I have a brand new idea for a story. I have written a few chapters of a different, unrelated, book I'm working on. I don't expect these to get published really, I just have a story in my head that needs to get out. I want to see if I can do it. It has been an idea of mine for years. I have rough drafts from when I was in Jr. High and it has evolved so much it's hardly the same story. But really that has nothing to do with this new idea... only to say that after six years it feels weird to try working on something totally different. They are not even remotely similar. My first one is lovey and VERY girly... this one is Science Fictiony (I do believe I just made up a word) and has, at least in my head, seeing as how I only have a rough draft and the beginnings of a story, a Ted Dekker novel sort of feel to it. Its darker and more serious. Who knows, certainly not me, what will come of it.
The setting is an old, seemingly abandoned, building. No one ever goes there. The children are scared of it, because like all old houses in any-town USA, it is haunted... ooh.... but really it isn't (don't we all have those haunted rooms in our houses or towns? For me it is my memah's attic). The adults hate it because of various reasons, mainly because of the man who used to live there when they were children. He was the scraggly, mean old man who locked his door on Halloween and took the baseballs and Frisbees that landed on his lawn, so, licking their wounds, parents all through the town avoid it and shun it as a means of revenge against the man that inflicted their ugly childhood memories. And as a result, the house goes untouched. No one knocks it down, no one buys it, and, as run down and sorry as it is, it stays. If ever you were to enter the house you wouldn't find anything out of the ordinary. It would look just like any elderly persons home. Rugs on the dust covered floor, lace doilies on the counter tops, mason jars stacked neatly under the sink, rockers, perched in the living room open and waiting for its owner, sitting diligently in front of the outdated television with the antenna wrapped in aluminum foil sitting on the top. You walk further into the halls and nothing seems amiss until you stop and listen carefully at the final door of the house. That is when you hear the hum of machinery and the plop of careful steady feet smacking a linoleum floor. You smell the faint trace of rubbing alcohol and disinfectant and under the hum you sense voices. You are curious but almost always your fear causes you to retrace your steps through the house. You never say anything because everyone would think your crazy and, for a long time, the mystery goes unsolved. The prologue of my story is going to begin down in the heart of that basement, surrounded my the smacking feet and the bustle of a science lab. No title yet... if you have any ideas feel free to give me suggestions. So, here is what I have so far. I have left out the description since I have already given it to you...
Untitled
The only sound that Annie was absolutely sure she was hearing was the buzz of the lights and machinery over her head, surrounding her. Other than that she couldn't be certain that what she heard was real or just in her head. Well, sometimes what was in her head was real, but she didn't have the energy to keep it straight. The things she heard were mostly voices... there were always voices no matter where she was. That was why she wasn't sure. Words would come out of the doctors' mouths and she would have heard the same thing in their heads just before they spoke. Her main doctor, Dr. Sinclair said that this was a good thing.. she personally didn't think so. Sometimes it gave her a headache... hearing things... she would feel like passing out or worse. She would get sick, but when she told the doctors they said that it was only an adverse side effect... a bug. They would dismiss her and move on. She was always monitored. Like in jail. Maybe this was jail. She didn't remember doing anything so bad that it would warrant prison, but who knew. Maybe she was a bad person, a murderer, and had just forgotten. She forgot a lot things. That was her problem. With all the voices, mixed with her own voice, then her desire to remember who she was and where she came from, she couldn't remember anything that the doctors told her. They thought that there was something wrong with her. She supposed that they were right. She was crazy. She had lived here in the lab for as long as she could clearly remember. There were small snippets of a life before, but they were little and quickly fading. Being replaced by this world, in this small lab. By needles, and voices that were not her own, and by doctors and tests and by dark. She was beginning to doubt that there was a life before this. Where she was normal and the only thing that lived inside her head was herself. She even sounded crazy. She could never talk right. It came out jumbled and mixed up. Nothing she said made since anymore. Not even she understood it half of the time. But the Doctors and scientist would nod their heads excitedly and scribble in their notebooks and look at her like she was a goddess. She smelled beef. Like on a hamburger. The nurse checking her vital signs was hungry. There was a pretty waitress at the burger place. He was finally going to ask her out. And Annie couldn't care less. She saw a picture of the girl in his head. He wasn't sure what her name was but he was too afraid to ask.
"Savanna." She heard the name pop out of her mouth but wasn't sure where it came from.
He looked up at her with a curious, scared look on his face. "What?"
"Savanna. The pretty girl at the burger place. Her name is Savanna." She wished she would stop but the words wouldn't stay in. "She doesn't know your name either. Ethan... It's Ethan."
He slowly rose from his kneeling position and walked backward. "How on earth..."
Just as, Annie was sure, he was about to make a run for it Dr. Sinclair walked into the room. He was a very intelligent man and was successful in his Field. People described him as one of the greatest minds of his day. That was where the good qualities ended. From errant thoughts locked up in his brain Annie had discovered that he was married with three children two in high school the other in college. He had one or two girlfriends on the side and was very fond of meeting them on the nights he went out for "milk". He knew that Annie knew all this and that is what made him scary. That was why, unlike all the other patients, she was not allowed to go outside. She knew too much. She could ruin him, and despite the fact that, outside of this lab, she was helpless, he would not let her out of his control. His peaked his horn rimmed glasses from behind his clip board and flashed a daddy grin that didn't reach his eyes. It was understood between them that he didn't like her. but to appear the ever helpful and caring Doctor, this "I care about your well being" ruse had been developed. She played along with a small smile of her own.
That is all I have so far... Thanks for taking the time to check it out :)!
-KC-
No comments:
Post a Comment