Farfaraway (new author), One Small Human
Title: One Small Human
Author: Farfaraway
Flavor(s): Marshmallow #13 A Good Deed
Toppings/Extras: None
Rating: PG
Notes: So, these are probably going to be extremely unpolished for awhile. I'll probably go back and make them neater eventually but for now coming back to any kind of creative writing for the first time since high school and just trying to play around with it and get some ideas flowing. Please excuse the mess if you decide to read this.
Anabelle walked slowly down the stairs, listening to the sounds of the couple fighting in apartment 2E and the couple making love and 3D and hearing the cries of the heartbroken teenager in 1A. She saw patterns in all things and the city was ripe with the spoils of relationships this evening. As she stood in the stairwell she felt the emotions flood the empty void that had developed in the past month spent in the barren and shadowed Nightmare City.
Gently, she pushed her fingers against the grimy railing that ran along the stairs and felt a thrill of pleasure as her solidifying fingers barely penetrated the wood. She lifted her hand and placed it over her chest, taking a deep breath into forming lungs, relishing in the burning rush of oxygen. The hatred of the wife in 2E and the ecstasy of the women in 3D and the pain of the girl in 1A seeped into Anabelle’s soul and she felt herself fully come into form. With a sigh, she flopped down on the hard carpeted step and buried her face in her hands. She felt whole and complete for the first time in many months. The chill of Nightmare City left her and she felt herself flush as her human form began to warm. She took a moment to gain her bearings with her human heart and found it longing for human contact. Not surprising considering the aspects she had drawn from but it greatly complicated things. The longer it took to fulfill that human need, the quicker she would tire and return to where she had just escaped from.
She stood up and ran down the lower half of the staircase and her head almost spun from the sudden rush to her senses. The light burning in her calves, the vaguely unpleasant smell of the public hallway of the apartment building, the feeling of her hair falling across her cheek. The total deprivation of the past few months had affected her more than she had thought. She had no plan but knew that the serendipity of human destiny would embrace her and she walked out into the city and she would find her temporary place in this small swatch of human time.
At the bottom of the stairs, a baby carrier caught her eye, left unattended apparently by some harried mother who had undoubtedly ran back to her apartment for some forgotten item. Anabelle tucked her hair behind her ears and bent down to peak into the carrier. The tiny human looked back at her with bright, alert blue eyes. A smile came to Anabelle’s lips at the interaction with her first human for months. She loved the human race in a complicated way. They were the fuel she fed on to give herself true form and they were the existence she emulated and strove for. She found them romantic and resilient and creative. Their experience completed her, filling the void, turning her from a mere wraith to a solid being capable of affecting physical change in their world. She reached out a hand and touched the baby’s chubby arm which was swaddled in soft pink cotton clothes.
As she straightened up, she looked around the hallway for the mother of the child who had not yet reappeared. Anabelle wondered if she should wait for the parent to return. Was that the moral, good citizenly thing to do? She pictured herself as a good person, if she indeed was one, because the remnants of goodness absorbed from people always made her more complete and she tired less quickly forcing her back into the shadowy realm she came from.
For a moment the lights seemed to dim and Anabelle blinked hard. Sometimes when she came into human form it took a moment for her senses to work completely properly. When she opened them the hall was still dim and seemed almost fuzzy. Her heart beat strangely hard in her chest. That all too human feeling of foreboding, a flight of fight instinct that comes only with the possession of precious life.
Out of the wall on the opposite end of the hallway stepped three figures. They were hunched at the shoulders and wore scraps of black fabric. They looked only vaguely human, standing on two legs with four limbs but the skin beneath the black fabric was very pale, marred with deep purple like bruises in places. Their faces consisted only of a gaping red mouth filled with tiny sharp teeth. They were the tortured minions of the Demons - creatures that plagued both the shadow beings of Nightmare City and the humans who walked on the surface - and were the most wretched beings to ever exist.
They tipped their grotesque faces at Annabelle and she was aware they knew that she was not really human. She swallowed and began to back away. They couldn't possibly be there for her. She had a quiet, sheltered existence in one of the upper planes of the city - for Nightmare City was not a city of square miles but of different depths and levels of existence - and was completely harmless in her usual wraith form. Her terror seemed for nothing though as they approached the baby carrier. Confusion and fear of a different type overcame her, the fear for another, and she wondered what on earth they could want with the small human child. The Demons loved to inflict pain and suffering on all beings but they usually inflicted it on a large scale. One human child . . .
Before she could think through her actions, she ran forward and grabbed the baby carrier, jerking it up beside her and clumsily hitting it against the wall. She turned a ran for the door, pushing it open so hard that it slammed against the outside brick wall. Behind her she heard the shrieks of the creatures, felt the icy grasp of their will on all four of her limbs. She would never outrun them. With all the energy she could muster, she allowed herself to fade enough that she felt their grip leave her though her grasp on the baby carrier also grew precarious. A few more steps, into the bright light of the day and within sight of the other humans if they cared to look. They would not follow her. They were not permitted.
Still, her heart pounded in her chest and her breath came out ragged as she struggled not to let herself fall back into the shadow realm and thought of the consequences of what she had just done.
Author: Farfaraway
Flavor(s): Marshmallow #13 A Good Deed
Toppings/Extras: None
Rating: PG
Notes: So, these are probably going to be extremely unpolished for awhile. I'll probably go back and make them neater eventually but for now coming back to any kind of creative writing for the first time since high school and just trying to play around with it and get some ideas flowing. Please excuse the mess if you decide to read this.
Anabelle walked slowly down the stairs, listening to the sounds of the couple fighting in apartment 2E and the couple making love and 3D and hearing the cries of the heartbroken teenager in 1A. She saw patterns in all things and the city was ripe with the spoils of relationships this evening. As she stood in the stairwell she felt the emotions flood the empty void that had developed in the past month spent in the barren and shadowed Nightmare City.
Gently, she pushed her fingers against the grimy railing that ran along the stairs and felt a thrill of pleasure as her solidifying fingers barely penetrated the wood. She lifted her hand and placed it over her chest, taking a deep breath into forming lungs, relishing in the burning rush of oxygen. The hatred of the wife in 2E and the ecstasy of the women in 3D and the pain of the girl in 1A seeped into Anabelle’s soul and she felt herself fully come into form. With a sigh, she flopped down on the hard carpeted step and buried her face in her hands. She felt whole and complete for the first time in many months. The chill of Nightmare City left her and she felt herself flush as her human form began to warm. She took a moment to gain her bearings with her human heart and found it longing for human contact. Not surprising considering the aspects she had drawn from but it greatly complicated things. The longer it took to fulfill that human need, the quicker she would tire and return to where she had just escaped from.
She stood up and ran down the lower half of the staircase and her head almost spun from the sudden rush to her senses. The light burning in her calves, the vaguely unpleasant smell of the public hallway of the apartment building, the feeling of her hair falling across her cheek. The total deprivation of the past few months had affected her more than she had thought. She had no plan but knew that the serendipity of human destiny would embrace her and she walked out into the city and she would find her temporary place in this small swatch of human time.
At the bottom of the stairs, a baby carrier caught her eye, left unattended apparently by some harried mother who had undoubtedly ran back to her apartment for some forgotten item. Anabelle tucked her hair behind her ears and bent down to peak into the carrier. The tiny human looked back at her with bright, alert blue eyes. A smile came to Anabelle’s lips at the interaction with her first human for months. She loved the human race in a complicated way. They were the fuel she fed on to give herself true form and they were the existence she emulated and strove for. She found them romantic and resilient and creative. Their experience completed her, filling the void, turning her from a mere wraith to a solid being capable of affecting physical change in their world. She reached out a hand and touched the baby’s chubby arm which was swaddled in soft pink cotton clothes.
As she straightened up, she looked around the hallway for the mother of the child who had not yet reappeared. Anabelle wondered if she should wait for the parent to return. Was that the moral, good citizenly thing to do? She pictured herself as a good person, if she indeed was one, because the remnants of goodness absorbed from people always made her more complete and she tired less quickly forcing her back into the shadowy realm she came from.
For a moment the lights seemed to dim and Anabelle blinked hard. Sometimes when she came into human form it took a moment for her senses to work completely properly. When she opened them the hall was still dim and seemed almost fuzzy. Her heart beat strangely hard in her chest. That all too human feeling of foreboding, a flight of fight instinct that comes only with the possession of precious life.
Out of the wall on the opposite end of the hallway stepped three figures. They were hunched at the shoulders and wore scraps of black fabric. They looked only vaguely human, standing on two legs with four limbs but the skin beneath the black fabric was very pale, marred with deep purple like bruises in places. Their faces consisted only of a gaping red mouth filled with tiny sharp teeth. They were the tortured minions of the Demons - creatures that plagued both the shadow beings of Nightmare City and the humans who walked on the surface - and were the most wretched beings to ever exist.
They tipped their grotesque faces at Annabelle and she was aware they knew that she was not really human. She swallowed and began to back away. They couldn't possibly be there for her. She had a quiet, sheltered existence in one of the upper planes of the city - for Nightmare City was not a city of square miles but of different depths and levels of existence - and was completely harmless in her usual wraith form. Her terror seemed for nothing though as they approached the baby carrier. Confusion and fear of a different type overcame her, the fear for another, and she wondered what on earth they could want with the small human child. The Demons loved to inflict pain and suffering on all beings but they usually inflicted it on a large scale. One human child . . .
Before she could think through her actions, she ran forward and grabbed the baby carrier, jerking it up beside her and clumsily hitting it against the wall. She turned a ran for the door, pushing it open so hard that it slammed against the outside brick wall. Behind her she heard the shrieks of the creatures, felt the icy grasp of their will on all four of her limbs. She would never outrun them. With all the energy she could muster, she allowed herself to fade enough that she felt their grip leave her though her grasp on the baby carrier also grew precarious. A few more steps, into the bright light of the day and within sight of the other humans if they cared to look. They would not follow her. They were not permitted.
Still, her heart pounded in her chest and her breath came out ragged as she struggled not to let herself fall back into the shadow realm and thought of the consequences of what she had just done.