Change is Normal, Darling

I'm rather thrilled about this piece, believe it or not. I really kinda like this one. It's a follow-up piece to another one of my stories, and actually is a follow-up piece of its own. The third piece was started in July, however, I haven't finished it yet, so it won't be in the line of "Camp NaNoWriMo" postings. Perhaps I'll upload it later when it's finished.

The first of these three pieces can be found here, called Change is Coming and involves the characters from Always for Eternity. You'll notice I use them a lot. They're my favorite characters, believe it or not. I love them to death.

The prompt for this was: “It’s okay,” he said, wrapping his arms around her as she shook with terror. “It’s over now.” - “No, it’s not,” she whispered back. “It hasn’t even begun…”

This story wasn't entirely planned out when I began writing it. It came from a role-play story (where two people write back and forth to create a story, each one having control over everything but the other writer's character), and I just fell in love with it. Which is how it tumbled into a trilogy of its own. Rather fun.

Times Change -- An original work by Julie Lynn Thorpe (C) 2016

     I knew it was coming. Had known for a while, in fact.

     Didn’t matter, though, that I knew it was coming. It hit me hard, harder than the shock that had forced me to keep my human form long after I should have shifted into my wolf form for the first time.

     This, this hurt worse than anything I’d ever felt. My body shook with tremors I couldn’t control, though it was mostly from the fear I felt.

     I was afraid to become a Vampire.

     Gods honest truth, that. Victor had abandoned me shortly after the shaking had begun, fueled by fear himself, I guessed. Eli had taken his place, watching me transform from one monster to another.

     I reached out to my longtime friend, seeking comfort, though it would help little to none.

     “It’s okay,” he said, wrapping his arms around me as another quiver of terror wracked my body. “It’s over now.”

     I laughed, humorless and loud before curling into his body. I was amused he thought it would be over so quickly.

     “No, it’s not,” I managed to whisper back. “It hasn’t even begun…”

     I felt him startle into stillness, the kind that if I hadn’t been in his arms or couldn’t see him, I would wonder if he was still there. The kind of stillness that only Vampires somehow managed.

     “Oh, Mickey…” he murmured into my hair, hands rubbing my arm, my back, trying to be soothing. “I’m so sorry…”

     Horribly bitter words bubbled up my throat. You should be. It’s your fault Josiah came after me. If you hadn’t come back, I’d be just fine. I hate you. Josiah did this because of his petty hatred for you, I got caught in the crossfire. I was just a tool for him, but you didn’t stop him.

     I bit them back, all of them and let them sit in my stomach, bitter and nauseating. I wouldn’t say them, not now, not ever.

     “Doesn’t matter.”

     Hopeless words that fell flat really. He said nothing.

     I don’t know how long he held me as my body shivered and quaked in his grasp. Too long.

     I stilled.

     He pulled back.

     There, on the edge of my consciousness, I could feel the urge to eat. That wasn’t the right word, but it fit.

     It wasn’t over, the change from beast to a monster, but it was finished in its attempt to tear me apart.

     “Hungry,” I muttered darkly, staring at the Vampire in front of me.

     He stood and disappeared for several moments, returning with something I knew to be blood.

     My nose wrinkled. Part of me was repulsed by the scent sitting in a glass while the other part…

     It hungered for the liquid so hard I blanched.

     “Sorry,” Elijah muttered, helping me drink the lukewarm fluid. “You’ll have to get fresher stuff later. This is the best I could do on such short notice.”

     I glared at him over the glass. Short notice? He was the one that had come to warn me about…

     I huffed and ignored it. It didn’t matter.

     Everything had changed.

     Nothing mattered.

--

     I stared at the bar in front of me. I could feel the pulse of hundreds of people in the area, but could taste nothing of what were now my own kin.

     Vampire, nearly whole.

     Wolf still sat within me, but I lacked the ability to shift. Yet, I kept the senses – wasn’t that part of the vampiric package as well?

     Probably.

     Reflexes too. Gods, how was I supposed to separate the two? Did it matter?

     Probably not.

     New start, free from the chains that bound you in Dekon, Mick… I strode into the bar and smirked darkly. A place to mark as your own, the strange half-breed you are. Make it good…

     My smile grew wider as I strode to the bar. This dinky arena would be mine. I would take as I wanted, there would be none to stop me.

     Not that it mattered if there was.

     This was mine and I would take it, and keep it, by force if need be.

     Eli had given me tips and tricks to make it better, to help me and I thanked him.

     I thanked him by leaving.

     Victor had never returned and I couldn’t care. He could barely handle me when I was a wolf, why did I think that he could have handled me now that I was some sort of new monster?

     My family didn’t know, couldn’t know. Ty wouldn’t be able to handle it either, in the end. He’d hated Eli long before he knew the Vampire’s true nature.

     Didn’t matter.

     Not really.

     This was who I was now, no going back.

     I wasn’t sure if I wanted to thank Josiah or continue to curse his name until I died. Did I live forever as a Vampire or just have a lengthened lifespan like the Lycans? He was the reason for this, the reason why I was no longer certain of myself.

     Fucking bastard.

     I sighed, settling down at the bar. Might as well get used to this. The change was ever present, fighting between wolf and undead, probably for as long as I lived.

     It ached, my body, as it fought itself. But it wouldn’t kill me. Not now.

     There was nothing I could do now.

     Didn’t matter.

     I was born a monster and I’ll die a monster.

     It’s all I knew how to be…

I'm a sucker for comments and critics. Let me know what you think down in the comment section below! Thank you for reading!

(If you find you have a desire to share this elsewhere, PLEASE PLEASE let me know first. I have shared it in a couple of places, so I know it's out there already, but for the love of all that is holy, ASK ME to share this. I'll probably give it the okay, but I'd like to know where you're sharing it and if you're going to give me proper credit for it. It is my work after all. Thanks! :3 )

Resistance is Impossible

Again, I promised to share all the things I wrote for Camp NaNoWriMo, so here's this... Whatever this is. I'm moderately okay with this, but it's very strange.

The prompt for this was: "Five things your antagonist cannot resist."

Moderately proud of this one. Got to play with my villain for a bit, which I haven't done in AGES. Had fun with this. Again with the bit of odd writing, trying different things out. Somewhere along the way, it was decided that Josiah likes chocolate. Nearly as much as he likes number 1. He is a strange creature, but I love him anyway.

Impossible to Resist -- an original work by Julie Lynn Thorpe (C) 2016

     List five things you cannot resist.
     Josiah frowned as he stared at the page. No one knew where it had come from or who had delivered it to his room. He snorted, dropping the page back onto the desk where he’d spotted it, ignoring the message.

-

     Two days. It took him a total of two days to come back to it. He hadn’t wanted to, resisted quite well actually, but two days was suddenly torture. He had to look at it again and try and figure out who was demanding such ridiculous things from him.
     List five things you cannot resist.
     “Number one,” he muttered darkly at the page, “Blood drained fresh from my victim.”
     When nothing happened, he snarled and balled the sheet up, tossing it across the room. He questioned the servants again, demanding they try harder to figure out where the stupid thing had come from.
     Once that was finished, he proceeded to indulge in number one. He was feeling particularly hungry tonight.

-

     Days passed and the letter slipped from his mind. He resumed his daily life, which, of course, included the tormenting of his dear cousin. He was rather upset with his aunt and uncle for allowing Elijah to just waltz right back into their lives, but after his near attempt at killing the woman his cousin fancied, Josiah was forced to ignore it.
     “You know she’s going to hate you again,” Josiah leaned against a shelf in the library.
     Elijah looked up and scowled. “Shut up, Josiah. No one asked you.”
     “She was so angry you left the first time, wasn’t she? Why would she take you back a second time?” He rolled his eyes. “How many second chances can you get, cousin, before she decides you’re not worth her time?”
     Josiah grinned as Elijah paled. The younger Vampire straightened and darted from the room, forcing a laugh from Josiah. He grinned darkly. He turned and left the library, heading back to his room, pausing only for a moment as the letter came to mind.
     “Number two,” he hummed, “Tormenting my cousin.”
     It was rather delightful. Perhaps he should do it again soon.

-

     The horse reared as it reached the edge of the field, sides heaving as Josiah reigned her in. He turned the mare back towards the center of the clearing and dismounted, dropping the reins. She huffed and dropped her head, following slowly behind him as he walked into the middle of the clearing.
     “Number three,” he exhaled as he let his legs fold beneath him so that he sank to the ground. “Being able to escape the manor and the idiots who reside there…”
     He let himself fall back so that he could stare at the sky. The stars above seemed to mock him as they shone down on the Earth. He was unsure of the Lycan territory, but he assumed that they would avoid the area for a bit. Or, so he hoped.
     Time alone was a blessing, no matter how much he enjoyed bothering his cousin. The strain of social requirements with his aunt, uncle, and grandfather was far too much on occasion. Tonight was no exception. A party in honor of a possible union between the furred beasts and his family.
     Michaele and Elijah had gotten quite close since her appearance at the manor. They were quite sickening, actually, holding hands and longing looks. He would have to leave soon, it was becoming far too much to handle.
     Jealousy was a possibility, but he didn’t want to think on that too much. Not since that night, he fucked up. No.
     He sighed and closed his eyes. He would rather just enjoy the silence.

-

     He’d made a list of his own now, just below the words List five things you cannot resist. Number one – blood, preferably draining his victim to death but wasn’t a necessity. Number two – tormenting the hell out of his cousin. Number three – being able to escape the manor and the people who lived there. Number four – …
     Josiah stared at the list and frowned. He wasn’t sure what else to add to his list. He had plenty of impulses, though nothing he couldn’t resist. His frown deepened as he briefly thought to write do something stupid just to spite my elders but that wasn’t quite true. He could resist that if the effort was strong enough.
     “My lord?”
     The Vampire turned his head towards the servant who held out a box. “What?”
     “Your sister returned and asked me to deliver this to you, my lord.”
     He raised an eyebrow and took the box, shooing the man away as he did so. He removed the lid and blinked in surprise. It was nothing more than a box of chocolates – the ‘oh so expensive’ sort from Paris.
     He let out a laugh, shaking his head. Of course, in the middle of the madness that this list was creating, his sister would, of course, bring him something he couldn’t resist. She was brilliant when she chose to be. It was a pity they weren’t closer sometimes.
     Number four – expensive chocolates from Paris. Especially if they were purchased by his sibling.

-

     He watched them run into the forest, hand in hand. He snarled softly as he hid among the eaves of the manor, knowing it wouldn’t be last he would see of the damned woman who haunted his waking hours as much as she haunted his dreams.
     Josiah was tempted to follow her, tempted to tell her that he’d killed the man in the hall for her so that she would remember that she had loved him, once and that it was possible she could love him again.
     The fifth and final thing he could not resist, no matter how much he tried, was her – Lycan and lover to the Alpha of the forest and keeper of his cousin.
     The woman he’d lost once before, the woman he’d lost again…                                
     Michaele Sencor.

I'm a sucker for comments and critics. Let me know what you think down in the comment section below! Thank you for reading!

(If you find you have a desire to share this elsewhere, PLEASE PLEASE let me know first. I have shared it in a couple of places, so I know it's out there already, but for the love of all that is holy, ASK ME to share this. I'll probably give it the okay, but I'd like to know where you're sharing it and if you're going to give me proper credit for it. It is my work after all. Thanks! :3 )

Dead Again.

Good morning, good morning! I do hope you've been enjoying all the silly little things I've been posting so far! I know I'm having fun sharing them with you.

No backstory for this one, really. These characters may or may not be from my WIP novel Always for Eternity. My muse couldn't make up its mind. But they're fun to play with anyway.

The prompt for this story is: You stumble across an article online detailing a brutal murder. There are pictures of the victim. It's you.

Front Page News -- an original story by Julie Lynn Thorpe (C) 2016

     I stumbled from the bedroom with a groan. I stretched as I made my way through the hall to the living room where my housemate sat, staring at her computer with a frown on her face. I tilted my head as I folded myself into a chair.
     “Something the matter, Mika?”
     Her head shot up and she glared at me. “You haven’t seen the headlines this morning yet, have you?”
     I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. “Of course not. I just got up, why? Has some horrible thing befallen us all?”
     “Just your brutal murder,” she quipped, spinning the laptop to face me. “You’re front page news in fact.”
     I shared her frown. I gathered the electronic device and set in my lap, scrolling down the page as the cover story did, in fact, detail the gruesome murder of a man fitting my exact description. The photograph they’d taken was a little harder to study – most of it had been blurred in a pitiful attempt to pretend the death wasn’t as violent as they said.
     “That’s you, Vik,” Mika said. “The photo isn’t great, but that’s you. You died last night and yet here you are, in our living room as if nothing’s even happened.”
     “Immortal,” I murmured, studying the details again. She knew that it was something we shared. But it did pose a bit of a problem in the digital age where everything hit the media faster than a person could blink.
     “What are you going to do about it?”
     “Nothing.”
     “Bullshit.”
     I looked up and frowned harder. She was giving me that lovely you’re an idiot if you think you can keep this hidden look. I rolled my eyes and returned to the laptop, looking for other news articles that had covered the same story.
     “Are you going to try the old ‘I have a twin brother’ thing again?” Mika asked. I could feel her gaze on me. “Because that’s not going to work if there’s not a body at the morgue and you know it.”
     I let the insult slip past as I stood and returned the device to her. I wandered back to my room, wondering if I’d returned late last night and crawled into bed or the shower first. There were bloodstains on the floor near the window leading to a pile of ruined clothing on the floor. A quick glance at the bedsheets told me that I had, luckily, remembered to shower before sliding into clean clothing and into bed.
     “So what do you suggest I tell the kind officers who will no doubt find my appearance rather startling?” Turning, I found the young woman standing in my doorway. “After all, I can only do so much with dirty linens. The blood trail leading to my window? The blood in my room? I might as well be considered the murderer as well, Mika. What would you have me tell them?”
     She blinked as she took in the room, heading to the window to make sure there was a blood trail leading to my room. Of course, there would be, I had managed to make quite a mess of my floorboards, why wouldn’t there be a trail to my room?
     “The truth?”
     “You don’t sound very certain of that fact, my dear.”
     “That’s because it’ll make things so much harder on the lot of us, you idiot!” Her tone was snappish, but I couldn’t blame her. “What the hell even happened to you last night?”
     I shrugged, unable to remember much beyond visiting a bar and chatting up a seemingly nice young man. He did seem like a bit of a strange fellow, but I allowed him to buy me a drink anyway.
     “You were drugged at a bar and he killed you.” Mika shook her head in disbelief. “Christ, Vik. One of these days that might actually kill you.”
     “Hardly,” I said, rolling my eyes. “It’s far more likely that I’ll find my death in the hands of another immortal rather than some strange mortal offering me a bit to drink and dragging me off to my ‘death’. Someone like you, my darling.”
     Mika raised an eyebrow and a ghost of a smile graced her lips briefly. “Well, I’d be the first and most obvious choice after all. Who better than your own housemate, the very one you’ve been living with for centuries?”
     “Precisely.”
     “Well, Vik, you’d better think of something to tell those cops. They’ll be looking for you shortly, I assume. After all, you’re missing from the morgue and you've got a blood trail to your room. Surely they’ve got some questions they’d like answers to. And you better have them.”
     I nodded and made my way back to the living room. “Of course, Mika. Have no worries. And, of course, it’ll be better than the truth.”
     I curled up in my seat again and sipped on my morning coffee. I would come up with a grand story in the end, should they come to my door. But until then, I would just enjoy my morning as I usually did and wait for the next century turn.

I'm a sucker for comments and critics. Let me know what you think down in the comment section below! Thank you for reading!

(If you find you have a desire to share this elsewhere, PLEASE PLEASE let me know first. I have shared it in a couple of places, so I know it's out there already, but for the love of all that is holy, ASK ME to share this. I'll probably give it the okay, but I'd like to know where you're sharing it and if you're going to give me proper credit for it. It is my work after all. Thanks! :3 )

Smile, My Friend, for Death has Come to Visit

So, I made a promise to myself that I would share the good and the bad. And I'm not ovely fond of this particular story, but a promise is a promise. Ugh. Please forgive me in advance. The prompt for this was: "We go to war with a smile on our face because we are friends of Death himself."

Bit of backstory-ish on the main character - one Victor Ragnorock. He's not "my" character per say, but a friend of mine has offered him up to me so often to use in my stories (especially Always for Eternity), so I am quite fond of him and don't mind using him for my "personal gain" (read as: emotional abuse, personal slave, etc. Love Victor anyhow).

He's a lovely character, Victor, one with a wide range of backstories for me to use. However, he is a soldier first and foremost in all of my stories, and in my friend's stories as well. So, this is how he's portrayed most often. War, soldiers, etc. - these are things that I can draw out this particular character.

Smile, We're Friends of Death -- an original work by Julie Lynn Thorpe (C) 2016

     The new boots were nervous as they stared at the veterans who wore smiles and laughed, never mind the fact that a war was happening just outside of the perimeter of tents and vehicles. One even took to frowning as she stared at a few of the older men who were laughing particularly hard at a joke someone had said.
     “Why are they laughing?” She hissed as she glared at them. “Don’t they know there’s a war going on outside?”
     Victor rolled his eyes as he stepped forward, placing a hand on her shoulder to prevent the inevitable movement forward. He raised an eyebrow as she turned that crystal blue glare on him, but he smirked anyway. She could be intimidating, in her own way, but it wouldn’t do any good out here.
     “Take it easy, new boots,” He raised his voice to be heard to the entire group of new cadets – Only ten? Why didn’t they send more? – “Yes, we are very well aware of the war not too far away from our only little paradise. Trust me, we’d love nothing more than to forget about it, but—.”
     Gunfire echoed from outside the thin walls and for a moment, the whole battalion tensed, waiting to be called into action. When it ceased, a collective inaudible sigh filled the room before the laughter and general merriment resumed.
     “But that’s life, kiddos.” Victor shrugged, motioning the new recruits to follow him through the maze of tents and temporary buildings.
     This wasn’t an assigned job, leading them around and instructing them on where everything was, but it made it easier. Things ran here extremely well and the sooner the new boots understood as much as they could, the better off everyone would be.
     The last place on their “tour” was the infirmary, the one place everyone tended to avoid if they could, even the doctors. He paused a few feet inside the door as the small group gathered around. The frowns they’d lost as they’d wandered returned and a few even looked a bit green. He raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
     “You’ve seen how we act during our down time,” Victor’s voice was soft, almost gentle now. “How we laugh and play and pretend that the war is something that doesn’t exist beyond the four walls of our shelter.
     “I don’t know what anyone’s told you about going to war with a smile. Yes, it’s a gruesome, bloody, horrible place to be where everyone you loves dies or goes home broken in more ways than you can count.”
     Haunted looks stared back at him and a few of the new boots paled. Feet shuffled and a young man whimpered. Victor turned his gaze to the blue-eyed recruit and smirked humorlessly.
     “We got to war with a smile on our faces because we are friends of Death himself. We do the work that he cannot and in return, we are rewarded with moments of peace where we can laugh and pretend nothing is wrong.
     “We are nothing but the reapers of this world, new boots, smile while you can.”
     He dismissed them and most scurried away, out of the infirmary, possibly off to find their own bolt holes within the compound. Only the woman who’d been angry before now stood before him.
     “How can you still smile even knowing that you’re nothing more than a pawn for Death?” Her voice mirrored his, though he couldn’t be sure if was on purpose. She did seem far more frightened than angry, and at this point, it was to be expected.
     “Because I’m still breathing, recruit. Because one day, Death will come for me too and I, personally, will welcome him with open arms.” Victor chuckled, patting her shoulder. “Best learn to love him, kid. Sometimes, he’s the only friend you’ll get in a place like this.”
     He left her standing there, wandering off to his own bed. She’d understand in time, they all would. Victor chuckled as he shook his head.
     “Much more than a friend you are, Death, old buddy,” he sighed, flopping on his bed with a sigh. “Friend, teacher, lover… They’ll understand one day.”

I'm a sucker for comments and critics. Let me know what you think down in the comment section below! Thank you for reading!

(If you find you have a desire to share this elsewhere, PLEASE PLEASE let me know first. I have shared it in a couple of places, so I know it's out there already, but for the love of all that is holy, ASK ME to share this. I'll probably give it the okay, but I'd like to know where you're sharing it and if you're going to give me proper credit for it. It is my work after all. Thanks! :3 )