Friday, December 19, 2008

turned to Margaret. She thought of Bill, of that one kiss that had sent the blood rushing in her veins like lava. When he chose Wilma, then Alice over her, she was devastated. That was when she entered the order. Still, her face betrayed no emotion. It was an impassive, beautiful mask. 'Joe must go,' she said. 'It's no good. We hoped he, Clive, or one of the girls would be the answer, but the hunger is still there. Maybe if Clive and the girls had a child ...'
'No!' Bitsy said. 'It's too risky.'
'We've dabbled enough,' Magdalena said. 'Anyway, I've seen the way Rowena looks at Clive. Leave them be. Let dwarves be with dwarves.'
'Then Joe ...' Margaret mused.
'No!' Alice said sharply. 'I know he loves Vi, but I won't let him be destroyed, not like all of us.'

That night before she set off for McGilligans, Alice held her son close, knowing she had little time left with him. It was the only way to keep him safe. She thought of his beauty, the way men and women were drawn to him. She had seen the way Randy looked at him sometimes, always goading him into Greco Roman wrestling on the beach ...


Only little Clive understood what it meant to have a face that stopped traffic. When she saw them laughing together, she wished she could tell Joe Clive was his big brother. But Joe could never know.
He had to leave before he too fell prey to the black mask, the desire to keep that beautiful face just the way it was. People would do anything for eternal beauty. Why, they'd sell their soul. He'd be fine, Alice told herself. His unnatural strength and circus skills would come in handy in any number of jobs ...

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Lord. (Er, no pun intended but not minded, either!)

Now that I see Ms. Hepburn in her nun's garb I kinda wish I'd used the clip from "The Children's Hour" rather than "The Hunger"...

Ms Scarlet said...

Bravo! So what does happen when Violet and Joe get together? Some kind of chemical reaction that is excelerated by living close to a nuclear reactor? A gene produced in their child that promotes eternal life?
What happened to the ring?
Where are all the keys? Have they all been located now?
Is someone going to wake up in the shower and realise it's all been a terrible dream....?
Sx

Rowena said...

Kate, thanks for going with the vampire thing. When the clip ended with the blood, there was really no other way I could envision taking it, but I was afraid I had taken it too far.

Maybe I didn't.

I mean, it's not like a threw in gratuitous dwarf murders, or anything.

Rowena said...

Oh, and the photos are brilliant.

I laughed out loud when I found out that Randy was in love with Joe, not Vi. Maybe both, actually. This town doesn't seem much for the conventional ways of life.

Kate Lord Brown said...

Ha! Got to do my bit to uphold the forces of good in this saga - contrast is everything. Vampire Lesbians vs The Nun's Story. This is reminding me of those Saturday morning B-movie series like Flash Gordon (or perhaps the 'adult' version). Just as Vi and Joe get jiggy in the surf, the nuclear reactor overloads, there's a spill ... a mutant gene as Scarlet suggests ... will they survive (can't you imagine the reactor & Suffolk surf glowing in black and white ...)

Unknown said...

Just thought I’d drop by and say that the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Afraid the Christmas Woola-Hoola has got me – shopping and parties and all that, including a bit of drawing and whatnot for gifts. But I’ll be back to Burning Lines asap.

Cheers!
Son

Kate Lord Brown said...

Where are we at folks - does anyone want an admin round up of loose ends? Ten days to go - are we going to finish this sucker (excuse pun)?

Better to burn out than to fade away ... or is this a magnum opus you want to run and run ..?

Rowena said...

I think this needs to be wrapped up. Definitely.

I know December is a horrible month to start big projects. There is so much going on and people are very busy. We could just commit to finishing it... whoever's around.

Whatever we end up doing (I do think it might be hard to finish it in the week between Christmas and New Years) we definitely need a round up of loose ends, characters, plot twists. A summary/outline sort of thing.

I can attempt another family tree, I believe there have been some new connections added.

Rowena said...

Oh, I wanted to say, I could probably write more, but I feel funny about writing episodes before other people have a chance to put in their ideas. I often wait to write if my last entry was too recent.

But then, I don't have a life. I just sit here and watch my kids all day.

Ms Scarlet said...

Go for it Rowena. I'm a bit lost and I need a round up; I'd like to help with the final furlong.
Sx

Kate Lord Brown said...

Count me in. With our (antisocial) hours I'm going to be around 25 - 30th, offline for New Years so will be happy to guide the story in to the finish - look forward to seeing the final installments for December!

I'd vote for winding this first story up then seeing who wants to be around next month, invite others, take over admin etc. That way it stays fun for those who do want to be involved/take part and not a(nother) burden on everyone's busy schedules.

Don't know about you but I kind of hope Burning Lines keeps going and we were all there at the beginning ... x

Anonymous said...

It's certainly been crazy for me over the last few days, yeah. I'll do another installment in the "story so far..." post sometime between now and Thursday but in general it's complicated. In my case, it'll probably be much easier between Christmas and New Year's than it is right now.

Rowena, I've been reluctant to double-post sometimes, too. But then I look back at the series of mini-posts which Scarlet did last week, e.g. the Sex Scene entries -- bang bang bang so to speak -- and I realize it can be done just fine. (It was like she had a loaded revolver and fired a separate shot in each one.)

Speaking for myself, I can't imagine how we're going to end this. Although Joe is nominally the protagonist -- or so it seemed at the start -- the various other subplots all have their own strengths and promises.

Whether we "end" the story itself or just stop it, maybe we could do a post-mortem Admin post, looking back on the process -- what worked and what didn't, suggestions for a future round (if there is one).

This has been a lot of fun for me, at times dizzyingly so. I'm really happy to have "met" you all through Kate's (and ultimately Marta's) blogs.

Ms Scarlet said...

'A loaded revolver'!
Goodness me! I'm getting a reputation...
Sx

Anonymous said...

Scarlet: You have no idea. We've actually set up a whole Yahoo! discussion group just for brainstorming how to control you.

Haven't made much progress yet. We're about evenly split on whether or not controlling you would be a good thing or not. Some of us are even conflicted internally about that.