August 2011 AW Blog Chain

This post is part of the August 2011 Blog Chain at Absolute Write. This month's Challenge is "The Continuing Story of a Song."

Step 1:  Choose a song. It can be any song, vocal or instrumental, but you have to know what it's called and who did it. Bonus points for finding and linking a YouTube video or other (legal) source. The song should be one you like and doesn't have to be related to anybody else's pick.

Step 2:  Continue the story. Read the post before yours and continue the story in any direction you see fit. Your continuation must be based on, inspired by, or in some other way influenced by your song choice. Be prepared to explain it in the comments section!

To read the full story, please click on each of the following blogs for the entries to this story. Enjoy!

Part 1 - Story Beginning
Part 2 - orion_mk3
Part 3 - BigWords
Part 4 - AbielleRose
Part 5 - Ralph Pines
Part 6 - hillaryjacques
Part 7 - Darkshore
Part 8 - pyrosama
Part 9 - Diana_Rajchel
Part 10- Inkstrokes
Part 11- soullesshuman
Part 12- Alynza
Part 13- Cath
Part 14- dolores haze
Part 15- Alpha Echo   
Part 16- pezie                                                                The song I chose is Immortal by Evanescence                                           

Part 17- Finale 1
Part 18- Finale 2
Part 19- Finale 3

************

“Shhh… did you hear that?”

“Mmm, what?” Jessica snuggled her head further into Chris’s chest for warmth. Her head was still spinning from the cocktails. She reached for him again but his back stiffened and she pulled her hand away, disappointed.

“Outside. Sounded like a gunshot.” Chris untangled himself from Jessica’s legs and leapt off the bed towards the window. His eyes scanned the darkness, unease settling in his chest. “Someone’s out there.” He started pulling on his pants before heading for the door.

“Chris, where are you going?” Jess scrambled to pull her dress back over her head. “Wait!” But he was already out the door.

Chris ran down the path towards the villas, hunkering in the shadows as best he could. Up ahead he watched as Greg burst out of the door from where the little girl Clarissa was being kept. His stomach twisted in knots.

Had they gotten to her too?

He watched as Greg ran towards the direction of Club Ecstasy. He almost followed but then caught a flash of material hiding down the path behind some flowering shrubs. Greg had fled right past it and hadn’t noticed the small figure hunched over. He inched around behind the figure as quietly as he could. It was a boy holding Clarissa.

A twig snapped alerting the boy to Chris’s approach. He jumped and turned, but before he could run, Chris punched him in the jaw sending him and Clarissa flying to the ground. The kid’s head smacked on the paved sidewalk knocking him out cold.

Chris gathered a whimpering Clarissa in his arms and headed in the opposite direction, unsure of where to go. “Shh, it’s alright.” He tried soothing the little girl but didn’t know what else to do.

What the hell am I doing?

As Chris headed for the beach, bullfrogs sang their midnight songs to one another as he weaved his way through the hibiscus plants. He hoped it was the right thing to do. To take her to the spot where he had last seen her mother. It was her place.

When they reached the shore he set Clarissa down. She was unnervingly quiet as she walked to the water with her bare feet. The water lapped hungrily at her little delicate toes. Her thin pink nightgown easily soaked up to her knees. Chris’s skin pricked with goosebumps. She looked like a ghost with her pale hair shimmering like pearls beneath the moonlight. Just like her mother’s had.

He shivered and suddenly wanted her out of the water. The breeze caressed around his ears and swirled down to catch wisps of Clarissa’s hair. The gold strands seemed to flow around her with life, urging her to step back into the gentle waves.

“She’s coming for me.” Her doe-like eyes were wide, reflecting the warm glow of the tiki torches behind them on shore. Chris shifted his head and look down at her again. Every time he did, his skin crawled as if death was but a pale caress hovering around her tiny shoulders.

“Last night she told me so.” Her blue eyes brimmed with unshed tears. Her bottom lip quivered. “She said she knows what you’re lookin’ for Mr. Chris. They all know. ”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But he knew exactly what she meant. His heart was thrumming wildly. He wanted to put some distance between them and get the hell away from them all.

Clarissa lifted her gaze and took another step in the water. “She’s coming.”

The hairs on his arms were standing on end. He looked out over the moonlit waves, they were getting stronger, angrier. The palm trees seemed to sway in tempo with the crashing of the surf.

And then he noticed the bullfrogs had stopped their singing.

The only thing Chris could think of was What the Hell? The whole sordid ordeal had been creeping him out since Allison’s suicide.  Since he found her. No one said this would happen.

He grabbed Clarissa’s cold hand. He didn’t want to be in the dark anymore. Something unnatural was happening here on the island, Chris could feel it in his bones, in his soul. It was as if the island itself was coming alive.

©Alynza Smith 2011