The room is quiet
loudly so.
The time about me
flows and flows
and flows
and flows
and the silence deafens,
painfully so.
The stars are quiet
loudly so.
The sky
the moon
the earth below
all spin much slower
slow
slow
slow
and the silence deafens,
painfully so.
The world is quiet
loudly so,
and life about me
goes and goes
and goes
and goes
and the silence deafens
those who know
that in the silence
flowers grow.
“And that is why we count our steps.”
“Don’t. Just- don’t. I did count.” I held my hands close to me, gritting my teeth. Bending over, I tried to absorb the pain.
“I think I have something for that. Hold out your hand. Hold it out. You don’t want blood on your shirt. Hold it out.”
Against every fiber of my being, I extended my hand. Shaking, I dared to open my fingers.
“Agh. Ahhh.” I couldn’t look.
“Maybe you should sit down.”
Really didn’t need to be told twice.
“Does it hurt?” Max sat down in front of me, scrounging through his backpack.
“Are you holding an open flame to my hand?”
A pause. “No.”
“Then yeah. It really hurts.”
“You caught yourself though. That was super impressive. I almost peed myself, cause I thought you had fallen to your death, but I was impressed when I saw you caught yourself.”
“I told you-“
“Yeah, I know.” He laughed, pulling a long piece of cloth out of his bag. “You don’t plan on dying here.”
With a half empty water bottle, some hand sanitizer, and a make shift bandage, Max cleaned and wrapped my hand in just a few minutes. Emptying the rest of the water onto the ground where my blood had fallen, he kicked about the gravel hiding the evidence, while stating, “Now with your hand all janked up, we can’t jump anymore.” Max turned about, trying to reset his internal compass. “Okay, I know where we are. Ready?” He slung his bag over one shoulder, and offered his hand to me. Gingerly, with my good hand, I accepted. At the roof access door, Max turned back to me. Eyebrows raised, he breathed out a smile. “Just follow me.”
The halls were dark, lights flickering eerily. Loud, suspicious thunks, sizzles, and laughs came from behind the metal apartment doors. Max walked steadily, unaffected. I tried to mimic his stance, his confidence, but door after door, the noises grew steadily more frightening. Babies crying, glass breaking, people screaming at each other, dogs barking and growling, throwing themselves at the door, televisions blaring- seeming to know, Max gripped my hand a little tighter, and walked a little faster. At the end of the first hall was the elevator.
Stopping in front of it, Max murmured, “We can take our chances on this thing, or we can walk down. Your choice.”
“What do you think we should do?”
“I think that there are six more floors before we make it to the ground, and this building is in the heart of the Alpha’s territory. Chances are Street Rats live here. Chances also are this elevator may never reach ground level.”
I thought about it for a second. “How great are these chances? No. Better question- which one are we more afraid of?”
At Max’s beckoning, the elevator shuttered open a few moments later.
“How is the elevator scarier than the hallway?” I muttered, following Max inside the dingy car.
“That’s the magic of this building.” Max answer, pressing the ground floor button. “It just gets scarier.”
“You knew?” I asked, eyes wide as I turned to look at him. He only laughed.
“Jerk.” I whispered viscously.
“Clutz.”
I opened my mouth to retaliate, just as the elevator slowed to a stop. We both swung our heads to the opening door. Half a dozen guys, dressed in all black, stood in the hallway. Alphas. Before I could react, Max did.
So you know what’s more difficult that university? Blogging while in university. And that is the extent of my apology for the silence. But hey look! Just as I promised, I am that unlucky penny: bad luck and back for more.
Summary of my time away-
1.Classes of my first term started.
2.Classes of my first term finished.
3.Pretty clothes were worn.
4.New friends made.
5.Sleep rare.
6.Coffee abundant.
7.Blessed always.
8.God has been good.
Now I can make no promises. Not about writing or stories or finally eating healthy. This is university. But I will say this- I have missed writing so dreadfully much. I wrote half a dozen articles, all with the wonderful ambition of finally breaking my blog’s silence, but life is busy. Life is busy, but it hasn’t drained me of my love for this. I know I’m human, but I’ll keep up. Just watch.
X
They say university is hard.
It makes you sleep less, eat less, blog less- or so I’ve been told. I’ll be finding out for myself soon enough, though.
Really soon.
Like, creepy soon.
Like I shouldn’t have waited this long to tell you soon.
But as you can tell from my last blog post, I kinda have a problem with denial, so I’m just gonna chalk it up to that. I’m telling you now, so I guess that’s good.
I really do like you guys. I like writing I love writing, and no matter what my schedule looks like, I’m not going to stop writing. Ever. My blog just might not be getting anything new for a while.
But trust me- You will hear from me again.
I’m like a bad penny: I just keep coming back.
Thanks for being human with me.
🙂
I’m in denial.
And I don’t feel bad about it. Honestly. Not guilty. Not one. Little. Bit.
I’m actually pretty proud of myself.
I have decided that with the mind blowing news I have accepted into my life, I must either have my mind blown, or choose denial.
I’ll go with Denial for four hundred, Alex.
So fine- I’m not in COMPLETE denial. I’ve got the suitcases, half packed, just chillin’ in my way. I’ve got the plane tickets, and that ominous day stamped on them stamped into my brain. I’ve got the traveling clothes, and the traveling headphones (red Studio Beats, what?!). I’ve even got contingency plans for my contingency plans. I step out of my denial to prepare, then back into my denial when I’m not preparing or packing or panicking.
I’d say it’s a good place to be, but I’ve developed an arrhythmia, a nervous tick and a caffeine addiction, so let’s just see how things go.
You guys are amazing 🙂
From my last post, I was able to check out a lot of your blogs, and it was awesome! So enjoyable!
I do apologize for taking so long to post my Liebster Award nominees, but scouting out new blogs takes forever.
I’d find one that posted something cool, go to their blog, read more posts, get more excited, only to find out they had roughly seventy five million followers (or at least more than two hundred).
But good did come out of the massive amount of time I spent looking for y’all! I read and started following a bunch of really cool blogs that I would totally have loved to nominate, like The Green-Walled Tower, Velvet and Vibranium, Fix of Fiction, beingmantastic, A Melancholic Picnic, and of course, the lovely Libby and her blog 100 Days….
I loved you all, but unfortunately, you guys are just *too* popular.
But my nomination quest has come to an end. It was a noble quest, but honestly, I am glad it is over. I loved y’all, but blog stalking is tiring.
Here they are-
*drum roll, please
The Product of My (and obviously Their) Hard Labor:
Here’s to Being Human’s 2015 Liebster Award Nominees
The Rules
The Questions
1. What was the last song you listened to?
2. Are you addicted to YouTube?
3. What is your favorite book?
4. What is your favorite movie?
5. What is your favorite movie quote?
6. What was the weirdest thing to happen to you this week?
7. What fictional character do you wish you could be?
8. What author most inspires your work?
9. What was the most difficult book you ever read and was it worth it?
10. Why did you start blogging?
11. If you could only post one more blog post, what would it say?
As I’ve said before, all of you are brilliant. If you haven’t been nominated yet, you surely will be. There’s no way WordPress could be the same without you.
Thanks for writing, and keep it up 🙂 you’re inspiring me.
Here’s to being human-
X
I want to nominate you. I do. Your blog is amazing. You spent a lot of time designing it, and it shows. Good job.
Your blog posts are awesome. I really enjoy reading them, and yeah, I get excited when I see your stories pop up in my inbox. You’ve got natural talent when it comes to writing, and it shows. Kudos.
Speaking of Kudos, you remember those candy bars that were called Kudos? Man, they weren’t great, but you were cool if you brought one to school in your lunch.
Speaking of cool- You. Are. Cool.
One problem- I don’t know who you are and I’ve never read your blog.
But I want to! If you’ve got a blog with less than 200 followers, tell me about your blog! I’m gonna nominate some bloggers for the Liebester Award, and seeing what an amazing blogger you are, I’d love to consider you and your blog! If you’ve got more than 200 followers, feel free to drop me your info as well. Once I get over the excruciating jealousy, I’ll still check out your blog.
I’m cool like that.
X
This has been a big week for me.
First, I was published on The Drabble! The Drabble is an amazing blog that offers short stories that are a hundred words or less. Most of the entries are short, sweet and ended with a major twist, which makes them all very enjoyable to read. I entered a short story, titled One Regret, which was inspired by 642 Things to Write About’s writing prompt “Something You Had That Was Stolen”, and the Drabble published it! That was enough to make my week, but enter exciting event number two…
I was published on the Drabble! WOOP WOOP!
This is actually another story prompt from 642 Things to Write About, entitled “Something You Once Had That Was Stolen”. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Now please excuse me while I go scream and dance for joy.
Here’s to being human.
X
It was a 1974 candy-apple red Trans Am. It’d just been restored – the tires, brand new; the paint job, metallic flecked and hardly dried. Then it was stolen.
That night, I had parked it in my driveway, and the next morning? Gone. No one knows where it went. Not my neighbors, not the cops. It was like it had disappeared into thin air. Apparently cars can do that now.
Just so you know, the car means nothing to me. I’ve got others. It’s not even the money that bothers me.
I just wish I hadn’t left that body in the trunk.
Here's To Being Human 