Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Untitled

Charlotte was nine when she ate her first dream. She didn't mean to.

It was late on a moonless night. She danced into her parents' bedroom, unable to sleep, and she moved, quiet as the still, night air, to the foot of her mom and dad's bed. She paused for a moment, before softly crawling into the space between them. She was scared, unable to stop thinking about the movie. She saw it when she closed her eyes. She told herself it wasn't real, but, alone in the dark, it was.

She nuzzled up against her father reassured by his scent and warmth. She felt safe. The ghosts of the night departed as quickly as they came. They wouldn't mess with her father, she knew. Charlotte smiled, content, and softly ran her hands through her father's messy, rough hair. She felt sleep edging closer. Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier until finally she could fight no longer, dropping her hand as her eyes slid shut and sleep took hold of her.

Except it didn't.

Her eyes snapped open to see trails of light between her resting hand and her father's sleeping brow. Opalescent threads trembling and swaying fragilely to the beat of her father's soft breaths. Charlotte shot up to a sitting position. Her mother, Anna, shifted and turned, but didn't wake. Charlotte slowly moved her hand. She felt a gentle tug. The threads intertwined themselves about her fingers stickily like strands of cotton candy on a hot summer day. She shook her hand. No good. She shook harder. She shook and cried silently and shook, but the strands wouldn't shake lose.

Realizing that all of the shaking had only pulled more of the stuff out, she held her hand still. Her eyes burned in the way that eyes do when sleep-heavy eyes cry. She saw, that even without moving her hand, the strands still unspooled from her father's head. She sat unmoving and watched. She didn't wait long before she felt the tug of a taught line going slack and she saw the tail end of the long wisps hanging limply from her fingers. As she sat motionless, staring at her hand, her emotions shifted gradually from anxiety to curiosity.

She brought her hand to her face to see more clearly. The room was dark but the strands glowed with a gentle, silver luminescence. She felt a strange hunger as her hand neared her face. Dinner was only a few hours ago. She had apricots and cream for dessert. Her favorite. This feeling was different. It was deeper inside than hunger. She cautiously touched her tongue to a piece of the strand wrapped about the back of her hand. Delicious. She smiled and continued, cautiously, nibbling at the long strands wrapped about her fingers, her pace quickening until it was all gone.

Her father grimaced and turned in his sleep. She felt his arm. Cool to the touch. She got up and crept out of bed as silently she came.

As she exited the bedroom, she remembered, hazily, the movie and the nightmares that haunted her. She smiled and gently laughed. How silly that she be scared by such things. She made her way down the hall back to her room, darkness fleeing from her all the way. When she slept, she dreamt fantastic dreams, dreams real enough to touch and hold, dreams of a life she never lived, and when, hours later, her mother cried and cried when her father didn't wake, Charlotte felt content knowing that his memories would always live on.

61 comments:

Anonymous said...

First!

Anonymous said...

Creepy and very different than your Noir posts. I liked it a lot!!

Anonymous said...

"she remembered, hazily, the movie and the nightmares that haunted her. She smiled and gently laughed. How silly that she be scared by such things. She made her way down the hall back to her room, darkness fleeing from her all the way. When she slept, she dreamt fantastic dreams, dreams real enough to touch and hold, dreams of a life she never lived, and when, hours later, her mother cried and cried when her father didn't wake, Charlotte felt content knowing that his memories would always live on"

holy fuckin' shyt

Anonymous said...

Changing it up, rad?

Michael said...

someone hold me cause i'm scared

Anonymous said...

damn

Anonymous said...

SHE KILLED HER DAD WITH DELICIOUS MIND SNAKES

also, she has the hiv

Anonymous said...

I don't get it. I'm no native speaker, though. Do somebody care and explain it to me? I didn't got the whole threads/strands thingy obviously.

Anonymous said...

Well, anonymous. The threads are(Most likely) her dads dreams/life essense/whatever.

Also: Lovely work as always Radikal.

Anonymous said...

You changed the title from "Revenge" to "Untitled" - mind if I ask, why?

radikal said...

I'll probably put that title back, charm. But I wanted to see what people thought of the story without it. I'm kinda curious what people will think tbh.

Anonymous said...

It might be in your own interest to stick with the Noir stuff. That one is like a really bad Stephen King fake, and considering the fact that Stephen King himself is already a load of crap - well, let's just say stories like that make your eyes rot while reading it.

Anonymous said...

Fuck the poster above me, I think this was your best story yet. The language is beautiful and the story is short and sweet.

Anonymous said...

You improved so ridiculously since your first entries here, but it seems you're realizing you have to branch out if you're going to take it to the next level. Write outside your comfort zone!

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of the Tapestry of Fate, somehow.

Anonymous said...

what river said

Anonymous said...

In June 2007 I was the mage of an up and coming mage/priest/warlock team on Ner'zhul. When we decided to branch out for 5s, our rogue told me to read Radikal Noise to improve my game. I neglected to do so for a week, but when I finally got to it, we broke 2k easily. It was night and day. Your strategies were spot-on.

I've been an avid reader since then, visiting at least once per day. Since then you have completely changed the focus of this blog, and I love it. WoW has gotten old, but posts like "Unleash the Fury", "Peaches", and this amazing, ever improving Noir (WRITE A FUCKING BOOK ALREADY) have kept this site vastly more interesting than the repetitive WoW blogs elsewhere. This is probably my second favorite post of the past year, behind Fury.

Anyway, thanks bro.

Anonymous said...

I'm not exaggerating when I say that is maybe one of the best little stories I've ever read.

Anonymous said...

Story was great. Last paragraph was perfection. I think the rest was a bit rushed and uneven. Sometimes it's very fast moving and at others it lingers for no reason.

"she remembered, hazily, the movie and the nightmares that haunted her. She smiled and gently laughed. How silly that she be scared by such things. She made her way down the hall back to her room, darkness fleeing from her all the way. When she slept, she dreamt fantastic dreams, dreams real enough to touch and hold, dreams of a life she never lived, and when, hours later, her mother cried and cried when her father didn't wake, Charlotte felt content knowing that his memories would always live on."

Perfect.

I also love that you preface the story with "Charlotte was nine when she ate her first dream. She didn't mean to"

It immediately makes her the "evil" of the piece. But the story plays with your expectations a lot, making it very unclear, until the end. And this line in the end, "darkness fleeing from her all the way" is so wicked.

Anonymous said...

Was a fun little short story, I surely enjoyed it, but honestly I sensed the ending pretty early.

A little something to fill the day until the next post.

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed this piece a lot Rad.

I'm not much of a critic so I can't offer too much more, but I would like to echo what someone else said: "Write outside your comfort zone!"

It's nice to see a bit of a change of pace and no matter what your 'art' is I think it's always important to push your boundries.

Anonymous said...

Why don't we pity the father more?

"reassured by his scent and warmth"
"ran her hands through her father's messy, rough hair"
"opalescent threads trembling and swaying fragilely to the beat of her father's soft breaths"
"she felt a gentle tug"
"stickily like strands of cotton candy"
"she shook harder"
"she shook and cried silently"
"she felt the tug of a taught line going slack"

This is brilliant writing. "Revenge" is the correct title indeed.

Anonymous said...

I'm actually going to print this out and chuck it over to a creative writing professor I assisted under.

even odds his class spends the better part of a week analyzing it.

10 to 1, if they do, that all the essays will address perceived latent sexuality and themes of incest.

Anonymous said...

A nice change of pace - great little piece. I'm really impressed that (almost) every story is better than the last.

One nit pick: 'messy' is a strange way for a nine year old to think of hair. You'd portrayed Charlotte's fear and comfort so well, but this momentarily jarred my perspective at a critical point. Bed hair seems messy to us because of the stark contrast to its normal order, but I don't think the distinction would be so prominent in the mind of a scared child, to whom 'mess' is probably a few orders of magnitude greater.

Anonymous said...

No, the themes are just there. Raddy is a very straightforward writer. He might lace his story with some undertone, but he has said before that he likes to tell stories without loads of pretension.

radikal said...

Maybe you're all just terrible perverts =p

Richter said...
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Richter said...

damn raddy, you're already getting analyzed

i liked the balcony more (publish?) but this was good too.
read much flash/sudden fiction? i think your final sentence here makes a strong "moment" but i think the rest of the story could be more economical. just a first impression

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty damn sure she stole her father's powers a la Sylar

Unknown said...

i love it

Anonymous said...

made you a cover

Unknown said...

Good one Radikal. I am not a native speaker, you actually made me look up a few words in the dictionary. Well done I must say since I am the greatest slacker this earth could ever hope to produce.

ps. Are you sticking with your mage(s) in the expansion? do you even plan to play?

- Rearden @ Bloodfeather

Anonymous said...

It was allright

Anonymous said...

Your writing is compelling. It's that feeling where you think you want to do something else but your brain knows whats better for you i.e Noir tagged stories.

Anonymous said...

Very good.

But, although the story was easily understandable, it made me curious as to why the father's dream being eaten would also cause his death.

Anonymous said...

You tease me raddy with these short stories.

WTB Longer ones!

Anonymous said...

Creepy as balls.

Also didn't make terribly much sense, unless you're thinking of the mind-threads from Harry Potter I guess, but somewhat ludicrous outside of that established context.

Anonymous said...

"But, although the story was easily understandable, it made me curious as to why the father's dream being eaten would also cause his death."

What is a man without dreams?

TheAmoeba said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TheAmoeba said...

Didn't like this one as much as your others. Didn't really seem like your style to write something of this genre.

Meh.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic as always, Raddy!
If I may, I'd like to suggest a book for you to read. It's Haruki Murakami's "The Elephant Vanishes". I feel that you might enjoy his unique style of writing!

Unknown said...

"The body cannot live without the mind."

--Morpheus, The Matrix

Definitely an interesting change of pace Raddy. I wouldn't say I like it as much as the Balcony, but it is a damn good piece of writing in itself. As another poster noted, the title was perfect. It definitely is.

Anonymous said...

It wasn't very good

Unknown said...

I stopped playing WoW some time ago... but I still follow this blog.

You're a great writer - not perfect (you tend to slacken into your more colloquial 'internet' tone at times), but certainly one that could do great things granted a bit of refinement.

You really should submit some of these (namely "The Balcony") to a creative writing organization.

Anonymous said...

Rad makes half a mil year at his day job plus whatever he pulls in from poker. I highly doubt he gives a fuck about if one of his stories gets published in some creative arts magazine.

Anonymous said...

First of all anonymous, you don't know shit about rad and don't pretend you do. Second, what does how much he makes have to do with anything.

Richter said...

getting published==having good arena ratings on bg9

l2p nub

Anonymous said...

For the Greater Good

Unknown said...

If you publish with the intent of pulling a JK Rowling, you don't deserve to call yourself a writer.

Unknown said...

SHE KILLED HER DAD WITH DELICIOUS MIND SNAKES

Anonymous said...

If there she was abused by her dad, and then just ate his memories...does she remember it from both sides?

Anonymous said...

dudez i figured it out. the mom is actually also the daughter. shes schizophrenic and was abused as a child and she wound up killing the husband and it wasnt with delicious mindsnakes but she strangled him like, with his own belt. and she didnt do it on purpose really but she knows shes totally crazy and theres nothing for her to be scared of, only people to be scared of her.

Anonymous said...

interesting story; good setup for the slight twist at the end, but very dark.

I don't think revenge works as a title.

Jason said...

I think superawsomeplant nailed it.

But I'm confussed how "Revenge" fits as a title, if there are no undertones in the writing.

Anonymous said...

I wish I'd have something smart to say about Noirs, but I'll just say that you're the man.

Anonymous said...

What epakesa said

Anonymous said...

I showed this to my creative prof and he absolutely loved it. If you want some recommendations on touching it up or where to submit a piece like this, I'd be glad to help.

Anonymous said...

i showed this to my mom and she didnt rly get it but she said if u mail the original she will frame it and send it back with a batch of cookies and her underwear

Anonymous said...

HARRY POTTER OMG OMG

Anonymous said...

great

Anonymous said...

I really don't understand the allegations of sexual abuse here. When a young girl has a nightmare and is scared, I wouldn't think her first reaction would be to run to her fucked-up, baby-raping, pedophile douchebag daddy for comfort and reassurance. And I'm quite sure she wouldn't be glad that his memories of raping her would live on forever.