Ssenreven

[Farrelei]

I am currently writing a novella (named Ssenreven of course), about a boy in oldtime London, living in the slums. He absolutely loves writing, but his Father forbids it. His life was just the same routine everyday.
Until he found Ssenreven.
I hope you enjoy it, I'll post it in chapters.
((By the way, for any chat that ISN'T the story itself, please post with (()), <<>> or [[]]. Thanks))

[Jakeby]

((well ok it sounds cool!
<<MODIFIED BY Farrelei_Please use OOC tags>>))

[Farrelei]

((Thanks. I was about to post it but when I copied it everything turned up all bunched together and the text were scrambled so I'll do it later.))

[Frost]

(( I'm writing a story too ))

[Farrelei]

((I know, there's already a link to it on this website, thanks Claw))

[Farrelei]

Ssenreven[/u]



Chapter 1- Birth of a Fantasy[/i]


The breeze was so chilling. With every silent breath, the hairs pricked up
and tingled Jeremy’s skin.
He sighed glumly as he closed his bedside window. He loved the breeze, but
he would rather have eyes instead of ice-cubes at the end of the day.
His father would be home soon as he usually didn’t work for very long in
the cold Fridays. Oh, how he despised him. Storming in after his day at
work, absorbing whatever silence and peace remained in their empty house.
He was never able to work after his father had rocked up, and all the
better too, for his father couldn’t stand any kind of literature unless it
had just been released, hot from the press in it’s daily black and white
drone.
One look at Jeremy wasting his time writing, and he would be flogged, and
any work that he was currently writing would be used as fuel for the fire
which crackled endlessly from the fireplace in the centre of the wall that
ran along their small dining room floor.

Jeremy glanced over his notepad, which lay over his small bedside table
once again before shutting it silently and laying it neatly to one side.
He smiled to himself as he picked himself up from his bed. He had made
many worlds before, and many characters to inhabit them. But there was
just something about this story that made him smile… And he very rarely
smiled.
Just then, a loud crash came from the front of their echoing house.
‘Dad...’ Jeremy thought to himself wearily as he quickly left the comfort
of his room and wandered down their hallway, eager to make himself appear
as if he was doing something ‘worth it’, as his Dad would say. He opened
the door, trying to look casual, but anyone who paid attention could tell
that he stiffened up whenever he was around either of his parents.
Jeremy’s mother was a caring woman. She had dark blonde hair and a smile
that would always perk Jeremy up when he was in a bad mood. She wouldn’t
really understand him fully, as no-one really did, but she would try, and
she would care. She would move about majestically, her movements smooth
and fragile, and her movements alone would make Jeremy feel at peace.
But there were two sides to Jeremy’s mother.
She changed once his Father came home. She didn’t notice Jeremy as much,
and there was something in her smiles and movements that was different.
Jeremy could never really love his Mother, as long as she loved the hatred
that was Jeremy’s Father.

Jeremy’s Father came laughing into the doorway, dropped his things and
hugged Jeremy’s mother.
Jeremy felt a sudden stab of jealousy that quickly passed as he realised
this was foolish.
Then Jeremy’s Father turned to face him and stared blankly without a word,
when suddenly another figure stumbled out the door behind Jeremy.
“Daddy?” it said in a childish way.
It was Anna, Jeremy’s twin sister.
She had the same dark brown hair as Jeremy, but her eyes were a more
brighter shade of green then his own.
And unlike Jeremy, his Father seemed to share a close bond with Anna.

[Farrelei]

Chapter 2- Longing Serenity[/i]

Jeremy had never really felt that close to anyone in his family, including
his sister. His mother was the only real friend he had, and though Anna
and himself had played a lot more when they were children, as Jeremy grew
older, his Father grew more harsh, and Jeremy began to forget the fun they
used to share.
The only serenity Jeremy seemed to find now was in books. Before he had
begun to write, he used to read, over and over again. But gradually, his
Father began to forbid it, as if reading would somehow suck him into some
unknown land, and Jeremy began to hate his Father’s stubbornness,
forgetting any kinship they once shared.
His mother, though, comforted Jeremy, and tried desperately to make him
see happiness in his Father again.
She came to be his supplier of literature for when his Father was out. She
taught him how to easily hide them from his Father, and Jeremy forged a
close bond with his Mother. But when his Father returned back home again,
Jeremy began to doubt his Mother, as if it was a crime to befriend his
Father, and soon he never really trusted anyone that much anymore.
There was a time when Jeremy and his sister read together. Those were the
times when Jeremy truly shared happiness, for this time he could be
adventuring in that world with a friend, a companion, even if they weren’t
real.
But Jeremy began to wish they were real.
Soon enough, Jeremy began to grow tired of the same Fantasies, retold over
and over again, just in different words.
Jeremy began to make his own worlds, and he began to create portals in
which to travel to them, but they never worked.
He knew he was stuck in his world, but he lived multiple lives in the
others through his stories.
But he grew annoyed at his own worlds. They weren’t like the ones in his
stories. They all had their flaws, and he didn’t know what to do
sometimes. But he kept writing, and throwing the worlds away so
carelessly. There was just something missing from each of his stories,
from each of his worlds…
But that is when he found Ssenreven.

[Farrelei]

Chapter 3- Recovered Bonds[/i]

“HEY!” yelled Jeremy’s father, thrusting him back into the present, “Get
out of the way so you’re sister has a chance of getting past yer’ fat ass”
taunted his Father, but Jeremy could already see Anna had walked past him.
She quickly shot a glance back at Jeremy, then turned to her Father
casually,
“It’s okay, I can get past” she said softly, in a calm soothing voice.
Jeremy’s father nodded slightly, and focussed his eyes on Anna, but his
words on Jeremy, “I don’t care if you can get past, that boy needs to
learn some manners”
His father raised his head just an inch more to glance at Jeremy, hoping
for a satisfying reaction, but then drooped to Anna and hugged her
heartily, the way he always did.
Jeremy thought of a hundred things he could blurt out right then, but he
knew that all it would bring was more pain.

The rest of the day was not as bad, and king of died down to a fleeting
drone. Jeremy tried to stay away from his notepad, which was relatively
easy ad he had spent the entire morning and the last night creating
Ssenreven, and around this time, Jeremy's mind was buzzing with ideas and
characters, but a little too many to write down, especially with his
Father around.
So for once in a while, he slowly turned the knob on Anna’s door.
To his surprise, a voice yelped back at him,
“Who is it!?” it cried in a half-panicked, half-calm tone.
“It-it’s just me” stuttered Jeremy
“Oh, Jeremy…” she murmered, “what’s the matter?”
Jeremy heard footsteps and Anna’s bedroom door opened. She welcomed him in,
and he was silently surprised to find the room much different then he had
last seen it.
But he guessed he shouldn’t have been surprised of the change, not really.
“Dad’s here” he muttered softly
Anna shrugged her shoulders casually, “I don’t see why you two don’t get
along…” she said plainly
“He wants me to be him” Jeremy accused
“But you don’t know that…” rebutted Anna
And suddenly they were both quiet. They both thought back to their
childhood, where they always used to debate over the small things as
though they were big.
“Remember…” began Jeremy, but Anna nodded abruptly, cutting him off.
Jeremy didn’t know what to say. It had been so long since he had talked to
Anna so fluently.
“Jeremy, you’re so isolated now…” Anna sighed softly, almost as an
afterthought.
Jeremy didn’t know what to say. He knew it was true, but he didn’t have
time for them when he was writing his endless stories. It was almost as if
time itself was to blame.
“I know,” he muttered in the end, unsure of what else to say
“Don’t you ever miss the times we shared together?” she asked again, a
hint of accusation in her voice
Jeremy fell silent. He did miss those old times and memories they once
shared. But he knew that it was like picking either fantasy or reality. It
was too hard a question to contemplate answering.
“What’s happening to our family?” asked Anna, and Jeremy could feel her
uncertainness as well.
Anna’s help was not helping him as much as he hoped it would. But he
hadn’t really hoped for anything in the first place.
Jeremy turned to leave, but Anna rushed up and placed a gentle hand on his
shoulder. He turned around slowly.
“Jeremy… Talk more often. It’ll help us. It’ll help our family” Anna
reassured.
Jeremy thought about Anna’s words for a moment, and then broke out in a smile.
Anna felt it too, and smiled as well, and they shared a warm hug together,
before their mother called out for dinnertime.

[Farrelei]

Chapter 4- Dawn to Dusk, and the Grief in Between[/i]

The homage didn’t last too long as the two twins walked out to get their
meal. At first, the table was mildly silent, but suddenly his Father broke
into one of his droning conversations in which Jeremy hardly ever listened,
but hated them. He couldn’t think clearly or talk with anyone else while
his Father continued on. So he just sat silently and played with his food, hardly eating anything as he usually didn't.
After what seemed like hours of scraping and washing his family dishes, Jeremy returned to his room for the night, and sat hovering over his notepad, though he didn't touch it. His mind kept crawling itself around those words, those characters he had created. And then he mind stopped at a blank as he saw the name of the villainness. Dayone. Her image, her strangth, and her place in Ssenrevn astonished Jeremy, even though he was the one to make her in the first place. She was easily the best story character he had ever created.
Just then, he heard a bagning on the door, and Jeremy quickly thrust the notepad under a pile of loose sheets on his bedise table.
It was Anna.
Jeremy sighed contentedly as he had expected it to be his Father.
Anna hovered at the doorway for a few moments, then quickly shut the door and moved to one side of it.
"You okay?" asked Anna.
Jeremy nodded silently.
"I was... Thinking about what we were talking about earlier. You truly do have a gift for your stories, you know"
Jeremy's mind came to a stop. He had only been slightly listening to what she was saying, but it triggered something off inside his head.
"H-" he began, but she spoke before him,
"It's like the old times, when we wished we could really go adventuring in those places..."
"H-How did you know about my stories?" blurted Jeremy, ignoring her previous statement
"I... Well, I was reading through one of them just now..." she admitted sheepishly
Jeremy remained silent, willing her to elaborate.
"I just wanted to get to know you again, Jeremy... And.. I knew you kept notes, so... I came in while you were cleaning up"
Jeremy shook his head, but he didn't show any anger or expression, "Please don't" he muttered.
Anna nodded her head apoligetically, and after a short period of silence, she left through the door without a word.
Jeremy waited for a few minutes before slowly and silently picking out the sheets again, and began to elaborate more on this new world of his.
What seemed like a short time to Jeremy was actually longer then it appeared.
Jeremy was still writing when the door opened again.
Jeremy, engrossed, just murmered for the guest to come in without turning.
This time it was his Father.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" he asked in a greatly annoying tone of voice.
Jeremy's heart began to beat unsystematically as a response to the voice and he quickly yet clumsily shoved the notes under the pile of sheets once again.
Jeremy's Father was oddly silent until Jeremy turned his head to face him.
"Show me" was all his Father said.
Jeremy didn't know what to do. His Father wasn't acting as he usually did, and Jeremy was so frightened of him. He began to turn ever so slowly...
"Show me!" Jeremy's father said again, this time more louder and firmer.
This time Jeremy responded quicker, and drew out his story in one go and slowly turned with a movement of fear towards his father, who silently snatched the notes from Jeremy's hand.

After a prolonged awkward silence, Jeremy's Father dropped the notes onto the floor.
Jeremy felt angry at his Father for doing that, but felt a stab of relief that his Father hadn't thrown it away this time.
"Why do you write?" his Father asked again, in the same tone of voice as before.
Jeremy searched his mind but did not find an answer.
"Hurry up!" urged his Father.
Jeremy felt like dying. He shook his head and replied, "I don't know"
"Then I don't know why I let you, and I don't know why you waste your time doing it!" his Father said with a hint of sick delight hidden inside his voice. He deliberatly stepped on the pages and turned on his foot before leaving without another word.
Jeremy waited, shocked, for a moment, until he finally flung himself off his chair and onto the ground and retrieved the pages.
The writing was still audible.
He didn't know why he was crying, he just was.
He didn't know whether it was from shock, from relief, or from fear. He just knew that he was crying.
And after a few lone minutes, he realised. It was because of reality.
In Ssenreven, he could escape. In Ssenreven, he could exist without this fear.
But Jeremy had tried and tried, and he knew that there was no escape from his sick reality. And suddenly, as though his Father had infectred him with some hated disease, he felt a stab of confusion as he questioned why he bothered writing about someone who would never exist, about a place that never is and never will be.
But he shook his head in annoyance and re-piled Ssenreven, back in the same old neat spot. And he shunned the diseased thoughts from his mind as he drifted himself to sleep.

[Farrelei]

Chapter 5- Climatic Hatred[/i]

Jeremy awoke with a start as he heard a slight bang at the front of the house.
His mind immediately registered serenity as he knew his Father had gone to work for the day.
He crawled gingerly out of his stiff bed and stretched for a moment, before warmly stepping over to his bedside window.
He opened his window slightly and basked in the ever-soft breeze. He sat down on his chair, the window still open, as he brought his notes closer. He felt a hint of sadness as he stared down at his them, remembering the night before, but that soon passed and he was back into writing, but he only wrote a short amount.
After a while, he heard theat same old voice in the hallway again and his heart immediately dropped as his brain finally clicked.
His Father wasn't at work. It was Saturday.
The whole purpose of writing suddenly deterioated he softly packed away his notes and got up silently. He was just about to exit through his bedroom door when his Father opened it, suddenly frightening Jeremy backwards.
His Father eyed him oddly for a second, then seemed to scan his clothing.
"Why is it so cold in here?" he jabbed, "Get something warm on"
He turned to leave, seemingly content that Jeremy was not wasting his time writing, when he noticed the window was open.
"Jeremy, CLOSE THAT DAMN WINDOW" he yelled furiously, refuelling his anger.
Jeremy hurried over to the window and closed it as his Father silently left the way he always did. That's when Jeremy noticed something outside.
It was snowing.

The day went in spasms, sometimes fast, sometimes slow as Jeremy spent his day outside of his room, to scared to write as not to give his Father something to yell at. He spent some time outside, admiring the snow with his sister, but soon enough it became to cold to do that, so they returned back inside and helped with the cooking.
It was during one of those quick spasms whilst Jeremy's mind was blank with ideas of his story when his Father decided to have another go at Jeremy, for no apparent reason.
"Don't you ever eat anything, boy!?" he yelled with pure annoyance, "no wonder you're too weak to do anything worthwhile"
That caught everyone's attention at the table.
Jeremy's Mother sat silently, wondering where the outburst had come from.
Anna kept looking at both Jeremy and his Father simutaneously, each with a different emotion.
And Jeremy and his Father stared coldly into the pit of each other's eyes, unmoving.
After a period of time, Jeremy staggered up and began to leave.
Jeremy's Father seemed half stunned at the idea of Jeremy getting up, then didn't know whether to be content or angry.
"What now!?" his Father urged on, but jeremy ignored him coldly adn confined himself to his room, a million thoughts flooding through his mind.
In the end he turned back to Ssenreven, searching his mini-stories inside of it to try and find a solution to his problems.
But he couldn't find a solution. This was reality, he kept thinking to himself, and soon he felt a very alien emotion, one wanting his life to end, and to wake up somewhere far away.
He tried to shake the thoughts from his mind, but remnants of them still remained. He furiously grabbed his pencil and wrote more on Ssenreven, a rush of pure emotions, a rush of stories once again. He didn't think of the damage he was causing to his sotry, or himself, as Anna camly entered his room.
"What are you doing!?!?" yelled Jeremy angrily over his shoulder.
Anna was shocked for a moment, then slowly replied, "I was just worried..."
"You'll never understand!" taunted Jeremy back, and Anna remained still for a moment before, in a obviously frozen move, stumbled out of Jeremy's room.
Jeremy continued to work for a few minutes more, before he heard heavier footsteps in the hall.
He knew it was his Father. He left his notes on his table, and he stood up, ready to face him.
His Father entered quickly, a mask of emotions on his face,
"What are you doing in here!?" he demanded
"Living" replied Jeremy quite abruptly, "what are you doing?"
"How dare you..." his Father began, advancing on Jeremy furiously
Jeremy stared into his black eyes with pure hatred. Not fear, just pure hatred.
His Father pushed Jeremy to one side and pulled Ssenreven from the table, crunching it up and waqlking out of the room in long strides.
Jeremy was so shocked by everything and how quickly reality was advancing on him, like a figure in his dreams, pursuing him to the very end.
"YOU BASTARD!" yelled Jeremy back after his Father, but his Father didn't reply.
Jeremy felt so angry. He didn't know what to do.
"Well, I know that no good's coming from this place of hell" Jeremy stammered to no-one in particular.
And in a regreatful move he turned once again to his window and opened it.
He looked to the breeze, as if it would give him it's answers in it's chilling whispers.
And, in a sudden move, even to himself, Jeremy launched himself from the comfort of his bedroom and out into the freezing of the night.

[Farrelei]

Chapter 6- Ssenreven[/i]

The first thing Jeremy felt was regret.
He turned back to his bedroom window, hanging ominously above his head, but he knew it was too late.
Voices coming from his house urged him forward, and in a move of fear he began to sprint away from the comfort of his own house.
Grieving tears fell from his face as he ran through the night, and then more tears flowed as the chill began to sear into his skin.
He had run so far when he suddenly felt the need to stop, to rest his legs. He quickly squeezed into a crack in the wall behind someone's house and crouched down.
He suddenly wished he hadn't, as his bare feet began to numb under the snow. His mind was clattered with physical and emotional pain, and he staggered to a half-stand and crawled back out the wall before hearing a yell a fair distance away from him.
He stood hesitantly still, still trying to make sure it was his Father and not someone else.
He heard the voice again, "JEREMY!" it yelled.
And in theat one second, Jeremy was off. He thought his feet were bleeding, but he wasn't sure. He just kept running.
He came to the park and started to run through it. He ran through roads, streets, not looking anywhere, just hearing the voice faintly behind him everytime.
Once he turned around, trying to make out the distant figure. That was when he ran into the tree, and collapsed on the ground.
His head immediately began to pound in response. He raised a feeble hand up to his head and felt the area where it hurt the most.
It was bleeding.
"JEREMY" came the voice again, this time closer.
Jeremy slowly turned around, his head feeling like a cracked bowling ball.
This time he could make out the figure of his Father, as well as a few other men joining him in the chase.
Jeremy wondered silently why his Father had taken it this far. He wanted everyone to know of his own demise, and he wanted his life to be hell.
Jeremy quickly got up and ran. This time he was frightened. The anger plastered over his Father's face was enough to petrify a normal boy.
But Jeremy had been through it all before.
He ran on, his limbs aching, and his feet failing him.
He was slowing down, and his chasers were closing in on him. In a bold move he began to sprint across the large bridge that allowed passage over the large river below. The rocky road tore one of his feet to pieces, and Jeremy collapsed once more.
He began to get up, but he turned around and saw his Father, just 2 metres behind him.
He knew that if he began to run again, he would be caught.
He knew that if he was caught, his life would just get harder then before.
And he knew that he would rather die then be confined to a reality worst then anything he could possibly imagine.
So he jumped.
Down, down, down he fell, the space between the bridge and the water bigger then he had imagined.
He saw his Father's horrified face as he fell, and he felt the pain of the water as he crashed into it's grasps, the water like a million freezing knives being plunged into him all at once.
His mind was filled with regret and pain.
And he felt his body float through the calm water, his body numbing up so much that he felt no feeling at all except the single throb of his head.
And then he felt his thought dwindle as everything passed once more through his blank mind.
And soon enough, he felt no pain, no emotion.
And then a single thought drifted through his head...
Ssenreven

[Frost]

(( wow mines very different to yours, actually, a little bit the same, my main character's mum and dad split up and his mum's new boyfriend hates him.))

[Farrelei]

((Have you read the whole thing? And I would like to read yours! ^-^))

[Milk]

((so its like billy eliot like how the dad doesnt let him dance and in this the dad doesnt lets him wright.))

[Farrelei]

((Kind of, but it's a lot different as the story progresses))