Ashes on the Water - Update

Next part of Ashes on the Water.





Darkest Hour of Night

Michelle turned the corner, bumping into a strange looking man and blanching as he pulled back his coat. He blinked eight times in a patter and she reached to fix her bra strap, a silent conversation of signals going on amidst a rather large crowd. She made her hand look like a gun and the man smiled, offering his hand to her.

“Hello darling, let’s go home.” He said, noticing her reluctance to take his hand and snatching her with a soft hiss of warning. He pulled her along behind him, until they walk the four blocks to the ‘bad side’ of town. The man pulled her around by the elbow and sucker punched her in the jaw, sending her sprawling against a cement wall.

“Bitch, where is it?!” he growled, crouching down and pulling her face to his, the toothy smile deadly and cold. She squirmed, pulling something out of her hoodie, but Razuko was too quick, snatching up the black packet and swiping a fist across her face, splattering her in her bloodied nose. Michelle inched away as she clutched her nose, not crying a single tear; the packet was a fake.

Then she saw him as he pulled out his gun, pushing it up against her forehead.

“If this is another of yer tricks, you whore, I’ll blow your brains half through that wall.” He growled, waving the packet in front of her, his finger easing onto the trigger. “And if it ain’t… you’re still dead.” He said, pulling the trigger. Michelle cried out as she tried to dive away, not noting the scuffle of a man bowling Razuko over, the bullet going through her hero’s shoulder.

Michelle was up and running, dodging around the deepest corners of the shadows until she was well winded, though one set of footsteps followed her, unnaturally fast. As she saw the man coming to her with the hand gun she back up to the dead end corner.

“No, please, please… I’m pregnant…” She whimpered, sobbing and searching the wall desperately. Instead of the ring of another gunshot, Michelle felt soft, familiar lips over her own.

“I… I know baby, it’s my little one. Shhh.” Joshua whispered, placing the gun in the back of his belt to wrap her up in a tight hug, wincing at the burning in his left shoulder. Joshua’s mind ran with Michelle’s, both of them relieved to know the other was alive.

“Oh Michelle, I’m so sorry…” Joshua whispered, holding her out at arms length to look at her, his shoulder having left blood smears across her neck and cheek when they hugged. He tried to wipe up the smears, only making them worse and frowning. Michelle’s face was covered in her own blood, swear and dirt, her hair matted and crusted from the sidelong fall into a puddle of street muck. She was shivering and soaked now, her hands scuffed up badly. Michelle sniffed and sobbed so hard she could barely look at him, her hiccups seizing every now and then. She shook her head as he was about to speak again, pulling him close and backing into the shadows again.

Michelle collapsed to the ground, exhausted now, her legs too weak to support her. Her lover tried to soften the fall, slipping under her to cradle her against his chest as they sat on the lone patch of weeds in the deep darkness, two lost souls alone in the silence. Finally, he reached out to run his hand along her face, tucking her hair back to give her a soft kiss.

“How is the baby?” she heard Joshua whisper, barely beyond consciousness.

“Wonderful…” she muttered, her half closed eyes closing when she tilted her head. She felt his forehead against hers just as they both fell asleep on that long and troubled night.

Lilithia Cryso

A rough back story, rewritten from the old one more to my liking.

Name: Lilithia Cryso (Do'Urden)
Age: (Drow years) - 63
Race: Drow
Alignment: Chaotic Good (Refer to THIS for more information on alignments.)
Eyes/Hair: Purple w/ gold silver highlights, snowy white/lavender hair.
Weapon (s) of choice: Scimitars, bow, spells.

Backstory:
Her mother had been posing on the surface as a high priestess of Mieliki until she could get Drizzt to sire the girl. She held most moral aspects of the drow until she ran away, just after she had murdered her mother. Lilithia was born in Menzoberranzan to an ex- high priestess of Mielikki and raised to be a skilled fighter to replace her second sister as weapons master after her mother killed her sister for going against Lolth. The emotional scarring drove her out into the Underdark, until she ran into Drizzt as he was returning to see what had become of his daughter. After a heated battle, he learned that she was the girl he searched for and took her back with him to the surface, in the hopes he could save his daughter.

As she discovered kind of 'filth' she was, she thought about returning to Menzoberranzan where she 'belonged', because of her evil past. Eventually Drizzt broke through to her and taught her properly, turning her cold outer shell away and polishing her into a fine fighter, and a beautiful young woman. He taught her about the gods after he learned that, like his father, she had never particularly favored Lolth, but had hidden her 'wild side' to keep out of harm's way. When Lilithia told her father she wished to leave, he obtained a set of scimitars for her as a parting gift. (Poison and Paradise.) When asked why she kept her mother's name, she told him she didn't want to 'tarnish his good name with her own wrong-doings.'

Drizzt was praised by Lady Alustriel when he returned Lilithia to the surface, and as a gift, she enchanted Poison and Paradise to return at Lilithia's call, whenever they are removed or knocked from her range of reach. Lilithia obtained the powers of Lolth by capturing them in a charm she wear on her neck, along with the unicorn head charm that was a gift from Drizzt also. (Drizzt encouraged, in a joking manner, that Lilithia should turn Lolth's own powers against her.) Lilithia has dreams of becoming a ranger, but has vowed first to right the wrong her mother left on the surface.

(A picture of Lilithia. Edited by me, owned by Anna Rigby.)

Ashes on the Water

As with most of my writing, I managed a page of something with a promise... It's kind of sad, but preying on the strong emotions such as love, anger and grief can bring about some quality work. I've got a rough idea of the storyline, and I might work on this more if I don't work on documenting my work books (seven months of writing from during school).

Michelle Lita Hansen- Startling blue eyes and raven black hair. Aged around twenty-two, pregnant by her (deceased) fianceé Joshua Maugave. She stands 5'3".
In the story, some of her background is presented but not to spoil that part, I won't add it. She was eighteen when she met Joshua and they dated on and off for some time before he proposed, six months prior to his murder by Pero for helping the cops to bust one of Pero's 'rat holes'. Michelle is a general outcast, but somewhat wealthy. I'd disclose more of her background but as of yet, I have to mesh the details. (Ha, like most of my work, nothing's ever truly finished...) On to the story.





Ashes on the Water.

Michelle knew well who it was when her phone began to buzz, the soft sound seeming unordinarily loud to the din of a summer rain storm. She pulled the phone out with trembling hands, hoping, with all her heart, that Pero hadn’t found Joshua. She flipped it open, putting it gingerly to her ear as she shifted on the top of the dumpster in a dark alley, sheltered from the rain under a balcony.
“Hello?” She asked the quiet of the line. She cringed and shifted again as she heard his smooth voice.
“Hey, Swan. We caught our… ‘rat’. We’re going to leave the body somewhere you’ll have a decent time finding, no worries.” His voice was pleased, even happy. Then a ruckus of laughter sounded out on the other end, before it cut out to nothingness. She shook, gasping like she’d been hit in the chest with a steel mallet
“You… you bastard!” She screamed, her hand darting out to throw the phone against the alley wall fifteen feet into the rainy darkness. Her sobs came hard as she knelt on the dumpster, pounding her bare fists against it in a grieving rage. Then everything went black.

She awoke the next morning, to the sounds of garbage trucks on Monday morning. Quickly, she shrugged off the slurping feeling off falling asleep after crying hard, her head wobbling as she scrambled over to pick up the cell. Without a second thought, she shoved it deep into her pocket, knowing the picture message that she’d received would be some sick puzzle Pero had planted for her. What would she do? Pero’s lackey’s had likely ransacked Joshua’s apartment and burned it down by now. She had nowhere to go, back home wasn’t even an option. Her parents had gone so far as a restraining order from her younger brother after they learned that she’d carjacked a truck and driven two hundred miles to escape a loan shark that had been after her. She frowned as she thought back, still guilty now after her younger brother’s near death.
Michelle hadn’t seen the boy in six years, since he was just a toddler and she was fifteen. She’d been the queen of Marindon Avenue, sneaking out at night and getting into the worst fights. But she’d changed, she changed… she pleaded still. She moved as she heard the truck behind her, pushing up her hood and hiding her hands deep in the single pocket on the front. Joshua’s sad smile donned on her thoughts, last night before he ran. He was trying to keep her safe, keep their unborn child away from Pero’s sick world. He’d run, trying to catch a flight to France in an effort to lure Pero out of the country.
Pero had been too smart. She knew that Pero himself had probably crawled out his damned rat hole to have the fun of shooting Joshua down in the Westfield Church that Joshua had been hiding in. Suddenly, the tears again, her sobs loud enough to draw the attention of several passer-by strangers. She saw a woman carrying a toddler, a beautiful little brown haired girl with the deepest green eyes. She smiled half-heartedly as the mother coddled the child and nuzzled her cheek. Soon, she’d have her own baby. But the kid wouldn’t have a father.
Michelle was too busy suffering to notice that a young girl had been running after her, the mother shouting from a street café some ways down the street.
“Miss!” The little girl shrieked, “Miss! Miss! Wait!”
Michelle turned finally, stopping to crouch for the short little girl to talk to her. She couldn’t even put on a fake smile, and the little sad face the girl had broke her heart in so many more ways than Joshua’s death had. She glanced back at the little girl’s mother and sighed.
“Miss, you dropped this.” She said, leaning back on her heels all proud as she held out the golden locket. Michelle slowly reached out to take the locket, sniffling and smiling as she pulled the little girl close.
“Thanks. Do you have a name so I can tell my baby girl about you when she’s as old and smart as you?” Michelle asked, hugging the girl and smiling when she nodded.
“Hanna.” The little girl giggled as her mother rushed up and put a hand on the girl’s shoulder.
“I’m so sorry miss, Hanna’s sometimes too friendly.” She said, looking to Michelle’s barely showing belly and grinning in a kind way of knowing. Michelle shook her head and replaced the locket around her neck, tucking it into her hoodie and smiling.
“Oh no, she’s gorgeous. I hope my baby is just like her, when she’s grown up.” She told the woman, glancing at the girl as she turned to leave, waving at her.
“Bye Hanna.”

Hannah and her mother turned to walk back to the café, Michelle headed down the street again, to where, she didn’t know.

Invisible

Felt a poem coming on while listening to Iris by Goo Goo Dolls. Something funny I remember saying to a friend about all the times I've felt a poem coming and then been disappointed and frustrated when I only managed to stare at a blank paper for two whole hours.

"Being a poet is much like having bowel problems. You know you have to use the bathroom. But once you're there on your stone throne, nothing comes until you leave... then you're even worse off."

Only Invisible

I don't want the world to see me.
You know that they won't understand.

Everyone only tells me how life's so great,
Yeah, my plans must be grand.

If every time I reach for the stars,
My steady hands just get swatted down.

If every time I reach for a heart,
My hand gets pushed away with his frown.

I start to wonder where did I go wrong.
I can only blame my failures on myself.

But as soon as I see I was right all along,
I can see all my memories crumbling on their shelf.

Is there a 'forward' to look to?
My past is in shambles.

I wish I was only invisible.
Maybe then I wouldn't have to listen to everyone around me ramble.

Oh, I wish I was only invisible.
So that I could float away.

I could be moving.
I could be ethereal.

I wish I was only invisible,
To become what I can't be.

I keep walking, I'll keep on a thousand paces more.
Until my feet are too tired.

I'll keep searching for a heart that doesn't reject.
Maybe I'll be baptised by fire.

I can only keep going until I find my stars.
Until I find my heart.

Then, I will only be invisible.
I'll be ready to fly far.

I'll only be invisible,
Except to hearts and hands that understand.