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:
Day After Day
Time passes, immeasurably.
The darkness is beyond words.
The only suspicion of light is when rations are delivered.
There seems to be no regular schedule, and no obvious logic, to these.
I mean, it’s not three square meals a day, it’s an apparently random provision to an apparently random prisoner.
There are ten cells within this underground blackness, with one person in each.
We – seven guys and three women – all talk to each other, try to work out who he is and what he wants.
But there is friction, jealousy and animosity, largely because of how the food is distributed.
The boy two cells before mine, number eight, not long ago received two successive supplies, with no one else getting anything.
He is now despised by everyone.
You see, only one person is fed each visit, and there are, we reckon, three or four hours between them, so in a best case scenario each of us gets food every thirty hours or so.
There have been discussions about sharing, but there’s not enough trust for anyone to be first.
Each of us has been taken, alone, blindfolded, hands and feet shackled, from the dungeon into the corridor.
There are two doors, one impassable, the other opening onto a fifty-foot drop onto the sea-sprayed rocks.
I begged for mercy, said I’d do anything to see my mother again.
That’s the last time there was light.
He shone a torch on her dead face.
Served on a plate.
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my goodness. Another CE psychopathic special. Great tension.
Your goodness, Lindsey? That’s a rather short story, hmm?
Thank you, I’m happy with ‘CE psychopathic special’!
small and perfect C.E. My intellect shines.
Laughing. Nice one, LInds!
Egads, Man! This flash is so horrible, it’s good. Very good. Glad I’m reading in daylight.
You write terrific comments, Liz.
I like ‘so horrible, it’s good’, but I love ‘Egads, Man!’
Thank you! (smiles humbly, bows) I do what I can!
So, like I’m at line “There are two doors, one impassable,” and my Comment is forming along the lines of ‘all this world of possibilities in 250 words.
then I read the last line
damn! tricked again!
Laughing. Doesn’t pay to get lulled too early, Clark!
Oh my goodness, you tell dark stories now and again but this one has taken darkness to another depth! It’s absolutely delicious though!
Thanks, bro, ‘absolutely delicious’ works for me!
Oh. My. Goodness. Psychopathic evil — the stuff of nightmares. You write it so well.
There’s this part of me that wishes to understand how your mind works. Then, there’s this other part that thinks better of it.
Funny you should say that, Sally, there’s a part of me that wants to understand my mind too, and this other part that just says ‘Run!’
Hmm. Tempting but I’ve already eaten.
Check please!
You kept the ball rolling, Nancy, I just served the next course!
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With the change of POV this captor gets even more satisfyingly psychopathic.
And the poor lad learns the lesson of ‘Be careful what you wish for’.
But a clear insight too into the role food plays in our lives – and in our sense of justice.
Gruesomely good story.
I’m happy with ‘satisfyingly psychopathic’ and ‘gruesomely good’!
Thanks, Jenne
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