Faith’s Friday Fiction | Empowered

Happy Friday everyone,

There hasn’t been a lot of progress on the fiddling side of life, so I thought I’d post a short story instead. I can’t remember the last time that I posted one. If things continue this way, I’ll be alternating between fiction posts and fiddling updates for the next few weeks.

Also, sorry for the earlier mistaken post. I’d been preparing to share something and accidentally had it marked as scheduled and not draft. Oh well ;P

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EMPOWERED

 

 

There is a moment when I know that the next action I take will decide the rest of my life. It scares me for a second. Every step up to now has been leading to this decision. All the past mistakes, all my mother’s whispered promises of a better future, of promises of deserved happiness, all my father’s bruises upon my arm. This is the moment when I can choose who I will be. What my future will be.

I have known abuse, but I have also known love. I know which I prefer. I know which I want to embrace. I know what I want for the child stirring in my womb.

The man who put the life there has also put scars that will never heal into the skin of my back. His fingers have dug dark marks into the flesh of my neck. His fist has broken the bones in my fingers. The bones in my nose. I chose him like my mother chose my father. But I will not choose to die by the hands of my lover as she did.

This is the moment when I can choose to stay subservient or become empowered.

So I raise the gun and fire one shot into the head of the man who never loved me as I deserved.

And I am free.

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May inspiration flow like ink upon your quill,

Faith 

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Faith’s Fiction | Snippets of Existence

Hi everyone,

This is just a little experiment. I’m not sure what inspired it. It just came to me and I let it flow.

I hope you enjoy it 🙂

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I stand before the shattered pieces of my existence, the scattered remains of who I was before I became what I am now. And I am more frightened than I have ever been before.

I kneel on the ground and pick them up, one by one. And pause to peer into the past, to remember before I forget forever.

***

I am four. I am young. I am naïve. I am the happiest I will ever be.

I am swinging, grubby fingers clinging to cold iron handles. I am reaching for the sky and when I am high enough, I let go.

I fly for a moment, and then I fall.

And the pain comes.

***

I am ten. I am in the wheelchair I have been confined to for six years.

I watch from my seat of imprisonment as my friends skate across an icy landscape. Their laughter rings in my ears, taunting.

I close my eyes, imagine my feet gliding across the frozen lake.

Screams erupt, replace the peals of giggles.

My eyes open. My friends are gone. In the middle of the ice is a gaping hole.

My scream echoes alone.

***

I am still ten. Five coffins are laid out before me.

Ten pairs of eyes bore into the back of my head. They blame me, charge me with surviving. I will not tell them that I wish I were dead too.

***

I am twenty-two. Living in my mother’s house. I have not seen my father in five years. He abandoned us for a slimmer woman with a daughter who could actually walk.

I freelance edit from home, changing words with a wish that I could amend my life as easily.

I have never been kissed. I have never been loved. I am existing. I am not living.

***

I am thirty. I am going to die soon because I cannot live this way anymore. My mother was the last person in the world who cared about me. Now she is dead.

There are people offering me their condolences. I cannot hear them. I can only hear the fury pounding in my ears, the injustice.

Tonight, when they are gone, I will end the pain of being alone.

***

I am still thirty. I am an invalid, but worse than that, I am a coward. I did not think I could be afraid to die, but staring at a full bottle of pills turned my stomach upside down. I am afraid that there could be something worse waiting beyond my final breath. I want something better.

Then she comes, a figure cloaked in grey. Her pale eyes are almost translucent. Her dark lips could be coated in ebony ink.

She offers me something better, but I will have to forget my life. She promises that I can walk, that I will be happy, that I will live.

I ask what the catch is, and she just smiles. She will not tell me if there is one, so I know that there is. But I accept her deal nonetheless. Perhaps when I forget, I won’t remember that I was a coward.

***

That is the last piece of my life. I lower my hand, and rise again on two feet.

“What now?”

She smiles and blinks once, long lashes flickering over those pale eyes.  It is the last thing I see before darkness entombs me.

***

I am four. I am young. I am naïve. I have never been happier.

I am swinging, grubby fingers clinging to cold iron handles. I am reaching for the sky and when I am high enough, I let go.

I fly for a moment, and then I fall.

I land on two feet and beam triumphantly.

A lady bends down beside me. Her pale eyes are almost translucent. Her dark lips could be coated in ebony ink.

She pats my shoulder. “I have something to show you.”

She offers me her hand and I take it. She has a very pretty smile. I follow her away.

FIN

May inspiration flow like ink upon your quill,

Faith 

© 2016. Faith Rivens.

 

 

 

Faith’s Friday Fiction | Abominations

Good day one and all,

Today’s short story continues from last week’s which was itself inspired by a Wordly Wise Wednesday. If you haven’t read those yet, you can find them here: Amalgamation & Adaptation.

I’m really getting into this story and I have a feeling that it might continue for a while, so buckle in everyone 😉

This next installment follows the timeline but through the eyes of a different character, Freya’s brother: Oden.

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It was a cold day, but Oden felt no chill. Anger burned in his heart and coursed through him like a wildfire.

He crossed the street and a car horn blared at him. He paid the driver no heed. Restless and reckless, he was on the warpath. A great injustice had been done and he would not let it stand.  

“Are you crazy?”

Kerrie’s voice called out to him, but he did not stop. She could pursue him straight to the Council Hall if she wanted to, but he wouldn’t be deterred. His hand felt for the gun in his pocket again, to reassure himself that it was there. Freya had been his world. And they had taken her from him. He would not let it go unpunished.

“You’re going to get yourself killed?”

A hand wrapped around his arm and forced him to a halt.

He turned and wrenched himself free from her grip.

Kerrie’s amber eyes beseeched him to reconsider. He scoffed at her. “I’m already dying.”

“The medicine–“

“It’s just a temporary fix. I’d rather die doing something honourable. Not confined to a bed.”

“But this isn’t noble. It’s stupid. She’s already dead, Oden.”

“Because they killed her.”

“And you’ll be killed too.”

“At least I’ll take a few of them with me.”

“And what will your parents do when you’re gone too?” She was an inch shorter than him, but in that moment she gave the appearance of towering above him, a fierce figure of reason.

There was a bench nearby and he sank into it then, feeling spent. She had found that one niggling doubt in his mind, and it brought all his determination to ruin. His eighteenth birthday had only just passed, but he felt as if he had lived twice that long. His body was crippled by the illness that he had been born with, but his mind had always been strong. Until two years ago, when the Abominations had come.

Kerrie slipped onto the seat next to him and took his hand. Best friends since the age of five, she knew him almost as well as Freya did… Had.

“She sacrificed herself for you.”

“I know.”

“You can’t die pointlessly.”

“I know.” 

But he couldn’t do nothing either. For two years, he had watched as the Abominations had taken over his country, performing heinous experiments, manipulating their lives all for some terrible end that no one fully understood. Cut off from the rest of the world, they had been forced into subservience, following the normal routines of a mundane life, but it was all an Aberration, a façade.

Oden rose up once more and started down the street in the opposite direction of his prior destination.

“Where are you going now?”

“To find a death that will mean something.”

“Oden!” Kerrie leapt up with such vehemence.

He couldn’t help but laugh at the rage in her face. It was humorous to imagine that she could stop him now.

“Not right now, don’t worry,” he reassured her.

Her gaze remained mistrusting. “But you want to die.”

He shook his head. “No. I just don’t want to live like this. You were right, okay. I have to make her sacrifice mean something. So I’m going to stop waiting for the end. I’m going to fight it with everything I’ve got.”

Kerrie’s eyes softened with comprehension, her expression paling.”You’re going to join FOARA, aren’t you?”

Oden narrowed his eyes, taken aback by Kerrie’s wisdom. He had not expected her to know.

She sighed in defeat. “I’ve been waiting for this.”

“For what?” The sense of control he had assumed he had slipped out of his grasp. Her tone was dark, heavy with regret and shame.

“For the moment you would choose to join the resistance. To join us.”

FIN

May inspiration flow like ink upon your quill,

Faith 

© 2016. Faith Rivens.

Faith’s Friday Fiction | Adaptation

Good Day All,

Here’s my first honest and true Faith’s Friday Fiction  of 2016. The last one was posted on Saturday. And the first Friday was designated to fact. Hopefully this is a good sign for things to come 🙂

Any – hoo! Today’s post is a continuation of Wordly Wise Wednesday’s short short Amalgamation. You can check it out here first, but even if you don’t this story should make sense on its own.

A special thanks to Al at hyperactivepandemonium. If it wasn’t for his suggested word, this story might never have been inspired 🙂

Before we jump into it, I’ll just say this: I might be a little silent on social media today and tomorrow because I’m trying to finish a few more chapters of edits to hit my January 31st deadline. I’ll try to respond to comments today, but I want to say now in case I don’t get the chance:

Thank you to everyone who responded to my search for beta-readers. Your generosity and support has overwhelmed me and I am just humbly grateful for your kindness and willingness to help me. I never expected to make such great friends through this blog, but I want you all to know that I consider you as friends, people I trust with my words. I hope you know how much your encouragement is appreciated. I hope you know that it is returned in kind 🙂

Okay, now to our story!

Enjoy 😀

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ADAPTATION

Freya awoke to darkness and silence.

‘Open your eyes.’

She issued the command but nothing came of it. Confusion lasted for only a moment, then realization struck like a sharp slap upon a cheek. The Amalgamation had reached its completion and the person she had been would never live again. 

‘Delphyra?’ 

She searched the dark recesses of the mind that she now inhabited for the dominant presence. It wasn’t a surprise that Delphyra’s body had been chosen as the host. She was far more beautiful, far more talented. There would be little training required here. 

‘Delphyra?’

Freya prodded the darkness again, a cool anxiety sweeping through her essence. 

‘I am here.’ The presence came with a burst of colour as Delphyra opened her eyes.

Freya could see the world beyond the space she occupied. It was not the place she had closed her eyes too, but a small bedroom. Delphyra’s body had been moved and her own…

‘Most likely destroyed already,’ Delphyra mused.

There was a brusqueness that accompanied the thought. Freya bristled at the sound of it.

‘You knew they were going to do it,’ Delphyra said and closed her eyes again, so darkness fell over them once more. ‘There is no more use for it.’

‘It was my body,’ Freya contended.

‘No more. This is your body now. Our body,’ Delphyra corrected.

Her presence weighed heavily over Freya, strong and dominant, but there was a different emotion there too: sympathy.

‘It is not the same.’

‘It was your choice, Freya. You made the decision to take the risk. It was not forced upon you.’

Irritation seeped into her response. ‘That is not the real truth.’ She did not know what they had offered Delphyra in exchange for her acceptance into the Amalgamation program. They had offered her family the medicine they needed to keep her baby brother alive. To have refused would have been to have condemned him to death.

‘Oden.’

Delphyra whispered the name, snatching it up from her memories.

Freya built up a wall in her mind, to keep the girl from those precious moments that were the last remnants of a life she could never return to. 

‘You do not need to exhaust yourself with such measures. I will not pry,’ Delphyra assured her. In turn, she offered up a memory of her own, of an elderly woman, her face stained with the salt of falling tears. ‘My Nan. We were separated in the Departure. They promised to find her if I agreed to it. To reunite her with my family.’

‘At least you can go home to them.’ Freya’s bitterness was still present, but tempered in that moment by compassion. 

‘They will not let either of us go anywhere yet.’

Delphyra was right. The Amalgamation might be done. But there was still the Adaptation to complete. Then would come the Assimilation. And last…

‘We don’t need to worry about that yet.’

Delphyra’s presence felt lighter than it had before, kinder and more considerate. 

It would be difficult for both of them, to get used to sharing a body.

Freya lost any hostility towards the girl whose body would forever now be her essence’s residence. She had been forced to her body, had lost who she was; Delphyra had lost the same thing, forced to give up her unique self to share with another. They had both been changed. It would take some getting used to.

Six months of Adaptation. That’s what it would take. 

‘We might as well start now.’

Delphyra exuded an accepting spirit. Freya could feel the smile that curved their lips, directed by Delphyra’s mood.

‘Open our eyes.’

‘I can’t.’

‘You have to try a little harder,’ Delphyra chastised.

Freya focused all her attention on doing the act. ‘Open. Open. Open.’

Darkness was rooted around them.

‘Less force. It’s a simple task.’ Delphyra’s essence pressed closer against hers, guided her. ‘They are your eyes too.’

Freya conceded to the notion, searching for a connection to the eyelids, to convince herself that she could sense them, the thin layer of skin drawn over steel blue eyes. 

‘Open,’ she thought once more and they did.

FIN

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Oh, almost forgot. I’ll be continuing this story next Friday 😉

May inspiration flow like ink upon your quill,

Faith 

© 2016. Faith Rivens.

 

Faith’s ‘Saturday’? Fiction | The Valley

Good day one and all,

I know I had promised that I would post a piece of short fiction on Fridays, but yesterday got kind of hectic and I was hardly able to reach my computer so I bring to you today instead, a very short and raw piece of fiction.

Before we get to it, I just want to warn that I might be a little absent on social media today, only because I’m trying to get through five solid chapters of my WIP today before a party tonight. So if I don’t respond to your comments today, I’ll do my best to get to them tomorrow 🙂 Thank you all for the support you always bless me with. Your words are appreciated more than you could ever know.

Now, onto our story! I hope you enjoy 🙂

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Sera walked through the valley of the Dead. 

Grey and gloomy, the path was worn with sorrow and despair, the faces of the deceased grim and decaying. They had been alive once.

She would make them alive again.

As her bare feet trod the path, colour spread through the land. The grass grew verdant, and swayed in the gentle breeze that swept past. Sunlight broke through the cover of fog. Flowers bloomed and blossomed, shades of pastel colours to dispel the drab darkness.

Life flowed around her and the dead rose up, awakened to a new life. 

Confusion filled their gazes until they saw her and they understood. Joy and elation, bliss and gratitude. These were the emotions they conveyed to her.

She walked on until ever inch of the land was awake again and thriving. At the end, she turned to stare back at the work she had done.

Waves of peace and harmony flowed over her and she breathed it in deep. Her task ended for the moment, her wings unfolded and she ascended to the sky. 

FIN

May inspiration flow like ink upon your quill,

Faith    

©Faith Rivens. 2016