Darkness Calls

The darkness reached out to her, its dark arms warm and inviting.  She took a stumbling step forward, one arm rising reluctantly from her side to reach for the comfort of those arms.  Her face was a picture torment, torn between desire and defiance.  She stood frozen for a moment, then with a wild cry she pulled away forcing herself to turn her back to the darkness.  Her whole body trembled from the effort of resisting.  How much longer could she hold out?  How much longer before she gave into the darkness's tender embrace?

~~*~~

She lay in her darkened room, clinging to the giant teddy bear that had been a constant comfort to her for the last five years.  Her tears spilled onto the warm fur of his face as her body shook with grief.  Another confrontation with her parents.  What are you going to do with your life?  You can't live here forever.  You need a plan.  You don't do anything to help out around the house.  Why do we have to remind you of everything?  The list of her failures went on and on.  She did her best to hide her pain and frustration.  Didn't they know she despised herself?  That getting through each day without falling to pieces required a herculean effort?  That she found herself so incapable of figuring out her future because she didn't see one for herself?  That she thought herself so worthless that there was no point in even trying?  At times her failure became so overwhelming that she stared at the bottle of sleeping pills on her nightstand or the block of sharp knives sitting on the kitchen counter and wondered how hard it would be to end everything.  No more worries, no nothing.

But there was a spark of life in her yet that stayed her hand.  A faint flicker of hope that fueled the dream of a time when she was successful and independent, somebody worth knowing and caring about.  But as the days slowly passed and she found herself struggling and failing to change anything, that flicker of hope grew dimmer and dimmer as the darkness closed in.  It was only a matter of time before hope was extinguished and she sought the finality of the darkness.

Abandoned

This is a continuation of the short story Abandon but from the perspective of the girl.  It's a little bit darker than anything else I've ever written or posted so hopefully it's not too much.  I don't feel this is one of my stronger writings so any constructive criticism, general thoughts, or opinions would be very welcome!

The girl cried desperately, reaching out to grab him as he ran.  Terror coursed through her, lending her broken body enough strength to sprint after him for several feet before that strength abandoned her and sent her crashing to the floor.  She continued to scream after him, fear making her heedless of the danger she was in.  She tried to drag herself to her feet, but her legs refused to support her.  Still screaming and crying, she began dragging herself across the ground.  The rational part of her brain told her there was no way she could possibly catch up to him now, not walking and certainly not crawling, but desperation and fear had driven away all rational thought and she continued to toil in vain.

She screamed for the boy until her voice was no more than a whisper, crawled until her legs and hands were scraped and bleeding.  Exhaustion finally brought her to a shuddering stop.  She lay on the cold ground, heedless of the passing time, her body shaking as she sobbed brokenly.  She drew her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them tightly, struggling to hold herself together.  Sleep eventually took her, drawing her into its calming embrace, releasing her, at least temporarily, from the living nightmare she found herself trapped in.

Abandon

This is just a short story.  Though I have some ideas to continue it, that's not something I'm going to be working on right now as I have two other full length novels in progress.  This story came to me while I was at work a week or so ago during a longer break between customers.  I have a tendency to bring a notebook with me to work in case I feel like writing and that's what happened here.  The first sentence just came to me and I ran with it and this is the finished piece for now.  So hopefully you will enjoy it or, if nothing else, find it moderately interesting.

I didn't want to leave her there alone, but what choice did I have?  With the world falling apart around us, how was I to protect her and save myself at the same time?  The unselfish answer was, of course, that I wasn't.  I should give myself up, willingly, so that she could have the chance to live.  Ah, but I was not so unselfish and even if I did give my life up and she escaped, there was no guarantee that she would survive.  In fact there was every chance that she would not.  However, if I saved myself and left her behind, I was fairly certain that I would survive, more certain by far of that outcome than the one of her surviving on her own.

So I left her, alone in those dark echoing caves, alone and injured, hunted by creatures not of this world.  I told her how to get out, but I had no hope that she would be able to outrun our hunters.  They were far too cunning and deadly for a single girl to be able to defeat.  She had nearly collapsed when I told her I was going on without her.  Falling to her knees, she pleaded with me, begged me to stay, to not abandon her.  She knew I was handing her a death sentence.  Her eyes, desperate and haunted, had filled with tears as she realized that she had no hold on me.  Those eyes, shining like the rarest of sapphires in the dim torchlight, had very nearly changed my mind.  But self-preservation is often stronger than the strongest pull to stay.  And so I gave her two of our remaining torches, flint and a piece of steel, and with a quick kiss on her forehead, I left her.

The Chosen: Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A Warm Welcome

Doctor Wingerd stood to the side of the stage as she watched her test subjects file into the large hall and find their seats.  Excitement coursed through her.  At last she was going to get what she had always dreamed of: fame and power.  Once everyone was seated and had quieted down, she turned on her mike and climbed the steps to the stage.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!” she cried as she strode to the center of the stage, her heels clicking on the hard surface.  She spread her arms in welcome as she beamed at the faces around her.  “I cannot tell you how pleased I am to see you all here before me and that you were all so willing to sacrifice your time to help science continue to move forward!  I hope you all had safe travels here from wherever you came from and I hope you are all finding your living arrangements to be satisfactory!”  A murmur of approval arose from the audience as these words.  She wasn’t surprised, everything about the apartments she had built for them was top of the line and most had never lived anywhere quite so nice in all their lives.

Silencing the crowd with a slight wave of her hands, she continued, “Now, I know you are all eager to get to the dinner we have specially prepared for you, so I will be quick in giving you some of the details as to how things are going to work out here.  Over the next week you all will be meeting with 250 of the world’s best 3D modelers to create your new bodies.  You will also be meeting with 250 of the world’s best psychologists and medical professionals to create your new mental and medical state.  Tomorrow you will have the whole day to yourselves to explore our facilities, begin to work out and list what changes you would like to make to yourselves, or anything else you might want to do around the center.  I am sorry that you will not be able to go into the city as there is just too much of a risk of injury or of you getting lost.”  Groans of disappointment and some protests erupted at this, but were quickly silenced by her next words.  “I know that is a disappointment to many of you, but I want you to know that later on during testing, there will be several trips into the city, so do not despair.  We just need you to be patient.”

The Chosen: Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Hello, New York!

So, I realized I haven’t really introduced or told you about myself which considering my story, was a bit short-sighted on my apart.  Hello, my name is Morgan.  You already know my age, so let me tell you what you don’t know.  I’m of average height and not-so-average weight.  Okay, that’s an understatement, I weigh 300lbs making me officially obese.  In terms of looks, well, there’s not much to talk about.  I have muddy green eyes, longish brown hair, and, yeah, there’s not much more to talk about there.  In a word, I consider myself to be ugly.  I’ve struggled with my weight most of my life so I’ve never really felt pretty.  And while most of my classmates in high school were flirting and jumping from one boyfriend to another, I was single till my senior year.  I already told you a little bit about how that turned out.  We broke up my freshman year of college and I haven’t dated since.

My weight was the biggest reason I wanted to undergo the transformation, that and, of course, my depression.  Doctor Wingerd had shown that she could completely cure depression in chimps, so humans shouldn’t be an issue.  About the only things she couldn’t completely cure were cerebral palsy and autism, but even though she couldn’t cure them, she had still shown that she could significantly improve the chimps quality of life.

As the days ticked by until my flight to New York, I found that I spent more and more of my time alone in my room.  I was ecstatic and wildly excited.  Soon I would have the svelte figure I’d always wanted, soon everyday wouldn’t be a nightmare, soon I’d actually have a life to live!  But the people around me, didn’t share my enthusiasm.  My parents were still gently trying to persuade me to change my mind, telling me that I had the power to change myself if I chose.  But it wasn’t just the depression or the weight that I wanted to get rid of.  There were other aspects of myself that I wanted to completely change that no one else knew about.  I wasn’t about ready to spill all my secrets, so I listened politely and then informed them I was still going through with it.

My friends were, if possible, even more resistant to the idea which I found odd.  Between them telling me I was beautiful as I was (something I hadn’t believed in years), that I was funny (I didn’t believe that either), caring (or that), and an amazing friend (definitely not that) and my parents telling me I was smart and intelligent (hah), beautiful (double hah), and a wonderful young woman (triple hah), I felt very alone and very unsupported.  I just couldn’t figure out how they could possibly not understand what a huge opportunity this was for me.  Why couldn’t they just be happy for me?

The Chosen: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Stakes Are Raised

Doctor Wingerd walked with quick steps through the halls of her research center.  Her high heels clicked on the polished white tiles, the tell-tale sound sending scientists and researchers scurrying out of her way.  She was a tall, striking woman, only in her mid-forties, with short red hair just starting to grey and a long, slightly angular face.  A pair of glasses perched on her nose, partially hiding her vivid green eyes.  She was a beautiful woman, which she knew full well, but beautiful in a dangerous way.  She was not the kind of person anyone really wanted to get close to or was close to.  She kept people at a careful distance and they kept their distance from her.  She had never been married, never even dated, rather devoting her entire life to her studies.

Her breath caught in her throat as she opened the pod room door and once again saw her life’s creation.  It never ceased to excite and stun her that she had actually succeeded.  In the center of the room stood a long, oval pod, roughly seven feet tall and four feet wide.  Wires and tubes surrounded it, snaking along the ground.  A short, balding man, her head research doctor, stepped out from behind it, studying several of the tubes, too absorbed in his work to even realize she was present.

“Doctor Gellert?” she said softly, a faint British accent tingeing her tones.

The man looked up sharply and uttered a short exclamation.  “Doctor Wingerd!” he cried, scurrying over to her and wringing his hands.  “I didn't see you there!  My apologies!”

She raised one graceful hand to silence him.  “It does not matter, Doctor, I simply wanted to see how you were faring here with the animal experiments and if you had the latest batch of results.”

“Of course, of course!” he said, nodding furiously.  “Right over here!”

The Chosen: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The Letter That Changed My Life

This is the story of my life, of how my whole world changed with a single decision because of a single letter.  Now you may be thinking that a 23 year old girl can’t have all that interesting of a life and maybe to you my life is boring as bricks but read a little more before you give up on me.  You might actually find it worth your time.

The day I got the letter, I found myself at a crossroads.  Like I said, I was 23 years old, a college student going for a theatre degree.  Now if I had been like most young adults my age, I probably would have been about to graduate from college, I probably would have a steady full time or part time job, I probably would have my own apartment or be living with a couple of roommates, I probably would have some money set aside for the future, I probably would have a steady boyfriend or even a fiancé, and my life would be looking pretty good.  But for me, that wasn't the case.  I was about to fail college for the third time, never having made it past my sophomore year, I hadn't had a job for almost a year and I still lived with my parents and I’d only ever dated one guy, five years earlier.  I was never any good at saving, so I didn't have a penny to my name except for what my parents occasionally gave me.  In my mind, I was a complete and utter failure.

You see, I had been struggling with severe depression for years and it had devoured my life.  I’m not talking I’m-feeling-a-little-down-today depression, I’m talking full on my-life-is-worthless-I’m-suicidal depression.  Five years previously, I had gone from a fairly happy, optimistic, reasonably successful person to a pessimistic, hopeless failure in less than a year.  I won’t bore you with all the details that led me to that point, but suffice it to say that I was a wreck of a human being.