Evil Katey/Good Katey

Scripped Soundtrack, day 15 (The End)

The Verve: “Appalachian Springs”

The cabin smelled like cedar and the fireplace. Alien and old, like a memory he was desperate to keep.

Tal tasted like the ground, like the mines, like dirt and rocks. He tasted like home.

-From Scripped by KV Taylor (YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME)

What the hell is this? (Day 1) (Entire Soundtrack)

Scripped Soundtrack, day 14

Fleet Foxes: “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song”

Creeping fae frost over his lips, his tongue, tasting like that place, making his heart seem even louder, almost painfully loud. Cold in his nose, in his head, down his throat—

It ended, and Tal turned as if to leave.

Jonah pulled on his hand. “More.”

Tal looked over his shoulder. “It’s dangerous.” But he knew Jonah knew that.

“Don’t fuck around. You know what I want. At least help me.” Jonah’s voice cracked a little. But he managed.

-From Scripped by KV Taylor (YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME)

What the hell is this? (Day 1)

Scripped Soundtrack, day 13

Radiohead: “There There (The Boney King of Nowhere)”

He wandered for what might’ve been hours, until the sunlight started to fade behind the mountains, and the sounds of animals disappeared.

Then he paused.

No animals. No deer crashing through the underbrush. No winter birds overhead. No squirrels throwing acorns.

Nothing.

His body went on high alert, goosebumps breaking out under his thin warm-up jacket. He hadn’t felt that since—

Movement from behind a tree, something thin and brown.

Jonah’s heart stopped, and he almost had the presence of mind to wish it would never start again.

-From Scripped by KV Taylor (YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME)

What the hell is this? (Day 1)

Scripped Soundtrack, day 12

The National: “Available”

Jonah wondered how hard it would’ve been to teach Sela how to do this, and smiled into the kiss. Impossible. Cold little psychopath never would’ve managed this kind of feeling, and definitely not this kind of warmth.

Tal, maybe. He’d at least put some effort into it that last time.

Jonah pulled his lips off Jenny’s, kissed her neck instead, swatted the thoughts away. Thoughts that he could almost excuse when he was alone and desperate for company. But not now.

Her hot little fingers trailed downward, slipped below the waist of his track pants.

That’s when he started to panic. She probably knew already— he was either slow getting it up or had the world’s smallest equipment, and seeing as she saw him in a Speedo every day, she probably wasn’t buying the latter. Not that it was anything impressive, but—

Lower still, and there was a distinct threat of her deciding to do away with his pants altogether, the way she was gripping the waistband now.

Jonah’s heart raced, but not in the right way.

-From Scripped by KV Taylor (YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME)

What the hell is this? (Day 1)

Scripped Soundtrack, day 11

Manic Street Preachers: “Life Becoming a Landslide”

“Sure. I’ll call you some time.” But he wouldn’t.

“Oh.” Elena looked put out. “Well, are you busy tonight?”

“Yeah,” he lied some more, amazed at how easy it could be. “It’s pretty crazy jumping back in after being gone for three semesters, you know?”

Her movements struck him as clunky and ridiculous now— but so did everyone’s. She went up on her toes and kissed his cheek.

He forced himself not to recoil, to stand there and take it.

Then she wrapped her arms around him, put her head against his shoulder.

He patted her back with his free hand and hoped it felt convincing.

-From Scripped by KV Taylor (YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME)

What the hell is this? (Day 1)

Scripped Soundtrack, day 10

Muse: “Eternally Missed”

Jonah held out his left arm — the one so far unscarred. “Take it.”

Tal glanced at it.

Jonah suppressed another shiver and stepped closer. “Go on. While I’m still too cold to feel how bad it hurts.”

A blink, then Tal met his gaze.

Something welled up inside Jonah again, thick and black and shameful. He tried to filter it into aggression and had minimal success. “I know you want it, you can’t help yourself. So just do it and stop pretending to be a fucking hero, you asshole.”

-From Scripped by KV Taylor (YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME)

What the hell is this? (Day 1) (Day 2) (Day 3) (Day 4) (Day 5) (Day 6) (Day 7) (Day 8) (Day 9)

And while I’m here, let me reiterate day 1’s disclaimer: In no way do any of these artists endorse me, my book, or kidnapping, people-skinning, human-kissing fae. It’s just a thing I do for fun.

Scripped Soundtrack, day 9

Arcade Fire: “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)”

Even when the tunnel grew light enough for Jonah’s eyes, Tal kept his hold on him, as if he thought he might slip away and do something stupid.

But Jonah wouldn’t have slipped away if he could. He wouldn’t know where to go or what to do, true, but it was more than that.

He just didn’t want to.

The tunnel was uneventful until it branched off, and Tal stopped him once more, leaned close again. “Entrance is up there. Anything happens, just stick close by me. Might need to run.”

Jonah squeezed his hand in reply. His body was still stiff, but he didn’t care. He’d run faster than he’d ever run. Gold medal fucking sprint.

When they stepped out into the entryway tunnel, Jonah realized where he was. The feeling was strange and wonderful, as if his feet were on solid ground again. He sighed.

Footsteps in the hallway behind them. A shadow loomed over their shoulders.

Panic flashed through Tal’s eyes.

Jonah’s heart dropped.

Apparently he wasn’t too tired anymore.

“Fuck,” he said.

“Fuck,” Tal agreed.

They ran.

-From Scripped by KV Taylor (YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME)

What the hell is this? (Day 1)

Scripped Soundtrack, day 8

Beck: “Jack-Ass”

Maybe he really should kiss her, he thought again, just as the frost slipped down his throat like some silvery ghost. Maybe if he took small breaks to get his warmth back, he could have enough for both of them. Maybe if he showed her what it was like to feel that, to feel really alive like she did when she was in his world, she’d understand and let him go back.

He shivered and flushed the thought out of his system.

He didn’t want to. And he didn’t want to think why.

-From Scripped by KV Taylor (YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME)

What the hell is this? (Day 1)

Scripped Soundtrack, day 7

Stereophonics: “Maybe Tomorrow”

He waded out further, and when the water reached his middle again, rushing around his legs, he turned back to Sela. “Okay. Show me.”

“All right, though I ain’t sure why I should.” She knelt, still a few feet from the edge of the bank, and reached out, poked one finger hesitantly beneath the water’s surface.

Jonah watched, mouth slightly open, as the finger turned brown and started to erode.

Like it was made of dirt.

Sela winced, bit at her lip, and finally pulled back when most of the tiny appendage had been whittled down by the flow. The ground shook under the stream, and no doubt under her on the bank. “Ouch,” she bit the word off. “That don’t feel real good.”

“No,” he said. “I guess it wouldn’t.”

Sela skittered back from the edge and sat at a safe distance, cupping her injured hand to herself. “You go on and wash your things. I’ll be right here. And don’t try and splash me, neither.”

Jonah wouldn’t, and he told her so.

Though again, he wondered why not. He wondered what would happen if he tried to swim away. Would he just swim and swim and stay in the same place? Would he feel more like himself if he at least tried, if he put his head underwater and let it take him?

Or would it just be like everything else here and make him lose his way? Lose his mind. Little pieces of himself floating downstream, with those little pieces of her.

-From Scripped by KV Taylor (YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME)

What the hell is this? (Day 1)

Scripped Soundtrack, day 6

Super Furry Animals: “Ymaelodi â’r Ymylon”

Now he made out a face in the sickly glow, the face of the one who’d screamed and fallen. It looked just like Tal and Sela, but smudgier, dirtier. Eyes squeezed shut, it was silent now.

An arm lay on the ground next to it — an arm that should have been attached. But there was no pool of blood, as expected.

Jonah stared, his stomach roiling.

The disconnected appendage on the ground began to darken, maybe turning brown or black. It dissolved, melting into a tiny pile of dirt before his eyes.

-From Scripped by KV Taylor (YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME)

What the hell is this? (Day 1)

Scripped Soundtrack, day 5

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: “Sympathetic Noose”

“Tell me,” he said. All this talk about stories, but no one had ever told him one.

“Don’t remember it.” The corners of her mouth twitched downward.

His stomach did something uncomfortable. “You sad?”

“Don’t know.”

He wasn’t sure she could be, still. But all signs pointed to it right now, and he didn’t like the way it was making him feel.

Jonah rolled over to face the wall and said, “Night.”

He felt stupid for it when she was quiet for a heavy second. Then she said, “Night, Jonah.”

-From Scripped by KV Taylor (YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME)

What the hell is this? (Day 1) (Day 2) (Day 3) (Day 4)

Scripped Soundtrack, day 4

Phish: “Weigh”

There she was, beautiful and smiling and dirty. With the silver knife from the sink in her hand.

She knelt by the mattress. “Can’t get away anyhow, Jonah,” she said, as if this were an everyday conversation. She leaned forward, put one icy hand on his bare stomach, flattened her palm there.

His belly went cold, even on the inside.

“But you better hold still, or it’ll get messy. Don’t worry, I’m real good at this.”

He opened his mouth, but she put her free hand over it and brought the knife up to his right arm. He twisted violently against the ropes, but all he could see was the shining handle of the knife in her grubby hand.

Scripped Soundtrack, day 3

Coldplay: “Lost!”

“You all die eventually, don’t you?”

Jonah supposed that was true. “You won’t?”

Tal’s lips curved. It wasn’t a smile, but Jonah wasn’t sure what it was. “Don’t remember, but pretty sure I already done it.” Then he turned his head, caught Jonah’s eyes with that same belligerent stare. “You don’t remember nothin’?”

Jonah fought not to take a step away from the strange boy and his massive aura of… bad. Anger. Whatever it was. “Only sometimes. It’s hard.”

“That’ll heal too.”

“I’ll remember?”

“No. You’ll stop altogether.”

-From Scripped by KV Taylor (YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME)

What the hell is this? (Day 1)

Scripped Soundtrack, day 2

Paul Weller: “Wild Wood”

“What are you doing?” He hadn’t meant it to sound like that, but he couldn’t think of a nicer way to put it.

She traced her fingers over his knuckles, and then part of the way up his forearm, her other arm still wrapped in his. “Just feeling you.”

“I hardly know you.” An attempt at a joke, but he didn’t even smile when he said it. Just looked down at her and wondered why he was incapable of removing his arm from hers.

She smiled her cat smile and tugged him into walking again.

Jonah followed, still wondering, but only briefly. He went back to listening to the leaves. Maybe he hadn’t been crazy as a little kid to imagine they talked.

-From Scripped by KV Taylor (YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME)

What the hell is this? (Day 1)

Scripped Soundtrack, day 1

Interpol: “Pioneer to the Falls (Orchestral)”

So I have this book coming out next month, a fucked up Appalachian Faerie story called Scripped. (See: You Can Never Go Home) I do this thing when I’m writing a book where I make a huge playlist and listen to it nonstop. When I go back months later and edit, I bring it back up, and usually add to it a little. The resulting list can remind me, even years later, of precisely how I felt when I was writing a given scene.

So here’s the first one on this list. The actual lyrics to “Pioneer to the Falls” are perfect for Scripped, but the eerieness of the instrumentals behind them, stripped down to just the orchestral arrangement on this one, really gets the freakiness right.

I’ll be back with more in a day or two, and those ones will come with actual excerpts. In the meantime, I’d just like to say that in no way do any of these artists endorse me, my book, or kidnapping, people-skinning, human-kissing fae. It’s just a thing I do for fun.

(Not the kidnapping or—oh, you know what I mean.)