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Sat Aug 18, 2012 9:00 pm
tgirly says...



Lucille
Chapter 16
I hand Clive my knife, pretending Ant doesn't exist but died some miserable death while he was out in the forest snickering over just how hilarious it was to kiss Luce and see what happened.
I take first watch. When it's time for Ant's, I throw a rock at his foot and slump to the ground, not facing him. I hear him sigh and sit up.
"Luce," he says, "you're being so immature. I-"
"Fart off," I say and curl up to sleep. Ant climbs up the tree.
About two in the morning, there's a rustling and Ant's back down.
"What-" I start, but Ant pulls to the side of the tree to hide under its foliage as a massive jet passes overhead.
"Do you think they saw us?" Ant asks. I don't say anything. He's holding my hand. The strange lightning is pulsing through my veins. His eyes glimmer like gemstones, even in the darkness.
"Luce?" Ant asks, raising his eyebrows. I don't get why he does that so much, his arched brows are constantly jumping up and down, and everytime his nose wiggles in a peculiar, minute left, slight right. Concentrate.
"No," I say, "unless they were looking for us, but then there would've been some kind of search light, I think. I don't really... know." I shrug his arms off, angry at him for making me admit my weakness again and again.
Luce-" Ant starts.
"Look, can we just forget about the kiss?" I say all in a rush. I'm usually better at holding onto grudges. I never let it go when I've been wronge, never give the person a second chance to hurt me again. Never give them a chance in the first place. It's not practical.
Ant seems to shrink slightly. It's obviously the kiss, even if it was a joke, meant something to him for some odd reason. He looks down at his feet.
"Please?" I say, my voice coming in a squeak from the effort of the word. He's silent, but nods.
"Okay," I say
"Okay," he says. We stare at eachother awkwardly for awhile, then I crawl back under the blankets, shivering slightly.
No stars are out, and the world seems brighter. Maybe it's possible to forget something, if you try hard enough. If you push it away enough.
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
-Abraham Joshua Heschel





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Tue Jun 25, 2013 6:39 am
eyeofthestorm says...



Chapter 17

[I haven't written Ant in such a long long time so sorry for any inconsistency]

The night passes slowly. In the morning I feel exhausted because I took Aaron's shift. There was too much on my mind to have slept, though I'm beginning to regret not trying.
Luce seems herself again, which I suppose is good, although when I go to fill the water bottles in the mountain stream I have to choke back the angry words I want to scream. I kick the tree closest to to me hard enough to knock a branch down a few inches from my head. It's not helping anyone to do this and it hurts. I can't stay here, not so long as any of this is happening. I see a few birds and, for the first time time I can remember, I don't count them and order them by species and age. I just listen to the birdsong and walk back to camp, weighed down by everything unsaid.
***
I take all three watches again tonight so I can be alone with my thoughts. Up in the tree I let a few silent tears fall at the thought of leaving Aaron, my brother, and Luce, my oldest living friend. I have to though, because the longer I stay here now the more I feel the knife twisting into my gut, the less I sleep and eat.
I start and glance silently around at a sudden crack, but it's Aaron climbing the tree below me. He looks up at me and says, "Go before she wakes up. I'll tell her and find you if we need you."
I nod and drop silently out of the tree, landing on my fee. I take a bottle of water and a few other things in a small pack and kneel beside Luce.
"Good-bye," I whisper. I almost press my lips to her forehead but then I think better of it and disappear through the trees.


***



Chapter 18 - Aaron

"What do you mean he left?" Luce snarls.
I shrug. "You kind of broke his heart a bit."
She is about to respond but stops an looks at me. "How did you know about that?"
"We are brothers, you know. He tells me when he's going to confess to a girl and it's not hard to tell when his heard has been...you know...ripped out and stomped on. Repeatedly."
Luce looks a mixture of shocked and confused. She doesn't say a thing. We walk in silence, knowing what's missing missing not sure how to fix it.
Bilbo: What have I got in my pocket?
Gollum: Handsies!
Bilbo: Nope, guess again.
Gollum: A knife! No, no...
Bilbo: Wrong again.
Gollum: String! Or... Nothing!





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Reviews: 33
Tue Sep 03, 2013 4:26 am
eyeofthestorm says...



Chapter 19 - Ant

Days pass in silence.
I leave traces that only Aaron would ever grasp: a thread tied around a tree, stones pressed carefully in the shape of an A, piled stones that won't fall. Unobtrusive markers, but obvious signs to a smart kid like him.
Just when I start to feel like the rest of my life will be an extended episode of solitary confinement, I trip over what is obviously meant to be a tripwire. Overwhelmed with sheer curiosity, I follow it with my eye and see that it runs to a bell but is wrapped too tightly around a branch to make it ring. I toss a stone at the bell because I want to see who put it there and now I don't have to protect the other three.
Immediately, I heard a rustle in the leaves behind me and turn with a smile. I raise my hands above my head because she's pointing a gun at me and say, "Take me to your leader."
**********
"It's just a few of us. Twenty or thirty, the numbers change a lot."
I listen close to her rambling explanation. I've learned about the resistance, because the girl isn't very good at keeping secrets. They have bases all over the mountains, and they're dedicated to bringing down the "empire."
"What's your name?" I ask, cutting her off. She looks at me.
"I'm Ginger. Virginia, actually, but everybody just calls me Ginger. You look good for a rebel."
"I'm more of a runner, but thanks." She's pretty enough herself, with short, choppy red hair and a delicate, heart-like face, but I can't stop seeing Luce with red-rimmed eyes long enough to appreciate it.
She stops in front of a tent and gestures for me to enter. I take a step forward, wondering what's inside and what Luce would be doing if she were here right now.
Bilbo: What have I got in my pocket?
Gollum: Handsies!
Bilbo: Nope, guess again.
Gollum: A knife! No, no...
Bilbo: Wrong again.
Gollum: String! Or... Nothing!





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374 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 1147
Reviews: 374
Wed Sep 04, 2013 3:33 am
tgirly says...



Chapter 20
Lucille

I had really messed up.
I'd chased Ant away, from Aaron, the only family he had left, from the only people he even knew anymore, because of one bad prank I hadn't understood rightly- or a nonprank I'd thought was fake- it was all so confusing in her head. It wasn't that she disliked the idea of Ant having a crush on her, it was the foreignness of the thought that freaked her out; her brain just couldn't register it; it was like trying to figure the exact number of pi. It was too much.
It didn't even matter, because he was gone now. And I couldn't even go looking for him, because she was now in charge of their small group and keeping them all alive was enough to worry about. The only practical option left for her was to forget about him.
But he was too much to forget about. It was like forgetting about the sun after night had set; it didn't happen. What had illuminated everything, given it life was gone and without him, I was blind and lost.
Yeah, if you have to know, I cried in the middle of the night. Only in treetops when no one could hear if a sniffle got out- which it never did, I made sure of that. But in the morning, I was ready to be Fearless Leader Luce, braving the accusatory glares of Aaron and the pitying glances and too-kind words from Clive. I couldn't tell which one made my insides writhe in greater self-loathing.
I kept them moving and under the thickest cover I could find. I kept my eyes stone-cold and shallow, jaw clenched. I didn't take nothing from no one. When Aaron complained about being tired, I barked out orders like a true drill sergeant. He soon learned to expect no spoiling comfort from me; for that, he would have to appeal to Clive.
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
-Abraham Joshua Heschel








hmmm. you know, the quote generator deserves some garlic bread
— SilverNight