Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ I Wish You Were Here ❯ Lucky Falling From the Sky ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Lucky Falling From the Sky:
By May 2009, Son-Ryu was the king of the indie writing world. Their first collection, Down Into the Pipes, was a huge success. The book sold 10,000 copies. The creativity into the pages was the key element into the stories.
 
Noiz: We all had many influences. Julia beat me by a thousand.
 
Rob: She had an imagination on drugs!
 
Noiz: *Giggles* That too! *Laughs* Her imagination was always smoking something. *Gets serious* She ironically did drugs for real. That unfortunately led to more problems as time went on.
 
Son-Ryu was always up for trying new things just to find some new inspiration. From different styles of music to people-watching, they were all willing to find that little something. Julia took it a step further. She began to experiment with different drugs. At first, they were little and unnoticeable. But couple that with mental problems and you have a train wreck.
Within six months, Julia started to break down. It wasn't a whole wall crashing down over night. It was just little tiny pieces over the six months. Everyone close to her just couldn't figure out what was wrong. Many suspected it was schizophrenia. Some thought it was the drugs destroying her. Not only could they not figure out what was going on, the guild and their managers couldn't figure out how to help Julia.
 
Noiz: We managed to try to get Julia to rehab. We managed to get her to the door a couple of times. We never got her through the door.
 
The more the success for Son-Ryu grew, the worse Julia's problems became. She would disappear for days at a time without warning. Someone would have to look for her and bring her back for more writing sessions.
 
Eric Milligan: Oh it was a nightmare when Julia went missing. It wasn't just a “stepped” out thing. She would go off without warning for days and days. She won't even take her ell phone or even have it on. We would all phone around for Julia. No one would even know where she was. Finally, John of Rob would have to go out and look for her. It usually took five days, but they would usually bring her back high or drunk out of her mind. It wasn't the best, but at least she was alive.
 
John Steele: I would usually find Julia in the strangest places. That woman was everywhere. In the streets behind bars, in the playgrounds in primary schools, in the kitchen of restaurants, you name it she was there. Julia one time turned up in the basement of someone's house. Not once were the police ever called on her. It was all dealt with quietly. Maybe they knew our situation already.
 
But the frequent disappearances weren't the only problems pretty soon. Julia's problems began to affect work. It showed in her later work with Son-Ryu. The story, Nobody Girl, was so raw that Sun Petals refused to publish it in their magazine.
 
Noiz: Everyone could see the difference in her work. Monkey King Baby was beautifully written. Strong goofy plot, grammar built strongly piece by piece, and everything fit in just right. Then, you have Nobody Girl. This story had so many spelling mistakes and grammar errors. It's like she wasn't even trying. But that wasn't the whole thing. I think Nobody Girl was about her breaking down. The protagonist was just like her. Just like the story itself, Julia was incomplete. *Shakes her head* Both were just a mess.
 
Overtime, Julia just got worse and worse. She couldn't even write some of the material. The guild had to call in Janis for help.
 
Janis: The guild was holding it together just fine, but Julia was falling to pieces. It was awkward to even be in the same room with her while we were working. She would just sit in the back and glare at me. It was creepy, but we had to get the work done.
 
Despite Julia's problems, Son-Ryu continued to flourish. And pretty soon, they began to spread to the states. In three months, the guild was invited to do their first live reading in California.
 
Noiz: We were rehearsing for the ShowOff and all was going as normal. The director walked us through everything. Julia was doing just fine. The director said, “Okay when we roll the camera you will read the story aloud, okay?” And Julia was like, *Nods with bright huge eyes* “Yeah, yeah!” She would be all happy and eager. “Okay, action!” *Imitating Julia goes numb and quiet as she looks around blankly* “Cut, cut! Okay we're doing it now!” And Julia would nod and lip-read off camera. *Mimics Julia a bit* After a couple more times, we had to explain to them that she was a little off.
 
Julia's problems got so bad that the guild didn't bother to pick her up one day for work. Eventually, Julia left the guild altogether.
Welcome to the Machine