I recently found a fantastic piece of software that helps me storyboard Project “ENKI”. As a side-effect, it is forcing me to write a novel.
It is called “The Novel Factory” and is a brilliantly organized piece of work. This may be the first time that a VR game gets released with a companion novel!
Here is the very first piece of “The Provenance Of Enki”. Not in video form, but as I wrote it to be…
Scene 1
The thick mist hung over the gardens, almost fixed yet strangely fluid. It was subtly animated by the pale blue moon, its light diffusing through the swath that blanketed the vista like a damp comforter. Pockets of transparency opened and gradually closed in its volume, briefly revealing the contents of the otherwise familiar land that lay before him.
Inexplicably, he could hear no sound. No sound anywhere. He was outside but it was as if he occupied a sound proofed room. The trees were gently swaying but there was no audible wind or rustling leaves to accompany the movement. The utter lack of noise caused him to feel an acute form of claustrophobic anxiety. He clapped his hands together but again, there was no sound.
Little by little, he could detect unnatural movements that did not belong to, or in, the mist.
Its dampness further added to his anxiety by making him feel a pressure on his chest: He started to struggle a little for breath. Each time he inhaled the atmosphere felt a little heavier and colder, but even his strenuous efforts to gasp the dank, sickly air did not make any discernible noise.
More outlandish movements from within the stilted mist caused his heart to race. It was happening more often now.
“Humans are good at making patterns out of randomness…”, he gamely, if not convincingly, reminded himself.
The mist was seemingly beginning to emit its own light, an ignis fatuus spectral projection that darted to and fro. What was its source? What was causing it? The patterns that the light made indicated intelligence to the point that it seemed to beckon him to plow further into the mist in an attempt to consume him. It glowed and slowly pulsated, an almost ashen gray in color.
Abruptly, the light source shot towards him and came to rest just behind his right ear, projecting his shadow onto the marshy ground. He shook his head back and forth, but the light and his shadow remained in its same relative position. He started to run blindly through the haze. The light followed.
Soon, his legs became as heavy and stiff as concrete. He stopped, breathless. In an instant, the unearthly silence was broken. A voice, incorporeal and as yet faceless, was whispering in his ear. He could also feel the breath from the disembodied entity on the back of his neck. A vile odor akin to suppurating animal remains assailed his nostrils:
You cannot see me… but I am right beside you…
You cannot see me… but I am right beside you…
He froze on the spot, rigid with sheer terror. The sound of his heartbeat filled his ear drums and his head swam in dreadful anticipation. The light flitted to the other side of his head, just behind his left ear:
Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
Here comes a chopper to chop off your head
He closed his eyes and bowed his head. Slowly, he forced himself to open his eyes again. Now staring at the ground, he saw that there was another shadow, right next to his own. It was surely not human. He regained control of his body and rapidly swung round to see… no eyes…