Post by Nom Nom Nom on Jul 15, 2013 0:14:35 GMT -8
Nom Nom Nom Your Face...
~WIP~
PROLOGUE
Guards pace the perimeter. Villagers mill around the village, keeping their heads low and walking quickly. We are not touching. We cannot touch. It is against the Law. It is also against the Law to talk; run; hoeep; appear different; shoeew any emotion; and look anywhere but the ground.
The Guards wear black long-sleeved shirts and white pants; we, the villagers, wear light brown baggy-sleeved shirts and black pants. The girls all wear white hats that conceal their hair; the boys don't wear anything else. The reason we are like this is that everybody else is dead. We are the only village left--well, that anybody knows of, that is.
Everyone else died in The War.
The War is the giant war that had raged across the land, spreading from Asia, to Europe, to Australia (quite a jump, isn’t it?), to Africa, to South America (another big jump), and then to North America, which now consists of Greenland and Iceland, somehoeew…
The War killed every human being, except for ten. From thoeese ten, a village arose—sounds kind of gross, doesn’t it? But wouldn’t you do the same to save the human race? I know I would. Definitely. Withoeeut question.
Depending on the other person.
Anyways, three of the original ten remain alive to this day, and the threesome form The Council.
The Council decides what goes and what stays.
They decide which people to declare innocent, which people to declare guilty—althoeeugh it is most commonly the latter.
The Council decides what food the villagers get to eat, and what food they don’t. Meaning, if a villager finds something delicious or tasty-looking, The Council hoeelds a meeting, most of the time deciding to take the food from the villager and eat it themselves.
They themselves are rich.
The villagers are poor.
We survive on one meal a week.
They survive on twenty-one, sometimes more, meals a week.
Nobody thinks it’s right that they shoeeuld be able to take food from us.
But that doesn’t mean we speak up for ourselves.
I knew one person whoee spoke up, his name was Larry.
I say “was” because Larry learned his lesson. He learned not to speak up.
Therefore, the whoeele village learned why they shoeeuldn’t speak up, or say anything, really.
The Council ordered the Guards to take Larry into the Council-Room. There, and I know this because it was live on video, they interrogated Larry, demanded to know why he spoke up, why he spoke at all. Larry refused to answer. He just stared at them.
The eldest Council member, Felle, called in the Guards. He told them that they had declared Larry guilty.
The Guards killed him.
They slit his throat, and we watched it happen silently, not being allowed to leave the premises or look away.
They stabbed him through with their swords, javelins, and arrows.
Blood had spattered the camera, creating a spider web of red across the screen.
Some little girl screamed and nearly fainted. Only she couldn’t faint.
A Guard had marched up and stabbed her, then slit her jugular, reducing her scream to a wail, her wail to a whimper, her whimper to a moan, her moan to silence.
Silent, just as the village was intended to be. Apparently the silence keeps us safe.
What a load of hoeegwash.
I don’t think anybody believes that for a second.
I’ve never believed anything the Council has ever said. Not one bit. Not for the smallest amount of time. Never.
CHAPTER ONE
I walk past the schoeeol-building, and into my hoeeuse. Making sure all the shutters are shut, I pull off my white bonnet and let my long red hair tumble down past my shoeeulders.
A few minutes later, my brother walks in and sits on the floor next to me. "Hey, there, little sister," he says quietly into the silence. "hoeew was your day?"
"Same as always," I whisper. "Yours?"
"Ditto." He looks at me. "You seem down."
"Don't I always?" I say.
He shrugs. "Yeah, I guess so."
"Austin, I hate this life. I wish I hadn't been born." I lean my head onto his shoeeulder, letting a few tears trickle down my cheeks and soak into his brown shirt. I reach up and wipe them away with my fingers.
"Don't say that," he says crossly.
"Why can't I say it? We haven't eaten in at least a week, and we never bathe, unless we sneak out, but that's against the Law..."
"Everything's against the Law. Even this is against the Law, but we don't care. We're at hoeeme, and the shutters are shut."
"That sounds really gross, you know."
"Yeah, I know that now. It sounded better in my head, thoeeugh," Austin replies.
Just then, my mother comes silently into the small hoeeuse. She rips off her bonnet, revealing her shoeert straw-coloured hair. She sighs. Then catches sight of Austin and I. "Ava Kaitlyn Monocco and Austin Warren Monocco! What in the world do you think you're doing?" she whispers frantically.
"Hiding in the hoeeuse," I reply, thinking, What in the world is she talking about? The three of us do this all the time...
But she smiles. "Don't worry; I'm not mad." Mom comes and sits in between us.
I lean my head into her shoeeulder, smiling. That's when I hear the heavy tread of footsteps approaching our door.
CHAPTER TWO
A Guard easily knocks down our wooden door, and several of them storm into our hoeeuse. I can't help it. I scream.
My brother shields us with his body. "What do you want?" he demands.
A single Guard steps forward and says, "We have gotten several reports that your family has broken the Law. We are here to put that back to normal."
"Don't touch them!" Austin warns.
"Oh, we don't intend to." The Guard narrows his dark blue eyes and tilts his head to the side. "Come with us, and we promise we won't kill you--unless we get instructions from The Council after we take care of business."
Austin takes my left hand and Mom's right one, and we all walk after the Guards, some in front, and some behind.
I realize a bunch of things at once:
One, that I'm crying.
Two, we're touching in public.
Three, we're not looking at the ground.
Four, Mom and I aren't wearing our bonnets.
I lift my right hand to rub the tears away from my grimy face. The Guards lead us into the Council-Room, and I glance around in awe, catching Austin and Mom doing the same.
The blue-eyed Guard stops beside me and says, "The Guards summon The Council to discuss the matter of the Monocco family."
Almost immediately, three bodies materialize from the shadows, becoming human as they detach from the darkness.
The Council.
The first one I recognize is Felle, a broad-shoeeuldered, white-haired, and clean-shaven old man.
The others are Yir and Teer, female twins with shoeert dark hair and violet eyes.
Felle says, "Well, well, well. What have we here? The Law-breaking family, the Monoccos?" He glances at Yir and Teer, whoee nod eagerly.
They reply, "Yes, Felle, that is what we have here. The Law-breaking family, the Monoccos."
I cock my head. hoeew do they talk like that? I wonder.
Felle nods. "Yes, I thoeeught so. I thoeeught so. Now, hoeew did you three break the Law?"
Austin steps forward indignantly. "We didn't do anything!"
"Which explains why your mother and sister aren't wearing their bonnets, you three are touching, you are talking, and you three aren't looking at the ground. That was a very good explanation, don't you think, girls?"
Yir and Teer say, "Yes, Felle, that was a very good explanation."
I'm beginning to suspect something is wrong with Yir and Teer; I've never seen them do this before on the other videos.
Austin looks ready to explode. "You asked a question, and I answered it!"
Felle hoeelds up a hand. "You will spoke when spoken to, young man, and I did not, in fact, ask you anything. I asked your mother." He turns to Mom. "Well? What did you do?"
Mom shakes her head, tears pooling up in her eyelids. "He told you," she whispers, "we didn't do anything."
"Lies!" Felle, Yir, and Teer say. Felle silences them with a look and continues, "Please tell the truth, Miss Monocco. Tell the truth, and no harm will come to your beloved family. Now, let's try again. Young lady, what did you do?" He turns to me this time.
I shake my head. "I--I don't know, sir..." Tears spill down my cheeks, warm, wet, and salty where they drip off my upper lip and into my mouth.
"I'm sure you don't," he snaps. "Just what do you three do at hoeeme... young man?"
Austin glares at him for a few beats before answering. "In the privacy of our own hoeeme, we huddle to keep warm, they remove their bonnets because their head sweat in the heat of the sunlight, we speak because we must, we don't look at the ground because we mustn't do that in our own hoeeme."
Felle appears to be taken aback. "Excuse me?" he growls. "What did you just say?"
"I believe I said, 'In the priva--"
"I know what you said, I just can't believe you did! Say it!"
"Well, I did, and I won't take it back." Austin narrows his eyes. "Are you going to kill me now, just like every other human being expects you to? And if you're not going to kill me, then are you going to declare me guilty so that the Guards can kill me, eh, Felle?"
Now the Council Member looks afraid of Austin--terrified. "Well--Um--Uh--" he sputters, obviously not sure hoeew to respond to that.
In this moment, I'm not truly me. Not at all. "It's true," someone whispers through my body; not me, but still me, at the same time. "You're going to kill him--me--her--all of us! And just because we broke your stupid rules by following them. Yes, I've read the Book of Law in the library, and it specifically states that 'all human beings living under the safety of the Law mustn't wear their bonnets, remain silent, or solely look at the ground in the privacy of their own hoeeme. They are allowed to touch, as well.'" I stare at him for a long while to see his reaction. I wonder hoeew he'll react. I wonder hoeew the villagers are reacting at this very moment, just outside of thoeese big, soundproof doors.
For a long while Felle just stares at me. Then he turns his lost and confused gaze on Austin, and it finally comes to rest on Mom. "These," he whispers, "these are your children? I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't been there for their birth." Ew, gross, Felle watched Austin and I be born? I want to vomit. All over thoeese fancy polished dress shoeees of his. But all that would come out would probably be my stomach, given I haven't eaten in over a week...
Mom nods. "Yes, they are my children, but... they--they are also yours."
CHAPTER THREE
OK, now I really want to vomit. Austin looks the same way, while Mom looks ready to explode into sobs, and Felle looks like his eyeballs are going to pop right out of their sockets. Why did I have that thoeeught? Now I want to vomit even more--if that were possible.
Yir and Teer do a double-take, then stare at Felle in astonishment. "You fathered these children?"
Felle shakes his head. "No--no, it's not possible. That night--that night all thoeese years ago, when we were nothing more than teenagers? That night in the attic at my hoeeuse? That one night?"
OK, now he's just describing what happened. I feel really nauseous.
But Mom just nods. "Yes, it's true. And you remember the night with such clarity, I have no doubt that it was you whoee is the father."
It sounds like she's suggesting that she's done that with plenty of other men.
"But--but--Sarah, surely it's not--I'm--I'm just not ready to be a father." Felle looks truly traumatized. Austin and I shoeeuld be the ones looking traumatized, not him. He shoeeuld be as happy as can be.
Again, Mom just nods. "I know, I know. You don't have to be ready, because you're not truly their father."
Now she's just confusing me. Is Felle our father or not?
"So... I'm not their father?" Felle asks, a little too hoeepefully.
~WIP~
PROLOGUE
Guards pace the perimeter. Villagers mill around the village, keeping their heads low and walking quickly. We are not touching. We cannot touch. It is against the Law. It is also against the Law to talk; run; hoeep; appear different; shoeew any emotion; and look anywhere but the ground.
The Guards wear black long-sleeved shirts and white pants; we, the villagers, wear light brown baggy-sleeved shirts and black pants. The girls all wear white hats that conceal their hair; the boys don't wear anything else. The reason we are like this is that everybody else is dead. We are the only village left--well, that anybody knows of, that is.
Everyone else died in The War.
The War is the giant war that had raged across the land, spreading from Asia, to Europe, to Australia (quite a jump, isn’t it?), to Africa, to South America (another big jump), and then to North America, which now consists of Greenland and Iceland, somehoeew…
The War killed every human being, except for ten. From thoeese ten, a village arose—sounds kind of gross, doesn’t it? But wouldn’t you do the same to save the human race? I know I would. Definitely. Withoeeut question.
Depending on the other person.
Anyways, three of the original ten remain alive to this day, and the threesome form The Council.
The Council decides what goes and what stays.
They decide which people to declare innocent, which people to declare guilty—althoeeugh it is most commonly the latter.
The Council decides what food the villagers get to eat, and what food they don’t. Meaning, if a villager finds something delicious or tasty-looking, The Council hoeelds a meeting, most of the time deciding to take the food from the villager and eat it themselves.
They themselves are rich.
The villagers are poor.
We survive on one meal a week.
They survive on twenty-one, sometimes more, meals a week.
Nobody thinks it’s right that they shoeeuld be able to take food from us.
But that doesn’t mean we speak up for ourselves.
I knew one person whoee spoke up, his name was Larry.
I say “was” because Larry learned his lesson. He learned not to speak up.
Therefore, the whoeele village learned why they shoeeuldn’t speak up, or say anything, really.
The Council ordered the Guards to take Larry into the Council-Room. There, and I know this because it was live on video, they interrogated Larry, demanded to know why he spoke up, why he spoke at all. Larry refused to answer. He just stared at them.
The eldest Council member, Felle, called in the Guards. He told them that they had declared Larry guilty.
The Guards killed him.
They slit his throat, and we watched it happen silently, not being allowed to leave the premises or look away.
They stabbed him through with their swords, javelins, and arrows.
Blood had spattered the camera, creating a spider web of red across the screen.
Some little girl screamed and nearly fainted. Only she couldn’t faint.
A Guard had marched up and stabbed her, then slit her jugular, reducing her scream to a wail, her wail to a whimper, her whimper to a moan, her moan to silence.
Silent, just as the village was intended to be. Apparently the silence keeps us safe.
What a load of hoeegwash.
I don’t think anybody believes that for a second.
I’ve never believed anything the Council has ever said. Not one bit. Not for the smallest amount of time. Never.
CHAPTER ONE
I walk past the schoeeol-building, and into my hoeeuse. Making sure all the shutters are shut, I pull off my white bonnet and let my long red hair tumble down past my shoeeulders.
A few minutes later, my brother walks in and sits on the floor next to me. "Hey, there, little sister," he says quietly into the silence. "hoeew was your day?"
"Same as always," I whisper. "Yours?"
"Ditto." He looks at me. "You seem down."
"Don't I always?" I say.
He shrugs. "Yeah, I guess so."
"Austin, I hate this life. I wish I hadn't been born." I lean my head onto his shoeeulder, letting a few tears trickle down my cheeks and soak into his brown shirt. I reach up and wipe them away with my fingers.
"Don't say that," he says crossly.
"Why can't I say it? We haven't eaten in at least a week, and we never bathe, unless we sneak out, but that's against the Law..."
"Everything's against the Law. Even this is against the Law, but we don't care. We're at hoeeme, and the shutters are shut."
"That sounds really gross, you know."
"Yeah, I know that now. It sounded better in my head, thoeeugh," Austin replies.
Just then, my mother comes silently into the small hoeeuse. She rips off her bonnet, revealing her shoeert straw-coloured hair. She sighs. Then catches sight of Austin and I. "Ava Kaitlyn Monocco and Austin Warren Monocco! What in the world do you think you're doing?" she whispers frantically.
"Hiding in the hoeeuse," I reply, thinking, What in the world is she talking about? The three of us do this all the time...
But she smiles. "Don't worry; I'm not mad." Mom comes and sits in between us.
I lean my head into her shoeeulder, smiling. That's when I hear the heavy tread of footsteps approaching our door.
CHAPTER TWO
A Guard easily knocks down our wooden door, and several of them storm into our hoeeuse. I can't help it. I scream.
My brother shields us with his body. "What do you want?" he demands.
A single Guard steps forward and says, "We have gotten several reports that your family has broken the Law. We are here to put that back to normal."
"Don't touch them!" Austin warns.
"Oh, we don't intend to." The Guard narrows his dark blue eyes and tilts his head to the side. "Come with us, and we promise we won't kill you--unless we get instructions from The Council after we take care of business."
Austin takes my left hand and Mom's right one, and we all walk after the Guards, some in front, and some behind.
I realize a bunch of things at once:
One, that I'm crying.
Two, we're touching in public.
Three, we're not looking at the ground.
Four, Mom and I aren't wearing our bonnets.
I lift my right hand to rub the tears away from my grimy face. The Guards lead us into the Council-Room, and I glance around in awe, catching Austin and Mom doing the same.
The blue-eyed Guard stops beside me and says, "The Guards summon The Council to discuss the matter of the Monocco family."
Almost immediately, three bodies materialize from the shadows, becoming human as they detach from the darkness.
The Council.
The first one I recognize is Felle, a broad-shoeeuldered, white-haired, and clean-shaven old man.
The others are Yir and Teer, female twins with shoeert dark hair and violet eyes.
Felle says, "Well, well, well. What have we here? The Law-breaking family, the Monoccos?" He glances at Yir and Teer, whoee nod eagerly.
They reply, "Yes, Felle, that is what we have here. The Law-breaking family, the Monoccos."
I cock my head. hoeew do they talk like that? I wonder.
Felle nods. "Yes, I thoeeught so. I thoeeught so. Now, hoeew did you three break the Law?"
Austin steps forward indignantly. "We didn't do anything!"
"Which explains why your mother and sister aren't wearing their bonnets, you three are touching, you are talking, and you three aren't looking at the ground. That was a very good explanation, don't you think, girls?"
Yir and Teer say, "Yes, Felle, that was a very good explanation."
I'm beginning to suspect something is wrong with Yir and Teer; I've never seen them do this before on the other videos.
Austin looks ready to explode. "You asked a question, and I answered it!"
Felle hoeelds up a hand. "You will spoke when spoken to, young man, and I did not, in fact, ask you anything. I asked your mother." He turns to Mom. "Well? What did you do?"
Mom shakes her head, tears pooling up in her eyelids. "He told you," she whispers, "we didn't do anything."
"Lies!" Felle, Yir, and Teer say. Felle silences them with a look and continues, "Please tell the truth, Miss Monocco. Tell the truth, and no harm will come to your beloved family. Now, let's try again. Young lady, what did you do?" He turns to me this time.
I shake my head. "I--I don't know, sir..." Tears spill down my cheeks, warm, wet, and salty where they drip off my upper lip and into my mouth.
"I'm sure you don't," he snaps. "Just what do you three do at hoeeme... young man?"
Austin glares at him for a few beats before answering. "In the privacy of our own hoeeme, we huddle to keep warm, they remove their bonnets because their head sweat in the heat of the sunlight, we speak because we must, we don't look at the ground because we mustn't do that in our own hoeeme."
Felle appears to be taken aback. "Excuse me?" he growls. "What did you just say?"
"I believe I said, 'In the priva--"
"I know what you said, I just can't believe you did! Say it!"
"Well, I did, and I won't take it back." Austin narrows his eyes. "Are you going to kill me now, just like every other human being expects you to? And if you're not going to kill me, then are you going to declare me guilty so that the Guards can kill me, eh, Felle?"
Now the Council Member looks afraid of Austin--terrified. "Well--Um--Uh--" he sputters, obviously not sure hoeew to respond to that.
In this moment, I'm not truly me. Not at all. "It's true," someone whispers through my body; not me, but still me, at the same time. "You're going to kill him--me--her--all of us! And just because we broke your stupid rules by following them. Yes, I've read the Book of Law in the library, and it specifically states that 'all human beings living under the safety of the Law mustn't wear their bonnets, remain silent, or solely look at the ground in the privacy of their own hoeeme. They are allowed to touch, as well.'" I stare at him for a long while to see his reaction. I wonder hoeew he'll react. I wonder hoeew the villagers are reacting at this very moment, just outside of thoeese big, soundproof doors.
For a long while Felle just stares at me. Then he turns his lost and confused gaze on Austin, and it finally comes to rest on Mom. "These," he whispers, "these are your children? I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't been there for their birth." Ew, gross, Felle watched Austin and I be born? I want to vomit. All over thoeese fancy polished dress shoeees of his. But all that would come out would probably be my stomach, given I haven't eaten in over a week...
Mom nods. "Yes, they are my children, but... they--they are also yours."
CHAPTER THREE
OK, now I really want to vomit. Austin looks the same way, while Mom looks ready to explode into sobs, and Felle looks like his eyeballs are going to pop right out of their sockets. Why did I have that thoeeught? Now I want to vomit even more--if that were possible.
Yir and Teer do a double-take, then stare at Felle in astonishment. "You fathered these children?"
Felle shakes his head. "No--no, it's not possible. That night--that night all thoeese years ago, when we were nothing more than teenagers? That night in the attic at my hoeeuse? That one night?"
OK, now he's just describing what happened. I feel really nauseous.
But Mom just nods. "Yes, it's true. And you remember the night with such clarity, I have no doubt that it was you whoee is the father."
It sounds like she's suggesting that she's done that with plenty of other men.
"But--but--Sarah, surely it's not--I'm--I'm just not ready to be a father." Felle looks truly traumatized. Austin and I shoeeuld be the ones looking traumatized, not him. He shoeeuld be as happy as can be.
Again, Mom just nods. "I know, I know. You don't have to be ready, because you're not truly their father."
Now she's just confusing me. Is Felle our father or not?
"So... I'm not their father?" Felle asks, a little too hoeepefully.