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Saint Forum-Blogger© Pioneer100© Member  Polymath
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I have an idea for the ending, but I need input. How would you end this story? Clouded Emotion By Jon St. Ives The invasion was in its fifth year as Tim Boone sat reading a letter in the living room. He stood a massive six foot, six inches and was broad shouldered, square-jawed, and wore a somewhat intimidating look most of the time. Despite his appearance, Tim was a gentleman; a schoolteacher by trade. He had lived an active life in his youth, some might even say adventurous, but now with his reading glasses pushed forward on his nose and his blonde hair hanging down to his white, bushy eyebrows, you'd be hard-pressed to imagine him as a young mercenary. He read the letter he had in his hand again, and then sighed softly. He folded it carefully and replaced it lovingly into the envelope before replacing it in his jacket pocket. He picked up a steaming cup of tea, pushed his glasses up onto his head and leaned back into the overstuffed chair. He had a decision to make, and as he sat and pondered the future he reminisced about the past and the horrible changes the world had gone through in the last five years. That was when mankind had realized that not only was they not alone in the Universe, but that company had already arrived. Worst of all, they had arrived at dinnertime and had arrived hungry. At first, no one noticed the Earth had been invaded at all. There had been upheavals and breakdowns of societies throughout mankind's history. An increase in these kinds of things was not too odd and when some put forth theories, they weren't taken seriously even when traditionally stable countries began to suffer turmoil. Most people just put the strange and powerful emotions they were feeling down to the stress of living in a modern world. It didn't help matters that the aliens themselves were almost invisible under most atmospheric conditions and wavelengths of visible light. They had been born in the depths of a particularly dense nebula and were almost intangible clouds of patterned electrical charges, subatomic particles, and ions. They had existed on the charges within those clouds but had adapted over the millennia and now could draw energy from almost any source within the right frequencies. It had been only natural that they had, over the millenia, developed into travelers and wanderers with an intense curiosity and a love of exploration. Movement in the core of the galaxy had been easy for them as they slipped and glided through the dense matter clouds at trans-light speeds. But movement in the empty spaces of the outer spirals was much more difficult, requiring huge losses of energy and the necessity of occasional stops in convenient solar systems for recharging. Earth was their most recent rest area. The Thorn were ravenous after their long journey, and they found the biochemical energy produced by human emotion both satisfying and delicious. After they had been discovered, a reporter had called them a “Thorn in the side of humanity,” and the name had stuck. To Tim, the Thorn looked nothing more than a fog bank; thin, hazy and mostly transparent. They looked like a part of the weather, natural and harmless. “Harmless,” he thought, “until you walk into one!” When Tim had first encountered a Thorn, he had known they existed. He had been reading about them and it seemed that they were all that was on the news. But he still had not been expecting the deep impact of the true experience. He had been walking across the high school football field on the way home when it happened. He had been feeling pretty good that day, no aches or pains and plenty of good sleep the night before. He hadn't been thinking of anything in particular, just whistling a tune and walking along. Then he began to feel bad; nothing much at first, just a vague feeling of isolation. “No one really understands me,” he thought to himself, “not really, not deep down. They just patronize me and say what I want to hear.” As he walked further he began to brood. “To hell with them all,” he thought, “I don't need any of them, not even Maryann. She just married me for the stability.” The sense of loneliness began to increase as he crossed to the middle of the field. “As a matter of fact, no one had ever loved me! My parents neglected me and they hated me from the start! I'm glad they're dead! It serves them right!” Suddenly, a wave of devastating loss washed over him. He was unloved and unwanted. He was a worthless human being. Not only should he never have been born, he should kill himself right away! But as he staggered forward gripped in fear and pain, he began to feel a little better. The pall began to lift. He thought, “Well, I guess it's really not as bad as I think it is.” When he reached the end of the field, he blinked. The feelings of depression and loneliness had evaporated. He took a deep breath and his whole body relaxed. He felt completely relieved! “What the heck happened to me?” he wondered. He paused and then it came to him, he had walked through a Thorn! He looked back to the football field and as he squinted at it, he thought he could see a vague outline of cloud drifting off the field to the north. It had been devastating! He didn't know a person could feel such strong emotion right out of the blue! No wonder some people were going on killing sprees or jumping from the roofs of buildings! It was like being under mind control! And no wonder whole governments had collapsed because of the Thorn. It would be impossible to do anything meaningful while inside a Thorn! As Tim sat thinking of the past, He remembered that at first, the Thorn had been spread thinly across the planet, but as they migrated to and concentrated around the population centers, everyday life began to become extremely complicated and occasionally impossible. There was no way to know when a task might be interrupted or even canceled due to a debilitating attack of the Thorn. Aircraft and people driving cars were particularly susceptible and most aircraft were grounded now, except for military and emergency planes. Traffic proved to be the biggest problem. People still had to get to work and goods had to be delivered. Yet, despite an ever-vigilant system of cameras and people, pile-ups happened at regular intervals. “These days,” thought Tim, “driving a car was taking your life into your own hands. But then, it had always been so, just not to such a great extent!” Putting down his tea, Tim got up. He took a deep breath and made his decision. Now all he had to do was get across town alive. He made his decision. Tim stood up and set down his tea. He went to the phone an dialed for one of the few remaining cab services. When the cab arrived, he walked out the battered vehicle. Apparently it had been damaged recently, the front end was smashed and the headlights had not been replaced. The cab driver was a stocky man with frazzled hair and slouched shoulders. “Where to?” he asked tersely. “3813 Eaker Street,” Tim replied absently. He sat back in the seat thinking grimly of the day a Thorn had ruined all his happiness. It had been an absolutely beautiful day in May when he had last seen Maryann. They had been engaged to be married in June and were sharing a duplex near the college. Maryann was taking law classes and Tim was almost to graduate with his teaching degree. Like all young lovers, they thought that nothing could come between them that could ever shatter their love for each other. “How naive we were then,” thought Tim morosely. Then came the day that a Thorn drifted through their neighborhood. Tim thought idly that if it had been any other kind of Thorn than the one it was, their relationship would probably have been strong enough to survive. A Hate Thorn or a Sorrow Thorn would have done far less damage. They might even have bested a Fear or Confusion Thorn. “We would have welcomed with open arms a Joy or Love Thorn!” he thought. But that wasn’t the Thorn that had destroyed his neighborhood. It had been a Lust Thorn. He remembered that he had been speaking to Maryann in the kitchen. It was a bright, sunny morning. The smell of eggs, bacon and toast was in the air. Maryann was smiling as they discussed plans for a trip to the mountains that weekend. Suddenly the world ran red before his eyes. He felt an insane need to ravage every female nearby, starting with Maryann. He attacked her with a brutal force, crushing her body. He wanted to possess her! Much, much, later, he realized that he was lying naked on the ground in a pile of his friends and neighbors. As his senses returned to him, he realized that they were all lying in the graveyard that bordered the neighborhood. He felt an overwhelming sense of revulsion. “What have I done?” he thought as he waited for the fogginess to clear from his mind. He extricated himself and stood up, self-consciously covering himself with a shirt that had been lying nearby, draped over a tombstone. He glanced around seeing other piles of naked people, some that he knew and others that he did not. Then, with a crushing shock to his sense that let all the air out of his lungs, he saw Maryann crawling out from another pile, hair disheveled and smeared with dirt. She looked up and saw him watching her and with a look of shame, she covered her face with her hands and ran away towards the house. It had taken quite a while to be able to talk without one or the other of them getting choked up or busting into tears, but later that night they sat down and tried to console each other. They had both agreed that there was nothing to be ashamed of, that their behavior had been forced and not of their own volition. But deep down there was the unspoken secret that they each feared so much. That, not only were they afraid that the other one had liked it, but that they might have liked it too. That was too much strain for a polite couple to allow.... (To be continued) Copyright 2008 by Jonathan St. Ives
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Kimber767 Original500© Member  Ask me about Self Advocacy
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Sounds good to me.
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Amy Original500© Member  ...going with the flow...
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Good title! and good story too...i'll have to think about it for awhile and i'll let you know if i have any ideas... how much longer are you wanting it to be?
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