NaNoWriMo 2012

Hey, is anyone participating in NaNoWriMo this year? November is National Novel Writing Month! Go to http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/dashboard for more information!

This is my first time trying it, and I doubt I'll be able to get 50,000 words. D: It's a lot if you put it into perspective. :( But I will still try, and next year will be better! :) So far, I have 0 words because I'm stuck on the end of my outline.

Good luck if you're participating!
~N

Quiet

The park was quiet, deathly quiet.

                  Even as I walked down the path, watching children playing games and running around, chasing each other, I heard no noise.

                  A man was walking toward me with a dog’s leash tightly clutched in one hand. The dog was lunging ravenously at a squirrel climbing a nearby tree. The man struggled to contain the dog without being pulled away at the same time. But the dog made no noise. And the man made no noise, and the children made no noise.

                  A small girl with her mother walked in front of me from behind before the small child stumbled on a tree root and fell onto the pavement, face first. Her mother ran to her while the girl screamed noiselessly, her mother coaxing her with words I couldn’t hear, her hand fussing over her child, not knowing what to do.

                  “Are you alright?” I said as I walked past. But my words made no sound. And still, the mother turned to me, panic in her eyes, and tried to say something back, but I heard nothing. Then she was calling to someone, yelling something I couldn’t hear.

                  But immediately, other people flocked toward the woman, reaching forward and trying to help the little girl. I backed away, surrounded by the silence that others weren’t living with.

                  I moved on, shoving my hands in my pockets and shuffling along and alone, with no company but the silence.

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A/N: This is about a girl who is deaf. Thanks for reading and please comment!

-N

Hard

The soldiers flooded the streets, weapons in their hands and camouflage covering their bodies as they invaded the town.

                  They began breaking into people’s houses, banging down doors and rushing inside, pulling out people I knew, kicking and screaming. Let me go! my neighbor had demanded as she was pulled out of her home fiercely. What do you think you’re doing?

                  My mother came close to me, pulling me in, and closed the curtains to the windows. “Don’t look outside, baby,” she said to me, “don’t look out there.”

                  But she was too late. Because then soldiers were pounding on the door, demanding we open up. My mother’s arms stiffened around me, her embrace tightening. Maybe she would have gotten up; maybe she would have answered the door for them. But she didn’t get the chance, because then they were shooting our front door off its hinges. It flew inward, just like that, and slammed into the mirror, shattering it.

                  My mother opened a closet close by and shoved me inside, closing the door quickly. Surrounded by darkness, I was confused. What is happening? Why are there strange men in our house?

                  I would never forget the next thing I heard. Screaming, horrible shrieks, coming from my mother.

                  I threw open the closet, searching for her, not bearing the terrible noise.

                  But they were already gone. The soldiers, my mother, everyone.

                  I rushed outside the open door, looking for her. But all I saw was a sea, a mob, of foreign soldiers taking people from their houses and moving on to the next, always the next.

                  “Mom!” I called into the sea, but no one heard me.

                  I rushed into the crowd, desperate for my mother and her smile. But the soldiers overwhelmed me, and I was immediately caught up in their feet, tripping them and listening to their cusses from up above as they looked down at the little girl messing up their job.

                  Then, all of a sudden, there was a disturbance in the crowd and different feet rushed onto the streets. Tan boots, instead of this dirty black. They came in with a sense of purpose, a sense of justice, a stride that meant, you will not take my people.

                  A pair of tan boots approached me, racing forward to get to me. And then I was scooped into a pair of arms.

                  The person carrying me grunted as they were mowed into by the other soldiers. But soon we were able to clear a path, and then I was placed on my feet back on my doorstep.

                  A woman in a camouflage uniform was looking at me with stern eyes that had seen so much.

                  I didn’t think before I told her, “I can’t find my mommy.” I burst into tears.

                  The woman put a hand on my shoulder. Her gentleness surprised me when her eyes looked so hard. “Little girl,” she said, looking me in the eye, “are you okay?”

                  I sniffled, telling myself I couldn’t cry in front of someone so official. I nodded.

                  She gave me an abrupt nod as well. “Let’s get you somewhere safe,” she said. Then she scooped me up in her arms again and we were weaving through the crowds, shoving our way through against the opposing force, paving a path through the enemy.

                  I wrapped my arms around the woman’s neck, my face still streaked with tears. And when I looked up to her face, she still wore that same cold, hard, fearless expression, just this time something shone in her eye before sliding down her cheek and onto the pavement where it was crushed by a soldier’s black boot.

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A/N: sorry about the spacing issues and the indenting and stuff. So it's late and it's a school night, but I just had to finish this and post it. :) So I hope you liked it. I loved this, a lot, and it almost made me cry. But I hope you liked it as much as I did! :)))) I thought of this because of an add I saw on some website - a soldier holding a crying girl. Ahh, inspiration is everywhere. But the song inspiration was "One Day" by Hans Zimmer.

~N