Challenge Day 3 – Mirrors

It wasn’t so much the disjointed perception of reality that kept him as he was – sane – and it was most certainly not his own ability to deceive himself that it was all true, that attributed to it; rather it was the simple acceptance of the fact that nothing was ever as it seemed. Added to that notion was the fact that he literally forgot what he looked like while ambling along through the depths of life. It became quite easy for him to recreate reality as he thought it to be. Not in the sci-fi sense where reality altered according to his emotions or the state of his mind or anything like that; it was, instead, the way in which he viewed the world, himself and the events around both those two pinnacles…as he saw them. It was only during those moments when he faced his own reflections that the appearance of his disheveled image nudged him back to reality as it was – undeniable.

As surprising as it may seem, his apartment lacked any reflective surfaces, save for the tall, standing mirror that stood against his bedroom wall; dark mahogany wood against painted, sky blue wall. He used the object as means of making sure that he looked decent enough in appearance before heading out to explore the world. It was that same mirror he was standing in front of that morning, when he saw the first crack on the reflective surface. The crack was at that first time merely an annoyance – just a scratch he’d surmised. It’s presence was made known to him while he’d been brushing down the thick black strands tousled atop his head, though in truth his attention was more on the bright grey orbs that stared back at him rather than on his form. It was though he were being watched by someone else, another being that resembled his appearance rather than a simple reflection. Of course common logic told him that he was merely looking at a reflection, but his mind couldn’t or didn’t want to accept that as truth – that was when he saw the crack. A tiny scratch, almost imperceptible had it not created the illusion of a scar running up the side of the reflection’s cheek in a thin line. He’d ran his finger across the pale skin of his cheek first of course and not feeling a ridge, proceed to do the same to the mirror, his finger grazing over the line, tracing its length along the smooth surface. With a nonchalant shrug he turned from the reflection, already lost within his thoughts, his capricious musing already plotting out the events of the day ahead, beginning with a visit to a local music store.

The air buzzed with a certain kind of life as he stepped into the cool interior of the tiny music shop. A guitar riff permeated the air in its intensity, a heavy drum beat steadily rising with the thick, scratchy cry of a passionate vocalist, the  inundating crescendo of cymbals and screams filling the air, higher, louder, fuller and at the apex of it all…crashing into a cacophony of drums, guitars and rambling. This was metal. This was his scene. He meandered through the seemingly endless selection of CD’s, spanning over the chest high aisles that twisted through the entirety of the shop. He sifted through the various CD covers of bands he’d vaguely heard of, most of them while on the internet. A few that he did recognize he picked up to see if there was a particular song that he recognized. It was as he gazed at one particular CD cover that he caught sight of his reflection on the CD cover and the reflection of an individual beside him. Looking up he came face to face with a young woman with shockingly green eyes framed by long dark locks of hair.

“Are you merely browsing or will you be buying something?” She asked him with a chuckle, flicking a fringe behind her left ear; there was familiarity to her but he could not place it. He noticed that her shirt’s logo and text was printed backwards – a statement in itself.

“Meh” he replied with a shrug, placing the CD case back in its pocket on the rack. He turned back to her, throwing out what he hoped was a nonchalant yet charming smile, “Just seeing if there is anything worth buying here…you know.” He flipped his hair – that normally made girls swoon. She smiled back with a slight twinkle in her eyes,

“Just another browser huh?” he casually looked away from her, catching a glimpse of her reflection from a nearby glass. Surprisingly, a scowl painted her face but when he turned back to her, she was smiley sweetly. He shrugged to himself before replying to her

“Only if there is nothing worth the buy. Anything that you would recommend?” An older gentleman walked into the vicinity, smiling broadly as his head nodded to the music – an gold ring glinted over his eyebrow, the shirt he wore also having the text and image backwards.

“Well anything in particular that…” she stopped in mid-sentence, her eyes squinting at a spot on his face.

“Hey…you are bleeding.” He looked at her confused reaching up to touch his face to see what she was talking about. He flinched back as his fingers touched the sensitive spot, a streak of blood smudging his index finger. Without waiting for her to say more, he rushed off to the bathroom to see what the extent of the cut was, though his mind could not comprehend what had caused the scratch.

The bathroom stall was septic white, the fluorescent lights bright and glaring but all of these were just in his peripheral. His focus lay solely on the now throbbing cheek, a prominent line seeping red goo onto his cheek – a crack in the mirror in line with his face.

“…well you deserved it! Why did…” the voice, feminine, rose faintly from a distance and yet it resounded in his mind as though it was said directly to his face.

“…never my fault it…” a male voice, familiar – his own. He quickly threw water over his face, looking back up at the mirror to see that a second crack had etched across his forehead followed by a throb and the telltale sensation of dripping liquid; blood.

“…over, don’t you get it!?…” another crack, another cut.

“…shouldn’t be this way! I love…”

“I don’t…” The final crack ran down from the first one right down to the area where his heart was. The pain was agonizing.

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I don’t want to lose you now,

I’m looking right at the other half of me

The vacancy that’s set in my heart

Is the space that now you hold.

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Challenge Day 1 – Lion in the deep

Day  1 – Today’s challenge came about from reading another post which inspired this idea. I would suggest you read that post first before mine to get a better context – http://stefgeng.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/the-unexpected/. I decided though to take the other aspect of the story, adding a bit of African flavour to the names (which I have explained at the end of my post). I do hope you enjoy!

Lioness by Shiraiza (http://sharaiza.deviantart.com/)

The shade was there; cool, alluring, tempting – distracting. The temptation to abandon this little escapade had crossed my mind more than once in the last five minutes. The tall thin grass, brown and dead, rose above my crouching form, the sun beating relentlessly down on me; but there was shade…right there. I could lounge in it, wallow in the cool, refreshing umbrella of tree branches and leaves. But no…I’m on the hunt and the pack is relying on me. I can sense rather than see uMama and uSisi, crouching on either side of me yet further off, stealthily creeping through the grass – they make no sound. They are slowly encircling their prey…our prey, I must remember its our prey. The large antelope isn’t even aware of our presence and the urge to jump up and scream at it to run bubbled up my throat. I barely managed to hold the scream in, a tiny moan escaping up my throat in the tiniest of growls. The antelope’s head suddenly perked up, its ears flicking up as though to hear better – my growl had alerted it and now it would run, surely. I remained as I was, still. My mind seemed to be buzzing in uncertainty, a full scale mental battle that blotted out everything else around me. Run antelope run! A part of me screamed but another part, a quieter and stronger part spoke up above the scream; kill, kill, kill! Hunger rumbled through my abdomen like thunder. The antelope’s ears had dropped, yet it remained alert as it began to flit through the grass…towards me.

uSisi Khanyi had not been the same since her disappearance some many nights ago. She’d come back timid and hesitant – uMama said it was because of the humans. I believed her. We’d seen them roar by on their large beast that rolled rather than ran, carrying some animal or other animal on the beasts back while they watched us apprehensively. uBaba had given us direct instruction to steer clear of the tall, thin creatures that walked on two feet, warning us that even though they were weak and frail, they carried weapons that would render us useless. I don’t even remember when we first noticed that uSisi had not returned, thinking that she’d gone off to hunt but after the third and fourth night she’d not returned, uBaba went off to search for her. The person he brought back was not uSisi, not one bit.

The antelope was here, its earthy scent permeated the air around me in a fragrance that set my appetite afire. There was only one problem; I couldn’t kill this poor creature. Yes hunger. But…what was it? I couldn’t understand it, a feeling that suffused through my chest into the beating organ in there. The thought of killing this creature turned that beating organ cold and dark and a sadness clouds my mind. What is this! Compassion!? For my food!? Never! Why!? I’d rather eat grass or slink off to be there, under the cool shade of the tree, away from the running and hunting and killing – and sun. Surely there is a better way than all this crouching in tall grass and sneaking and ripping with my claws. Let the pride hunt, I’ll just eat with them.

“Umtwana wam, she has not been herself ever since I found her where I knew she would be. Many of us had been found there, thin and frail, their ability to hunt lost – their eyes no longer gleaming with the eyes of a hunter. Pathetic. That’s how they all became and there she was, thin, frail and forlorn – pathetic. She’d stood to face me when I’d approached her, first retreating when I’d approached her but recognition lit up her eyes followed by a tiny glint of the huntress within her. Even as we escaped and she fumbled behind me unable to use her legs, she persevered through the trails, past the tall, grey, crisscrossing borders that separated the grassland from the human land and past the single pole rising out of the ground showcasing the head of a human skeleton and some bones. She stank too, a stench that was all too unnatural and pungent, causing my nose to burn from its strength. It was an unmistakable stench that reeked of humans and as we approached the encampment where the pride resided, I knew they could smell, her. They encircled her, watching her, their noses wrinkled in disgust from both the smell that shrouded her and from their loathing towards her return. She timidly hid behind me. I watched the pack, knowing they would pounce on her, kill her now rather than see her disgrace the pack in her inability to hunt. The atmosphere was intense, heavy; static. She let out a sound that was neither a growl nor…lion, it was shrill and loud and startled one the approaching males – in that instant she swung her paws across his face, spouting blood from his face. He shrunk away from her and that was enough to gain some confidence as each individual drifted off into the encampment but each of them would never forget, the sound that she’d uttered; it was a human sound.

Hunger was stronger than my compassion, instinct overriding emotion. I could not go hungry, the clan could not go hungry; we had to eat. The attack was quick, swift – easy. I pounced and the antelope let out a startled yelp, its large black eyes widening in shock and fear before glazing over as my paw struck its head hard, twisting the neck to an improbable degree. I stood over the body with both pride and unease as I watched uMama and uSisi pounce out of the grass towards the dead buck. I accepted their growls of approval and my confidence rose at their praise, but that yelp that the antelope had uttered, it was too…familiar, too…human. Was it “Please”? It couldn’t be, no how could I have understood that? A glint caught my eye as uSisi gnawed into the meat, a shiny metallic piece that was attached to the buck but uSisi tossed the object off into the grassland and by then, my hungry stomach could smell the raw scent of fresh meat. With a delighted snarl we feasted.

Off in the scorching heat of the grasslands, lay a metallic tag, one that belonged to a young buck once captured by humans. The tag would lay in that grassland for ages, rusting with the passing seasons, buried by dust and grass until it is but another part of the Serengeti.

Antilocapra americana
HG Serum HmSap16
Experiment # 1040

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uSisi – Sister

Khanyi – a Zulu name short for Khanyisile which means Bringer of light

uMama – Mother

uBaba – Father

Umtwana wam – my child

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Well I wrote this already and only now does it relate to my post but the days haven’t passed that much that it would be a hindrance…would it? http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/daily-prompt-perspective-2/

Writing Challenge: Is he crazy!?

“Stephen King. In his book On Writing, King says that he writes 10 pages a day without fail, even on holidays. That’s a lot of writing each day, and it has led to some incredible results: King is one of the most prolific writers of our time.”

When I read this quote, I thought to myself, “Is that even possible? 10 Pages a day without fail? That’s a lot of writing!” and I thought about my own writing, how difficult it was to write just 2 pages a day unless the pressure of a deadline loomed over me like the blade of a guillotine. So I decided (with much fear and excitement) that I would attempt, not 10 pages a day but rather a post a day. I’m fortunate in the fact that its already the middle of September so its not so much writing but still, a post a day is a lot. Also I do not want to make it too easy so I’m pushing to write over 500 words per post, at least get 1000 words in or average more than 750 words. That is my target and also it will be a different style, genre or topic each time so I can’t cop out with “continuations”. Weekends count too so yes, this is indeed a challenge. Just thinking about it as I write this makes my chest pulsate.

Why am I doing this? Well its really to get writing. I only write when I have to with the occasional short here and there which means I don’t grow much as a writer. Sure I have the previews and reviews that I write for Gamecca and the Auburn Series that my fellow blogger and friend Tyron and I have been doing but this is different to both of those while at the same time, beneficial to both. So yes this is a way to get me writing more and hopefully better.

Right so with that out as public knowledge, you there, reader of my blog, can now hold me accountable and can even dish out a suitable punishment should I skip a day.

Right so with that said, lets get to writing!

The Challenge!

The Challenge

One of the  great things about knowing other writers, is that when they find something interesting, they send it along to inspire and challenge you. So I want to use this opening paragraph to thank you, Dani, from Of Readers and Writers – http://scribbable.blogspot.com/ – for introducing me to this community of writers, that is NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month  http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/dashboard – without you, I may have stumbled late…maybe never…across this website and not become aware of this very interesting challenge they have.

I received an e-mail from the aforementioned website NaNoWriMo, with tantalizing details regarding a writers competition with a fantastic outcome for the winner. The details are:

[ They’ve (Intel, W Hotels, and Vice) also invited Wrimos (those who are part of the NaNoWriMo community) to submit up to ten pages of a script or story by August 30 in a short film series and competition entitled “Four Stories”.  The four winning stories will be filmed by the esteemed Roman Coppola. The contest poses the kind of challenge only Wrimos can tackle with their spirited imaginations: each story has to be set in a W Hotel and feature an Ultrabook computer as a key character. ]

 Progress

Today is the 15th and therefore I have fifteen days to write a ten page story that involves a W Hotel as well as feature an Intel Ultrabook computer as a key character and all I have to say is “Bring it on!” My mind has been abuzz so of course I have already started writing and the story is progressing in a direction that I did not anticipate. The possibilities are just endless! Whooo so excited!

In order to make sure I reach this goal, I am making this Public announcement that I will write and finish the story and also I will post another update next week on the 22nd working towards a finished draft at the least. I will also post a copy of the final work here on my blog so that you can read it and let me know what you think.

As I write this, I have to remember that my glory should be the last reason for doing this challenge and that God should most definitely be first. One of my favourite Proverbs comes to mind:

Proverbs 16:9 – The mind of a man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.

May He indeed direct my steps in the right direction.