literature

The Faceless And The Scarred - Ch.1

Deviation Actions

PrinceZahn's avatar
By
Published:
414 Views

Literature Text

Chapter one - Walking Away.



The neon lights flashed violently in an array of colors as they wrestled each other for the attention of passerby, and a warm vapor exudes from the cars on the road and overpowers the chilly winter’s evening. A baby cries in the front seat of a silver Suzuki, longing for its pacifier, one could only guess.

"Aww, don't cry, Ricky." the mother shushed him nervously while trying to steer. "Mommy's here, we're almost home. Shh..."
And that is when the mother saw her, point blank in the middle of the road. She screamed louder than her shrieking car break. 

Penelope Gardner was rushing home that night, running as fast as she could in the rain with her first week's pay. She was so excited to show her brothers, who lived on spare change, what it was like to have real money again. A respectable wad of 50 dollar bills that she would guard with her life, so that the three of them could spend it on food, and make their lives just a little bit better. She was in a direct collision course with the distracted young lady and her car.
The impact was inevitable, but at that very moment the unschooled and homeless Penelope Gardner, transcended her human existence at the age of sixteen. 
They say, that before you die, you see the white light that beckons you to heaven, but after the impact, Penelope saw only shadows. She recognized her own silhouette, collapsed under a yellow-glowing street light; her bones were broken and she was bleeding internally as a car stood in the middle of the crosswalk where she ran moments before. A twisting baby silhouette sat within it. She still heard voices, however. she heard the baby cry. She heard another shadow run towards Penelope's form; a woman's shade carrying an umbrella, it was panicking and cussing, picking up its phone and calling someone.

"Daddy?" She said, "I got some bad news, I was on my way home in the rain and I accidentally rammed the car into a lamppost—I'm sorry! I know, and I'm so, so sorry."

Penelope didn't understand what happened to her, but she was outraged. "A lamppost? Are you stupid or something? You rammed into me!" and she cussed the shade in a string of insults, but it ignored her, and continued the unending loop of apologies to the person on the phone.
by the time she finally hung up, it appeared for a second like the shadow-woman took a glance at Penelope in absolute horror. "Oh my god! But aren't you—!" 
Yet, the moment she turned her head away, she was lost in thought, and her shocked expression subsided, but not entirely. Her expression, however subtly, no longer betrayed 'How is that possible?' as much as it betrayed 'What do I do, now?' For There was still a corpse on the ground in front of the woman. she put her phone away, got into her car with her collapsed umbrella, and hastily drove away from the crime scene. 

Confused, and with so many mixed emotions, Penelope was trying to grasp the magnitude of her situation. She attempted to reach for the lamp post, she could grasp it as a conscious effort, but it didn't feel real despite its physical presence. If she didn't concentrate, her hand would pass through it effortlessly. She did not feel the rain, even though it poured down on the ground around her. Everything she saw was gray and out-of-focus about her, but the shadows bore a newfound clarity in detail. She examined her body under the street light. it was cold and lifeless, like just another object of scenery. She tried to lay back into it, in some hopes that she could sink back into her life again, like in a cartoon. It would be like all this was  just a dream, and that she was actually being rushed to the emergency room at this very moment. 

But there was no ambulance; there were no police coming, either. This was real, and it was so incredibly alien to her... could she really be a ghost?
She suddenly felt her heart race. if she was dead, that means her salary would never reach her brothers. they were going to die as well. Penelope then had a worldly thought. She could feel her blood pumping, her heart beating, her mind thinking even outside her own body. She was not dead if she felt those, right? she couldn't be, but she was not alive either. This was something else, something Penelope could not find a name for except "in-between".
She reached into her physical coat, she realized she could move it by merely reaching towards it and grabbing it. she dug into her roughed-up coat pocket for the envelope. and found she could touch that too. Perhaps, it was not too late: perhaps she could still bring the money to Benjamin and Lawrence. with that they could start over. Benjamin was also the smart one, no doubt, he'd know what to do about this.

she ran with the envelope in her hand and made it back to the alley slums, where the shadows of Lawrence and Benjamin Gardner were talking among themselves. they were merely silhouettes, but they had such vivid detail within the shadows that Penelope knew them at a glance.
"Hey guys, I'm home - and I Brought my first week's pay!
"—You don't think she took it and ran off, did you?" Lawrence asked.
"Stop it, Lorrin, or you're gonna worry me, too, soon enough!" Benjamin reassured him. "Knowing Penny, I bet she's working overtime at the flower shop. She'll be back soon, with her pay, and our lives will finally—what's wrong? you look like you just seen a—"
Lawrence pointed at Penelope, and Benjamin turned around in the same horror that the woman in the car had.
"Did you hear me? I brought money home!"
"Penny?" Benjamin asked. "I-Is that you?"
Lawrence shouted out. "W-W-Where's your face?"
Penelope raised her eyebrow, "What do you mean? It's me, and my face is where it always—!"
but as she reached to touch her face, she found no friction, no skin to touch, no head to feel. she clearly had a head, otherwise, she would be blind, but she simply could not touch it, it may as well have not been there.
"Get away from us!" the two of them stepped back panicking, and they turned tail to run.
And then, something even more peculiar happened. 
Benjamin stopped and asked his brother, "Wait a sec, Lorrin, what are we doing?"
to which he shrugged and replied, "Not sure, actually. weren't we running from something a moment ago?"
“Running from what?"
"I can't remember." Lorrin scratched his head as the rain got in his eyes. and they approached Penelope again, and they were frightened anew.
"Lorrin, am I going nuts or does that girl not have a face?"
"I'm scared, Ben!"
"For crying out loud you guys!" Penelope protested. "this isn't funny!"
"Oh god!" Lorrin held his brother tight. "I think we just made her angry!"
"Run!" Benjamin cried. and they both ran off, and, just like before, they forgot within moments what they were running from, and why.

Her pain was cold and heavy, and sunk in to the depths of her chest like a moth in a snowstorm. she could never speak to her brothers again. all they saw was a woman without a face, and, when they would turn their backs again, they'd instantly forget even that much in an endless loop. she decided to leave the envelope for them on Benjamin’s bed, and walked away. she turned back one last time to see their faces. they found the envelope full of bills and were overjoyed, yet amazed and dumbfounded - how did it get there, and where is Penelope? why isn't she celebrating with them?

"If only they knew it was me..." Penelope cried as she walked away in the dead of a rainy night.

I present to you the first chapter of a new multi-chapter story to tide you over - The Faceless and the Scarred. it's about a young woman doomed to being forgotten, who meets an old man who can never forget. where is it heading? Stay tuned and find out!

Also wanna remind you all, A story I wrote, titled "Blue Moon: The Laughing Girl" is coming out November 21st, 2017! be sure to check it out as we get closer to thanksgiving!

You can find the rest of the chapters HERE!
© 2017 - 2024 PrinceZahn
Comments5
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
loneXwolf97's avatar
Very interesting!  It's easy to follow and with just enough description to get a clear image, without being overbearing.