All good things come to an end (473 hits)
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Submitted by Rockstar (View user info) at 2005-07-31 16:51:10 EDT
Darren grabbed the skull with both hands, and lowered it onto his table. He ran his fingers along the edge, making sure it was smooth. It was, perfect, beautiful. He looked at the jaw, twisted in unbearable agony. He was glad he'd taken the eyes out, the open sockets gave off an emptiness that haunted the soul in ways the eyes couldn't. He sighed, there was still so much work to be done. He reached to the drawer below, and pulled out a power drill, a screw driver, and finally, a blow torch. People would remember what he had done, this after all, was for the ages.
Emily's golden hair fell across the grass as she lay back. It was a magnificent day, the sun beaming down, a cool breeze, and here she was in central park. Emily was a stunningly pretty woman in the way that all tall blond women are, the right height to be noticed, with a face that made the attention linger.
She had been born on a farm in Iowa, and from her features could be your stereotypical farm girl, but from age eight had lived with her Aunt and Uncle in San Francisco. Her parents had been driving home from a friend's birthday party when they had collided with a drunk driver and gone into a ditch. It's a terrible thing to be told by your babysitter that your parents are dead.
Emily's aunt, her mother's sister, Martha, a modest woman who had shocked her small town by running away with Paul, a student from London. Paul unsurprisingly, (or surprisingly depending on your views of romance) was Emily's uncle. Paul was a journalist, which was his way of covering his bills as an artist and writer, Emily had a decidedly bohemian lifestyle from then on. Paul had realised she had a brilliant mind, and had been a driving force on getting her a scholarship to study medicine. Emily had always wanted to save lives.
If Emily's features were those of a country girl, her clothes were very trendy, drawing admiring glances from even the most jaded New Yorkers. A person's history can seem tedious when given such a historical analysis, introspection tends to be far more interesting; and if it seems vain than it should be known that Emily is not a vain person, but at this moment Emily was thinking about herself. She wondered as she watched a man on stilts juggling, how such an impersonal city could have such a warm centre. Emily had never been to New York. Paul talked at length about this city but money had always been tight.
Emily thought how she was like New York, a little warm piece of the country, wrapped inside a cool, urbane exterior. Her snort of laughter drew attention from an artist who was pointlessly trying to capture the mood of the Empire State Building. Emily sighed, here she was in this city for less than a day, and already she was communicating with it in a deep and meaningful way. She sighed again, but this time she sighed thinking why she had come to New York. She was in love.
Darren raged, he threw the bones from a previous experiment against the wall, hard. He watched with a smile as they cracked in two. He wanted to scream, and so he did scream, at length, he could not complete his work, he needed inspiration. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a picture of a beautiful blonde girl. He laughed to himself, really, she was just the thing to complete his work, his masterpiece, for the ages.
She'd met him in a trendy bar in San Francisco, they'd talked and danced and got drunk and agreed to go back to his place. And than they'd just talked, it was not your usual drunk talk, but it was about Emily, about everything. About who she was, not the usual surface that comprises of taste in music, clothes, who your friends are, and so on, but a rare talk that got to her soul, that had opened her mind to herself. Darren had kissed her goodnight and like a perfect gentleman dropped her home. From that point on she had been completely besotted with him. Darren was her best friend, her shrink, and also a fantastic fuck. Emily had heard that all good things must come to and end, but it is a crippling thing when it happens to you. Over dinner Darren had told her he was going back to New York, and had asked her to come with him. Emily had been taken by surprise, and told him she couldn't, she was busy. In fact she could, but at the time Emily was only coming up to her eighteenth birthday, and broke, New York seemed very far away. Darren had raged, and for the first time she had seen him in a temper, it was amazing, he was kind, soft-spoken and intellectual, but when angry he had a very dark side. They'd fought and Emily had returned to her home shaken. She confided in Paul the whole episode who had responded to her with wonderful news. Emily's parents had set up a college fund, now rendered obsolete thanks to her brilliance, to be given to her on her eighteenth birthday, she could go and visit Darren in a few weeks. Her heart had sung, she could not wait to see such a beautiful city.
Darren stepped into the shower, and began to wash the blood and bone out of his hair, it was a terrible business this, unfortunately messy, but he knew someone had to do it, it needed to be done. He got dressed, had to wear a nice shirt, a little aftershave, he looked in the mirror, Darren was very excited about tonight. The doorbell rang, he looked one more time at the skull on his table, he smiled and went to answer the door.
It was silly to be nervous, Emily knew Darren very well after all, better than she had known anyone. She pressed eight on the elevator. Actually she didn't know him at all, he was an art student, he was of Russian descent although his parents were American. Darren knew her much better than she knew him, those great talks were always about her, she loved how he made her feel, but she didn't think she'd ever heard him talk about himself in any depth. Unnaturally she started to feel nervous, it was silly she repeated to herself, it was because she hadn't seen in him such a long time, she would feel better once she met him. She chuckled, she was being stupid, nerves, it was just nerves, she was just nervous. She checked herself, Emily had begun to turn it into a mantra, she scolded herself, soon she would see Darren it would all be alright. She was just nervous, being so far from home. And than, she thought of his temper, a dark brooding temper, full of bitterness, as though he was isolated. For some reason Emily thought to herself, maybe Darren had been at his most honest when she had seen his other side. With a sense of trepidation she rang the doorbell. She hoped he wasn't still mad at her. Seconds seemed like hours, Emily dusted off her designer skirt. She was a composed person, but the need to fidget was becoming strangely unbearable. The door opened, the loft was very dark, Darren was smiling, he kissed her on the lips, than led her into the apartment.
A pile of bloody skulls and bones were piled on top of each other, the skulls were deformed, screaming in agony, the bones contorted, the grim centrepiece of the pyramid a skull, disfigured, somehow radiating pain. She turned to Darren as he grabbed her arms, her eyes wide with fear. He was smiling.
"I'm sorry, it had to be this way."
Emily struggled, she was athletic, but Darren was much stronger than her. Images were flashing in her head, she thought of her parents, death, the image of that thing was the same as looking at death. She wanted to run, to get away from here. The more she struggled, the more he smiled.
"You don't know how happy this makes me."
Emily looked up sharply, his grip had relaxed, Darren raised his hands.
"The lift goes down to the lobby, even if you run now, you'll be waiting for at least, two minutes." Darren said
Emily was in tears, "Are you going to kill me?"
Darren blinked, there was a look of terrible surprise in his eyes. "Emily, Jesus, I thought you knew me better,"
Emily just glared at him, she felt so betrayed, and the fear, the terrible fear, but shockingly she found she would rather look at him, than that thing on his table.
Darren smiled again, "I'm amazed, you're going to be a doctor, surely you know that those aren't real,"
"It's called the Yucca Mountain Project," Darren passed Emily a cup of coffee. He stopped for a second, "I hope there's no blood in that cup, well you've had rare steak before right?"
Emily smiled, "I still hate you for doing this,"
"Well you knew I had a sense of humour. Think about it, the Pyramids are five thousand years old, that's what this is, a Pyramid, but this time to stop death."
Emily thought for a second. "I see your point, English is only a few hundred years old, no-one can understand ancient languages, even electricity may come to an end in a thousand years."
Darren smiled, "Exactly, but nuclear waste, that will last ten thousand years,"
"So it had to be primal, something instinctive, and what could be more primal than,"
"Death" Darren nodded, "Exactly, as long as there are humans there will be bones."
Emily closed her eyes. A small boy climbing along a ridge of mountains, and what does he see, that monstrosity, but hundreds of feet tall, made of stone, the greatest death totem of all time. And beneath it, tons of nuclear waste, that must never be touched.
"All good things come to an end," She said.
Darren grinned, "So maybe it's appropriate that something terrible will last. I wanted your opinion on it, more than anything. It's why I gave your Uncle the money to fly out here," Emily started to speak, but Darren continued "Ever since the first night I met you I communicated with you like no-one else. My parents died when I was young, fourteen, they spent a year visiting my grandparents in Chernobyl after the fall out, at some risk from the communist government, they thought they were so lucky to escape. They got radiation poisoning, they hadn't escaped," Darren paused for a second, "It's why I had to do this, I had to make sure that thousands of people wouldn't die like my parents. I want to save lives so no-one will have to die like my parents."
Emily reached up and kissed him, "That's why I want to do medicine. You will still pay for this, you know."
"Oh well, all good things really do come to an end, come on, have you seen the park? For some reason it reminds me of you."
User Reviews
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-08-01 06:43:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Gah... I like the idea, I like the story, but dear fuck that was poorly written. It was convoluted and dense and tangled and... sheesh. It wasn't fun to read at all.
Submitted by stevie_says (user info) at 2005-07-31 20:03:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Darren, Emily, Darren, Emily, Emily, Emily, Darren, Darren, Darren, Emily, Darren...
That's how I read it. Start your sentences with something else, perhaps?? STRUCTURE IS IMPORTANT.
BLA BLA BLA BLA BALABABLALB
Submitted by blank_mind (user info) at 2005-07-31 17:19:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
http://www.desertspace.org/warning_sign/uwsExhibition.html
Hope that clears the ending up a bit.
Submitted by fallenangel (user info) at 2005-07-31 17:17:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
uuuummmm..... yeah.
Submitted by MANICMOTHER (user info) at 2005-07-31 17:00:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
At first I thought this was going to be another slaughter post but was happily suprised by the ending. Not bad, not bad at all.
Submitted by swamp_donkey (user info) at 2005-07-31 16:59:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by GodLovesALittleLovin (user info) at 2005-07-31 16:55:43 (#)
Ranking: -1
I feel like I just got gang-banged in the ear by a pack of bears while diddling my prostate.
Submitted by GodLovesALittleLovin (user info) at 2005-07-31 16:55:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
I feel like I just got gang-banged in the ear by a pack of bears.