The Unicorn Challenge.
A magical new weekly writing opportunity from her – Jenne Gray – and me.
Visit her blog every Friday to see the photo prompt, and post your amazing story in her comments section.
Or on your own blog, and stick the link down in her comments.
The rules are:
Maximum of 250 words.
Based on photo prompt.
That’s it.
To hear me read my story, just click here:
Attack
The badly-lit streets are perfect for my purpose.
I slip through the shadows, watching.
The police presence, all but ubiquitous following the last attack, diminished after the first four or five days, and was practically non-existent little more than a week later.
They try very hard in circumstances like these, when young women are being accosted and molested, but their resources are limited, and spread too thinly across a bucolic area of scattered settlements.
The situation is exacerbated by the number of transients in the region, a scenic paradise whose rugged hills with fast-running streams and vast lochs cradled in heather-clad glens make it a popular destination for ramblers, cyclists, hill-walkers, canoeists, fishermen (rarely women) and campers.
This has the added effect of busy, late-closing restaurants and bars, where the three victims to date have been employed.
And staff, of course, are always last to leave, striding or cycling homewards through country lanes and near-dark villages, taxis in these remote parts being far beyond the purse of young people in the service industry.
So now, after considering all the possibilities, I am hidden under a rowan tree behind a low wall, waiting.
I have a club in my right hand, a knife in my left, and a scarf around my face.
When the pretty young barmaid from the hotel hastens towards me, I tremble in anticipation.
She screams when I leap out, club raised.
I demolish the dark figure creeping behind her.
No one touches my daughter.
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Wow! Full of suspense and loved your surprise at the end!
Thanks, Rosemary.
I love a good ‘Wow!’, it lets me know my story worked!
Doing what a father needs to do. Nice one C.E.
Always, mon ami!
Thank you.
Clever curveball, CE.
Excellent, all 250 words!
Very kind, Nancy.
Hope the recovery is progressing to plan.
As the song goes “It’s getting better all the time”.
Prego, CE. Mi piacere.
with the others, excellent twist ending
“I have a club in my right hand, a knife in my left, and a scarf around my face.“
what a great line/setup for the ending!
Cheers, Clark.
Did you notice that ‘I leap out, club raised. I demolish…’ is the entire action scene?
Sometimes less is more, the reader’s imagination paints pictures my words never can.
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Oh brilliant. I had my breath held as I realised (or thought I realised) who the narrator was and what he was waiting for, but that twist at the end. Just loved it.
Thank you, Margaret, I do like ‘Oh brilliant’.
But remember, the trick is to keep breathing!
Happy it worked for you.
What a great twist. Unexpected!
Always expect the unexpected, Tessa!
I have been known to do it myself at times.
Led by the nose through all the rich descriptions right up to the wire, and then you produce that twist?
Superb misdirection.
Laughing. Remember my strap-line:
Where nothing is quite what it seems…
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Perfect twist. I love it.
Thank you, Sally, I do enjoy a wee misdirection!