Lights flashed across the dark ceiling and with a sickening lurch Eve realized that she was no longer dreaming. Someone was screaming - screaming horribly out in the darkness - and torch beams were piercing her blinds.
In a moment she was fully awake, desperately scrabbling for her glasses, blinking wildly as she realized Ravenna was gone - had she even come back to their room at all? A million crazy ideas rushed through her mind, but the sum of her worrying was that she couldn’t just sit-tight and do nothing. With a pounding heart she began struggling into her outdoor clothes.
The lights were on in the main room, but it was deserted. A cup of steaming coffee lay abandoned by one of the work stations. Papers lay half-read and vodka glasses untouched. What the hell was going on?
Cramming on her hat and gloves she pulled up her hood, bracing herself for what she would find outside. Darkness engulfed her. Cold and darkness. Weird lights seemed to flash overhead – the wild arc of torchlight? She could hear people running. Muffled shouts. A sharp crack way off through the trees - a gunshot?
She hesitated for a moment, glancing back to the fizzing lights of the building, then stealing herself jogged out into the darkness, following the sound of anxious voices. It was painfully cold, her breath misting eerily in the fierce glow of the compound’s lights. Where was everyone – and why hadn’t Ravenna come back? She could hear someone yelling again. A man: screaming in agony. She felt her breath begin to come in ragged gasps, her mind racing back to the scratches on the truck door. What on earth had inflicted that kind of damage?
The crunching of the snow beneath her boots seemed unnaturally loud as she rounded the corner of the building, all the while wary of the dark woods to her left. Tall larches cast jagged shadows in the halogen light of the goods yard - every footprint and tire track picked out in crisp detail. She hurried on, shying away from the dark doorways of the sheds - but as the buildings enclosed her something shot unexpectedly across the brightly lit snow. Her heart skipped. One of the herder’s dogs? Fighting the urge to turn back she quickened her pace, keeping wide of the shadows - just her imagination playing tricks.
Then the lights went out.
Eve Wells takes the lead role in my unpublished novel Dinosaur Girl, a time travelling adventure which ranges from the Eocene epoch via modern day Siberia to China 125 million years ago.
Cool picture too. It looks cold there.
Coolness spreads from the moment you start reading. You can feel the coldness as you read. This is eerily descriptive of some time, but when? I’m immediately transported to this world where Eve finds herself. The characters you describe are well rounded, juggling a huge amount in their short descriptions and oozing Cool.
You describe your worlds with great accuracy and an amazing amount of detail in very few words. I do not know where Eve is in ‘Waking Dream’ but it sounds like adventure and danger are the order of the day. Cool!