LDS

She lets all the shadows go out.

"Play!" She screams through the wind, and she smiles and laugh, filled with fear and embarrasment.

"And fly away, and go away." She wishpers.

To the sea, she should add, but hides the words instead. And she closes her eyes too, so they won't show, tell or yell about the murder in her look.

She sits in the floor, feelind under her bare feet the shadows spining around and dancing but not leaving, never leaving.

She extends the hands in the grass, and little insects crawl her skin.

The sun is near. It is always near. And it is always too far away.

"I want to cry." She wishes, eyes still closed. "I want to feel like crying". She says and her eyes are suddenly open to the sky.

But emotions are hard for her to steal and keep.

Only fake, artificial things get to stay in her heart.

0.3 Let's play

SCENE 1

THE STORY IS SET ON A HOSPITAL FLOOR,

Everything is dark.

On the background, in the middle of the stage stands the lift. It is old, with a manual door, which is wide open. Besides it, at its left the stair continues going up. At the other side of the lift, the stairs continue going down. CASSIE (22) stands there, in the dark, sitting on the floor.
Before the wall, closer to the audience, at the left extreme, there is a water dispenser. Besides it, there is a line of chairs and opposite to that line there is another. The chairs are placed in a certain way that when a character sits, he or she doesn’t face the audience, he or she would give then a side view of them.

(STEPS)

MATTHEW (39) appears from the left’s side, with his right hand he serves himself a glass of water from the water dispenser, his left hand is holding his mobile phone against his ear.

MATTHEW: No, I don’t know.

LIGHTS GO ON OVER MATTHEW. Behind him, the lift, Cassie, everything else is beneath shadows.

MATTHEW walks while talking.

MATTHEW (Tired) “They didn’t tell me, Ok?” (PAUSE) (Tired and a bit angry) “Because I can’t walk down ten floors, that’s why. “ (PAUSE)

MATTHEW: (Frustrated) “No, there isn’t other lift, if there were I wouldn’t still be here, Marcus.” (PAUSE) “Ok.”

MATTHEW closes his phone and lets himself fall in one of the chairs from the left side and starts drinking the water as the LIGHTS GOES OFF over MATTHEW and GO ON OVER LAUREN –who carries a purse- (37) and Tom (10) appearing on the background, at the right side of the lift as they had been walking down from the last floor.

TOM is dragging his mother by the hand but the woman stops as soon as the lights are on her.

TOM (letting go her mother’s hand) : Let’s go mum!

LAUREN: Stop being so impatient, Tom.

LAUREN walks towards the line of chairs placed on the right side.

TOM follows his mother a few steps, who is opening her purse.

TOM(Complaining): Mom, what are you doing?

LAUREN: Sitting, Tom. We can’t walk down the rest of the stairs. We’ll have to sit and wait.

LAUREN takes off her make up case form her purse and starts checking her eye’s make up.

TOM: I don’t want to. Waiting is boring (PAUSES) I could walk down the stairs and ask when it’s going to be fixed.
LAUREN ups her hear and glances at her son.

LAUREN: You are not going down the stairs by yourself, Tom. You could fall.

TOM: I am not going to fall.

CASSIE: Maybe you will.

TOM and LAUREN jump surprised, TOM turns his head, searching for the CASSIE but his gaze is set into the lift.

TOM: (running to the lift): WOW!

CASSIE stands up and stops TOM.

LAUREN stands up and walks towards them

THE LIGHTS GO ON over CASSIE, TOM and LAUREN.

CASSIE: Easy, kid.

CASSIE lets TOM go, LAUREN looks at the lift, grabs TOM by the shoulder and pull his away from the lift.

LAUREN (surprised): Oh, my God.

LAUREN walks backwards as CASSIE laughs softly,

We can see the lift with is door opened, but inside of the lift there is no cabin just two thick cables.

LIGHTS GO OFF.

SCENE 2

LIGHTS GO ON, we can now see the entire stage.

MATTHEW is sitting in his chair, the plastic glass he used lies on the floor, and he stares at his mobile phone’s screen anxious and scared, not reading anything, just waiting for the mobile phone to suddenly ring.

TOM is sitting in the opposite line, arms crossed, legs swinging, he looks obviously annoyed and bored.

LAUREN is walking near the lift, nervous, glancing at it, worried and scared.

CASSIE stands close to the lift, looking at LAUREN and rolls her yes.

CASSIE: No need to look so terrified, ma’am.

LAUREN stops walking and glances at CASSIE, who just smile and walks towards TOM, laughing.

CASSIE: I mean, it is a lift, not a big, huge scary monster with its big, huge scary mouth opening, waiting to eat us all. (PAUSE, to TOM) Or is it?

TOM (to LAUREN, staring at CASSIE with wide open eyes) Mom, this girl is nuts.

LAUREN: Tom, that’s not polite!

CASSIE: But it might be true. I’m Cassie by the way,

LAUREN: Lauren Higgins.

LAUREN LOOKS AT TOM. TOM ROLLS HIS EYES.

TOM: Tom.

CASSIE looks at MATTHEW. HE LIFTS UP HIS HEAD.

MATTHEW: Matthew Jones.

CASSIE smiles at MATTHEW

CASSIE: So you are not as clueless as you seem.

MATTHEW stares at her, confused.

TOM jumps out of his chair and walks towards LAUREN.

TOM (to LAUREN): I am bored.

LAUREN: Here.

LAUREN sits down on the nearest chair and opens her purse. She takes out a bag from the bags and hands it to TOM.

CASSIE approaches them, curiously.

TOM: What’s this?

TOM OPENS THE BAG

CASSIE Sneaks a glance.

CASSIE(excited) : Oh!! Marbles! How…

TOM: boring and old.

CASSIE: I would play with them.

TOM closes the bag and holds it close.

TOM: They are mine.

TOM opens the bag and starts playing with the marbles.

CASSIE sticks out her tongue to TOM. TOM does the same.

LAUREN: Tom!

TOM: What? She started it. Why don’t you scold her?

LAUREN: Because I’m not her mother, Tom.

CASSIE gets upset as she hears the words.

CASSIE looks at the rest.

CASSIE: So nobody is going home?

TOM: You are not going, either.

CASSIE starts walking in the room, following a melodic pace, almost dancing (laughs): Maybe I can’t go. Maybe I am afraid of stairs. Maybe I am nuts, completely metal and a bit of a serial killer who loves like pushing people into empty lifts.” “Maybe I am here to kill you all.”

Scared, TOM runs towards LAUREN.

LAUREN: She’s only joking, Tom.

CASSIE: Maybe, who know? Not you, certainly.

MATTHEW lets go a growl.

MATTHEW: This is insane.

MATTHEW stand up and start walking in the room, staring at his mobile phone’s screen.

CASSIE: No signal, huh?

MATTHEW –who is now near the stairs that lead you downstairs.- barely looks at CASSIE before answering.

MATTHEW: No, it just died.

CASSIE: Maybe outside the hospital?

MATTHEW: I can’t. The doctor told me not to agitate myself.

CASSIE: You can walk at your own pace, take a break every now and then.” CASSIE looks at the lift. “Doesn’t seem it is getting fixed anytime soon.”

MATTHEW shakes his head and sits again.

CASSIE (frustrated) : Or you can just die here.

LAUREN stands up.

LAUREN: This is not funny, miss.

CASSIE: Well, of course it isn’t. There is nothing funny about some strangers refusing to go back to their houses or work. It is quite scary, actually.
You, people (looks at LAUREN and MATTHEW) you can go out of the hospital, wounds healed, ready to fight your problems but you just stay here.

LAUREN: The lift is broken.

CASSIE: Well, there are stairs. You know how to use them, right?

MATTHEW: There are ten floors.

CASSIE: You can walk them at your own pace. Nobody is asking you to run them.

CASSIE: They are just stairs, and if you actually want to go out of here they are the only solution.

MATTHEW and LAUREN avoid CASSIE’s stare.
TOM stops playing with the marbles and starts putting them on the bag.

LAUREN: Honey, what are you doing?

TOM: We have to go home, mom.

TOM takes the bag of marbles and walks towards his mom.

LAUREN: But the lift is broken and Tom, ten floors are too much.

TOM: We can walk them slowly. I’ll carry your purse.

LAUREN : Don’t be silly.

TOM: If we get home late we won’t be able to talk with dad. And that’s silly.

LAUREN looks terrified, as if TOM has just exposed a dark secret.

LAUREN: We can talk tomorrow, Tom. Now, would you like playing with the games of my mobile phone?

TOM shakes his head

TOM: Mom, we are going.

TOM tries to open his mother purse to place the bag of marbles. LAUREN tries to stop him and the bag of marbles fall into the floor, it opens and the marbles roll over the floor, some fall into the empty lift.

LIGHTS GO OUT.

SCENE 3

CASSIE is sitting in the floor, playing with some marbles. MATTHEW is sitting on chair, stealing glances at his mobile phone while drinking another glass of water. LAUREN and TOM have left.

CASSIE: Someone would think that after surviving a heart attack you would be trilled with going back to your life.

MATTHEW looks at her, surprised.

MATTHEW: How do you know?

CASSIE keeps playing.

MATTHEW (standing up): How can you know?

CASSIE: you are staying here.

CASSIE looks at MATTHEW, the man looks ashamed, looks down to the floor.

MATTHEW: I am not ready to go back.

CASSIE: Not even walk down the stairs towards the 9th floor?

MATTHEW just sighs and sits on the floor.

CASSIE: Throw the water to the roof.

MATTHEW: What?

CASSIE: Throw what it is left of the water to the roof. Better yet, fill your glass and then throw it to the roof.

MATTHEW stares at her but CASSIE is not joking, she looks tired and serious.

MATTHEW walks towards the dispenser and fills the glass.

CASSIE looks at the roof with a sad smile.

MATTHEW throws the water (imaginary water) and stares at the roof. CASSIE watches MATTHEW looks surprised. CASSIE looks confused then, she had expected him to look horrified.

MATTHEW: The water is boiling.

CASSIE: Yes it is.

MATTHEW nods and then sits again.

CASSIE: You are just going to sit there?

MATTHEW: I can’t walk down the stairs now that I know, can I?

CASSIE: No, you can’t.

CASSIE stands up

CASSIE: Bye.

MATTHEW: Bye

CASSIE starts walking away, towards the empty lifts and all the lights fade away.

THE END

horror

There’s a calendar. It has a picture of Saint Cayetano. It says 2009 in very big red letters.
How can a calendar from this very year look like it’s been hanging from that nail forever I will never know. But there it is, all yellowish, slanted, and worn.

There’s a table covered with a pale yellow plastic tablecloth.
Somehow, the dishes and glasses are the ones I remember from more than ten years ago.
It strikes me as really odd, probably because my mother and I are clumsy, and break everything we touch, so we’re always buying silverware
But this ones, I remember them well. My grandfather ate in that yellow dish with the green edge.
There’s the plate stolen from a hotel (it has the name on the border. I can’t read it from where I sit) and the small jug made of glass where my grandmother drinks something that tastes like watered down Sprite.
I know for a fact that everything’s clean, but it feels old. Not “antique”. Old.
Grandmother pats my wrist.
“Have you seen him?” she says, when my father takes a seat.
She speaks something that’s not exactly Spanish (and according to my father, it’s not Italian either)
When she says “Have you seen him?” she means “Have I noticed how old he looks, how sickly he’s become?”
His veins pop out like they’re carved in wood. He’s lost weight again.
I’ve noticed.

---

Turns out my uncle did most of the cooking. The name of the dish sounds like “cabatielli”.
Some kind of fat looking noodles. Delicious.
My uncle also does most of the talking. He saw this documentary about wine growers, about this man with a very small farm that started his own winery. He wishes he could get one too. I’m having fun.
I smile at my grandmother.
My grandmother frowns and says something vaguely Italian sounding.
“No scutto” (“I can’t hear it?”)
I think she can hear, but she dislikes the conversation because it’s not revolving about sickness, death, and God’s will.
I know I am being unfair.
“How about getting earphones?” I ask, a big, silly, grandaughterish smile on my face.
She waves her hand like I said something stupid.
“She disapproves of earphones.” My father explains.
She must think it’s against God’s will to hear if He doesn’t want you to.
---
Earphones, canes, fake teeth.
My grandmother disapproves of fake teeth too.
But my grandfather didn’t, he liked his, he ate lots of steaks and sucked the marrow out of the bone.
My uncle and my father start talking about how my grandfather got into a fight with the neighbors because of somebody throwing garbage over the wrong fence. Turns out he was the one who threw the garbage.
I loved my grandfather. I like hearing stories about him. I’m having fun again.
---
A conversation about the neighborhood back then, eventually moves to the neighborhood right now, and how it sucks that things change.
That is a topic my grandmother can enjoy, so she comments now and then on how we’re heading to Armaggeddon.
I tune out of the conversation and eat. The food is spicy. I really like it.
My uncle starts talking louder and louder.
“All those people, all those thieves, living in the slums, they should all be killed.”
“If they have to kill some innocents, so be it.”
I say nothing, but I obviously make a face because he stares at me.
He looks into my eyes, and speaks slowly. It’s quite obvious to him.
“Imagine you have land. You have to do a weeding out. You’ll probably cut some flowers, but you must have the land cleaned before you can harvest”
I look at my father. (“Have you seen him?”)
He just looks bored. Like he’s heard it a thousand times. Maybe he did.
If this keeps going on, I will HAVE to say something.
I stare at my empty plate.
My grandmother offers to fill it.
I say “No, thanks”
Uncle keeps going on and on.
“This kind of things never happened with the military”
(What?)
“Nobody was taken away just for speaking.”
“Yes they were” says my father, tiredly “Yes, people could be taken away just for speaking”
“It wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t been involved with the wrong circles” says my uncle, matter-of-factly.
He points at me with his fork.
“You must be careful of who you surround yourself with”
I keep staring at my empty plate.
My grandmother offers to fill it again.
I say “No, thanks”

----
“30.000 dead bodies is impossible. They were 7.000, 8.000 at most. I think we could afford to lose 10.000 more”
I can’t just sit and hear him talk bullshit like this.
I have been staring at my plate for what feels like an hour.
My grandmother offers me dessert.
I say “No, thanks”
I have absolutely no arguments, no logic, nothing smart to say. I hate politics. I don’t care, never cared, I don’t think I will ever care.
At the very least I can say “I disagree”.
Grandmother grabs my wrist and speaks, half-forgotten Italian, half- never learned spanish.
“Non possiamo hacer nada” (“We can’t do anything about it”)
My uncle keeps talking about death.
She squeezes my wrist a little harder, like she wants me to pay attention to her, not him.
“Non possiamo hacer nada” she repeats, a little louder.
We? We women, who should remain silent when men speak? We “a working-class family”, powerless in front of the government if it chooses to kill us? We “humans” who must submit to God’s will, lay down and wait for death?
I get up from my seat.
“Must you go?” says my father.
“Yes” I say, a little too abruptly.
---

"It's a great day to be outside" says the driver.
Yes, it is.

Dare VIII + Trick

Dare VIII:

I've decided to include more options on each dare, so hopefully you'll all take part on them this way. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

DEADLINE: December 20th

Option one: Erotica

"One person's pornography is another's erotica"

- I kind of liked Canada's line for the difference between erotica and porn, so we'll stick to it (I know it's subjective, but everything is, so I'll trust your judgement).

erotica: stories that deal substantively with erotically stimulating or sexually arousing descriptions. (thanks wiki-chan)

pornography: sexuality portrayed in a degrading and dehumanizing way (thanks canada)

-Can include a plot, but it's not necessary.
-Must include sensory descriptions
-No character must be under 18 years old.

Option two: Fable.

-Obstacle: It is forbidden to include human characters
-Length: Free

"A fable is a succinct story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized (given human qualities), and that illustrates a moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim." (from wikipedia)

Option three: The World is a Stage!

-Format: Play or Script
-Must include: 1. a broken elevator 2. a bag of marbles 3. boiling water (all three objects must appear)


---------------------------------------------

Trick for those of you who did not write the halloween dare:


Smut. One of the characters must be wearing a costume. You were warned. (canada and wiki-chan get to be ignored)

---if you don't write the trick, then the halloween spirit shall haunt you!---

An Ode to the Cannibalism of She We Have Enthroned

They ate chunks of her and with bloodied faces and puzzled eyes they stared whenever she whimpered, as if her pain at their ravaging was something imposible.

Gloating, they shed crocodile tears when confronted and sent words full of bullshit to the heavens, about poor them, about their good intentions.

About how everything they had done, they had done for her.

They weren't eating her, of course! They weren't crying like babies because they were scared to death of being stopped, and then what? Loneliness and the dreaded oh my god what would they do without her flesh to fuel the fire. No,no,no.

They weren't eating her! Licking their lips and teeth clean and going for another bite.

Ñam.

Chorus of the Nunnery of Denial:
(it was all her fault, it was all her fault)

They had tied her to a cross and made her their Victim and Saviour, but how dare she complain? How dare she tell them to stop, when they worshiped her and showed her their love by cannibalizing her flesh?

If she loved them back, she should stay silent and let them do as they pleased.

Chorus of the Nunnery of Denial:
(stupid fucker, all proud and mighty all the time, filling us with longing and shame and...and...how dare she! the egotistical whore!)

They would eat, eat, eat and when they were done, they would burn the bones and pretend she never existed, that's what they would do.


Living with her clothes and her skin poorly wrapped around their excuse of a body.

Chorus of the Nunnery of Denial:
(hallowed be! she should be thankful, she wasn't that much of a big deal)

Praying in their guilty deathbeds, lying in their waking hours, terrorized in their sleep by dreams of rotten teeth.

La Petite Mort (2)

Redescubriendo sueños
encontre un futuro olvidado
una persona que deseaba ser
una frustración temprana.

Recordé
mis promesas,
mis planes,
mis amores.

Cerré los ojos

Salté al abismo
y me alejé

.......... sin mirar atrás.

Mini Fear

On this sunny day
I fear the light

My loneliness
My sadness
is all I have
is all I am

Please,
don't take away
who am I