Barden Revelle
Bio
I'm an actor, as well as a Real Estate Broker in North Carolina who has decided to try my hand at writing, and perhaps screenwriting as well.
Stories (2)
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Under the Above
The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. Zaphia never knew her grandfather well, carrying only a few dusty, faded memories of him in her mind, as his Day of Absolution came when she was barely more than a toddler. Sometimes, picturing the view from that one small window in his room was the only thing keeping her sanity intact, and kindling the flames of hope that burned within her, a hope for a different future than the mundane one that was already planned for her... and for everyone. She had heard stories about the grandfather all her life, and among her favorites, were the stories he had shared with his children, her parents, about the world and the ways of life before the Great Retreat. She had only heard him tell the stories a few times, and could only faintly remember his voice, but clearly remembered his face. She always thought he resembled that "Santa" character she had seen in pictures in his secret room and heard about in some of the stories, a jolly old man who would give everyone a gift on something called "Christmas". She loved hearing about the grandfather's experiences on The Old Above, and her mind would race with exciting, colorful images as his stories described a beautifully fascinating world that she, nor her parents, had ever experienced. She had never seen most of the things mentioned and described in the stories, things like flowers, and butterflies, dogs, or kittens, or fish, and couldn't fathom what it must have been like to live in a house, which was a type of home people lived in on the Old Above, built on top of the ground instead of beneath it. She had never seen a bicycle or car or airplane, but she knew what they were, and had seen plenty of pictures of them and read about them in books, and something called a "magazine", that she had discovered in her grandfather's room. She wondered if others in her family knew about the grandfather's room, and if they had seen those pictures and read those documents, and were accurately imagining and envisioning the things in grandfather's stories whenever someone told them. Zaphia knew he must have been very wise to have taken such care to ensure that the details of these stories were kept every time they were retold. Before each retelling, an explicit set of instructions were also recited by the "rheto", or rhetorician, stressing the importance of telling each story the exact same way every time, defining some of the terms that were unknown, and the listeners were encouraged to memorize and relish the details of the stories and the way they were being told, so as to ensure the preservation of the lost truths they conveyed, and perhaps, someday share these stories themselves as rhetoricians. Those instructions also stressed the importance of secrecy and privacy when reciting any part of the stories, as they contained forbidden vocabulary, and were considered blasphemy against Social Refinement. It was dangerous to allow these stories to be heard by the wrong ears, especially by those loyal to The Governance. No one dared record these stories in writing either, because it was even more dangerous to have written evidence of heresy. To make that grave mistake and be the subject of Social Arrest would mean one's family being confined to quarters while The Ministers of Governance conducted investigations and interrogations, during which, sustenance rations and life comforts were suspended. If evidence was found, or a confession extracted from just one family member, the Social Arrest was upgraded to a Governance Citation, and the entire family would likely be convicted of heresy against The Doctrines of Social Refinement and sentenced to one of the two purification punishments. Zaphia shuddered at the thoughts of both and simply pondering on which would be worse made a sick feeling in her stomach, even though she wasn't entirely sure whether to believe the conclusions and speculations that dwelled in her mind, or to accept the prescribed belief that was presented to all the people during the morning and evening Governance Broadcasts. The common consensus was that the latter was the easiest and safest. No matter which was the truth, neither was pleasant.
By Barden Revelle 3 years ago in Earth
THE CONNECTED
"Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space... or so they say. I don't know if whomever or whatever was there could hear his scream or not, but I felt it. I felt it in every fiber of my being, down to my core. I felt his immense terror shrieking in my soul, across all those miles from above, and when I close my eyes, I can almost see whatever it was that grabbed him, that had come for him... to end him, take him, and he knew, I felt that.... he knew that it was there for that reason." Dirk drew a deep, shaken breath before he continued. "I felt it, this thing. It sensed me too. It was aware of me, through mine and Derek's connection. I sensed Derek's horror as he drifted helplessly in space... in those last seconds of his life... like a mouse being pounced on by a cat, in that brief instant before the end, he knew... he KNEW he was prey." Dirk stared at his hands a moment, trying not to feel. "I know it was something sentient, like a person, but not. Some unknown... something that was floating up there with him on that spacewalk. I felt it. I felt Derek's agony when it punched it's... whatever... stinger, through his suit and into his belly. I could feel something, like ice cold metal in Derek's guts and the sensation of ... I dunno... of suddenly being injected full of liquid fire, and just as suddenly, having everything sucked right out of my body... Derek's body, then the stinger thing ... tentacle... whatever, withdrawing ... letting what was left in my brother to escape into space... and then, nothing... except a second or two of the... the thing. I sensed it's sinister delight, like a sadistic satisfaction, in what it did. It took the same pleasure in knowing I was feeling it all too." Dirk sighed deeply and put a hand over his mouth, stifling the urge to break down, or perhaps throw up. He scrubbed his palms togehter briskly for a moment, then took a deep breath and continued, "It sensed me too, through the connection between me and my brother, and, at least for a brief moment, was fully aware of me... here on Earth." Dirk fought off a shiver and looked away from his interviewers briefly before continuing. "I don't know if it understood who, or what, I was, but I could feel it searching through my mind, just as it searched through Derek's as he died in it's embrace." Dirk shook his head, trying to turn off the images and sensations he was reliving. He ran his fingers through his tousled auburn hair and let his closed fists drop to the table in a mild bang. "Wheew" he blew, trying to release some emotion and keep composed. He collected his thoughts and cleared his throat before going on, "It still doesn't seem real to me, my twin brother being gone. We've always had a unique connection, me and Derek, always knew what the other was thinking or was about to say. We knew when the other was excited, or afraid, or in pain... like, I could feel his exhilaration the first time he jumped out of a plane... or when he felt my adrenaline rush the time I went cave rappelling and my harness almost failed, and I dropped 50 feet, stopping only a couple of feet above the cavern floor." A mischievous smirk spread across Dirks face and he laughed and blushed as he remembered something and continued. "Hell, the first time Derek got lay- ... his first time having sex, I knew it. I was working on a paper at the library, all the way across town, and he was at home, and had snuck his date into his room, and I knew as soon as they started, I could feel his excitement and, well, something new, and when he... you know," Dirk made finger quotation marks in the air, " 'finished', I uhm, you know... 'finished' too... in my jeans, right there in the middle of the library!" The two men across the table chuckled and made Dirk's face a deeper shade of crimson as he grinned, relieved to finally have a light moment. "Sorry" Dirk apologized, "But you guys said you wanted to hear everything." The interviewers' chuckles subsided and one, waiving his hand, gesturing "it's nothing", said, "Oh, no, it's fine. We do want to hear everything, every detail about your connection.... please, continue" Dirk scratched the ginger scruff on his face and went on, "It was embarrassing as hell, at first I thought something was wrong with me, and then, well, I knew what had happened." Dirk's smile faded and his face went serious again. "We always knew when the other was up to something, or in trouble. He felt my fear and agony the moment I lost my leg... which, as you know, is why it was him up there instead of me... or both of us." Dirk bit his lip to fight back wet eyes. His interviewers gazed at him without expression, listening intently as the young man paused to maintain his composure. Dirk smiled and chuckled lightly as he continued, "We were going to be the first twins in space. We have always said that, since we were kids, that we were going to be astronauts, the first twin astronauts in space." Dirk looked at his hands again and sighed as he continued, "We achieved the astronaut part, or at least were both selected as astronauts, but then you guys asked us, well, basically insisted, that we participate in your 'twins study'. That's how he got to space and I stayed here on the ground. And then, the accident... and suddenly my career at NASA was over, and now... my brother is gone."
By Barden Revelle 3 years ago in Fiction
