Bedlam, a story by Catherine Taylor
At Nine Worlds Geek Fest last weekend, there was a panel called 'Fantastic London' run as part of the creative writing track. I'm really proud to say my Mum wrote a short, but incredibly awesome, piece of fiction! In just 15 minutes! I asked her to do a quick recording, just because, and both are under the cut:
Bedlam - Catherine Taylor
Bedlam was a terrifying place. A place of no hope and the only escape was death. It was also a dumping ground for every weirdo and druggie who ever ran out of money and friends.
When Benedict ran out of friends, he only had himself to blame, since he had eaten them. Feeling morose, he resorted to lurking around the opium dens. Too much narcotic eventually skewed even his metabolic processes and, luckily for him, he was found crawling and screaming through the gutter's filth in the wee hours before dawn, by the local watch.
In a choice between letting Bedlam have him (he'd make good entertainment) and the excruciating, boring paperwork and court appearances of charging him - Bedlam won hands down.
Poor Benedict, he was protected from Sun, but kept in solitary confinement in view of his disastrous eating habits.
After a year of starvation in which every second was a torture, once the narcotics had left his system, Benedict hatched his escape plan. He faked his own death.
He was buried in the mass grave and then found he had swapped Bedlam for Hell as he was too weak to scrabble his way out.
The years passed in a haze of self-loathing and boredom interspersed with violent fantasises of what he would do if he ever got free. But how?
Two and a half centuries later, the world crashed into Benedict's world in the shape of Phyllis, the giant screw. The Crossrail tunnelling project burst in upon Bedlam's graveyard. In the confusion that followed, nobody noticed the missing labourer... They'll start noticing missing people soon... Quatermass? You wish.
Hopefully that embed works, but if it doesn't, here is a link to Soundcloud.
I hope you all enjoyed it! I'm so proud of my Mum, I think it's a really cool story for something created in such a short time!
Posted over at dreamwidth, comment here or there, or everywhere!
Bedlam - Catherine Taylor
Bedlam was a terrifying place. A place of no hope and the only escape was death. It was also a dumping ground for every weirdo and druggie who ever ran out of money and friends.
When Benedict ran out of friends, he only had himself to blame, since he had eaten them. Feeling morose, he resorted to lurking around the opium dens. Too much narcotic eventually skewed even his metabolic processes and, luckily for him, he was found crawling and screaming through the gutter's filth in the wee hours before dawn, by the local watch.
In a choice between letting Bedlam have him (he'd make good entertainment) and the excruciating, boring paperwork and court appearances of charging him - Bedlam won hands down.
Poor Benedict, he was protected from Sun, but kept in solitary confinement in view of his disastrous eating habits.
After a year of starvation in which every second was a torture, once the narcotics had left his system, Benedict hatched his escape plan. He faked his own death.
He was buried in the mass grave and then found he had swapped Bedlam for Hell as he was too weak to scrabble his way out.
The years passed in a haze of self-loathing and boredom interspersed with violent fantasises of what he would do if he ever got free. But how?
Two and a half centuries later, the world crashed into Benedict's world in the shape of Phyllis, the giant screw. The Crossrail tunnelling project burst in upon Bedlam's graveyard. In the confusion that followed, nobody noticed the missing labourer... They'll start noticing missing people soon... Quatermass? You wish.
Hopefully that embed works, but if it doesn't, here is a link to Soundcloud.
I hope you all enjoyed it! I'm so proud of my Mum, I think it's a really cool story for something created in such a short time!
Posted over at dreamwidth, comment here or there, or everywhere!