The End is Nigh

Word Count: 36,164
Words written from Friday, 6:30pm – Saturday, 4am: 10,265
Hours Remaining: 44

So, I thought I’d given up on NaNoWriMo half way through the month. That’s roughly 10 days in which I wasn’t writing. I’d caught up on Day 8, stayed level until Day 10, wrote my butt off on Day 16 and then… and then…

Nothing happened.

I procrastinated. I focused on work and life (which every NaNoer knows you’re supposed to avoid like the plague in November) and suddenly it was day 26 and I hadn’t even hit 25K.

Now the real challenge begins! Which is why I’m not going to write much more in the blog, but I AM going to share a scene that I’ve fairly happy with (and for which you don’t need the whole backstory… not really anyway).

Enjoy the snippet of my story while I write until my fingers bleed!

(This scene occurs near the middle. The first part is the end of the previous scene but the gist of everything is there; also, please remember that this is crazy rough since it was written in the span of 20 minutes and only lightly edited… there’s a reason why National Novel Editing Month – NaNoEdMo – exists… and that’s not until March.)

“Sure, go consult with your little cult,” Audrey snipped. A small part of her regretted treating Misha this way, but her anger needed it, needed to be released and maintained. It was either this or sobbing on the road and she’d done that already. He looked down at her, alarmed, wary. He nodded once and walked off. His long strides ate up the ground, so that he was half way to his group of friends before she realized she needed him near her to keep the anger going. She turned, fear and panic warring with her anger, to face the empty stores, no longer wanting to meet the eyes of these secretive people who may or may not have caused the death of several people, people she knew, by their inaction. The stores were just as empty as they were the first time she’d looked at them. The road was littered with debris – glass, plastic bags, a random shoe that had blood on it. Her eyes shifted away from the last one as quickly as they’d landed on it.

She spun around and walked to her car, rolling her shoulders to ease the pain. Her reflection shone back at her from the glinting surface of the window. Her pale face was tight, as if the skin were pulling itself off her skull. Her hair flew in all directions, messy in an unattractive way. She had dirt, she hoped it was dirt, smeared on her face. Sighing, she reached up to rub it off.

Something moved in the reflection. A shape pulled itself away from the roof of the building behind her and scurried down. She spun, looking at the spot where the shape had been, only to see a grey leg disappear behind the corner of the roof. She took a step forward, eyes searching the darkness between the two buildings. Nothing moved.

Within seconds she was at the mouth of the alley. The darkness was too thick, too black for the time of day. She saw the outline of boxes and a dumpster. There were some shapes in the middle, bulky but not big enough to be anything that could threaten her. She stepped further into the alley. Absently, she noted someone calling her name, but the pull of the mysterious shape made the call for her seem distant and unimportant. She took another step further. This shape. This thing. It was familiar. She’d seen it before. Even from the glimpse of the limb, she knew it. She took another step, now fully in the alley. Nothing moved, not even the air. She held her breath, feeling on the verge of some sort of revelation. Just over there, deep in the shadows, that’s where she needed to go. She took another step. Anticipation bubbled up in her mind, blocking out even the anger she’d been using to sustain her calm. Something was happening right here, right now. Something that would make everything better. She took another step. Her arm brushed against the first box. It was large, big enough to hold a refrigerator. It swayed at the touch, leaning back and rocking forward, a slight movement that broke the stillness.

A shape broke away from the wall she’d been staring at. It move silently, creeping around the dumpster that separated her from it. Red eyes glared out in the darkness. She recoiled with a gasp. The shadow moved toward her, one creeping step after another. She waited, for once not afraid. For the first time in 48 hours, she felt certain that this was where she was supposed to be.

I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.

The thought was at once hers and not hers. It came from outside of her, but she felt at the core of her being that she had been waiting for this moment, for this creature with it’s red eyes.

The shadow took another creeping step toward her. She reached a hand toward it, wanting to touch the shadow, wanting to know. To know everything.

The red eyes narrowed. The shadow hissed, a sound filled with frustration and annoyance. The eyes blinked.

“Audrey!” Misha called from the mouth of the alley. She jumped, spinning to face him. He stood in the sunlight, a strong silhouette of a man.

“What?” she asked, annoyed. She looked behind her. The shadow was gone.