Daily Picspiration - Discovery

My Daily Picspiration entry went up on Sunday. Not easy photos to use this week, but I managed to come up with a unique idea for the photo below! I loved Miranda Gammella's tag line for it on twitter too: "An abandoned building yields strange fruit in today's", which is very apt. Miranda runs Daily Picspiration for us writers and does a brilliant job! Anyway, here is Part 7, and I still have no real clue where I am going with it. I am letting the story develop with each photo prompt!

Posted on April19th, you can read Part 7 - 'Discovery' here. 

You can read Part 6 - 'Occupied' here. 
You can read Part 5 - 'Provisions' here.
You can read Part 4 - 'Moving Out' here.
You can read Part 3 - 'New Recruit' here.
You can read Part 2 - New Location here. 
You can read Part 1 - Frozen here.

 

Horror Bites - Flight

The new Horror Bites photo prompt went up a while back, but I struggled to come with anything, being that I am not a vampire story person. But slowly something came into focus and presented itself. I have had to really cut it down to get it to fit the word count, which is a shame, as it meant cutting some of the suspense. But I still like it - hope you do!

 

Rachel took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to settle her mind. It was her first time meditating in the loft and she was struggling to focus. Each time she found a point in her mind there she heard a fluttering sound.

Maybe it was a bird on the roof or building a nest in the eves. But it’s dark outside, a little voice in the back of her mind whispered, are you sure? Rachel opened her eyes and re-crossed her legs the other way. Don’t be silly, it’s nothing.  

But just as she went to close them again, she heard it. It wasn’t outside. She looked round the room. The loft conversion hadn’t been that long ago, barely a year, so there weren’t any hidden corners.

She remembered the night Robert had finished it; how they’d celebrated – just a month before he’d disappeared. She recalled that night too, how she’d thought he was up in the loft, but when she’d gone to find him, he wasn’t there. She’d never found him. She had no idea why he’d gone or where. Tears pricked Rachel’s eyes.

She got up and walked around. The line of four spotlights in the ceiling weren’t very bright. They didn’t reach every corner. She spotted something in one of them. Could it be a moth? But the next time the fluttering came there was a tiny squeak with it.

Oh no, Bats, she thought. I’ll never get rid of them!

She walked over to the corner to take a look. She could just make out something where the walls met. She reached up to see if she could disturb it. The fluttering and squeaking came again. Then something dashed out.

It bit her hand and Rachel screamed, the room suddenly shrinking away from her, the ceiling coming closer. Two claws extended where her feet used to be and grappled at the wall, trying to hold on. She looked down at the room. Then a fluttering announced the arrival of a bat next to her. She turned to look. It had Robert’s eyes.  

Words 348

 

Prickly Fingers - Flash Flood Journal Entry

 

In aid of National Flash Fiction Day, which takes place on the 27th of June,  I wrote for the Flash Flood Journal, an international flash-fiction journal created by writers and edited by a team of volunteer editors on behalf of National Flash-Fiction Day. Every 10 minutes a new piece of Flash is put on the Flash Flood Journal for the full 24 hours of Flash Fiction day.

My entry 'Prickly Fingers' went up this afternoon. This is a piece I already had and I reworked it for this submission.  It is very dark - as usual. You can read it here.

There are some awesome piece in a variety of genres, some worth checking out are:

Susi Holliday's - First Love
Catherine Connolly's - Her Doors Unlocked
A.J Walker's - The Lion's Share of the Cleaning

Alicia Vanoy Call - Bring an Extra Suitcase

Donna B McNicol - Weenie

Stuck - MWBB

I hadn't written for Mid-Week Blues-Buster for a while, and as I am judging the next one I will be missing another one too. I liked the song for this one even though there was already a clear story in the lyrics. I went with my emotions in response to it and didn't feel it was much of an actual story, just the suggestion of one, and probably why it didn't get noticed by the judge. But I liked it. Hope  you do.

 

The prompt song was:

“Through the Glass Darkly”, by Annie Lennox

 

Helena stepped out of her house, and felt their eyes on her. They followed her down the path and out onto the street. Even when she climbed into her car she could still feel them watch her as she pulled out and drove away. She wished she didn’t have to come back.

He would be home later, and it would be better. She hoped. She refused to acknowledge the voice that said she hoped every day but she was always let down.

She thought about just driving on and on, and not turning back. She ran through the scenario in her head. The reaction, the gossip, the chatter behind every door - the place would thrum with it. How she was a foreigner in their midst, she didn’t fit, she wasn’t good enough, they were better off rid of her - that he was better off rid of her.  But she always faltered when she thought of him, how he would feel, what it would do to him, how difficult it would be for him to continue without her, juggling it all, work, house, kids.

Kids. Helena took a deep breath and felt her foot come up off the accelerator as the frustration ebbed, churning in her stomach, turning into guilt.

Her mind spun, trying to find a focus point, trying to find a path that didn’t lead to a dead-end. She needed to find a way forward, a way to continue. It started with him and it ended with him.

She arrived at the supermarket and went through the motions, getting what was needed for them, to nourish them, to cherish them and keep it all together. Then she drove back, pushing down her feelings, refusing to allow any more mutinous thoughts to surface.

His car was there. He was home. On the one hand she was elated, but on the other she was afraid. She tolerated the curtain twitching, the eyes of the neighbourhood on her as she took in the shopping, and she smiled at him at the door, and he smiled back. But there was something missing, something tangible. He was there, but he wasn’t. He hadn’t been since they’d moved here – his home town. It was as though she had lost him in the move and he didn’t want to be found, even though he was standing right in front of her.

But had she lost him or had she lost herself? Helena let that thought echo round her mind as she prepared the evening meal and stared out the window at the tainted life around her which had once been filled with so much hope.

Five Sentence Fiction - Hunt

I'm quick off the mark with this week's Five Sentence Fiction as the combination of the word and photo presented a nice little story. 

Helena looked at the sign post but could only make out the name of the country, which she already knew, not the direction she was travelling in – for all she knew she could be driving round in circles.

She berated herself again as she returned to the car, for not having grabbed a map as well as her passport when she’d left, although she’d been in a bit of a hurry. It wasn’t often he left her alone, certainly not for long enough to pack a bag and make a run for it.

She’d spent the first few hours of the journey convinced she was going to see his truck pop up in the rearview mirror flashing at her to pull over, and driving her off the road if she didn’t comply – it wouldn’t have been the first time.

The only thing that stopped her despairing was that if she didn’t know where she was, then neither did he, and he wouldn’t be able to find her; she was free.

Indulgence - 100 Words Challenge

I came across a new writing challenge - 100 Words Challenge. Another friend had posted up her entry and I thought, mmm, interesting, I'll have a go at that. The only shame is there is no photo prompt, so I have decided to source my own that relates to the story. Enjoy.

Photo by Navid Baraty - click photo to go to his website and see his other stunning shots of New York

 She wanted to feel everything. She wanted to engage all her senses; she wanted to smell it, see it, taste it, hear it - even touch it.

Hannah imagined all the sensations as she stepped up on the tiny wall of the penthouse balcony and looked down. The ground coming up to meet her, the traffic growing louder, the rush of the air in her ears accelerating as she whistled through it; the pressure against her skin, even in her mouth as she fell. 

She wanted it all. The spoilt brat’s last indulgence as her father would say. Her last hurrah.

Daily Picspiration - Occupied

My Daily Picspiration entry went up on Sunday. I pondered on the photos for a while, as they both spoke to me but to fit them with my ongoing saga I had to get creative. I decided to bring in another character - which I was a little loathe to do as I haven't developed all the others fully yet, but when I started writing it worked out really well, and I liked the end product. I hope you do too.

Posted on April 5th, You can read Part 6 - 'Occupied' here.
 
You can read Part 5 - 'Provisions' here.
You can read Part 4 - 'Moving Out' here.
You can read Part 3 - 'New Recruit' here.
You can read Part 2 - New Location here. 
You can read Part 1 - Frozen here.