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Young Writers Society



Déjà Vu chapter 8

by SpencerReidIsMyLife


Natalie Reid woke up in what would be a pitch-dark room, if it weren’t for the fact of the single lightbulb swaying back and forth repeatedly. She could vaguely see the objects in the small chamber. The first thing that caught her eye was a line of desktop computers filming, what looked like, average American citizens. To the right of that, there was a fairly organized desk. Military structured, she reminded herself. As she looked further left, she saw a metal safe which was sealed shut.

Why am I here? She thought, just as a dark figure stormed in through a door on her right.

“I see you’re awake.” He stated as he stepped closer into the dim light presented by the lightbulb. He had a large jacket on, along with a pair of jeans. He meticulously took his jacket off, revealing his black t-shirt underneath. His hair was black and ruffled, as if he hadn’t brushed it in a few days. His face gave away a peach-like color as he stepped further into the light. All she could do was sit and stare at the menacing man in front of her.

“What you looking at girl?” he demanded.

Oh God, she thought, what do I do now?

He grabbed a black sack from the corner of the room, along with the chair from his desk, and he pulled the chair forward enough so that it was directly in front of her. He then proceeded to place the bag on the floor and sit in the chair. He then leaned forward, making his face only inches away from hers, and said,

“Confess your sins.” Oh shit! She thought, that’s what Tobias said to Spencer…….But Tobias is dead, so then why-

“You hear me girl? Confess your sins!” He’s getting angrier….

“I’m not a sinner.” She finally responded, defiance showing I her voice. I can’t give into him.

“We’re all sinners, confess!”

“No.” she said with dignity. I won’t give into him!

“Alright,” he replied as he grabbed my right shoe and began to untie its laces, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“You don’t have to do this,” I answered, trying to get on his ‘good-side’, “There’s another way out of this.” He just pulled my fire-truck red converse sneaker to the side, and pulled up my left shoe.

“There is no way out,” he emphasized, “only confessing will give you clarity.”

“I have nothing to confess.” I really don’t. There is nothing I have done that goes against God…….and even if I have…..I would never tell him, right?

“You will,” he said as he slipped off my other shoe and continued onto my socks, “in time.” Crap! Why does he even have me here? I’m not special. I’m just a 16 year old girl in college with a high IQ, what’s so special about that? She would have laughed about her own thoughts, if it weren’t for the predicament she was in right now. He now brought her bare, right foot onto his left knee. “Last chance- Confess. Your. Sins!”

“I already told you,” she said as exhaustion from repetition leaked into her voice, “I don’t have any to confess.”

“Well then,” he said as he took a bundle of twigs out of the sack, “Let’s begin.” Oh God! This can’t be happening! This has to be a dream- a-a nightmare! Just wake up Natalie, just wake-

CRACK!

“Agh!” That hurt like Hell!

CRACK!

“PLEASE!” Wait- I’m begging with him, why am I doing that?

CRACK!

“AHHHHHH!” She screamed, dignity now the least of her worries.

“You can scream all you want girl,” he said, “no-one can here you here.”

CRACK!!!!

“Spencer!” Wait- why Spencer I haven’t seen him in years…..she thought only to be countered by her own thoughts, Only because I haven’t let him: he comes, I just don’t let him: why don’t I let him?! Tears now began to stream down her face and she yelled again, “PLEASE! SPENCER, HELP!”

The ‘Unsub’ put down the sticks. “He can’t help you.”

After I took a minute to catch my breath, I coldly responded, “So then why is that camera recording?”

He then stood up, walked around to his desk, and took something out of the drawer. He turned to face me and smiled. “Maybe these will loosen you up a bit…”

I looked at what he had in his hands Drugs. Oh God…..Can’t I think of something better than ‘oh God?’

“After all,” he continued, it did to your brother….”

“That’s Dilaudid?!” she blurted out unintentionally. I remember my foster family telling me about that….

“Of course it is, what else would it be?” He taunted.

“Oh Hell no!” she screamed as she tried to free herself from the restraints by tugging at the ropes, even though she knew it was pointless. No. I can’t let this happen…..I WON’T let this happen….. “Please…” She tried, one last time.

“No use fighting,” he said as he fastened the belt around her forearm, and held the needle in place, “it’ll just make it hurt more.” And with that, he expelled the liquid into her vein as her head jerked back, and her body finally submitted to the drug.




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Sun May 01, 2016 8:34 pm
SpiritedWolfe wrote a review...



Hello there! I want to apologize for not reading previous parts, so I may ask questions that were already addressed earlier.

That being said, I'm fairly confused on what's happening in this part. And it's not just about things like how this girl got in this spot, but actually what's happening to her. Even after rereading several parts, I don't understand what this man is doing to her and why it involves taking off her shoes? (After reading for a fourth time, I think he's whacking her with a twig, but it's still very unclear. I strongly recommend making this more clear as to what is going on.)

Also, right in the middle of this chapter, it suddenly changes into present tense from third. Then it goes right back into third again. I believe it was intended to be written in third person, but from all the thoughts being inserted from the main character, I would recommend you trying out first person. With first person, it's a lot easier to slip thoughts into the narration as well as a develop a stronger voice for the narrator. It may suit the scene better rather than having every other line being a direct thought. Just be sure to pick one and stick with it!

One final structural thing before I touch on a few plot things. The scene, to me, reads rather choppy, especially in longer paragraphs. I believe this is because the structure of back-to-back sentences is usually very similar to one another (such as "she did this. she did that". And that may be an oversimplification, but in general, it is subject of he, she, his, hers, etc and then the rest of the sentence.) Try to vary things up a little more. Instead of having "she saw" as a way to describe things, just describe them. As a rule of thumb, if a three sentences in a row start with he, she, his or hers, then try to change it to give it more variety! This really helps the flow of the reading since it's a much smoother transition between sentences.

A small thing that occurred to me while reading the beginning of the chapter is that I'm a little confused about this man. And the main reason is he enters and says something calmly in a more controlled tone. Then he says "What are you looking at, girl?" (note -- the comma is important xD) That really throws me off, considering 1) why would she not be looking at him since he just ran into the room and 2) he suddenly got very aggressive. It makes him seem flaky and inconsistent and it just really threw me off.

(Another quick note is that she is never mentioned to be restrained until the very last paragraph. Or second to last. But still, that's kind of important detail and I feel like she would have noticed it sooner and then mentioned it. The entire time I was wondering why she wasn't getting up and running >.> Or even just trying to get away.)

Overall, this is an interesting chapter, and aside from being rather confusing on what was occurring, it was kind of enjoyable to read.

Best of luck with the novel!
~ Wolfe




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Fri Mar 18, 2016 7:25 pm
BellaRoma wrote a review...



Hey! So part eight is here! Has been for a little while.... It sounded like you have more chapters, so I'm going to do my part, review, and hope you post whatever else you've finished soon. I can't wait!
I do remember you mentioning in chat a while ago that this was going to be told from Natalie's perspective, and I'm as glad of it now as I'm pretty sure I was then. Not that Spencer isn't a great narrator, but this definitely shakes things up and allows readers to see things from an angle he simply can't (at this point in the plot?). Maybe continue with this later on and drop hints to us as to whether this guy really did know Hankel, or if he's just an uncanny copycat.
I do have to say, her voice could be a little more different to Spencer's. That sort of thing is usually a must when you write with multiple POVs, unless there's some highly important thematic reason for not doing it. I know that the characters are related, and both intelligent, but do they talk often enough for Natalie to have picked up the term 'unsub' from him? Just a thought.... I've sort of gathered that it's actually a fairly specific FBI term. It's one way you could instantly make them more distinctly separate.
For my nitpicks I'm going to ask that you reread this. It might be quite useful for you, especially if you can have fairly fresh eyes on this. I don't know how much you've reread this since you posted (maybe not as much as I tend to with my major project, Imaginary Friends). Double check your grammar -- dialogue, definitely -- and make sure you haven't missed any typos. I have to confess I didn't read this very in depth before I began writing this review, so I don't have any pointers, but let me know if you want me to look in detail later.
I will also suggest that when you put in an ellipsis (...), that you only do three dots -- four if you start a completely new sentence afterwards. More than that is a little bit excessive. It's clear to see your point after three dots. As usual, it's totally up to you how you want to present your work, but I thought I'd mention it.

No more from me. See you around, and at the next chapter! :)

~Bella~

PS. My Penelope fanfic is undergoing serious rewriting, but I'll hopefully have a teaser out soon...





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