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 Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 9:16 pm
 word count
786.
subject
mei-xing.
“Hello? Oh, hi Mom,” she said, realizing how much she sounded less than enthusiastic about hearing from her mother. “No, Ma, I haven’t found a boyfriend yet.” Her face became quite deadpan at this statement, and she leaned heavily into the back of the couch, her lips turned downward in a frown. “Yes, I’ve told you already; I work for a publishing company,” she droned, her head falling to the side to pin the phone between her cheek and her shoulder. She began to pick at her fingernails, a nasty habit of hers that often surfaced when she became stressed or irritated and couldn’t express it. “Ma, I told you. I’ll find a boy when I have time, okay? I’m just too busy with work right now.” Her frown deepened as her mother’s voice became a bit louder on the receiver, and she rolled her eyes quite heavily. Her mother had always been a busy body, and Mei-Xing knew that she meant well, but she could be so invasive sometimes. She was twenty-seven for Pete’s sake!
After around five more minutes of non-stop chatting about her love life, Mei-Xing was forced to interrupt her mother. “Mama, I love you, and you know that, but I’m really trying to relax here. I finished my work early, and I’m just trying to have a bit of time to myself. Can I call you back another time?” She asked, biting her lip in anxiety. Her mother exhibited the classic mother hen symptoms, and spouted off a few more urging words before finally giving in. “Alright, Ma, I’ll call you later. Love you,” Mei-Xing said, and with a held breath, she hung up. Almost immediately, she let out a deep sigh. It wasn’t like she needed her mother to tell her that she was lonely; she knew that already!
She had been feeling very lonely for quite some time. It had even perhaps started in her school days, when she had been divided from her parents by a channel of water. That part wasn’t so bad anymore, really; it had been replaced by the loneliness caused by living alone for so many years. She hadn’t had a roommate, mostly because she couldn’t find a place big enough to really accommodate two people, and she had only recently found out that she could actually own a pet in this apartment complex. But that was another issue, given the fact that she didn’t really have time to care for a pet these days. She had always loved animals, and she really did want a pet, but she knew that she probably couldn’t care for it properly in these conditions. Hell, she could barely keep her apartment clean on a regular basis. She kept the main rooms clean, the ones that company would see if they came in, but her bedroom was a mess. Her laundry was folded, but it was simply stacked in piles in various places in the room, instead of placed neatly in drawers that were mostly empty. Papers and pens littered the floor and she had taken to pinning some onto a large bulletin board on the wall, which was such a mess that she could barely interpret it at all. This thought evoked another sigh from the young woman as she placed her feet back in the tub full of hot water and jasmine-scented bubbles, or maybe that was an unloading of tension? Either way, it felt nice, and she merely sunk back into the couch and resumed watching television. She would think about this another day.
Maybe…maybe she did need a boyfriend? Nah; a pet would do just fine.
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Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 8:47 pm
word count
1,054.
subject
mei-xing meets a new friend. Mei-Xing hadn’t noticed it at first. But after a few days, she had begun to catch little glimpses of a strange shadow on the edges of her vision at times, like an optical illusion that vanished when you tried to focus on it. She had begun to worry a bit, worry about if she was going insane (she had always been rather paranoid about the supernatural and paranormal), but she knew that she couldn’t be; there would be more signs. But then one day, she fully saw this strange shape as she was walking home from work. The sky was dark, but all the lights on the streets cast an orange glow bright enough to form a shadow, and there it was. There was a small, lump-like shadow following her own, as if something furry had rolled itself in soot and then flattened out. But it didn’t roll behind her, and when she turned, there was nothing there to cast a shadow in the first place. She was officially freaking out now.
Mei-Xing had never been one to react irrationally, other than the few times where she’d thrown a fit over something little due to stress, but now she was starting to panic. She was seeing shadows for heaven’s sake! While sitting on the couch one night, trying to numb her brain with mindless reading and editing, she heard a soft whisper in the back of her mind. "Hello..." it said, as if a small child had sneaked into her apartment and was playing hide and seek with her. She immediately sat up straight and looked around, taking a defensive stance on the couch. She couldn’t see anything, but when her gaze finally settled on a rather dark corner of the room, near the edge of her television, she saw the small shadow again. This time it had formed eyes, like glowing pieces of turquoise stone set in tar, and they stared unblinkingly at her. It started to move, walking along with wall until she could see it more clearly – her eyes must have been as big as tea saucers at this point. Had...had it just spoken to her? But...but it was a shadow! Surely it couldn’t talk?
"Are you...are you my mother?" There was the voice again, and she knew that it must be coming from this...this thing. She had no idea what else to call it, after all. Slowly, carefully, she got up and crossed the room toward the kitchen, where she had left the teacup she’d gotten from the little tea stall in the Shinjuku market, but found it lying shattered in pieces on the counter. A small gasp escaped her throat as she touched the pieces, finding them cold and hard like ice. She had noticed that the tea had remained warm no matter how long it had sat there, but now any trace of liquid was gone. Strange. Wouldn’t a broken teacup have spilled the tea all over the counter? As she looked back toward the living room for the shadow, she nearly screamed when she found it to be standing right there, not three feet from her on the base of the kitchen wall. It spoke again, making her take a step back. "Mama? Are you scared of me?" She could hear the tinges of emotion in the small voice, as if a child were on the verge of crying. It took a few moments for her to realize that she could practically see the sadness in those turquoise orbs, and she swallowed in order to speak. "N-No, I’m not scared. You just...startled me, that's all," she said, sitting down slowly on the floor. Oh, God, she was talking to a shadow; what next? She would probably start speaking in tongues! The little creature seemed to brighten slightly, the turquoise jewels rounding with happiness. She looked at it a bit closer and noticed familiar markings and faded areas laid out in a way similar to those of a panda, and it was confirmed when she saw the small, rounded ears and the circles around its eyes. A...panda spirit? A ghost? She reached out to touch it, hesitant at first, and then felt her finger connect with the wall directly over the bridge of the creature’s nose, right between its eyes. In the back of her mind, she heard a small chirrup of a noise, much like a trill of a pleased cat, and the turquoise orbs turned into horizontal slits. Mei-Xing couldn’t help but smile at that, and a short, nervous laugh bubbled up from her throat as a bit of tension eased. It surely wouldn’t hurt her, not if it called her "Mama" and seemed pleased when she touched it – even if she couldn’t actually feel it.
"What...what’s your name?" She asked, pulling her hand back and biting her lip. Surely it had to have a name? But those piece of blue simple flickered, as if it had blinked, and the voice in her head sounded confused. "Name? I...I dunno..." It trailed off, simply staring at her. So, it was up to her to give it a name? She chewed on her lip for a few moments, thinking. What did you name a strange shadow creature that talked to you like a child-- and then she remembered.
The man at the tea stall had said something about a new kind of responsibility, someone to care for. Could this...could this be it? How was she supposed to care for this creature? She knew nothing about it! She could feel her blood pressure spike at the thought, but she was momentarily relieved when she realized that, being a shadow, it would not need to eat. At least that was some sort of a break...? She looked back at the creature, at the way it seemed to be hanging on her response like a child waiting for permission to go play, and couldn’t help but smile. "I think I’ll call you...Nuan Ling. You seem so friendly, after all,” she said, stroking her thumb from the faded nose and up to the top of its head, feeling only plaster and drywall. Those eyes closed again and another chirrup echoed in her brain, making her laugh. Maybe...maybe this wouldn’t be so bad? It was certainly be very, very strange, but...not bad.
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 4:48 pm
word count
609.
subject
Fishing for Dreams solo no.1.
prompt
"Having a shadow pet can be bothersome at the strangest of times." The faster she ran, the harder she tried, the closer it seemed to get. In all honesty, she had no idea what it even was; all she knew was that she needed to get away from it. It seemed to be simply a dark, looming shadow, the size of an ocean, that followed her like death followed a patient with a terminal disease. If she looked behind her, she could see its border encroaching on her, the distinct line between light and dark, good and evil, happiness and sorrow, drawing ever nearer. It struck fear in her normally rational heart, and even though she knew it was a dream somewhere in the recesses of her mind, she could do nothing to stop it. Her heart pounded, her palms sweated, and her knees began to shake the more she ran; her lungs burned as if someone had dropped dry ice into them while she'd had her mouth open, gasping for much-needed air. Every so often, whenever she dared another look over her shoulder, she could catch green flashes in its depths, as if hate itself was swirling and writhing inside, just waiting to snatch her up and swallow her whole.
And then she tripped.
There had been nothing in front of her, no obstacle to surpass, no rock to avoid, and suddenly she had tripped. Her scream ripped through the space around her as the darkness swallowed her up, stealing her breath and slowing her heart. It would have been relatively peaceful, what with the numbness and all, if she hadn't been so terrified.
Mei-Xing gasped for air as she awoke, shooting up in bed until she clutched at her knees, nearly missing knocking on into her eye socket in the process. Her heart was racing, and her vision was blurry around the edges as if she'd been holding her breath for a very, very long time. As she reached for something, anything, to grasp onto and assure herself that this was real, that she was no longer dreaming, her fingers shook like she'd spent hours in the arctic. Goosebumps erupted all across her skin, and when she tried to clear her throat, she found a rather large lump in the way. She ran a hand through her dark hair as she flipped on her bedside lamp, only to scream again. What was that near her pillow?!
There was Nuan Ling, her new friend, curled into a ball on her headboard, as if he were laying on the mattress instead. But he was only a shadow, and even if he vaguely reminded her of her nightmare, she knew that he would never hurt her. His bright eyes stared worriedly at her as she sat there, trying to get a grip on reality as she recovered. "Mama, are you okay?" He asked, the sweet voice echoing slightly in her mind, as if someone were there talking to her, in the back of her head. She sighed heavily, the sound rickety with anxiety, as she lay back down to look into those turquoise orbs. Slowly, she reached out to trace the symbol on Nuan Ling's hip, the one that glowed a bright, calming green, and she closed her eyes. “Yes, Nuan, I'm fine. It was just a dream…” she murmured, her hazel eyes sliding open again. The panda's eyes, although they were set in nothing but expressionless shadow, seemed to convey concern for his owner, and though he did not speak, Mei-Xing could feel the slightest presence of worry in the back of her mind, but knew that it was not her own.
Shadows were everywhere, yes, but not all of them wanted to hurt her.
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