Sunday, October 30, 2011

AW Blog Chain October 2011

So I decided to jump out of my hovel and write for the AbsoluteWrite blog chain this month. Maybe make some new friends. Of course, I've managed to sort of screw up posting twice, because you know, I picked a month when I was unpredictably busy, but I'll do better next month. This month's prompt was:
Choose a word from this list of Lovecraftian words or this list of obscure words (or one from both if you're feeling ambitious). Use your chosen word(s) to craft your post. It doesn't have to be Lovecraftian or even horror, but it should be dark, or unsettling, or scary, or Halloweenish in general.

NaNoWriMo is right around the corner, and I wanted to try out my protag's voice a bit (maybe not my protag, actually--I'm not sure if I'm going to write this book or not. Hey, there's still two days to decide, right?) So even though this book won't be fantasy or magical realism at all, I saw the word Necronomicon, and my brain ran off with me. Since I felt I was going to use the concept and not the word, I also worked with antediluvian, for fun. Enjoy, and visit the other entries and blogs of this month's participants at the end of the post.


~x~

                Antediluvian. That was the word we used to describe Mr. Cornish. Well, you know, after we learned what the hell antediluvian meant, anyway. He had a face that proved it--those wrinkly weird things that were all saggy and sad, like somebody was always pulling down on his eyes. And it was exactly like somebody was pulling down on his eyes, actually, because those were the worst—big-ass wide white things and you could see that little gross-looking red-part at the bottom that you only see when you pull down? Like that. He always looked like that.
And his breath rattled. He had that thing, you know, the way they said dying people sound? Or at least, the way they said in Death and Dying, the semester-long thing that they made all the juniors take to fill the religion requirement.  It was the death breath that made people say that he was like Professor Binns from Harry Potter, like, maybe he died in his bed one morning and got up to come teach pre-calc anyway. And there were days when you wished that, you know, if the guy had died, maybe he should've stayed that way.
But besides the fact that he was just shit old, nobody knew anything about him.
Which was way, of course, I found myself sneaking into his office after school.
"Ah, Ray, can you speed it?"
Isaac, who is my best friend and my conscience. Sort of. My best friend and my nag. He was the one looking out, the way he had been since we were twelve and I first ended up at Jesuit. My parents thought a private school would make me stick out less. His parents were just relieved that he had a fucking friend. So they looked the other way when we pilfered stuff, because they figured that it was good for goody-two-shoes Isaac to be getting into a little trouble.
And what my parents didn't know wouldn't hurt them.
"Nah, this key is the wrong one. Shit."
He looked relieved. "Okay. Then why don't we—"
"Get out of here?" I looked at him.
"You're like, grinning."
"That's because I'm like, staying." I got in my bookbag and grabbed the nail file my mom made me keep in there. That way, if I broke one, I could still do the womanly thing and have it look good.
Or, you know, in case the key I stole for my math teacher's door didn't work, I could pick the lock. I jammed it in.
"Rachel…" Isaac looked all pained, like he was taking a really difficult crap or something.
"What? Itzahk, I've got it. Or damn near it." I wiggled the file around. There were only three tumblers in the school locks, I'd learned. It was just a matter of jiggling whatever you shoved in the door just the right way until you felt them slide…one…two…
"Got it." The door clicked and opened.
Isaac winced.
"Or stay out here, you baby." I stuck my tongue out at him.
He followed me in.
Jesuit at night is sort of weird, starting with the whole thing of the crucifixes at the front of every room. There's something just creepy about a guy hanging on a cross looking down at you. And then there are all these weird shadows because the football field gets lit from the parking lot lights if there's no game, but the bleachers are big enough the lights go right through them to the second floor…anyway, it was weird.
Which didn't quite excuse Isaac standing with his back against the wall like something was going to bit him, but whatever.
I moved over to the desk and started pulling out drawers. Pens, lots of them, in the top. And really unnaturally neat paper. In the first right-side drawer, the book of lesson plans. Oooh, and the gradebook.
"The grades, Itzahk." I picked it up and threw it to him. He caught it in his big piano-player hands and turned it over a few times.
"I know what my grades are."
So did I, but that wasn't the point. I kept going. Middle drawer--also unnaturatally-ordered copy of the faculty handbook and a copy each of the teacher's version of his two textbooks.
And then I got to the bottom.
The bottom drawer actually stuck a little, like it hadn't been opened in a long time. And it creaked when I pulled it. Inside was only one thing--a leather book that looked ancient as all hell. I picked it up. I could read the name on the cover: Alhazred.
I held it up.
Isaac sucked his breath.
We were nerds. We read all the old sci-fi and horror we could get our hands on. And you didn't need to do anything but read about this to know it.
"That's not supposed to be real," Isaac muttered, and I nodded.
Antediluvian, indeed.

~x~

Check out the rest of the AW October Blog Chain: 

orion_mk3 - http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com (link to this month's post)Ralph Pines - http://ralfast.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
Cath - http://blog.cathsmith.com/ (link to this month's post)
Diana Rajchel - http://blog.dianarajchel.com/ (link to this month's post)
Alynza - http://www.alynzasmith.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
pyrosama - http://matrix-hole.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
dolores haze - http://dianedooley.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
leahzero - http://www.leahraeder.com/words (link to this month's post)
AbielleRose - http://stainedglassinthenight.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)pezie - http://www.erinbrambilla.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
MysteryRiter - http://incessantdroningofaboredwriter.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
Inkstrokes - http://drlong67.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
AuburnAssassin - http://clairegillian.com/ (link to this month's post)
Alpha Echo - http://writersramblings81.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
robieae - http://thepondsofhappenstance.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
spacejock2 - http://halspacejock.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
Madelein.Eirwen - http://madeleineirwen.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)


5 comments:

  1. Great voice! Methinks you'll have fun writing more about the adventures of Rachel and Isaac. Well, I've learned a hellova lot about Lovecraft this month. I had to look up Alhazred from your story and Cthulhu from Dale's, but it was worth it. Very nice tale, resplendent with little details like the crucifixes and Isaac's "piano-sized hands."

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  2. I'll plead lazy and echo Claire, what a great voice!
    "And there were days when you wished that, you know, if the guy had died, maybe he should've stayed that way." This made me laugh out loud.
    Feels like a glimpse of a larger story. Well done!

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  3. "Jesuit at night is sort of weird, starting with the whole thing of the crucifixes at the front of every room. There's something just creepy about a guy hanging on a cross looking down at you."

    AMEN!!

    Creepy indeed! :)

    This was a fun read. I like the description of Mr. Cornish. lol

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  4. Fun read. Enjoyed the relationship between the two.

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  5. Definitely a fun read. I love this line: "like, maybe he died in his bed one morning and got up to come teach pre-calc anyway." Haha! Classic.

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