More Shiloh:

     Mrs. Morrissey owned a bake shop since she was nineteen. It was where she met her husband, Campbell Morrissey. It was where she had her first kiss. It was where she watched her dad get shot. It was also where she was almost 90% of the time. When she wasn’t at her bakeshop though, she was home with her kids. Shiloh was in 10^th grade, and the only girl of 5. Her older brother, Duncan was a senior. He used to be a dedicated biker until he started hanging around with the wrong people, at the wrong times, doing the wrong things. He became a major pot-head and stopped coming home. Shiloh was the only one that saw him anymore, and only because she went to school with him. He drove her home every afternoon and picked her up every morning. They met at Tim Horton’s down the street so that he didn’t need to see the rest of his family. He was too ashamed to face his parents, and he didn’t want the triplets to follow in his footsteps. However, Shiloh had been his best friend since the day she came home. The three little ones, John, Chord and Tyler were the only things that kept Kelly sane sometimes.  They were skinny blonde 4 year olds with green eyes. John knew just about everything. He could read by the time he was two and a half, and was in love with crossword puzzles. He sat for hours in front of the television watching The Discovery Channel while the carpet left marks on his elbows. On the other hand, Chord was the typical 4 year old. He constantly followed the older ones around asking “why” every few seconds. He picked his nose, played in mud and colored on the walls. Lastly there was Tyler. He kept most of everything to himself. He walked around, head to the floor, muttering to himself. He sat in his closet most of the day, counting the fibers in the carpet. As you can imagine, Kelly wasn’t always in such a pleasant mood. Seeing her baby girl lie in bed unconscious after being stabbed in what she thought to be a safe environment frightened her. With this at hand, how could she be sure the boys were alright?

                Shiloh looked at her mother and got teary eyed. She couldn’t get up, she could barely turn herself even, but she stared at the brown curls on her mother’s head. She remembered them bouncing as she nodded her head to her customers telling them to have a nice day. She remembered her pink lips smiling and her green eyes, just like Duncan’s, in fact, exactly like Duncan’s, lighting her golden skin. As she reminisced the tears rolled down her cheeks silently. Shiloh sniffled and immediately her mother’s eyes shot open. Rushing to the bed she began to smile her perfect smile. “Shiloh, Shy! How are you honey? Do you want anything?” already Shiloh was annoyed. However, she smiled. While her mother rubbed her head she started to speak “I’m fine” then she giggled “I just hope that bastard is dead.” At those words Kelly’s lips turned to a frown, but then back to a smile with a sigh. “Don’t wish that Shy” She began to cry and then finished her thought “The best of us and the worst of us make mistakes honey, we need to learn to forgive, just like God will.” Shiloh just sighed. Her mom could tell she wasn’t feeling it. To break the awkward silence she saw a boy walk into the room and instantly both their hearts fluttered.      

Shorter second and third paragraphs.
    
     For a few minutes Shiloh lay on the floor crying. Both of her hands cupped over her wound. Blood poured through the gaps between her fingers and covered the floor beneath her. She finally grasped words and screamed them “Are you all just going to stand there and watch me die, or are you going to do something like a human being would?” The students ran back to their computers and continued with their own work, except Jace. Jace stood over her, eyes wide. He grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down “Help, now!” and handed it to his teacher. In about a second flat she ran out of the dark classroom and took one quick look at Shiloh before she ran down into the main office. Shiloh, from lack of blood and oxygen, passed out.
     The next time Shiloh opened her eyes, it was two days later and she was in the hospital. Shaking she looked around and immediately started to cry. The room was nearly empty, and extremely white. In a nearby chair sat her mother sleeping soundly. In reality, she was probably stressed beyond compare to the fact that her daughter was asleep in the hospital for the past two days. To Kelly Morrissey, life was anything other than stress free.

Shiloh Morrissey. New character, new emotion, new friend.

First paragraph of a new story.

     Humming wheels on the bus as innocent as a paste-eating first grader, Shiloh Morrissey took a walk around the building. As she approached the computer lab she hushed and peeked in. The room was only lit by the screens which illuminated the face of each student working so diligently. Inside she saw the floppy blonde hair and plaid shirt of Jace McGee. She bit her lip trying to hold in a smile so big it was sure to make a noise. She watched as Jace flipped his hair out of his eyes. She whispered to herself “aw.” She heard footsteps behind her, but thought nothing of them. That is, until they stopped right behind her. She turned her head until she could see the man towering over her. She was short, but she knew he had to be over seven feet tall. He wore a gray shirt so tight she was pretty sure she could see his veins. He had ruffled sandy hair peeking out from under a black beanie. Terrified, Shiloh stood wide eyed staring at the man’s hands that were in his pocket. He was a lefty. She could tell because he had his watch on his right wrist, and only lefties do that. She also noted that his left hand was grasping something inside his pocket. That’s why she paid close attention to his left hand. She was so scared her eyes filled with tears but they didn’t fall. Her vision got blurry but she didn’t want to wipe them away because she couldn’t possibly move. To her surprise, she felt his hand around her neck and she was shoved against the wall, almost silently. Since everyone in the computer lab wore head phones, nobody noticed. Shiloh’s throat was blocked so she couldn’t breathe. She could barely breathe, but remained still. Her eyes, still fixed on the left pocket of the man released rivers of tears. She watched as he pulled from his jean pocket a swiss army knife stained with blood. The blood was encrusted on the blade. It looked old. It was far from red now, almost a brown color. She saw scars that lined his wrist. Some were fresh, but there were some that were noticeably mature. He held the knife to his lips and closed his eyes. She saw his lips move but couldn’t hear what he whispered, then he kissed the blade. He pulled the blade from his lips and smiled. His smile was the most malicious smile she ever saw and she was in complete and utter fear. The little breathes she took weren’t enough for her lungs and she felt like she was going to pass out. The man thrusted the blade right below her left ribs. With that he pulled the blade and ran. After Shiloh took in enough air to scream, she did. The teacher that was in the computer lab, to no luck of hers, was deaf. All of the students rushed to the door. Keeling over in pain, Shiloh screamed. The soundproof doors of the other rooms muffled her screeches for help. None of the students moved.

Escape.

Sometimes I want to escape, I write. Then I never finish. This is one of those unfinished pieces.

“You’re ungrateful, all you do is care about yourself!” tears poured down my face as I ran up to my room. I started to clean until I came across the thing that could calm me down. I clutched Caspian’s sweatshirt tight against my face as I slid my back down against the door. When I hit the floor I ducked my head and sobbed until my eyes went numb. My phone started to buzz and instead of answering it I stared blankly into the navy blue of C’s sweatshirt like it would bring him here to comfort me.

                My jaw began to ache from crying, so I decided to call Caspian back. When I picked up my phone I had one missed call, but not from Caspian. In shock I blinked and looked closer at the screen, “one missed call from Jacob.” My face began to heat up as I listened to the voicemail he had left. “I know you feel really strong about your decision, but if you go you won’t be safe. You need to stay Lilah. I’ll be over in twenty. I love you.” There was something awfully odd about his voice, something unfamiliar. Then it hit me, he was crying. I lifted myself off my floor and trudged over to my bed. As I fell backwards onto the red and white bedspread someone knocked a tender knock on my door. Thinking it was my brother Cooper I yelled “get away Coop, I’m not in the mood!” Instead the door slowly opened and in walked a tall blonde boy with a long sleeve tee and jeans on. “Lilah, you can’t do this to yourself, it’s not healthy.” Without thinking I quickly came back with “what about this isn’t healthy?” he pointed to the empty tub of cookie dough ice cream on my floor next to Caspian’s sopping wet sweatshirt. 

                After lying on my bed for what seemed like years he put his hand out for me to grab. “Come on, let’s go for a walk.” I got up and grabbed the wet sweatshirt and began to put it around myself. As Jacob chuckled he removed his sweatshirt and put it on me. It was much warmer than Casp’s. He led me down the stairs and out the door. My eyes were red and puffy, my hair was messy and I was in plaid sweat pants and a bulky sweater.  We headed down towards my favorite playground, silently. As we sat on the swings I looked at the sky. I turned to face Jacob who was looking up at the sky as well. The shape of his face in the moonlight looked so sweet and soft. “How did you manage to get here?” he looked over at me. I could sense a smile come across his face as he spoke “you needed me.” I didn’t realize it until I spoke again, but I had began to cry again. I laid down on the ground and whispered “well I’m glad you came.”

                When we finally began walking again it was about eleven. He told me over and over he was there for me and then he asked me for my phone. As I handed him my phone I felt his warm hand. He started to make a call and walked away. When he came back he looked around. He led me through streets and around corners until we were down by the water. We climbed up to the top of the docks and I saw a boy. He was lying on the docks, hands folded beneath his head. He stood up and jumped, then he put his arms out in front of him and roared. Realizing who it was I ran to him and hugged him. Tears rolled down my face covering his shirt. My face was buried in his rugby shirt and I began to whisper “Caspian, I love you. You two are the only two men I can…” before I could finish my sentence Casp placed his finger over my lips. “Shh…I love you.”

I'm no superman, but I do what I can.

Hey guys!

I know we've all been through tough patches and dark nights, but what keeps me going is those people around me. One person recently came into my life and I know why all ready. He's all over the place to say the least. I'll keep his name confidential, for his own sake of course. For title purposes, we'll call him Jace. Jace is a 15 year old boy a grade below me. He goes to our school by choice and came from a small school of about 200 people, staff included. In 7th and 8th grade he got into some of the wrong things. He started drinking, smoking cigarettes and just hanging around with the wrong type of people. He started to do things less and eventually stopped. Unfortunatley, he got into the booze and then weed. The time he told me he was doing weed was an all around bad day. I had been in an arguement with my boyfriend, so he wanted to walk me home. He wanted to make sure I was okay. It was chilly and a bit misty. Hand in hand we crossed over the bridge. He was telling me of how he and some friends smashed lamp posts down by the water. Although I was upset, I didn't show it through my tone of voice when I turned to him with a sly grin and said "Jaaaace, you can't do bad things!" we had stopped walking and he looked at me. His deep blue eyes sunk in his head under his dirty blonde hair. "Is weed bad?" he asked trying not to look into my eyes. Turning to face him my eyes dipping down into my cheeks with a slight pout upon my lips I stared into his shifting eyes. "How come? How could you do this to me?" I was absolutley devastated. He looked at me and said in his sweet, tired voice "It makes me happy.." I repeatedly told him he didn't need it as we stood there in front of the colored house with the bird painted on the door. I grabbed his hand again and swung it back and forth in mine. "see this?" I asked. "I'm holding your hand. If I hold your hand you have to listen to me. If you don't want to, just let go." The walk home was seldomly silent. We got to the bank at the top of my four-block-long street and stopped. I hugged him and didn't let go. I told him to promise he would stop, and to my surprise he did. "I don't think you need it, but what will make you happy now?" I didn't want him to go back, but I wanted him to find a reason to stop. So he could have confidence in his decision at least. He looked at my face, and didn't shift and eye, then he said with strength "I guess that's what you're here for" and he gave one of those little half smiles he's so famous for. Maybe I am a nerd for remembering that day. Maybe it's a little odd that I memorized his class schedule. Maybe I shouldn't text him everyday once schools out and wish him a goodnight before bed. As I see it, I should. I feel like I'm helping somebody that I care about, and I could be saving a life.

Have a good evening everybody.