A Dark, Surreal Love Story

Trace was falling, it seemed, through blankets of air. The seconds began to dilate and even separate into their own eternities. His short hair ruffled in show motion, his tensed muscles relaxed and his thoughts drifted. He thought of his cell and how much freer he was now, suspended in this blissful night air. Here, nestled inside a friendly breeze he was finally safe. He didn't have to worry about the fear now. Actually, he didn't have to worry about the fear when he'd been inside his cell either. It wasn't so bad he thought, he shouldn't have left; there wouldn't have been any fear if he had. Why had he left? There was some reason... a broken lock, an inquisitive hand, a strand of dark hair...

Kelsey.

Trace hit the ground running. How much time had he lost? There was no good way to tell and he hoped to hell that he wasn't too late. So long as she was there; PLEASE let her still be there his mind shouted. One corner. Two corners. Three doors down and...

An open gate and empty cell were all that met him. A spattering of blood on the floor, his only greeting. Trace couldn't believe it, he WOULDN'T believe it. After days of planning... and now she was gone; and he would be too if he didn't hurry. No sooner had he thought this than a black chord encircled his waist and pulled tight.

"NO!" he cried in anguish and fury. But he was already being lifted off the ground. Struggling against the thing was useless, it pulled and gripped at him with unnatural gain. He grasped it tightly and turned best he could to face his enemy. He refused to give in. He woudn't go quietly into the.... air duct? He could see very clearly that he was, in fact, being lifted into an air duct, but it made no sense to him, not until he was inside.

"Kelsey!" he shouted as he saw her, slumped against the inside wall. Her shirt was ripped off her shoulder and blood stained the entire thing. Her brown hair clung in coagulated strands to her forehead; her legs, flush against the edges where she must have supported herself to lift him up.

"I knew you'd come." she murmured. " You were just a little late.... nothing wrong with that." as she gave in to exhaustion and blood loss.

--- Needs work... but I needed to get this up. -John ---
--- Edit: Lookit that, I draw'd a picture! Yeah, not quite anguish a fury... more like shock and well, more shock. We'll work on that...---

ID-3

Hello John
Not now, I'm trying to work out some specifics of that Australian thing from yesterday.
No. You're not done yet.
I'm sorry?
Let it sit. You and I aren't done yet.
Do you really think-
Yes I do. Today is superposition. Give me a series of two unlike concepts.
...
Passive-aggressiveness is weakness.
Catcher in the Sky.
Do you think this is a joke?
A dark and surreal love story, a colorful girl who represents a secret society, a comedy set in a fascist state, what's the point of all this!?
The point is that won't get anywhere until you force yourself to grow! Now elaborate. All of them.

ID-2

"Boo!"
"...am I supposed to scream?"
"Worth a shot."
"So what is it today?"
"Oh good, you're catching on! Today is the World."
"Our World?"
"No, The World. Let's say I want to set something in the past. When and where?"
"Um, okay, Victorian England."
"Surely you can be more creative than that."
"Australia then. During British colonization."
"Now you're getting somewhere. Let's say the story focuses on right and wrong and additionally, technology scare"
"Alright, that's not so bad. You can work in the themes of right and wrong with the facts that the colonizers were criminals. A character, a group, a community emerges which debates the definitions of right and wrong as defined by the rest of the world. It's isolated, there's nobody to tell them otherwise. There are troubles defining a moral sense and there's always the underlying threat of an island inhabited by criminals.

Technology's where things get fuzzy. There's the new technology brought to the island, of course, but aside from that I don't think there was any sort of industrial revolution going on at the time..."
"Are you sure about your assumptions here?"
"Are you?"
"Oh, there's also time travel."
"What!?"
"This isn't about historical fiction, John. Time travel. Go."
"Alright, so one day a kid follows a koala and falls into a cavern-"
"I'm sorry, I thought we were going to be-"
"-original, yeah, I get it. Okay, then, two lovers get lost in a forest and discover carvings in the land itself. Standing in different areas of the carvings affects time, though it's impossible to notice this at first, at least with any accuracy. The carvings themselves are a maze which when understood can be used to accurately navigate time. The discovery of this, of course is divisive and power struggles, across both the land and time start to control the area. This technology divides and unites across borders formerly thought impenetrable."
"Not bad. Tomorrow again."
"Who exactly do you think you are?"
"...Hello?"