Just stepping my foot in the door with some creative writing. I am really enjoying the stories I have read the first few months here, I actually drafted this 7/7/2015, I felt it was awkward to write these stories, then I just found myself reading here more so I decided to give it a whirl. :)) I have few things written up, and will upload accordingly to the viewers suggestions on liking/hating. Enjoy!
Chapter 1
Defying All Logic
Edith's reoccurring dream always starts the same. She's running. Fast, far, and is frantic. The ground is trembling as neighbors, friends, and what seems like the world is flooding through the forest. People pushing past one another as they pass her, but she is standing still now. Always. Waiting. Searching. She sees him. Always. He's running to her, and then the immediate familiar feeling comes. She knows him here, as far as dreams go, but out of them he doesn't exist. He grabs her hand and their feet hit the ground running. Impaling the sunset lit gravel with bated breaths. She already knows how it ends, every time. She always tries to change the dream, but logic won't let her. They head up the hill, as her legs feel like they're ready to buckle; they reach a wooden door in the mountain. Then the dream shifted presented more then she'd ever seen.
She looked at him, but he's changed. The world has changed behind him. Behind them.
Waking up after this dream always has her gasping. Edith has been waiting for this dream to happen since she left the vault. It's been almost a year. Traversing the wastes has built her tenacious. The things she has seen are almost as familiar as the ending to her dream. Rustic, bold, and the aging of the mostly uncivilized world is a comfort now.
She anxiously rises out of bed and jumps in the shower. She has to tell Gob ASAP about the new ending. Edith has mentioned time to time about her dream, that she missed it, missed dreaming it. Since being out in the wastes was a challenge on her. Finding her dad, and helping him with Project Purity, all the while trying to keep sane after losing him. It was almost unreal the things she had seen, the death she had given. The water hit her with an ungodly chill. Almost a year and cold showers still took time to get used to, although the wasteland was hot so the shower was the Holy Grail compared to the searing heat. She got out and drip dried walking to the bedroom. Living alone was a double edged sword. She liked the privacy, glad to be out of the confined living spaces of the vault, but she missed the company of friends, and more so family these days. Getting dressed, she felt humbled. Her dream used to haunt her, restless nights kept her up. She had hated it, but that was before the wasteland. As far as premonitions go, she didn't really think that's what it was. She wasn't really sure why she had this dream, but for as long as she can remember, she's dreamt it, and with this new ending, it had her unraveled. Once clothed she whipped out the room, and headed down to the kitchen.
"At least I still have you, Dogmeat." She said prancing her way down stairs.
Dogmeat was the most loyal you could get. She'd like to think her dad loyal, but considering he had left her in the vault to be almost killed by security, well-she thought, it doesn't matter trying to justify it. What happened has happened. It's all in the past now. She sat by Dogmeat on the dusted couch, and pet him with the affection a loyal dog deserves. She wiped the eye curtsies from him. He happily accepted this, lightly waving his tired tail. She wasn't sure how old he was, or how long he would live for. He has grown tired of exploring the wasteland, but he is more than happy to be a house dog these days.
"Are you hungry Dogmeat?" She spoke chipper to him. His tail began to wag, and just like that his age wore off. "Ok boy, let's get you some cram, Come on!"
Edith, with Dogmeat in tow, made their way to the kitchen across from them. She opened him up a can of Cram, and made herself something to eat as well. After eating she grabbed her pack, added some Aqua Pura, loaded her ammo up, and some other minor, but needed items before heading to the door. She snapped her fingers at Dogmeat and he happily came to her side.
"You're going to get out of the house today Old Man." Laughing as Dogmeat winced at her pet name for him. She called him Old Man for fun, in a way it was true.
They headed down the ramps of Megaton, over to what was once Moriarty's Saloon. Moriarty was a very unpleasant man. His most expensive asset was the ability to extort others for his gain. She had put a stop to that after he had mentioned that she could be for hire to other patrons of the bar. Poor Nova. She had been on the bars menu for so long, that she actually tortured herself into believing it her way of life. Edith had consulted her so many times, explaining to her that selling sex was not a way to meet ends make. Although in the wastes of D.C. for 200 some years, this seem these transactions were more prominent. She had gotten Simms to exile him, especially after reading through his computer terminals; the evidence there was proof enough that he was a nasty crook. No one even missed him once he was gone, and Gob had taken over, along with Nova, of course. They somehow became a thing after that. Nova quit being on the menu, so to speak, but she took Gob up in a heartbeat.
Hitting off the last ramp she was greeted with the Children of Atom looneys. If they had known that she deactivated the nuclear bomb the second she met Mr. Burke, lord knows what they would do, or if they would do anything at all. Megaton was the first civilized portion of the Wasteland she came across. When she left the vault, and regained her sight after stepping out the wooden door, she headed through, what a sign stated, what was Springvale. Curiosity was a curse, but she resisted the urge once she saw the Megaton sign. With only a BB gun to her name, other than her 101 suit, she headed to Megaton, She was all the more grateful when she arrived and saw people. Mr. Burke, oh boy, he was looker, but he was also a killer. Edith hadn't wanted anything to do with that. He was too sophisticated for her, and mostly was too arrogant. She lying took the offer he proposed, but instead left him on the pretense of thinking about it.
After passing the bomb, she headed up to Gob's. Excitement thrilled her more so and she began to sprint, almost forgetting about Dogmeat in the process. She opened the bar to the Saloon, and let Dogmeat take the first step in.
"Gob, Gob, GOB!" She screeched his name.
Gob leapt from behind the bar and gave Edith a happy hug and smile. "Good morning Edith, but by morning I mean after noon and such, so tell me ho-"
She cut him off, unable to hold her patience, "Gob, I finally had the dream. You know the one I told you about, but this time, I saw him. I saw his face." She had never seen the face before, "He's a ghoul, or he became one, Gob, this is strange. I've never seen a ghoul until you, but even then I didn't really make a deal out of it. I mean he turned around and faced me as a ghoul." She screamed concern.
Gob let out a yip, he wasn't sure why, but this was ground breaking. "Edith, that fantastic, I mean not that he's a ghoul per say, but the dream made progress. How long has it been since you dreamt it, what 6, 8 months or so?"
"It's been almost since I left the vault." She sat down at the bar, sadness engulfed her now. "Gob I need a drink now, this is so heavy, I have the strangest feeling about this." Gob busied himself making her a drink, it's unusually early to get hammered, but this isn't the first time. She did it the morning after her dad died. She had drank the whole way home, which was the most dangerous thing she had done. She had passed out up against the wall of Megaton, and had barely made it inside that night. She woke up still angered at her dad and thought to hell with it and went into the bar.
Gob passed her drink over, "Here Smoothskin, I made it a little strong this time." She usually made Gob add more liquor to her drinks. Since most the supply was either watered down or just lost its lusty buzz, you needed twice the amount to cop a good feel from it. "Now tell me, what did he look like, you know, as a ghoul?" Gob smirked.
"Well, I mean, not to offend, but he looked like most ghouls, only he had etched stance. He was like fucking incredibly tall, fit, and held his head up. It was like he was staring over me, ignoring me once he faced my direction. He had patches of what looked like red hair. Black armor, leather, which was-"Trailing off she didn't want to even finish her sentence, she hadn't realized that she was even taking in his glory. The armor was tightly wrapped up and down him, one arm exposed, with muscle visible. She felt weird. " ..It was Merc armor." She felt cross with herself. "Anyways, it's just a dream." Sigh.
Gob's face was lit the whole time. He had an idea of who it was. He knew it was him. He looked at Edith who had looked a little sloshed after the last gulp. "Slow down smoothskin, I might have to cut you off." He said jokingly at her. They both laugh at that, she had never gotten that far before, but nothing was really that awful to stop her. He looked up the stairs to watch his beau come down.
With a smile and a wave Nova rushed down, "Hey Edith!" She whirled around to her side and gave her a friendly hug. When Nova had it off with Gob, she was fearful that Edith was pursing him at one point prior. Edith, once more reassured her that wasn't the case. She was dubbed the Loner Wanderer for a reason. She didn't need anyone to help her. "I see you made a rough start to your day." Implied pointing at the glass, which was empty of the booze.
"Not exactly." Gob stated, he offered her another glass, which she took, "Edith had that dream again, the one she told us about long bit ago." He raised an eye brow and peered at Edith who was already halfway through the next drink. "She said that the man actually looked at her."
"You're kidding, really now?" Perplexed with interest she looked Edith, "What did he look like?"
Before Edith could even open to tell the tale of her latest addition to her dream, Gob beat her too it. "He sounds familiar." She shrugged it off, Gob felt grateful, last thing he needed was to send Edith on a death wish.
Edith burned from the liquor. "I need to pee."
Edith went off to the bathroom; while relieving herself she thought, about all the shit that she had done. This is why she usually avoids the booze. Days like this just happen though, she should have just not taken the drinks, granted it was almost 2PM when she woke up, which allowed an excuse that it wasn't morning drinking, but it wasn't nearly 5 o'clock anywhere. Maybe somewhere it was. Her brain looped around itself as she began to feel dizzy. The unrelenting churning of her stomach, her thoughts made her sick. Which was another excuse, she occasionally got sick when she drank. Fuck.
The hurling began and she immediately regretted it. It made her shake violently. Dogmeat whined at the door at the sound of her being weakened.
Knocking lightly on the door was Gob, "Edith." She couldn't respond under the pressure her stomach was forcing up her throat. "Edith, are you ok. Hey! Dogmeat, stop that shit." Dogmeat could be heard growling at Gob. Fucking hell.
Edith raised herself after a good 5 minutes of dry heaving since the contents of her stomach were no longer there. She grasped her composure. Walking out of the bathroom Nova ran up to her, she looked worried, but Edith just rubbed it off and insisted it was ok with a show of hands. She returned to her seat, pushed the remaining glass, with few drops left, away from her. "I swear that I will never morning drink again." They all laughed at it. With all seriousness returned and with Edith still highly intoxicated, she turned to Gob.
Gob restrained for a mere second, "Aw, Jesus, Edith. Maybe you're right. Dreams are dreams. I just thought it sounded uncannyingly familiar, but like you said, ghouls don't really have many variations in appearance." Nova hit his side, "I don't mean it that way my love, just which, I mean-well fuck." He sighed and took Nova's hands and kissed her cheek, Edith didn't pay much attention. "What I mean is that birds of a feather flock together, Edith. Ghouls are sparsely different other than where we wear our scars."
Gob didn't want to send her knocking on death's door. He did ask her to run into Underworld if she was ever around there and she could stop by to see Carol for him, hoping she would avoid unsavory parts of Underworld. Edith thought to herself as gob rambled, she remembered seeing the Museum of History when she had to get the satellite dish for Three Dog. What an assjerk he was. Sending a vaulting out into the mutant infested capital of the city. She was really good at sneaking around, all the years in the vault, trailing her dad around. He caught her once, but he acted like he hadn't noticed, he later told Edith that it was considered stalking if she did it to other residents, that it might make them uncomfortable. She took note, but did it anyways, always uncaught. She had snuck all around the mutant fucks, only one had seen her on the way to GNR, but she hid into a protection pod. She had been so glad Sarah was around. All in all she didn't favor the Brotherhood of Steel, but they had meet at such an opportune time. Gob didn't really explain much more, other than his distaste for the place these days. He mentioned that if she went to promise him that she would say and to of course say hi to Carol.
"Ok, who is Carol again?" Edith perplexed, she heard a lot of names, Quinn, Greta, et cetera, et cetera.
"Carol is my like my mom. She's really nice, mention me and I'm sure her and Greta will take care of you, but remember Smoothskin, tell me if you go. So that I know where to send the search party if you go missing." He said, almost serious enough to make Edith mildly wary.
Once home Edith was tired. After the bar shenanigans, which she seriously promised herself to never make a fool of her again, she went to Moira's. Moira has been asking her for months to do some experiments for her, but Edith felt too reluctant to help. She agreed to start a few tasks tomorrow for her in the exchange for caps and ammo.
It only being about 9 o'clock pm, she decided it best to get rest and wake up early for once. After all she had some irradiated water to drink, along with trying to prod through minefield. What the fuck is wrong with Moira. She was actually going to hurt herself on purpose.
Once sunken into her bed, and Dogmeat took his post on the couch, she began to really think about Gob's words. What if he is right, that this is just a weird dream? I mean people have reoccurring dreams all their lives, some are lucky to find the meaning. She lay in bed rethinking the day's troubles. Edith hadn't done a damned thing all day except get shit-faced. She sighed. The dream is haunting her still.
