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Back a step
| kelly_lucile
Posts: 213 Status: Baron Karma: 0 [+1] [-1]   |
Subject: my story | |||||
this is something i wrote for a contest i'm entering. i've worked really hard on it, and had a little help to make it gramerically better, so please tell me what you think.  the winner of the contest get's 3000 dollars and a trip to new york city to meet with some agents.__________________________________________________ When the sun is hot, and it feels like hell can’t be much hotter… That’s when you have nothing to worry about. But when the sun is hot, and it feels like hell has frozen over… something has to be wrong. You might deny it at first. You won’t cry. You won’t change your daily routine. And you’ll definitely ignore the voices. The voices that seem louder than a severe weather siren. The voices that you can’t ignore forever. Eventually they’ll grab your attention, and eventually they’ll lure you to do their bidding. You’ll have no choice but to leave everything you know behind, and step through the surreal veil of darkness. No idea what awaits you on the other side. No clue whether you’ll survive. No knowledge that you aren’t who you thought you were for so long. Your destiny is not your own. It belongs to them. The ones who know everything about you. Even the things you don’t know. But soon. Soon you’ll embrace your fate, and reveal your true self. Jenna woke with a startle. Sheets ripped off of her mattress, pillow on the floor, and a cold sweat running down her face and back. “It was only a dream.” she told herself. This was the worst one yet. She had been having these nightmares every night for six months, and every night the nightmare was the same. Falling. Always falling. The voices even followed her in her dreams. She thought she was going crazy, but the shrink had only told her to get some rest. She wasn’t sure if she could take it anymore, even the thought of suicide had crossed her mind. Anything to stop the insanity. Tripping out of her mangled sheets, Jenna stumbled to her closet to get dressed. “I’ve had enough sleep anyway.” She thought aloud to herself. It was only 4 am, but she had gotten five hours of sleep. The most she had gotten all week. That was a bonus. Mornings in the city were never dead. There were always plenty cars on the road, and stepping out of her apartment Jenna could smell the familiar mixture of pollution and spring mingling in the air. This was Jenna’s home. If she had it her way she would never leave this place. Jenna walked down the block, turned left, and walked four more blocks to her favorite coffee shop. Mon Amor’s café was owned by her best friend, Olivia. As soon as she stepped through the door every thought of her terror filled nights was left outside. “Hey Jenna! Rough night?” Liv was behind the counter making one of her famous Mocha Mint lattés. Jenna lifted herself into a barstool. “They’re not getting any better.” She lowered her voice so only Liv could hear. “Hmmm… I don’t know what to tell you Hun.” Liv was the only person Jenna had told besides the shrink. “Mmm I’m sorry.” Jenna let out a sigh. “For what?” “For dragging you into my mental problems.” “Hun that’s what friends are for. And last time I checked, you weren’t any more mental than I am.” “Then you must be pretty damn mental!” Jenna laughed. Through all of the agonizing happenings, Jenna hadn’t lost her sense of humor. That she was glad of. The two of them sat and talked until 11:00 and then Jenna left Liv to run her café while she walked the few blocks the university. Her first class was at 11:45 and she walked slowly. The voices pushed to the back of her mind for the time being, and only thoughts of her Finals, which were coming up in a few short weeks, on her mind. That night Jenna couldn’t sleep. The voices were loud tonight. She couldn’t understand what they were saying. They were whispering, yet they were still extremely loud, and she was sure they were trying to get her attention. “God! I wish these freaking voices would go away!” she screamed. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could take it. Feeling too claustrophobic in her one bedroom apartment, she went for a walk along the beach. They weren’t any quieter here, but at least she didn’t feel trapped between the four walls of her bedroom. The coastline was rugged, and the sand rocky, but whereas most people would prefer the soft white beaches and friendly sun, Jenna loved the rugged coast, and the rainy sky. This was paradise. Jenna walked along the wide expanse of beach, letting the wind whip her long, dark brown hair behind her, and the ocean’s waves splash against her pale ankles. A few minutes later she arrived at her rock. She called it that, because it was her favorite place to sit and think. Although tonight she was just planning on sitting-thinking was out of the question with the volume of the rude background- and starring out at the mystical ocean. Jenna closed her eyes and began to hum to herself. Unsure of when it happened she drifted not completely to sleep, but sort of into a trance. Falling again. Through a thick blanket of darkness. The voices trailing behind, growing louder. Then nothing. Jenna quickly opened her eyes, unaware of how long she had been sleeping. I must have fallen off of the boulder she thought. The wind had picked up, and she had damp sand in her hair and on her skin. She looked up alarmed. The voices weren’t just in her head anymore; they seemed to be calling her name. But where were they coming from? She had a sudden urge to follow them, and that’s exactly what she did. Walking quickly, she chased the voices down the beach. Then she stopped for a long second, and continued on into the cave they lead into. It was pitch black, but there was a soft glow at the end of the tunnel. She didn’t have to go far. Just a few minutes of stalking the voices, and she came to the source of the light and wished she hadn’t been so curious. In front of her was a wide, black archway. The rocky wall seemed to merge with the darkness in a way that made it impossible to tell where they met. The voices were barely audible now, but something else took its place. The darkness seemed to create an impenetrable silence. “This is just weird.” Jenna whispered as she began backing away from the archway, but her whisper was swallowed up by the darkness. Jenna didn’t have time to leave the cave. Within seconds of her last sentence, the darkness sucked her in without any time to react. Jenna was falling. Her nightmare had finally come to life, and this time there was no waking up. Jenna’s eyes snapped open, and her mind suddenly whiplashed back to where she was sitting. The stone she was lying on was ice cold, and she was shivering like crazy. It wasn’t dark here. The torches in the wall lit the cavern quite well. She stood, lifted a torch out of its sconce, and began to wander down the tunnel, unsure of where she was, but determined to find a way out. Jenna stopped at the end of the tunnel. A metal door loomed monstrously in front of her. She tested it with the back of her hand. Cold. She opened the door, and stepped cautiously into the next room of the cavern. The room was the largest space she had ever been in. The ceiling rose so far above her head that she wasn’t even sure if it was the ceiling or just darkness. The walls were the same color of stone as the rest of the cave she had seen so far, but there was something different here. The walls had painted symbols carved in them. It reminded her of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. “Where the hell am I?” her voice echoed off the walls. “Welcome to Ashville.” Jenna jumped. Now in a smaller room off of the much larger main cavern, Jenna sat at a small table facing three people who introduced themselves. A slender girl who looked about twenty-five named Sola, a very serious looking guy who looked about her age named Valiant, and a very sad looking woman who seemed to be in her early thirties named Devi. Jenna had sat there and listened to everything they told her. About the long months they spent trying to get her attention, and how she was chosen by the Rhettonites-the counsel that governed Ashville. As insane as it was, Jenna believed everything they said. One thing confused her though. She slowly found her voice and asked the question that had popped into her mind. “Why…” “…You?” Valiant finished her question sarcastically. “You can’t chose your destiny kid.” He said, his serious expression back. “Who are you calling kid? You can’t be much older than me.” Jenna shot back. “I’m older than your grandmother’s grandmother kid.” He crossed his arms. That’s not normal she wanted to say, but before she could Devi cut in, “Val you idiot. We don’t have time for your anciently immature behavior!” This stopped the argument immediately. From what they had explained to her, the fate of the world was at stake. As they sat here thousands of condemned souls were spilling out of the center of the earth. The barriers that held them there had been broken by a group of people no different than themselves, but with completely opposite goals. To destroy the world and use it and its entire human civilization for their own evil purposes. And Jenna had to decide if she was going to help save the world, or destroy it. If she chose to go back to her life and act like none of this ever happened, she would never be bothered again, but her decision might mean the difference of whether the world is saved or not. She sat there for a moment and thought of the possible outcomes of her decision. “We need your answer Jenna.” Sola put her hand on Jenna’s shoulder and looked reassuringly into her eyes. “Okay I’m coming with you dudes.” She finally announced. “Good choice,” Valiant said sarcastically, “but one thing. NEVER call me dude or your hero career will be over before you can say hellhole.” “Got it.” She rolled her eyes. “Okay we’ve to get going. Time isn’t going to freeze for us you know.” Devi ordered as she rushed out the door and into the main cavern, followed by everyone else. Devi led the group over to the hieroglyphics on the far wall, and pulled a necklace from around her neck. There was a silver whistle attached to the gold chain; it looked to Jenna like one of the scout whistles that she had seen the officers use in the military movies. Devi blew hard into the whistle three times, the second time shorter than the first and last, and the wall turned black. It was déjà vu. Jenna was standing directly in front of the same archway that had brought her here, but this time she didn’t back away. “Last time to change your minds guys.” Devi called, but they had to read her lips to know what she was saying, because the darkness stole the sound. Devi stepped gracefully through the darkness and faded, and then Valiant disappeared as well. “Next stop hell.” Sola mouthed, holding out her hand. “You ready?” Jenna accepted the hand protruding toward her, and together the two of them stepped into the dark unknown, ready to face whatever dangers were awaiting them on the other side. Jenna was now embedded deep in a journey that was only the beginning of a much larger destiny. She was about to find out exactly who she was, and what great, yet evil things she was capable of. She was a Xiuhcoatl- a weapon of destruction, and nothing could stop her from being who she was, not even herself. |
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