If you haven't checked out the TLS Angst Contest entries because you just aren't sure which ones you really want to read and don't have time to read all of them... no worries. I've got a teaser from each entry for you and I'll be posting two a day, everyday until public voting opens on August 14th. This way, you can read all of them or just the ones that grab you! There are so many excellent entries in this one contest that I'd hate for you all to miss out on this, so you can find me here, each day... hooking you up with some angsty teasers.
Let's go:
"Okay, Edward. Come back to me. Breathe in and out. In… and out."
My knuckles are white as I grip the arm of the sofa. I'm panting, trying to suck air into my lungs, and when I open my eyes to my therapist's room, I'm bathed in soft lamp light instead of the harsh, red-tinged July sunshine I saw moments ago in my mind's eye.
Marcus gives me water and suggests I shouldn't drive home. I shudder at the thought of getting behind the wheel and what that might mean for the unsuspecting members of the public. I agree with him, and after getting myself together, I leave.
I'm not quite sure how I make it to the train station. I know I'm standing there, and it's busy. The platform is crowded, and I'm jostled. I feel so numb that I barely notice the contact.
Somewhere, an announcement comes across the speaker system, and a thin voice tells us a train is approaching, an express, and to stand back.
I step forward.
I've been going about this all wrong. I was drinking my way to a slow death. I've caused so much pain to so many. I should have chosen a quicker method.
Train now approaching. Stand back, please.
I step forward.
Lights in the underground station get brighter. The roar of the train gets closer.
I step forward, toes to the edge.
The air sucks in the tunnel, drawing me nearer, like a siren's song. Step closer, Edward. This will all be over. No more pain.
I just want the pain to stop. I want it to be over.
The train's horn sounds, and it's the same as the horn I heard that day.
She wouldn't want it to end this way. Neither of them would.
I step back. And I breathe.
Strong Black Vine Read more here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9527671/1/Strong-Black-Vine
The end of a relationship can be described in many ways.
You can compare it to a house with a fragile foundation - one harsh gale of wind and everything collapses on itself. You salvage what you can and start again.
It can be described as a sturdy rope which slowly begins to fray, until the point where it's too weak to support anything.
It can be like an ornament which has fallen from a high shelf and shattered. You can glue together the pieces, but it will never be the same again. One piece has scuttled away so far it's not coming back. The vase won't be whole again. You can put in flowers, but water will always seep out. The cracks won't disappear.
My relationship ended very differently.
After six years it just snapped, broke apart without any warning. Like a thread trying to hold up a brick. The weight of his lies. As far as I knew the foundation wasn't weak, and the rope was still strong. But the ornament was never mine to piece together in the first place.
I lived in Seattle all my life, working for a small branch of a large publishing firm, waiting for my big break, to leave this city behind and go to New York. To have my name inside the cover of the next big bestseller. The book that you finish in one sitting, then run out to buy the sequel while dropping off the first instalment with your best friend.
It nearly happened. I could taste it. It was in my hands. All I had to do was pack my bags and leave. Instead, I threw it away. For what? For love. For a man. For his lies.
I'll never forget the first day I met him. Wrapped in layers to fight the cold, I got wrapped up in him just as quickly. My life, which revolved around work, found another sun to orbit. My sun, however, had a life span of six years until it imploded on itself.
Damaging everything around it.
Destroying me.
Burning me and leaving me with a scar that would never heal.
He asked me for directions, and we walked the same way, talking, mindless chatter between two strangers. He left with my phone number, and I left with butterflies and the giggles that you laugh into your pillow. I was giddy. There was something about him - his smile, his deep laugh which warmed me in the biting cold, his hand on my back as we crossed the road. His name. Edward.
Prevarication Read more here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9531444/1/Prevarication
Please scroll through our previous blog posts for more teasers, and stay tuned, each day, for more.
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