Prompts/My Entries

I did a writing contest in January and there were four rounds and I made it through the first three. It got me inspired to write again. I haven't been, but it's been giving me the push I needed to get back to it and it's helped me in other ways. Anyway, I just wanted to keep my entries here to remind myself later that I did it.

Prompt 1: (had to be six words, and based on the theme of having something to do with arguments) 

My entry:

'Sharp eyes turned quietly into indifference.'

Some song inspo that makes sense was 'Somebody Else- Flora Cash'/ The Night We Met- Lord Huron/Ophelia-Lumineers

Prompt 2: (had to be 300 words or less and written in first person. The hero and the villain are siblings and they still have dinner with their parents for the holidays. There were two other prompt options but went with this one.)

Nothing hurts more than being back-stabbed by someone you trusted. This was the sort of thing that I did to other people, it wasn't supposed to happen to someone like me. I had been violated and the only thing that might begin to remedy this situation was a strongly worded email. Thus, with careful and perfectly rational deliberation, I began.

'It has recently come to my attention that certain imbeciles left in contact with their parents don't find their consciences bothered by sharing my own personal contact information with the same aforementioned 'parents'. While levels of morality have always been a matter of personal preference in my mind, this is a level of duplicitous deceit that I would have thought beneath you. However, the damage has been done as they now clearly know my location and I am far too deep in my lease to back out now. Because of this, it is now your responsibility to make this so-called 'joyous event' as bearable as possible.'

-yours in malice

I sat with my tea, oversized socks, and my bitterness waiting for a reply. Along with all of my brother's other faults, he was disgustingly prompt at replying to emails. He was the good one. I was the impossible one. As if I wasn't the one that gave him his big breaks. Did they know how much time and effort I spent working out my heists? How much more quality time did they need?

A text showed up on my phone. He hadn't even replied to my email. Rude.

'You're a diva. Mom made three different kinds of pie. Now get your butt over here.'

I sighed, locked my apartment as I left and padded my way across the hall to their door. I would make them pay for this.

Honestly the biggest inspo for this came from me not being a particularly huge fan of the prompts for this one.

Prompt 3: (had to be 500 words or less? I think and it had to be written in third person. There were a couple prompts to choose from but I picked 'It takes a monster to destroy a monster'.)

She couldn't escape the skeletons in her closet and choose which ghost would haunt her. She was trapped, left to roam, lost and listless in the endless hallways. There were far too many rooms in this place. She was being followed, she was chasing something, she was being left behind and all she knew was that it would drive her mad. She was practically a ghost herself. Who, or what, was it that she'd been searching for? She couldn't remember. Something. There had been something. Someone. It had been a someone. She had followed someone; trailing behind him like a cat coming to steal a breath.

She had followed the ferryman down through the underworld keeping just out of sight and just when she thought she'd lost him, he turned to face her. He had seen her out of the corner of his eye when she shied a little too close.

He looked at her. Just a chit of a thing. She had startled a ferryman. 

She looked at him. The mindless pull of the passageways pooled around her ankles. Willing her forward and holding her back.

“I want to come with you.”

“You can't.”

She paused. She had followed the stillness of his silence. To hear him speak aloud broke some rule to her somehow.

“What do I have to do to stay?” She remembered why she was there. The ghost of a smoking gun stained her clothes. The Ferryman had to see it, she thought.

“Did I take someone from you?”

He didn't know.

“You've taken someone from everyone.”

“They're not coming back.”

“I wasn't expecting them to.”

“Then what do you want? A message? I don't have one.”

“I wanted to see someone come through, and then I wanted to see if I could stay. I won't leave, I'm quite finished with what I left behind.”

“I rarely keep track of who comes through. Who is it that you're waiting for?”

“I'm waiting for a monster. He's sent so many your way I thought you might recognize him.”

The pull was weighing on them while they stood there, both waiting to see if she would say anything more. She knew he couldn't stay much longer, but for a moment someone understood what monstrous act had brought her there and that’s all that mattered. 

To the ferryman, words were always a curious thing. He heard so few of them since most of them were not meant for him; he was just the ferryman. However this time, this conversation was his own and in this case, the girl who followed after monsters had asked him again if she could stay. She'd done a monstrous thing she'd said and she didn't regret it, but there could be no going back. But now time was up and she had followed him far enough. It wasn’t her time yet; he had already told her that she couldn't stay. She had killed her monster and she would have to live with the rest.  

Song inspo that makes sense was Troubleman-Electric Guest/ Churchyard-Aurora/ Look at What You Made Me Do-Taylor Swift/ Hadestown soundtrack