Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25421326-20160519214557

Alright man, let's do this.



The voices are all I know. They tell me what to do, what to say. They are my friends and family. My livelihood.

One foot back, one foot forward. Heal, toe, heal, toe.



It used to be so fun, staying up, watching static across the screen in a dark room, listening as the voices fade away as I return to reality.

You're doing great, dude! Let's try jogging now.

Only one voice stuck with me since birth: Gwendolyn. She's the voice in my head that I can hear without the paper. She's so supportive to me, so kind.

Arms, just keep pumping. I’m going to get my friends back, so don't you fail on us.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Now, I need to talk to the other voices again. Ever since last night’s incident, I haven't been able to get the crying out of my mind.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Running. Just get runni - Op! Don't keep tripping up, or they might catch you.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">They only screamed one thing. They were so desperate for someone to listen.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">I'll be off to the side if you need me for some assistance.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">"She is nameless."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">There’s a ladder on the left! Quick!

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">I was only a child when I was told about my… Condition. After my mom told me about it, all I did was ask what “schizophrenia” was.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Wrap your fingers, keep reaching up to the next one, and soon we’ll be out of this hellhole.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Gwendolyn knew though. She told me it was some weird brain thing which helps me hear her, and I told Mom about it. She broke down in tears.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Keep climbing. Don’t look down, or you might fall off. I love you too much to let that happen.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">When I was 17, Gwendolyn told me she was lonely. She wanted other voices, like her, to talk to. More friends, more companions.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">I’m so sorry I got you into this mess. It was horrible of me. I should have just stayed alone.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">I had some friends of my own. They heard me talking to her one day about her solitude, and told me about something that could fix her situation.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">You’re on the ledge of the hotel. Take your time, I can hear them running the wrong way.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">There’s this little scrap of paper, and it’s dipped in some weird liquid that makes it melt on your tongue. They called it LSD, whatever that stands for.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Yep, looks like they’re all the way down on the other end of the parking garage. Time to crawl.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">I knew about the effects of this drug, and how horrifying the visions could be, but I couldn’t bare to see my only true friend like this.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Come on, get down on your hands, bend your knees, and high tail yourself out of here!

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">I love Gwendolyn as sister. I love her more than myself, the light of my day, the voice that helps me and makes me tick. I needed her to be happy for me.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">We’re crawling on a ledge of a hotel. We are crawling. On the ledge. Of a hotel.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Gwendolyn’s first time meeting her friends was a truly magical event for her. My mind turned to mush as I listened in on their conversations, and the static flickered into the night.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Just keep goi - Wait… I feel like I’m being watched...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">I got my fix from these dealers that called themselves the Twins. After a while, I couldn’t think as well as the next guy. I was too drugged up to even speak most days. All I wanted to do was make her happy, hear her laugh.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">There’s something in the window! Crawl faster! It’s… A little girl?

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Fast forward two years.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Her face is so… Off… It looks like a reptile… Why does she have her hands over her eyes?

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">The one they were talking about, the “nameless” one. I saw her around the bench I was sleeping on one night. Just wandering around. Staring at me...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">… She’s in the next window… I can see her eyes now… She’s smiling...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Now, I’m attempting to talk to the voices one last time, to find answers to who she is. I can sense that my fate is nye, and I have accepted it with all my heart.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">She’s opening the window! We’re gonna be pushed off the ledge! Quick, quick!

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">I sneak in through the apartment window, and steal my fix of the paper, since I’m broke and can’t afford anything at this point. Right as my head’s in the window frame, they open the door. The Twins are back.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">No! We’re falling! Damn it!

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Gwendolyn prompts me to run away from them, so I do. Faster, and faster, and faster. Ladder. Ledge. Falling, falling, falling. Crunch.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">I suppose, if this is the last time I can say it, before you die…

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">The little girl from earlier comes around the corner, stopping at my now broken body. She grins.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">“... Let me tell you who I really am, in person.” She leans in, and whispers her name into my ear. Then I know the truth, just before my name is forgotten.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">The voices weren’t warning both of us. They were warning me. <ac_metadata title="Gwendolyn (Unreviewed)"> </ac_metadata>