|  Author | Topic: Wrongside Blues Pt. 1 (Read 222 times) |
lenbogan
Salmon
member is offline
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 6
|  | Wrongside Blues Pt. 1
« Thread Started on Aug 22, 2005, 9:59pm » | |
August rain in sunny weather
Nature's shimmering insanity
----
Blinding white. Blinding white everywhere, a sickly sweet scent to the stale, sterile air.
Jaz Partelow stared at the hospital light above her, focusing and trying to stop the world from spinning around her. Bandages dotted her face and limbs, a sick spiderweb of healing. A single IV fed into her arm. A cough.
She snapped her head around to face the noise, the world leaping left as her vision leaped right, spinning her mind and disorienting her further. Crossed eyes showed two men sitting in chairs before her. As her body fought for control through the haze she studied the men as they solidified into a single being in a brown fedora and tweed sportscoat.
"Who..."
The man looked up from his trashy novel. "Adam Clydes, inspector with the ISSP." He tossed the book aside and stood, streching and simultaneously digging out a pen and pad of paper from his coat pockets. "This is probably hard for you to focus on right now, but I need answers."
Jaz bit her tongue and nodded her head slowly, her vision still dangerously swimming.
"What happened in the production mill?"
A Blank stare.
"Well? Don't tell me it was nothing. Nothing doesn't put fifteen-year-olds into comas."
"Coma?" The brownhaired girl blinked, curious.
"Your friend who went with you to the production mill," Clydes jabbed his pen at the curtain to Jaz's left. "Odds are she won't wake up for a few years, if then."
Friend? Anisce! Panicked, Jaz threw herself to the curtain, the world inverting and flying past her faster than she could move through it. "Anisce! Anisce!"
Cold fingers and a colder tone.
"What happened?" Clydes' hand pulled the brownhaired girl back to the bed and held her still.
"Oh Anisce, oh Anisce," Jaz murmured, the words becoming her horrifyingly reminiscent mantra as what happened returned to her out of the clutter.
"Tell me!" Clydes insisted. Others in far worse shape had been more coherent than this girl. Jaz persisted, her brow knit and damp with perspiration, her voice low and repeating. Calming himself and remebering that the girl had just awoke, Clydes stepped away and picked up his book once again,ready to resume the waiting game.
"The men!" Jaz whimpered. Clydes stopped in his tracks. "The men! All around the firepit!" Firepit? Open fires were prohibited in the city. Clydes returned to her side.
"What men? What did they look like?"
"Men. All kinds of men. And fish! The fish were there too."
The look of excitement faded. "Fish?"
"Yes and... and..." Jaz lurched forward and choked, retching and screaming in pure, unadulturated horror. The hairs on Clyde's neck stood out and he stepped back. The girl convulsed and foamed, her eyes blank and seeming to stare at everything that was nothing in the room.
A runner.
"Orderly! Nurse! Anyone! In here, she's in trouble!"
| |
|
lenbogan
Salmon
member is offline
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 6
| | Re: Wrongside Blues Pt. 2
« Reply #1 on Sept 11, 2005, 12:33am » | |
Crack, Chip, Shatter, Break
Beauty is found in diamond shards
----
Clydes sat in his bland chair scrawling the last of the girl's testimony in his notebook. She had changed. After the initial reaction she calmed down to a sedate, almost eerie tranquility. She hummed to herself and worked diligently on homework without much in the way of grumbling. Today she sat watching Clydes, a pleasant smile on her face and an alert, watchful look in her eyes.
"You're sure that's all?"
She nodded. "Yes, that's all. Men, and fish, and things... I can't describe." The placidity in her face wavered for a moment, then solidified yet again. "Poor Anisce, I hope she wakes soon..."
"We all do, Jaz." Clydes pocketed the notebook and pen. "Most people wouldn't pass through the old factory development for a loved one, let alone for the sake of 'seeing what was there'."
Jaz shrugged and looked out the window, the hazy diffuse light of the Venusian day easy on the eyes. "I'm not most people, nor are you, Mr. Clydes." She returned her gaze to him, hardened. "Don't ever make that mistake. What most people do is what they believe others will accept, but only until they get an idea that there is something to be gained from independant thought."
"I meant no offense."
"None taken, just a friendly reminder."
Clydes shifted. Her parents said this was the girl they'd always known, but she wasn't. He'd seen the way she was with them; warm, open, compassionate and free with her comments - evesdropping was where a fair piece of his notations had solidified. But when they weren't in the room with her... she became distant, cold. At least to him. Nurses and others who visited, even complete strangers or journalists who asked her almost identical questions about her experience as he had, were greeted kindly and politely. "Friendly my ass. I'll see you when you've recovered more." He stormed out.
He passed her parents in the hallway. Her father stood, brown knit vest and thick glasses accentuating his meek demeanor. "Mr. Clydes, have you finished your interrogations?"
He sighed. "I was only asking some simple questions of her, not interrogating." He buttoned his coat in an important fashion for no apparent reason. "If you don't mind I'll stop by and visit her in a few weeks when she's feeling better."
"That would be fine, do you know our addre-"
In nature, the hunted screams in a last, terrified act of defiance.
The nurse in the aide station across the hall from Jaz's room jumped in her chair, flinging her coffee across her terminal, her face drained of blood and as white as the uniform she wore. Two orderlies rushed to the room instantly, though their movements seemed just the slightest bit hesitant.
She huddled in the corner of the room, her legs pumping, pushing her further into the wall, trying to become it. Her long hair cascaded across her face, concealing it from sight. The unit doctor on shift entered the room. "Sedate her. For gods sake, she'll kill the rest of the patients screaming like that."
One of the orderlies took her arm. "Come on, let's get you back in bed," he said, more to reassure himself than the girl. At his touch she lashed out, a flailing mass of arms and legs that knocked the orderly's feet from under him and sent his head crashing against the tile floor. The second orderly grabbed her, more careful of his footing, and lifted her up. Squealing in panic she tore at his clothes with her bare hands, succeeding at ripping the cloth open and pulling seams loose. Quickly, the orderly pinned her arms to her side, the girl's nails bloody and pulled from their beds.
For a moment the room glittered, shards of glass filling its volume and reflecting sunlight. In that instant, Jaz saw, felt, understood the room. She could see where the motes of hardened light would land, how the orderlies would move, how the doctor would jump, and...
She shut her eyes in that instant as tight as she could. The world exploded with cacauphonus chiming.
The four people in the room were showered in broken glass, tinkling against itself as it struck itself, the occupants, and the far wall. In the midst of the noise was a loud whomp.
Jaz burried her face into the orderly's shoulder, sobbing. "They came back..."
| |
| |
|
![[Home]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/home.gif)
![[Help]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/help.gif)
![[Search]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/search.gif)
![[Login]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/login.gif)
![[Register]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/register.gif)
![[Search This Thread]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/search2.gif)
![[Send Topic To Friend]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/sendtopic.gif)
![[Print]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/print.gif)
Logged