Freebie Mondays: A Lifetime of Regret (Prompt Novel Chapter 15)

For 2024, I have decided to devote my prompt writing time to a novel. The twist is that the novel plot will be generated entirely by the writing prompts I chose to use for the project – which were rolled randomly using my trusty dice and a few online prompt lists. You can find the Table of Contents here.

For Chapter 15, the prompt was: “using only dialog reveal a long-hidden secret.”

I had already done one ‘use only dialogue’ prompt in the past, so I wanted to change things up this time around. I don’t want the story to feel stale or repetitive, and the point is always to challenge myself.

So the first half of this scene uses a text chat as the ‘dialogue.’ Sort of a combo of the ‘text messages only’ and ‘dialogue only’ prompts. The second half of the scene is more like the first ‘only dialogue’ prompt in that it uses only dialogue tags to add to the story. If it’s not attached to the spoken word, it didn’t get included. (Except I think I may have made one tiny exception because it simply felt right – sometimes you gotta let the story take the lead!)

If you’d like to see this chapter come together, you can watch the VoD on Youtube!
. . .

Alyial frowned as he glanced over his text history. The conversation read as follows:

Ira: I’m so sorry. There were so many things I wanted to say to you during our last meeting before the whole thing with Wendell interrupted.

Alyial: It’s fine. You had a family emergency. No one can blame you for that. Besides, you told me the really big thing.

Ira: No!

Ira: I mean, yes. I did tell you that. But it wasn’t the most important thing I needed to tell you.

Alyial: How could your current state not be the most important part of the conversation?

Ira: It’s complicated. Fuck! It would have been so much easier to do this face to face.

Alyial: It’s okay. It can wait until you get back. How is your nephew?

Ira: He’s fine. Mostly. But I don’t think this can wait, Alyial. It was actually the main reason I wanted to meet with you.

Alyial: Okay, then tell me now. I promise I won’t make it awkward the next time we see each other.

There was a large gap in the timestamp after that message. So long Alyial had started typing a response before he received:

Ira: Oh god, this is going to sound really stupid. Just bear with me, okay?

Alyial: Okay, Ira. Whatever it is, I’m sure I can handle it. It can’t be weirder than our last conversation.

Ira: I wouldn’t count on that.

Ira: Okay. Shit.

Ira: When I was a little girl, my family and I used to go hiking in the woods. There was this trail we always favored. It led part way up a mountain and down the other side to a lake in the trees. It was beautiful.

Ira: One day while we were walking that trail we… we encountered these three strange women. My family acted all weird about it, and I didn’t really understand why at the time. But I think I do now.

Ira: They were witches, Alyial. I think we interrupted them casting some kind of spell.

Alyial: Witches? Like from the play? Double bubble toil and trouble and all that rot?

Ira: Yes WITCHES, Alyail. Real ass fucking witches.

Ira: I know it sounds like I’m joking or crazy, but I’m not. I’m sure my family remembers these women, though they’d never speak about them no matter how hard you tried to make them. They certainly haven’t ever spoken about it with me, and I’ve tried.

Ira: Anyway, there was a young woman, a middle aged woman and an older lady. Maiden, Mother, Crone.

Ira: My family all ran away, but they left me behind and the oldest woman spoke to me. She said all these weird things. I didn’t understand. I thought it was a dream.

Ira: But after the test… after the simulation, now I know for sure. It was real, Alyial. All of it.

Ira: And I’m one of them. I don’t know how or why, but I’m a fucking witch and there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about it.

Alyial: Wait, I’m not entirely sure I understand. So you have magical powers?

Ira: I guess? I wish it was like hocus pocus fantasy stuff like making a new dress and some expensive heels appear out of thin air. But it’s more like fucking with reality and only realizing afterward.

Alyial: Are you saying this is why that… thing with the simulation happened?

Ira: I don’t know. I think so. But when I say the thing with the simulation, I mean all of it. You getting stuck in there… the reasons you had to go in there in the first place. It was all me Alyial. I didn’t realize it until afterward, but I think I was the cause.

Alyial: You’ve lost me, Ira. We didn’t even meet until the simulation.

Ira: Yes we did. But I guess it makes sense that you wouldn’t remember. I didn’t know it was you until something your friend Nala said when she was getting me ready for the simulation.

Ira: You know how computers have been blowing up around you lately? Nala said it started one morning after you nearly ran someone off the road. Like ever since that happened, you had some kind of poison touch.

Ira: That was me, Alyial. The person you almost ran off the road was me.

Ira: And I don’t know how I did it. It wasn’t a conscious decision or anything. But I was so MAD. I had just gotten back from my sister’s. We hadn’t been able to find any sign of my nephew. I was trying to focus on work to keep my mind off of it and then some jerk almost plowed straight into me at an intersection.

Alyial: Oh my god. Holy shit. I didn’t even realize. I was so worried about the project – that’s no excuse. I should have been paying closer attention

Alyial: Wait, you cursed me? That’s why I couldn’t make a computer work to save my life?

Ira: I think so. I didn’t do it on purpose! It just kind of happened.

Ira: But afterward, when I was thinking about the chain of events, I remembered that the old witch… She told me that when my powers awakened I would know it. That the curse would come out of me before I realized what was happening and that would be the start.

Alyial: Shit Ira, if I can never touch a computer again, that’s going to ruin my whole life. It’s all I know how to do. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted to be. You met me writing computer code for fuck’s sake!

Ira: I know! I’m trying to fix it. All of it.

Ira: The computer curse should be gone. At least, I tried to get rid of it. I wanted you to be free of it before I even said anything. Have you tried touching one lately?

Alyial: Not since I left the sim. I’ve mostly just been using my tablet and my phone. I haven’t gone back to work yet.

Ira: Well, it should be safe. And if it’s not let me know. But I swear none of this was intentional, Alyial. I mean, I thought you were an asshole when you almost ran me off the road, but I never expected to meet you again. And I certainly didn’t plan to make your life miserable. It was a stray thought in the heat of the moment – and it led to all this!

Alyial: I guess I can’t complain too much. I should have been paying attention to where the hell I was driving. I’m sorry. It’s just… being denied access to the only thing I care about feels like too harsh a punishment.

Ira: It isn’t like a chose it. I didn’t realize what was happening any more than you did. I hope it’s fixed now. For you at least. It’s just…

Again, Alyial waited a long time for his phone to buzz before sending:

Alyail: What is it?

Ira: I don’t know. It sounds dumb.

Ira: But I can’t help feeling like it’s some kind of fate. Two people have a chance encounter on the road and then they meet again in the middle of a problem that one of them is uniquely suited to solving? And then it turns out she caused it in the first place?

Ira: I’m not crazy, am I? Things like that don’t usually happen. Unless fate is somehow pushing us together.

Alyial: I can’t say I’ve ever been a big believer in fate, but it does sound a little bit more than just a plain coincidence can account for.

Alyial: Why would fate drive us together though? What possible purpose could all this chaos solve?

Alyial checked the time. It had been most of an hour since he sent that message, and he still hadn’t received a response.

He should probably tell her about the tarot cards and the strange way reality seemed to bend when he received the reading. But now he was no longer sure if that happened before or after he entered the sim.

He checked one more time for the indication Ira might be typing, then he turned off his phone and shoved it deep into his pocket.

*   *   *

“Aren’t you supposed to be on medical leave?” Nala snapped the second Alyial walked through the door.

“Is that a real thing?” Alyial countered as the door clicked lightly closed in his wake. “Or is it something we made up so we wouldn’t get burned over the stupid stunt we pulled a week ago?”

“Do you have a reason for coming here?” Nala countered his question with one of her own and barely resisted the urge to tap her fingers irritably against the top of her desk. “We might almost be able to get this project back on track if we don’t have any more mishaps, and I can’t help but notice that things have been running a lot more smoothly since your doctor put you on bed rest.”

“My doctor only told me to rest because we lied out our asses and told her that I passed out in the middle of the office under mysterious circumstances,” Alyial retorted and planted his hands on his hips as he shot her a harsh stare. “And I’m pretty sure all the weird shenanigans that plagued the lead up to that fiasco are behind us now. That’s why I’m here.”

“You going to just walk up and touch one of the computers to see if it explodes the second you set your finger on it?” Nala demanded, not bothering to hide her exasperation. “Or are we going to stop pretending this lab is haunted by ghosts and magic and all the other non-scientific bullshit people have been spouting lately.”

“You’re lucky no one else is here to hear you talk like that,” Alyial growled, but he looked tired rather than angry as he shuffled across the office to his workspace.

“No one should really be talking about anything that doesn’t have to do with the project anyway,” Nala grumbled when Alyial sank into his chair and fell silent. “We can’t afford to fall behind again.”

“Is the project all you ever think about?” Alyial demanded on the tail-end of a sigh, then he hit the power button for his computer and braced as if he did expect it to explode.

“No,” Nala admitted, “but all these setbacks haven’t really left much time for anything else.”

“It isn’t like the original timeline did either,” Alyial pointed out. “We ate, slept and breathed this place for six months, and where did it get us aside from down a hole and on the rocks?”

“You don’t actually expect me to answer that, do you?” Nala shot back, once again answering his question with a question as she shot him an acid glare.

“No,” Alyial agreed amidst another sigh. “I didn’t even actually come here to talk about the project, if I’m honest. There was something I wanted to ask you.”

“Then ask. You know I prefer when people are direct.”

“Right, how could I ever have forgotten?” Alyial muttered and rolled his eyes. When Nala shot him another look, he hastily added, “I wanted to ask about Ira. She’s the wife of your friend, isn’t she?”

“She is married to an old friend of mine, yes,” Nala replied, hoping the way she worded the answer made it clear that Ira herself was not a friend.

“So you can’t tell me anything about her?” Alyial pressed.

“Nothing that her husband Delmar hasn’t told me,” Nala said and shrugged. “She strikes me as a bit of an odd duck. Not really my cup of tea. But she did what we needed when we needed, so I suppose I can’t complain.”

“What about Delmar?” Alyial asked so suddenly the question seemed like an afterthought.

“What about him?” Nala retorted suspiciously.

“You must know him pretty well if you went to him with something like my incident with the sim.”

There was something seeking in Alyial’s voice, but Nala chose to ignore it when she replied, “Delmar and I have known each other since high school. I’d trust that man with my life any day of the week. I can’t say I’m thrilled that we had to rely on his wife. But if he asked me to, I’d trust just about anyone. Very few people have earned that kind of trust from me, but Delmar is top of the list.”

“I’ve never heard you talk about anyone that way,” Alyial breathed as if he was in awe of her confession.

“I don’t usually mix my professional and personal lives,” Nala replied primly. “But the last few weeks have bent my patience in a way few others in my life ever have.”

“So what makes you trust this guy so much?” Alyial needled. “Enough that you’d trust his wife with your top secret project and the mistakes you made with it even though you clearly hate her.”

Nala gritted her teeth against the response she wanted to offer – which was a very firm that’s none of your goddamn business – and instead allowed a confession to seep past her lips that no one had ever heard before.

“We were high school sweethearts,” she said, so softly she almost hoped the words would get lost in the roar of the servers chugging away in the background. “Once upon a time, we were inseparable. We imagined spending our whole lives together – so much so that he asked me to marry him.”

“Then Ira swooped in and stole him away?” Alyial asked, confused. “Is that why you hate her so much?”

“Maybe,” Nala admitted, figuring she may as well dive into the deep end now that she had dipped her toe into the water. “But Ira only stole him after I turned him down. I chose this life instead. And I’ve never stopped regretting it.”

“So Ira didn’t steal him,” Alyial countered and raised an accusatory eyebrow. “She just met him after you turned him down.”

“I suppose,” Nala agreed but only on the tail end of a long-suffering sigh. “Fuck, I don’t even know why I’m telling you any of this! But I guess I always kind of figured it would happen eventually. Del and me. That we’d get married after we were both mature and successful.”

“But then he went and met Ira,” Alyial prompted when Nala fell silent – and there was something in his voice she couldn’t place that resonated with a chord in her soul.

So she said, “Yes, and fell madly in love with this woman of decidedly unscientific patterns and strange behavior.”

And for some reason, though he said no more, Nala was certain Alyial was as put out about the arrangement as she was.