Dark Day

by Livi ania

Author Notes:  I was hard at work on the next chapter, when I realized:  ‘Crap, I didn’t upload this chapter.  Did I finish this chapter?  Argh!’ death  Yes, school has destroyed my mind.  Gomen, expect a quicker update next time.

Bokkaku:  Thank you, hope this is just as cool to ya. 

KKJeanne:  Yes!  All caps reaction!  This chapter’s fairly placid…but expect scarier stuff soon.  My own story is giving me the creeps.  That’s just wrong.

Amelia:  Glad I fixed that…tell me if I slack off again.  I’m so in love with that pronunciation!  Italian, eh?  Very cool.

All readers:  Please review, be brutal.  I want this to be great, and I can’t do that alone!  After all, I have the rose colored view…I wrote the thing!

Chapter Two

Headstrong, I’ll take you on.

It is now 12:49 PM.  The clock is running.

            Classic progressive rock (what an oxymoron) filled the air as Karn Evil 9 by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer blasted through the little car’s speaker system.  Amelia wasn’t currently hysterical, but she was pretty close to the edge.  Her hands gripped the camel-colored stereo tightly enough the blood circulation to her knuckles was cutting off.  If she found another talking body, she’d probably just drive into a lake or some similar alternative.  Death had its own appeal to her currently.  Death was natural.  Death followed the orders of the universe.  The only problem was she had with death was the whole dying thing.  Life still had its hold on her.  Apparently, it also still had its hold on Annalise.

            “Come inside the show’s about to start; guaranteed to blow your head apart.”

            The lyrics of the song she had enjoyed on the drive to ballet suddenly took on a darker turn in her mind.  The brilliant techno song was making her as nervous as anything going on in the outside world.  Pressing the forward button a random number of times, she settled on the far more neutral ‘My Friends’ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

7\/3 5 /\457\9

            Jake (who you’ve already come to know as the prettyboi who is extremely creepy) was smiling as he hopped out of the cab.  It was a beautiful day, wasn’t it?  A hysterical ballerina on the run, absolute quiet in the city, the future’s promising outlook of torture, death, and blood all combined was almost too much for him to stand. (He was quite literally trembling with the excitement of it all.)  He really did have a good life.  And Amelia should be passing him by in just five short minutes.  That’s what comes of actually driving on the road—such a mundane thing. His taxis were fond of taking the considerably faster backways.  Pedestrians and bushes could always recover.  Time can’t. He calmly stuck his right thumb out, pointing in an easterly direction.  Right on time the dark green Integra passed.

            Catching sight of the hitchhiker on the side of the road, Amelia tapped her brakes (she didn’t slam because she couldn’t afford to get her brakes fixed if she broke them) and then went into reverse.  She pushed the button to roll down the passenger side’s automatic window, and leaned toward the outdoor air leaking in to call, “Hop in.  You got any clue what’s going on here?”

            It was a sign of her naivety that she didn’t suspect the slender blonde of anything.  “Thank you,” he told her as he stepped in through the quickly unlocked door, noting the blue scissors sitting precariously on the ledge between the dials and the steering wheel.  “I have no idea.  I was in the park when a scream rang out, and everything just seemed to stop.”

            Hearing the mention of the park, Amelia whipped her head fast to her passenger.  Luckily her long hair was still pulled back or it the thousands of strands would have smacked her stinging in the face.  As it was, she merely jerked the car onto the curb and nearly sideswiped an already dented old meter.  She wasn’t worried about the scream-she knew perfectly well the source of that cacophony.  It had been her own throat, which was surprisingly not sore from her vocal activity.  “The park?” she questioned him faintly.  Looking closer, she thought maybe (just maybe) she had seen him out of the corner of her eyes or some such.  She certainly hadn’t given him her full attention.

            “Yes,” he told her with a smile.  This one was turning out almost too easy.  And he had been flushed with the prospect of a challenge.  The letdown truly was a terrible thing.  He paused for two beats, continuing with an inner smirk, “I just wonder what happened to my little sister…she had been out with a friend and her mom and we were all going to meet in the park where I would take her home.  I hate to think she would be running around whatever this barren world is.  She’s only six.”  Inside, he was wondering who was foolish enough to swallow that tale.

            The adolescent girl blinked at him, touching his hand reassuringly (swerving once again with only one hand for the wheel).  “I’m sure she’s fine,” she told him quietly, trying to add hopeful pep to her voice.  “Little kids are remarkably resilient, and if she got stuck her she’d surely be with her friend and her mom, a responsible adult.  That’s more than we have.”

            His mind echoing with mocking laughter at her greenness, he mournfully whispered, “True,” staring into her brown eyes.  Followed by, “So, why are you wearing tights?”

7\/3 5 /\457\9

Broken things…years pass, people die, things break.  You don’t call them dead.  Just as you don’t call a person broken.  But what if you don’t see them as people?  Just broken things…a broken Annalise here, a broken Amelia there, a broken toy no longer to be played with.

Chapter title is a lyric from Headstrong by Trapt.

These title lyrics will be a theme with Dark Day—my suggestion is, if you’ve never heard them, try to find a friend you can burn the songs off of or download mp3s.  Various songs (such as Karn Evil 9 and My Friends) will also be mentioned throughout the story.  Think of them as a soundtrack.  The music goes awesome with the story.

These are a few more songs I believe I’m going to use:

Down in the Park by Gary Numan (redone by Marilyn Manson and the Foo Fighters)

Emily’s Love Song by Skypark

Head Like a Hole by NIN

Forsaken by David Draiman (of Disturbed)

Forest by System of a Down

Balltongue by Korn

Tell Me by Madonna