Saturday Snippet: NaNoWriMo Day 27

Saturday Snippet: NaNoWriMo Day 27

Zenaida stood over the woman. She knew she was not long for this world now. She coughed blood, and her eyes looked like they might start bleeding any minute. Zenaida could feel it. She could feel the silence setting in. She could feel Them coming. She would stay with the woman as long as she could. Zenaida knew there was no one else.

She pulled her mask down lower over her face, letting the top of the beak rest against the bridge of her nose, as if it made her safer to feel it pushed down hard against her. The sick woman whimpered. 

The red poll came first. Zenaida watched it land on the window sill. She had insisted the shutters stay open, even as the family protested. You need to let the darkness out, Zenaida had told them. Instead, they just fled. 

The silence began to descend around them.

Another red poll. Then two chickadees. The kind that showed up in winter, Zenaida knew, and it was balmy summer. She let them keep coming. A blue jay landed on the table and didn’t even look at the food. Several camp robbers fluttered around the jay like little brothers, and the jay just preened itself silently. 

The bigger ones crowded in. Herons and ravens. Even a crane. Zenaida watched it step gingerly into the window, purposefully, and look her in the eye.

When she broke its gaze to look back down, the patient was gone. Not dead. But actually gone. No wonder the family had fled.

Note: This is a small snippet of my current WIP, which I am working on for NaNoWriMo. I am documenting my journey to 50,000 words. I hope you enjoy it! 

Here are today’s stats:

Progress:

Day 27 Word Count: 5008

Total Word Count: 38320

Where I Planned to Be: 44000

1667 words per day: 45009

I am catching up! How is it going for you?