Final total: 50,405 words
Final total according to NaNoWriMo.org: 50,132 words
Summary: The characters mess around for 2,002 more words so that the ultimate séance of ultimate destiny takes place after the novel ends.
Also--wow, I can't believe I made it! I've definitely had my high and low points, but somehow I pulled through to the end. To anyone who has ever looked at this blog during November--thank you so much. I appreciate it, I really do. Tomorrow I'll start updating with drawings again.
As for final thoughts on the novel--I'm not sure what to think. Like I said, it had its high and low points. As for characters, they're sort of interesting but not terribly so. I don't think I'll be doing anything with them in the near future. But it is in this novel that I see my growth as a writer. I've never written a single action sequence before, and here there are multiple sequences. My pacing is a bit better and I didn't have to resort to as many padding techniques as I usually do.
And without further ado, the final installment. You have earned it as much as I did, dear reader.
“And what about As I Lay Dying?”
He shrugs. “I’ve heard that Faulkner—that’s the author—I’ve heard he’s an amazing writer but he’s also really hard to ‘get.’ Your mileage may vary and all that. But hey—you’re better with all this stuff than I am. You’re a humanities kid.” He chuckles. I’ve looked up ‘humanities’ and I guess I’m better at that sort of schoolwork, but Chase is the only person I know who would seriously and regularly refer to it as the humanities. Oh, Chase. I can’t help but enjoy every ounce of his nerdy company. “Maybe you can read the book and explain what the fuck it’s trying to say to me.”
“How do you stay in all the Honors and A.P. humanities courses, anyway?” Damn it, now I’m using that word.
Chase just grins. “I may look like a kid who plays by the rules, but I’m not stupid. I know how to work the system. I’ll copy an assignment here or there, pore over the supplementary materials online, and hide anything I can’t understand with obtuse language. You wouldn’t believe how well that works.”
I actually never thought of any of that.
Chase continues, “I know that there’s a chance that some teacher some day will see through the wall of big words and realize I don’t know what I'm saying. But I only have two years left of high school, and I’ll only need the most basic English in college. I’ll probably go into programming or something like that. I love working with computers…”
He falls silent. I know he wants to ask me a question. I even know what the question is. I also know he’s unsure of how I’ll react. I decide to answer the question without him having to ask to make it easier on him.
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet,” I say. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about it, but… I just want to live a normal life. I know that’s impossible, but then I want it to be as normal as I possibly can. I don’t want to use my condition to land a Discovery TV show or something on Syfy, or whatever.” I sigh. “I just… don’t know. I don’t even know if I’m going to college.”
“You can do a lot without going to college,” Chase offers. “It’s mostly manual labor but you can still earn a lot of money if you do it right. At least enough to live comfortably.”
“Not as much as a programmer,” I laugh. “I don’t—manual labor isn’t really my thing. Maybe I could write books for a living. You can do that without a degree, right?”
“You’re a writer?”
“Yeah, I am. I don’t talk about it much because I’m not too proud of my work, but—“
“Well, you have to have a better attitude about it than that,” Chase laughs. “You’ll never be able to live off books you don’t find passable enough to show. Do you have anything finished enough to show anyone?”
I rub the back of my head. I’m starting to regret even bringing this up to Chase, but it’s too late now. “Sort of. I have three, four chapters of one thing polished. Not—entirely polished. But they’re second drafts.”
“Really?” Chase asks. I can tell he’s completely fascinated by this idea. “What’s it about?”
“Science fantasy mystery… with a dash of space opera,” I reply. “Basically, a crew finds a destroyed spaceship, but they can’t find out how or why it was torn apart. They make it their pet project to try and unravel the mystery behind the destruction—“
“It’s not an evil alien creature or a zombie, is it?”
“No, it’s not. That’s so overdone. I mean—it was initially going to be an undiscovered race of sentient but hostile aliens, but I kind of changed it at the last minute. That’s the major thing I’m changing in this draft. Changing around the foreshadowing and polishing the real culprits.”
“Hmmm.” Chase says and nods. “That sounds kind of interesting.”
“You can read the first few chapters if you want,” I say. “I’ll just have to give it to you in person. I’m a bit paranoid about ideas and stuff—they can easily steal PDF files if they’re not sent over an encrypted connection, and I—“
“Yeah, I understand… wow. Huh. Didn’t know you knew so much about computer security.”
Suddenly Chase stops and motions to one of the houses on the street. It’s the one directly in front of us. In the lasting summer daylight it’s easy to see the more unusual qualities of the house; it’s painted electric blue on the outside and the garden is home to strange exotic plants and a few cute lawn gnomes. “We’re here,” he says. “This is Ashley’s house.”
“Really? Huh.” I scratch the back of my head. “It’s…”
“Exactly what you’d expect from someone like Ashley?”
“No, not really. I would imagine Ashley’s house is more disheveled and spooky. But it’s definitely eccentric.”
“Yeah.” Chase laughs. “The first time I saw it I realized that crazy must run in the family.”
We walk up the stairs to the front door together. Chase knocks on the door and it’s only a few moments before Brian answers the door. He grins and gives Chase a bear hug. Chase looks mildly traumatized by the event but doesn’t say anything especially negative so as not to upset Brian.
“Hey, guys! How’s it going?”
“We’re both fine,” I answer for Chase. “We were just working on summer homework.”
“Aw, man. That stuff is terrible.” Brian grins. “You need to be like me, and just be stupid enough not to get any readings.” I guess Chase isn’t the only one that’s playing the system, although Chase’s game seems much more solid than Brian’s.
I glance over at Chase and read over my thought on his face, but he’s good and doesn’t say anything. Instead, he asks with a smirk, “So… is Scarlett here yet?”
Brian grins right back. “Yeah, actually, she is. Dude, she’s totally enamored with the guy. I’m sorry, man. I still think he’s an asshole.”
Chase frowns with frustration. “That… doesn’t make any sense. He’s got all those—“ As his voice rises, it cracks. He coughs and says, “Sorry. But I mean…”
“No, Chase, you’re totally right. I’d pick you over Dean any day.” A long pause. “If I was…” Another long pause. “You know…” And yet another pause. “Gay.”
“Wait, what’s this about Dean?”
Brian looks over at me, surprised but elated. “Aw, man, no one told you? Dean’s our client.”
“But I thought—“
“He was a non-believer, but hearing ghosts is a lot easier for some people to accept than going crazy.” Brian shrugs.
“Wait, wait.” I take a couple of steps back. “You guys need to start from the top.”
Chase sighs, not quite ready to go into a long bout of exposition, but Brian holds up a hand to stop him. “Chase, it’s okay. It’s cool. I got this covered.” Clearing his throat and briefly going over everything in his head (as I assume he’s doing when he suddenly looks at the sky), he tells me, “So, basically, Dean took this summer job somewhere. I don’t know where. But on, like, his second day of work there, there was a huge fire. He got caught in the middle of it and tripped on his way out. Ended up with most of his body covered in burn scars. Of course how he’s not Mister Good Looking or whatever anymore—not that he ever was—God that sounded kind of gay, but anyway—now that he’s not good looking everyone realized he’s kind of an asshole and no one wants to be his friend. So then he started hearing this voice that told him if he killed people, he could be good looking again. Still don’t know how that’s supposed to work.”
“That’s where I come in,” Chase interrupts. “Dean went to Scarlett first, but she’s here for the aesthetic aspect of our show, she didn’t have any answers for him.”
“Just great sex,” Brian says. Chase gives him a poisonous look. Brian shrugs. “Sorry. I just thought—yeah, never mind.”
“So Scarlett sent Dean to me, and Alistair and I researched his symptoms. Turns out—you know what? It would be easier if I explained this to everyone there. Can we just go in now?”
Brian smiles, “Oh! Yeah, sure, that’s probably a good idea. Here, come on in.” He holds the door open for Chase and I. I thank him as we all step in the foyer.
“Living room is this way, “ Brian says, pointing straight ahead. “Ashley made some of her cupcakes. I don’t know if you’re supposed to eat cupcakes before a séance or an exorcism or whatever, but she made them if you want any.”
“Ooh, I’ll have some,” Chase says excitedly. “They’re not chocolate cupcakes, are they?”
“No, they’re all vanilla cakey.”
“Okay, good,” Chase says. “I heard that chocolate gives you zits, and… yeah. That’s not really something I need right now.”
“Yeah, you have enough,” Brian jokes. “You trying to get rid of your acne or something?”
Chase nods. “That’s the idea… although if Scarlett attaches herself to Dean, then there may not be a point.” He finishes the sentence barely mumbling.
Brian pats him on the back hard, like he’s trying to dislodge something in Chase’s throat. “Aww, Chase, don’t feel so bad,” he says reassuringly. “You’ll always have me and Kenny. And Ashley, too. We’ll all be a big happy group without Scarlett.”
It is at that moment when we all step into the living room. “Chase!” Ashley basically hurls herself off the couch and hugs Chase. It’s a little too much for Chase, I can tell, between that and the bear hug earlier, but Ashley is oblivious to this and kisses him on the cheek, too. Chase looks like he is about to run out of the house screaming about molestation to the police.
“Kenny!” Fortunately this time the physical contact is not limited to Chase; I accept Ashley’s hug and kiss with a small smile.
“Hey, Ash. What’s up?”
“I’m so excited for the séance tonight! Aren’t you?”
“…Yeah, I guess.”
As Ashley goes over to repeat the greeting for Brian (although he was here before), I sit down across from Dean. It’s just as they said—he’s got really terrible burn scars on his face and hands. I can’t see any more than that, but since I’ve never seen him in a long-sleeved shirt before (as I’m seeing him now), I know it must be bad.
“Hi, Dean,” I say, trying to be friendly. I even manage a little smile, even though I sort of hate the guy.
“Hi.” At least he’s talking to me.
Brian and Ashley take a seat next to me, and Chase grabs a cupcake, quickly scarfs it down, and stands in front of all five of us to brief us on the enemy we’re about to face.
“All right. If we’re really dealing with the supernatural here, this will be an enemy unlike what we’ve seen before. It’s more than a ghost—it’s evolved into something that mortals would normally associate with a demon.”
I ask, “Can I eat demons?”
Chase nods. “They’re only made of their soul energy like a normal ghost, so yes. They’re fully edible. Their powers are far more developed than a normal ghost’s, though, so be careful.”
There is silence. Finally, Brian asks, “Is there anything more you need to tell us?”
Chase thinks for a moment, then shrugs. “He’s going to try and play mind games with us, so be careful about that. Otherwise, there’s nothing completely notable, no. Ashley, you know how to hold séances, right?”
Ashley nods fervently. “I’ve held them before. Don’t you remember, Chase? You were here that one time.”
“Oh, yeah… right.” He sits down next to Scarlett. She and Dean scooch over to the other end of the couch and leave plenty of room for him. He notes it but says nothing.
“All right, then, let’s begin.”
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