The Maiden's Tale ~ chapter one

~ follows 'Cost and Diversions' ~

Echoing from inside a tank, immobile and crawling with zombies ~

Nocturne - "Are we going to get sued for this one ?"

Mishil - "Yeah that might actually happen this time.  I mean what are we supposed to call it ?  'Girl Tank' ?!"

Mariposa - "I think if we keep making jokes about it, it's legally just satirical."

Nocturne - "Oh !"

Mishil - "We could just ... steal something else !  That we ... know how to turn on ... ?"

Nocturne - "I am not going out there again."

Mariposa - "Nope !"

Yorick - "no way mannn ..."

Mishil - "hm."

...

Nocturne - ... "girl-tank" ...
____

Decibel ports away under heavy fire, a nearby building takes a hit, collapsing among the already common rubble (explosion audio sample).

(From 'The Scribe', the Third of Three)

Crone - "And she saw him standing there !  Right in the middle of the road !"

Maiden - Bags of money (dollar signs) bouncing around in the back seat while she tears dangerously down the night time road in the rain, swerving near the cliff, "! Woooo ! ... Huh ... ?"

A time slowed focus to his face looking directly at her in the headlights, a long suit coat under an overcoat, all fitted to his square frame, strong jaw beneath a beard and a broad hat.

Maiden - Car slow-time barrelling toward him, "Oh ..."  Then as normal time returns, "Oh fuck !"

She swerves to miss him off the cliff, car tumbling as she rolls around inside, money flying out of the bags in the back seat. "Fuck ! Shit ! Dammit !" as she rolls and bounces.

Then off a high cliff, in the air, "Oh fuck ..."

A long silence before an explosion sounds, lighting the woods.

"! Damn it !"
____

At the bottom of the cliff the man in the road sees her standing with her arms crossed staring at the burning car, half burned money everywhere, her dress shredded and burned.

Man - "Hey ... miss ? Are you alright ... ?"

Maiden - "Oh !  Ummm."  Falls to the ground, horribly faking. "Umm ... ouch.  I'm not."

Man - Approaching slowly, "How did you survive that ?"

Maiden - "Oh that ? ... No idea."  Laying back and feigning great 'pain', "Hey, I don't suppose you'd like to carry me back up that hill ..."  She lazily gestures to the nearly impassable cliff.

Man - "I'm not sure I should move you ..."

Maiden - "Oh no.  You should definitely move me."
____

In his car, she's curled in the passenger seat staring at him, his coat tied tightly around her.   "Why were standing in the road ?"

Man - "My car just stopped.   It was strange.  And ... also that it just ... started right back up."  He looks over at her as pulls his coat over to sleep.

Maiden - Glancing from the sword in the back seat, a war sabre.  She closes her eyes, "Eyes on the road, sunshine.  You never know what'll come up next."


~ The Maiden's Tale ~



Nameless cuts buttons from Asherah's bodice with her knife, wrists gripped over her head in the alleyway, eyes inches apart.

Nameless - "I'll never stop loving you."  He puts the knife back on her gripped hands.

Asherah - She grins hard breathing, gripping the knife, "Slit your throat if ever you do.  She's almost through.  Still got a time to kill though."

He smiles before the kiss, then back to their opening of the box lid (from 'Life of Yorick'), and stepping down the long stone staircase, Asherah pulling him by the hand.

~ Turnstile throws the broom to the river, stomping off from Juliet.

Back to the alley, he pulls the clothes off a shoulder kissing down her neck.  Goremouse leaps in terror from the exposed pocket, blunderbuss dropping.

~ Juliet sighs for strength before the bridge to the carnival, then leaps back as Goremouse skitters under her feet across fast.

A ceiling panel flips hard open in a fit of dust in the Winchester Mansion where the stairs meet it (there's a staircase to the ceiling there), they step down, the tourists stare.  Cellphones raise, all batteries dead.

He pulls open a cupboard and throws her in, following.

The door slams behind.

~ Goremouse runs through the crowded feet, then along the brass piping which steams the carnival machinery.  They lead along into multiple nexus, like bundled industrial cables, forming bridges and walkways over celebrants.

~ Skittering a along, ahead the cabled steam pipes converge at a train station, train departing the core.  Dwarven machinists work amid the steam, disappearing into hidden doors.

A library bookshelf pulls open, the shocked librarian with the book in her hand still as the shelf pulls away from it.  Nameless and Asherah tumble through laughing with clothes half shredded off.

She runs, he catches against the far wall.  He bangs it with his fist and they fall through.  It slams shut, the bookshelf closing, returning the book in the librarian's hand to its place on the shelf as he stares at the far wall.

~ The celebrants spin past Juliet as she crosses, the view to the Ferris wheel turning in a blast of steam, crawls into and lingers the mist surrounding everything. 

They roll throwing each other, clothes pulling through a manor room from the closet cupboard, two strangers fucking hard in the bed, not noticing as they twirl through and out the door.

~ Juliet crosses the bridge, the broom floating beneath crossing her path, nameless and Asherah at it in the alley behind, the train off into the tunnels of the mountainside.


Juliet Lost


The car with the maiden and the man, driving the night.


(1923 Buick Series 23 Model 35)