Tag Archives: novella

Fiction

No One: Chapter 4

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mojave-phone-booth

Read from the beginning here.

“Who would I call? I can’t even remember my name much less the numbers of complete strangers from images in my head.”

Melanie ate some fallen bananas that she hadn’t noticed earlier near the beach.  Then she decided to go back and follow the path past the old cabin. At the end of it, she found a road, unmarked, but paved.  It wasn’t busy.  She might have seen one car go by if she had been paying attention.  All she noticed was a sign.

She knew she recognized it, but she didn’t know what it meant. It looked like a normal yield sign, but in the middle there was a single black star. Underneath it the word Lunal was printed in block letters.

She looked up and down the road for signs of civilization. Seeing nothing but the horizon on the right and the left, she began to walk down the right side of the highway, hoping to find a car to pick her up or maybe just a phone booth. She laughed internally at the thought. Who would I call? I can’t even remember my name much less the numbers of complete strangers from images in my head.  Yes, it was ludicrous, but still she trekked on.

As if fate was making a joke of her, a phone booth appeared as soon as she crossed the next hill on the road. Shrugging, she went up to it anyway. Once inside, she discovered a number etched into the thin wall of the booth. Smiling at what she was doing, she quickly dropped in the change she found on the floor of the booth and dialed the number.

“Hello,” a deep male voice answered.

“Hi. Um, this is…uh…Melanie.”

“Yes, we’ve been expecting your call,” he said pleasantly.

Shocked and frightened, she let go of the receiver.  She ran off, a trail of dust swirling out behind her.

Fiction

No One: Chapter 3

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cabin

Read Chapter 1 here and Chapter 2 here.

“Melanie slept fitfully as flashes of memories continued in her dreams. Most of them involved her mystery man who piqued her curiosity and frustration simultaneously.”

After gaining control of herself, she realized, “My name is Melanie…..He could have been talking to someone else.” But somehow the name resonated within her. “Maybe I’ll call myself that until I figure out who I really am.”

 

Then she decided to set up camp at the beach. “It’s where I woke up,” she thought. “So, I better stay here; it might be important.”

 

It was easy enough for her to start a fire. “I must have been a Girl Scout growing up,” she laughed bitterly to herself. After a supper of the last of the blackberries, she lay down beside the warm flames. Sighing, she fell asleep to the now surprisingly soothing sound of the ocean with a blanket of stars as her only covering.

 

Melanie slept fitfully as flashes of memories continued in her dreams. Most of them involved her mystery man who piqued her curiosity and frustration simultaneously. In the last one before she awoke, she was laying in pain in a hospital.  “I’m right here,” the man spoke while holding her hand.

 

She woke up with a start, sweaty and breathless. “I have to get out of here!” she thought. But she didn’t know where she was going or how to get there. “I’ll find a way,” she said to the ocean. Determined, she ignored her hunger and started traveling down the path through the trees.

 

After a few hours, without fruit; either in a meal or in finding a way out of the forest, Melanie sat down to rest. Suddenly seeing a clearing a few feet ahead, she got up and walked towards it. As the trees parted, a cabin came into view. With hopes for food and someone to converse with, she walked closer and knocked on the door. “Foolishness; there’s no one here.” The cabin had obviously not been inhabited for some time. The wood in it was rotten and the hinge on the door was rusted. Even so, she pulled the door open with a little effort.

 

Inside was what one would usually find in an old cabin masquerading as a set for a pioneer TV show: old pots and pans in the kitchen and an old bed and trunk in the common room. Not surprisingly, she tried to open the trunk. “Of course it’s locked,” she thought begrudgingly. Although, she thought it odd that it didn’t fit in with the rest of the cabin. “It looks almost new,” she thought astonished. Her stomach rumbled and decided for her that she was done with discoveries for the day. Sighing, she left the cabin as it was and headed back into the forest to find some food.

Fiction

No One: Chapter 2

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Read chapter 1 here.

 

“Her life seemed to go on just like the waters reaching out to the shore over and over. It was just as pointless.”

 

Sunlight washed over Melanie’s face. She winced and turned over. Not having yet acquired the taste for sand, she got up and brushed herself off. The redundant sound of the waves crashing was more haunting to her today. Her life seemed to go on just like the waters reaching out to the shore over and over. It was just as pointless. “Am I glad to be alive?” she asked herself in her thoughts. “Yes, but it would help if I knew something!” Frustrated and hungry, she escaped from the beach and went back amongst the trees to look for food. Finding a blackberry patch, she indulged herself swiftly. Satisfied, but thirsty, she decided to go further into the brush to find water and escape from the oceanic sounds.

After pummeling through the green maze for an hour, she began to hear something other than the crunch of her feet on the forest floor. It was the sound of moving water! Running, or her version of it, she scurried weakly to the clearing on the left. Melanie knelt down, practically falling on purpose to scoop up the clear water. She lifted her gaze after having a fair share.

“Beautiful,” she said aloud softly. There was a clear waterfall surrounded by rocky boulders. Resting at the bottom of the sparkling water were myriads of smooth stones. She picked up an especially flat one and skipped it on the deepest part of the waters. Gasping, she realized the action was somehow significant. She closed her eyes and let the movement trigger her memory.

At some point in the past, she was in a lake; knee-deep wearing a green retro style bathing suit. A man came behind her, guiding her hand as he taught her how to skip a rock. The waterfall sounds in the memory and the sounds in the present combined until she opened her eyes.

She didn’t think it was this place that she recalled, but somewhere similar. Closing her eyes again, she focused on the memory of the man’s face. He had a handsome face, but not clean-shaven. Tall, with broad shoulders and a steady chin that jutted out slightly, he was someone who could intimidate. But his eyes, surprisingly green yet hazel at the same time, were gentle and smiling. Melanie gasped audibly. Her body had reacted from the memory of this mystery man. She found herself smiling at the butterflies and warmth coming from her soul. Then confusion washed over her as her eyebrows pulled together. Either to clear her head or to wash the sand off, she dove suddenly into the deep waters near the waterfall.

After swimming deep to amuse herself with the sight of the various rocks, she came up for air and swam to the edge. Melanie pulled her lean body up and out, her clothing sticking to it as her long golden blonde hair dripped around her. Peering back into the clear water as if it was a mirror, she untangled her hair with her fingers. A young woman of around 25 looked back at her with round blue eyes and lips shaped in a bow. She recognized her face, but she didn’t know who she was, where she was from, or why she was here. It was an unsettling feeling.

All of a sudden, the man from her memories appeared in the water beside her reflection and said, “Melanie, don’t worry. We’re in this thing together.” In shock, with wide open eyes, she ran all the way back to the beach without thinking about what she was doing. When she arrived, panting with hands on her knees, she realized a little late that it had just been another memory. Or so she thought.

Read chapter 3 here.

Fiction

No One: Chapter 1

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beachblog

 

“The sound of the ocean conjured up faint, fleeting memories; just flashes of images like those seen in a dream.”

 

Here is the first chapter from my soon to be released novella, No One.  I’m categorizing it in the science fiction genre, but it’s also full of mystery and romance with a few action and paranormal elements.  It tells the story of a young woman waking up on a beach with no memory and how she begins putting the pieces together to discover who she really is.

 

Her clear blue eyes fluttered open gradually. Her pupils adjusted to the sun that was beating down on her skin. She sat up to see an endless ocean before her. Then she pulled herself upright.  Feeling groggy, she shifted her feet in the warm sand. The sound of the ocean conjured up faint, fleeting memories; just flashes of images like those seen in a dream. It was more like a feeling than anything else.

 

She closed her eyes and let the waves guide her breathing:  in and out…in and out. Then, without warning, fear and ignorance crept up her spine; anxiety was not long after. She tried to remember why she was there and who she was, but it was like her mind was a prison. Cloudy images of strangers and the unknown were all that was there to greet her. Panic set in next as she grasped the notion that she had no idea where she was. “Breathe,” she said in a barely audible whisper, but there was no one to answer but herself.

 

Using the ocean as a distraction, she stared at the waves to help set her heart rate back to its normal level.  Suddenly, she began to feel sick to her stomach.  “It’s just the heat,” she said to reassure herself. The young woman wiped her brow and then felt her face go white. Her gaze was held steadily to the ocean as if trying to latch onto it to keep her strength. After a few moments, everything went fuzzy and she collapsed helplessly on the beach. Darkness held her in its grip until the next morning.

Read chapter 2 here.