I've hit a snag or a bump or driven into a gigantic chasm of doom. Either way the result is that I haven't written a word since Friday. It's a combination of things, but a huge part of the problem is that I've sort of written myself into a corner. Sort of. I introduced another character which I'm a little weary of continuing in his present form. I think he's a pedophile and I'm pretty sure that I don't dig that.

I had to have at least someone else in the game to help explain a few things. He actually works perfectly because he goes along way towards explaining some behavior of one of the main characters. The only things is, I don't think I'm capable of writing that. There are tons of dark places I'm willing to go --seriously, I can imagine quite disturbing things if I allow myself. But pedophilia isn't really one of them. And, frankly, I'm not ready to start thinking about it without it probably doing some damage. 

I'll probably make him just a straight up, physical abuser. That's a cop-out, but it's easier to deal with. The end result it pretty much the same. 

Oh, good. This little entry has helped a great deal actually - maybe I can actually get back on track now. I'm only got 10k to make up...

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Working Title: Twilight

Characters: 3 

References to Blood: 15 

They were near the downtown area of the suburb. 

       Four roads intersecting to form a giant square, and lots of intersections sprouted off that. Most of it had been business offices and a couple of strip malls. Street lights that didn't work, some bent over to touch the ground like performers taking a bow.

       Jacob took lead and threaded his way through the streets. He would move from building to building, pausing in some open thresholds to survey the next route. 

       It was a practiced method and the stops were not the same as before, but they were similar. Jacob had told him of some creatures that would watch and wait. They would study you, take their time and then make their move the next time you came through.

       Repetition was death, he had said. Although he was always vague about where he had heard it. But then Jacob was from all over.

       They came to came to a corner that the big bank building opened onto. It was at least eight stories and no glass in the building remained, although the lighted sign that came out over the corner was still readable, if somewhat smashed. 

       Near the top, straddling the bank and the next building, a five story one, was a gigantic spider web. It came down at least three stories and was a crisscrossed layered affair that was full of cocoons, some looked old and were nothing more than dry husks waiting for time and wind to deal with them. 

       Throughout the webs, there were parts of animals, bones mostly that were still caught on strands and threads of web. Some coiled up with other debris making it look like a long forgotten series of streamers from a party.

       As he watched a large bat, the size of a cow, came skittering down the alleyway between the buildings. He could see it and it turned quickly as it saw the web in it's path, but it was too late. The creature twisted downward, folding a wing in as it crashed into the web near the bottom. Fairly close to him and Jacob, considering.

       Jeff looked up at the creatures caught in the intricate layers of the web. There were all kinds of birds, most were twisted nightmares of real birds, although Jeff had never seen a real bird. Like the plant life, most of the animal kingdom hadn't so much as vanished as been transformed.

       Even though to watch them filled him with horror, he knew they were relatively safe from the spiders down here on the ground. They only came down when they weren't catching food and the web was full of it at the moment. 

       And it was spiders he would worry about. They lived in clans, although how many were in a clan he couldn't be sure. He had counted at least eight at once, but he was sure there were more. 

       Jacob had said that the size of the web was probably a good idea of how many there were and that web was huge.

       From one of the windows came a single spider. 

Only it wasn't quite a spider, the way everything wasn't quite what it appeared to be at first. It had at least ten legs, maybe more - they moved too fast to count really - it was segmented like a spider, and a head that was a flat oval and filled with eyes. Hundreds of eyes, if he could have seen it up close, they would have resembled cat eyes, blue with slits that seemed to rotate with the eye itself.

       The front of it's mouth were several pairs of arms that ended with a mass of tiny tentacles, which worked well to bring food to the jaws that were filled with razor teeth.

       As Jeff watched, it shot out of the window at an amazing speed, it leapt and jumped down the web in a series of quick, gymnastic moves that seemed to defy physics, to the newly caught prey. The forearms came around, quivering tentacles that pulled back and then started snapping at the bat, stinging it repeatedly.

       The bat cried a high pitched squeal and jerked and then stopped moving. Then the tentacles encircled it and the bat disappeared from view entirely as it fed.

       Jeff watch as Jonah surveyed the area from the door well. The spider was close, probably only fifty feet away. As it fed, several of the eyes rolled around, independent of each other and they came to focus on Jeff. 

       It was still feeding, but it watch him as it did, and Jeff started to feel like maybe it was thinking the bat wasn't big enough. 

       He reached out and touched Jonah's shoulder. 

       "Can we go now?" He whispered.

       "Yes," Jonah said without looking back. 

       He stood up and bolted out from the door well, across the street and down the side of the brick sidewall of a strip mall.

       Jeff looked back and the spider had turned a bit to the side itself. It was still feeding, but it was definitely watching where they went. 

       The spiders bothered him more than anything else in the area. Well, that wasn't completely true. Betsy probably held that title, he thought. She could come out of nowhere and he was always a little amazed at how Jonah could hear her even if it was only a few seconds prior to her arrival.

[Excerpt Has Not Been Proofed or Edited] 

Whoo-hoo! Of course the government has probably slipped in a little RFID tag into the shot this year to go along with the mind control. Makes it easier to find and collect data on you. They're getting lazy, I swear.

This year there's plenty of supply and it's ready to go. Although I have to say I don't remember getting sick last year and that was the first time in awhile I hadn't gotten the shot. But when the super-flu is cutting the rest of you street urchins down, I'll be sitting pretty.

Strange, I have no idea why I just said that.

I did a lot better yesterday than I thought I would. That whole, just-blazing-ahead really works sometimes, because it just gets me over the slump quickly without worrying about whether I'm making good decisions on the details or not. Between work and home, I got out over 2500 words yesterday alone. I'm glossing over potentially important details and whatnot to get there, but the plot is moving along (even if it's at a snails pace). I'm starting to feel like I'm coming out of the funky of the last couple of days.

Of course it's still garbage. And I want to post a excerpt, but scanning through it, I see that there's not a lot I actually want to share at this point. But, by selective cutting, I've come up with this week's tid-bit.

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Working Title: Twilight

Characters: 2 (+1 implied)

Dream Sequences: 1

Body Count: 5 

He kept running, his heart beating in his chest and he turned to see them almost upon him. 

       One was coming out of a small turn and came right at him.

       He fell to the ground and it glided over him, its feet kicking at him as if to make any contact with its prey.

       Suddenly he was armed. 

       He felt an axe or a hatchet in the dirt and he pulled it up as he rolled over on to his front to get up quicker. 

       A second one came at him from his left and he turned as he saw the movement from the corner of his eye. He jumped back as it came down, swinging his arm out and landing the axe in its midsection. He held on to the axe as it planted itself inside the thing and tried to pull him along with it. 

       Instead the axe tore into the creature and down before coming loose. The creature still made no noise, but it twisted and writhed in obvious pain before crashing to the ground in a cloud of dust that faded as it moved into forest.

       Another one came down, its mouth open, saliva dripping out like water, its wings curling to slow down, to envelope him. He swung the axe up and connected with its chin, tearing into it. The mouth slammed shut and a burst of black blood spurt out as if he had crushed a grape. 

       Again, he pulled at the axe as the creature’s momentum threatened to take it along with it as it passed. But this time the axe refused to come free, and as he pulled, the creature spiraled around him to the ground, forcing him to fall as well.

       He let go of the axe and quickly scrambled to his feet, hunched over, scanning for the others. He could hear them, their wings beating the air, but they were above somewhere hidden by the darkness.

       He turned back to the body on the ground and tried to pull the axe free from the thing’s face. The crash into the ground had driven it further into it’s head. 

       He stood up and placed a foot on it’s head and grasped the axe handle. As he did, the beating wings became furious and he yanked at the handle hard. 

       Suddenly, they were upon him. 

       Claw-like fingers on the ends of wings, dug into his shoulder and he turned his head to see one of them on his back. It was so close, he could see the small human-like face. 

It was a dead face with rivers of oozing flesh that was black and grey and in various states of slothing off. It has almost no nose left, a chunk of meaty flesh that clung to the arch between the eyes by a few strings of skin or bone. The eyes were black except for a dull red reflected shine in the pupils, but they too were rimmed with flesh that was dying. 

       The mouth opened, wider than it looked possible, exposing several rows of needle-like teeth and a black tongue that was jagged and misshapen. 

Last night we didn't get as many kids as last year. We still got a decent amount --at least two dozen-- but in years past we've seen three times as many. I've seen mini-vans drop off swarms of kids in the neighborhood over the years. One thing about where I live, it is exactly like every TV movie that has a scene where suburban kids go trick or treating. It's surreal how closely it resembles depiction in movies and television. But it was much more subdued last night. I think we have an entire sack of candy left over from BJs. And the kids were generally nicer this year. I only had one incident where several kids (it always seems like the boys) had a little grabfest when I leaned down to put something in a bag. 

It's just par for the course, really. 

I was surprised to find all four pumpkins still in my back yard this morning. Usually someone comes along and swipes one of them. 

Now it's time to start taking down the decoration and --like last year-- bust out the Christmas stuff as soon as possible. 

I have decided to participate in NaNoWriMo again this year. But I'm pairing back the goal even further than previously indicated. I'll shoot for 25K this year and see what happens. I just can't commit to the amount of time without incurring serious trouble this year. And I've got a lot of other stuff going on at the moment and most of it I don't want to actually neglect (although stacking wood is still not done and I keep wishing I would come home to find it magically completed on it own). But I've done almost no prep for taking myself out of the month and it's wildly unfair to just announce it today and think everything will be swanky.

As for what I'm going to write, I've pulled out one of the ideas I've had bouncing around for the last few years and culled together a starting point. I have this meandering thread that I think I can follow. But I'm sure it'll crash and burn faster than anything else I've tried. I'll probably post crappy excerpts as I go, like last year.

Just don't be surprised if I just stop this year. If I hit any real trouble this time, I'm very likely to bail, although I'll let you know.

Next year I'll try to be better prepared.