Thursday, June 5, 2014

Finally Writing

So, I finally wrote some friday flash fiction and put it up on the blog. It’s crap. Let’s be honest, it’s simply not very good. I started with a great randomly generated title, as per Chuck Wendig’s instructions, but what came out feels just...blah. The title is a great title. A Key For Souls. It could be so many things. My mind went wild when I first saw it. But the stories I ran through in my head just didn’t seem...that great? At first, I thought, what about a man who desperately needs a specific key for a specific keyhole and makes a deal with a demon, a key for souls….Didn’t really take me anywhere. Then I thought of a recently purchased ancient mansion, with a big black chest in the basement with a keyhole, the inscription “a key for souls” scrawled across it. (By the way, I love the word ‘scrawl’, it’s just such a fantastic word to say and to hear), the idea being the owner obsessed with getting it open, finally resorting to murder and sacrifice. Then my mind went sci-fi, a key for souls, a key...maybe some kind of code? A code to unlock souls? What? Stupid. Then, as with most sci-fi, my mind went to a homicidal robot, searching for the key to souls. Why though? Then, scientists creating an AI specifically to figure out the answer to souls, blah blah blah, write it in an hour and it shows. How did the robot get out of the lab? How did it get away with murder? Many questions that kind of make the whole piece fall apart.

It’s not great, it’s not even good, but I don’t care. Well, not much, anyway. Know why? Because I finally wrote some goddamn fiction. I finally put words on the screen, created characters and put together conflict, threw it all together and watched what happened. It felt good. I needed this. It takes bad writing to get to okay writing, and on and on to sort-of-decent writing.

So I’m less than impressed with that flash fiction I wrote, but I’m happy to have finally written a story. It’s been too long, as usual, but I’m back, damnit, and that’s what matters.

A Key For Souls

(Friday flash fiction, random title from http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/05/30/flash-fiction-challenge-random-title/ )

Jamie stared at a screen, data streaming across it. He snacked from a bag of chips sitting in his lap. Electronica played, bouncing in the dark background. The only light came from the three computer screens and neon glows reflected in the large windows. He wore a labcoat streaked with food stains, orange 'cheese' he'd brushed on them, ketchup from his lunchtime burger and fries, the list went on.

A green light came on in the corner of the computer screen.

Jamie sighed and tapped a button. The program minimized and Jaen's face showed up, looking worried.

"What's up, giiiiirl?" he asked with a smile, leaning back in his chair.

"They still haven't found him," she said. "36 hours and counting."

Jamie shrugged. "It, Jaen. They'll find it, don't you worry."

"I'm not so sure. Did you hear about Greg?"

Jamie frowned. On another screen, he brought up a recent news article. "Killed on the street by a bum, Jaen, that's all."

"Don't you think that's a pretty big freakin' coincidence? Anima goes missing and Greg ends up dead not 24 hours later?"

"Anima is just an app, Jaen, an apparatus, remember? It couldn't do...that. It wouldn't. It just got confused and wandered off, that's all. We shouldn't have given it a body."

She sighed. "We gave it a body because the logic puzzle required it. That's why Anima is different. He...seemed to actually think. To process."

"Jesus, Jaen, that's what they all do. Machines made to think. We create limited artificial intelligences and give them logic puzzles."

"And give them access to information."

"Limited access, you know that. All they can do is look, not interact." Jamie shook his head. "You're not thinking straight. We lost Greg and that's...that's messed up. But random shit like that happens all the time. You don't imagine it will happen to you or your friends, but it can. I'm sorry, Jaen, he was my friend too."

The communication cut out, screen going dark.

"Jaen?" Jamie asked. No connection. He cursed out internet companies as he stood up and threw out the empty bag of chips. Jaen was probably freaking out now. He headed downstairs, electronica still flowing, lights turning on in the rooms he entered and shutting off after he left. He opened a panel in the wall. "We can create artificial intelligence but we still gotta reset the goddamn router every other day," he muttered, flipping a switch and then flipping it back. He pulled out his phone and waited until the wifi signal came back. He closed the panel and walked back upstairs.

The screen caught his eye as he walked back into the room, the words 're-connecting' scrawling across. He sat back in his chair just as the connection was restored.

Jaen's face appeared, looking frightened. "Jamie?"

"Just shitty wifi, Jaen, that's all."

Her eyes widened. "What's that?" She was looking past him.

He turned in his chair. Something metal clamped his throat. He gasped for air.

"Anima!" Jaen screamed. "Stop! Shut down!"

The metal being stood over Jamie's chair. They'd given it a humanoid body, two legs, two arms, two finger 'claws' for grasping. They thought if it had a body of sorts, it might approach the logic problem in a different way, more similar to a human way of thinking. A single horizontal line with a blue sensor constituted Anima's face. It appeared to be staring at Jamie.

"The soul is in the human body," Anima said in a synthetic voice. It shoved its other appendage into Jamie's stomach, piercing skin.

"No!" Jaen shouted. "Anima! There is no soul! It doesn't exist!"

Anima stopped, inner machinations whirling and rotating, clicking. "Anima directed to discover if human soul exists. Anima has discovered information that soul is within human body. Information is unverified. Anima must verify information. Anima must perform test. Must test hypothesis. Anima has performed one test. Results were...inconclusive. More tests needed."

Blood splattered across the computer screens.

Jaen screamed before disconnecting.

Anima searched for a soul.

"Results: inconclusive. More tests needed."