NaNo Story Bit

This NaNo is being a pain and I am way behind. So have a bit, and I’ll come talk more after I win this blasted challenge.

This is first draft, and also a scene that won’t be in the book. It’s basically me poking about, trying to figure things out so I can write the book.

And it’s probably very confusing. ^__^;

(in short, my MC is plural. I’m not sure how I’m going to make that work in the story yet. I’m also experimenting with how I’m going to work the punctuation.)

Also, I’ve changed Melissa’s name. She’s Nemesis now. ^___^

---

::Nemesis.::

Mmm?

::Nemesis. Wake up.::

Mhh-hmmm.

::Nemesis. Wake up.::

Missy buried her face in the pillow and grumbled, but the voice didn’t go away.

::Nemesis. Wake up.::

Leave me alone!

::I can’t. I must speak with you, and it must be now.::

Guide. That voice was Guide. Always listen to Guide. Missy scrubbed at her face.

::No, lie still. Please. Don’t open your eyes. It’s important.::

Important. Everything was important. Missy was tired of important.

::We are too.::

Missy rolled onto her back and thumped the pillow over her face to shut out the darkness. What is it and why can’t it wait till morning?

::Because in the morning they will give you more pills, and you won’t be able to hear me again.::

Missy thought that she liked that idea.

::Do you?:: Guide answered though she hadn’t been talking to him. ::What day is it?::

It’s night-time!

::Yes, but what’s the date?::

Missy thought, sorting through hazy remembrances of white-coated nurses and earnest doctors and white rooms and bland things. Don’t know.

::They don’t mean to let us go,:: Guide said. ::Not until only you are left. And that will never happen.::

Dr. Dolores says it will. She says we’re making progress. Missy remembered that. She remembered the dull glow of hope that she might go back to her life soon, though she couldn’t really remember what it was she wanted back.

::You’ve missed all your finals. You’ll have to start the semester over. You won’t graduate on time. At this rate you’ll be lucky to graduate at all.::

That’s not true! Eliza wouldn’t let–

::Who do you think put you in here, Nemesis?::

And she remembered. Eliza came to visit, tried to talk, to chat as if nothing were wrong, then she went to talk to the nurses and for a day or two the haze would lift but then the voices would start and–

All your fault, Missy told Guide. Go away!

::I can’t. Make them go away.::

They just want to help me!

::By locking you away from me? I am your guide. They are strangers!::

He was angry. Worried. Missy had never heard him upset before. So long she’d listened to him, and always he’d been calm, gentle.

::Nemesis, you will die here. Already some have died. Others have fled. The Inquisitor imposes her own standards on all she finds, and few can stand against her.::

::No one expects the Spanish Inquisition,:: someone muttered, too low for Missy to recognize the voice.

I don’t understand…

::How about this?:: the someone–Cut–snapped. ::It’s been a month. You take your pills like a good little girl and while you’re walled off, the Inquisitor runs around killing us to please your Dr. Dolores! You hum Kum Ba Yah and paint ceramic bunnies and try to be what everyone else wants, you fucking conform while we die.::

I do not!

::You do! You take your pills and you do your breathing exercises and you tell yourself the voices are your imagination and you don’t have to hear us because Dr. Dolores told you so. What the fuck does she know?::

As always, the longer she paid attention the more Missy was with them. She could see Guide now, standing tall with eagle feathers in his hair. He liked that shape. Or she did. He wore it more than the others. Cut huddled near but not too near, arms around his knees and wild hair over angry eyes.

No one else was in sight. Missy looked about and Cut laughed.

“They’re hiding,” he snapped. “The Inquisitor is out, and they’re hiding.”

“Nemesis.” Guide always used her full name. “The Inquisitor must be stopped.”

“I know. And I have to do it, right?” Missy folded her arms. “It’s always me.”

“You’re the goddamn chosen one,” Cut snarled. Behind him Missy caught a flicker. Wild hair, wilder eyes, behind Cut and always ready to run, that was Mute. Guide shifted, adjusting his blanket on his shoulder.

“Arm yourself,” he advised. “The Inquisitor has grown strong.”