Tag: chapter

AA-meetings – Chapter 5: Aching Desire

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 Aching desire

2009

Word’s going around about Alex’s first big photoshoot. Any second now and her face will be glued all over town. Any second and hell will break lose in this school over it. She’s always been one of the popular girls, but this will bring it to a whole new level. The girl can’t wait for what’s next concerning her career. That feeling of an entire crew being at your disposal, just to get one perfect shot – it’s amazing. Modeling is, weirdly enough, hard work. You can spend hours waiting time before you even get on set – before the client, the model and the photographer are pleased about the result. She doesn’t mind, though. She could stare at the lens and take positions for an eternity. Just like she could stare into Amy’s eyes for just as long.

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Captured – Chapter 19: Epilogue (final chapter)

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Epilogue

Unlike a lot of things from my memories, the new ones I’ve built are amazing. They erase the level of sadness and depression I’ve been through. Lauren is the source of all my happiness. She’s the reason I wake up in the morning and jump in bed at night. She draws little circles on my tummy when we watch TV and kisses me softly when everyone is looking our way.

My book got published and sold a couple million copies worldwide. It got translated in seven languages. So one might say it was successful.

There are a lot of times when I still think about John and his demonic eyes. There are times when I wake up and smell the scent of the basement in our room. Sometimes I even lock myself up for a while, just like he used to do, to reconnect with myself. It’ll be a closet or a darkened room. And though it’s ironic, it helps me to forget. Because being all alone puts things in perspective. It makes me realize that after all the bad, the good triumphed. Actually, it took the bad, it kicked the living shit out of it, pushed it – face down – into the dirt and tossed it into the ocean so it could drown.

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Captured – Chapter 18: The Book

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The book

When I open my eyes, it’s obviously way too early. Everything inside of me screams that I wasn’t supposed to be up already. My body’s still tired, but it’s not listening to itself. So I wake up and yawn long and hard. Tonight was way too short. Lauren kept me up for hours. First, we fooled around properly, then we talked until the sun came up again. She needed to tell me things, she said. Things that happened while we were apart. It were simple stories about going to the mall, getting a driver’s license or riding a horse, but they were special to her. I understood why. She let me in on her very admirable first-evers. The first time she ever dared to do things on her own, without anyone holding her hand. As sad as I felt about not being there with her, tonight I felt even more proud about the young woman that saved herself in this big world.

After smacking my lips to moisten them, I turn around to find an adorable Lauren glaring at me in wonder, like I’m the most adorable thing in the world. She looks beautiful in the morning, but finding someone staring at you while you’re sleeping is a bit disturbing.

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Captured – Chapter 16: Ding, dong, the witch is back

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Ding, dong, the witch is back

A worked up woman is pacing up and down in front of me, while I’m sitting on a couch, smartly remaining quiet. The person in front of me is not happy. My publicist rarely ever is. She’s holding the last few rough drafts of my work in her right hand. She doesn’t like it. Hell, I don’t even like it. Something about it just isn’t right.

“This isn’t working, Mariana. I mean, look at your last three chapters. They lack finesse. They lack an emotional input. You’ve been rambling and rambling about the interior of the house for ten pages.”

I crunch my nose and shake my head doubtfully. It was a very unique house, though. Of all the things I hated there, the structure and bold posture of that Fortress was the least of it.

Ellen is standing in the room as well and objects in a supportive way: “It can’t be that bad.”

But Edna, my publisher holds the papers towards her: “Front and back!”

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Captured – Chapter 14: Road Trip

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Road trip 

Surprisingly, Lauren’s back in town for some police business. The cops are ready to close the case and so they need final interviews to make sure every detail’s there. But they didn’t tell me that. They especially left out the part where they’d bring back my ex-girlfriend to finish their investigation.

First thing she did when she landed, was drive over to my place. It was two in the morning, but that didn’t seem inappropriate to her. Honestly, her waking me up in the middle of the night was the best thing that had happened in weeks. Her mom went directly to the hotel. I bet she put up a fight about her daughter coming to visit me, but, as the facts turn out, that didn’t stop Lauren from trying. And ending up here.

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Captured – Chapter 5: Memories Are Poison

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Memories are poison

A typical night used to be my mom yelling at my Abuela; their odd, hispanic way of discussing if one Mexican soap opera was better than the other one. My dad would come home late and sit down in his relax chair to watch the late night news. He’d ignore the Spanish babbling. I’d be bored out of my mind, texting on my phone or playing games on my laptop to keep myself busy.

I wish I was there, now. I wish my life was boring again.

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“Do you know that feeling when you’re reading a book and it’s just so damn good and every nerve in your body is possessed with the words and the feelings and every once in a while, you have to close it after a chapter just so you can catch a breath, calm down your heartbeat and completely experience the literary work of art and realize it’s okay to feel like a total nerd, because no person has ever made you feel that way before?”

AA-meetings – Chapter 4: Ambitious Friends

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Ambitious friends

2009

The house is abandoned. Even Eli is not hiding in his dungeon as usual. Alex and David carefully roam around the place, listening to the nothingness, moving so very slowly that their shoes won’t even squeak. A situation like this barely ever happens, simply because there’s always someone here. Too many people live in this house.

“Do you hear that?” David whispers, almost unnoticeable.

He holds out his hand to make her stop moving.

Alex just nods, because – yes – she does hear it: the deafening sound of loneliness. They face each other and start laughing out loud. An exuberant Alex jumps on top of the leather couch and starts dancing like crazy.

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Captured – Chapter 2: The Girl With The Soft Smile

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The girl with the soft smile

The door opens with a horrid shriek. My still weakened body immediately brushes up against the wall in an attempt to disappear and remain inconspicuous. I must have been here for hours. I can’t remember looking at my watch once since I woke up in this basement. It’s all been too blurry and scary to even think of it. Something tells me I’ve fallen back asleep a while ago, but I’m not sure. Now all I know is that I’ve tried hundred of times to liberate myself, but all I ended up with were sore hands and bruises around my wrists. And my head nearly bursts off my body with pain.

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AA-meetings – Chapter 1: A Phone Call

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Chapter One: A phone call

2015

“She’s the one that got away.”

A soft, melancholic voice reverberates through a nicely decorated office in the middle of a domestic apartment building. Like the fragile, young woman is wandering around in old memories. Like the ghost of that perfect person from the past appears once more and flares up a dreamy face. It makes the heart rush and one nanosecond later, it abruptly causes it to stop. Because the truth makes it brutally clear that the exact same time that whatever it is that’s got that smiling started, it fades away and gets replaced with heartache and a nagging, indescribable feeling of missing someone.

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