Witnesses (Part 3)

I continued writing and writing this section so I split it up. Sorry if it seems too short. if you haven't read the first one please do here and please follow me if you enjoy reading my work. Happy Wednesday!

It was much darker this time. My eyes were thankful for the difference. Someone was stroking my hair. My head was not hurting. I wasn’t even hung-over from the last bout of drugs they had pumped into me. It was like I had woken from a normal night’s sleep. I looked up to see Jean’s outline staring into a corner. When she felt me move she positioned herself to give me a hasty hug.

“Are you okay?” she asked in a gentle whisper. I could tell there were undertones of panic but she was also trying to keep even more quite than she had before the café.

“Yes,” I answered as quietly as I could. “How long was I out?”

“I think they brought you in a few hours ago. It’s so hard to tell in here.”

“Where are we?”

She only looked back to the corner. As I followed her gaze I noticed the walls were the same cement bricks as the room I was just in, only they were left unpainted. The door was solid metal. I imagined it was the same structure as the one that made the agonizing popping and squealing. Bars covered its tiny window toward the top and a thin long mail slot-like flap was at the bottom.

I continued to follow my wife’s sight line to the darkest part of the room. A body stirred from the shadows into the light. His hair was the first thing I recognized, then the nose. It was his eyes that threw me off.

They were so somber in their pure sapphire. It increased his apparent feeling of dread or remorse or regret. I could not tell which. Simply put, he was sad.

“You,” I began in a louder voice before a hand slapped over my mouth. I looked back to my wife. She had her first finger over her mouth shushing me.

“They’re listening,” she half mouthed. “Milas wants to get us out of here. He thinks he has some people heading our way. We just have to be patient.”

I looked back at who I suspected was Milas. The female was just behind him, I could see. She had tears pooling at the edge of her eyes. He nodded and extended his hand for me to shake. Although my hand was lying on my side, nowhere near where he would have grabbed for it I placed it behind me and inched myself and Jean back toward the wall on our side.

“Willie, please,” she whispered faintly in my ear, “just take his hand. They’re no harm to us or anyone.”

“You’re the one who thought they were secret weapons. You weren’t the one who was tortured to identify them. If I’m being tortured there’s got to be a reason and the reason has to be that they are dangerous.”

I felt a droplet hit my cheek. “Please, they’re in as much trouble as we are and it’s my fault.” Her voice shook only a little as she continued to exclude the invisible listener.

I looked back at Milas who was shaking his head and patting his chest. Then his extended his hand again. I inhaled deeply, praying that what I was about to do was not a mistake.

Our palms met. It was like viewing one of my own memories but they were not my own. They told of a very long trip after escaping a plague, of splitting from others just like them only a few years ago. He and his sister, Midian, were on their way to visit some friends up north. Both were mute, which explained excessive lack of speaking.

Witnesses (Part 2)

Happy Friday! This is the second in a series I'm writing so if you haven't read the first one please do here and please follow me if you enjoy reading my work.

The next thing I knew I was looking at a blank white wall. My head was pounding but when I went to lift my hand to hold it I couldn’t. Immediately I was concerned for the use of my limbs I could feel them moving but they only struggled against what felt like metal. Even my head was pinned by this immobilizing material.

Panic coursed through my entire body but I just breathed deeply though my nose as my eyes darted around the room for some semblance of an answer to all the questions spinning my head faster than the drugged hangover was.

I never noticed the pounding in my ears until the screeching whine of a metallic door popping off of its frame as it opened entered them. It was like a thousand cats screaming at once along with my heart trapped in my head. I closed my eyes to get my bearing back while the mysterious person shut it.

“Mr. Forsythe, I hope you’re comfortable.”

I opened my eyes to the gleaming teeth of a suited man. His glasses reflected the only light behind me and pierced through to the pounding, only making my head worse.

“Don’t worry,” he said cheerfully at my slight flinch, “that will wear off in a little bit. But I could make it worse for you. Do you have an answer for me?”

“And what would that answer go with?” I was surprised at the faintness of my speech. The air scratched against the chords on its way through, like I hadn’t used them in a long time, or used them too much.

His smile broadened as if this was a pleasant conversation among old friends. “What did you see out in the dessert?”

His words ran together and, against the drumming in my temples, it was near impossible to decipher what he actually said. “What?” As soon as the word was out of my mouth a pinching shock ran through my body, almost like tiny needles were pushing into my skin. I heard a scream come from somewhere in the room. I was concerned for whoever was making it. Then I was out of breath and hunching as well as my shackles would allow.

“I’m not going to ask again.” His tone was suddenly disapproving. “What did you see in the desert, exactly?”

“My wife and I were driving from our honeymoon. I don’t remember what all happened.” I shook my head as well as possible to get rid of the haze that surrounded it, desperate to remember the answer to his question so he wouldn’t torture that poor person again.

“Mrs. Forsythe made a phone call at the diner you and she stopped at. What was that about?”

“Jean.” Yes, Jean. What was it she called about? She was so desperate to do it. Was it her mother? No, there was something else. Why else would I be strapped to something in a cold blank room?

“Mrs. Forsythe is just fine. You and she can get along with the rest of your vacation as soon as we’re done here.” He disappeared behind me while he spoke. “And that depends solely on you.”

“I was filling the car while she ran for the phone. Then we sat down to eat.” What happened before that? The fog was lifting slightly.

“What happened before that? William, this is important. For your country, for your wife, you have to remember.” He appeared again, suit jacket gone to reveal suspenders against his white shirt. In his hand was some kind of device. “I don’t want to use this.” The grin on his face said otherwise.

“We were driving. We had gone to, damn where did we go?”

“Corpus Christi.” He answered helpfully.

“Yes, and we were coming back through New Mexico. Desert.” My forehead wrinkled against the strain of trying to remember. “Blank endless miles of desert. I saw something odd. I remember Jean saying she was hungry and didn’t want to stop. She didn’t trust my new car, damn woman.”

“Go on, William, you’re almost there, I can feel it.”

I could too. Dark images were in place of what I really needed to see. My tongue scraped against the roof of my mouth. I was dry and it was like cardboard. I coughed. Thankfully the gentleman placed a paper cup to my lips. The back of my head told me not to drink it but my body was so desperate for refreshment. I gulped down the liquid that tasted like water as fast as he could tip it into my mouth.

Once the cup was away from my lips I felt so much better, my head was clearer and hurt so much less. I thought back to the dark figures in the desert. “These two people, one male and the other female, were jumping too high. I saw them from the highway in the distance. At first I thought it was grasshoppers closer to the side of the road but when I focused back on them they were much further away and much bigger.”

I focused back on my interrogator, fueled by his promise of release. “I stopped the car and went as far as I dared to see them. By the time I got there they were done jumping but the cliff I was on was hundreds of feet high. How could they jump that high?

“Then I saw light stream out of their hands. The rocks it hit burst like dynamite was inside. Jean convinced me that she should call someone at the next stop. I didn’t want to stop for a long time but we needed gas and it was close to meal time anyway so we stopped at that café.”

“Do you think you could describe them?”

“I don’t think I could forget them. They looked human but they were doing things that humans shouldn’t be able to do. They both had dark hair. Actually except the different sex they looked almost identical, like twins. I wasn’t too close to them so I couldn’t decipher their exact features but I would be able to pick them out on the street.”

 “Thank you, William, we will be in touch soon.” A soothing sensation crept up my arm and I became drowsy. I fought against it. I wanted to stay awake. Who knows what other nightmare I might wake to the next time?

Witnesses

Happy Tuesday everyone! This is the first in a series of short work connected to my books but from another perspective. Enjoy.

“Will! Come on!” The whispered urgency came from behind me.

“But what are they?”

“I don’t know but I don’t want to stick around to find out.”

I started back to Jean but I could not take my eye off of whatever it was I was looking at. What it looked like was two people, younger than myself, target practicing but they didn’t have guns. They didn’t even have rocks. Light was shooting out of their hands. How is that possible?

“Will! PLEASE!” She was becoming impatient and trying to keep her voice down. I couldn’t blame her. Whoever these people, if I could call them people, were I certainly did not want them coming after me. But at the same time I wanted to know more about them.

Finally I turned back to the car, my first car. It already was my pride and joy. 1947 Ford Coupe. It was miraculous at all that we got to buy it only 2 years after production started again. That damn war made it hard on everyone.

We were back in the car before Jean voiced her inevitable opinion again. “We need to tell someone.”

“Tell who? And what are we going to say? There’s people out on the desert shooting things with nothing? I like my life thank you.”

“We could make and anonymous call. The next place we stop we call the police or someone else.”

“No. They looked like they were just out to have fun. I didn’t pick up on anything that would make them want to harm anyone.”

“What it their idea of fun is bigger than that? What if they were just practicing? Maybe they’re the answer to America winning. They could be some kind of experiment cooked up by the Germans or the Japanese!” She covered her mouth dramatically. I hated when she got like this.

I sighed. I was usually really good at pinning people down but I could not ignore her logic. “One phone call at the next place we stop at, that’s it. After that I don’t want to hear any more of it.”

I heard the air she had been holding in expel from her lungs. “Thank you, Willie. It will be anonymous, I swear.” She jabbered on while I drove across the endless plain. As she came across different questions I commented on them and as promised they were nothing to do with what we had just seen. I felt the sweat drip down the side of my face. It was late June in New Mexico and as promised it was sweltering. I just wanted to get home where the heat was not excruciating.

Traveling to our honeymoon was much easier than the drive back. I didn’t realize how shy she was until it was no longer silent. It was as if that barrier was broken she couldn’t stop theorizing or talking about anything and everything we saw. I enjoyed it at first but now it was getting old and we were barely one fourth of the way home. At least when we were there I had work to distract me. Maybe we could have some children as soon as we could so she would have someone else to talk to.

An hour went by and the gas gauge was asking to point upward again so I pulled into a fill station and diner. Jean ran straight for the payphone on the side of the building while I pumped. I could not help but think back to those two people an hour back.

They had looked so similar. The girl looked like she was laughing at her counterpart. They looked like a normal pair of siblings just having fun out in the middle of nowhere. I wasn’t supposed to spot them. They wanted to stay secret. If they had sinister intentioned they would have just attacked this small little town.

I snapped my neck to where Jean had gone. The payphone was unoccupied. My eyes darted around or locate her but I could not see where she could have gone unless she was already in the diner.

“Sir? Are you alright?”

I shook my head to clear the thoughts and looked in the direction of the voice. A man about my age was across from me mirroring my actions only his face showed concern. “Yes, thank you. I just thought I lost track of my wife.”

“Newlywed?”

“Yes, why?”

“Give it a few years. You won’t mind when she wonders off.” He switched hands on the pump and held out his right for me to shake. “The name’s Don.”

I shook his hand with little enthusiasm. The last thing I needed was another chatter box. “Hello, Don, I’m William.” The liquid in my tank made a satisfying high pitched gurgle and I shut off the switch. “It was nice to meet you.”

“Why don’t you and your wife join me and mine for lunch? I’m kind or tired of her conversation. It’d be nice to get some variety.”

I politely held back a deep breath and nodded my head. “I will be in there.” I thumbed behind me and walked to find where Jean was sitting and to tell her we would have company.

“So where you headed?” Don asked once he and his wife, Betty, were settled into the booth across from us.

“Back home to Seattle,” Jean gladly answered.

“Long way away,” Betty commented.

“Yeah we’re just heading to Colorado.”

“I hear that place is just fantastic.”

“Yes. Wide open spaces and plenty of land to work with. There’s gold in them thar plains.”

Betty and Jean giggled over Don’s joke. I was concentrating on my burger. I wanted to get back on the road as soon as we could. The sooner we were away from those creatures the less I would have to worry about them and the sooner I would be rid of Don’s over friendliness.

The bell over the door announced someone’s entrance. It wasn’t odd, people were coming in and out frequently but I looked up anyway. A policeman walked in and removed his cap. I don’t know why it made me nervous. Jean had made the call anonymously, at least that’s what I still hoped. Certainly her naivety did not run away with itself with this kind of situation.

He walked to the counter and asked the tender something. The paper hatted man nodded and answered. Immediately the cop stood, thanked him and walked out.

“That was weird. You would think the police would know their way around here,” Betty said. The rest of the table was also looking out the window where the cop was speaking to another person in a dark car. He turned back around and headed back into the diner.

I could not control my eyes from growing. I feared for myself, my new car, my big house, and, no matter how much she annoyed me on this last half of our trip, my wife.

Before the cop could open the door again I leaned over to Jean. “You made that call anonymously, right?”

“Of course I did. Why?”

Before I could answer the policeman was standing at the edge of our table. “Sorry to disturb your meal folks, but I have some questions for you. Would you all mind coming with me?”

“What is this about officer?” Don stood and helped his wife out of the booth.

“Just come with me, please. I assure you it is nothing of consequence.”

Jean slid out of the booth in front of me and looked back with furrowed brows. We followed the uniform through the door with stares boring into the back of our heads. He lead us over to the black car and four men jumped out from behind it and slammed Don and I against it. The ladies were being drug toward a jeep, screaming.

Advise From Nowhere

I was watching ‘The New Girl’ last night and the one critique from my good friend that stuck with me was “I think a chick wrote this.”

Now before you start hounding on him about being sexist let me explain. The Main character, played by Zooey Deschanel, was more 3 dimensional than the rest. The three (male) roommates were witty but could have used more depth. (They also did things that a woman would want them to do in the end.) The critique basically states that the writer, supposedly a female, wanted to portray her female lead in a brilliantly bright light over the rest of the characters.

There’s plenty to not like about this method but Jess is so much like me that I couldn’t help but like her. I say give it a couple more episodes to delve further into the other characters.

Back to my topic: The critique is that the men needed to be more realistic in writing and in television. I’ve been struggling with my newest character for some time now and this made me realize that he was a little too feminine in some of his actions. He needs to be more himself and that is why I haven’t tapped into him well. I’ve been struggling to make him fit into the shell my heroine already established. (Another problem is he’s related to her so it’s hard to cut the personality ties.)

I just need to write him like he is: male. There’s not need for him to be sappy without need. I also need to tap into my separate sexes linguistic knowledge.

Happy Wednesday!

Kayley Hyde. Who is this you ask? Well, let me tell you. She is a vloger and bloger that I have been following for some time now and she is just wonderful. She has a wonderful take on traveling through her compilation videos and is raw with her monolog videos that ask for responses. She actually gets back with responses of her own. Her blogs also take a turn at expelling all that cannot be said in a short video and also give some insight as to what was actually going on in her travels. I’m writing this post to help her, even if it is a little, with a campaign she is running for King of the Web. She definitely deserves to win.

A portion of the $5,000 prize is going to the wonderful charity This Star Won’t Go Out Foundation. It was started by the family of Ester Earl who lost her battle with cancer around a year ago. The Foundation helps to reduce the stress of families living with a child with cancer. You can read more about the cause and donate here http://thisstarwontgoout.org/

To continue helping TSWGO and Kayley continue her passion vote ten times a day at http://dft.ba/-kingkayley. You have to register in order to Vote but they do not bombard mail boxes with pointless e-mails after confirming you are who you are. More about Kayley’s campaign can be found on her page here http://owlssayhooot.blogspot.com/2011/09/king-of-web-owlssayvote.html  or on her channel here http://www.youtube.com/user/owlssayhooot?blend=1&ob=5#p/u/2/TEO-gRyf_2s.

This past weekend

Yeah, Yeah, I missed Friday and Monday. Sorry, Jo, I let you down.

I wanted to blog while I was at the airport on Friday but blogger isn’t supported on my phone L.  Guess I’m just going to have to get myself a new phone…eventually. Then Monday, it was a holiday. I didn’t see you getting up and going to work (unless you work retail like my wonderful fiancé, then I’m sorry you had to work on the national day of rest).

Anyway, I went back to WV for the weekend to see my Parents and other family members, most importantly where my Grandma was laid. It’s pretty. Getting there is a little nerve wracking and you have to hope no one is going to come down or up while you’re navigating the road. I even found where my Great Grandparents are (I was the first to find them after a really, really long time apparently so that was cool.)

Afterward we went to see my Granddaddy (other side of the family) and he gave me my Grandmother’s sapphire ring to wear in my wedding! He’s the sweetest man alive!

Sunday we went after church to visit with my Grandpa and my Aunt gave me my Grandma’s birthstone jewelry. It was such an honor getting them. I didn’t think she was going to leave me anything (although we were super close). We shared the same birth month (I was born on my Great Grandmother’s [reference above] birthday and were very proud of our combined Sagittarian-ism) so I guess she wanted me to have them for that strong connection still.

And my mom gave me pretty pearl earrings to wear with my wedding dress and the necklace her sister had given me (I think they coordinated on purpose). I have so many wonderful family members and I love them so much.

THEN, OMG, I was coming home on Monday evening and had to check my bag at the gate. No big deal. I wasn’t thinking much about it. I just wanted to get home. When I got to my final destination here in Denver the airline didn’t have my bag waiting for me as usual. Now, mind you, my mother’s earrings, my grandmother’s ring and my Grandma’s birthstone jewelry are all in this bag. I freaked. I didn’t know what to do and after reporting it I felt horrible leaving the airport without them. I did get them all back yesterday midday, but I was still freaking out all the night before and in the morning. It wasn’t cool.

Moral of the story: even if you have a carry-on, keep all your personal affects and things with you in your purse or your smaller bag that they won’t check at the gate. LFMF!