Some Days!

Nina punched in the code and legged it to the door. She pulled it to with a thud and turned the key. Pushing her ear buds in she cranked the volume on the drumbeat and guitar riff and let the weight of the last ten hours start to drift off with a deep breath in then out. 

Wrapping her skull scarf around three times, trapping her braid, she stepped onto the darkening street to the beat and headed for the station. Today had been a long day, ok in reality time had moved no differently to any other day, but some days the books ceased to be wonderful other realities, they were just stacks and stacks of lead weights all to be moved and scanned. Sometimes the kids ceased to be wondrous little beings discovering the world around them and were just brats throwing crayons all over the floor. Every now and then that 'book with the blue cover' is not a 'nice little challenge' it's a 'you have to be kidding me' kind of feeling. 

Today had been a 'some day'. The one day when she really didn't want to have to handle the creepy dude! Nina knew what was coming as soon as the sentence, "it's something about shades of grey" was out of his lips. Sat there with the creepy ass look on his face. She was polite and went through the motions of, "yes, Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James" and oh joy we have a copy in. She nearly gagged when he was stood so close in the fiction section whispering at her, "I bet you're into this kind of thing, aren't you."

A louder more diverting song came on and Nina cranked up the volume another notch as she checked the road for cars before crossing, something or rather someone caught her eye up the street she had just walked down. Nah it won't be. She shook her head and carried on, speeding up a little to the beat and to match her pace to the adrenaline in her veins.

A few more bars and her heart was pounding almost as loud as the bass, she had to look back. Crap It was the creepy dude. Nina quickened her steps but she had no idea why even if she got to the station is wasn't manned at this time of night. Where could she stop? Where could she go?

Another look. He wasn't there. She turned to get a proper look. No definitely not there. Nina sighed, maybe he was just walking in this direction. She slowed her pace and turned to look where she was heading.

"Hello Nina."

view original here

Wow, Friday's writing prompt took me a while to work out in my head. I must say this is purely fictional and in no way based on any real life events! Leah and Sabrina of course finished their's ages ago...and you must go check out their awesomeness!!

Mother

Yesterday's picture prompt was been posted courtesy of Leah who is already off the mark with her response as is Deb over at Kicking Corners, go check out their magic, but not until you marvelled at my merger efforts which eventually comes to you after I fell asleep yesterday mid-writing.

"Mother, mother. Look just like you said my wing is mended." Sang the thrush, swooping from branch to branch to show off  his new found mobility.

"So it is little one, rest it for one more day and you should be ready for full flight." At this the thrush broke into full chorus rejoicing her presence and power.

There went my peaceful walk Gaia thought. She tried to focus on the warm grass beneath her bare feet, the bottom of her white cheesecloth skirt catching as she walked. Twisting tiny plaits in her hair as the last vestiges of summer warmed her skin. Until the chattering and squeaking around her became too much.

"Ok, ok my darlings" Gaia sighed. "Your babies are all so beautiful. Yes, yes, my blessings on them all. Come and see me at the Oak this evening Master Rabbit and I will look at your ear then. Go now and be merry in the sun, summer is nearly over and the harsh winter will soon begin."

With that she turned to move through the creatures around her, leaving the voles and foxes and mice and all manner of other tiny creatures in her wake. She needed time to recharge.

As she cleared the gathering the tree tunnel came under a peaceful quiet once more, quiet enough for Hart to step out from his hiding place. Only he could bring a smile to Gaia's face during this season.

"Hello old friend." She greeted him, sliding her hand down the fur on his neck. As she stepped past him the beautiful stag rose up onto his hind legs and shifted into the form of a human man. His antlers becoming thick locks of brown hair. But his eyes they were the same, over these many years all the many times Gaia had changed him for her own selfish reasons she had always kept his eyes. Those deep and fathomless brown eyes.

"Hello Gaia" her name rolled deep from his throat and settled her fraying nerves.

"Oh Hart, these summers are getting harder and harder to bear."

"How so?"

"The constant activity, the constant chatter, oh just the constant....I find myself wanting to set forth winter earlier and earlier every year."

"There is an option Gaia" Hart replied with his usual knowing sideways look, with just a sprinkling of wicked.

Prodigal

So this was a prompt from a couple of days ago and I promise I did the writing...just in a very traditional pencil and paper kind of way. I am just now getting time to post here. Jump over to my lovely friends who were far more on the ball than me and see what they are up to.... Leah's is here and Sabrina posted here

view original here (look to the bottom left window!)

She stood at the window. She stood at the window every day since he left.

The threads that tied them were still strong. He still loved her and so he would return to her. Then they could rest.

Her body had withered long ago, her bones turned to dust. The houses around theirs had crumbled and gone, the residents forced out by her initial rage. She'd moved the landscape up around their house, it reflected her mood now...her need to be alone and wait.

She kept their house the same, untouched by the ravages of time. The same so that he would recognise it when he returned. Not that it mattered, all he need do was feel along the thread. He knew it was there, he'd plucked at it more than once tugging at the hope where her heart once beat.

So she stood at the window and she waited for him to return. She would wait forever and they would never rest.

Just a little song to go with this post ;-)

Is she worth it?

I thought I would share a little about how I sit down to write. Not because I think there is anything useful I can share but so I can be nosy and ask about your process!

Sometimes ideas come to me, usually in the middle of the night, they wake me from my slumber and I have to get up and write it down. These flashes of inspiration  are few and far between, rarities my muse dispenses when she so wishes.

In reality something tends to catch my eye or ear and my mind ponders it for a while. It can be a picture, a quote or even a song and it will capture something in my imagination.

Recently I saw this image and knew it would be one of those images to get the cogs in my mind moving. So a grovel later and the photographer Liam Dagan sent me the image to use. I am grateful that I can borrow the images of super talented people like Liam from time to time just so that I can show you where my mind starts!

Any way here is Liam's image and the snippet that it put in my mind.

To Hell and Back

"Let me get this straight, I'm dead and this is hell?"

"Ahha"

"And i could climb out up that?"

"Yup"

"Anyone ever make it?"

"One"

"Who?"

"One of the original fallen. He fell for a human girl on the living plane, forbidden eve for a fallen so he was condemned to eternity in here. Always looking out with that smallest glimmer of hope to torture him."

"He climbed out to be with her?"

"Yeah, it even worked out for a little bit. Right up until Death caught up with her and they were both consigned to Hell for eternity. Apparently if you ask them they don't care where they are, as long as they are together. Personally I could do without the eternal damnation, but who am I to argue."

"Why don't you climb then?"

"I've nothing worth risking everything for."

"But we are already dead! What could be worse than being dead and stuck in Hell for eternity!"

"Nothing."

"That's my point."

"No, seriously, nothing!! Fall on there, and its not an easy climb, and you'd kill yourself all over again. Only this time you have no body to die, just your soul. You would simply cease to exist at all. Granted some do it just to get away from the torture of being down here, but not many things are worth that!"

"There are a few"

"So, who's yours?"


So what gets your creative juices flowing? Do you get the same impulse to tell a pictures story that I do?

Day 28 NaBloPoMo - I got 99 words but the.....

Flash fiction is a relatively new thing in the grand scheme of things, the first use of the term appears to have been in 1992 in an anthology Flash Fiction: Seventy-Two Very Short Stories.

(Flash, ahha. sorry couldn't help myself - original here)

More recently than this however I have discovered 99fiction on tumblr (via twitter). Now this intrigues me, can you really tell a story in 99 words? How better to find out than having a go?

Take 1 - 121 words, editing required!!

Take 2 - 101 words, arrgghhhhh.

Take 3 - 100 words, bah!

Take 4 - 98 words. Wahooooo

Meet Again

 

 

 

Seven years and he still recognised her red hair. So much had happened, so much lost. Would she even want to see him again?

The salt wind was whipping her blazing hair as she stared out across the waves, the water caressing her naked feet and the sand was clinging to the wet edges of her skirt.

Faith turned to walk along the shore as she always did and there he was, holding the rest of her soul. Tears of relief fell as they walked towards each other, their finger tips meeting as if they had never parted.

 

Phew, so can it be done? Is 99 words enough to tell a story? Can I find another 99 words to enter the competition? So many questions, I feel like adding a comedy 'dum, dum duuuummmm'

 

 

 

For your added enjoyment ;-)