Sep 25, 2009

Another Link in the Chain

Yes, that's right my friends, it's that time of month again. Time for the AW blogchain. And this means Chapter Seven of my serial is going to be pushed back to Saturday.

This month's blog chain is pretty cool. Each participant gets three words:
1. a name (of a character)
2. an action verb (eating, drinking etc)
3. a noun (knife, bag etc)
from the person before them and has to write a flash piece around those words. There has been some really awesome work so far from the following participants:

Fokker Aeroplanbau

Truelyana
RavenCorinnCarluk
Lost Wanderer
Aimeelaine
Claire Crossdale
bsolah
Angyl78
FreshHell

My three words, given to me by FreshHell, were: Julia, jumping, and juniper. And this is the story I came up with:

* * * * * * * * * *

Sorrow Thy Name is Woman

“Julia . . .” the wind whispered her name through the trees.

Julia stumbled and broke into a run again, or at least as much of a run as she could manage. Her clothes were in tatters, arms and legs scratched from fighting her way out of a patch of juniper where she’d tripped and fallen. God only knew what happened to her pack.

“Julia . . .”

Would this nightmare never end? Her breath caught on a sob and she pushed herself harder. She’d hoped to make the ranger station before dark but sheer panic had made her disoriented and now she was hopelessly lost. All she could do was keep moving.

“Julia . . .”

They tried to warn her about this forest, warned her to stay away, but she hadn’t listened. Instead she laughed, calling them superstitious fools, and loaded up her back pack for a prolonged hike. She wasn’t laughing anymore.

“Julia . . .”

Branches seemed to pluck at her, like they were sentient and trying to hold her back. For all she knew they were. There’d been something not right about this forest from the moment she’d stepped into it. If only she’d turned back when she’d had the chance, but no, she was too stubborn for that. She didn’t believe in superstition or psychic energy, she was too level-headed.

“Julia . . .”

The voice sounded louder. Was it getting closer? Oh, God, she was going to die here. She was going to die a horrible death and no one would ever know what happened to her. No one except those people in the village. This was all their fault! They goaded her into entering the forest, they deliberately teased and taunted with their stories. And now she was going to die because of them.

“Julia . . .”

Dusk was starting to fall. It was getting harder to see where she was going. Was that a break in the trees up ahead? A flicker of hope stirred in her breast.

“Julia . . .”

The trees parted abruptly and Julia grabbed hold of a tree trunk to keep from falling. Hopelessly she stared down into the ravine. Her breath came in sobbing gasps. There might be water in the bottom of the abyss, it was too dark to tell.

“Julia . . .”

Jumping wasn’t an option. Or was it?

* * * * * * * * * *

Next link in the chain is ealexis and my three words for you are: Rafael, falling, and tombstone.

Still to come are:
Crayonz
Razibahmed
Proach
Tara McClendon
MGraybosch
shethinkstoomuch

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great story! I kept/keep wondering if it was a dream. Now I am eally curious. What happens next?

Dolly said...

I like this, and I especially like the ending, because by leaving it with a question, you left the tension there that's in the rest of the story. If you had ended it with a dream or something, I would have been disappointed.

C R Ward said...

Thanks for your comments!

Anonymous said...

Great job. You have a great talent at writing. :) Now off to write my piece and see if I can do justice to this.

FreshHell said...

Excellent! Reminds me of an episode of Destination Truth.

Jamie D. said...

Bravo! Well worth pushing the serial chapter back for.

I really can see your poetry writing in this piece. It's perfect - pacing, tension, emotion, all of it. Loved it. Very well done! :-)

Aimee Laine said...

Awesome! Love it! And I love the end too! :)

The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-after said...

Manic and scrumptious at the same time well done. We love it.
Simone and Claire

The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-after said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
C R Ward said...

Thank you so much everyone for your wonderful comments!

Raven Corinn Carluk said...

I LOVE how she blames the villagers for goading her into the hike. It really speaks for her arrogance, and the way she sees the world.

Razib Ahmed said...

Nice story C R. While reading it I felt that you are describing the opening scene of any horror movie or thriller. A woman is running for her life and something very dangerous is behind her but nobody knows what is it. It is like a suspense.

Unknown said...

Did she or didnt she...good story..