NaNoWriMo(s) 2013

[Friday]

Alright girlies, here is number one, I'll put the second bit in another post so that they are easily distinguished.




I was running late. But running late was part of my normal regimen, despite that I had promised I wouldn't be late tonight. It was 4:45, which means I had exactly fifteen minutes to run by the bank, to get my hair fixed, and be presentable in front of the mic and ready to introduce Mr. Stevens to the parents. If I skipped fixing my hair, I could maybe make it there by 5:05. If I also sped, and ran the stop sign in front of the school, I might actually be on time.
I wasn't sure why he couldn't do it by himself, and why he asked me of all people to help him. Long story short, Mr. Stevens and I weren't on the best of terms. I was the black sheep of his staff of highly qualified teachers at his most esteemed private school. I rolled my eyes just thinking about the 9 months of prison I was about to embark on.
I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel getting more and more frustrated that I was still sitting at the red light. This was going to mess up my time line, my already five minute late time line. The light finally turned green, and my tires squealed and made me wince as I took off from the line too quickly. I was grumbling as I turned into the bank parking lot, and I was still grumbling as I walked into the bank with my head down digging through my purse for the receipts and change I had collected at last weeks PTA meeting. Another job I wasn't sure how I ended up doing.
I didn't see the twitchy guy holding the door open, or the truck with the engine running parked crooked in the first handicapped parking spot. But what I did hear was the bank alarm sounding, it startled me as I was walking through the first door, and I froze to look up into the most blue eyes I had ever seen. They almost looked like they had white lightening bolts streaking to his pupils. I would have described more, but that was all there was to be seen behind the typical black ski mask.
“Stop him!” A female clerk yelled at me behind the counter, and that's when I started taking everything in. The black canvas bag in the guy's hand, his buddy holding the door, the engine that was starting to rev outside. And the female clerk yelling at me to stop him. I looked past the man at her, as he turned his head to look at her too. He looked over his shoulder back at me, where I was still standing frozen in the open doorway.
“Come on, man, we have to go, the police are on the way as soon as the alarm's sounded, we've got to get out of here,” twitchy and the door was saying. He was obviously much more stressed about this whole endeavor than blue eyed man was. I decided it must be twitchy's first job. Blue eyes was still looking at me. I could see his mask lift as he lifted an eyebrow at me beneath it, and if the situation hadn't been so tense I would have laughed at the absurdity.
I however, was not one for heroics, I wasn't even upset the bank was getting robbed. Plus, I have a high sense self worth, and those blue eyes didn't look mean. But bank robbing wasn't the most inspiring action, and like I said, high sense of self worth. I stepped to the side. Blue eyes winked as he passed, and twitchy bumped my shoulder and let the door fall against me. The tires were squealing on the pavement as the doors slammed shut. And there was I was standing wondering what I had just witnessed. One thing I did know, I was definitely going to be late.

[Friday]

Blood. That's what I remember. Dark red that stained the chain link that I gripped to keep from falling. I wasn't old enough to understand it then. Wasn't old enough to be afraid of the beeping that was steadily growing louder in my ear. I was however, old enough to recognize, and react, to the mechanic growling of the war hounds behind me. It was my youngest memory. That awful grating sound, the beeping, the blood. And then there was black.

It had taken months for the hounds to stop following at my heels and growling. A year for them to let me get within a mile of the fence. And another year after that for them to stop following me completely. Now that just watched from there patrol spots. Didn't take the time to bother with little old me anymore. We had been told they were learning creatures, although they were more machine than animal. The hounds kept us safe, they protected us from the outside they said. But I knew better. They didn't keep the monsters out, they kept us in. The war hounds were the monsters, their unknown handlers were pulling the strings in everyone's life.
I had a cramp in my side but I pushed on, my feet pounding on the compacted dirt that was now a well worn trail. I glanced down at the path, seeing my foot prints on the edge where it had rained last week and I had left tracks in the mud. I touched the spot on the fence that used to be stained dark, but it had long since returned to it's original color. The sun was starting to set on the horizon and I heard the electronic bell sound in the distance. It was time to push harder if I wanted to finish my loop.
Everyday, rain, shine, snow, I ran. It's all I had. And I couldn't shake the feeling that one day, all this running might pay off.

“Tori, you were almost late tonight,” my mother scolded as the door slid shut behind me. I shrugged my shoulders, and didn't say anything as I walked through the small apartment. My heavy breathing filled the silence. I had pushed hard to make it back in time, and I had. “You father would whip you if he was here,” my mother said sternly and I paused at the door to my tiny room. I wanted to turn at her and scream at her that he wasn't here. That he wasn't going to ever be here again. But I had screamed that at her enough to know that it didn't change anything and she was still going to say it the next time I was late, or messed something else up.
I didn't turn my head to look at her, I just stepped inside the room and hit the button, making the door slide shut behind me. A few minutes later the locks on the windows clicked shutting, and I could hear the bolts on the front door slide into placed. “Curfew as been reached. All buildings will be locked down until sunrise. Have a good night.” The robotic feminine voice played through the intercom that connected all the apartments and buildings in the town. It was the same recording every night, nothing ever changed.