SCDR.Ch I.PremierePremiereAct One; Scene One; Take One.Action.Fade in to a practically deserted rural highway in plain centre of the Albertan countryside where shrubs and ghosts of trees dot the scenery here and there and the main vegetation is made up of long grasses and reeds. Pan across the farmer’s field, across where in daytime, cows and bulls and horses roam and ruminate, past where they defecate and make crude animal love in mating season, past that. Pan over the barbed wire fence that catches and gouges whatever it makes contact with, past the fallen leaves gathering in small heaps in the ditches, past that, past that. Pan over to the abused
SCDR.Ch II.Situation Type...Noah Rechtzner was the epitome of masculine beauty. With cheekbones so high that they were almost divine, a sharp-bridged patrician’s nose, and a jaw to compete with Tom Cruise, that face would not have been altogether incongruous atop the shoulders of a statue of a Greek god. His eyes, more grey than blue, pierced and captivated all at once like twin vortexes; you could stare into them for hours picking out the flecks of cobalt and black all the while straining not to fall in head-first. He had immaculate dark eyebrows, smooth perfect lips – a smile only just crooked enough that it could pass as all-natural, with an eye-tooth overl
SCDR.Ch III.The DreamSince my early childhood, I could only vividly recall a handful of dreams. Sometimes I’d wake up in the middle of the night tossing and turning with a harsh biting feeling of déjà vu snagging at the back of my mind, but the details of the dream would always trickle away like sand in an hourglass. By the time the sand had entirely sifted to the bottom cone, I would have already fallen asleep again, and by morning, would remember nothing at all. Occasionally something in the real world would provide a trigger powerful enough to turn the hourglass on a slight angle, but the whole thing would scarcely ever come back. However, it wo
SCDR.Ch IV.Staples and Cig...I would not have met Noah Rechtzner had I not first met Mandy. Yes, Mandy – like the haunted doll that had once taken over the news at around Halloween that one year, the one with the dead, cracked face that apparently like to rampage offices during the night, killing camcorders and generally creating havoc. Her real name, of course (the girl’s I mean, not the doll’s), was Amanda. To me she was always Mandy though, because that was whom I was immediately reminded of, stumbling across her photo.Mandy was one of those girls who was ‘discovering herself’ as a Goth and wore really ratty, dark clothing and makeup that wo
Holy Water and Vodka. i“Let’s talk about the girls,” Gregory Neustadter said. "I’d like to start at the very beginning.”It wasn’t an office with a chair and a couch and warm mahogany furnishings, but it would do. There was no bowl of courtesy mints on the table, and certainly no steaming cup of Earl Grey, but that could be easily justified. There was a fluorescent light and two chairs to be occupied; there was a steel door and no windows, to maintain privacy. The room had enough square footage on it so as not to induce claustrophobia, but was compact enough that the door was within a couple meters’ reach, if escape was necessary
Holy Water and Vodka. ii"You know, the decreasing literacy rate in Americans these days is not particularly inspiring."He stops, frozen for a moment but not really, and turns back around. His black eyes reflect nothing. "The fuck are you talking about, amigo?" he says. "Who said anything about... decreasing literacy?" And he hits the catch on the steel Zippo and watches as it ignites again. I'm just surprised at how smoothly he pronounced 'decreasing literacy'. I say, "Well, I can't think of any other reason why you'd be smoking in here," and kindly directing his attention to the sign on the wall, the universal one with the smouldering cigarette behind a thick r
Holy Water and Vodka. iiiThe glass might as well have held melted ice cubes.Slumped back in the wooden chair, Colburn said, "You walk out for half an hour to bring me a shot?" Then he said, in some foreign accent, "Jay-sus, what cheap service they got here. I ain't payin' for this." Beneath the table, the chains that held him clanked dully in accord. He didn't say anything after that – and neither did Gregory Neustadter. Neustadter did not sit down at his end of the table, but rather walked around its side, pushing the glass forward slowly as he did so, and for a moment he thought he saw a flicker of something (familiarity?) in Colburn's eye. He picked up the gla
Holy Water and Vodka. iv"What," I say. "What, were you expecting a little more of a reaction, is that it? Were you expecting me to break down for you?" I say, "Sorry to disappoint you, sweetheart, but I'm not that kinda guy." And here's the part where I walk out – or rather, I would, if only I wasn't surrounded on all four sides by bars and brick. I've been shaking the bars most of the day, trying to find the magical loose escape bar, but I guess that's only in the movies. Quel dommage. "No," she says. She says, "I wasn't... I wasn't expecting anything from you. Actually." In my head, I keep seeing her shaking her head, just turning on her heels and walking out
Preview - ILWT Ch1The Fall (Part I)The Seventh Commandment (i)Let me lay it down this way, otherwise you might not understand – and if I need anything right now, that is what I need. Of course you probably won’t anyway. Understand, that is. I hardly do myself. But I’ll try my best to tell it the way it needs to be told, before things get any more stupid. It’s like this:Our relationship, I think, was founded mainly on the fact that neither of us really had anything to believe in. It wasn’t that we were special somehow, any more or less human than anyone else – far from it. There were plenty of others congregated here and ther
WORLD WAR Z: Lucky[Excerpted from the blog @ ISurvivedTheZombieApocalypse.com*][The following emotional interview was conducted between one of our esteemed reporters and a now world-renowned survivor of the events that occurred following Z-Day**. Our interviewee wishes to remain unnamed at this time, until the release of her debut non-fiction novel in mid-December, title yet to be disclosed.] I’m – I’m so sorry. It’s just… it’s been so hard to adjust to the way things… were before. Well, as close as it’ll ever be, I guess. So they say. I can’t just – switch gears.That’s completely understa
AlienI teased her mercilessly the night she told me that E.T. frightened her. It wasn’t nearly as fun as the week I spent surprising her in the shower after we watched Psycho together at midnight with the lights off, but it made for some interesting conversation just the same.Is it an alien thing? I asked her, grinning. A fear of the unknown? No, she said. Well, maybe. You know those people who are afraid of big, open spaces? Sure, I told her. Agoraphobics. You know why they’re afraid of big, open spaces? she said. It’s because you can see everything, this huge field of possibility, and you figure now that you’re in that bi
something humani detest when i start forgetting the sound ofyour black velvet voice.
Thoughts of a Dying AtheistAdmittedly, no one was more convinced than I was that he was madder than a hatter the day he ran into the office raving that the presidential family had been called underground and everyone else was going to die. Yes, we thought, one among us has finally lost it. Gone stark mad, you see. Better him than any of us, we thought, and better he snap while he didn't have a semi-automatic on his person like those real crazies you see on the news sometimes. Either way, that was about when he fell in a heap and we all thought he'd tripped on a power cord, but then someone knelt down and took his pulse, still trying to work out his gibberish ramblings,
PS: A Question of Motivation FADE IN:INT. PSYCHIATRIST'S OFFICE - DAYA clock with roman numerals TICKS. A chair CREAKS.The faintest of grins pulls back on a scruffy man's face. This is DREW (30s). His leg bounces as he nervously looks at ROBERTA (30s), seated across from him. She also watches him, but she's still. Wary. Terrified.DREWIs something wrong? You're awfully quiet today.For a second, it isn't clear if Roberta's going to laugh or cry. Instead, she just stifles a cough.DREW (CONT'D)We'll never get to the heart of the problem if you don't talk to me.ROBERTA I'm fine. Just...fine.DREW Fine? That isn't very definitive. ROBERTA Fine, as i
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