Assignment #2

I'm not sure I actually followed the assignment rules, here, but let's just say I tried to. Dear Peej shared this assignment with me (his was awesome!), and I decided, in the spirit of education, to give it a try. I guess it's been more than ten years since I actually had to DO an assignment. I miss them.

This is part of a scene (chapter) in one of the novels I'm writing. So if it begs questions, it should. :)

In 500 words, write a mini portrait of a character, in either past or
present tense. In this story, note, there needn’t be any significant plot;
concentrate instead on describing both character and place, and on conveying
a particular mood – and state this mood as the title of your story. (For
example: Happiness: Jane had short red hair and …)


Anxiety

I’ve seen this place before, David thought. It seemed eerily familiar to him, yet also, very new for some reason. He looked around, and saw that he was alone. He heard the rush of people, though, as if he were standing in the middle of a rushing crowd. If he really concentrated, he felt like he might almost feel them, brushing against him carelessly while he stood there like a statue, afraid that if he moved in either direction, he’d be trampled. He knew he had to move soon, or he’d get that familiar tightness in his chest.

David made a quick dash for the wall, where he felt he was more inconspicuous. Wait a minute! Why am I worrying about being seen? There’s no one here except me. He felt the sweat trickling down his neck. This whole scene was making him nervous. His entire experience in this town had been odd, from the start. And he desperately wanted to know where Diana was. As he focused for a minute, he recognized that he was in a hallway of some sort, long and white, and immaculate. Great, another hospital!

“I got the point the first time! There’s no need to keep on with this! Catherine!”

David was angry as he yelled it, but he knew it would do no good.

He saw two swinging doors a few feet away. Maybe this was the way out. As he entered the doors, which led to the next hallway, he found himself in complete darkness. He turned to go back to the light, but felt a solid wall behind him, where the doors had just been. He couldn’t see anything, not even his own hands in front of him. He cautiously put his hands out to try to feel around. He walked slowly, and felt that trickle again. The only sound was his own erratic breathing, which he tried in vain to control. He tried to breathe slowly. For a few breaths, it worked.

Under his right hand he felt a smooth, metal table. He reached out with his left hand and hit another wall. As he ran his hand down the wall, he felt more smooth metal. And then he felt handles. It felt as if something was in metal drawers. But this was no file cabinet. It felt more like….drawers wide enough for a human body. David started to feel queasy. He could have gone anywhere in the hospital, anyplace at all, and he could have stood it. The operating room. The ER. But not the morgue. He never went there when it happened, and he had no intention of staying there this time.

He wiped away the sweat that seemed to be pouring down his neck. He noticed it was now trickling down his forehead. As he wiped the latest bit off of his head, a light flickered on. When he focused in front of himself, he saw that one of the drawers was pulled out. But it wasn’t his brother that he saw lying on the cold metal. As he walked over to the drawer for a closer look, he forgot his fear. He wiped his forehead and held his hand in front of his eyes. There was crimson there, not sweat. He had been bleeding from someplace in his head. He didn’t feel ill, other than the queasy stomach, which he’d brushed off as memory. When he looked again at the body on the table, he saw his own reflection, white and lifeless, with a massive wound to the head.

(© Marty Mitchell)

(590 words. I do not know how to be brief! Too much story to tell!)

Peej says I get 10% off for every word over 500, so I got like, a 10 on that assignment! haha)