Post by Skyfall on Aug 18, 2016 17:51:38 GMT -5
Those of you that were on the old forums way back when they still had this layout might remember a fanfic called "Beautiful Insanity." This story was written by me when I was a freshmen in high school. I am now a freshmen in college and I finally feel confident enough to tackle something that I have wanted to do for a very long time - convert the Warriors edition of Beautiful Insanity into my own original work with humans.
The process for this conversion has already begun. I have rewritten the prologue as well as chapter 1, which are posted below. The plot is mostly the same, although it will change slightly as the story progresses, since Beautiful Insanity involved a lot of the canon Warriors plot.
I have posted the prologue and chapter 1 below for your enjoyment. I WILL NOT be posting more since I plan to get this published. After a while, I will delete this post.
Oh, also, PLEASE don't be afraid by the following colored text. These are things that I feel that I am required to state ahead of time.
The process for this conversion has already begun. I have rewritten the prologue as well as chapter 1, which are posted below. The plot is mostly the same, although it will change slightly as the story progresses, since Beautiful Insanity involved a lot of the canon Warriors plot.
I have posted the prologue and chapter 1 below for your enjoyment. I WILL NOT be posting more since I plan to get this published. After a while, I will delete this post.
Oh, also, PLEASE don't be afraid by the following colored text. These are things that I feel that I am required to state ahead of time.
The following is copyright of Skyfall. No part of this story may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without prior direct permission from the author.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTENT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL READERS. THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS LANGUAGE THAT IS USUALLY DEEMED INAPPROPRIATE FOR YOUNGER READERS. THE FOUL LANGUAGE HAS BEEN REMOVED, INDICATED BY UNDERSCORES. HOWEVER, THE IMPLICATIONS REMAIN. THE FOLLOWING ALSO CONTAINS REFERENCES TO SEXUAL CONTENT. IT IS NOT IN-DEPTH AND IS, WHAT I CONSIDER TO BE PG-13. THIS ALSO CONTAINS DESCRIPTIVE VIOLENCE AND GORE, PERHAPS SLIGHTLY MORE THAN THE WARRIORS BOOKS. PLEASE BE AWARE OF THIS CONTENT. IF ANY OF THE ABOVE DISTURBS YOU, PLEASE DO NOT READ.
I HAVE STATED ALL OF THE ABOVE SO THAT NO ONE ENTERS THIS STORY WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT THEY ARE GETTING INTO. I DO NOT MEAN TO SCARE ANYONE OFF WITH THIS COLORED TEXT AND ALL CAPS, BUT THE LAST THING I WANT IS FOR ANYONE TO BE TRIGGERED OR FOR ANYTHING ELSE BAD TO HAPPEN.
JUST PLEASE BE AWARE. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Her blond hair was drenched in blood. It slid down her forehead and along her face as she sat, unmoving in the driver’s seat. She could not move, pinned by the seatbelt that was meant to save her life—and it had saved her. But now she was trapped. The smell of gasoline made her stomach turn her heart pound. One little spark was all it would take and the car would go up in flames. Feebly, one of her hands reached for the crumpled door. Not even in her healthy state could she have opened it, though. Her hand fell limp at her side. Her eyes closed as she waited for the flames that would engulf her eventually.
Beside her, in the passenger’s seat, was the limp body of a young man. He couldn’t have been older than eighteen, still baby-faced and clean-shaven. His shaggy brown hair fell in his closed eyes. A large shard of glass that had once been part of the windshield was now stuck in his abdomen. That boy had been her best friend—more than that, even. He had been the one she loved more than life itself. But now…? Now what could she do? He was dead, and her heart was still beating. In her mind, she would be joining him soon. Upon the initial impact and minutes afterwards, the searing pain was so excruciating it knocked her unconscious. When she woke, just minutes earlier, there was no feeling at all. It was if all the nerve-endings in her face and body had been ripped away… Perhaps they had.
Before this, she had been the prettiest girl in school. Most of the boys in the hallway would drool at her as she passed. The boy who lay dead in the passenger seat and another, Colin, constantly battled for her affections. She was loved. She was desired. She was happy. But she was the only one who was content. Colin had graduated the year before, leaving her and the dead boy all behind. Things had been different her senior year—far different than she had anticipated. The boy beside her had wanted more than just an oath, swearing her love.
Seth wanted something else, something physical.
At first, she had not wanted to go through with it. Sex was something that had always frightened her. The mere idea of it disgusted her, but she knew that it was a part of life—an act that she would engage in sooner or later. In her mind, she loved Seth, so why should she not have it with him? It was this reasoning and Seth’s charm that had convinced her to agree. He promised her that if she said yes, things would be different. She would be his. He would not get angry whenever Colin spoke to her anymore. He would treat her like she was the only thing in his world. He would love her. She could not say no to that, and Seth knew it.
With her agreement, she swore to him that she would follow him to the edge of the earth. She told him that she loved him, and he returned that love to her. At that moment, they made a pact together—a pact that declared that, even if they fell out of love, they would be friends for as long as they lived. They would stand by the other’s side and protect them. They both made that vow to one another. She was the one who broke it.
I couldn’t protect you… I’m sorry.
The date for this special occasion was set—the Friday after midterms ended. It was snowy and cold—the middle of January. Neither was willing to let this date slip by, though. So they both got into her pickup and set off out of their small town and onto a remote backroad. The snowplows had not touched these side roads. It was snowing heavily—coming down in thick, icy sheets. She could go no faster than twenty-five miles per hour. The weather made her uneasy. “Seth, let’s go back,” she had suggested. “I don’t like driving in the snow.”
“It’s not like we’re gonna be outside in it,” he protested. “Just pull over into that little turnaround,” he said, motioning with his hand.
She put on her turn signal and put her foot on the break. Her car skidded. Panic gripped her and she made the wrong decision. She pressed the break all the way to the floor in a desperate attempt to stop the car. They began to spin, spiraling off the road. Along the way, they picked up speed until they plunged right into the woods that surrounded the road. The front of the car collided with the trunk of an old maple tree. A low hanging branch shattered the windshield of her truck. The glass splintered in every direction, raining down on her and slicing through the skin of her face and her upper body. A large sheet pierced Seth’s abdomen. Blood spurted from his body like a fountain. She saw parts of his entrails peeking through his opened belly and had to look away.
The memory—it was hard to classify it as a memory since it had happened just a few minutes earlier—did not feel real. It felt hazy, as though it had been in a dream. For a moment, she savored that thought. It’s a dream. It’s just a dream. But the pain was real—too real for it to be of her mind’s conception.
She closed her eyes and let out a sigh. There was a sharp pain her ribcage—she knew that some of, if not all of her ribs were broken. The smell of gas persisted. It would not be long now.
In the distance, she heard the faint sound of sirens. But the noise faded until she heard nothing at all. Her body went entirely numb and felt herself slip away into darkness. As she lost consciousness, she had a final, chilling thought.
She was alive.
Seth was not.
“Bailey! Bailey, can you hear me?”
“My baby! My poor baby, please let me see her! Let me through!”
“What happened to her? Is she going to be alright?”
“We need to get her stable now. Ready, lift on three. One, two, three.”
Bailey was scarcely aware of being lifted into the air. She was placed on a soft surface. For a moment, her eyes opened. She recognized her mother’s frantic voice and her father’s deep baritone. Her mother shrieked to see her daughter while her father asked the doctors questions. They both jogged alongside her gurney. “She’s awake!” It was her mother’s voice. “Her eyes are open! Bailey, Bailey, darling, stay with me!”
She could not see her parents, only the grim but dutiful faces of the ER nurses as they wheeled her into a room full of bright lights. “Bailey, my name is Dr. Baines. I’m going to help you, okay? I just need you to stay relaxed for me.” Bailey, tried to stay conscious. She really did, but found herself slipping away again.
This time, however, she was not greeted by horrifying, death-like oblivion. This time, she dreamed. She saw herself in government class, in the back corner as usual. Seth sat across from her, scrolling through something on his phone beneath his desk. In her dream, Baily looked over at Seth and smiled at him. There he was, alive, relatively happy, and with her. Colin was not there to distract her attention away from him this time. It was just the two of them, like it was supposed to be.
“Best friends forever,” he had told her once, before they fell in love.
They both swore that even if their love did not work out, their friendship would not be compromised. He meant to much to her, and she too much to him for them to lose each other over something foolish.
Bailey knew she was supposed to be quiet in class, but this was not real. It could not be real—Seth was dead. He was gone and she was alive. She reached over and grabbed Seth’s hand. The boy jumped at the contact and looked at her, bewildered. His eyes shone like emeralds. His full, pink lips were slightly puckered at he watched her warily.
“Seth,” she whispered. Her high-pitched voice cracked—she hadn’t realized that she had been crying in the dream. That must have been why he looked so concerned. “Seth, I love you.”
His concern evaporated in that instant. His face grew soft and he reached over and cupped her cheek. “I love you too, Bails.”
“Was it real?” she asked in a frightened whisper. “Did you… Did you die?”
Seth did not answer her question. He kept staring at her with almost a vacant expression, as though the words did not register.
“Seth…” she whimpered.
This time, he responded. He pulled her toward him, chair and all. “Shh,” he soothed. “I’m here, Bailey. I’m here. Let me take care of you. Let me make you feel better.”
She gave in and met his lips in a heated kiss. His hands went and knotted in her hair, tugging gently. Bailey let out a soft moan as she wrapped her arms around his neck. She pulled herself into his lap, wrapping her legs around him the best she could. Around them, the government class faded away until it was just the two of them, intertwined and completely absorbed with each other. Their tangle of limbs and loud breaths came to a halt as Bailey pulled away. She looked up at him, the tears returning to her eyes. Her body shook as a sob escaped. “Don’t ever leave me… Please don’t leave. Please don’t be dead.”
The Seth in her dream did not seem surprised by her words. “Bailey, just because you can’t see me, doesn’t mean that I’m not still with you. You think I’d leave you, even in death? Friends to the end, right?”
A smile crossed her face and she nodded. “Yes. Friends to the end.”
Suddenly, Seth’s face darkened. His hands that had been on the ground beside them moved upward and clamped around her throat. Bailey seized up, her own hands flying to his, trying feebly to pull them off. “Friends to the end!” Seth snarled at her. She met his eyes and let out a weak cry—they were as black as the emptiness that surrounded them. “Friends to the end… you promised me… YOU PROMISED ME!” His stomach tore open, his entrails spilling out onto Bailey’s body. A waterfall of blood washing over her as she screamed and thrashed.
“SETH STOP! STOP IT! STOP!” Her words ran together, desperate and pleading.
“You abandoned me in that car!” he growled. His hands tightened around her throat, crushing her windpipe. “You didn’t even try to help me, you _____! You let me die! YOU LET ME DIE!”
Bailey could not breath. Panic planted its seed, and it rooted itself deep within her core. The blood kept flowing from Seth’s abdomen, rising around her. It was like she was trapped in a swimming pool full of it. It rose higher and higher, on both sides of her face. As much as she struggled, Seth held her there—either he would choke her to death or she would drown in the blood as he held her down. “I TRUSTED YOU!” Seth screamed, still squeezing the life out of her. “I TRUSTED YOU, YOU _____!”
She tried to scream, but she had no air in her lungs. The blood rose up, covering her mouth and nose until she was lost in the sea of red.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTENT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL READERS. THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS LANGUAGE THAT IS USUALLY DEEMED INAPPROPRIATE FOR YOUNGER READERS. THE FOUL LANGUAGE HAS BEEN REMOVED, INDICATED BY UNDERSCORES. HOWEVER, THE IMPLICATIONS REMAIN. THE FOLLOWING ALSO CONTAINS REFERENCES TO SEXUAL CONTENT. IT IS NOT IN-DEPTH AND IS, WHAT I CONSIDER TO BE PG-13. THIS ALSO CONTAINS DESCRIPTIVE VIOLENCE AND GORE, PERHAPS SLIGHTLY MORE THAN THE WARRIORS BOOKS. PLEASE BE AWARE OF THIS CONTENT. IF ANY OF THE ABOVE DISTURBS YOU, PLEASE DO NOT READ.
I HAVE STATED ALL OF THE ABOVE SO THAT NO ONE ENTERS THIS STORY WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT THEY ARE GETTING INTO. I DO NOT MEAN TO SCARE ANYONE OFF WITH THIS COLORED TEXT AND ALL CAPS, BUT THE LAST THING I WANT IS FOR ANYONE TO BE TRIGGERED OR FOR ANYTHING ELSE BAD TO HAPPEN.
JUST PLEASE BE AWARE. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Prologue – A Pact in Blood
Her blond hair was drenched in blood. It slid down her forehead and along her face as she sat, unmoving in the driver’s seat. She could not move, pinned by the seatbelt that was meant to save her life—and it had saved her. But now she was trapped. The smell of gasoline made her stomach turn her heart pound. One little spark was all it would take and the car would go up in flames. Feebly, one of her hands reached for the crumpled door. Not even in her healthy state could she have opened it, though. Her hand fell limp at her side. Her eyes closed as she waited for the flames that would engulf her eventually.
Beside her, in the passenger’s seat, was the limp body of a young man. He couldn’t have been older than eighteen, still baby-faced and clean-shaven. His shaggy brown hair fell in his closed eyes. A large shard of glass that had once been part of the windshield was now stuck in his abdomen. That boy had been her best friend—more than that, even. He had been the one she loved more than life itself. But now…? Now what could she do? He was dead, and her heart was still beating. In her mind, she would be joining him soon. Upon the initial impact and minutes afterwards, the searing pain was so excruciating it knocked her unconscious. When she woke, just minutes earlier, there was no feeling at all. It was if all the nerve-endings in her face and body had been ripped away… Perhaps they had.
Before this, she had been the prettiest girl in school. Most of the boys in the hallway would drool at her as she passed. The boy who lay dead in the passenger seat and another, Colin, constantly battled for her affections. She was loved. She was desired. She was happy. But she was the only one who was content. Colin had graduated the year before, leaving her and the dead boy all behind. Things had been different her senior year—far different than she had anticipated. The boy beside her had wanted more than just an oath, swearing her love.
Seth wanted something else, something physical.
At first, she had not wanted to go through with it. Sex was something that had always frightened her. The mere idea of it disgusted her, but she knew that it was a part of life—an act that she would engage in sooner or later. In her mind, she loved Seth, so why should she not have it with him? It was this reasoning and Seth’s charm that had convinced her to agree. He promised her that if she said yes, things would be different. She would be his. He would not get angry whenever Colin spoke to her anymore. He would treat her like she was the only thing in his world. He would love her. She could not say no to that, and Seth knew it.
With her agreement, she swore to him that she would follow him to the edge of the earth. She told him that she loved him, and he returned that love to her. At that moment, they made a pact together—a pact that declared that, even if they fell out of love, they would be friends for as long as they lived. They would stand by the other’s side and protect them. They both made that vow to one another. She was the one who broke it.
I couldn’t protect you… I’m sorry.
The date for this special occasion was set—the Friday after midterms ended. It was snowy and cold—the middle of January. Neither was willing to let this date slip by, though. So they both got into her pickup and set off out of their small town and onto a remote backroad. The snowplows had not touched these side roads. It was snowing heavily—coming down in thick, icy sheets. She could go no faster than twenty-five miles per hour. The weather made her uneasy. “Seth, let’s go back,” she had suggested. “I don’t like driving in the snow.”
“It’s not like we’re gonna be outside in it,” he protested. “Just pull over into that little turnaround,” he said, motioning with his hand.
She put on her turn signal and put her foot on the break. Her car skidded. Panic gripped her and she made the wrong decision. She pressed the break all the way to the floor in a desperate attempt to stop the car. They began to spin, spiraling off the road. Along the way, they picked up speed until they plunged right into the woods that surrounded the road. The front of the car collided with the trunk of an old maple tree. A low hanging branch shattered the windshield of her truck. The glass splintered in every direction, raining down on her and slicing through the skin of her face and her upper body. A large sheet pierced Seth’s abdomen. Blood spurted from his body like a fountain. She saw parts of his entrails peeking through his opened belly and had to look away.
The memory—it was hard to classify it as a memory since it had happened just a few minutes earlier—did not feel real. It felt hazy, as though it had been in a dream. For a moment, she savored that thought. It’s a dream. It’s just a dream. But the pain was real—too real for it to be of her mind’s conception.
She closed her eyes and let out a sigh. There was a sharp pain her ribcage—she knew that some of, if not all of her ribs were broken. The smell of gas persisted. It would not be long now.
In the distance, she heard the faint sound of sirens. But the noise faded until she heard nothing at all. Her body went entirely numb and felt herself slip away into darkness. As she lost consciousness, she had a final, chilling thought.
She was alive.
Seth was not.
Part One: The Descent
1.1 – Friends to the End
“Bailey! Bailey, can you hear me?”
“My baby! My poor baby, please let me see her! Let me through!”
“What happened to her? Is she going to be alright?”
“We need to get her stable now. Ready, lift on three. One, two, three.”
Bailey was scarcely aware of being lifted into the air. She was placed on a soft surface. For a moment, her eyes opened. She recognized her mother’s frantic voice and her father’s deep baritone. Her mother shrieked to see her daughter while her father asked the doctors questions. They both jogged alongside her gurney. “She’s awake!” It was her mother’s voice. “Her eyes are open! Bailey, Bailey, darling, stay with me!”
She could not see her parents, only the grim but dutiful faces of the ER nurses as they wheeled her into a room full of bright lights. “Bailey, my name is Dr. Baines. I’m going to help you, okay? I just need you to stay relaxed for me.” Bailey, tried to stay conscious. She really did, but found herself slipping away again.
This time, however, she was not greeted by horrifying, death-like oblivion. This time, she dreamed. She saw herself in government class, in the back corner as usual. Seth sat across from her, scrolling through something on his phone beneath his desk. In her dream, Baily looked over at Seth and smiled at him. There he was, alive, relatively happy, and with her. Colin was not there to distract her attention away from him this time. It was just the two of them, like it was supposed to be.
“Best friends forever,” he had told her once, before they fell in love.
They both swore that even if their love did not work out, their friendship would not be compromised. He meant to much to her, and she too much to him for them to lose each other over something foolish.
Bailey knew she was supposed to be quiet in class, but this was not real. It could not be real—Seth was dead. He was gone and she was alive. She reached over and grabbed Seth’s hand. The boy jumped at the contact and looked at her, bewildered. His eyes shone like emeralds. His full, pink lips were slightly puckered at he watched her warily.
“Seth,” she whispered. Her high-pitched voice cracked—she hadn’t realized that she had been crying in the dream. That must have been why he looked so concerned. “Seth, I love you.”
His concern evaporated in that instant. His face grew soft and he reached over and cupped her cheek. “I love you too, Bails.”
“Was it real?” she asked in a frightened whisper. “Did you… Did you die?”
Seth did not answer her question. He kept staring at her with almost a vacant expression, as though the words did not register.
“Seth…” she whimpered.
This time, he responded. He pulled her toward him, chair and all. “Shh,” he soothed. “I’m here, Bailey. I’m here. Let me take care of you. Let me make you feel better.”
She gave in and met his lips in a heated kiss. His hands went and knotted in her hair, tugging gently. Bailey let out a soft moan as she wrapped her arms around his neck. She pulled herself into his lap, wrapping her legs around him the best she could. Around them, the government class faded away until it was just the two of them, intertwined and completely absorbed with each other. Their tangle of limbs and loud breaths came to a halt as Bailey pulled away. She looked up at him, the tears returning to her eyes. Her body shook as a sob escaped. “Don’t ever leave me… Please don’t leave. Please don’t be dead.”
The Seth in her dream did not seem surprised by her words. “Bailey, just because you can’t see me, doesn’t mean that I’m not still with you. You think I’d leave you, even in death? Friends to the end, right?”
A smile crossed her face and she nodded. “Yes. Friends to the end.”
Suddenly, Seth’s face darkened. His hands that had been on the ground beside them moved upward and clamped around her throat. Bailey seized up, her own hands flying to his, trying feebly to pull them off. “Friends to the end!” Seth snarled at her. She met his eyes and let out a weak cry—they were as black as the emptiness that surrounded them. “Friends to the end… you promised me… YOU PROMISED ME!” His stomach tore open, his entrails spilling out onto Bailey’s body. A waterfall of blood washing over her as she screamed and thrashed.
“SETH STOP! STOP IT! STOP!” Her words ran together, desperate and pleading.
“You abandoned me in that car!” he growled. His hands tightened around her throat, crushing her windpipe. “You didn’t even try to help me, you _____! You let me die! YOU LET ME DIE!”
Bailey could not breath. Panic planted its seed, and it rooted itself deep within her core. The blood kept flowing from Seth’s abdomen, rising around her. It was like she was trapped in a swimming pool full of it. It rose higher and higher, on both sides of her face. As much as she struggled, Seth held her there—either he would choke her to death or she would drown in the blood as he held her down. “I TRUSTED YOU!” Seth screamed, still squeezing the life out of her. “I TRUSTED YOU, YOU _____!”
She tried to scream, but she had no air in her lungs. The blood rose up, covering her mouth and nose until she was lost in the sea of red.
