berns86
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and chanted the words she had taught herself.
They had always been her salvation and sanctuary. The day she ever forgot those words would be the day she would never return to real life.
She repeated the words in her mind and in her heart, until they lost all sense and meaning. They became a part of her like breathing or blinking. And the more she repeated them the more she felt sure she would end up convincing herself that they were true.
He'd traveled far and wide across seas and deserts, through jungles and forests. He'd seen a million wonders both of nature and human kind and he'd brought these discoveries to his country where he'd been greatly rewarded.
However, he was still alone. He did not know if he had become a sailor for the love of it or because he was trying to run away from himself. But now, looking upon the shore of a far greater land than he had ever imagined, he had a feeling that it might hold everything that ha had sought for and had been unable to find.
"I just... wish I knew what to do!" She cried and laid her head on the old woman's lap, letting her sadness pour out.
The old woman caressed the dark, red curls with her silky hand and after a small while she spoke: "You want answers, but have you been asking the correct questions, my dear?"
The girl remained silent, mulling over this. Maybe she had lost sight of her true purpose, maybe she had to ask herself what is it that she really wanted: freedom or love?
She stretched the elastic rubber band as far as it would go and aimed it at her sister.
"Stop it!" she cried, flinching and shutting her eyes against the imminent danger.
She laughed. "Oh come on, it's just a rubber band!"
"Oh yeah?" her sister replied.
"Yeah...."
She didn't have any time to say anything else because suddenly, her sister launched herself from the chair she'd been sitting in and knocked her to the ground and began tickling her.
They both rolled around on the floor, half wrestling, half laughing at their sillyness.
We went driving across the windswept plains with the windows down and the volume up.
The sun shone brightly, though it was early in the morning, and the sky was a deeper blue than I'd ever seen it before.
The soft curves of the road swung us from side to side, almost as if they were lulling us to sleep; and the air came in clean and cool, and it smelled faintly of the sea.
We rode on until we reached the yellow fields of flowers, with stalks as tall as we were.
We clambered from the car, laughing, and dove into that yellow sea, letting it's inmensity swallow us whole.
She picked up a brick that lay nearby and sneaked up to the sleepy house.
“The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge,” she thought with an evil smirk. Carefully she took aim and threw the stone with all her might as she screamed “Die!”
The brick flew in a graceful arc and broke through the window with a loud smash. From the inside came a scream and the light went on immediately, but she was too busy running to where she’d left her bike. She climbed unto it and from her backpack withdrew another brick which she tossed at the windshield of his brand new Porsche as she rode away into the night.
From behind, she could hear him yelling her name over and over, “Raven! Raven!” But she did not stop, did not look back.
He entered the small cabin that had been made into a makeshift studio. It still smelled of chemicals, paint thinner and dust. The floor was covered in splatters of so many colors that from a distance the floor seemed to be strewn with confetti.
He walked up to a lonely canvas in the middle of the room and peered into it. He could see it was a landscape of a bay and some trees, however it had not been finished.
"My father's last painting and he could not finish it."
Suddenly, he felt that the feelings he'd been carrying had become too much of a burden to bear. He let his body drop on the old couch behind him and sat there crying for a long time.
She rattled the door desperately but found to her dismay that it was locked.
"Who would lock the emergency exit?" She wondered, and then it hit her like a punch to the stomach. The mission was compromised. They must have discovered their intentions or even known about them before hand.
She turned to run to the elevator when suddenly a shot rang out across the empty hall. She looked down and put her hand to her abdomen and found that it was wet with blood.
"Come on! "He motioned to her as the structure around them began to tremble under the weight of the caving roof.
"I can't! I'm scared!"
"You must! I'll hold the plank level so you can cross but you must do it now!"
She gulped and, on her hands and knees, began crossing the flimsy piece of wood that stood between freedom and death.
"Don't look down." she whispered over and over again, keeping her head lifted so the only thing in her sight was the plank in front of her and him waiting at the end.
The old man looked up from the report he’d just been handed. He was shaky and nervous and weary having been deprived of sleep for 48 hours.
“Is this all there is?”
The young man nodded.
“No.” He replied. “No, no, no, no, no. We’ve got to go deeper. We’ve got to get to the root of the problem!”
“These,” he gestured to the photographs and papers on the tabletop, “These are just consequences, we need to find the source.”
The young man stared in disbelief. He ran his hands through his hair and sighed.
“Well I don’t know where else to look!” he cried exasperated. “I’ve done everything I can!”
“Well that’s not good enough!” yelled the old man, slamming his fist on the table. “We’ve got to double, even triple our efforts if we want to catch this guy!”
The young man pursed his lips and held the old man’s angry stare for a minute; then giving a sigh, he bent down to pick up the sheets that had fallen on the floor.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said in a defeated tone as he walked out the door.
load more entries