Plot Bunny goes hippity hop - Daylight Fading, Prologue/?
So, I've been trying to write my own original online series but I've had trouble writing the first part because my muse has ideas for a fanfic. Rather than get on her bad side, I've decided to let her have her way in hopes that she'll let me write my story.
It's not beta'd. Extremely rough draft.
Title: Daylight Fading - Prologue/?
Author: Astrid
Rating: PG
Category: One Life to Live
Genre: General, Angst; Alternate History - includes character deaths
Pairings: Al/Marcie, Al/Natalie, implied Cristian/Natalie
Summary: Love. Hate. Desperation. Grief. They understood each other better than anyone else could.
Disclaimer: Characters are property of ABC Daytime’s One Life to Live; I’m just borrowing them. Title and lyrical intro are from the song “Daylight Fading” by Counting Crows from their album Recovering the Satellites.
Note: Long before I was a McNat supporter and during the time I was a Crisalie, I was also an avid supporter of Al and Natalie hooking up and having hate sex because their relationship met all the criteria for potential hate sex. Plus, Melissa Archer and Nathaniel Marston had a smoking hot natural chemistry -- correction, they still have a smoking hot natural chemistry that comes across on the screen when TIIC allow them to share scenes. I wasn’t upset when Al died because it meant the end of Marcal (don’t get me wrong, they had their moments and I liked them all right), I was upset because it meant that I’d never get my Al/Natalie. So now I'm writing this fic just to get it out of my system.
Daylight fading
Come and waste another year
All the anger and the eloquence are bleeding into fear
Moonlight creeping around the corners of our lawn
When we see the early signs that daylight’s fading
We leave just before it’s gone
February 2003
Llanview
Life wasn’t fair. Natalie had learned that early in life but just how cruel and unfair it could be she was only beginning to understand.
She and Cristian had spent four wonderful days snowed in at her family’s lodge up on Llantano Mountain; blissfully secluded from the rest of the world and the danger that had sent them into hiding. Then came the phone call from Mitch. He knew where they were and he was coming. And they would both pay dearly.
Mitch was miles away yet knowing that he could reach them, even if only on the phone, had terrified her. Besides, he had proven time and time again that he had his ways of getting to whomever wherever whenever he wanted. Not wanting to call his bluff they had decided to flee the cabin.
Her first mistake had been to keep trying to fix that damn mirror. She wasn’t on the best of terms with her grandfather, Asa, and doubted she ever would be. The last thing she wanted was to leave anything out of place so that at some later date he could grumble about her horrible upbringing and lack of manners and respect for other people’s property. She hadn’t thought that the mirror would be as heavy as it was, so she’d lost her balance when she’d accidentally lifted it off the hook holding it on the wall. She’d fallen, dropping the mirror, the glass shattering around her, one shard slicing through her lower leg.
And so their departure was delayed. Cristian had attempted to clean and dress her wound but the cut had become infected -- not too bad but enough to delay them a bit longer. As soon as she started to feel better, they left, taking off in Cristian’s car. And then the car had gotten stuck in a snow bank. They were too far from the lodge to try to walk back but Cristian had found a cave nearby.
They stayed warm wrapped in blankets and cuddling by the fire. And that’s how her Uncle Todd had found them. Natalie’s second mistake. She’d accepted the tea that he’d offered her, believing that maybe he did care. He said that he had come on behalf of her mother and her Uncle Bo, to deliver word that Mitch was behind bars and couldn’t harm them. Cristian had been wary. She was too but she was weak and then the strangest thing happened. Her vision had started to blur and she felt light-headed. Then everything went black.
She’d woken up in Todd’s Range Rover, disoriented, afraid, and pissed as hell. After a futile attempt to get away, she’d calmly listened to Todd tell her his motive for kidnapping her and his plan to end Mitch’s reign of terror over his family without actually sacrificing her. Her third mistake: agreeing to go along with his plan.
She allowed him to bind her hands and stood by his side when they arrived at the old abandoned Pyramid Theatre. She should’ve run but she didn’t. She’d walked into the darkened theatre, a step behind him, nervous but hopeful that things would work out they way that Todd wanted.
An unexpected blinding spotlight had been placed on them as Mitch’s menacing voice needled Todd over the loudspeaker. She’d tried to keep him calm. She’d tried to stay brave.
Mitch’s maniacal laughter filled her ears. A shadowy figure had appeared in the wings and Todd had fired his gun. The house lights came on and she and her uncle were both horrified to discover that he hadn’t shot Mitch or one of his lackeys but Cristian.
Natalie had run to his side, crying, pleading with him not to die, not to leave her alone. She still wailed for Cristian even as Mitch grabbed her by her hair and pried her away from Cristian’s body, dragging her out of the theatre, to his car, where one of his followers injected her with a mild sedative.
Mitch had delighted in taunting her over Cristian’s untimely demise but she refused to believe that Cristian was dead. He wouldn’t leave her. Not now. Not ever. She needed him.
Words and faces became blurs as Mitch continued to sedate her. Confusion set in when he began calling her Jessica but even that faded as more drugs began coursing through her veins as she was prepped for surgery.
It was all a daze -- then and now in her memory. Her mother and sister arriving. Viki assuring her that Cristian was indeed still alive. The old man in the wheelchair demanded that Viki choose. Viki staring at her. Her Uncle Bo and other police officers bursting in moments later. And then it was over.
Once she’d been placed in the back of the ambulance, she gave in to all the sedatives and anesthesia and closed her eyes.
She didn’t awaken again until the next night, in a small private room at Llanview General Hospital. Jessica and Viki’s faces brightened qhwn they saw that she'd regained consciousness but she was put off by the looks in their eyes. Sadness. Grief. Something was wrong…
Where was Cristian?
Her mother and sister had stepped out into the corridor and Antonio entered. The grief that she’d seen in Viki’s and Jessica’s eyes didn’t compare to the grief she saw in his.
"Where’s Cristian?"
"I caught him after he snuck out of the hospital trying to hotwire a cop cruiser. He wanted to find you. I shouldn’t have, but I let him go with him to follow up on lead. I shouldn’t have. He collapsed at the clinic in Jason‘s Landing. He started hemorrhaging. They tried but…."
"Antonio?"
"They couldn’t save him, Natalie." He placed something in her hand. It was Cristian's St. Christopher medal. "He’s dead. Cristian’s dead."
"NO!"
She had screamed and began to cry. Viki, Jessica, some man with blonde hair wearing a clerical uniform, and a nurse had come rushing in. None of them mattered. None of them could help her. She wanted Cristian and he was dead. He had died trying to save her because he loved her. He had died because of her.
It wasn’t fair. Not after all that they’d been through, all that they had overcome, just to be together that they had only gotten to spend a little time together. Only allotted a brief bit of happiness before it was torn away.
It just wasn't fair. Wasn’t she allowed to be happy?
To be continued...
It's not beta'd. Extremely rough draft.
Title: Daylight Fading - Prologue/?
Author: Astrid
Rating: PG
Category: One Life to Live
Genre: General, Angst; Alternate History - includes character deaths
Pairings: Al/Marcie, Al/Natalie, implied Cristian/Natalie
Summary: Love. Hate. Desperation. Grief. They understood each other better than anyone else could.
Disclaimer: Characters are property of ABC Daytime’s One Life to Live; I’m just borrowing them. Title and lyrical intro are from the song “Daylight Fading” by Counting Crows from their album Recovering the Satellites.
Note: Long before I was a McNat supporter and during the time I was a Crisalie, I was also an avid supporter of Al and Natalie hooking up and having hate sex because their relationship met all the criteria for potential hate sex. Plus, Melissa Archer and Nathaniel Marston had a smoking hot natural chemistry -- correction, they still have a smoking hot natural chemistry that comes across on the screen when TIIC allow them to share scenes. I wasn’t upset when Al died because it meant the end of Marcal (don’t get me wrong, they had their moments and I liked them all right), I was upset because it meant that I’d never get my Al/Natalie. So now I'm writing this fic just to get it out of my system.
Daylight fading
Come and waste another year
All the anger and the eloquence are bleeding into fear
Moonlight creeping around the corners of our lawn
When we see the early signs that daylight’s fading
We leave just before it’s gone
February 2003
Llanview
Life wasn’t fair. Natalie had learned that early in life but just how cruel and unfair it could be she was only beginning to understand.
She and Cristian had spent four wonderful days snowed in at her family’s lodge up on Llantano Mountain; blissfully secluded from the rest of the world and the danger that had sent them into hiding. Then came the phone call from Mitch. He knew where they were and he was coming. And they would both pay dearly.
Mitch was miles away yet knowing that he could reach them, even if only on the phone, had terrified her. Besides, he had proven time and time again that he had his ways of getting to whomever wherever whenever he wanted. Not wanting to call his bluff they had decided to flee the cabin.
Her first mistake had been to keep trying to fix that damn mirror. She wasn’t on the best of terms with her grandfather, Asa, and doubted she ever would be. The last thing she wanted was to leave anything out of place so that at some later date he could grumble about her horrible upbringing and lack of manners and respect for other people’s property. She hadn’t thought that the mirror would be as heavy as it was, so she’d lost her balance when she’d accidentally lifted it off the hook holding it on the wall. She’d fallen, dropping the mirror, the glass shattering around her, one shard slicing through her lower leg.
And so their departure was delayed. Cristian had attempted to clean and dress her wound but the cut had become infected -- not too bad but enough to delay them a bit longer. As soon as she started to feel better, they left, taking off in Cristian’s car. And then the car had gotten stuck in a snow bank. They were too far from the lodge to try to walk back but Cristian had found a cave nearby.
They stayed warm wrapped in blankets and cuddling by the fire. And that’s how her Uncle Todd had found them. Natalie’s second mistake. She’d accepted the tea that he’d offered her, believing that maybe he did care. He said that he had come on behalf of her mother and her Uncle Bo, to deliver word that Mitch was behind bars and couldn’t harm them. Cristian had been wary. She was too but she was weak and then the strangest thing happened. Her vision had started to blur and she felt light-headed. Then everything went black.
She’d woken up in Todd’s Range Rover, disoriented, afraid, and pissed as hell. After a futile attempt to get away, she’d calmly listened to Todd tell her his motive for kidnapping her and his plan to end Mitch’s reign of terror over his family without actually sacrificing her. Her third mistake: agreeing to go along with his plan.
She allowed him to bind her hands and stood by his side when they arrived at the old abandoned Pyramid Theatre. She should’ve run but she didn’t. She’d walked into the darkened theatre, a step behind him, nervous but hopeful that things would work out they way that Todd wanted.
An unexpected blinding spotlight had been placed on them as Mitch’s menacing voice needled Todd over the loudspeaker. She’d tried to keep him calm. She’d tried to stay brave.
Mitch’s maniacal laughter filled her ears. A shadowy figure had appeared in the wings and Todd had fired his gun. The house lights came on and she and her uncle were both horrified to discover that he hadn’t shot Mitch or one of his lackeys but Cristian.
Natalie had run to his side, crying, pleading with him not to die, not to leave her alone. She still wailed for Cristian even as Mitch grabbed her by her hair and pried her away from Cristian’s body, dragging her out of the theatre, to his car, where one of his followers injected her with a mild sedative.
Mitch had delighted in taunting her over Cristian’s untimely demise but she refused to believe that Cristian was dead. He wouldn’t leave her. Not now. Not ever. She needed him.
Words and faces became blurs as Mitch continued to sedate her. Confusion set in when he began calling her Jessica but even that faded as more drugs began coursing through her veins as she was prepped for surgery.
It was all a daze -- then and now in her memory. Her mother and sister arriving. Viki assuring her that Cristian was indeed still alive. The old man in the wheelchair demanded that Viki choose. Viki staring at her. Her Uncle Bo and other police officers bursting in moments later. And then it was over.
Once she’d been placed in the back of the ambulance, she gave in to all the sedatives and anesthesia and closed her eyes.
She didn’t awaken again until the next night, in a small private room at Llanview General Hospital. Jessica and Viki’s faces brightened qhwn they saw that she'd regained consciousness but she was put off by the looks in their eyes. Sadness. Grief. Something was wrong…
Where was Cristian?
Her mother and sister had stepped out into the corridor and Antonio entered. The grief that she’d seen in Viki’s and Jessica’s eyes didn’t compare to the grief she saw in his.
"Where’s Cristian?"
"I caught him after he snuck out of the hospital trying to hotwire a cop cruiser. He wanted to find you. I shouldn’t have, but I let him go with him to follow up on lead. I shouldn’t have. He collapsed at the clinic in Jason‘s Landing. He started hemorrhaging. They tried but…."
"Antonio?"
"They couldn’t save him, Natalie." He placed something in her hand. It was Cristian's St. Christopher medal. "He’s dead. Cristian’s dead."
"NO!"
She had screamed and began to cry. Viki, Jessica, some man with blonde hair wearing a clerical uniform, and a nurse had come rushing in. None of them mattered. None of them could help her. She wanted Cristian and he was dead. He had died trying to save her because he loved her. He had died because of her.
It wasn’t fair. Not after all that they’d been through, all that they had overcome, just to be together that they had only gotten to spend a little time together. Only allotted a brief bit of happiness before it was torn away.
It just wasn't fair. Wasn’t she allowed to be happy?
To be continued...