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Young Writers Society


Close Your Eyes #1



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11 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 890
Reviews: 11
Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:38 am
Stefan says...



He ran through the archway of tall leaning trees emerged in vibrant, green ivy the falling leaves flew into his face as he gained speed. His eyes watered, the tears were rushed away by the vast amount of air being thrown into his pale face. His breathe became deeper, more aggressive and was heard on top of the crisp, crunching sound from the dry leaves beneath his heavily burdened shoes being pressed hard into the ground. A long stream of dented footprints trailed behind his quick movements as he made a failed attempt to hide himself, kneeling down behind one of the heavily guarded rose bushes. His back was facing the bushes’ leaves, the cold air whistled as it passed by and the sound of his exhausted breathe crept closer to the footsteps which followed him. There was a shout from a few metres away, “Evan, where are you?” He turned his head slightly and rolled his eyes as far as they would reach to try and peer around his back, he could see feet through the gaps in the bush, slowly walking closer and closer towards his feeble body, the loud crunching sound from the dry leaves grew louder, Evan’s breathing changed into short, energetic breaths. Dust from the leaves above his head and hair fell by Evan’s shier shivering and went into one of his eyes, frantically, he moved his right hand from his lap slowly making sure he didn’t disturb the bush and gently rubbed his eye, the squelching sound made him cringe, the bush shake slightly, he could hear a sharp switch of direction from behind him. He tensed his fragile body, holding it perfectly still whilst the sound of the footsteps came closer and closer. Again, “Where are you, Evan?” was heard closely behind him. He could hear the footsteps directly behind his ear now; it was just a matter of time before he would be found. There was a moment of silence, only the howls of the wind and the synchronised sound of the autumn leaves dancing on top of the forest bed. There was a sudden noise as a hand shot through the bush and grabbed his hard green woollen jumper tightly. He flinched.

“I’ve found you” Whispered Skye into the back of Evan’s curled ear.

Evan sighed and the laughed softly as he started walking with Skye lugging behind his lean body, watching the ground as she kicked the dry leaves.
“We’d better be getting back soon, lunch will be ready. Race you there!” Evan spoke gradually speeding up his pace ready to run.

Evan’s lean body allowed him to run faster than Skye. Evan grabbed Skye’s hand tightly and ran through large piles of collected leaves. Being the faster runner, Evan was tugging Skye behind him, making sure he was holding onto her soft, gentle hand. They ran through the open forest laughing, colliding with the falling dead leaves as the continued to fall from the weeping tree’s, kicking up the bedding on the ground behind them; Skye carefully avoiding the ones that Evan kicked up.

They came out of the entrance to the forest, and continued running, through the stream which passed the forest and was perfectly perpendicular to their farm and into the field beside their farms. They could see Evan’s father working on the stream around a hundred yards away, fixing the poor irrigation for the farms, he stopped, caught eye of Evan and Skye, stood still and watched in wonder as they ran past until they were covered again by the large assorted collection of vegetation which boarded the farms. Evan and Skye slowed down to a gradual stop near the entrance of the large farmhouse. The farmhouse grew many stories and memories; it had been in the family inheritance for several generations, at least seven. One of the farmhouse walls, the one on the right side of the house was coated with moulding ivy, giving off an incredibly morbid smell to anyone whom passed. The other walls were pretty much normal, built from large, coarse stones covered in a thick layer of fine dust that slowly fell to the ground like light snow does in the winters there. The sun shone onto the thatched roof, light bounced of it in all directions and produced an array of beautiful colours.
Evan and Skye stepped inside the farmhouse; both forcibly shook their shoes of and ran into the kitchen, slipping on the floor tiles as they edged around the corner to the dinning table. They sat beside each other tucked firmly into the table which was far too high for them, their feet unable to reach the floor on the tall wooden chairs, softly kicking the long tablecloth which hung-over the table and touched the brick floor slightly, enough for it to sway with every gentle kick.

Evans mother, Ruth, stumbled into the kitchen, limping on her right leg. She’d been moving wheelbarrows full of wood to the house for the fires, but she dropped a barrow full on her leg. She’s had to rest it for weeks, but she’s only just got the will to try and use it again; for the past week. She was carrying a large white ceramic dish, the steam blocked both Evan’s and Skye’s view of the contents of this shimmering dish. It also covered Ruth’s face, making it difficult for her to walk in a straight line. She slowly walked over to the table and placed the dish down onto, the smell followed.
She went to the front door, the one which leaded to the farm, and yelled for Evan’s dad to come inside for dinner.

She tripped as she came back inside on Skye’s small, polished black shoes, “Shhh-” she screamed, keeping in the word she so needed to yell.

“Shhh-ugar!” she corrected, making sure Evan and Skye wouldn’t hear her swear.



She tucked both pairs of shoes away beside the lime washed wall as too make sure that no one would trip over them again.

“What did I tell you would happen? Eh? One of these days you’ll have my leg off!” she mumbled, slowly coming to a silence.

It wasn’t rare that Evan would leave his shoes lying around the floor, in fact it was more of a second nature too him, he just found it more convenient for him. Skye just mimicked what Evan did.

Ruth came to sit at the table, now hopping on her right leg and started to serve the dish out to everyone’s plates. It was Shepard’s pie. Evan’s favourite. Skye, being a vegetarian detested Shepard’s pie, in fact, any dish with meat in.

“Don’t worry Skye, I’ve got something in the oven for you that you will love” Ruth calmly said relieving herself as she took Evan’s plate and spooned a large portion of pie onto it.

Evan’s lips watered. He grabbed the plate and placed it in front of his eyes, that way he could peer over the mounded food and taste the sight of the juices flowing down cannels of potato and mince.

He licked his lips again, “Where’s dad? I’m so hungry, can’t we start without-“.

Before Evan could finish his sentence, a large, lumpish figure, well known as being Evan’s dad came strolling into the front door.

“Mind yourself with them fiendish shoes. Mind, they’ve already made me trip over.” Ruth exclaimed, showing some anguish in her words.

Evan’s dad wasn’t at all what he appeared to be, years of lugging round heavy machinery had given him a strong but crooked physic. He was gentle, understanding and loved his family. His name was Aiden, uncommon too the early 1950’s.

He came into the dining room and sat beside Ruth, he gentle stroked her leg with his large, un-moisturised hands and started to serve his own plate whilst Ruth got up and fetched a smaller, much more delicate dish from out of the oven. It was soup, beautifully coloured with the reddest of tomato’s, peppers and chilli beans. The smell was overpowering the Shepard’s pie which annoyed Evan’s deep intakes of his own plate. The smell wasn’t unpleasant at all, but it did seem to be a bit too strong for the families tolerance.

The meals were all finally served up, each with there own portion of food, and all four of them began too eat. The soup caused a loud slurping or sucking sound and grew louder every spoonful she took. They all looked at her and laughed softly. She stopped, smiled and then continued.




After dinner, Evan and Skye went back outside to play in the woods. Skye spotted a large branch which looked like it had died, and fallen off the tree as it decayed slowly. She propped the surprisingly light weighted branch up against some ivy which grow hideously out of control up a tall, thick oak tree and then ordered Evan to find some branches whilst she positioned the log in-between two v shaped offshoots after taking a few minutes to
Re-grip the dry bark. She saw Evan walk off into a large open circular area in the forest which was surrounded in smaller, more vibrant selection of woodland.

A few minutes later, 21 to be exact, Evan returned to Skye carrying four large branches, all covered in dark leaves. Evan had a peculiar way of carrying the branches, which caused a huge drag behind him; holding two branches in his forearms, then one under his armpit. By carefully balancing the last branch on his shoulder he was able to move about twenty to thirty meters before repositioning them for comfort. This would consist of him placing the branch that was on his right forearm down, so he could move or rotate the branch on his shoulder. Then he would have to kneel down and pick up the other branch again which caused a complete unbalance and caused the whole lot to fall behind him. This would last around 2 minutes before he managed to fix the problem and start walking again.
He placed down the branches beside Skye’s feet carefully and making sure he didn’t show his frustration. She picked them up one by one and placed them against the horizontal log creating a side of shelter. Like half a tent, but with leaves.

Skye constructed two small seats from the bark of the log and two other smaller logs which were lying near by. They sat by each other and held hands; Evan tingled as a chill went up his spine. He quickly shook.
By this time, night was starting to creep into the sky’s array of multicoloured purples and oranges. The stars were starting to appear and the bats started to fly through the leaning trees. They played with each other’s feet for a while, a small war between two pairs of feet and the ground’s bedding on the floor. A clear patch of soil was revealed; they both stood up and suggested starting a small fire. They expanded the circle of emptiness and gathered small pieces of wood; twigs. Then they went to find some larger pieces of wood, small branches and logs and grouped them into size on the forest floor.

Evan ran back towards his house which looked much different in the night, the walls glowed and the ivy no longer smelled. He ran into the sweet scented kitchen and politely asked in a short breath, trying at the same time to recover from running, “Do you mind if Skye and me sleep outdoors tonight? We’ve got a shelter that we made and we’re gonna light a small fire so we can keep warm and we’ll look after it, I promise. We’ll take it in turns.”

“For one, it’s Sky and I and two, go ask your father. I’m sure it’s alright, just mind yourself ok?” she replied with confidence.

Evan ran into the lounge, the place where his father would always be after a hard day of work. He would relax in front of the warm, glowing fire; newspaper balanced on his lap and with one hand with a cup of coffee in his other. The fact that he managed to turn the pages of the newspaper without placing the coffee down was a trick on its own. He found a way using his elbow. He would carefully lean over so he was around forty-five degrees from the paper, horizontally and then blow softly onto the edge of the pages, one would flick up and he would catch it with his elbow and slowly, making sure not to spill his coffee, pull the page over.

Evan came rushing up from behind Aiden who was resting in his old and well worn out rocking chair and peered down at the newspaper on his lap.

“What you up to dad?” Evan said curiously, faking an interest to win his fathers vote.

“Reading The Times”.

Evan giggled a little trying not to show it too much. He always found it funny how parents were so stereotypical, Skye’s parents, also neighbours, were just the same. They would come in, make coffee and sit by the fire reading the newspaper making sure that they could plan days ahead, knowing the events which came up listed in the paper.

“Well. Me and Skye–“

“Skye and I” Ruth corrected, shouting around the corner from the hallway leading to the kitchen.

“Skye and I have made a shelter outside from the trees, we were wondering if we could stay out there tonight. Please.” He continued, putting on that sympathetic voice that children do when they ask for something they want.

“How are you going to keep warm? You’ll freeze this time of year.” He was right; the nights did get cold at night, especially during the autumn.

“Well, we could take a few blankets from the cupboard upstairs near my room. We’ve made a fireplace too.” Evan ensured.

“Well–“

“Oh. Please dad. We will make sure nothing happens, and if it does, you’ll know of it straight away.”

“Is it ok with Skye’s parents?” Aiden asked, slowly edging on the idea that he allows Evan too stay.

“Not sure, I can ask.” Evan nervously spoke.

He sprinted out of the house as quick as he could and back into the forest, his figure disappearing into the thick layer of tree trunks which silhouetted against the night’s sky.
Skye, unaware of Evan’s presence leapt into the air as Evan walked into her sight.

“Aiden wants to know if it’s ok by your parents to let you stay outside.”

“The funny thing is I asked my parents this morning. They were fine with it.” Skye replied to her predicted question.

Had she known that this was happening or was it just a coincidence? The fact is, she had asked her parents that morning. She just led Evan into the situation subconsciously. She wanted to be with him that night.

The sky was now a dreamy dark blue gradient, filled with large burning stars, the clouds weren’t in sight and the moon was glowing a bright white.
Evan ran back to his farmhouse and managed to persuade Aiden to given them some matches and some spare blankets to keep warm.

“These will come in handy” Skye said as she picked the matches up and started to organise the twigs and kindling which she had taken from a Silver Birch while Evan was at the house and placed them into a small heap.

She took a match and struck it away from her chest, leaned over and lit the kindling. The fire soon took a fancy for the wood and started to burn well. Both Skye and Evan were continuously placing increasingly bigger twigs onto the flames. Soon it was big enough to place a large enough log on to last at least 20 minutes.




They sat side by side, the warm, itchy blankets wrapped around them. Their eyes transfixed on the slow moving flames. Only the odd spark which would spit out of the fire with a loud bang broke the trance.
They lay backwards and gazed into the arranged stars, taking it in turns to point out the different star arrangements, making up pictures in their minds. They laughed at each others thoughts and teased each other. A few minutes passed, and the fire started to die down. Skye sat up and chucked another log onto the fire, some embers flew a few feet into some forest bedding but soon went out.




For the rest of the night, they continued to stargaze, talking about their futures, what they wanted to grow up to be what kind of person they would marry, how they would keep in contact; Letters.
  





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566 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 890
Reviews: 566
Fri Apr 27, 2007 11:05 am
miyaviloves says...



hey Stefan! :D anyway here's the crit:

His breathe became

exhausted breathe crept closer

I'm not sure if there should be an e on the end, is it breath? For breath? I'm not sure so I won't say but I'm sure that there is no e unless you actually meant breathe...I'm rambling now lol i will stop.


few metres away, “Evan, where are you?” He turned

Should be on a seperate line as someone is saying it.

Evan’s curled ear.

His ear is curled???What?

Evan’s lean body allowed him to run faster than Skye

You have already told us that he has a lean body, It seems a bit just 'pu t in' here.

Evan grabbed Skye’s hand tightly and ran through large piles of collected leaves. Being the faster runner, Evan was tugging Skye behind him, making sure he was holding onto her soft, gentle hand. They ran through the open

You keep saying 'evan' cant you just say 'he' everynow and then? it sounds less repetative that way.

I'm not going to read anymore of this for now (need togo toform lol) but I will come back later and finish!

Meevs
x
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566 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 890
Reviews: 566
Fri Apr 27, 2007 3:21 pm
miyaviloves says...



Ok, I'm back :) (nice seeing you today btw :D)

perpendicular to their farm and into the field beside their farms.

Hmm that sounds a bit forced, do we need to know this information?


, being a vegetarian detested Shepard’s pie, in fact, any dish with meat in.

Ok, you have told us she is a vegetarian, so not eating anything with meat in goes without saying :)

Dang my dinner is ready! But i SWEAR i WILL finish this lol!

its good so yes i shall keep reading :D

Meevs
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566 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 890
Reviews: 566
Fri Apr 27, 2007 3:22 pm
miyaviloves says...



Ok, I'm back :) (nice seeing you today btw :D)

perpendicular to their farm and into the field beside their farms.

Hmm that sounds a bit forced, do we need to know this information?


, being a vegetarian detested Shepard’s pie, in fact, any dish with meat in.

Ok, you have told us she is a vegetarian, so not eating anything with meat in goes without saying :)

Dang my dinner is ready! But i SWEAR i WILL finish this lol!

its good so yes i shall keep reading :D

Meevs
x
Bag.

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Reviews: 11
Fri Apr 27, 2007 10:33 pm
Stefan says...



Thanks for looking through it for me, much harder to spot mistakes that I've made cos I see what I want to see not whats there.

Evan’s curled ear.

His ear is curled???What?

No sure, might have been a lryic in a song. Woops.
  





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Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:49 am
M.B.Author says...



Yeah, I was going to say, "curled ear"? Anyway, great work. Well done! :D
Listen to advice and except discipline so that you
may be wise for the rest of your life
-- Proverbs 19:20
  





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566 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 890
Reviews: 566
Sun Apr 29, 2007 5:30 pm
miyaviloves says...



Ok finally finished this Stefan!

it's a good start, but you defiantly need to work on this (like everyone does with their stuff). You could reall develop your ahcracters a whole lot more in this first chapter, I dunno, when reading about themn i don't really care all that much about them yet. If you get your reader to really engage and intract with the characters then they like them better, which in the end elps the story a whole bunch. the onyl thing i can suggest with that is to give them more background and just elaborate them more.

Your writing still needs work, you still seem to have a relativly limited word bank, you don't really describe what they surrounding look like you just 'say it' and in the end it just seems a little like info dumping.

Apart from that this is good, you can really see that this is going somewhere, and well, be craeful when listening to music when writing, or you may have lots of curled ears cropping up! :D

Keep going with this one, its completly different to your first story, i must admit i like this one one million times better, I',m not such a big fan of gore gore gore lol.

Anyway, good luck with this!

Meevs
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Always do what you are afraid to do.
— E. Lockhart, We Were Liars