I had this novel I have been writing for a long ass time called The Great American Snuff Film. It's gone through several drafts. Same for another novella called Elsa Rookwater is Fucking Dead.
This story is told out of order, from many perspectives. These perspectives-include a third person narrator, Adina's boyfriend, and Marty's cousin Elsa. Here is the first chapter:
THE RAIN STARTED ABRUPTLY and stopped just so periodically throughout the day that you would think that global climate change has just come to a head. A short dark haired girl stares out into the swirls of mist and leaves, blankly smoking a cigarette while rolling a pencil between fingertips. The rain started to let up and she took out a small green pad. Although the porch was screened in, gusts of wind it still brought in unwanted mist. She wrote several words on the pad and put it back into the pocket of her worn black hoodie.
She could see a patch of sun in the distance, just close enough to be obvious but not close enough to harbor false hopes of sunshine. She bent down and pushed her cigarette butt between the planks as a balding man in his late thirties walks out the door and onto the porch.
“Your mother called.” The girl nodded and lit another cigarette. She didn't turn around to face him. He used the glass door to shield himself from the gusts of wind and water.
“I know. She called my cell ten minutes ago.” The man took a bent cigarette out of a crumpled pack and turned around to light it.
“Why don't you want to talk to her?” The girl is silent. She takes a long drag and a pillar of ash falls. The wind blows. A branch falls.
“I don't know what to say.” The man laughs and turns to face her.
“Adina...” She took another drag and leaned on the driest part of the wall, drumming her fingertips on her knees.
“Don't start with the she's not gonna jump down my throat, I know she is. I just don't know what to say for myself.” Adina Took another drag off her unlit cigarette and stares at it in bewilderment. She lights it again and puts it out again.
“Don't worry, it's not like she had to pay the fine. She just wants to speak with you. “ The man walked towards the screened in windows. And sighs. “You know, she just wants to know that your okay.” Adina laughs and bites her thumbnail, eying the skies wearily.
“I still can't talk to her.” She spit out a bit of nail and examined her hand from far away. “To hell with it.” She pushed and imaginary obstacle away from her.
“Your not making any sense.” The man shakes his head.
“No, not really, not at all. I know this.” Adina looks to the ground
“So, you're going to call your mom?”
“No, I'm too embarrassed.” She says with a laugh,
“Why?” He replies.
“Because I just do, I don't know why, I just feel embarrassed as hell, I mean, I don't know why, I just do.” She takes a drag and sits down on the ground.
“Just try.” The man said and opens the storm door.
“Just give me a bit, jeez keep your pants on.” Adina takes out her phone and aimlessly scrolls through menus.
“Why not now, I know your playing Tetris.-” He replies, closing the door again.
“Because your ass is out here hounding me.” She cuts in.
“Fine, I'll go make us some coffee.” He throws up his hands and walks partially in, with his head still out the door..
“Please do, I know I’m being an ass, I know.” She smiles.
“Oh, Marty called. Said something about a party tonight.” Another one? Jeez, ya just got out of jail, Adina thought to herself.
“Oh?” She takes a drag and raises an eyebrow.
“Yeah, call him, call your mom first.” He replies as he closes the door.
“Yeah, yeah.” Adina rolls her eyes.
The rained really started to pour as Adina swiftly stepped across the porch and into the marsh outside. The rain was flooding the basement again, the back yard slightly sloped back into a mess of bushes and trees. She stood in the rain until she was thoroughly soaked and walked back onto the porch. When she got there, she picked up her phone and dialed Marty.
“Hey Adina, tonight were gonna burn these sullen streets.” A gust of wind kicked more mist through the screens.
“Another party? Your in a festive mood.” A large crashing sound happened in the back ground.
“Yeah... I got a week off paid, I'm excited.” She replied. The wind howled. The sky darkened. The clock chimed.
“When can you be here?” She replied as she zipped up her hoodie and opened the screen door.
“Ten minutes. Are you still at your dads?” She heard a slamming sound in the background.
“Awesome. I'll see you then. Love you too.” She walked past the basement door and into a small yellow kitchen. The linoleum floor was peeling near the sink. A small table stacked with books and papers sits in the corner next to a broken rotary phone.
“So, did you call your mom?” Asked Adina's father, sitting in a chair with reading glasses perched on top of his head. He was smoking a pipe and reading a newspaper.
“No. Dad, your thirty eight. Why do you dress like Willy Loman?” She lit a cigarette and got a cup out of the cabinet.
“Good one. Seriously, she is not going to rip you a new asshole. Trust me.” He replied as he turned the page.
“Yeah yeah, I smell a trap. I broke the jaw of some prep school bitch at her own graduation. Of course she's going to rip me a new one, several, I'll just be covered in bloody assholes. She'll skull fuck me with her eye rays.” Adina stirred a small amount of sugar into her coffee and leaned against the counter.
“Adina honey, your mother is not going to skull fuck you.” He shook his head and puffed his pipe.
“Dad.” Adina's father looked up.
“Are you smoking weed?” the cigarette fell out of her mouth.
“Why not, your grown up now, your mom and I split, I don't feel any particular urge to drive in this heinous mess.” He puffed some more and continued reading his paper.
“Me and Marty are going to another party tonight at Alexander's.” He nodded.
“Take this, read it, absorb it's message and importance and for the love of god do not hospitalize and more prominent community members.” He handed her a copy of Franny and Zooey. “Call your mom tomorrow morning.” A horn honked outside. “Try to stay out of trouble.”
***
Adina runs from the tenth floor apartment with a thirty pack of some cheap beer and a plastic jug of Sterling Silver Vodka precariously balanced on top. People get shot for these kinds of things, she thought as she tried to remember the exact course of events. It started with the phone call. Marty called her about a frat party with a lot of alcohol and how their party had a lack of alcohol. Adina was a fan of alcohol, but not a very big fan of frat parties. She certainly wasn’t a fan of paying for alcohol either. The only option in her mind was to liberate this alcohol from the clutches of the frat boys. She was a modern goth robin hood, stealing booze from the rich so her and the assorted ragamuffins she associated herself with could have a good time.
First thing first was to get invited. Marty would have had a problem, as he wasn't exactly in good favor of the frat boys, due to an incident involving his Geo Metro and a Mustang. He would also waste twenty bucks, that wouldn't do. Adina would have to go alone. Getting invited to a frat party isn't hard for a girl, getting invited to a frat party when you're the psycho freak poster girl is only a little easier than Marty after the Geo/Mustang incident.
Adina was known for a lot of things in high school. The bombings and riots really didn't help either. She was labeled the Columbine chick. At least, for some strange reason, high school terrorist was higher up on the totem pole than Mustang murderer, but not by much. A disguise would be necessary. First, they stopped at the mall. Adina ran into the Hollister store and lifted a pair of faux-ripped jeans and a tight white Hollister shirt. Her eyes were a problem. Adina had one blue and one brown eye. Hot Topic didn't sell any normal eye colored contacts, Hot topic didn't sell any normal anything, unless you count Twilight shit, but Walgreen's did. After a blonde wig with her messy, choppy black hair tucked underneath, the illusion was complete.
“And your sure they won't recognize me?” says Adina, as she rolls a joint.
“Yeah, well, they'll probably already be drunk, no one would be paying attention anyway.” Marty replies.
“..I guess that helps...” said a sarcastic Adina, surveying her handy work.
“Seriously, nothing can possibly go wrong.”
“Even disguised, how the hell am I supposed to get invited right before the party? Dumb ass...” She shakes her head and lights up.
“I promise, nothing is going to happen, besides this is your idea anyway. Remember?”
***
“Well, Adina Dietrich.” Says some generic douche bag to a laden Adina in the smelly cigarette stained kitchen.
“Fuck.” The bottle on top of the beer almost falls.
“I'll let you keep that if you fuck me.”
“Okay. Let me have the good bottle too then.” She says, nodding her head at the gallon of Jager.
“Okay. Let's go.” Adina follows him to the bedroom and locked the door. Generic Douche starts to take of his shirt.
“Turn off the light.” Says Adina, as he falls into the table trying to get out of his shoes. He's out cold. Adina looks at the Jager she's grasping, thinking, Well, at least I don't have to use this. Generic Douche number two opens the door and closes it, not noticing her. Fuck.
“Hey.” He turns around. Adina smacks him in the head with the Jager. It doesn't break, he's standing, shaking ready to fall, a dark voice in her head says finish him. And she grabs his ankles . The floor cracked when he hit the ground, no doubt sending the ceiling of tenants below crashing to the ground. In one swift motion, she opens the door and picks up the booze. Dodging people out through the living room, her wig flies off and people stare.
“What the fuck are you looking at?” No one says anything, the Nickelback on the radio is even quiet for once. She quietly walks out, everyone staring at her and opens the door. “Toodles.” She says and slams the door. As soon as the door was closed Adina was running towards the stairs. She learned earlier that the elevator was out of service. Ten flights of hard concrete stair separated her from certain success with the mission. If only her parcel wasn't half her size. She shifts her weight so the bottle don't fall. When she get's down the first two flights, she takes a breather. If only life had save points. She thought.
She hears loud shouting coming from the top of the stairs and spies legs coming down through the utilitarian handrail. She ducks into a closet as the footsteps pass.
“Where the fuck did the little bitch go?” Random guy number one says..
“She couldn’t have gone down all ten flights.” The other replies
“What about the elevator?” The first says again.
“The elevator’s broken. It’s been broken for months.” They stop outside Adina closet to take a breath. “Good thing Gillman’s so fucking cheap, otherwise she might have gotten away.” Adina locks the door as the guys outside split up. She lights her lighter and looks for an air duct to escape into like in the movies. She sees one and jumps to grab the cover off. Damn, I’m too short, she thought, as she scan the small dank closet for a chair to stand on. HA! She said out loud as she finds a folded, rusty step stool. She opens it, sets it under the air duct and tries to rip off the cover again. Problem number one: It’s screwed on. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a switchblade. Be prepared, she thought, mentally making fun of Marty for being a boyscout. She unscrews the vent and realizes problem number two: How am I going to get up there with all this alcohol? She hears voices coming back towards the closet.
“She couldn’t have gotten out of the building. No one on the first floor has seen her.” The guard’s been there for an hour.” Adina says a silent ‘shit’ as she realizes she can’t get out the front door. She puts the bottles in the vent first and then climbs up. The vent is dark and hot, but Adina has more important things to do, like escaping without getting caught or killed. As she furthers her depths into the air duct she feels it start to give. Each foot she squirmed, pushing the alcohol ahead with her head made the duct heave and cry. With a not so silent 'shit!' the vent finally collapses. The men look up to see Adina in all her dust covered glory fall from the ceiling. The Jager bottle breaks over the first mans head and half the beers break open Adina brandishes her knife at the not bleeding man and turn to run, the beer, a geyser coating her in a sticky smell akin to fat bald guys at concerts. The Sterling jug Is undamaged. She picks it up and slowly backs away from the guy who wasn't bleeding and unconscious, he doesn't even
bother to chase her. In the twenty minutes he knew of her existence, half the party had been injured.
Adina walks down the remaining six flights covered in beer and exhausted Bad fucking idea. Horrible idea. Shit. Adina thinks as she walks past the sleeping guard into the night. She pulls waits, prizes in her hands a car door opens and she sees Marty.
“How'd it go?” He says, already knowing due to her filth and the damaged plunder.
“Drive.” Adina replied, clearly not in the mood to talk. “You know, people really do get shot for these kinds of things...” She mumbles to herself as they drive away.
To Be Continued...
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