Queue on 3/12/2017 at 21:29
Since we seem to be enjoying turning this place into our own little literary magazine, and all loving the 'Tocky Going Wild' thread, do as the title suggests. To get the ball rolling:
"The Last Dream"
Would you go to sleep knowing this would be your last dream? What would you hope to dream for? Those endless nights of wild and rampant excursions, climbing mountains, flying high above the trees, exploring deep caverns, hunting for buried treasure. Your last dream, before sleep. Who would you be?
Would you be a painter, a sailor, a carpenter saving souls? Would you pillage or plunder, hope and heal, dream within your dream? Would you be a philosopher, and it all makes sense in the end. Will you find love? Will it hurt when you free fall and hit bottom without waking up. Will you be remembered?
Will it be scary, dreaming your last dream?
Sulphur on 4/12/2017 at 06:02
I wanna write a sequel to your last erotic novel, Queue. We don't have enough pleasingly tweaky stories about nut butter and wrinkles yet. Yes, that'll be one of my last dreams too, because damn you for thinking I'm going to have just one.
----
There come certain points in your life when you realise a friendship has diminished, that the joys and sorrows you shared and drew companionship from were no longer things related with ease, clouded by a fog of grey indifference that had slowly rolled in when neither of you was looking. It was not fickleness, no. Life happened, as it does, and it changed you by degrees. You were no longer the same person you were yesterday; and so, then, neither was she; and whatever congruence had once drawn your paths together now slowly skewed them away.
'Who else in the world is going to say what an asshole that guy is?' you ask. 'None of your other friends are as rude as yours truly.'
'You'd always win the gold medal there,' she agrees.
And she smirks. You can hear it in her voice. You think you can see it too -- the way she tilts her head when she's about to laugh, and her glasses fall down her nose, and that warm chuckle as she pushes them back up? Of course you can see it. You've seen it every other day of your life for years. And now as her voice rises and falls in your ear, you wonder if her hair's still a curly mess piled on top of her head like it always was when no one else was around to notice... no one except you.
This is how it has always been. You make a joke, like you always do, and she laughs, but you know now in those silent pauses that she hates it, so she changes the topic to something else.
Hey sister, don't you know it's time that I unburdened myself?
Snapped these threads of silence, and let you know what's been happening
Time that I spoke to to you about
the heartache and the emptiness that never went away
and this absurd notion that all I really owned was a fury and a flame,
kindled with broken promises,
and even that faltered with time
dying like half formed prayers falling from cracked lips
to scatter amongst embers of glowing resentment
'Hey, I know we haven't spoken much, but I really have to prepare for tomorrow's project review. Call you later in the week, yeah?'
'Oh. Sure. Break a leg!'
'Of course. Take care!'
'Take care.'
Your sighs are always quiet. As she hangs up, so are hers.
Tocky on 5/12/2017 at 02:23
The fear was in her eyes and in her voice. She knew the time was short. She had fallen in the tub and become bruised the way only old people bruise, the kind that goes all the way and paints continents of indigo pain on the skin. The nurses hadn't checked and she had lain there for hours until meal time. Now she was safe in bed but she didn't feel safe.
She was going to die soon. It wasn't a question the way she said it. She knew in the way maybe we all do when we learn to trust that inner voice after a lifetime of ignoring it. She didn't want to, this good woman whose every waking moment had been to serve parents, husband, children, and kinfolk like me. The depth of her fear struck me deep, so deep I was afraid she could see my fear for her when I lied telling her she had plenty of time.
I was glad to have gotten to know her better here at the end, glad to have served her, fixing her roof in the hot summer sun. It would be a good memory for me, sitting over a plate of her garden vegetables, after, as the paint dried on my clothes and she told me of the night my parents eloped. Soon all her memories would be gone and those precious few I could carry forward. But I couldn't tell her any of this and admit I knew that she was right.
When the door shut and I made my way down the hall as the warmth from her hug faded her fear clung to me. If someone as good as she feared death then what chance did an old reprobate like me have? Within the month I carried her coffin as I promised her I would.
henke on 5/12/2017 at 06:29
Damn, we got some talented fuckers here! This is all good stuff.
Mr.Duck on 5/12/2017 at 22:33
Tap Tap Tap (tentative title)
by Luis Alvarez
Where am I? It’s dark. I can’t see anything. Trapped in a very tight space, curled up. My skin, my body, presses over something hard all around it. It feels warm, soothing, but I can’t move. It’s alright: breathe. Breathe in and breathe out. In and out, in and out. Perhaps someone will come for me if I just wait. I can hear myself breathing. I’ll call out. Someone should hear if they’re nearby.
“Hello?”
My…my voice! It’s so small, frail. Was that even me? Of course. No one’s answering. Did they just leave me here all alone? Wherever here is. In and out, in and out. Breathe. Keep breathing. I need to try again, louder.
“Help! Someone!”
Nothing.
Whatever’s holding me is smooth to the touch, gentle, this warmth makes me sleepy. No. It’s dark and cramped. I need to escape. The walls seem to close in, gripping my body tighter.
I start to struggle. Muscles bulge and strain. Sweat dribbles down to my eyes, stinging them in this darkness. Anxious, I push against my bonds, but they hold firm. I want out, out! Soon enough, I exhaust myself, feeling sore all over. Tears pool in my eyes, mixing with sweat. I can’t wipe my face. Can’t escape.
Tap tap tap.
What was that? What was that? The noise came from above me. My ears are ringing; I could feel it through the wall. Who was that?
TAP TAP TAP.
Each knock is a blow that shakes my prison, wracking my body. It hurts, it hurts! Desperation is clawing at my throat. Words barely escape me.
“P-please…no more!”
Something cold stirs in the pit of my stomach. I can feel it spreading all over me; so cold, so cold. I can’t stop shaking now, grinding against the walls of my captivity. In and out, in and out.
“Please…”
TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP.
I can’t hear my screams. The noise deafens and pummels every inch of me. The walls are crushing my body. My throat is burning. Let me out. LET ME OUT, PLEASE!
CRRRACK.
Blinding white light shatters the darkness away as my prison breaks. It burns me, scouring my body with its heat. The light dries up my screams. I’m free, but I can’t move, I’m spent. Suddenly, amid the pain and confusion I feel myself lifted upward, ever upward. I am soaring. Everything is a blur of enormous shapes and colors swimming in front of me. They loom over me, impossibly tall, threatening to topple over and crush me. As things begin to come into focus, I see them. Two, creatures towering over me, impossibly tall: my captors, my tormentors. I am so small. One of them shifts to the side, blocking the light, giving me some relief under its shade. My heart won’t stop pounding. In and out, in and out, in and out. What are they? Terrible, majestic. Fear feeds the awe that I feel. My chest tightens a bit more. I need to speak, I need to know, why me? Something snaps inside; it hurts so bad and…and…
“Tommy! You killed the chick! I tolja not to crack the shell too hard!”
“Sorry, sorry! Aw, geez….ok, you can open the next egg then. Don’t tell mom, though, ‘k?”
“Deal!”
Craeftig on 6/12/2017 at 00:08
The night was humid.
Craeftig on 6/12/2017 at 09:01
Bonus points for catching the reference.
PigLick on 6/12/2017 at 11:48
sultry, the night was sultry
Craeftig on 6/12/2017 at 13:26
I'm out. Too damn sultry in here.
