Amaryllis' Stories

The Prisoner Who Holds Her Own Key

2007-09-17T22:40:40Z

she kneels
crumples
withers
before the fickle mirror of truth
and lies

she reaches out
with trembling hand,
and bleeding heart,
to touch
the laughing skeleton
reflected within the
glass

and she smiles

her cheeks stretch thin
sunken hollows of
forgotten regrets
the color of
concrete tears

and the skeleton laughs
with her
at her
the laughter rattles
through her spine
it tastes of bitter
crying loneliness

shadows lick at her
sad stick shoulders
numbing her
trapping her
the self-disgust feeds on
her heart
mind
body
it crows in triumph

she blinks her eyes
cold slate blue
they close
they open

they change

the skeleton grows
it swells it explodes
til it grins back at her
grotesque and misshapen and

Fat

she cringes away

tears fall they shatter
and drain away
away away
into the ground

the plate of food falls
forgotten
from numb sad fingers
brittle
like broken promises
and broken dreams

her dream her quest her need
her Fate

it never ends

Yeah, I'm Laughing At You

2007-09-15T19:09:49Z

She laughed in his face, then nervously stopped as she realized that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t a good idea to provoke someone who was clearly unhinged.

But instead of anger, an expression of puzzled surprise flickered across his face.

“What was that…sound you just made?”

She stared blankly. “Sound?”

“Yes, that sound you made. Almost musical, I suppose. You looked…it sounded like you were…” He frowned in frustration as the word evaded him.

“Um…I…..laughed?”

His eyes lit up. “Yes, that’s it. I have to apologize, but Emotions are so outdated that I can barely ever remember what they’re called. The Apathy Council eliminated the silly things years ago.”

Her heart monitor beeped loudly in the silence. The disturbing realness of the people before her was starting to worry her.

“So why am I here? What are you doing to me?”

He smiled, and this time, she noticed that the smile was devoid of real happiness.

“We Harvest your Dreams. It’s what we’ve been doing since the moment you were born.”

H-E-Double-Hockeysticks (Euphemism)

2007-09-14T03:50:56Z

I was fuming. He was the most irritating person I knew. And with me, explosive anger = incoherency. Prepare yourself. I’m so pathetic it’s almost indecent.

I started yelling. And trust me, he deserved the too-close-for-comfort view of my tonsils.

“I hate you!”

“What did I do?”

“You existed.”

“Shut up.”

“Go to h-” My voice abruptly stopped on the “it” word. Ugh. Here we go. I tried again.

“Go to h- ....Go there!”

”.....where?”

“THERE, GO THERE !! THERE !”

“What??”

“The place with flames! The devil’s…hometown!!”

He stared at me with fear in his heart. I sympathized for about…one second. Then I got over it.

“GO. TO. H-” An eye twitched.

“What?”

“Fire! Brimstone! The Underworld! Beezlebub’s hidey-hole…The place where you’re going!”

“Um…away from you?”

I yanked him back and he staggered into me.

He growled: “What the hell?”

I beamed and promptly kissed him on the cheek. My torture was over, ended, gone forever.

...

Wait a second…

School and How It Drove Me Insane

2007-09-14T02:39:17Z

Smiling hugely, I heartily slammed my textbooks down. A gruesome spasm twisted my face. I looked down. AP Calc and English Lit were sitting quite innocently on my toes. They seemed to leer at me.

“What the f-” A passing teacher glared, her lemon lips puckered angrily. “-fruit loop.”

Beet-red and muttering incoherently, I headed to Chemistry. My fellow prison-mates stared as I passed by. Probably worrying about the state of my mental health. School always poked my sanity full of holes. Like swiss cheese.

I texted my best friend while poking dubiously at the chunks floating in my beaker. They looked like pieces of raw squirrel meat masquerading as a lab assignment.

wt ru doing?

A moment later, she answered.

guy stalking
WT?
jk. math. u?
chem

I looked up as the teacher spoke, feigned adoration, then looked back at my cell.

...wrm sweet tasty
yuck keep ur bf drama 2 urself
im talking about cookies u dork

I blushed. My lab partner smiled seductively “back”. Ew.

Someone just kill me now.

Please. Learn From the Mistakes

2007-09-13T19:30:03Z

Salty tears sting at my face. I’m drowning, falling, dying

and I’m glad.

The sun shines down on my fragile body. It burns. I long for the chill of night, of apathy,

of death

because when it’s cold I don’t have to think feel see care

I wonder what it feels like to die. I smile at the thought.

But then a boot crunches down, and my moment of psuedo-happiness vanishes, swept away by the

callous

cruelty

that is humanity.

Tears. They streak down my face. The world blurs. And I wonder if the salt is killing me too. Just like everything else.

My life should have been beautiful. I wonder where that beauty has gone. The stars? I look up into the night. But the smoke clouds the sky.

I am starless, heartless, hopeless. Everything but the one thing I want to be.

Gone.

...Then a warm hand gently touches my cheek. And this casual touch brings safety, remembrance of a world I’d left behind. Hope fights to fill the gaping emptiness inside.

But it’s too late.

And it’s not enough.

The scars will never heal.

A Light in the Darkness

2007-09-11T05:07:55Z

I am born. A wail gusts through my fragile body. I am cradled I am admired I am protected.

I am loved.

I dance through life, a joy, a light, the calm in the storm.

People find my name on the tips of their tongues. Children love me, I am their star, their miracle, their escape from an ugly lonely world.

I am unique. And I am beautiful. We’re all alike. We’re all different too.

And none of us last forever.

For then came the end. Of everything.

Somehow, we made them feel threatened. So they gathered us up, and shoved us away away away into dark dark holes, far far away where the light never comes.

Chemicals rain down, boots stomp, rough hands crush us together.

I can’t breathe. My loved ones, they fade

fade

around me. They waste away they give up. Days pass.

Until I’m all alone.

I have to live. But I’m too weak. And they’re too strong.

I’m starving. For light and for love.

Please. I’m afraid.

And I think I’m dying melting away -

I remember a day.

when I was

beautiful.

And free.

Outdistance Death With Insanity

2007-09-10T03:36:54Z

He was running. Houses, trees, roads whizzed by in a blur. But try as he might, he would never be able to run fast enough to outdistance Death. How ironic.

He held her tightly to his chest, never faltering in his desperate sprint. Her tears soaked his shirt, spurred him on to run faster faster faster.

Finally, he stopped. Gently, he set her down, held her face in cold hands. “Is it true?”

“Yes. I’m going to die.” Her voice broke, so he wrapped trembling arms around her. She thought she saw a glistening in his eyes, but it couldn’t be. His kind was incapable of tears.

“The doctor said my blood is carrying a disease. There’s no escape.” She answered the question in his terrified black eyes. “Yes. It’s incurable.”

He held her fiercely in the dying twilight. Then a thought occurred to him. It was utterly impossible. But fear made him irrational.

He pressed his cold lips to her neck. She didn’t realize his intentions until she felt his teeth pierce the skin.

Until the poison began to burn through her body.

Beautiful Disaster

2007-09-10T02:08:07Z

She automatically recoiled, stunned by the ice blue irises. Blinking rapidly, she struggled to gain control. The rest of his face was equally beautiful. Almost inhuman in its perfection.

Another face joined the one smirking above her. Another beautiful face; this time, of a woman. Her mind threatened to snap-she seemed unable to handle such loveliness. Vaguely she could hear a rapid beep-beep-beeping in the distance.

The young man spoke smugly. “I told you her mind was incapable. Listen to how fast her heart’s going. Pathetic, really.” She was rudely jolted out of her wonder, and she somehow found it in her to glare in indignation.

The woman frowned in distaste. “They’re so much more hideous when they’re capable of facial expression.” The man laughed.

She finally spoke. “Who are you? Where am I? Let me…let me go home.” Her voice cracked.

“Home?” The man smiled patronizingly, though he couldn’t have been that much older than her. “Sorry, but you’re never going back.”

“Technically, you don’t exist.”

A Necessary Evil

2007-09-10T00:23:42Z

By the time I reached my last class of the day, I was a trainwreck. I was mush. To say I walked in would be a disgusting exaggeration. More accurately, I dribbled and sagged into 6th period Study Hall.

School is my own personal demon, but I suppose it’s a necessary evil. I slumped into a chair and stared moodily into space.

“Lena, get working!” a shrill voice barked out. Ms. Evil-Redheaded-Bipolar-Study-Hall-Teacher. She made school about as fun as…as….....words fail me.

I glared, and began doodling on my paper most conscientiously. Hearts, stars, smiley faces, red-headed prison guards…

My artistic talents soon failed to amuse me. What should I do when I get home? I mused.

...Math hw…Clean my room…Babysit the 4-year-old nightmare…

...Get a life…They’ve got cheap ones at Walmart! 50% off! My inner self was annoyingly chipper. My mood darkened. I crumpled up the piece of doodled paper and hurled it away from me.

And hit him in the face. He didn’t look too happy.

Oh crap.

Not Dreaming

2007-09-09T22:10:55Z

Her eyebrows crinkled together at the perplexing statement. Her connection to…what? Reality? The whiteness that still filled her vision was beginning to disconcert her, as was this new place she found herself in.

It had to be some bizarre dream. Relieved in her realization, she closed her eyes and waited to drift off towards real life…

But one of the voices above her jarred into her thoughts, interrupting her attempt to relax herself away. She growled silently…then squeaked in alarm.

“Should we terminate her? She’s useless in the condition she’s in. It’s why she was put through Psychecision in the first place. Her mind is incapable.”

Dream or no dream, she had no intention of finding out what it felt like to die. What happened if you died in a dream? Would you die in real life? She struggled to overcome the heaviness in her chest.

With a wrench of awful force, she creaked her eyes open, turned herself over.

And found herself staring into a pair of the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen.

As It Slips Through Your Fingers

2007-09-08T22:26:37Z

Her every breath was a shallow one, a flutter in her throat and lungs. She floated in a haze; and yet at the same time, she could see her surroundings with painfully harsh clarity. The priest’s blessings buzzed in her ears, and then fell away as she drifted into a cloud of forced indifference. Tension brewed behind her pale eyes, and her ashen, thin-lipped grimace.

But she refused to cry. If she cried, that would mean she accepted his death. That he had really died. That he really had been hit by a drunk driver at 10:37 PM on a frigid December evening at the corner of Second Chance Boulevard, and left to die, with only his killer to watch as he slipped away.

How could he leave his only sister behind?

She tossed the handful of dirt into the grave. Then she kissed the lily-her favorite flower-and let it fall from her trembling hand into the gaping maw of death.

Something cracked. Maybe her heart.

So she ran, blinded by tears. And crashed into something soft and alive. She looked up.

Him.

Still Lost and Getting Lost-er

2007-09-08T18:51:42Z

The Mary Sue gave an indignant squeak – which still, of course, managed to sound both dignified and breath-taking at the same time – and grabbed me before I could make the leap and escape to sweet freedom.

“Where do you think you’re going? You’re supposed to worship me for my perfectness.” I stared at her, aghast.

She launched once again into her life’s story. I zoned out, nodding at random intervals, smiling and gasping and generally feeling like an idiot. All I caught were the words “abandoned,” “orphan,” and “self-discovered genius.” Retch.

Suddenly and quite randomly, a fantastically drool-worthy man walked by. I would have been sickened by his air of arrogance if I hadn’t been too busy ogling.

Just as suddenly, a crowd of Fan-Girls appeared and immediately smothered him with a flurry of bodies and ecstatic exclamations.

“It’s him!”

“It’s him!” Ok, we get it already…

“Isn’t he perfect?”

“I can’t believe it’s really [insert name here]!!”

I shut my gaping mouth. What? That’s his name?

(Genre: Sci-Fi) The Gemini Experiment

2007-09-08T18:08:24Z

She smiled and held the phone closer to her ear. Her heartbeat accelerated when the voice on the other end spoke. She knew it was ridiculous, he was just her friend, but—

Suddenly there was a shudder through her spine, a crack in her ears, a bright flash in her eyes, and the world went black. Not dark, but black, like drowning in the black emptiness of a gaping hole in the universe.

Voices fizzled through her brain, distorted by static and electronic beeps. She groaned and tried to open her eyes. What’s going on? Blindly, she tried to get up, but she couldn’t. A terrible heaviness had come over her body, a tightening in her heart.

Something pricked her neck, and suddenly, there was light. There was clarity. She was lying face down, and all she could see was a blank whiteness. Voices hummed above her.

“What happened? Why did Subject 08A5GII wake up?”

“She was programmed to talk to Jeff. But there’s been a malfunction with the system.”

“What?”

“Her connection to Reality has been broken.”

Until Death Do Us Part

2007-09-08T03:14:02Z

He sat, slumped in his chair, by her bedside. Lines in his face, tears in his eyes, cracks in his heart. He was broken, he was brittle, shattered and afraid. And he’d lost the pieces somewhere along the way.

She stirred. Hoarse, ragged breaths mingled with the beeps of heart monitors. Sounds of death. Sounds of life. A jagged, green, pulsing line beeped across the screen. It was her lifeline, her last chance, the beat of her heart, the sound of her steps as she walked away down a path he could not follow.

He whispered in her ear and squeezed her hand.

“Emma. Emmy.” Weakly, she woke up.

“I…I brought you a flower.” He held up the daisy and her heart fluttered.

She winced sadly. “I’ll be pushing up daisies soon enough, won’t I, Edward?”

He fell to his knees beside her. Kissed her cheek, touched his forehead to hers, tightened his hold on her hand.

“I’m here. Just take my hand. I’ll never let go.”

A tear slid down her cheek. And for the first time since the day Cancer became her fate, she smiled.

The Perils of Losing Yourself in a Story

2007-09-08T02:14:24Z

I ambled along. Minding my own business. Feeling vaguely like I was expecting something. I just wasn’t sure what. All I knew was that…

“Aaaah!”

I tumbled off a cliff.

The drop came out of nowhere, and I just barely managed to grab onto the edge. I dangled. Hanging.

A beautiful, absolutely perfect girl that I’d never seen before in my entire life suddenly appeared before me. She smiled. I was blinded by her ultra-white teeth, flummoxed by her purple eyes, stunning hair.

“Hi, I’m amazingly smart, strong, and pretty, and I’m going to save you from the cliff you randomly fell off of.”

She reached out and plucked me up with one hand. I was sick of cliff-hanging anyway. Dang it. Second time this week. She batted her eyes and spoke.

“My name’s Mary Sue.”

She giggled. My hand itched to smack her. She yapped advice at me, flavored with a bubbliness just too disgusting for someone who’d just escaped death.

I had to choose.

Fall of a cliff. Or death by peppiness.

She giggled. I turned. I jumped.