@Morganna: I read this having just come from your novel excerpt, which casts the Singing Stones in a very different light! Your acrostic work is as good as ever, and I really like how you move from "Buried" to "Refuge" with such surety.
The bunker The child looked at the exam paper left behind by the man haunted by his grandmother. The questions were identical to those on their paper:What is your name? and What do you know?. They looked at the woman, the grandmother, and she looked back at them. "Why didn't he get at least 50%?" "He spelled his name wrong," said the woman. She didn't sound angry, but she didn't sound pleased either. "Ben?" "That's not what most people called him. It should have taken him a lot longer to answer that question. He got 0 there."
They both looked round as the shadows danced and the light in the room changed. Slakoiné was stood at the child's desk. "Who are you?" asked the child. She looked to the woman for help, but the woman was gone with the same speed she'd arrived. "Where is this place?" Slakoiné looked at the child. For a moment he seemed slightly hazy, and a fine dusting of ice fell from the air and pinged as it hit the ground. "You were hit by the car," he said. "I heard you scream." "Not the first one," said the child. "It was the other one. The one that didn't care. I tried to move, but it kept on coming and there wasn't enough time. There was just, just.... It's hard to describe. There was, like, motion. I remember lots of things moving really fast and they were all in the wrong place. My head felt hot, my hands were tingling. The sky was below me at one point, I was falling into it. And I think I landed here, but I don't really remember right." "This is the bunker," said Slakoiné. "It's an exam-room really. You can't leave until you answer the questions." The child looked at the edges of the darkness where the maelstrom had formed, and shivered. They looked suddenly small and fragile. "I think I might stay," they said. "There's a time limit on the test," said Slakoiné. "There's always a time limit on how long anyone can be here." "I don't know the answers," said the child. "No-one told me there'd be a test, or I'd've studied for it." Slakoiné laughed. "That's life," he said. "No-one warns you that there's a test coming up, or tells you what the pass/fail mark is. They don't even tell you that sometimes you want to fail the test instead of passing." "But what do I do?" It came out as a wail of anguish. "Answer the questions honestly."
The child set the pencil down, and Slakoiné picked the paper up. "100%," he said almost immediately. "Which means you get a choice. You can leave here by yourself, or with me."
Janvar visible recoiled when the door in the silver doorway started to open, and had to control himself. He looked embarrassed. The door opened fully, and a small child, probably just pre-teen, stepped through and looked around. "Now where am I?"
Morganna - always impressed by how few words you require to concoct such great acrostics. This is a perfect example of that.
Greg - ah, you've rescued (I hope) the child! This pleases me. Plus you've united your two scenes and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the result of this :D
3 comments:
Buried
Underground
Never coming out
Killing fields above
Everyone will die. Here is
Refuge.
@Morganna: I read this having just come from your novel excerpt, which casts the Singing Stones in a very different light! Your acrostic work is as good as ever, and I really like how you move from "Buried" to "Refuge" with such surety.
The bunker
The child looked at the exam paper left behind by the man haunted by his grandmother. The questions were identical to those on their paper:What is your name? and What do you know?. They looked at the woman, the grandmother, and she looked back at them.
"Why didn't he get at least 50%?"
"He spelled his name wrong," said the woman. She didn't sound angry, but she didn't sound pleased either.
"Ben?"
"That's not what most people called him. It should have taken him a lot longer to answer that question. He got 0 there."
They both looked round as the shadows danced and the light in the room changed. Slakoiné was stood at the child's desk.
"Who are you?" asked the child. She looked to the woman for help, but the woman was gone with the same speed she'd arrived. "Where is this place?"
Slakoiné looked at the child. For a moment he seemed slightly hazy, and a fine dusting of ice fell from the air and pinged as it hit the ground.
"You were hit by the car," he said. "I heard you scream."
"Not the first one," said the child. "It was the other one. The one that didn't care. I tried to move, but it kept on coming and there wasn't enough time. There was just, just.... It's hard to describe. There was, like, motion. I remember lots of things moving really fast and they were all in the wrong place. My head felt hot, my hands were tingling. The sky was below me at one point, I was falling into it. And I think I landed here, but I don't really remember right."
"This is the bunker," said Slakoiné. "It's an exam-room really. You can't leave until you answer the questions."
The child looked at the edges of the darkness where the maelstrom had formed, and shivered. They looked suddenly small and fragile. "I think I might stay," they said.
"There's a time limit on the test," said Slakoiné. "There's always a time limit on how long anyone can be here."
"I don't know the answers," said the child. "No-one told me there'd be a test, or I'd've studied for it."
Slakoiné laughed. "That's life," he said. "No-one warns you that there's a test coming up, or tells you what the pass/fail mark is. They don't even tell you that sometimes you want to fail the test instead of passing."
"But what do I do?" It came out as a wail of anguish.
"Answer the questions honestly."
The child set the pencil down, and Slakoiné picked the paper up. "100%," he said almost immediately. "Which means you get a choice. You can leave here by yourself, or with me."
Janvar visible recoiled when the door in the silver doorway started to open, and had to control himself. He looked embarrassed. The door opened fully, and a small child, probably just pre-teen, stepped through and looked around.
"Now where am I?"
Morganna - always impressed by how few words you require to concoct such great acrostics. This is a perfect example of that.
Greg - ah, you've rescued (I hope) the child! This pleases me. Plus you've united your two scenes and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the result of this :D
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