Well, while I’m not ruling out that the first pages were, in fact, just a (rather long) nightmare, induced by a traumatic experience of ‘the job going sideways’, there is still a very valid chance, that what she is experiencing now is either a near death fantasy (due to the parasitic infestation) or ‘viewing a parallel reality’…also due to the parasitic…or quite possibly violently symbiotic infestation.
Considering that this scenario sounds ‘too good to be true’ (brother is still alive, Fae is not currently dying), I’m gravitating towards the ‘near death fantasy’. Much like my personal favorite example for the ‘unreliable narrator’ in the story ‘Between five to 12 and midnight’ (or something akin).
In that story, the protagonist telling the story flees from his pursuers across the house roofs, making a seemingly impossible leap and racing them towards the daylight. It is only at the end of the story, that the narrator shifts to his pursuers, who stand above his crippled and quickly fading body…as he did not manage that jump at all and the entire chase was a fabrication of his dying mind.
That’s just the thing about stories…the reader only knows what the author wants them to know…so yeah, which it is, I cannot tell just yet…but if there’s a sudden influx of strangely familiar vermin showing up time and again, just briefly enough to be spotted, but never long enough for anyone but Fae (and/or the attentive reader) to notice…well, that’s be a pretty good indicator as to what’s going on.
Or, of course, if all the people dear to Fae suddenly shed their skins and are space monsters seeking to devour her underneath. That’d also be a pretty obvious tell. 😀
One thought on “Ch01-24”
Refugnic
Well, while I’m not ruling out that the first pages were, in fact, just a (rather long) nightmare, induced by a traumatic experience of ‘the job going sideways’, there is still a very valid chance, that what she is experiencing now is either a near death fantasy (due to the parasitic infestation) or ‘viewing a parallel reality’…also due to the parasitic…or quite possibly violently symbiotic infestation.
Considering that this scenario sounds ‘too good to be true’ (brother is still alive, Fae is not currently dying), I’m gravitating towards the ‘near death fantasy’.
Much like my personal favorite example for the ‘unreliable narrator’ in the story ‘Between five to 12 and midnight’ (or something akin).
In that story, the protagonist telling the story flees from his pursuers across the house roofs, making a seemingly impossible leap and racing them towards the daylight.
It is only at the end of the story, that the narrator shifts to his pursuers, who stand above his crippled and quickly fading body…as he did not manage that jump at all and the entire chase was a fabrication of his dying mind.
That’s just the thing about stories…the reader only knows what the author wants them to know…so yeah, which it is, I cannot tell just yet…but if there’s a sudden influx of strangely familiar vermin showing up time and again, just briefly enough to be spotted, but never long enough for anyone but Fae (and/or the attentive reader) to notice…well, that’s be a pretty good indicator as to what’s going on.
Or, of course, if all the people dear to Fae suddenly shed their skins and are space monsters seeking to devour her underneath.
That’d also be a pretty obvious tell. 😀