The first story in this experiment was posted here: Story 1
Once again, I've looked through a few of my notebooks and found a sample of a story that I started in long-hand. I don't know where it was supposed to go - and I don't know if it will spark my interest and encourage me to take it further once I type it out... This is all part of the adventure that is my writing.
Welcome aboard, it's a total mystery tour - even for the driver!
This time I've written notes rather than a story. I've read some of it already and I think it's interesting... but it doesn't make a complete story yet... It's an outline of things to come.
Knowing this, do you still want to come on the mystery tour?
OK, Buckle up... I don't know what's coming.
"Don't steal from the shops on this street. Just don't, OK?"
"Not at all?"
He shook his head; sharp, jerky but almost imperceptible movements. "Not. At. All." He stopped walking, turned and stood directly in front of his companion, to stop her in her tracks. "I know you're sneaky and sly and you're a better thief than I was at your age, but trust me. You don't want to get caught stealing here."
"CCTV?"
"They don't need CCTV."
He beckoned with his head for her to follow him into the shadows. "Get caught stealing and the Shopkeeper hands you over to a small girl. There's no discussion, no negotiation and no escape. She's stronger than she looks."
He waited for his companion to assure him that she'd follow his advice, but the girl looked at him as though he'd offered a challenge.
Captured children are put on trial - not by judge or jury. The trial they face is one they will never forget - for as long as they live, however short a time that may be.
The trials are addictive and kids subjected to them can't stop thinking about them. Eventually they find an excuse to go back to steal again so they can get caught and sent back into the Voidlands where the trials are set.
From time to time, rumours of magic, unusual skills and unheard of abilities drift through the ranks of street-kids. No one knows where the rumours start but the results are always the same - a wave of thefts and captures surge through the streets and kids go missing.
Often the kids come back. Those that do return have a far-away look in their eye, and a self-confidence that draws others to their side. If they make another trip and return, the wildness increases. They take bigger risks, expose themselves to more danger and their gang grows exponentially. The successful gang leaders are those who can take their experiences in the Voidlands and capitalise on it without making too many returns.
But who knows which return will be the one that's one too many?
Sometimes a kid - a stranger to the area - turns up dead.
The Voidlands is a world just like the one the street kids know, but there's a tingle in the air, danger they can sense and tasks to complete. When the tasks are finished, only then are they allowed to return to their homeland. Few of those that have completed the tasks speak about what they witnessed and the advice they give is always the same.
Don't trust your senses - senses can be tricked.
Don't whine or try to beg your way out - those that do are never seen again.
Don't look for the easy way out - there isn't one.
Stay away from the adults - at all costs.
Don't go back!
The two children walked down the street with the same solemn expression on their faces - as serious as a heart attack.
The adults milling around ignored the children as though they didn’t even see them. At one time of day, they would have known them as street urchins. Something in the older kid’s words rang true for the girl and she didn’t even reach for the wallet she saw within easy reach of her nimble fingers. She clamped her arms across her body and shrank into herself, thinking about the warnings.
When they rounded the corner and finally exited the street, the pall of despair lifted and she blinked as though blinded by bright sunlight after emerging from the depths of a coalmine.
She turned back to look at the entrance to the street, to memorise it and so avoid it in future, but she couldn’t see where the street began.
“Hey, Dec,” she said. “Where…”
The boy was gone. She turned around to see if she could spot him and though the road was wide and relatively empty, he was nowhere to be seen.
“Dec?” she said, in a lower voice and she ducked backwards into an alley between two high walls.
“Shh, don’t use my name. I don’t want anyone to know I’ve warned you about the Street,” his voice came as a whisper but she couldn’t tell where he was.
“Sorry… Where did the entrance to the street go?” she whispered, keeping her eyes on the gap between the two walls.
“Oh that,” he said. “It’s still there but I hope you’ll not find it again until you’re quite a bit older, stronger, more experienced… Actually, I hope you don’t find it again.”
“Once you go there and steal something, you’re hooked and you’ll want to go back.”
There you have it... A world where theft can be punished by death - or something worse, where kids can't help pushing boundaries and taking risks even though the reward is intangible and inexplicable and they all realise how deadly the game is that they're playing.
I think I'm going to think on this a little more and get more of a back-story to explain it better.
Don't worry, this tour isn't over yet. Watch this space!