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Kimmi
11-04-2010, 01:15 PM
She just lay there, her mind a black.
She watches the blades above chop up the air, over and over, the chopped up air doesn't feel the pain, they simply separated for a little while, just a little, they kissed her on her face, gentle, soft.

She listens to her rhythm, the song, her song, thump, thump, thump, thump, a simple beat, nothing fancy.

She accidentally thought about it again, the images filled her, images she doesn't want to see, images she's seen before, how many? Hundreds? Thousands! Thousands of times, she doesn't want to see, she tries to block it out, close the door, think of something else, anything...SHE DOESN'T WANT TO SEE!

Then the sound came. Oh god the sounds. She covered her ears, that didn't work, she didn't think it would, she screams, a desperate attempt to block out the sounds, she screamed till her lungs gave, she screamed till her ears hurt, but still she could hear it above everything else.

Then it came, slowly at first, but like a train it speed up, like the seasons it changed, it evolved, it grew, it threatened to take everything away...it does.

Her grip eased, toes unclenched, she huddled into a ball, hummed a little tune. Tears welled up in her eyes, she kept them tightly shut. The captor demanded a way out of their captive, her eyes stung, she gave in.

Her mind empties slowly, steadily. She regains her composure. She feels the soft kisses from the air again, comforting, cool on her cheeks and her neck.

She closes her eyes, her eyelids now heavy lead, weighted down. She drifts into sleep...come at last.
She smiles', for the first time in a long time, she smiles.

zoolane
11-04-2010, 04:21 PM
If the title got 'I' in and story got her. It bit confused which is it? I or her?

hillwalker
11-04-2010, 06:30 PM
It is allowed to announce that a story is about 'me' but write it from the perspective of a third party so there's no problem mixing 'I' and 'she' between title and narrative.

There is a great deal of menace suggested in the descriptions here. Then when you mention 'captive' we realise there is something more sinister than insomnia involved perhaps.

And the title suggests that although bad things might have happened in the past the memories still refuse to go away which makes sleeping difficult. Almost like post-traumatic stress.

My only criticism would be the way you swing from 'past tense' to 'present tense' here and there without any apparent reason for doing so. But it's a thought-provoking piece of writing.

You might attract more readers if you were to post this in the 'Short Story' forum.

H

EditElf
11-05-2010, 04:06 AM
A few things I noticed: in the first line is black supposed to be blank? Or omit the a before black. The second sentence has some tense inconsistencies as well as subject pronoun agreement issues. I think that your story would be more cohesive if you chose one tense for the whole thing and stuck with it. These are just my suggestions, but the tone of your work is tremendous and I think it could be even better!
Yours, EditElf