’s voice; the speaker couldn’t have been more than her own age. “Let the Paramedic do his job.”
“I said is Carolyn going to be ALRIGHT?” David’s voice shot up into a high pitched wail at the end.
“That does it, Officer, in the best interest of the patient…get him away from here and calm him down!” The Paramedic snarled and she heard a sob from somewhere else.
The pain returned and became almost intolerable for a moment. Carolyn looked down again and saw a shard of silver-like glass protruding from her stomach. Then the world kicked in and she opened her eyes to the truth.
Pinned by a seven inch long knife-like triangle of glass to the passenger seat where it had penetrated her stomach and caused gouts of blood. Her pretty white dress was stained to a deep crimson in ragged splotches.
She couldn’t breathe and the pain caused her to scream out loud, she could see David being lead away and one of her hands snapped forwards to reach out for him.
The Paramedic took a deep breath and pumped her full of more pain-killers and sighed. “What a night.”
“Where am I?” She asked feebly.
He couldn’t answer straight away and bit his bottom lip. “You’ve been in an accident. I’ve done the best I can but with this heavy storm and weather, we’re waiting for a medi-vac to come.”
Another spike of pain shot through her and the world fell away into darkness, an all-encompassing blackness that drove away all light.
She was once more standing on the hill and looking down through the rain and fog. She wondered why her boyfriend hadn’t come to take her home on this damn cold night. Then once again a perfect replay of everything that had transpired before began to unfold, the same thoughts and feelings.
Perhaps she could help after all she’d seen the accident? One foot started to move towards the bridge in a timeless echo of a forlorn memory.
“I wouldn’t go down there again if I were you.”
Carolyn stopped for a moment and turned on the brow of the hill. Before her stood a figure dressed in a long flowing coat and sporting a wide-brimmed hat.
He seemed to be more real than any of this and a lazy drift of cigarette smoke curled from a black Russian held between the nimble fingers of his left hand. He also had the most soul-disturbing eyes she’d ever seen, warm hazel but with depths that went beyond normal eyes and into another realm.
“David?” She said weakly as a memory surfaced breaking the waters of her mind for a moment.
“There’s nothing you can do, nothing anyone can do. Not now, you’re dead Carolyn.” His voice was honest and it stripped away all the illusion around her, the bridge was no longer crowded with people – there were no cars, no crash and no David.
The spectral illusion that the trauma of her demise had created was gone, torn away like a jagged flag in a ragged harsh wind.
“It felt so real. I could feel the water on my face and the ground beneath my feet.” Carolyn cried a little and then walked closer to the mysterious man in black.
“It’s time to go.” He said and threw the cigarette into the ether; it vanished with a spark of dying embers.
“Go where?”
“You’ll see when you get there…” He offered her his hand and smiled the smile that could win the heart of the devil herself. “Take my hand?”
Her confusion remained like a stubborn stain to flow over her mind for a while until she saw that hand. Carolyn hesitated for a moment until she put her fingers in his and her vision lit up with a picture, beautiful blue skies and scudding white clouds.
Nicholas Winter let go of the billowing ethereal dress and turned to look out across the sea for a moment, a slim smile fell onto his lips. There were times when being an angel really meant something, especially in the darkness that the nearby Whisper City boasted.
She’d be safe away from the squabbling demons and their soul-catchers, a prize like her would have brought rewards a-plenty. She was a true innocent…one of the rare ones.
He gave one last look to the dark waters and tipped his hat to the skyline, then as a fading shadow he turned and walked the road behind him into the waking sun.
]
