~Create Your Own Story~
Struggling Adult and Author, Anna Vargas was trying to make something of herself in the world. Having written several manuscripts and been rejected by 99 publishers she was looking for a story to capture the people's interest. She found one in front of her, after being climbing out of the debris that was once the Village of Riyute.
A.N.: This story is mostly to hash out some issues I have ben having with my life. Names have been changed and some events exaggerated. This story will contain mentions of mental issues, self harm, and other things that may be triggering.
~Prolog~
"Yay~. This makes 99." Anna sighed as she opened the ivory envelope, the white paper inside pulled out to inform her of another rejection that fluttered into a nearby trash can. Bare tan feet pad across the carpeted floors of her elderly father's home into the tiled floors of the kitchen, where and old Hispanic man was drinking coffee.
"What did the letter say?" the old man asked, his tanned and winkled face giving her a kind smile. Only to get a frown from his daughter, a plump 26-year-old Hispanic woman that only stood at 5 feet, dressed in some black mesh shorts and dark purple tank top. The young woman shook her head as a few strands of short dark hair fell over her dark brown eyes.
"They're not gonna publish my book either. It's to 'unoriginal' my ass. They have a ton of the same stupid romance novels in very genre." Anna grumbled as she turned to the stove where she was making something for them to eat.
"Why not just add a handsome man to your books, and name him Jose?" her father mentioned as he sipped his coffee and tapped threw his smartphone. Anna rolled her eyed and scoffed as she pulled a tortilla off the burner and added another one. "Because then it would be just like the other ones. I want something different than just the female character existing and then attracting a guy or a ton of guys that end up fighting over her. It would be like and other Twilight if I added a-" Anna was saying before her father's phone rang, making her growl at the interruption.
"Hello? Oh! Hey, Clara what's up? No, no, I'm not doing anything. I can talk right now." Jose answered excitedly as he talked on his phone with some woman that made Anna's eye twitch in annoyance, setting some food on one of the plates. Tuning her father's voice out, she set a full plate before him and piled the rest on the other. Having given up talking to her father about her writing while he was on the phone with his 'friends'. Once her food was plated, she took it and a soda to her room to eat and maybe work on her book more.
"Sofia De La Cruse was a 'normal' young woman with many issues. She couldn't get by without popping a little white pill into her mouth every day since she was 7. The pills made her 'normal' just like all the other little girls. After all, it wasn't normal for people to see death. Only after 20 years of being 'normal', the pills no longer prevented her from seeing death. Worst yet, was that death could see her too." Anna reread the summary of her book out loud, glasses reflecting the black text on bright white pages. "Maybe I should change that to Demons instead? No, then that would freak people out too much… maybe just… mysterious Creatures? Yeah, that sounds better. More whimsical. Leaves me with a lot more wiggle room." Anna reasoned and re typed her summary, trying not to make her book sound so dark and grim. It was good to leave some hope in stories, a way to sting along readers into the next book or two.
Anna's room was a bit messy, with shelves covering most of the walls. Shelves filled with books, toys, and other small knickknacks. Her desk was similar with binders, papers, more books, and mechanical pencils across the surface around her computer. "I think this sounds better. Maybe I can submit it to..." She moved the mouse to look at the spread sheet she made of all the publishers she had sent out her work to. Scrolling down to line 27 to a publisher that had already rejected her twice. "Black Horse Publishing. I think this one will be right up their alley." Anna smiled and pulled up the E-mail to submit her work to. Using the same opening as the last two times she submitted works to them.
"Third time's a charm." Anna let out a weak chuckle as she added the needed files and sent them. Then turned to her already cold food with a slight frown before taking a bite just as there was a knock at her door. "Anna! Don't forget to clean up. I'm going over to Clara's, she needs someone to help her with her oil. I'll be back." Was that her father said as his daughter was trying to eat the food in her mouth to respond. Only to give up and go back to her food when she heard the door open and close. "Anna where are my keys?" Jose called out to her; Anna growled in annoyance as she had just taken another bite. 'How should I know!? They're your keys!' She thought before she heard jingling of keys. "Opp! Never mind I found them. See you later babe." He called out to her as the door opened and closed again.
Anna rolled her eyes and just went back to eating and her computer, sending her manuscript to the next publisher on her list, and then the same with the next one. All three publishers had rejected her twice before with her other stories.
The first story she had written hadn't been much different from all the other stories she had read.
A young girl in a new place and meeting a sweet boy that became her best friend… then the boy moved away for some unknown reason. Only to come back suddenly and become the girl's friend again, only to admit he had been crushing on his best friend since their where little. Girl also had feelings for him and then they became boyfriend and girlfriend with a happily ever after.
It was a cringy story from her pre-teens, having liked a boy in her class but had never been friends with, or anyone for that matter. He had been her bully for 3 years before he moved away, never knowing that she had liked him. Anna had heard from cartoons that boys picked on girl's they liked, so it made her hopeful when the boy came back… only the boy had bullied another girl because of her skin color and called the other girl the 'N' word.
Anna no longer liked him, as she didn't like being mean to others.
Her second story was a bit more… mature. At 15 Anna wrote a story about two teens with Angel alter egos, one a dark angel, and the other a 'holy' angel who had the job of condemning his beloved but could not. While the two teens never had sex, the two angels did.
It was around this time Anna learned about sex, not from the pamphlets she had been given as a pre-teen, not from the 2-3 classes the health teacher lectured about, and not from firsthand experience. What she learned about sex was from medical books and porn that was available to her threw her very first PC. She wasn't liked by the boys in high school, but she wasn't bullied at her new school… not that she paid attention to other people much.
Anna stuck to herself and did her work as best she could, but it was hard to not see the several pregnant girls in her classes. Even a senior boy she was crushing on exposed he already had a child with an ex girlfriend of his. Having seen him pull out his wallet with a picture of his daughter inside, the writing on the back addressing him as Daddy. Disappointed and drowning in like stories of a 'normal' girl getting a not so normal guy or two, to fall in love with her and then fight for the right to be with 'normal' girl that wasn't special in any 'normal' way. It was always because she was the 'key' to something, abnormal, or a lost princess.
It was only going back to her childhood books did she rediscover a story she already knew.
A book about a boy who was not 'normal', he was orphaned and raised by his aunt and uncle, who were not the nicest to him, but spoiled their son rotten with gifts, sweets and toys. Only for the orphaned boy to be told he was of course not 'normal' by a strange and abnormal man. He was a wizard, known in another world for defeating a great evil from their world. The boy was then whisked away to this other world that laid hidden right under the world he once knew.
It took on new meaning to her as a teen, it excited her just like the first time she read it. The story never got old as she discovered new things hidden in the books. Hidden clues and meanings in the character's names and actions, foreshadowing and predictions for what was to come. It inspired Anna too write her own story, drawing from her own experiences in life to fuel her writing.
As girl told to be 'good' all her life or be yelled at and punished if she did anything 'bad'. Being taught in school that she must obey her parents but also that what her parents were doing was 'sinful'. Being told that her father divorcing and cheating on her mother was 'bad'. That going to live with her mother was 'good', only to be left with her grandparents as her mother worked and lived with her boyfriend and, her two younger siblings. Using the money, her that her father had to pay to support her on the two younger siblings instead.
Her mother and grandmother telling her that her father was 'bad' and would always take her back to them if she was injured or sick. Other wise her father would ignore her cries of pain and pleads for help.
The cartoons she watched teaching her that stepmothers' where always evil and cruel to their husband's other children, so she was always weary of her stepmothers, and any other women her father would bring close to her.
It was a few years after the death of Anna's grandmother, she was sent to a mental hospital… having been to 'emotional' at the old woman's funeral. The woman what had been more like a mother to her then the one who gave birth to her. Swallowing a cocktail of pills didn't help, just making matters worse to the point where Anna made the scars on her hands and feet with broken glass in an emotional out burst.
It was only deathly clam composure and indifference that helped Anna become 'normal' with her family. Only looking out for herself while trying to pursue her passion for writing. Living with her father that made good money and would often be with a woman that he found attractive and wanted to fuck every few months. Some times going back to the 2nd or 3rd ex wives if they were free and down to be screwed over again.
Anna looked away from her computer to her phone at the sound of a message, it was from her father.
Dad: Take some meat out, I'm coming home. Clara's husband took care of it already.
"I guess he came home early. I don't know why he's telling me this. Not like Sam is gonna see my phone." Anna scoffed and rolled her eyes at what she believed was just a cover story. Having been told Clara and Sam had issues after all their kids moved out for collage and started their own lives. Her father was 'friends' with Clara and would go over when her husband was out of the house. It was like that with the last woman he saw after cheating on his 3rd wife.
Stretching a bit after sitting at her Computer after playing a game to pass the time, she got up to go to the kitchen and take out the meat her father told her too along with the other stuff she wanted to make with it. Anna never liked her father's 'cooking', having lost his sense of smell years ago, the food he made was overpowering and unappetizing. Skipping meals was 'normal' for her to do after so many years of poverty and uncleanliness with her mother after her grandmother died.
Now with her father, as his only blood child, she had a fridge and pantry of food and drinks at her fingertips. After taking out the meat, she also took out a soda from the fridge and some chips from the panty before going back to her room to eat her snack.
When Anna got to her computer, she saw a response to one of her submissions. "Please let it be the one." Anna pleaded, taking a seat before grabbing the mouse to open the response. Her eyes scanning it for the word she was looking for but was disappointed after skimming the first paragraph.
"Fuck."
Groaning she just opened the can of soda… only to get a mass of bubbles exploding form the seemingly 'normal' can… and getting it all over her notes and computer that flickered in response. "No! No! No! No! No!" Anna scrabbled in a panic as the screen went black as she rushed the can to the nearest bathroom sink as her small hands tried to contain the oozing sugary mess. Dumping it into the sink, regardless of it erupting again all over the mirror.
The computer with all her manuscripts and publisher information… Her notes that contained future stories, character and worlds she was creating...
Now her notes were brown and wet, the computer and keyboard soaked and sparking as Anna suppressed tears and panic while trying to save the work that she had been building up for several years be reduced to nothing because of a can that looked 'normal'.
A.N.:Please leave a review and tell me what you think. It has been a while since I have written anything/posted on
