Lila Lovely - Revenge (parts 15-22)

Part 15
The Liar had a partner? Lila sucked on the nail of her little finger. A Partner. A Liar’s Partner. Mmm, tasty, maybe. The Man was staring at her. She put her hand down. “What?” “You look like you’re thinking about eating her.” Lila sniffed. “I don’t eat people.” “I was joking,” he said. She shrugged, flexed her fingers and thought about hunting.

Part 16
To anyone walking past her, Lila looked like any other young woman, albeit with a now blue Mohawk and hidden nails. It was her movement that left a lasting impression; a lasting, unsettling and somewhat nagging impression. An impression of being hunted.

Part 17
With money from The Man’s wallet Lila paid for more supplies at the drug store. The clerk eyed her. “You got someone hurt?” Lila nodded, “cuts and bruises.” The clerk frowned. “She need to see a doctor?” Lila stared at her. The clerk stared back. Hazel eyes? Brown? The clerk tilted her head. “Who said it was a she?” Lila asked. The clerk shrugged. Lila left. The clerk turned to her co-worker. “That girl’s got… gold colored eyes.”

Part 18
Lila strolled toward the motel. There were a lot of people out, she didn’t want to attract too much attention. “She need to see a doctor?” Lila replayed the clerk’s question. “She.” Why “She”? A screech of tires and someone laid on a horn. “Watch where you’re going!” Lila wanted to leap at the car and pull the driver out for interrupting her thoughts but… “watch where you’re going” and “She.” Lila went back to the drug store.

Part 19
At the drug store the clerk’s co-worker was behind the counter. Lila looked around. He motioned toward the back of the store. “She left. You forget something?” Funny, there was an element, a whiff, of fear coming from him. Lila slid her hand across the counter. He moved Back. “Why did your friend think my friend was female.” The man avoided her gaze. She smiled. “Never mind, I’ll find out.” Real fear this time.

Part 20
The Man paced the motel room. “She thought I was a woman?” Lila shrugged. “Either you, or your sister.” He paused in mid step. “You think she was asking if my sister was hurt? You think she knew about her?” Lila shrugged again. “Do you know who the Liar’s partner was?” He shook his head. “I’ll be back.” And she was gone.

Part 21
It didn’t take Lila long to find the clerk. She was already dead, not that Lila had planned on de-souling her. She’d just wanted a little information. There wasn’t much left of the body, external burning does that. The sound of sirens meant it was time to leave. But before she did, under the body, saved from the fire — she grabbed it and loped away.

Part 22
The Man turned the ring over and over in his hand. “Was she wearing it?” Lila shook her head. “It doesn’t smell like hers.” He put it in his pocket. “It wasn’t.” He stood. “I suppose there’s nothing more for me her.” She grinned and he stared as she unsheathed her nails. “don’t you want to get the people who did this?” “There are more?” The tip of her tongue traced the edge of her lip as she breathed “oh, yesssssss.”

Lila Lovely - Revenge (parts 8-14)

Part 8

The man in the motel bed stirred, opened his eyes and squinted at Lila sitting in the chair a few feet away. He looked around the room, then back at her. She stared back at him. “How’d you get me here?” She shrugged at him. “I did.” He shifted, winced, and settled back into the pillows with closed eyes. “Where’d you get the money for the room?” She smiled. “Your wallet.” He grunted. “You carry a lot of cash,” she said. His eyes snapped open to find her almost nose to nose with him.

Part 9

“You were going to kill him, weren’t you?” she breathed on him. “What ARE you?” he asked. She was at the door, then back, nose to nose, her nail running the edge of his face, from forehead to jaw to chin. “Do you still want me to help you?” He tried to move his face away but she unsheathed another nail and ran it down the bridge of his nose. “I can, you know. Better than you think.” She smiled. He shuddered.

Part 10
Outside the Liar’s house Lila waited. No one was there. There was no way in. The authorities had boarded the doors and windows. Up the wall to the little vent in the attic. So easy. So simple. So made for Lila’s special skills. In the house she went from room to room. Empty. No furniture, no lights, no clothing, no drapes. Upstairs, downstairs, nothing. Nothing but the bloodstain on the living room floor. She laid down on it. Her eyes half closed. Her lips smiled. The crawlspace!

Part 11
She fit herself into the crawlspace. It was tight, but not so tight she couldn’t maneuver. She reached out into the darkness, dug her nails into the hard earth and pulled herself forward. Again, again, and again. She could feel it now. She was almost under where the man had died. She was almost there… her hand wrapped around someone’s ankle. It was cold. He, or she, didn’t jerk away from her touch.

Part 12
Lila settled under the Oleander bush - the spider was gone, there was evidence of recent bird activity. She thought about the Man, the Liar, the Body in the crawlspace. How had she missed there was a body when she took the Liar? It was a recent kill, she would have sensed its residual… she snarled and stood, leaves withering around her with the heat.

Part 13
She moved silently through the back alleys to the motel. In the shower she ripped the curtain aside. The Man turned to fact her. “You found her?” She threw a towel at him. “Dry yourself”.

Part 14 
Lila watched the Man pace the room, his bruises livid against his white skin. She was hungry. Liars never satiated her for long, and there had been no residual to feed from at the house. “She was my sister,” the Man said. Lila frowned, and tried to remember the correct response. Her eyebrows lifted. “I’m sorry.” “How did she die?” Lila shrugged. “Messily.” He howled and fell to his knees. “Another hour,” he gasped, “just another hour.” “Still too late. She was at least three days dead.” He glared up at her, bared his teeth at her. “Another hour and I would have got there before you.” She shrugged. “What about his partner?” he asked. That got her attention.

Lila Lovely - Revenge (parts 1-7)

Part 1

It was a shadow, he thought Maybe the breeze ruffling the curtain. There, again, the shadow. Now a touch. A black drop…coagulated blood??? on the back of his hand. He started to shake. The fear. He tried to breath. It hurt. She rose before him. A woman from hell with a blood red Mohawk.

Part 2

Lila sat back on her haunches - hidden by the leaves of the Oleander bush. She licked her fingers, one by one. “Mmm, tasty,” she grinned. Liars always were. She unsheathed her nails and cleaned them out. She felt better than she’d felt for awhile, even with only half a heart.

Part 3

Movement. Around the Liar’s house. She peeked through the leaves but it was too late to see who had gone in. The screams from the death room made her giggle. “Musta found the body,” she said to a garden spider weaving its web next to her. “Can you feel it? The fear? lovvvvellllyyyyy.” She reached toward it like a sinner reaching for salvation. And was rewarded.

Part 4

Lila stretched out a cleaned nail and let the spider crawl onto it. She gently transported the creature to a leaf sheltered from the rain that was now falling. She never faltered in the careful transference, even when the sound of the crash filled the air around her.

Part 5

She left the spider and made her way to the road. The car was overturned, its wheels spinning to nowhere. She watched the man crawl from the wreckage and collapse. At his side she sniffed carefully around him. No fear. Hmph. No fear? But pain, yes, lots of pain. He moaned and tried to move. She leaned in to whisper in his ear, “you’re not dying.” His eyes opened and he stared at her. “Help…please…help…me.” She touched his cheek. A single golden droplet slid from her hand to his cheek, then slid into his mouth.

Part 6

Lila looked up the road. Daddy was there, a thin silhouette against the horizon, leaning against the Volvo, waiting. “Help me,” the man whispered. Up ahead Daddy got into the Volvo and drove into the thickening fog.

Part 7

She stared through the flames of the campfire at the man. His breathing was easier. he looked somewhat comfortable. He squinted at her. “Who the hell…what the hall are you?” She drew back, crouched a little, then circled the fire to crouch in front of him. He frowned. “Fuck. You looked like some sort of insect. Gotta be the pain. Must be the…” She touched him, he drifted off. She got close and sniffed, he’d be okay. She decided to stay

Lila Lovely gearing up for recording

and it’s going to be hot!!!!

I tapped one of my favorite voice talents for the gig and he said yes (not revealing who it is yet) and am experimenting with a variety of voices and speech patterns for the many female parts in the story.

Basically it will be the complete story of Lila Lovely, Sipper of Souls. From the narration to the dialog, however, we will be leaving out words like: She said, he said, he yelled…. stuff like that.

I’ve been selecting music and sound effects. And there will be announcements of where it will be released etc. So keep tuned.

The World According to Who(m)

Well, I’m not surprised. I’ve gotten more than one complaint about Lila Lovely Is Hungry. The same thing happened when I put out the first Lila Lovely story: Lila Lovely, Sipper of Souls. 

According to the complainers Lila is too “ugly” (I suppose they mean the whole idea that someone is going to come and get you and suck your soul out ), too violent (yeah, watch TV for awhile) too creepy (yippee) and too… well, too many too’s to list.

Oh, and they don’t like the layout of the stories. Well, tough. I do. I have fun writing them that way and I have no plans on changing that… for you or anyone else. Besides, what make you so special I should change my character AND my style of writing to suit your wants and needs? If you want something different, write it yourself. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. 

There’s a LOT of stuff I don’t like to read, watch or listen to but do I go running to the creator of it and say: “hey, I don’t like that, don’t do that anymore.”

No. I don’t. Want to know why? 1. I can read/watch/listen to something else. 2. He’d probably laugh at me, all the way to the bank. 3. He’d probably tell me it’s none of my business and he’d be right.

Entertainment surrounds us daily, from TV, games, phones, computers, radio, magazines, books, match book covers, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and blah. That doesn’t mean we have to watch, read, listen, and experience all of it. 

For cryin’ out loud… pick something different.

But keep those cards and letters coming in  folks, I love hearing from you!

sj

Lila Lovely is Hungry (6)

The last 4 Parts of this Lila Lovely Story

Lila Lovely - Part 50

Before the old woman could reach the ball, Lila grabbed it away from her. “Abomination,” the old woman spat at her. Lila smiled. “You can’t do this.” This time the old woman pleaded. Lila’s smile grew wider. She held the ball out to the skinny grasping fingers. “That’s my soul!” came the cry. Lila held the ball higher. “Then why don’t I want it.” She tossed it high.

Lila Lovely - Part 51

As the pulsing ball of black ooze rose higher and higher the old woman rose in the air after it. Lila unsheathed her nails and they raked down the old crone laying open her flesh. Lila’s black death fused the two for a moment. Lila arched in agony and collapsed as the old woman burst into flame and then disappeared. The pulsating ball floated down, down, down. It flashed red, then orange, then cool blue and the old woman, not her doppelganger, stood before them. She reached out and supported Lila as the younger woman sank to her knees.

Lila Lovely - Part 52

The Old Woman cradled Lila in her arms. Olivia caressed her cheek. “The soul of an angel I said.” The Old Woman nodded, “Yes, Olivia, you did say that, an avenging angel.” Lila choked out the words, “It… took… my… heart… pain…” The Old Woman soothed her. “No, little one, I did, but only half. The other half is here.” She pressed Lila’s hand to her own chest.

Lila Lovely - Part 53

The Dead Man half dragged her, half walked her into the hills. Daddy was waiting. Silent, tall, thin, next to the rusted old Volvo. The Dead Man nodded at Daddy, lifted Lila into his waiting arms, and walked away. “Let’s take you home,” Daddy said to Lila. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. As the car drove away The Dead Man turned to watch them leave; his blue eyes flickered brightly.

end

Lila Lovely is Hungry (5)

Lila Lovely - Part 30

 At the killing field Lila faced the Dead Man. He shook his head. “It wasn’t her. It really wasn’t her. She’s innocent, I swear it!” Lila stepped toward him, “I felt it. All of it, the hate the fear, the death.” The Dead Man backed away, stumbled and fell. Lila was on him. “There was one bloody body. Who was it?”

Lila Lovely - Part 31

The Dead Man writhed under Lila’s weight. With ever twist she willed herself heavier. Her mouth was against his ear. Her whisper a rasp. “Who was the bloody body?” “Me,” he answered.

Lila Lovely - Part 32

Lila threw herself off The Dead Man. She drove her fingers into the ground and howled in frustration. She turned to face him, shuddering in rage. “I… Fed… From…You.” The Dead Man shook his head. “My doppelganger.” Lila was gasping for breath. “Not me,” he said, “but a part of me.” “I know what the hell a doppelganger is!” she screamed. When she stopped screaming his empty eye sockets turned to her. “You didn’t kill an innocent.”

Lila Lovely - Part 33

Olivia stood quietly in the corner, shivering. The old woman stood still in the middle of the kitchen while Lila circled her. Lila grabbed her arm. Golden flecks, then globules skipped from her hands onto the woman’s skin. Lila stepped back, then closer to breathe into the old woman’s ear. “Who was that woman in the white house?” Golden breath brushed the woman’s grey hair. “My doppelganger.” Lila slammed herself back against the wall. Flung herself at the woman. Stopped. Raised her hand to strike. Fled out the window.

Lila Lovely - Part 34

Olivia took Lila’s hand. “You shouldn’t be out here.” Lila tried to pull away but Olivia’s grip was strong. “I tried to stop it. I did.” Lila’s breath shuddered as she let it out. “How could you stop it?” Olivia’s smile was sad. “I wasn’t always blind.” “She turned into nothing in my hand,” Lila said. “Which means she’s still out there. You have to kill her.” Lila yanked her hand away finally. “How!” “You’ll know.”

Lila Lovely - Part 35

Lila paced through the killing field. The Dead Man’s head turned to watch with empty eyes. “How did you die?” she asked. The wind wrapped and wrapped her words around him. “Badly,” he replied. “I tried to stop them drinking the poison. But she stopped me.” Lila kicked a rock, overturning it. Dead maggots disappeared in little puffs of smoke.

Lila Lovely - Part 36

“Why did they drink it?” She was crouched in front of him now. He sighed, “because of a promise.” She sneered “Oh not some religious crap,” she said. He shook his head. “Immortality. She promised them immortality.”

Lila Lovely - Part 37

She kicked over another rock. More dead maggots. More puffs of disappearing smoke. “Immortality.” She ran the word over in her mind. “Not hers to give,” she muttered. The Dead man didn’t look her way. “Not hers to give!” she repeated. “Not,” kick, “hers,” kick, “to”, kick, “GIVE!” She slammed the last rock in her path and grabbed the maggot before it could disappear.

Lila Lovely - Part 38

She looked first at the writhing maggot, then at The Dead Man. She held it out to him. “Where’s the old woman’s doppelganger?” He turned away from her. “I can put this in your eye socket.” He shuddered. “In the basement at the house.” She looked at the maggot and replaced it under the rock. “Better with butter,” she said.

Lila Lovely - Part 39
It took Lila one jump from the top of the stairs to land in a crouch at the bottom. Nails unsheathed, all senses at full. She slowly turned her head to smile into the corner behind the dryer. “Come out, come out, wherever you are… you bitch.”

Lila Lovely - Part 40

Lila slid across the room: The old woman’s doppleganger flowed past her, then tried to flow through her, but couldn’t. The doppleganger stumbled backward. The attempt cost her an arm. The black ooze from Lila’s hand covered it, disintegrated it. Lila howled in delight. And disappeared.

Lila Lovely - Part 41

The doppelganger cast around for Lila. Tried to sense her, smell her, feel her. Nothing. “I know what you are!” she screamed. “You can’t just disappear! It’s not possible.” “You know nothing about me,” Lila whispered in her ear. She gently caressed a nail across the doppelganger’s throat. “You pollute the world.” She said. “I hate polluters.”

Lila Lovely - Part 42

The kitchen door opened. “NO!” Lila yelled. The doppelganger swirled upward. A scream from the old woman told Lila all she needed. They had merged. The only way to kill the doppelganger was to kill the old woman.

Lila Lovely - Part 43

The old woman leaned against the kitchen wall, gasping for breath. She held out her arm. The other hung, dead, at her side. “Don’t… come… leave…us.” Lila moved between the old woman and Olivia. “I protected you!” “Too late. Too late.” The old woman stumbled and fell.

Lila Lovely - Part 44

Lila dragged Olivia out of the house. The Dead Man was at the bottom of the porch steps. She threw the blind girl into his arms. “Keep her here.” “Wait!” He held out his hand and opened it. The corners of her lip lifted ever so slightly. “Ahhh. Of course.”

Lila Lovely - Part 45

The doppelganger was trying to leave the old woman’s body when Lila returned. There was plenty of strength in the old woman and it wasn’t happening. “Stuck?” Lila asked. She unsheathed her nails as she sat at the kitchen table. Then slowly licked each one in anticipation. “Kill me and the old woman dies.” the words hissed through the air.

Lila Lovely - Part 46

“Lookee what mama’s got,” Lila said, holding out her hand. The fat little maggot that hadn’t turned to a puff of ashes wriggled in her hand. “Open wide, old woman.”

Lila Lovely - Part 47

Olivia was screaming outside. The old woman was grasping for the maggot. The doppelganger flailed about flinging the old woman’s body against the walls, across the floor, up to the ceiling. The little maggot grew in Lila’s hand. Lila waited. One more fling across the room, and she grabbed the old woman, shoving the maggot into her mouth and holding it shut until she struggled no more.

Lila Lovely - Part 48

Lila stepped back from the old woman’s body. It twisted, convulsed, shuddered. From it’s mouth a black ooze burst, then pulsed, then trickled. It moved toward Lila, reached out for her foot. She moved an inch. It tried again, she moved again. “I like games,” she said as she moved again. In the corner of her eye she saw the old woman sit up and then stand.

Lila Lovely - Part 49

The Dead Man entered the kitchen. And stopped. Olivia tried to move past him. He stopped her. The black ooze contracted in on itself until it formed a small pulsating ball. The old woman smiled and reached for it.

Lila Lovely is Hungry (3)

The next 8 parts:

Lila Lovely - Part 17

The woman slid into the booth to look across the table at her. She reached out, taking Lila’s hand in hers. This was too easy. Lila could barely keep the gleam out of her eyes. The blackness slid under the cuff of the woman’s blouse. “The old woman and the blind girl; they killed those people,” the woman said. “We’re going to try and get them to leave town tonight.”

Lila Lovely - Part 18

At the door of the old gray house Lila licked her fingertips. The woman did taste good; just that little bit of her that she’d managed to get. All those curves, burned to a crisp before morning. Lila sighed. She hadn’t touched the man’s flesh, but the blackness would find it’s way through his clothing. He’d die a little later, and quite nastily. Before she could knock the door opened. “Lila?” Olivia asked. “Yes?” “They’re going to kill us, aren’t they?”

Lila Lovely - Part 19

Lila waited, perched on top of the roof, hidden in the shadows of the chimney. People were coming. Quietly. A cancerous mass spreading toward the house. The Dead Man crawled up the shingles to her. “Go away,” she growled. “You need help,” he answered. “No I don’t. They do. They will.” She flung herself forward, plunged to the ground and unsheathed her nails to talon length. She crouched there a malevolent gargoyle, blackness dripping from her bared teeth. Behind her she heard the thud of the Dead Man as he joined her.

Lila Lovely - Part 20

Like the avenging angel Olivia had called her Lila slashed her way through the crowd, spewing black death from her fingertips with every turn. The Dead Man lumbered after her. He was starting to fail, but whatever it was keeping him going wouldn’t stop until his job was done. They disappeared into the shadows and watched the crowd crawl away from the house.

Lila Lovely - Part 21

Lila cat crawled cautiously over the killing field surrounding the house. Olivia and the old woman were on the porch, the Dead Man crouched out of sight next to it. Olivia held her hand to the side. She could feel his presence. Lila drew deep breaths of the fear clinging to the trampled grass and shuddered in pleasure. The house would never be attacked again. And many of the attackers would not make it back to their own houses.

Lila Lovely - Part 22

In the kitchen the old woman studied Lila. “How many?” she asked. Lila shrugged. “As many as it takes.” the old woman nodded. “He ain’t going away, is he?” Again Lila shrugged. “I don’t know him.” “Why are you here?” The old woman grabbed her hand. Nothing happened. She was already protected. She felt where Lila’s nails were sheathed. Once more she asked, “Why are you here?” Lila gave a barren little smile. “Because some people need to die.”

Lila Lovely - Part 23

Lila moved through the town. Opened curtains closed quickly. She could pick the houses with a dying person in it. But what she wanted was the house with the most life. that was the house that dealt out unwarranted death and that was the house she would take down. Someone leapt out the night at her, but the Dead Man took him down. She stopped, a pencil thin shadow within another shadow. Without a word the Dead Man followed her out of town.

Lila Lovely -Part 24

They sat side-by-side, the Dead Man and Lila. They didn’t feel the cold rock under them, nor the fog around them. They couldn’t see the ten vials spread out on the ground in front of them, but they knew they were there. Lila reached down, picked up a vial and ran a finger around the inside rim. She started to lick the finger. The Dead Man’s hand shot out to stop her. “It won’t affect me,” she said. “You?” “Not any more.”

Lila Lovely, Sipper of Souls

With all the projects I’ve got going I need another one about as much as I need to be carted off to a beach in Hawaii (if you knew me well you’d know I consider tropical type beach vacations to be just this side of a trip to hell, I’m a Cotswolds type of gal.)

But, needing new projects or not, I DO need something to mentally “get me away from it all” occasionally.

Lila Lovely to the rescue. 

You see, I’ve had the beginning to a story rattling around in my brain for quite some time. Not much of a beginning, just a few lines: “Lila strolled into Ellistown at 7:00 p.m. on a dismal Friday night. By the time she left Sunday morning 10 people were annihilated, the church razed and the jail burned.”

So, just for kicks I posted the above on my Facebook page and got… no response. No biggee, but what did happen was, the next portion of the story popped up in my brain also and wouldn’t go away. So I posted that, and then the next and the next and, well, now I’m up to Part 18 of Lila Lovely, Sipper of Souls.

It’s a little bit of an experiment. I love, let me rephrase that, I LOVE writing Flash Fiction. I love working in Audio Drama because you really cut down to the barest minimum of the flesh of a story and, beyond that, writing for Graphic Novels is next to Nirvana, I’m finding out.

So this little experiment is to write a complete story in dribs and drabs, and leave the job of fleshing it out to the reader. I’m not describing my lead character. As a matter of fact, I’ve got a line that says she won’t be recognized “in this form”. Another character is suffering because he touched Lila and he shouldn’t do that because that’s her job. But you don’t know how he touched her. Was it a slap, was it something worse, something milder? 

I know the ending, but I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I just write a little passage, anything from two longer lines to maybe four short lines. I end each passage with “Tune in later…” and then a few hours later, I put up another part.

I’ve only received one comment so far, and it was “Okay, I’m hooked, where’s part 17?” I figure no one is objecting so… I’m going to keep it up until the story is over.

But so far, it’s rather fun. And challenging. I never know really what I’m going to write. Some of it I write right on the spot, some of it I write ahead of time and then actually do go in and edit, a little. Now suddenly there’s a little girl with a blue dress. Don’t know anything about her yet except that she’s dead.

A tangent that shouldn’t be there? I don’t think so. This seems to be pretty darned straightforward. But, I’ll just have to wait and see, won’t I?

I must say though, I do like this leaving it up to the individual to fill in the blanks. From a writer’s standpoint, it’s pretty exciting. Why? Because it means I have to give the most information in the least amount of words and the reader will (I so dearly hope) fill in the blanks almost 95% exactly how I want them filled in. And for those who don’t, I love it. 

After all, if you’ve ever read “The Lady or the Tiger” what more could an author ask for?

sj