Faith Kim's Blog, page 5

My English Short Story

Hello all! I’m not going to even try to excuse my absence, I’ve just been very busy. But never mind that, today I have a short story that I’d like to share with you, yay! I actually wrote this for my English class and got an A on it!

The Ashes of a Fallen Phoenix

The first one came on a foggy January morning. Ashley Ravel stepped out of her house into the biting, cold air, watching her breath billow up. As she strolled past her dirty mailbox, a hint of white stole her attention, glowing against the grime.

It was a plain envelope with no writing. But since she was late for work this particular morning, Ashley didn’t think much of it and stuffed the curious letter into her purse.

She rushed into the office, already bustling with the life of journalists and their stories ready to hit the papers. Her boss and editor in chief, Mr. Bacot, was stepping out of one of the many offices that lined the hall when he caught sight of her, “‘Morning, Ash!” He greeted her by her commonly used nickname. His fat, amiable face was a stark contrast to Ash’s stern, thin one and his overall cheerful atmosphere toned out her dark presence. He flashed a jolly smile and waved a fat hand at passing coworkers as he fell into step with her hurried one, “I heard last night’s bonfire was great, did you go?”

Ash gave him a small smile, “No, I went to sleep after I sent you the article.” Her voice was strong, despite her lanky, feeble appearance. Ashley didn’t have the ideal look for the top journalist spot she held, but her dedication made up for everything. Though many would call her dedication an obsession because she did nothing else, ignoring any attempted friendships from others.

Mr. Bacot felt the familiar shiver run down his spine as he looked into the empty pool of her dark eyes, “Thought so. But, Ash, when’s the last time you went out and had some fun?” He sighed, following her into her office.

She thought carefully, setting down her bag. Then she shook her head slowly, “Work’s everything I’ll ever need, so why should I go out?”

Mr. Bacot shuddered at her cold words and vacant, tight-lipped smile, knowing she meant it. Quietly, he backed out, leaving her alone- just the way she liked it. Ash took no notice of his leave, instead pulling her laptop out of her bag, along with a white letter. It dropped heavily to the ground and waited patiently, as if asking to be opened.

Ash stared curiously, and slowly, she picked it up, feeling a cold rush run through her arm. She clumsily tore open the note as her ears began to ring, drowning out the buzz of the outside world. Her fingers shook as she drew out a folded sheet of paper.

Her entire body froze as the paper unfolded. Random phrases “Victims of a hit-and-run”, “Off the edge”, and “There were five” swam in front of her eyes, but she was unable to clearly process their meaning. At the bottom of the page, there were three words that struck fear into Ashley’s once unmoving heart.

“It was you.”

These words were the only ones written by hand while the rest were cut from what seemed to be a newspaper. They were scrawled out by an erratic hand, making each letter waver unsteadily

Ash stood up quickly, grabbing the letter with a nervous hand, crumpling the paper in a tight fist. She bolted out the door to her car. Speeding out of the parking lot and to her house, Ash slammed the front door shut as she locked herself in her room.

Something about the letter scared her, making her shake as she stared at the fist that held the note. She could still see the words, still hear them in her head, echoing.

You did it. You did it. You did it.

Did what though? The words opened something that Ash had buried deep within herself, so deep she’d forgotten what it was. But the letter brought past feelings back, a flood of fear, terror, and… guilt? This had something to do with her forgotten past, she knew that much.

Ash flung the letter against the beige bedroom wall as the terrifying feelings swelled up, making her crawl pathetically under her sheets like a child. Eventually, she was asleep, exhausted by her fears. But sleep was not an escape for it brought nightmares.

All around her, she heard screeches of tires on a pavement and flying glass surround her, cutting open her ghostly pale skin. Yet blood only flooded from her hands, dripping onto a black floor. Ash jolted awake with the sounds of screaming in her ears.

She was sitting in the armchair in her living room now and the light of a new day seeped through the heavy curtains. Slowly, Ash stood up, confusion settling in as she looked around her living room. Then her mind began to thaw and a second later, Ash was frantically running out towards her mailbox. She saw another white envelope and grabbed at it, tearing through to the paper inside.

It was just like the last, but with different clippings, “Died instantly” and “Dropped” were the only phrases taped to the paper. But again, at the bottom, the same words were written in the same, shaky writing, “You did it.”

She rushed back inside to her room and opened the first crumpled letter, scanning the clippings while trying to ignore the cryptic three words at the bottom. Then fear kicked in, making her abandon the letters.

The rest of her day was spent avoiding calls from work and in restless fits of sleep, with her waking up, stifling screams as images of a child stared at her with blood running down its small body.

The week dragged by and the only thing Ash did was retrieve each new letter every day. They always came, without fail, never missing a day, and with the same three words at the end. Ash would stay up, watching the mailbox, hoping to see the deliverer of the letters, but would always fall asleep, missing the chance. Then she would wake up, sweating and screaming, in another place of her house.

Mr. Bacot called several times and left several messages. Subsequently, he stopped, and the last message was to inform her that she’d been replaced. But Ash felt nothing for she’d devoted all her time to the letters, each one with new clippings taped to them and the same words at the bottom. Every time she looked at the papers, a shocking yank of guilt pulled at her heart, making her whimper.

She hadn’t showered or eaten for days but she didn’t care. Her entire life was now focused on the letters, piecing together the words. But they made no sense.

Suddenly, the letters stopped.

January 25th. That’s when it all stopped, but why? As she sat, anger rose up within her body, making her crush all the scraps in her hands and fly to the nearest trashcan. Just as she was about to fling the scraps into the can, she saw a newspaper. A cut up newspaper.

Dropping everything, she pulled the paper out, feeling her blood run cold.

Ash dropped to her knees with a crack and frantically pieced everything together. What she discovered was an article. Her heart beat faster as she read the story, the story of a hit and run accident. The story of how a reckless driver killed an entire family of five, on this very day, two years ago. The driver was never found, but Ash knew.

Her dreams now made sense. It was her who’d hit the family’s car driving on the side of a mountain. The family flung off the edge, screaming, and died hitting the bottom of the ravine. Newfound memories rushed back in a hideous blur, making her shriek while pulling her hair. She saw herself driving carelessly fast, then she heard a crash. Her memories revealed a wrecked car flying over the side of a road. Ash survived and was well enough to speed away, never looking back.

But now her guilt was coming back to haunt her. She was the one who had written the notes, she was the one who had cut the newspaper, and she was the deliverer of the letters, sending them in her sleep.

Ash finished reading the article before flying out of her house. With patches of hair ripped out and her body looking starved and hollow, Ash looked insane, but she didn’t care.

She ran all the way to the cemetery, knowing exactly where they were buried and fell with her nose touching the grass in front of the first gravestone. Tears streamed down her face as she hiccuped loudly.

“I’m sorry,” She begged with all she had, for it was all she could do now, “I’m so sorry.”

Ash stayed there, on her knees, moaning and crying pitifully in front of the gravestone of the youngest child she had killed- Phoenix Silva.

I hoped you all liked it, I’m guessing my English teacher did considering my grade…

Popcorn and Movies

Hello all, how long has it been since I’ve blogged? Dang, I don’t even want to think about it… I just wanted to update my poor, neglected blog and say that I am still alive and doing… stuff… Like watching movies! I’ve actually seen a lot, usually I don’t watch movies but for some reason I just get pulling into watching them with everyone. So far I’ve seen-

-The Lone Ranger: this movie was pretty funny, I had lots of fun watching Johnny Depp feed a dead bird on top of his head and hit people with rocks. Overall, I’d give it 3/5 stars.

-Ender’s Game: wow, where do I even start? This movie was awesome. I read the book before this and, let me be completely honest, I thought the movie was better than the book. Normally, I would never say that, but the movie was just that good. It was so cool to see the story come to life on the big screen, and the futuristic gadgets and spaceships was even better to watch and not just read. I give this movie a 5/5 stars, and 5/5 stars to Asa Butterfield too, a big thumbs up to him for portraying such a good Ender.

I really liked him as Ender

-Saving Mr. Banks: okay, confession time, I haven’t actually seen/read Mary Poppins so some of the references to the book kind of went over my head but even without knowing some of it, I did really enjoy the movie. In a way, I understood P. L. Travers’ connection to her characters and how she didn’t want them to be ruined by a movie or songs since they’re so close to her heart and based off of people she knew. I say this movie deserves 4/5 stars.

-The Wolverine: Wolverine! I love him, absolutely love him. The love for him almost reaches my love for the Flash and Ironman. Also Deadpool… alright getting off topic. The movie was fantastic, it kept me guessing who was good and who was bad. Everyone had their own motives for doing what they did and sometimes those motives made them seen good and other times it made them seem evil. Although Wolverine himself was okay, I loved Yukio, she was a total badass and totally awesome. The movie gets a 3/5 stars from me.

what did I say, total badass

-Elysium: whoa, this movie was crazy. The guy had a freaking machine drilled into his body! Good job for being strong enough to actually handle that. Also the way everyone died was pretty intense, people blowing up, being shot, having their machines ripped out of their heads, wow. I’m still a huge scaredy cat though so some of the scenes were difficult to watch, blood flying everywhere can make me a little sick. Somehow, I managed through the movie and now I give it 4/5 stars.

-Man Of Steel: holy crap this movie was long. I could barely sit through it, being the restless person I am. But Henry Cavill made it worth it, he was a good-looking Superman, I’ll admit. 2/5 stars.

I’ve seen a few more movies but I can’t remember them at the moment.

So I hope everyone’s Christmas and New Years was great! And I hope you’ve all been keeping your New Year resolutions, mine were: publish three books, run 50 miles, and to stop lying.

Reminisces From My Meet

Hello all! I am back, kind of. I’ve been so busy and unable to write or draw anything. It is so sad. But I’ve been doing fun stuff so it’s not too bad.

Back to the topic of this blog post though, for those who don’t know, I’m on my high school’s cross country team! That means I get to run everyday! I actually like it, but some people think I’m crazy. I’m also pretty decent at running. And on Thursday, the 17th to be exact, I thought I was going to do great.

Turns out I was wrong.

Here’s what was going through my head during this entire fiasco:

Today’s going to be the day. Today’s going to be the day I’m finally going to get second place in my meet. I just know it! The siren just rang and I’m off to a great start! Speeding off, ahead of the pack, let’s go Faith!

One mile in and I’m still going strong. But wait, what’s this tension in the back of my throat? The excitement? The pride?

Nope.

I quickly veered to the side of the trail, afraid of what was to come.

A horrible gag later; everything I had eaten in the past hour flooded out- Gatorade and lots and lots of gummy bears. Beautiful. Sweat, snot, drool, and even a few tears streamed down my face in a symphony of pain as I, to my own surprise, picked myself back up to run onward. But my pace slowed down and I’ve being passed by people left and right. It’s not going well for me and I know it as I mourn over the loss of time and place between each gag.

By the time I stumble to the finish line, I’m snorting, panting, choking, and sweating even more than usual. In other words, I’m a complete mess.

In the words of one of the team captains, “Go, go, go till you blow.” Well, buddy, I went, went, went, blew, then died, died, died at the very end.

-

So that’s what happened Thursday. It wasn’t pleasant and I worried everyone, even people on the other cross country teams. My goal hadn’t been reached, but there’s always next week! Hopefully I’ll be able to keep everything down then.

On The Topic of Ninja Star

Hello everyone! It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to post, due to cross country practice and homework I’ve rarely had time to write/draw. I apologize but I don’t think there will be a new page of Ninja Star any time soon.

Friendless

This is a short story I wrote on the way to school today. Today is my first day of high school, yay! So I hope you like this short story!

Loud teenagers swarm the high school campus, talking amongst themselves and greeting others in excited tones. Through the confusing babble, there is one question that can be heard above all, ‘where did this summer go?’ These students have all had their share of fun over the hot summer break, and they eagerly share their stories to anyone who will stop to listen. Most of these teens appear to know each other, yet there are few who do not find a place in the crowds, they are currently friendless.

There is an air of loneliness to these friendless teenagers, some of them have come from far away, unable to become acquainted with anybody in the short time they’ve been here while others just don’t bother to make any friends. But, subconsciously, all these kids want friends. At least one friend.

So, how does one go about making a friend? Much less a long lasting friend. Well, it sometimes can just start with becoming seat partners in class, or maybe a small smile from across a crowded hallway. Whatever the cause, it is sure to change these friendless kids forever.

Ninja Star 3

Page Three of Ninja Star- The F.N.B.I.

A new page will be posted every week! If you liked it, please tell me in the comments below!

 

Road Trips Are Boring

Right now, we’re going to San Francisco and so far, I’ve been sitting in the car for about 3 hours. All I can say is that it’s driving me crazy! I have a problem with sitting still for several hours, I can’t even sit in the same place for 5 minutes! I have to be constantly moving, so you can probably guess that I’m not too happy about sitting in the car for 3 more hours.

I’m starting to get a little desperate for something to do.

I feel bad for my brother (the one I’m bothering in the picture above.)

At least I have a dog to bug… but then she fell asleep… both of them.

Stop sleeping and play with me.

Ninja Star 2

Page Two of Ninja Star- Meet Wasabi.



A new page will be posted every week! I hope you like it and tell me on Twitter: @MonkeyFaith or on Facebook: The Writing Monkey.

Ninja Star

Page One of my new comic: Ninja Star- Ginger.

I hope you liked this! I will try to post a new page of this comic every week.

Tweet me what you think: @MonkeyFaith, or tell me on Facebook: The Writing Monkey.

Epilogue

[Five years later]

Together, Mason and I started our new lives; we bought a house with the money we were earning through our jobs at the local police department. We were exceptionally good at our jobs, using our special abilities to capture and subdue any criminals on the loose.

Mason, with his quick reflexes and fast thinking soon become the most feared cop in the department, and crime rate dropped at a steady pace each year. I, on the other hand, tried to not to draw too much attention to myself, using my mind powers to help me, yet keeping a low profile at the same time. We made a great team, and were respected by everyone on the force, but we both had another reason for joining the police force- we wanted to be the first ones to know if any people with powers causing trouble. But, rarely was there ever a time when we did find a person who had powers like us. Mason says it’s because of the explosion; inside of the bomb, there were certain materials that, when exploded together, they sucked away the last remaining source of power in the world, “Basically, we destroyed the chances of anyone ever receiving powers.”

In a way, it was a good thing- we made sure nothing like the Ringmaster organization could ever turn up again. I was happy because of that, and more so that I was able to keep my own powers; Mason had learned so much during his time with the Ringmasters, that he was able to teach me how to use and control my abilities.

I sighed deeply and leaned back in my chair, staring out the window while reflecting on the past five years, so much had happened, and now, I was living peacefully with Mason. Speaking of Mason… a dark shadow loomed over my head- I glanced up into my boyfriend’s deep blue eyes, “Hey.” He whispered, kissing me gently, “What’re you thinking about?”

A small smile make it’s way across my lips, “You know, the usual.” I said, my gaze sliding to the small table holding a beautiful sword resting on a black display stand- the sword given to me by Cameron, when I first met him. Next to my sword, Mason’s gun lay with its loaded magazine by its side.

When we escaped from the building, the pilot gave Mason my sword after I fainted, the pilot claimed that Cameron told him to make sure that I got it, since it was a gift from my brother. My thoughts flashed back to the time when he gave me the sword, pretending to be someone named G, maybe because his name was the General. I never found out why he gave me the sword, but it does serve me great purpose, even if it is a little old fashion, I wield it better than any other weapon given to me.

I looked back at Mason, “What’s up?”

“We got a call from the station, there’s a holdup at the bank.” He gave me mischievous smile, something he does whenever he gets the chance to arrest someone. For some reason, Mason likes the thrill being a cop gives him. I, on the other hand, don’t care for the adrenaline rush, only doing this because my powers helped me in tough situations.

I returned the grin and pushed myself off of the chair, “Well, what’re we waiting for? Let’s go.”

By the time Mason grabbed his gun, I was out the door with my sword, “I’ll race you to the crime scene.” I challenged, sliding into my car.

“When I win, you owe me!” I heard over the roar of the engine, throwing a wink at him, I rushed out of the driveway and down the street, Mason right behind me on a motorcycle.

I could see the bright blue lights from the police cars, already surrounding the scene while policemen kept curious bystanders away from the bank. And through the windows, I saw three masked men with guns standing over several people on their knees.

Pulling my car to a skidding halt, I flung myself out of the car and to the closest police officer with Mason right by my side. Our reputations preceded us as people stopped to stare at the couple with profound skills, “I won, by the way.” I leaned over to whisper into Mason’s ear.

He didn’t answer, just snorted loudly, while asking the police officer, “What do we know about these guys?”

We found out that there were a total of six armed men inside and were currently looting the entire bank of all its money. I smirked, “Sounds easy enough. Is there a way to sneak in?”

“There’s a backdoor that the robbers haven’t discovered yet, I’m sure you guys could get in without being discovered.” The cop offered. We both gave him a quick nod and rushed around to the back.

We slipped through the small alley and, through the shadows, we saw the door. Mason made quick work of the lock and the door opened quietly, leading into a dark room.

He straightened up and, without looking at me, reached out to give my hand a reassuring squeeze, sending sparks up my arm.

“Well, let’s go.” I said, taking a step inside the dark room while gripping my sword with my left hand.  And in the dim light, you could see the sun reflecting off of my finger from the comforting weight of an engagement ring, matching to the one of Mason’s left ring finger.

***

It’s over! I’m so thankful that people have been reading this story and hopefully, you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it! 

I’m also a little sad that this story is over though. What’ll I do now?! Well… I was thinking of drawing comics! More specifically, my ninja comics! 

For those who haven’t seen it.

I do have a soft spot for this little ninja, and I’m thinking of drawing him some friends, and maybe they’ll be apart of a group, hmm. How does the FNBI sound? Keep an eye out if you want to know more!