Original fiction
Apr. 29th, 2005 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whitereflectionI haven't written much in months, certainly not prose, and even then not anything but bad poetry/lyrics fragments. And I haven't written fiction that's original (ie. not fan-related) in a decade, I think. Anyway, a short scene that's been in my head for a couple years, approximately.
***
Enlighten
(by DVAD 4-29-05)
I'd skidded to a harsh, crouching stop, the asphalt underfoot damp and slick--though it was not I who was a flinch away from falling. Frozen, muscles quavering and trembling from the exertion of running stairs and from the exertion of *not running* that short, so short distance remaining, I stood there fast, the surging of my lungs the only motion left; panic sparked that even that might be enough to startle her into flight. I gasped ragged breaths in the mist of the post-rain air as rooftop winds tore snapping tangles into my hair, blanketing it over my face with surging gusts. A cinematic moment with it blowing back just artistically 'so' was not meant for the plain.
But she... She turned back toward me, first a twist of her head with the perfect dawning of a too-wide smirking smile, followed by a smooth pirouette, and her black hair was a dark flowing banner against the midnight sky. Tails of her trenchcoat catching another billow of the wind, she spread her arms wide with an echoing laugh. "Do you see?" she called from her perch on the ledge's thin wall, rising to her toes at the surge of another screaming-snapping gust. "Are you still only looking, or do you finally *see*?"
"Come down. *Please*. Come back." The puddles and shimmers were glaring, sparkling, reflecting a galaxy of multicolored city lights; my distracted thought decided it might have been pretty if it didn't look so much like someone had thrown up Christmas all over the wet concrete. I didn't twitch at sharp, chill needles on my skin as a spitting rain struggled to start again.
"You're blind." Her twisted smile shifted like folding origami into a sneer. Superior, arrogant, smug, annoyed. Disappointed, just a little. Or was I imagining that. "I thought you knew better. I thought you'd understand better. I thought you weren't like them--..."
"I'm not like them!"
My interrupting shout was ripped from my mouth in a greedy, lightning-crack of wind, but she heard it still. "You won't see! You're just like everyone else, you look at me and you see what you want, you see what I was or what you *think* I should be, you see what *you* need but you don't. See. Me!" The wind raged with her, tearing at me, lifting at her, and god I wished the world below wasn't so far away, wasn't so ant-small. So many cars racing by, so many people sequestered in their little automobile or office-building hideaways, so many scurrying and trudging; so much humanity, so much technology, and yet I could hear nothing but the moan and shriek and whistle of the wind.
Then she laughed, sardonic, edged. "You're a fool. A clueless fool." She twirled in place as smooth and precise as a dancer, laughing again at the choked noise whimpering in my throat even as I clamped it back behind grit teeth. "I hope you enjoy your illusions. Delusions. Keep telling yourself those lies and wishes and dreams, and maybe they'll be real. But me," again she waltzed with the wind, hands raised to the storm sky in victory, in celebration, exaltation, "me, I'm going to be free. I'm going to *be*. Hell with the rest of you."
"No..." My voice was too quiet, a protest moan too low under the wind. "Don't...please. Come down. Talk to me...make me understand, I'll get it, I promise--..."
"I've *been* talking."
"Please, I'm serious. I'm begging you, *please*--..."
"I've been talking *now*, I *am* talking now, just like I've been talking this entire time. Just like I've been showing you all along. You won't hear, you won't see. The rest of them, you, all of you--you won't see and you can't see. And I'm done." A slight tilt of her head, as if she were studying, analyzing something, and her gaze unfocused as if she were seeing far into the distance. Or far within. "Done. Yeah." Her smile blossomed into something real, its brilliance outshining any of the glaring lights below or any of the hidden stars above, and the reflections on the wet pavement were reflections of her, and she spun...
--her hair and coat swirled in waves, rippling out behind her--
"No..."
...embracing herself, and she opened her arms, embracing the horizon...
--unfurling like a flag--
I exploded into motion, horror licking at my heels, stabbing in my gut, and tore toward the rooftop's edge.
...as she stepped off the ledge...
--unfurling like wings--
"NO!"
...and she soared.
A moment of wonder...
...and I was flying, reaching up for the wind because ohgod I was going the *wrong way* and a slip and fall wasn't the same thing at all, and where, where was she, where'd she go? She'd been right, I *couldn't* see her, still couldn't see her now even though I could see the entire night sky ohgod and I wondered pleasegodno if she could see me or hear my scream, and finally I could hear the sound of cars no through the wind and someone yelled
***
Enlighten
(by DVAD 4-29-05)
I'd skidded to a harsh, crouching stop, the asphalt underfoot damp and slick--though it was not I who was a flinch away from falling. Frozen, muscles quavering and trembling from the exertion of running stairs and from the exertion of *not running* that short, so short distance remaining, I stood there fast, the surging of my lungs the only motion left; panic sparked that even that might be enough to startle her into flight. I gasped ragged breaths in the mist of the post-rain air as rooftop winds tore snapping tangles into my hair, blanketing it over my face with surging gusts. A cinematic moment with it blowing back just artistically 'so' was not meant for the plain.
But she... She turned back toward me, first a twist of her head with the perfect dawning of a too-wide smirking smile, followed by a smooth pirouette, and her black hair was a dark flowing banner against the midnight sky. Tails of her trenchcoat catching another billow of the wind, she spread her arms wide with an echoing laugh. "Do you see?" she called from her perch on the ledge's thin wall, rising to her toes at the surge of another screaming-snapping gust. "Are you still only looking, or do you finally *see*?"
"Come down. *Please*. Come back." The puddles and shimmers were glaring, sparkling, reflecting a galaxy of multicolored city lights; my distracted thought decided it might have been pretty if it didn't look so much like someone had thrown up Christmas all over the wet concrete. I didn't twitch at sharp, chill needles on my skin as a spitting rain struggled to start again.
"You're blind." Her twisted smile shifted like folding origami into a sneer. Superior, arrogant, smug, annoyed. Disappointed, just a little. Or was I imagining that. "I thought you knew better. I thought you'd understand better. I thought you weren't like them--..."
"I'm not like them!"
My interrupting shout was ripped from my mouth in a greedy, lightning-crack of wind, but she heard it still. "You won't see! You're just like everyone else, you look at me and you see what you want, you see what I was or what you *think* I should be, you see what *you* need but you don't. See. Me!" The wind raged with her, tearing at me, lifting at her, and god I wished the world below wasn't so far away, wasn't so ant-small. So many cars racing by, so many people sequestered in their little automobile or office-building hideaways, so many scurrying and trudging; so much humanity, so much technology, and yet I could hear nothing but the moan and shriek and whistle of the wind.
Then she laughed, sardonic, edged. "You're a fool. A clueless fool." She twirled in place as smooth and precise as a dancer, laughing again at the choked noise whimpering in my throat even as I clamped it back behind grit teeth. "I hope you enjoy your illusions. Delusions. Keep telling yourself those lies and wishes and dreams, and maybe they'll be real. But me," again she waltzed with the wind, hands raised to the storm sky in victory, in celebration, exaltation, "me, I'm going to be free. I'm going to *be*. Hell with the rest of you."
"No..." My voice was too quiet, a protest moan too low under the wind. "Don't...please. Come down. Talk to me...make me understand, I'll get it, I promise--..."
"I've *been* talking."
"Please, I'm serious. I'm begging you, *please*--..."
"I've been talking *now*, I *am* talking now, just like I've been talking this entire time. Just like I've been showing you all along. You won't hear, you won't see. The rest of them, you, all of you--you won't see and you can't see. And I'm done." A slight tilt of her head, as if she were studying, analyzing something, and her gaze unfocused as if she were seeing far into the distance. Or far within. "Done. Yeah." Her smile blossomed into something real, its brilliance outshining any of the glaring lights below or any of the hidden stars above, and the reflections on the wet pavement were reflections of her, and she spun...
--her hair and coat swirled in waves, rippling out behind her--
"No..."
...embracing herself, and she opened her arms, embracing the horizon...
--unfurling like a flag--
I exploded into motion, horror licking at my heels, stabbing in my gut, and tore toward the rooftop's edge.
...as she stepped off the ledge...
--unfurling like wings--
"NO!"
...and she soared.
A moment of wonder...
...and I was flying, reaching up for the wind because ohgod I was going the *wrong way* and a slip and fall wasn't the same thing at all, and where, where was she, where'd she go? She'd been right, I *couldn't* see her, still couldn't see her now even though I could see the entire night sky ohgod and I wondered pleasegodno if she could see me or hear my scream, and finally I could hear the sound of cars no through the wind and someone yelled
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-30 01:32 am (UTC)She turned back toward me, first a twist of her head with the perfect dawning of a too-wide smirking smile, followed by a smooth pirouette, and her black hair was a dark flowing banner against the midnight sky.
::grins:: slow motion, liquid and just cinematic... I can really see that smile... but you know the ones I love are /good/ at those expressions.
--her hair and coat swirled in waves, rippling out behind her--
"No..."
...embracing herself, and she opened her arms, embracing the horizon...
--unfurling like a flag--
I exploded into motion, horror licking at my heels, stabbing in my gut, and tore toward the rooftop's edge.
...as she stepped off the ledge...
--unfurling like wings--
"NO!"
...and she soared.
A moment of wonder...
Another just /visual/ scene... I really want to be able to draw, heck, animate. You know... in some ways, it feels like one flew and one fell, and I couldn't tell which (though there's definately a feeling)... then I realized, it wasn't the point...
The first person POV really works... from distraught, panicked, and then everything jumbled, it all illustrates so well... in the middle of imagry and alliteration, it really just...well, works...
::smiles:: may I meet these two sometime?