Writing Excercise 2

This is a quick writing exercise where I 2 beers and drew a card from a tarot deck as the subject and inspiration for the story. The tarot deck used this time around was the Normal Tarot Deck (this link leads to their Kickstarter, but I bought it from here. You can also get it from here) The card I drew was "The Lost King". This was streamed on YouTube, and the video is linked below.

The Story: Title idea =Amanda

It had been a long day. Chrissie walks down the street to her apartment above the laundromat in her fast food uniform, with a jacket that has seen better days. As she comes closer to the door, she pulls her keys out of her pocket. She reaches the door, puts the key in the lock and turns it until the latch releases and the door is unlocked. She hurries inside and closes the door behind and locking it before walking up the stairs to her apartment.

She sighs as she is almost in her own space and away from the world outside. A world that seems to want nothing but to crush everyone that is can until there is nothing left of them except their meat suit. She enters her apartment and plops herself down on the couch.

“Fuck everyone. This day was an absolute shit show.”

She looks at a picture standing next to the television. The room is sparse with furniture but covered in photographs. In every single photograph there is the same person, a young woman. Sometimes she is on her own and sometimes she is surrounded by people and in some she is with Chrissie. They look similar, related. The same face shape, nose, mouth, but the eyes are different. Chrissie’s are a dull blue gray, but the young womans are a piercing blue, like the ocean on a clear sunny day. They cut right through to your soul. Chrissie picks one of the photos up and looks at it. It’s her and the young, posed together looking at the camera, hands around each other, a smile on their faces, not a genuine one but one put on for appearances.

“How are you doing, little sis? Have you been waiting for me?”

Chrissie puts the picture down as a shadow moves behind her. She doesn’t notice.

The girl in the picture is Chrissie’s little sister, Amanda. She died mysteriously, about 5 years ago. No one really knows what happened to her. She was found at the bottom of a ravine. They believe she slipped and fell, the official cause of death determined to be an accident. But there was some evidence that it was maybe not an accident but a deliberate act, either by Amanda or by someone else. Footsteps on the ground where she went off that suggested that someone else might have been there or an attempt to make it look like someone else had been there. Determining when the footsteps had been made turned out impossible and on top of that no obvious suspects emerged, so accident it was.

Chrissie takes her jacket off and turns on the TV. She turns on TCM to see what’s on. Singing in the Rain springs to life on the screen.

“Amanda, your favorite film is on.”

She changes the channel to the CW and Riverdale. She stands up and walks into the kitchen. She opens the fridge and grabs a beer and then heads back to the couch to wind down in front of the TV. There she sits and languishes for a while.

A thud, like a cabinet door closing.

Chrissie sits up and looks behind her to the kitchen. The lights in the apartment are off because she didn’t bother to turn them on. She can’t see anything out of the ordinary and turns back to the TV thinking it’s coming from next door.

Another thud, a louder one, and closer.

Chrissie turns back around and tries to scan the apartment in the darkness. She can’t see anything. Just dark. A third thud. And this time she sees the door. Open just a little and close.

She gets up. Walks to the light switch and turns on the light. The apartment is bathed in light. It’s a mess. She goes into the kitchen turns on the light and checks the cabinet. There is nothing inside that would make it open and close that she can see. A chill runs through her. For some reason it’s colder in the kitchen, even though there isn’t a window there. She doesn’t know why. She heads back out of the kitchen and to the couch. But she doesn’t reach it.

Water running, not from the kitchen but from the bathroom. The faucet has turned on by itself. There is only Chrissie in the apartment. She rushes to the bathroom and turns on the light. She turns the faucet off. She looks in the mirror above the sink. There seems to be something behind her. She turns around. Nothing. She looks back into the mirror and jumps. Her sister’s face staring back at her.

“Have you missed me?” The whispering voice comes from everywhere and nowhere all at once. Chrissie runs out of the bathroom and into the open living room. She stares at the bathroom but there is no movement. No one walks out. No one follows.

Chrissie stands there staring at the bathroom waiting for something to happen for a while. Riverdale changes to commercials and then another show that isn’t Riverdale. Nothing happens while she stands there staring at the bathroom. Nothing. For an hour. She finally feels like she can move. She doesn’t want to go back to the TV. She turns it off. She doesn’t see the her sister’s shadow in the TV screen. She walks to her bedroom and turns on all the lights on the way. She closes the bedroom door behind her. She takes her uniform off and gets into bed pulling the covers all the way up to her head. She stares at the door. Until sleep takes over and she falls asleep.

She wakes up hours later with the sound of her alarm. The light is off in the room. She doesn’t notice. She walks to the bathroom to get herself ready for the day. All the lights are off. She doesn’t notice. She is still half a sleep. She goes into the kitchen for some breakfast. As she’s pouring the cereal into the bowl she stops looks around and down the hallway.

“Didn’t I leave all the lights on yesterday?”

She ignores it and continues getting ready, dressed and then walks out the door to go to work. Amanda stands in the window and watches Chrissie walk away.

After a long day Chrissie walks back to her apartment, not knowing if she wants to get back inside after last night. She is too tired to go somewhere else but she doesn’t want to go in yet. She stands outside in the cold for a little before she pulls her key from her pocket and unlocks the door. She steps hesitantly up the stairs until she comes to her door. She opens it. Nothing’s out of the ordinary. Everything is how it should be. Chrissie turns on the light and walks over to the couch, cautious about her surroundings. She turns on the TV. Singing in the Rain comes on. That’s odd. It was on the CW when she turned it off and Singing in the Rain was on yesterday. She changes the channel to something else, anything else.

She looks at the photos all around. Her sister’s smiling face looking back at her. She reaches over and places all the photos face down. Her sister can’t see her anymore. But she can still feel her piercing blue eyes staring at her from somewhere. She can’t shake the feeling that someone is watching her. She looks around her apartment and sees nothing. No indication anyone has been there while she was at work. She turns back to the TV. She tries to tune out this feeling that she isn’t alone and focus on whatever it is she is watching. She stares at the TV screen willing herself to focus and ignore. But she can’t. Because in the reflection of the TV screen she’s not sitting alone. And the figure beside her has Amanda’s piercing eyes. Chrissie’s blood runs cold as she turns to her side to see if her sister is there. She sees no one. Just an empty couch.

“Did you miss me?” A whisper in the air right next to Chrissie’s ear.

“You’re not real. This is just my imagination. You’re not real.” Chrissie tries to convince herself.

“Yes, I am.” Comes the response back.

“No, no, no. I don’t believe it.”

One of the photos flies off the table and almost hits Chrissie in the head before landing on the floor with a crash. Another one comes flying. Chrissie jumps over the back of the couch and ducks down out of the of the flying pictures. Crash after crash after crash comes from the floor behind her. All of a sudden it stops. Chrissie cowers behind the couch afraid to look in any direction. Afraid of her sister’s piercing blue eyes. Afraid of the past. Afraid of the future. Afraid of herself and what she is capable off.

The TV switches channels. Singing in the Rain can be heard from the speakers. Laughter surrounds her. A chill rises up her spine. Chrissie rises slowly and looks over the couch. Someone is sitting and watching. She doesn’t want to reach out and see if she can touch it. It’s not real. It can’t be real. She steps away from the couch never once taking her eyes of whatever is sitting on her couch. One step, two, three, four, crunch. She looks down. She stepped on the broken glass of a picture frame. She looks back up. Her sister’s face is staring at her from the couch. The piercing blue eyes stabbing her through the heart. A large unnatural smile on her face.

“What do you want from me?” Chrissie utters almost soundlessly.

“I want to thank you.”

“For what.”

Amanda rises from the couch. She steps over it and walks over to Chrissie.

“For showing me what I’m capable off.”

Amanda grabs Chrissie’s neck and hoists her into the air. Chrissie struggles against the unnatural strength and for her own breath. Her vision goes around the edges. Until it goes out.

She wakes on a trail with Amanda. They are taking a walk. She’s been here before. She knows but she doesn’t remember. They come to a drop off. Amanda walks to the edge. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes living in the moment. Taking in the scenery.

This is my moment. Amanda isn’t paying attention. She never does. It’s why everyone loves her so and ignores me. Why everyone loves her and not me. I could push her. It would be easy. She’d never see it coming.

Chrissie takes a hesitant step forward. And then more confident until she stands right in front of her sister. All she needs to do is push and Amanda is gone. Chrissie raises her hands and pushes Amanda but this isn’t right. Amanda is looking at her. Amanda grabs her hands and together they plummet off the cliff. Down into the deep.

Morning comes. The sun shines into Chrissie’s apartment. Chrissie hangs from the ceiling on a rope. A note on the kitchen counter. “I’m sorry for pushing her. I can’t take this anymore.”