SleepingBeauty
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Introduction
This is my first story (and my first post), so be nice
It was just an idea I got, and it seemed interesting, so I thought I should see what other people thought of it.
Now, just to make sure you don’t start reading something you absolutely hate, this is something of an “agency investigating the supernatural” story. I take no responsibility for hideously overused clichés that will inevitably scar your mind. Read at your own risk.
There are also some sexual themes in the story. I didn’t write “weak” or “intense” as a descriptor, simply because I am still too new to know what the standard on this forum is. I don’t think it would rate as very sexual though, so most people should hopefully be able to read it, even if they generally don’t like sexual elements in a story.
Subject Name: Josh Elm
Age: 25
Occupation: Store clerk
Current Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
This day really wasn’t going as planned. Customers were still piling up in a long line, even though it was just five minutes until closing time. For some reason, people always thought that the best time to shop groceries was just before they went to bed. Never mind the poor clerks who then had to wait until actual closing time before they could even start preparing to close up. It was infuriating, to say the least. Josh could barely put up with it, but he still managed to give them a friendly smile, all the while quietly contemplating their hideous deaths by drowning in cement. It was a kind of therapy for him.
Josh himself was pretty thin, although perhaps his height made him appear scrawnier than he really was. He had black, curly hair that he always fiddled with when he was nervous. Strong or athletic was perhaps not the ideal way to describe him, or even a close descriptor for that matter, but he had a certain toughness, and the endless running around in the store had given him a pretty good stamina to boot.
Of course, there was that one person he didn’t imagine dying in a horrible and unfashionable manner. Jessie was standing just a few feet back in the line, carefully counting every item in her bag a second time. She always did that. She came by the store two or three times a week. As far as Josh knew, she was still studying. He wasn’t certain how old she was, but 23 or 24 seemed like a good guess. He didn’t know if she had a boyfriend, or even where she lived. He did know that he was crazy about her though, and taking his eyes off her and focusing on the customer in front of him was almost painful.
“That’s 3.50”, he mumbled to the elderly woman who was waiting impatiently, while gazing shyly at Jessie. She didn’t seem to notice him, still focused completely on her groceries. She was next in line now, and Josh felt very self-conscious. He wanted desperately to keep his voice straight, but the corners off his mouth were shivering already. She walked up to him and started sorting out all the things she wanted to buy. Josh made a quick check. Milk, bread, butter, vegetables, all that, nothing unusual. Same thing every time, with the occasional scotch tape thrown in every now and then. Josh quickly and clumsily started calculating the numbers on his machine, although he already had the answer in his head. He had always been good with numbers. Sadly, people were much, much harder to deal with.
“That would be… 17.50, Jessie”, he mumbled, uncertain if he would dare to look into her eyes.
“Thank you…” she said, brushing her long blond hair out of her face and reaching for her money. She gazed at his nametag. “…Josh”, she finished with a bright smile.
She didn’t even know his name, even though they had seen each other over a hundred times. He felt a weight press over his heart, but at the same time her smile made him feel better. So she hadn’t known his name. So what? She did now, and that was a step in the right direction.
Still smiling, she turned and stuffed her items into a bag, and after giving him another polite little smile, she turned and started walking away. He gazed longingly after her, his eyes resting momentarily on her sweatpants. They didn’t do her long, tanned legs or perfect behind any justice. It was a cruel world they lived in.
An annoyed grunting snapped him back to reality, and he turned to face his next customer. The man looked tall and wiry, with an unkempt beard and a trucker hat concealing most of his face. The frown on his face was obvious though, and Josh decided not to aggravate the man by forcing him to wait any longer. He avoided the mans eyes, but a quick glance from the corner of his eye allowed him see that the man was also trailing Jessie as she walked out the door. It made a strange rage surge within him, but he quickly managed to repress it. Still, he didn’t like that look on that mans face. The guy had to be like… 40 or 50 or something. Josh would have considered that very inappropriate in any case, but with Jessie it angered him even more. Still, customer’s always right, right?
“She’s really something, isn’t she?” he said in a pathetic attempt at small talk, and instantly regretted it. The man just threw a surly look at him, and made a gesture towards his pack of cigarettes, the only thing he was there to buy. Considering he was forcing them to stay there until midnight to clean up just because he couldn’t have gotten off his ass and bought them during the day, Josh didn’t think it would kill the man to be pleasant. But he didn’t say that aloud, of course.
Josh told him the price, and the man gave him the money. Then he stuffed his cigarettes in his pocket and walked out, without even a polite nod. Josh wouldn’t miss him if he never entered the store again. He turned to the final customer, throwing a glance at the watch. He wouldn’t get home until long after midnight. This last smile was hard to muster.
It was dark in the parking lot, and the streetlights did little to help. The wind was howling, and Jessie desperately wished she had worn a jacket. Her thin t-shirt offered no protection at all against the cold, and she had to keep moving or she’d turn into an ice sculpture. At least once she got into the car she’d be able to get a little warmer, or at least get some protection from the merciless wind. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her car keys as soon as she spotted her car. It had been a gift from her father the day she had started college, as a motivator to pull through it all. So far she hoped she had made him proud. She was actually pretty certain she had. So far she had handled all of her classes flawlessly, and it was just that paper she had to finish before Monday. It wouldn’t be a problem.
Not to mention that right now, she couldn’t be happier about the car. She fumbled with her keys and dropped them to the ground as she tried to unlock her car. She mumbled a quick and silent curse and got down to her knees to search for them in the darkness. She was glad she hadn’t chosen jeans for today. Sweatpants allowed far more flexibility, and it didn’t matter if they got dirty on the asphalt.
“Come on, come one, come on little keys, where are you”, she muttered. “Come on, where?” She moved around a little, and the weak light reflected on her keys, lying only about a foot lengths away from her.
“There you are”, she mumbled and reached after them. However, as her hand closed over them, a weak rattle was heard, and suddenly they weren’t under her hadn’t anymore. She had missed them by a few inches. She couldn’t quite understand how though. She figured she must have miscalculated the distance in the darkness. She reached out again, and a new rattle was heard. This time she actually saw the keys move. They slid away from her hand, as if they didn’t want to be captured. She rubbed her eyes in confusion. This was ridiculous. Keys did not just choose not to be grabbed. They were keys, for crying out loud! They didn’t have a will of their own, much less the ability to move on their own volition. Yet they clearly were.
Determined not to let them get away again, she crawled on her legs and hands until she was positioned right over the keys, and then she dove after them. Yet still they got away from her, if barely. She started crawling after them, and they easily kept an even distance from her. She felt like if she was in some kind off game a small child might enjoy playing. She suspected for a short moment someone might be toying with her, like maybe tying a string to the keys and then pulling them away form her. Yet the keys had been in her pocket the whole time. Nobody could have gotten them, tied a string around them and put them back without her knowing. Even keys that moved on their own made more sense than that.
She kept crawling after them, foolishly throwing herself after them again and again, trying to get them. Suddenly they stopped, and she threw herself after them. Her hands closed around them, and she felt a surge of joy as she “won”. Against who or what she still wasn’t sure, but she had her keys. In the frenzy of getting her keys back she had forgotten about the wind, but now it all came back, and she shivered as she lay on the ground.
She suddenly realized she wasn’t alone any more, and gazed up at the man standing in front of her. He seemed familiar. An unshaven face, a trucker hat, and an old green jacket. Wait, that was the guy who had been standing behind her at the store. Her face blushed when she realized how stupid she must have appeared, chasing after her keys.
She got to her feet. “I’m… I’m sorry”, she stuttered nervously. How the hell did you tell someone you had been chasing your fleeing keys? She couldn’t really think off a good excuse though. Her mind seemed to have gone as numb as her body. “I was just… you know… I dropped my keys”, she mumbled and looked down.
“I noticed”, he commented, looking at her in a way that made her shift her position. She felt a bit… uncomfortable as he sized her up.
“Well”, she said uncertainly. “I should get going then.” She turned to walk, but threw a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure he wasn’t following her. She wasn’t sure why, but she didn’t like him one bit.
“Wait”, he said, and she froze in her steps. She shouldn’t be so nervous, but this man had “untrustworthy stranger” written all over him. “What’s your name?” he asked, and sounded a little nervous even. That surprised her, and she thought for a moment that perhaps she had just misjudged him.
“My name is Jessie”, she said, turning around to him, now being several feet away from him. She was reasonably sure she could outrun him if necessary. He didn’t look all that tough. She wasn’t going to give him her last name though.
“Jessie”, he mused. “A beautiful name.”
There was the eerie creepiness again. Something in his tone set off all her inner alarms. She wanted to turn and run, but it seemed terribly rude. Instead, she took a step back. “Look, sorry, but I really have to go now. I’ve got a big paper to finish tonight.” That wasn’t quite true, she had plenty of time on her hands before she needed to turn it in, but it was the closest to truth that she could think off. She turned around and started walking. “Nice meeting you”, she said as she threw a new glance over her shoulder to make sure he wasn’t following her.
He wasn’t following her. Instead, he was just standing their, and she had an uncomfortable hunch that he was checking out her ass. She picked up her pace, hoping to get out of his sight. At the same time though, she felt like if something was pressing down on her chest. She tried taking a deep breath, but found that she couldn’t force the air down her throat. Panic seized her. Was she getting a stroke? She had never had one before, she wasn’t certain if this was what they were like. As she fell to her knees, she heard the mans footsteps behind her. She turned her head and faced his grim gaze.
“Please”, she mumbled. “Get me to a hospital.”
And then she passed out.
Josh just wanted to get inside. It was freezing outside, and so dark he couldn’t see his hand. Even while he was walking up the stairs to his apartment he was shivering. He hadn’t gotten away until almost two hours past midnight, and he was ready to just throw himself into bed. He fumbled with the keys for a few moments before he got inside and closed the door. He hoped he hadn’t caught a cold. Listening for any snoring, but failing to perceive any, he assumed his roommate had yet to tuck in too. Peeking into the small kitchen, he caught sight of Victoria, leaning over her books. Her dark hair was tied back into a ponytail, and her reading glasses were resting on the tip of her nose.
“Eh-hem”, Josh coughed loudly.
Victoria jumped alive, looking up from her book and removing her glasses. “Oh, Josh, it’s just you”, she said and took a deep breath. “You scared me.”
“Sorry about that”, he said with a smile. He threw a glance at the watch. “Don’t you think it’s time to go to bed?”
Victoria threw a glance as well, and seemed surprised to notice how late it was. “Damn, I guess time just slipped from my mind. I’ve got a big-ass test tomorrow, and I have to study if I want to pass.”
“You also have to sleep”, Josh pointed out and helped out of her chair. “It won’t do for you to fall asleep at the test, now will it?”
“Good point”, she mumbled, and Josh noticed she was really tired after all. He had to support her with all his strength, as she could barely stand up. “So”, she said as they entered her bedroom, “how are things on the Jessie-front?”
She knew perfectly well how Josh felt about the gorgeous blond that always visited the store, not to mention Josh’s dreams. Of course, he was compelled to talk about her with someone, so she was his designated listener. She didn’t seem to mind though, except for being annoyed at his cowardice.
“Not to great”, he mumbled. “Apparently she doesn’t even know my name.” He hesitated. “Until today, that is”, he added on.
“Well, what do you expect when you’ve never said anything to her except for the price of her groceries?” She gently poked his ribs, and he squirmed a little. For a moment, the image of an empty Coke can lying on the ground flashed by his eyes. He wondered if he was remembering some old commercial.
“I know, I know. I just… never mind.”
“Come on, what?”
“We’ll talk tomorrow. You need to sleep”, he said and put her down in her bed.
“Night”, she mumbled.
“Goodnight.”
This is my first story (and my first post), so be nice
It was just an idea I got, and it seemed interesting, so I thought I should see what other people thought of it.
Now, just to make sure you don’t start reading something you absolutely hate, this is something of an “agency investigating the supernatural” story. I take no responsibility for hideously overused clichés that will inevitably scar your mind. Read at your own risk.
There are also some sexual themes in the story. I didn’t write “weak” or “intense” as a descriptor, simply because I am still too new to know what the standard on this forum is. I don’t think it would rate as very sexual though, so most people should hopefully be able to read it, even if they generally don’t like sexual elements in a story.
Subject Name: Josh Elm
Age: 25
Occupation: Store clerk
Current Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
This day really wasn’t going as planned. Customers were still piling up in a long line, even though it was just five minutes until closing time. For some reason, people always thought that the best time to shop groceries was just before they went to bed. Never mind the poor clerks who then had to wait until actual closing time before they could even start preparing to close up. It was infuriating, to say the least. Josh could barely put up with it, but he still managed to give them a friendly smile, all the while quietly contemplating their hideous deaths by drowning in cement. It was a kind of therapy for him.
Josh himself was pretty thin, although perhaps his height made him appear scrawnier than he really was. He had black, curly hair that he always fiddled with when he was nervous. Strong or athletic was perhaps not the ideal way to describe him, or even a close descriptor for that matter, but he had a certain toughness, and the endless running around in the store had given him a pretty good stamina to boot.
Of course, there was that one person he didn’t imagine dying in a horrible and unfashionable manner. Jessie was standing just a few feet back in the line, carefully counting every item in her bag a second time. She always did that. She came by the store two or three times a week. As far as Josh knew, she was still studying. He wasn’t certain how old she was, but 23 or 24 seemed like a good guess. He didn’t know if she had a boyfriend, or even where she lived. He did know that he was crazy about her though, and taking his eyes off her and focusing on the customer in front of him was almost painful.
“That’s 3.50”, he mumbled to the elderly woman who was waiting impatiently, while gazing shyly at Jessie. She didn’t seem to notice him, still focused completely on her groceries. She was next in line now, and Josh felt very self-conscious. He wanted desperately to keep his voice straight, but the corners off his mouth were shivering already. She walked up to him and started sorting out all the things she wanted to buy. Josh made a quick check. Milk, bread, butter, vegetables, all that, nothing unusual. Same thing every time, with the occasional scotch tape thrown in every now and then. Josh quickly and clumsily started calculating the numbers on his machine, although he already had the answer in his head. He had always been good with numbers. Sadly, people were much, much harder to deal with.
“That would be… 17.50, Jessie”, he mumbled, uncertain if he would dare to look into her eyes.
“Thank you…” she said, brushing her long blond hair out of her face and reaching for her money. She gazed at his nametag. “…Josh”, she finished with a bright smile.
She didn’t even know his name, even though they had seen each other over a hundred times. He felt a weight press over his heart, but at the same time her smile made him feel better. So she hadn’t known his name. So what? She did now, and that was a step in the right direction.
Still smiling, she turned and stuffed her items into a bag, and after giving him another polite little smile, she turned and started walking away. He gazed longingly after her, his eyes resting momentarily on her sweatpants. They didn’t do her long, tanned legs or perfect behind any justice. It was a cruel world they lived in.
An annoyed grunting snapped him back to reality, and he turned to face his next customer. The man looked tall and wiry, with an unkempt beard and a trucker hat concealing most of his face. The frown on his face was obvious though, and Josh decided not to aggravate the man by forcing him to wait any longer. He avoided the mans eyes, but a quick glance from the corner of his eye allowed him see that the man was also trailing Jessie as she walked out the door. It made a strange rage surge within him, but he quickly managed to repress it. Still, he didn’t like that look on that mans face. The guy had to be like… 40 or 50 or something. Josh would have considered that very inappropriate in any case, but with Jessie it angered him even more. Still, customer’s always right, right?
“She’s really something, isn’t she?” he said in a pathetic attempt at small talk, and instantly regretted it. The man just threw a surly look at him, and made a gesture towards his pack of cigarettes, the only thing he was there to buy. Considering he was forcing them to stay there until midnight to clean up just because he couldn’t have gotten off his ass and bought them during the day, Josh didn’t think it would kill the man to be pleasant. But he didn’t say that aloud, of course.
Josh told him the price, and the man gave him the money. Then he stuffed his cigarettes in his pocket and walked out, without even a polite nod. Josh wouldn’t miss him if he never entered the store again. He turned to the final customer, throwing a glance at the watch. He wouldn’t get home until long after midnight. This last smile was hard to muster.
It was dark in the parking lot, and the streetlights did little to help. The wind was howling, and Jessie desperately wished she had worn a jacket. Her thin t-shirt offered no protection at all against the cold, and she had to keep moving or she’d turn into an ice sculpture. At least once she got into the car she’d be able to get a little warmer, or at least get some protection from the merciless wind. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her car keys as soon as she spotted her car. It had been a gift from her father the day she had started college, as a motivator to pull through it all. So far she hoped she had made him proud. She was actually pretty certain she had. So far she had handled all of her classes flawlessly, and it was just that paper she had to finish before Monday. It wouldn’t be a problem.
Not to mention that right now, she couldn’t be happier about the car. She fumbled with her keys and dropped them to the ground as she tried to unlock her car. She mumbled a quick and silent curse and got down to her knees to search for them in the darkness. She was glad she hadn’t chosen jeans for today. Sweatpants allowed far more flexibility, and it didn’t matter if they got dirty on the asphalt.
“Come on, come one, come on little keys, where are you”, she muttered. “Come on, where?” She moved around a little, and the weak light reflected on her keys, lying only about a foot lengths away from her.
“There you are”, she mumbled and reached after them. However, as her hand closed over them, a weak rattle was heard, and suddenly they weren’t under her hadn’t anymore. She had missed them by a few inches. She couldn’t quite understand how though. She figured she must have miscalculated the distance in the darkness. She reached out again, and a new rattle was heard. This time she actually saw the keys move. They slid away from her hand, as if they didn’t want to be captured. She rubbed her eyes in confusion. This was ridiculous. Keys did not just choose not to be grabbed. They were keys, for crying out loud! They didn’t have a will of their own, much less the ability to move on their own volition. Yet they clearly were.
Determined not to let them get away again, she crawled on her legs and hands until she was positioned right over the keys, and then she dove after them. Yet still they got away from her, if barely. She started crawling after them, and they easily kept an even distance from her. She felt like if she was in some kind off game a small child might enjoy playing. She suspected for a short moment someone might be toying with her, like maybe tying a string to the keys and then pulling them away form her. Yet the keys had been in her pocket the whole time. Nobody could have gotten them, tied a string around them and put them back without her knowing. Even keys that moved on their own made more sense than that.
She kept crawling after them, foolishly throwing herself after them again and again, trying to get them. Suddenly they stopped, and she threw herself after them. Her hands closed around them, and she felt a surge of joy as she “won”. Against who or what she still wasn’t sure, but she had her keys. In the frenzy of getting her keys back she had forgotten about the wind, but now it all came back, and she shivered as she lay on the ground.
She suddenly realized she wasn’t alone any more, and gazed up at the man standing in front of her. He seemed familiar. An unshaven face, a trucker hat, and an old green jacket. Wait, that was the guy who had been standing behind her at the store. Her face blushed when she realized how stupid she must have appeared, chasing after her keys.
She got to her feet. “I’m… I’m sorry”, she stuttered nervously. How the hell did you tell someone you had been chasing your fleeing keys? She couldn’t really think off a good excuse though. Her mind seemed to have gone as numb as her body. “I was just… you know… I dropped my keys”, she mumbled and looked down.
“I noticed”, he commented, looking at her in a way that made her shift her position. She felt a bit… uncomfortable as he sized her up.
“Well”, she said uncertainly. “I should get going then.” She turned to walk, but threw a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure he wasn’t following her. She wasn’t sure why, but she didn’t like him one bit.
“Wait”, he said, and she froze in her steps. She shouldn’t be so nervous, but this man had “untrustworthy stranger” written all over him. “What’s your name?” he asked, and sounded a little nervous even. That surprised her, and she thought for a moment that perhaps she had just misjudged him.
“My name is Jessie”, she said, turning around to him, now being several feet away from him. She was reasonably sure she could outrun him if necessary. He didn’t look all that tough. She wasn’t going to give him her last name though.
“Jessie”, he mused. “A beautiful name.”
There was the eerie creepiness again. Something in his tone set off all her inner alarms. She wanted to turn and run, but it seemed terribly rude. Instead, she took a step back. “Look, sorry, but I really have to go now. I’ve got a big paper to finish tonight.” That wasn’t quite true, she had plenty of time on her hands before she needed to turn it in, but it was the closest to truth that she could think off. She turned around and started walking. “Nice meeting you”, she said as she threw a new glance over her shoulder to make sure he wasn’t following her.
He wasn’t following her. Instead, he was just standing their, and she had an uncomfortable hunch that he was checking out her ass. She picked up her pace, hoping to get out of his sight. At the same time though, she felt like if something was pressing down on her chest. She tried taking a deep breath, but found that she couldn’t force the air down her throat. Panic seized her. Was she getting a stroke? She had never had one before, she wasn’t certain if this was what they were like. As she fell to her knees, she heard the mans footsteps behind her. She turned her head and faced his grim gaze.
“Please”, she mumbled. “Get me to a hospital.”
And then she passed out.
Josh just wanted to get inside. It was freezing outside, and so dark he couldn’t see his hand. Even while he was walking up the stairs to his apartment he was shivering. He hadn’t gotten away until almost two hours past midnight, and he was ready to just throw himself into bed. He fumbled with the keys for a few moments before he got inside and closed the door. He hoped he hadn’t caught a cold. Listening for any snoring, but failing to perceive any, he assumed his roommate had yet to tuck in too. Peeking into the small kitchen, he caught sight of Victoria, leaning over her books. Her dark hair was tied back into a ponytail, and her reading glasses were resting on the tip of her nose.
“Eh-hem”, Josh coughed loudly.
Victoria jumped alive, looking up from her book and removing her glasses. “Oh, Josh, it’s just you”, she said and took a deep breath. “You scared me.”
“Sorry about that”, he said with a smile. He threw a glance at the watch. “Don’t you think it’s time to go to bed?”
Victoria threw a glance as well, and seemed surprised to notice how late it was. “Damn, I guess time just slipped from my mind. I’ve got a big-ass test tomorrow, and I have to study if I want to pass.”
“You also have to sleep”, Josh pointed out and helped out of her chair. “It won’t do for you to fall asleep at the test, now will it?”
“Good point”, she mumbled, and Josh noticed she was really tired after all. He had to support her with all his strength, as she could barely stand up. “So”, she said as they entered her bedroom, “how are things on the Jessie-front?”
She knew perfectly well how Josh felt about the gorgeous blond that always visited the store, not to mention Josh’s dreams. Of course, he was compelled to talk about her with someone, so she was his designated listener. She didn’t seem to mind though, except for being annoyed at his cowardice.
“Not to great”, he mumbled. “Apparently she doesn’t even know my name.” He hesitated. “Until today, that is”, he added on.
“Well, what do you expect when you’ve never said anything to her except for the price of her groceries?” She gently poked his ribs, and he squirmed a little. For a moment, the image of an empty Coke can lying on the ground flashed by his eyes. He wondered if he was remembering some old commercial.
“I know, I know. I just… never mind.”
“Come on, what?”
“We’ll talk tomorrow. You need to sleep”, he said and put her down in her bed.
“Night”, she mumbled.
“Goodnight.”