My Black Dahlia by kharizzmatik
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5701674/1/My_Black_Dahlia
Word Count: 18,232
Official Description: O/S. Jaded overwhelmed doctor. Sociopath wannabe actress. He wanted to help people, but she just wanted the limelight. Paths cross, lives are altered and not everyone can be saved… Edward Cullen learns that the hard way. E/B M Graphic Content/Death
–
tampagirl81 says: I have spent the past couple weeks asking people for recommendations for one-shots and lamenting about what I was going to read and review. A while back this story was written as an entry for the Kill a Cullen contest but was too long to qualify.
My one-shot rec for this week is My Black Dahlia by Kharizzmatik, author of the amazing Emancipation Proclamation. The original Black Dahlia is a story of a young woman named Elizabeth Short who came to Hollywood in the 1940′s to become a famous actress. Her body was found in a field and her killer remains unidentified. This is of course the Cliff’s Notes version of the Cliff’s Notes.
In My Black Dahlia, we meet Edward, who comes to LA in hopes of doing good and making a change in people’s lives. Instead, he is continuously met with the harsh realities of the world outside of his medical school ideals. I love this o/s because there isn’t just one moment where Edward gives up his positivity but rather he remains hopeful until the very end. He becomes taken with his patient, Bella Swan, a teenage runaway who reveals that is homeless and staying in a poor part of town. We also learn very early on that even though she is a runaway, she has dreams.
“And you’re in LA alone?” I asked. She rolled her eyes.
“I just told you I didn’t live alone. I’m really starting to get worried about your expertise, Doc,” she said. “I got tired of my mother’s bullshit and hitch hiked to California for a fresh start.”
“Why California?” I asked. She laughed in amusement and shook her head as she hopped down from the examination table.
“You really are a nosy bastard,” she said, her words startling me. “Why do any of us run off to LA? To follow our dreams. I’m gonna be an actress.”
Kharizzmatik creates a dark and vivid world told through the perspective of a hopeless romantic of sorts, desperately trying to find the last bit of good in the world in the one person he shouldn’t. Despite the love and warmth he puts forward and the greediness in which it’s taken makes the reader cringe with pity and hope for both characters, at least that’s how it was for me. Edward knows deep down that Bella loves him and is grateful, but the reader also has the opportunity to see the obvious signs around him and the level of denial he has sunk to.
“I’m going to be just like her, you know,” Isabella declared, pointing her spoon at the screen and dripping splatters of ice cream onto her clothes and the couch.
I cringed at the mess and glanced back at the screen. We were watching the Josh Hartnet movie about the Black Dahlia, the famous murder from the 1940′s. “Her?” I asked with disbelief, my brow furrowing in confusion.
“Yes, her. She walked away from her life and came to Hollywood to be an actress, was homeless and everything,” she said. “That’s gonna be me.”
“Have you even been watching the movie? She was murdered before she ever did anything,” I said. “She was mutilated and whoever did it got away with it.” Isabella laughed and flung her spoon at me, sitting up.
“Not the Black Dahlia, you dumb ass. Though with the way my luck is I wouldn’t be surprised if some jackass kills me and doesn’t pay for it, but I sure as hell don’t want that. I’m talking about Hillary Swank, the actress. She was like fifteen or sixteen when she came here, dropped out of school and lived in a car. She finally got her big break and I will too. Granted, she had her mom along with her and I have no one, but still,” she said, shrugging. I stared at her with surprise before sighing.
“You have me,” I said after a moment. She glanced back at me and smiled.
“Yeah, I do, don’t I?” she said. “You’re a good man, Doc. When I make it big, I won’t forget you. I’ll make sure the entire world knows that you’re a good man, even if you are a little uptight.”
I smiled and shook my head as she focused her attention back at the screen. Her eyes kept shifting down to the cartoon of ice cream with a frown on her face, and I sighed. I got up and grabbed a clean spoon from the kitchen and handed it to her as she smiled brightly with that twinkle in her eyes. That twinkle that had captivated me since day one, the twinkle that completely contradicted her rough exterior. It was the twinkle that had drawn me in and made me fall for her…
There comes the distinct difference between the real Black Dahlia and the the one Kharizzmatik has written. In this story Bella has the opportunity to become famous and does break into “the business”. If you have seen the movie or know the full story of the Black Dahlia, it is clear to where the story is headed. If not, this is another reason why My Black Dahlia should be read. Her characterizations are dark and disturbing and show the less than beautiful side of humanity; whether it is Edward’s experiences with the hospital or his experiences of being in love.
The story is over 20K words of angst but when you reach the end, you’ll wish that there was more.
Recent Comments