A woman caught between two worlds (human and wolf) finds she can give neither her full attention. [32 min]
Excerpt:
“We’ve got to talk.”
Gerald’s words held an ominous chill. Rachel glanced up at him as they walked. His eyes seemed cold and distant as the San Francisco mist. Here it comes, she thought. She’d seen it coming, but felt no better for the knowledge.
He quietly refused to meet her gaze, but looked off into the fog. The sheen on his face reflected the orange glow of streetlights. Up above, a slice of moon glowed fuzzy in the sky. Finally, he spoke. “I think that it may… we might… maybe we shouldn’t see each other like this anymore.”
A blow prepared for hurts just the same. Rachel swallowed. For a long time she said nothing, just felt the damp sand shift beneath her feet.
They walked in silence for a time before she answered. “Just like that?” The words grated in her throat like glass. Gerald nodded. He had no answer. Rachel hadn’t expected him to. “Well, this certainly comes out of nowhere,” she said, but she was lying. She thought she knew exactly where it had come from.
There’s something comforting about the monsters of category horror. Vampires, werewolves, zombies and ghouls - we’ve seen them all so many times that they’re familiar. We know how they act; we know how they work. (Doubt it? Just say the word “sparkle” to a serious fan of vampire fiction and see how they react. Odds are good you’ll get an enraged “Vampires aren’t LIKE that!”) They’re shorthand to a certain set of storytelling conventions and rules, and once you see the first bared fang you know exactly what the ground rules are. The world, in short, is defined by its monsters, and by the same token, defines them.
Some of the imagery is very powerful. I don’t get much of a sense of process to resolution in this story, though, which is disappointing. I feel like Brucato is usually a more thorough author than this.
Hey Satyros,
I loved your story, it kept me on the edge of my seat. What I like most about it was the way you used the relationship with Gerald as the clone for the relationship with her other side. As she worked out one, she worked out the other. I can see that she is on her way back to the pack.
cheers!
-Karin
I enjoyed the story! It makes good use of descriptions of different sensory experiences to convey the shifts between “the wolf” and “the woman” as well as the tension between the two. There are a few points where these descriptions seem to break down from a linear/rational perspective, but that’s because they are conveying a nonlinear/nonrational experience. It’s done sparingly enough to be a good literary tool, and anyone who’s not ready for such wordplay may simply not be ready for stories about shifting characters in general.
This is the first story I’ve read on Wily Writers. I decided to read the text while listening to the audio.
I sometimes found myself reading the text faster than the audio, but it was a very interesting experience to take in the story with two senses at once. I also liked the use of two voices and a bell between sections to convey the scene shifts.
REALLY, Phil!!! What ELSE do you do with your time???????????
Thanks for the feedback on the bell and voices, Treesong. That’s good to know.
Best,
Angel…
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