Writer Games: Amnesia

Semifinals - Music to My Ears - Nobody Westing

Reality was a bitch; of this Nobody had no doubt. It drags you down and forces you to look it in the eye, daring you not to cringe. It shakes everything you know, flips it around and expects you to live with it. The more it reared its ugly head the sadder the picture it painted became. His life had been a series of long blue strokes mixed with the underlying reds that pushed him forward but would ultimately destroy him.

Nobody couldn't deal with this, why had he lived long enough to see the reality of what he was? He couldn't win. He wanted to pound his fists into the floor and scream until his throat was raw because maybe that would numb the flames burned within him. They had burned so long that he was sure it had hollowed him out, turning him into a walking talking shell of a human being.

Nobody felt hot tears of frustration pool in his eyes. He hated them- but then again right now he hated everything.

He searched himself for something, anything that could make facing this easier. It struck him in an image, a flicker of a heartbeat and a calm rushing over his chest like ocean water. When he was young his grandmother would tell him and his brother stories. In retrospect most of the stories were incredibly horrifying, with children getting devoured and princes getting slaughtered as they attempted to rescue the princess, but it was the way that she told them that made them less scary.

She had mixed the realities of life with imagination which had made them bearable. Perhaps, that was all he needed; a sprinkle of lies among the truth to make it taste better.

And so he closed his eyes one final time trying to sort through his chaotic memories.

-

Once upon a time there was a man who was who worked in the factories in the far away land of Panem. While the kingdom was rich, the man had no money because the money was mostly owned by the elites. The man worked day in and day out trying to supply for his dying mother, but there never seemed to be enough money.

One day a beautiful young soldier was transferred to oversee the peasant's home town. The man and the woman's path really should have never crossed, however fate had other ideas. The man stumbled into the soldier after being requested to work late, at first the man was afraid that she would arrest him for assault, following the overly cruel pattern of her comrades. However the woman just laughed at him and then offered to walk him home.

As summer turned to fall and fall into winter the man and the woman fell very much in love. Eventually the two ended up getting married and not long after that the soldier became pregnant. The woman had fought through many things, but the birth of twins would not be one of them. She died tragically, but not before she got to see her two beautiful sons. She clutched her still bloody babies in her arms as she took her final breaths.

The man, who had been waiting on the other side of the door, knew instantly that something was wrong. He pushed through the doors knocking over one of the ill trained nurses. When he lay eyes on his wife he screamed for he knew she was dead. The man collapsed into bitter mourning refusing to even name his children.

Through the man's collapse, his mother found the strength to fight a few more years, taking care of little 'Nobody' and 'Somebody' as she had taken to calling them humorously. The names stuck long after the woman's burial just five years later. Their father still refused to acknowledge the twin's existence so the small boys did the thing that most small boys do when they have no one to model themselves after- they sought after someone.

Little Nobody found a witch on the corner of the village who taught him the ways to heal and nourish, little Somebody found a sharp-clawed dragon called Reddick who opened his eyes to the cruelties of their nation. And so the two boys, identical in every way, grew into two different young men. They were still close, and as far as either of them was concerned they would stay that close until the day they died.

That day turned out to be a lot sooner than either of them realized.

The soldiers caught up to Reddick and Somebody because you can't fight something and yet hide from it's face forever, especially when the fight wasn't fair, they never stood a chance. They were outnumbered, out gunned and out brained. The soldiers raided their hiding place and Reddick held the steel helmeted knights off while Somebody ran because that's what was in Somebody's nature; a coward.

Somebody ran faster than he had known was possible to the only place he knew as safe; his home. Nobody was there when he barged through the door, his twin brewed some herbal potion on the stove. "Nobody, I haven't been honest with you... I may have been involved in illegal activity."

Nobody turned around, wiping his hands with a cloth. "I knew you were lying. I knew it. Som, you've got to stop." He said, his grey eyes wide his concern. "They are going to catch up to you!"

Somebody wiped the sweat from his brow shaking his head, the fear radiating through his body like the claws of a demon. "No. Its too late. I- I'm sorry. We have to run. If they find you here they will think you are me and kill you! Please!" Somebody choked, wishing with every fiber of his being that they were fraternal.

Nobody paled dragging his palms down the side of his face, clearly overwhelmed. "Okay, grab your bow and we can hunt along the way. Lets go through the back and cut to the boarder of our town heading North."

And so the two of them flee through the long winding cobblestone streets toward the border. They were just a few yards away when the beams of torches flashed around the corner of an old warehouse and the excited cries of the soldiers reached the boy's ears. They had been found.

They ran into the brush that seemingly reached upwards trying to grab them and drag them to their pursuers. Fog curled from the ground like dead spirits, the torch's lights cut through it illuminating it hauntingly. Nobody looked over at his brother and realized this was futile, they could never get away. Only then did the soldier's arrow pierce his heart sending him tumbling to the ground.

Somebody stopped running in horror and stared at at his brother stunned. He fell to his knees staring at his brother's wounds. "Are you okay? Dammit please be okay!" He begged helplessly as his brother looked up at him, completely accepting his fate.

""No. I'm not. I'm dying." His brother stated simply. No, no, no! He couldn't lose his brother, the one person who had always been there for him. "Just keep fighting and everything will be okay." He added with a small sad smile as blood trickled from his mouth and Nobody Westing was no more.

Somebody was truly alone.

Numbly, Somebody got to his feet shaking trying to keep the tears from rolling down his cheeks and faced the lights raising his arms above his head. He had no fight left in him. He was broken.

An arrow pierced Somebody's legs and he hit the ground, suddenly surrounded by the king's soldiers, the very people he had battled for so many years.

And so, Somebody found himself being dragged away, lying about his identity and being spared from certain execution. His sentence was lightened to probable death as he was sent to be humiliated and fight to the death for the king's entertainment.

And the capital lived happily ever after.

The end.

-

Nobody, as the capital knew him as, didn't want the story to end like that. His grandmother's fairy tales had always ended with good, happiness and freedom triumphing over the evil. This wasn't a fairytale though, this was real life.

Then again, perhaps his story wasn't over yet.

Maybe, just maybe things could change if he lived. Maybe the walls the capital put around the districts to hold them down would collapse. Maybe they could beat this. Had he worked in vain for years? Had Reddick died in vain? Had his brother died in vain? Had his bird died in vain? Had every damn soul who had been brave enough to stand up to the capital ever died in vain?

No, the time for a revolution was coming. The battle was coming, it would be the fight of their lives. The people of Panem would get off their knees and push back against the capital like a giant wave crashing into a shoal. They wouldn't stand a chance, and even if they did never once in his fairytale would he write 'and then the boy gave in.'

And maybe, just maybe someday Somebody Westing, the boy who never surrendered, would be able to raise his hands to the sky in complete freedom and sing hallelujah.