Five Sentence Fiction and The 100 Word Song-The Pursuer

Sleep came to Audrey in trivial amounts, and when she least expected it to. Sitting in a coffee shop by the open door, waiting for the waitress to bring the only drug she could afford. She supported her blonde head in her left arm, the sounds around her muffled. How much she wished for a peaceful night’s sleep, without that prickle of anxiety that continued to nag at her. There were not enough locks in the world to hide her away from her mistakes.

Continuing to sleep, her regular order was delivered to the table, but Audrey hadn’t spoken to anyone. Involuntarily her arm bumped into the warm cup, but she didn’t startle awake as she usually did. It seemed her body had given up. Whatever was pursuing her had won. Audrey was done, finished, spent. There was no awesome need to prove anything to anyone, anymore. Her shoulders relaxed. She softly snored into the crook of her arm.

The Pursuer stood before the sleeping beauty. Placing the silenced pistol to Audrey’s temple, she fired. In a flash of gun powder, Audrey discovered oblivion.

 

Friday Fictioneers-Echos Down Corridors

Special thanks to Rochelle for the lovely prompt. I’ve never done this before, so be gentle. By the way, I love the fact that Rochelle loves purple. Purple is my favorite. 100 words exactly. Woohoo!!!

They were perfect in the glimmer of the summer sun. It changed when the leaves began to fall. He left her here. Alone. She wonders whatever possessed her to move here. To give up her other life. For him. In this lake house his presence is everywhere, though he is nowhere to be seen. Only his ghost lingers. His words, lies, and empty promises. In the cobwebs and dust that she feels no desire to remove.  In empty corridors, she can hear the echo of his voice. In an empty bed they used to share, she clings to his pillow.

The “Look” Challenge

 

Thank you to my dear follower The Reclining Gentleman for including me in this challenge. I am writing a book. Don’t have much done yet. But I bang away at it a little each day. I didn’t know if I would find the word “look” in the manuscript, but I did quite a few times. I’ve included two paragraphs. They’re rough. I’m sure I’ll re-write them a few more times.

THE CHALLENGE

The “Look” Challenge is for bloggers who are also writers. It is a way to let others sneak a peek at your work. Here’s how it works. You search your manuscript for the word “look” and copy the surrounding paragraphs into a post to let other bloggers read. Then you tag five blogger/writers to invite them to the challenge.

So here are two paragraphs that I will share.

Ian struggles to speak. He pleads, “Maggie please, stay.”

But Maggie is stubborn and she has made up her mind. He’s finally at a loss for words. He can’t make her stay. He looks into her green eyes and sees everything. All the pain he’s caused and all the sadness. Everything she has had to endure to love him. Ian can see all the way into her soul and knows that he has to let her go. He releases her hand. She turns and walks away. Maggie tries with all of her might not to turn around and go running back into his arms. To the familiarity of him. She heads down the concourse of the airport. Eager to get on the plane that will take her home. Or what used to be home. She always thought he would be her home.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Maggie chuckles to herself and heads out of the terminal to find a restroom. She checks her watch and realizes that she has plenty of time to make her meeting. She freshens up, and repairs her makeup. She only wears eyeliner, mascara and lips stain. The darkest red stain of course. She wants to look half way decent to meet the woman that got to marry Ian. To live with him. To love him. She looks in the mirror and thinks to herself, she doesn’t look too bad for a 42 year old woman. She can still turn a few heads with her red hair, green eyes and statuesque body. Her silly freckles across her nose. She checks her watch again. Decides it’s time to find a cab and head to her hotel.

OK, tagging 5 other bloggers. I’d be fascinated to have a sneaky look over the shoulders of these while they write:

As Long as I’m Singing

Moonbeam McQueen

Brainsnorts

Boomie Bol

Creative Noodling

Sunrise, Coffee, and Sanctuary

With each sunrise we start anew

Vanessa sits on her porch in the stillness of the morning. She sees the sun coming up through the maple tree in the back yard. Her coffee is next to her. Filled to the brim with dark roast, real creamer, and a drizzle of caramel sauce. She’s reading. One of her go to books of the summer. It’s set in the South of course. She thinks she was a debutante in a former life. She’s always been drawn to those types of books. Romance, in the South. Life, in the South. Even with the bigotry, she still feels drawn there.

She sets her book down on the table next to her. And watches the sun ascend and become brighter. Its color changing from dark orange to a warm yellow, like the color of an egg yolk. It’s like she hears it. It sizzles, cracks and pops. Like a campfire that is only embers, and the wood splits with the intense heat of it.

Vanessa looks to the right and sees the swimming hole n the side yard. It’s one of the reasons that she and Liam picked this place to live. To love. The sun’s rays cause a reflection on the water in the morning light. She thinks of him, and smiles. She left him sleeping, so she could read, and watch the sunrise. It’s been a busy few days for them. They’re finally together, in the same place. No more running back and forth from place to place.

They have their sanctuary, in the middle of nowhere. It’s just them. Finally. No need for commitment. Or wedding rings. There’s just bliss. They get to, just be. The sun is higher in the sky. The flies and bees begin to buzz around her. Vanessa doesn’t care though. She picks up her coffee mug and takes a huge drink. It’s cold, but the caramel still tastes fantastic!

She rises from her chair and descends the three concrete steps of the wraparound porch. She makes a right and heads to the swimming hole. She starts taking off her clothes as she walks to the waters edge. Her tank shirt is the first to go. She just leaves it in the grass. Next go her sleep pants. Again, in the grass. When she gets to the waters edge, she takes off her boys shorts and flings them off her fingers. She jumps head first in the water.

As Vanessa resurfaces, shakes her head and opens her eyes. She sees Liam standing on the shore. He’s the love of her life. He’s naked of course. He’s always naked. And he’s smiling. Actually he’s laughing. He always laughs when he’s with his silly girl. He jumps in the water and swims up to her. They wrap their arms around each other, kiss passionately and smile. She blushes. For some reason he still makes her blush.

She says to him, My God you are perfect. This is perfect. He says, Honey I’m far from perfect. I’ll settle for decent. She says, Okay we are not perfect, we are decent. But this life, this life will be perfect. He says to her, I think we finally got it right.

They hold each other in the water. Their bodies entwined and shivering in the morning light. They look around at their sanctuary and then descend below the surface to share a kiss.