F3: ‘Creeping Doubts’

Another Nano extract. It’s going very slowly – at this point, I’ve written just under 14,000 words. I’m supposed to be well past 25,000. I think I may have inadvertently sabotaged myself by getting slightly too attached to the story – taking it a little too seriously. Not a healthy mindset, particularly for Nano. And the lingering presence of university assignments really isn’t helping.

Stupid writer’s block.

CREEPING DOUBTS

BAM! A world of adrenaline and nerve endings comes up to meet her; a wide beam of light leaving nowhere to hide. The penetrating gaze of the predator dissolving into nothingness. Here, she is body alone. And her body aches; a purgatory of pain which smothers the endless now – a thick red rope stretching off into the horizon. Nina grits her teeth, wiping the dried crud from her face, and trying to get some sense of her location. From somewhere above, the irregular patter of raindrops on metal. Clutching desperately at the last remnants of memory – there’s a brief rush of intense nostalgia, cast in sepia tones. But after a moment it too fades, leaving a taste of vomit in the lower reaches of her skull.

Chiram. She needs to find him, before someone else – someone entirely less friendly – finds her. Cognitive dissonance, as she realises that her knowledge of him, as an individual rather than an alias, extends only to that which she’s learned in the last-

She pauses. Time is tricky, here – little more than an illusion, altered on a whim by forces beyond her comprehension, outside of herself. After all, who knows how much of it has passed since-

Another hesitation, as she searches for some kind of mental landmark – for now, conspicuous only in its absence. Did she shoot the leopard, or Sun-wei? The ghost of a memory, stirring somewhere in the limbic depths.

Pulling herself up from the worn mattress, she searches the room for some kind of context. Information about the room’s intended purpose, signs of inhabitation, anything. The room is long and narrow, skylight open to the mountain air, and empty but for Nina’s bedding. The nest of fabric and padding in which she woke, but minutes previous. The only other defining feature is a similar pile of debris on the other side of the room, one of the sheets stained with the dark crimson of blood. Nina suppresses a shudder. Sweeping her hair behind her shoulders and rolls up her sleeve. Slowly tiptoeing over to the door, she pulls it open, and steps – straight into Chiram.

“Wh-?”

A hand claps over Nina’s mouth, and she yelps.

“Shh.” he hisses, “Stay quiet.”

Released, and with fear in her eyes, Nina looks up at Chiram. He gives her an empty grin, clearly intended as a gesture of solidarity. But, unable to sustain the illusion, he flounders, shedding the smile for an anxious grimace.

“Why? What’s going on? Where are we?”

Another smile, enigmatic but equally inappropriate.

“After the fire … did Sun-wei say anything about the fire to you?”

She nods.

“Hmm,” – Chiram raises an eyebrow – “That’s interesting. He must have taken a shine to you.”

“Oh?” asks Nina, the landscape falling away from under her. And what if he hadn’t? Before, she’d taken it on faith that the future would have her in it. Now, all she can sense is a creeping uncertainty.

__________

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