Saturday, November 14, 2009

Chapter 10 That Night






Michael - 8 or 9
Edy - 10 or 11



“Edy, what do you look like?”

The question had come from Michael a day after he had taken me outside. There was still something off between the two of us, but I couldn’t ask. I didn’t know what to say. We were talking again. That seemed to be a good sign.

I stepped out of my room and into a small bathroom. “My mom keeps my hair short. It’s just easier that way.”


There was a sadness in our link coming from him. Quietly, he thought at me, “Would you like to see me? I know where I am now.”

“You do? Where are you? Can we get you out now?”

At my question, there was a flurry of emotions that I couldn‘t understand. He pushed it away quickly. “Don’t worry about that, Edy. C’mon, I’ll show you.”

Michael told me where to go and told me to ignore the people working. He said they couldn’t see me and they wouldn’t notice the door opening.

“Don’t be scared. There’re some people in this room, but they won’t be able to see you. Try not to bump into them though.” He directed me to the large window. My father stood in front of it looking in at a boy about my age who stood on the other side in bare feet.


“Michael, is that you? What is this?”

“This is what your father does. I’m just an experiment.” There was so much venom in his words, that I almost wanted to vomit.

“Why? Does my mom know? How could he do something like that?”

“I won’t be able to talk to you any more, Edy. Something bad is going to happen. You should tell your parents that they need to leave.”

"Something very bad?"

“Yes. Very bad. You have to leave, okay? I mean it.”


Michael withdrew again after that. He didn’t tell me how little time we had left.

My mother was surprised and frightened by my insistence. My father was suspicious, but he agreed to leave in a few days. “We’re at a critical time with the experiment.”

We didn’t have a few days.


The very next night the lab was stormed by other former Lab experiments. Those who lived were rounded up, including me and my mother, and tossed into the same room I had been taught my lessons where a fire was raging. And at the center was him.

That was the first time I saw him fully. He was so small and yet so angry. My mother begged him while choking on her tears and the smoke. “She’s just a little girl. She’s almost your age. Please…”


Michael’s eyes fell on me and I knew a fear greater than my natural fear of the fire or of death.

Suddenly, we were outside the lab standing by the wild flowers. The fresh cool air surrounded me and I nearly choked trying to swallow it, to inhale it and expel the smoke in my lungs until I realized the problem was that I was crying too hard to breath.


“I told you to leave.” Michael angrily stepped towards me. "What are you still doing here?"

I cowered from him. “We were going to in a few days.”


Michael turned away from me as I continued fighting for cool air through my sobs which I feared would drown me. "If you want to live you'll have to do exactly as I say. I'm going to take you back."

My mouth moved faster than my thoughts. "I can't go back! I can't!"

"I can't leave you out here. There are others who look for strays." He didn't look at me, but he spoke quietly like an adult speaking to a child having a tantrum.

That was the last vivid memory I have of that night. A darkness obscures most of my memories from that night on until the day the Old Man stepped in.




Author's note:

So-- the fire.

I am taking a bit of a creative stretch here. Let's call the fire symbolic. I don't imagine that controlling or starting fires is a normal trait of his, in case you're wondering. We can pretend though that he used other means to start the fire.

In the original story, Michael and the experiments were like the fire, but that would've been too difficult (and disturbing) to simmify.

So this is my one big concession between the actual story and Sims 3 capabilities.



Next Chapter -->


12 comments:

  1. Wow...so he tried to get Edy and her parents to leave! He didn't really intend to harm them, but seemed to feel like he couldn't prevent their deaths when they didn't leave on their own. So was Michael reaching out to other experiments to plan the takeover, or was he only able to learn of their plans, but not do anything to influence or help?

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  2. That last one is the big question, so I'm glad you're posing and speculating on it first!

    I'm going to let you all decide that like my own little experiment. *rubs hands together in a very unevilly, unmasterminded way*

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  3. Michael has shown a caring side of himself in wanting Edy and her parents gone before the fire happened. However, it seems her parents died anyway leaving a very young and confused Edy to cling to the only other thing she was familiar with in her life, Michael.

    I can't even imagine what Edy must have been through, her world destroyed so suddenly and without warning.

    I think Michael was among the instigators of the fire - he seemed awfully angry at Edy for not leaving.

    There's still good in him, somewhere. It's just buried so deep and maybe Edy can remind him of that goodness.

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  4. I'm sure that in Edy's case, the known is better than the unknown. What a thing to cling to though. See? Complicated.

    To be honest, I have trouble imagining what she went through. It's not a time she thinks about often if she can help it.

    Ooo, interesting you bring up his "goodness." Good vs. bad is another theme that runs through a lot of these stories. I refuse to say who's what because no one is all one or the other. (Uh, well except Edy probably.)

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  5. I am loving getting these glimpses at Michael's more caring side and it makes me wonder how much of it is still in him. I'm assuming it's merely concern for Edy that led him to try to get her to leave but that's only because it's the only reason I can imagine. I guess he could have had other motives.

    Reading your comment about good vs. bad being a theme in this story was kind of cool because I was thinking about it myself during this chapter. Edy's dad was involved in experiments to neutralise Michael (and others, I guess?), is that right? It got me wondering what their motives were. The word "experiment" can have pretty sinister undertones and that's certainly the way Michael spins it but it wouldn't necessarily have to be that way, would it?

    Heh, I'm thinking out loud again!

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  6. I have to admit that writing a more caring Michael is rather fun too. He's caring, but always in his own way.

    Good vs. bad will be in all the stories. I figure that in life there are always two sides or more to every story, so always good to keep that in mind!

    Definitely a good thing to ponder out loud. It makes me uber happy to hear your thoughts on it. And to be honest, that is something else that I am thinking about myself.

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  7. Ah, so he did try to save her family first! And like Carla, I'm also wondering what exactly the experiments were meant to do. Will we find out before the story is over?

    That's interesting to read about how this version had to deviate from your original intentions.

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  8. Do you mean before Michael and Edith's story is over? Nope. In the next story? Probably not then either, though if anyone would know, The Original Experiment would probably have an idea. But even then, I can't assume he's correct about it.

    But now that is something I have to think about in great detail. Dang... this happens to me a lot with this story. There's so much going on, each character with a story, and then I can just keep going back into the past. For some reason, I enjoy looking back at the past more than I enjoy moving forward.

    I need to focus though. It's difficult. XD


    I thought you might find that interesting too. It was just an odd tidbit I felt a need to throw in there. An artistic license. Which I think I'll end up doing more often than not in this story. I want the story to be more about the people than to become a gore and violence fest (which it could do).

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  9. Sorry, I'm many days late.

    First of all, it's great to return to this fascinating story!
    But as usual I have a few questions.

    It surprised me he did not know what Edy looked like. Everytime she looks in the mirror it must build a memory and he reads her memories? Like when they played in the park? He could not see her then?

    I find the way he explains his situation to Edy very interesting. "I am JUST an experiment..." It is said with venom. Because he feels he is not considered a person? Or because of what they do to him?
    I still think the experiments they did on him must have been painful/cruel... especially now, that they cause him to becomes a killer at this tender age.

    If he is suffering at the hands of Edy's father, then it is extremely 'good' of him to warn her. He sets his personal grudges aside so she will live. He obviously realises Edy needs her parents to survive...

    When Edy and her mother were tossed in the room I found it as hard to breathe as Edy. What a terrible thing... It still is not clear whether there was a fire in the room or whether Michael IS the fire. He obviously is immune to it. The other thing I still don't know is whether he started the fire or not... What was he doing there? Watching people burn? Or did he appear there when Edy and her mother were tossed inside?

    Edy's mother pleads for her little girl's life. But Edy doesn't plead for her mother and doesn't want to go back, even if her mother is still there.

    Also, her mother must have believed Miachale was saving her little girl when he disappeared with her from the room... I somehow hope she choked and died before she saw her little one tossed into that room once more.

    I hope Michael obscured Edy's memories for her. In fact it would be really nice if he made sure she felt no pain... but I'm not sure if he can/could do that.

    Lunar, I don't want to make any of this sound as criticism. I love your story and have great respect for you as the writer! :)

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  10. Moondaisy, you remind me of an old friend of mine. She was always thinking, and she always wanted to know more if it wasn't clear. When ever I write, I always think about people like you and her. My style is very simple, and so I try to leave a lot up to the readers, and sometimes I might get too vague. So I don't mind answering questions at all.


    First off, the mirror is a small detail that's sort of a running theme for me. You are correct that he should see her every time she looks in a mirror. Since he doesn't know what she looks like, it's a clue that she never looks in a mirror. It's another aspect of her personality that she never stops to look in a mirror. As for her memories, she was blurry in them, remember. Because she didn't have as much practice at it as he did and because she rarely sees herself anyway (she just doesn't look).

    There are two mirrors in her room which I tried to catch here and here. You'll hear about that again in one of the side pieces.


    I will say that his wanting to let her go is indeed HUGE. And her family as well. Especially since her father is one of the guys actually working on Michael. It's also HUGE that her father chose to ignore her to continue working on his experiment.


    lol, you're focusing on the fire too much. I used that as a symbolic representation-- a concession between me and the game. But you need details I think! That was part of the issue with changing the story in this way.

    In the original story, the experiments and Michael go through the lab rounding up the scientists that are left over and their families for slaughter. That's when Michael sees Edy with her mother. By then, Edy had probably already witnessed a few killings and was utterly terrified.

    Michael takes her away, but only her. Later on "claiming" her the way the others had claimed their victims.

    As for Edy not asking about her mother, good one. I didn't even think about that. Here's what happened: I cut too much out!

    In an earlier version of this there were two lines I cut. Edy asks about her parents, and Michael tells her it's too late for them-- they're already dead.

    But I took the lines out because I was interfering with the story. I didn't want people to hate him, lol. I should probably edit and put those lines back in, yeah?

    Oh and Michael didn't take her back to that same room obviously. Everyone in that room died. He just took her back to the labs so he could protect her because she couldn't just stand around outside the labs. Sorry if that wasn't clear.


    I don't know if Michael obscured her memories. I do believe that even for one as controlled as him, things can happen through him without his conscious thought, so it wouldn't surprise me if he had been obscuring her memories through that difficult time. But you'll probably never get an answer to that one.

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  11. Can I say YEAH! A playlist, esp. love the Foo Fighters 'Long Road to Ruin' inspired choice.
    I love how music can enhance a chapter/story, use it myself!

    This was a fascinating insight into their past, and a dimension of Michael I only guessed at, and certainly draws light on the bond they share.

    Great update Lunar!
    I am getting there!!

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  12. Yeah, I got the idea from you and SB and Gayl. Thought it was a great idea. Each song reminds me of a particular story, so I'll listen to it when I need inspiration.

    Thanks for reading, Drew. I know you must be busy considering it's the holiday.

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