Friday, April 5, 2013

Eliza No More

Hey everyone. This is a short story I wrote a few months ago for a writing contest. I didn't win but I wanted to share it on here. Hope you like it.
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Eliza Ripper didn’t have much in the way of friends. She was one of those girls that nobody really cared about. She didn’t even get picked on in school because no one really knew she existed. She wasn’t really a talker. She kept quiet whenever possible to avoid the inevitable look that she liked to call “the crazy look.” She always ended up saying something that warranted that look so she chose to keep her mouth shut. She lived alone in a one bedroom apartment and hardly left her apartment except to go to work, stocking shelves at the local bookstore. It was the perfect job for her. The only time she ever had to talk was if someone asked her where a book was. Although Eliza wasn’t good at making friends or talking, she was good at one thing. It was really the only thing she thought she could do. That was writing. She would write till her fingers hurt and she couldn’t think anymore. Then she would put her writing on her blog. She used a fake name. She was Penelope Benson to the online community. Eliza wasn’t loved by many, but Penelope was adored by 100’s, maybe even 1000’s of people. She had sent her book out to publishers and had gotten letter’s back from half of them saying how much they loved the book and how they would love to sign her on. Her stories were on their way to the best seller’s list. Eliza didn’t think anything could ruin the life she was leading.
One day when Eliza came home from work there was a note taped to her door. She ripped it off the door and unfolded it. It said, “I know who you are pretending to be. I will make sure that you never go anywhere with your writing again.” She scrunched up her nose thinking this was some stupid joke one of the kids in her building was pulling. She opened her door and stepped inside to find her apartment trashed. Her jaw dropped. Who would do this? She walked to her room and found her computer laying on her bed. Another note was on top of the computer. It read, “You probably didn’t believe me before. So I took the liberty of deleting your writing for you. Hope you don’t mind.” Eliza started to cry. She wrenched her laptop open and went to her blog. It didn’t even exist anymore. She went to her documents to find all of her writing gone. Her life was over in her eyes. She was never going to get that back. All that writing, gone just like that. She grabbed her house phone and dialed the police. She silently vowed to never let anyone walk all over her again. She would grow from this and no one would dare mess with Eliza Ripper again. She swore that no one would even know her as quiet little Eliza ever again. She would become Penelope.