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*Round Robin 'Riting, for the uninitiated. People take turns writing a story. And, er, title subject too change, I just wanted something to identify this thread with.
To set the mood I'm aiming for here, I will start off with the following quote:
“Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky
*******
She stood looking out the window, staring down at the dying city. “I’ve done so much,” she murmured. “I’ve given them so much, for so long...” Her palm smacked against the blackened wood of the window frame with a soft thud. “What more must I do? How far must I go to win?”
“More importantly,” said the child from the couch, “how far are you willing to go?”
She stared at the city below, and wondered.
OoO
Nicole Winters had a secret, the sort of secret that one keeps buried and locked away in the deepest crevasses of the soul.
She didn't look the part of a secret-keeper. She was small, pale, graced with long raven's wing hair and frosty blue eyes that were far too large for her face. Her nose was long and pointed; her jaw even more so. She dressed only in black, nothing more and nothing less.
Her fellow students at Ashfall High had singled her out as a target from day one. Her stature made her an easy target for trash-canning, and her private nature exposed her to the worst of the teasings.
But Nicole Winters had a gift, and that was her secret.
submitted by TNÖ, age 15, Deep Space
(March 5, 2009 - 9:25 pm)
(March 5, 2009 - 9:25 pm)
Ok I'm going to try to reach the level of writing that has been displayed here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last night had been one of those nights--when all attempts were futile and Nicole had drifted off to slumber. She had been running, through a crowd of demons, slipping, sliding, looking desperatly for someone, or something to take comfort in. Then, her feet had fallen out from under her and she had fallen into a pit filled with horrible crawling mealworms! Nicole had been buried as the gross creatures had swarmed over her. She had woken at the morning bell, petrified. If she had been like normal people, maybe she would have awoken from her terrible dreams and avoid them later on. But, sadly, she was the farthest thing from normal thaat you could imagine. instead of just dreaming of these things, she actually experienced them, went to the places her dreams took her, and couldn't do anything about it.
***************
Sorry I couldn't write more. Have Hw to do.
(March 10, 2009 - 8:07 pm)
Mealworms? Okaaay...
******************
It was very rare that Nicole experienced good dreams. Once when she was young she'd had a lovely dream during which she was a beautiful princess with gold and chocolate and marvelous silky clothes, but then a dragon had turned up, and she's awoken, sweaty and panting, with her (uncomfortable, devised to prevent sleep) pajamas singed.
Since then there had only been a few occasions she'd had "sweet dreams." There had been a very nice series of them, though, including a beautiful city with kind people and good hospitality. She'd had a couple good dreams about it, but then war had been declared on the place- to make a long story short- and almost everyone had perished, despite Nicole's desperate attempts to save them ((first scene, pictured above)). Since then she'd tried to harden her emotions- by her reasoning, the less she cared the less she could be hurt.
She'd distanced herself from the family that never understood her anyway- Father, Mother, Bill, 8, and Melissa, 3. They were good enough, yes, and loved her, but Mother often worried about her, and sometimes she'd seen a glimmer of fear even in her father's eyes. It made her ashamed to cause her kind and caring- but naive- family so much stress and pain.
They didn't know about her dreams. All that the Winters family understood was that they had a unique, talented daughter. Mother had removed her from the schools and gotten her a weekday tutor, trying to give her more of a challenge than she received in regular school, but she had unwittingly worsened the situation. Nicole became even more shy and antisocial, and hadn't had a real friend for nearly four years, since she was eight or nine.
It was an unhappy, fruitfless existence, and Nicole intended to do something about it. She had to find a way out of these horrendous nightmares.
(March 11, 2009 - 4:44 pm)
That night, she visited the destroyed city again in her sleep. She was in the room overlooking the city. It was empty now, and felt utterly deserted. Nicole leaned against the same scorched wooden window frame that she remembered from last time and searched for some sign of life.
Nothing. Nothing moved. It was almost worse than mealworms.
A noise behind her caused Nicole to jump and turn around. A boy had entered the room and was looking at Nicole with a curiously blank face. Looking back at him, she saw that he was the child who had been there at the time of her last visit.
"How long has it been?" she asked the boy.
"Since you were here last? Three years," he answered.
"Is - is anyone else left?"
"The doom that hangs over every soul in this city has not yet overcome all hope," he intoned. "Some remain. Do you care enough to try to save them?"
Nicole was silent a moment, then said, "I don't want to care. I can't afford to care. But - somehow I have to."
The boy nodded. "Yes. I knew you would."
"Then why did you ask?"
"I was told to," he answered.
"By who?"
But the boy remained silent.
(March 11, 2009 - 6:36 pm)
Right before Nicole was jolted out of her dream-reality into wakefulness, the boy added, "You must sacrifice your own desires to save the people that you care about. You must give them your safety, your comfort, and possibly your life."
*****************
Nicole awakened, the boy's last words echoing in her mind like the last strains of a bautiful but frightening melody. I may have to die? What? What? What?
Her brain went on like this for almost a full two minutes, trying to process the information. Finally she absorbed the boy's words, and took a calm, deep breath. But then she started panicking again.
She couldn't do anything. She was too helpless, too afraid, too weak. No one knew what she was going through.
She sighed hopelessly and again feel into an uneasy, but not dreamless sleep.
(March 12, 2009 - 3:02 pm)
A manor stood, outlined against the full moon, a classic nightmare scene. Shutters barred prying eyes from the interior, leaving only the door to enter through. Nicole knew better, and turned away from the house, willing herself to wake up. But she knew she wouldn't.
A scream penetrated the stone cold night, creeping up Nicole's spine in the form of shivers. "Nicole! Help me!" The voice came from the manor, and Nicole had no choice but to go against her instincts and boldly walk to the front door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, yeah, that's what I have to say...
(March 12, 2009 - 10:39 pm)
Before she awoke in a cold sweat, she glimpsed a woman, and somehow she knew she was in terrible danger, but didn't know how, only knew that she had to help her, and if she didn't the young woman would die, and it would be Nicole's fault, and her nightmare rocketed away from her, right before she sat bolt upright in her bed, she experienced an emotion she never had before: she wanted to stay dreaming, stay sleeping, and help the young woman, because she cared. Because someone was depending on her.
Confused and upset, she wandered into the kitchen in hopes of a snack to calm her nerves, where a huge surprise awaited her.
The boy from her dreams of the fallen city.
(March 14, 2009 - 8:45 pm)
"What are you doing here?" Nicole asked automatically, mind reeling from the shock of seeing him here - here, in her world. He was a dream, and however real her dreams might be, they weren't supposed to appear in her kitchen. And - oh no - what if her nightmares started invading her waking hours as well? It was too horrible a prospect to contemplate.
"Come with me," the boy said. "It is a matter of life and death." And he held out his hand.
(March 15, 2009 - 3:16 pm)
"C-c-come with you?" asked Nicole. Technically she said it twice; initially her mouth wasn't working quite right.
"Life and death," repeated the boy gravely. He'd always appeared small in her dreams, but now Nicole realized he was her age, perhaps even older. But it angered her a bit that he seemed to know more about herself than she did.
"No," she said stoicly. "Tell me what you're playing at and what's going on, and then I'll consider it- not that I know how." She glowered at him.
He seemed unfazed. "Nicole, this is urgent. I have no time to explain. All I can say is that you must break out of your shell."
"I have no idea what you're ta-" she began, but before she could finish, the boy had clasped her head and they were spinning, whirling, flying through time and space, a blur of a thousand, no, a million, no, more, colors and sounds, faces that seemed vaguely familiar but had no names, winding roads that lead off of the page they were traveling on. Music, haunting and lilting, drifted through the air, one moment hig, as though in an opera, and mournful, and the next mellifluous strains of sweet, low song. Emotions that Nicole had long since buried awoke from their caves where they'd lain dormant, and they flooded out in a rush of hue and voice, inexpicable, beautiful, terrible things, and in the following instances, Nicole loved a million people, danced a million dances, held a million hands, died a million deaths, saved a million lives, and experienced other strange, marvelous, and terrifying things.
(March 15, 2009 - 6:57 pm)