Yayzee Nexy!!!!!!!!!!
Now I'm back home I've had a bit of a problem what with the story being on my laptop, the internet being on the PC and me being too lazy to transfer it across via flash drive. However, I will not be stopped!
I've written about half a page of chapter 20 and already I've left a little note for myself saying 'check this when on internet', which I will probably do when chapter 19 is up and posted... Which should be just after I finish the following paragraph.
Remember when I said chapter 16 was long? Well I just proved myself wrong...
Chapter 19
Dean threw away the sandwich he had made the night before and promising a swift return he had left Anni in hunt of a late breakfast, stopping en-route to wash and bandage his shoulder and arm, partly for reasons of hygiene but mainly because he wasn’t sure how people would react if he walked around the factory with blood all up his arm.
When he got down to the kitchen, he was confronted by one of the sligs; “Dean, where’ve you been?! You missed two meals!”
“Yeah, some vykker’s given me a mudokon to look after; I think she’s an experiment and they want me to take care of her pretty much all of the time.”
The slig looked terrified so Dean added, “I’ll try and get a friend to help out – the vykker said I could – so I might be able to get off in the afternoon at least to help out. I’ve just come now to get me and the mudokon some breakfast.”
The slig looked uneasy, “We have some leftovers from breakfast; they weren’t too bad, but…”
Dean busied himself for fifteen minutes cooking some pacon and eggs while having a hurried discussion with the sligs about lunch, and then carried the two plates upstairs. Anni was sitting on the bed waiting for him and when he asked her to she pulled the table over so she could sit on her bed and eat. Dean set down the two plates of food, muttered a ‘hang on’ and went into his room to grab his chair. By the time he came back she had already eaten half of the food. “Don’t eat so fast if you haven’t eaten for a while,” He told her, “You’ll make yourself sick.”
She obediently slowed down but not for long. She had finished and was asking for more before he was half done. “Not yet. I’ll get you some more later but if you eat too much at once you’ll be ill.” Once they were done Dean talked for a little while, just telling her any story that came into his head, and before long she curled up in bed and fell asleep. Hoping that she wouldn’t wake up he headed down to the kitchen and helped out the sligs until a while after midday, at which point he made a salad for Anni and headed up to her room.
In the corridor outside he ran into the vykker again who looked disapprovingly at him and asked, “Where have you been?”
“In the kitchens, doing my work. Anni was asleep so I thought it wouldn’t matter for a couple of hours.”
“And you decided to help yourself to a snack afterwards I see?”
“This is for Anni,” Dean answered coolly.
The vykker looked surprised, “She’s eating?”
Dean nodded, “She had breakfast this morning. And when I woke up she was screaming; she said she had a terrible headache.”
“Screaming because of the headaches?” Dean nodded; so the headaches weren’t new, but they hadn’t been so bad before? The vykker looked concerned and hurried away.
Trying to shrug off the worry the meeting had sparked in him, Dean entered her room. Anni was still asleep so he put the salad on the table and sat down in his chair, telling himself he was bored. In fact he was scared for Anni; how bad must that headache have been to make her scream like that?
It was another hour before she woke up and he stayed in his room until she had done eating. Eventually she knocked on his door and came in.
“Does Javi work outside?” She asked.
He nodded.
She looked hesitant before continuing, “Can you… see the – see the sky from where he works?”
He looked surprised, and paused for a second to make sure he’d understood her question properly before answering, “Of course you can.”
She took a very deep breath before asking, “Could we go out and see him?” She misinterpreted his look and added quickly, “It’s just I had a friend before who really wanted to see what the sky was like and she never got the chance and I hoped I could see it for her ‘cause I think it would mean a lot to her if I did see it...”
“You’ve never been outside? Not even when they brought you here?”
She shook her head, “I’ve always lived underground, in the lab, since I was hatched.”
He looked at her closely, studying her face carefully in case she was joking; there was a rumour about a big lab the vykkers had under the factory but no one took it seriously. But she had an earnest look which he could only interpret as genuine, so he asked, “Are you sure you’re up to moving about? I mean, are you – do you feel ok?”
She nodded, “Unless it’s really far.”
“No, it’s not far. But since you haven’t eaten in a while I wanted to make sure… Come on then, I’ll show you where he works.”
Her eyes lit up momentarily with excitement; it was the first positive emotion he’d seen in her and it took him by surprise. However, he hurried over to the door and looked out. He wasn’t sure if the vykker could encourage or prevent their expedition, and he didn’t want the vykker insisting he escort them or something, but fortunately the corridor was deserted and he let Anni out of the room and led her towards the back entrance.
The factory was built on a cliff, so the back entrance, which led to the animal pens, was on the floor above the front entrance and on the same floor as their rooms, so they didn’t have to use any stairs to get to their destination. As they walked through the factory Anni stayed very close to Dean, putting one hand against the wall to steady herself. They didn’t see any mudokons en route as they were all working at that time. A few times they were passed by sligs and Dean stood back against the wall, pressing Anni back as well, to let them pass. She seemed very interested in the sligs, and turned her head to watch them as they walked away down the corridors.
The sligs would normally stop a mudokon out walking during work shift, but most of them knew Dean as the mud who worked in the kitchens and therefore changed locations a few times a day, and many of them had also been told he was now looking after the vykkers’ latest freak, and so none of the ones they passed questioned him.
The journey wasn’t long and though with Anni walking slowly it took them 15 minutes to reach their destination.
They arrived at the door and Dean grabbed the lever that operated it and flung it open. He took a few steps outside when she called him, “Dean?”
He stopped and turned back. She was cringing away from the door, back into the factory. “What’s wrong?” he asked, concern growing in his voice. She was staring at him fearfully, and was breathing hard. It was obvious she was terrified of something. “What’s wrong?” he asked again.
Her eyes flickered over his shoulder and she took another step back, away from the door. He glanced behind him. “There’s nothing there. What are you afraid of?”
“Nothing, nothing there,” She echoed breathlessly.
He paused uneasily and then said, “Listen, shall I go and find Javi and bring him here to you?”
“No, don’t leave me!” She cried suddenly. She jerked as if she has tried to run towards him but had come up against an invisible barrier. He approached her slowly and once he came close she fell forward and latched onto him, her arms around his chest clutching him fiercely, and she was crying.
“What is it Anni?”
She gulped a few times before managing to answer, “It’s too big,” She panted, “Too open, too empty!”
He looked down at her uncomprehendingly. “What do you mean, what’s too big?”
She looked at him as if he was mad. He remembered that she had only become afraid after he opened the door so he suggested, “Listen, if you go inside a bit so you’re away from the door and I’ll go out really quickly and find Javi and he can come and talk to you.” He was remembering Javi’s comment about the animals the night before and thought his friend might prove useful.
Anni looked uncertain, but nodded. Dean led her into the factory a short distance and sat her down on the floor in a corner, “Now listen, you stay here and don’t move, ok? I’ll be back really soon.”
She nodded and he hurried away.
Anni sat in silence, the words ‘It’s just a big blue ceiling’, her own words, running through her head over and over again. She’d been so stupid! That horrible, open space, that sky so high offered no protection, gave no shelter. It was so distant, so cold, despite its beauty, that she had recoiled in terror at the sight of it. When she had looked out of that door she had felt like a rat at the entrance of its burrow, looking up and knowing that if she went out there would be no cover, and if some predator saw her she would not be able to hide.
She shivered and clutched her legs closer to her body. But she had promised! She had promised to Nova that she would see it for her, that she would walk beneath it, away from the walls and the glorious cover of a proper ceiling,
oh, but she couldn’t, she couldn’t!
When Dean returned a short while later with Javi tagging along behind, she looked up at them almost fearfully. How could they go out there, walk under the sky so uncaringly, so indifferently? Javi knelt down beside her and said quietly, “You’ve never been outside, have you Anni?”
She shook her head frantically in confirmation.
“So you’re afraid of the open space?”
She nodded just as rapidly.
Javi glanced over his shoulder at Dean, looking briefly triumphant, while Dean scowled and then said to Anni, “There’s nothing to be afraid of out there, Anni.”
“To her there is; imagine how you’d feel if you’d never seen a vykker before all your life and then one suddenly jumped out at you!” Javi growled.
Dean paused to consider this, “I think I’d be terrified if a vykker jumped out at me now actually; I mean they’re that ugly…”
Anni managed a weak smile.
“Come on, Javi said softly, and the two mudokons helped her to her feet and back to her room, where they sat down and Javi began to talk about the animals he worked with. He told her all about them and she was completely captivated by what he said. She had liked just listening to Dean when he had spoken to her like this but when Javi talked about animals she became engrossed; she loved learning about them, and even asked a few questions. She longed to go out and see them herself but when she thought of the openness of the outside she felt a lump of fear growing inside of her, making her panic just at the thought. When this happened, Javi, who was sitting on the bed beside her, stopped talking and sat in silence until she felt better.
“Where’s Dean?” She asked a few minutes later.
Javi looked surprised that she didn’t know. “He went down to the kitchens ages ago to help them make dinner. I hope he brings us lots up ‘cause I don’t know about you but I’m starving! The sligs here are really bad at cooking when Dean’s not there to help them and breakfast was so bad I could hardly eat it!”
She smiled again and proceeded to tell him a long tale he could hardly understand about some people called Ben and Nova and about a lot of sligs whose names all got muddled up in his head. He smiled and nodded when it seemed appropriate and she was just finishing when Dean arrived carrying three well-filled plates of food, much to Javi’s enthusiasm.
She became quiet after they had eaten, and eventually Javi announced that he had to go and feed the animals before it got dark, and left. Dean convinced Anni to take a shower while he waited in his own room, but after she was done he found they had very little to do and nothing to talk about. He wondered what he would have been doing normally, but checked his thoughts; this was normal now, he realised, and the revelation came as a shock to him. In the last two days his life had changed so suddenly.
Over the next few weeks the routine of the three mudokons didn’t change much; Anni and Dean would wake up and spend the morning filling in time, sometimes just talking, sometimes walking around the factory. Once she had begun regaining weight she joined the other mudokons in taking two meals a day, and Dean would leave her on her own for an hour in the mornings to go and make breakfast. About midday, Javi would usually join them and Dean would go off to help with dinner. Then as it grew dark Javi would leave again and Dean and Anni would while away the evening, sometimes playing simple games, sometimes talking and sometimes just sitting in silence. Anni’s moods were as changeable as a fuzzle’s; sometimes she would be happy, playing and smiling and talking to them and telling them stories, and other times she would sink into depression, staying silent, eating little. The vykker would often come, usually once a day, to speak to Dean, prying him for every bit of information about Anni’s condition, her moods, her health, her habits; it made him feel uncomfortable to talk about her like that. When Javi left in the evenings, she would often look after him wistfully and move as if she was thinking of standing up, but then she would sink down and be miserable for a short while, and Dean knew she wanted to follow him, but was too afraid of going outside.
After some time her depressed periods became less and less frequent, and were shorter than they had been. She began to smile more, and even laughed a few times. Dean took her down the kitchens once and she became very excited by the smells, the sounds, the hustle and bustle. She talked to the sligs and a couple even talked back, and she laughed and enjoyed herself, but later when they returned to her room the vykker appeared and told Dean that it was too dangerous for her and she was not allowed to go down there again. Mentally calling the vykker every foul thing he could think of, Dean stomped into her room and dropped into the chair, glaring angrily into thin air, but Anni’s excitement was too unquenchable and too infectious for him to remain angry for long and when Javi appeared that day the three of them spent a mad afternoon playing games and running around. For Anni, that afternoon was almost as good as having Nova back, but afterwards the fact that her beloved friend was gone, would never come back, hit her harder than it had in weeks. She realised she would never hear Nova laugh again, or hear her sing that song; they would never play together ever again. And Anni became depressed for days after that. She still hated herself for having broken her promise of going outside for her friend, but she could not bring herself to go near that door.
“Sweet, sweet brew, I drink to you,” She tried humming to herself to bring up her courage, but it just didn’t work without Nova. She sometimes felt as if the world had been drained of colour, as her own skin had, and the skins of the male mudokons seemed disappointingly dull when she thought of the brightness of her friend’s. The mudokons were friendly, kind to her, but nothing to the protection Nova had given her. She missed the tingle of excitement that ran up her spine when she saw Nova’s sly grin, the joy she felt every morning when she woke up and saw her nearby, and she thought of what would follow that day. She loved listening to the stories of Dean and Javi, but they spoke of joys that she could not share in. She particularly loved hearing Javi talking about the strange and exciting and
wild animals he looked after, and it gave her a longing to see them herself, but that only increased her longing to see Nova again, her smile, her love, but neither longing could ever be fulfilled she knew, and
oh, the world looked dark!
Once she asked Dean to take her to that door. Maybe the fear had been shock, maybe she could get used to it, but once that door had been opened the overwhelming fear rose up again and she gasped and shook and she couldn’t breathe! She couldn’t move!
She felt that strangely disconnected feeling, like a kite released from its moorings, that she had felt only once before, and the room with two beds and the big machine, vykkers crowded round and Nova screaming swam before her eyes. The next thing she was aware of, she was on the ground, covered in sweat. Dean was holding her head up as she felt like she might vomit and, thank Odd, that horrible door was closed.
Weeks passed and she felt no better. When she slept she heard Nova screaming, and then she awoke and was filled with that horrible crushing longing to see her again that made her nearly cry out in physical agony. Her headaches got no better. She lost her appetite again, her want of sleep; she simply didn’t want to do
anything.
Dean became more protecting of her, and inside she resented it, for she felt as if he was trying to take Nova away from her, and then she felt guilt for resenting him when he was trying to help her, and then she began to feel guilty for not keeping her promise, and her dreams changed so that Nova was screaming for help on the other side of that door, and she was too afraid to open it. Sometimes she woke up screaming, sometimes her head hurt her so badly that she couldn’t see or hear at all. She felt Dean holding her and she clung to him desperately as he was the only solid thing in her world.
Javi still came, but was silent. He always looked tired, spoke little, never laughed or told her stories. She remembered his animals and again wanted to see them for herself; she was terrified of the thought that she might forget them, to loose even that, after everything, would be too much, but he never spoke; she never spoke! She ate only as much as Dean could make her, stayed awake most nights and lay in bed all day. She ate, moved, washed, all automatically, as if her mind as gone and she was no more alive than one of those robots the vykkers had.
Dean made her eat, he made her shower; sometimes he even tried to force her to sleep. She wanted to cry because she could not do what he wanted, and he only wanted to help her, he wanted her to be happy, but she could not be happy. She would never be happy again. She lay in bed, she showered. Once when she was showering a headache struck her and she fell to her knees. She wanted to cry out to Dean but her throat felt tight and she could barely make a sound, so she screamed silently, clutched her head and breathed deeply until eventually the terrifying ordeal passed. She staggered to her feet and turned off the water as it was growing uncomfortably hot.
It was early evening and Javi had left to feed the animals only about half an hour before. She half dried herself and slid on her clothes, all very quickly, and opened the door into her room.
It was empty. Dean, she quickly discovered, was in his own room, asleep on his bed. She remembered her own agony just a few minutes before, and to see him there sleeping so peacefully nearly made her want to cry. Instead she went to the door and slipped out into the corridor.
She walked in silence. The work shift hadn’t ended yet and the day lights, much brighter than the dull illumination provided after hours, were still on. When she stopped she found herself standing in front of the door outside. Her dream seemed to flash in front of her mind, but though she heard Nova’s voice as usual, she was not screaming. She stretched out her arm and pulled the lever. That dreaded door opened.
The scene that greeted Anni’s eyes was the most beautiful she had ever experienced in her life. Above her the sky was pale blue, but on the far horizon it turned an incredible shade of purple. The purple faded to a sweet pink which in turn moved into orange, and it was brighter, more vibrant, more
alive than she had ever imagined colour could be!
Below that orange the sky just above the horizon was pure, pale gold. A ball seemingly no bigger than her fingernail, of brilliant molten gold hovered in the centre of that final band, and as she watched, totally captivated, as seconds slunk into minutes, that incredible ball sunk slowly, slowly towards the horizon, and at long last vanished behind the black cut-out horizon.
She suddenly found, much to her surprise, that the factory was behind her. Both of her feet were resting on earth,
real earth! Panting, she took several steps forwards, away from that door. The darkening sky loomed above her but the threat seemed to have gone with her. She suddenly realised that there was a large cage on her right and she turned and stared into the fanged faces of a pack of paramites, who stood silently observing her. She let out a gasp and found her legs carrying her forwards, between cages on her left and right. She caught the briefest flashes of the animals within: sights that would remain locked in her memory for the rest of her life. A pair of elums curling up against each other! A herd of meeps quietly chewing the grass! Fuzzles, snuggling into a hollow in the ground! Ratz! Slurgs! A scrab!
She stumbled to a halt and stared into the scrab’s cage. It was in there on its own,
‘So lonely’, she thought,
‘like me’…
She approached the cage slowly and rested her hands on the bars. The scrab turned towards her and then lowered her head to the ground and let out a squawk.
Somehow she knew what to do as she lowered her own head and echoed its noise. She seemed to hear a voice calling her name but it was distant and seemed oddly alien to her ears. She chirruped to the scrab and stepped back.
The scrab replied with a gentle noise and turned away. Slowly Anni’s mind returned to the mudokon world and she heard the voice calling her again. “Anni, get away! That’s a scrab!”
She turned to see Javi running towards her; as fit as he was, he was gasping for breath. When he was a few metres from her he stumbled to a halt and stared at her in announcement before gasping, “You’re outside!”
It was the first time he had ever seen her look so happy.
* * *
It took some weeks for Anni to explain bits of her story to the two mudokons, though she didn’t explain to them how or why Nova had actually died, just that they had had an accident and the vykkers hadn’t been able to save her.
Dean asked her, many months later, “But you were so scared before! I mean the second time I took you down you even fainted! How did you get out there?”
Anni shrugged and said with faraway smile on her face, “It was Nova. I knew I could do it, because of Nova. It was like I heard her voice in my head, telling me I could be free.”
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No spoilers plz k thx. (Well done Zozo
Lolcats own those silly owls)
As I mentioned that is really the undefeated champion of the longness award.
It is also the last chapter of 'Sadist's Creation'.
It is also the last chapter of this story I'm likely to post in 2007. The sound of a couple of week's break is just too appealing.
I might stick up something Christmassy in the meantime though, so don't give up on me yet.
Part four will come in January and I imagine you can all guess who'll take the starring role then.
A lot happening in that chapter, a lot of emotion which I hope came across well. The latter half I wrote mostly between 12 and 3 in the morning on two different nights. Possibly me boing half asleep made it easier to write in character, or maybe I ended up going over the top. You know the only way for me to know, don't you?
Reply to this story and Santa will bring you an extra present! Seriously!
Oh, and if anyone caught the significance of that ending section, feel free to mention that you saw it, just don't mention what the significance of it is, for all my non-RPGing fans (Uncle Splatty takes good care o' ya, right?)
Either way, Merry Christmas everyone! And to all a good... afternoon.
Oh, and by the way, I worked out how one man can deliver presents to all the billions of children in the world on just one night: At the North Pole they have cloning...
This is awesome. Well I notice some grammatical errors and such, but I'm too lazy to highlight them right now so toodles
.
Less happens but there's more to say.
)
