Either Dreaming or Not Dreaming
Written on December 1st, 2007 by BlackOpalStory Details
(17 votes, average: 3.76 out of 5)
Loading ...This wasn’t how he expected this to feel.
He was numb, vacant, but not sad. He was not experiencing an ounce of grief, or guilt. The guilt was especially odd; throughout his studies in psychology he had come to learn that even the most cold-hearted person should feel responsible in some way in this situation. Many people were overcome by a guilty conscience, and so much that it often drove them insane. But no, all he felt was emptiness, and a sense of finality. The task was done; he had succeeded and once again proved that he was the most intelligent, the most cunning, and the best. Though there was no guilt, the satisfaction of the task was also missing.
Perhaps it was because he was much too practical to be engulfed by such helpless emotions as sadness and guilt. Was that not what he had worked for all these years? Practicality? He was Artemis Fowl the Second, he never did a single thing that wouldn’t benefit himself, but if that was so, than what was this void that seemed to drain his energy, and weigh him down?
He had hardly cared for the elf. In fact, Artemis had found her to be quite a little annoyance. However, she was still a person and any loss of life whatsoever should be avoided, if simply to keep a world as delicate as theirs in balance.
The thing that was troubling, (or perhaps not troubling, Artemis did not seem to have the ability to do that either) him was that he should feel something, anything really. Even human being who kept their emotions as in check as him was bound to be overcome by a feeling of some type in this situation. Though Heaven knows that the human mind is a complex system, and in a person such as Artemis it is doubly so.
The regular person has been known to hide emotions and experiences from themselves, and Artemis realized that he was probably doing the same, but to a much greater degree. He was sucking his emotions out of himself, pulling them and pushing them until he felt no more.
Or perhaps that wasn’t it; one can never truly know oneself as well as one can know others. It appeared that all Artemis knew, at this moment in time, was that he had caused a person’s death, and it had been the first time he had done so. It didn’t matter that this person was another species, female, or otherwise, he had taken her life and claimed it as his own. And he didn’t care. Or perhaps he did, he just didn’t know it.
It was much too confusing, but Artemis couldn’t bother with it. All he wanted to do was sleep, for that seemed to be the only solution to his problems, or lack of problems, which ever it was. If he was asleep he wasn’t thinking, and if he wasn’t thinking he wasn’t feeling, or wasn’t not feeling.
So Artemis sunk into his bed and fell asleep, either dreaming, or not dreaming, about the lack of one Miss Holly Short.
A/N: Well, in case you didn’t guess it this is a little Alternate Universe drabble I wrote. It is about Artemis, after the first book, but in this he has caused Holly’s death in an attempt to keep all of the Fairy gold.
Any criticism whatsoever is greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading if you made it through!
December 1st, 2007 at 2:07 am
I love it! EVen though i wish it was a full length story. But it was EXTREMELY well written. Im so giving this 5/5 .. something that does not often happen.
December 1st, 2007 at 2:28 am
Okay , UI totally agree with Unappreciated genius on this one , short but great excellent , about a piont of view that noone had probabaly thjought of ,m it is amazing , another 5/5 !
December 1st, 2007 at 8:50 pm
wow, i loved it, i am so speachless, if that had happened, wow. 5/5 totally
December 2nd, 2007 at 4:36 am
5/5! i have to aggree with mahi and Unappreciated genius…even though it was short it was still magnificent! wonderful piece
December 2nd, 2007 at 4:38 am
YES! I totally agree! I read it earlier today and loved it! although how did he kill her?
December 2nd, 2007 at 7:17 am
wow! this so totally awesome! 5/5!
December 2nd, 2007 at 7:55 am
I thought it was great. I didn’t figure out that it was an alternate universe until you said it but it was wonderful other then that.
December 2nd, 2007 at 8:24 pm
I would rate it 2/5. It was short and sad. You put too much drama into it, too. There is also a great lack of action. But, that is just my opinion. On the other hand, I liked how descriptive it is. You also use very good grammar.
December 2nd, 2007 at 8:51 pm
Maxi- how he killed her isn’t really important. In my mind it was indirectly though, she got killed trying to save him from a troll. Something that he didn’t do it with his own hands, but he was responsible and at fault anyway.
017350- It’s a drabble, so it is supposed to be short, dramatic, and not have a lot of action in it, but I appreciate your input a lot. Thanks a lot for the crit!
And thanks to everybody else for the reviews! Any criticism is appreciated!
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:50 am
I can’t believe I haven’t noticed your last two stories, Opal! I’m going to read the other as soon as I finish typing this.
Anyway, this isn’t my favorite thing you’ve written. I like the concept a lot, but it didn’t feel like you did much with it given the amount you wrote on it. I know everyone else said it was really short, but I feel like it could be shorter. That’s just what I think though…
Reading it, I thought that Holly was probably in the manor when the bio-bomb hit. Troll works too, though.
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:06 am
Thanks for the crit MMK.
Yeah, the last few things I’ve written haven’t been very good. I have a block or something… I pretty much forced this out. That’s probably why it isn’t as good.
The other one is even worse.
And I just realized that I’ve been calling this a drabble. I always get drabble and ficlet mixed up.
Thanks again.
December 11th, 2007 at 3:50 am
Nice! Rarely does a authour carve the character’s feelings inside the work and I like how each paragraph links into the next. You could probably rival Artemis Fowl in the field of psycology!
December 20th, 2007 at 6:39 am
I love it! You should do things like this more often.
December 24th, 2007 at 7:30 am
all your stories are really nice, and this is no exception, but i would prefer more action in it, that would make the story more exciting. But anyways, it is a really nice piece of work ! =)
December 24th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
You are my favorite writer because you take these situations and put them down hard-ass and without restraint. I mean any other writer would have neglected the idea by crushing it into about one paragraph and one feeling without mentioning the real things that would go on in Artemis’s head.
with love, myself!
February 15th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!holly cant die!she cant…i so want to kill myself if she die!!
February 15th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
why isent nobody else sad?….