Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-29655694-20161219050749

This is something I wrote some time ago, bored with seemingly uneding days of vacation; bon appetit:

---

January 6 --- Little Christmas; 

12:03 AM; 



Apartment C-306. 



What had transpired, she could not have realized, unless the landline had cried out aloud for the second time.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;">She spent the first few moments of lucidity by staring into the ceiling of the room and allowing it to ring.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;">Soon, however, she became irritated and glanced at the clock that proudly told the time, before she picked up the receiver and put it down next to its cradle:

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">''<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">12:03:44 AM. 12:03:45 AM. 12:03:46 AM. ''<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">''<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">How lovely. ''<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">For an insomniac such her as herself, it really isn’t something she’d take to – waking up from sleep after being awake for some 67 hours, that is; nonetheless, it’s not as if she’s unhappy to have awoken up:

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">She awoke from a nightmare, you see – one even a celebrated author such as herself, whose tales focus on preternatural, eerie incidents, couldn’t help but dislike.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">''<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">That holy dream, that holy dream, hath cheered me as a lovely beam. . . ''<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">In that vivid dream, she pictures herself beside the river Arno, in Florence, Italy, hurrying and scolding herself for being late to an engagement.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">Turning right, after coming out to <span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">  <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">Piazza dei Giudicci <span style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">, she stops, seeing a crowd of men and women, facing the <span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language: BN-BD">  <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">Ufizzi Gallery <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">, all of them wearing funeral outfits.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">“'' Who – who are they? ''” she could not help but wonder.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">Nonetheless, keeping in mind that she hadn’t the time waste upon such matters, she rushes to reach the Gallery. And when she does, she was taken aback:

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">In front of the Gallery, a coffin is set, in which <span style="font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">  <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">she herself <span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">lay, holding a one eyed child.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">A one-eyed child that gazes at her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">And in this moment of the dream, she wakes up.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">''<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">Ordinarily. ''<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">Today, however, she did not.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">It actually lengthened itself, much to her dismay, you see.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">As she didn't awake, she found herself walking to the coffin, and upon doing so, she took hold of the one-eyed child and lifted it up from the long, narrow box which was used to bury the deceased.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">She gazes at the Cyclops, and she smiles; only to find that it, too, gazes at her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">It's alive, still.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;">It shows her its teeth, as if its smiling, that there is some missing; from the opening the teeth, blood emerges, and falls on both itself and on Elise.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">“ Her eyes – they’re just like yours, ” she hears the townspeople whisper, “ when you were younger, lovely Elise .”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">Fortunately, this is when the waves of the seas of that which unreal collide into the seashore of that which is not, and fades away.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">She wakes up.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">She glances at the clock once more, so as to be sure it isn't too late to answer the call:

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">12:04:12 AM <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">She sighed and picked up the receiver and touched it to her ear and cheek; she also noticed a certain movement beside her in the bed, but ignored it, considering it to be the work of her cat, <span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">  <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">Mine <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">''<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">Emilia’s cat, actually. ''<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">“ <span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">  ''<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">. . . Ms. Iscariot? . . Hello? ''<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">“ Yes !” Elise gasped, falsely.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">“I – I’m sorry: I was half-asleep, you see,” she tried to justify her actions, as if she, truly, was was sorry, and noticed a particular sound:

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">The sound of paper being torn <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language: BN-BD">.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">From the sound, she guessed the perpetrator was not tearing paper with a motive in mind, but randomly, as if he or she cares not.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">''<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">But. . . who does so at midnight? ''<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">''<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">More importantly, so loudly? Exactly how ami I hearing it? ''<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">She perhaps would have identified the source of the sound, but alas, the caller was evident not to allow her to do so, it seems.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">“'' I – I see. . . ''” said she.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">“Please continue, as to what you were saying,” Elise said, shaking from her head of such silly thoughts.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">“Well, I -- I’m Mary O’Conner, from Apartment C-306.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Mary O’Conner, Apartment C-306?

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">''Who could it be? . . . Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor. . . Tinker, tailor, soldier. . . Oh, yes, now I remember – that Irish, no?''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Irish, brunette, late-twenties – or so I think, that is.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"> She’s relocated to this apartment building only on the beginning of the month, and has been busy “sorting out stuff”, as she herself put it, and as such, hasn’t been able to socialize much with its allottees.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Save for the over-friendly Irish, that is.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"> “Yes, Mrs. O’Conner, how may I waste my time, helping you?” she said, being a cynic – which she actually was not – as she touched the black choker that bit the skin of her neck.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">Silence <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">She raised her brows, because there wasn’t any response – or any sound – that could be heard; paper wasn’t being torn either, she noticed.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">And it was this silence that allowed her to realize a startling matter:

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;">''<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">That sound, it came from next to me, on the bed. ''<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">She clutched the sheet, and tried to regulate her breathing, as she felt a chain in her chest - <span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;">- she was a patient of asthma -- only to notice that the sheet, it’s wet.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13.3333px;font-weight:normal;">Elise  stared at the sheet for a moment, and licked her lips; and it seemed as if she'd forgotten about the ache.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">She then turned to the bedside table and lit the lamp; turning back, she pulled the cover as strongly as she could, to throw it from the bed.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">And she herself fell from it, when she tried to move away from the <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">Cyclops <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">that lay next to her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">The bed sheet is wet, it seemed, because of the <span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">  <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">blood <span style="font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">that came from <span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">  <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">Mine <span style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">’s throat, which is still bleeding.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">As for the noise of paper being torn, <span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">  <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">it came from underneath the bed <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">, <span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">  <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;border-width:1pt;border-style:none;border-color:windowtext;padding:0in;">done by a separate entity <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-language:BN-BD">, it seems.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal"> <ac_metadata title="A House-cat, an Asthma Patient, and a Phone Call [review needed]"> </ac_metadata>