Lucid Waking

Archive for July 4th, 2006

Voices…

            She rolled over on her side and smashed her pillow into her ears trying to get the voices out of her mind.
            “There’s nothing here in this hell, Madison,” a soft, voice cooed. “End it all and come to heaven. Come and join your parents, you haven’t spoken of them since the car crash. They’re waiting for you, Madison, give in…”
            She groaned and pushed it away, rolling over to her other side.
            “Madison, how dare you!” someone shrieked like a buzzard making her head buzz. “You stupid little girl for getting that answer wrong on the test! Less than perfect, that’s what you are! Flawed, a failure. I’d like to know how hard your stupid brain worked on that homework assignment you got back. A ‘D!’ Slacker! Is that what you expect to get every time?”
            She curled up into a fetal position and opened her eyes. Her room was the exact same way it had been three hours earlier when she first went to bed. The nightlight in her room was shining strong and didn’t illuminate anything that had intruded in her sleep. She felt her eyes getting droopy, but she tried to fight it, staring at the binding of the book beside her bed.
            “Well, what about that suspension you got for beating Roger up?” another reprimanded; the voice was low, but tinged with murder. “What did he do to you? You could have answered that catcall in a much less violent way. Delinquent!”
            She moaned again, but couldn’t open her eyes. “Leave me alone,” she whispered.
            “Leave you alone?” the second voice screeched. “Not until you stop acting like a stupid little delinquent.”
            “Just end it now,” the first voice said, mellow.
            She felt someone caressing her shoulders and she relaxed. “Stop,” a fourth voice said, smooth and melodious as a harp, yet firm.
            “Madison, listen to me. You’re not bad and you’re not horrible. Just work through your flaws to make you stronger. You don’t have to give in to what other people say is right. Become the beauty that you crave, be the good you want to see in the world. It wasn’t your fault that your parents died. That ‘D’ you got was for a homework assignment that you did the night your grandmother went to the hospital. You make mistakes in your life that you have to fix and you already apologized to Roger, three times. Don’t let them get you, just grab Sleep’s hand and don’t let go…”
            She focused on the voice and grabbed someone’s hand and held onto it before losing consciousness. Her foster mother got up from the edge of the bed and brushed sweaty tendrils of hair from her adopted daughter’s eyes. She sighed and left the room, careful to brush the memory bug from off the pillow.
            “Is she alright?” her husband asked, sleepily, as she got into bed again. “She was thrashing like a storm.”
            “She’s fine, she just needed a little help. Nothing I couldn’t help her fix.”

To Those in America:

Happy Independance Day! I for one will be celebrating with cake, fruit, and buffalo wings. Everyone pray for no rain!

Besides that point, I want some feedback. I can either post pieces of my story that I’m working on here, in the blog, and keep the whole thing together on a separate page in addition to pieces here and there in the archives, or just put it on a separate page without bothering to post it. Either way is fine with me. I’ll just go write another post right now. You’ll have to wait to see what it is. (Sorry about yesterday’s post, by the way, I got carried away.)

Third, there is a page over there —> where I write commentary about the posts. Any questions you have (like, what the heck is this) may be answered over on that page. If you are curious about what the next post may be, there is also a preview for you. General news besides a few posts, like this one, can be found there as well. Just so you know, it is probably a good idea to check in there once and while. It might not be as interesting as this to read, but it will keep you informed.

That’s about it! For all you Americans out there: Have a terrific Fourth of July! And if you’re not American: Have a wonderful July day!