These are all writing prompts based on this imgur gallery.
Glasses
I’m panicking. Where are they? Where did I put them? I’m rummaging through my hand bag and they’re not there! Did I leave them in the gym? I have to head back inside and see. I can’t drive home without them. Heck, I can’t do anything without them!
So I rush back inside, tripping and nearly smashing my face on the pavement as I do so. The guy at the desk though is giving me a weird look. I don’t… why is he looking at me like that?
“Uh, sorry, I, uh, think I lost my glasses!” I splutter, still in a state of mild panic. “Can I check and see if I left them down in the dressing rooms or in the showers or something, please?”
The man, late twenties, just a little older than me, but definitely attractive, smiles at me. That’s… odd. He’s like, never smiled at me before. Ever. And I’ve been coming to this gym for like six months now. He always just mutters at me, hands me a key for the lockers and sends me on my way.
“Of course. Do you want any help? I’ll check lost and found.”
I smile weakly. “Thank you!”
I don’t have time to ponder what was up with that guy. The stairs downstairs to the changing rooms are a spiral staircase and I’m worried I’m going to fall. I’m glad that I reach the bottom without braining myself, but there’s nothing here. Retracing my steps, from the stairs to the dressing rooms and lockers, all the way to the shower, I find nothing. Well, nothing but the smiles and stares from other women here.
Suddenly, a voice calls from back upstairs.
“Hey, girl, I found your glasses!” It’s the guy from the desk but his voice isn’t as enthusiastic.
I carefully climb the stairs, glad that they hadn’t been crushed or stolen or broken or anything. He’s standing there, holding my glasses.
“You know, you’re way prettier without your glasses…” he mutters as he hands them back to me. “Like, a completely different person.”
I hesitate, and decide not to put my glasses on quite yet. He starts smiling at me again.
“Thank you…”
“No worries…” We both fall silent.
“So, uh, yeah. My name’s Nick. Here’s my telephone number, feel free to call me, if you wanna hang out some time!” he smiled as he handed me a small piece of paper.
Going Home
“I want to go home.”
“And I want to go to the moon. It just ain’t happening, sweetheart. Time to accept that.”
Alice sighs and starts bouncing up and down on my knee, playing with her little space ships. She’s not my kid. That’s why everyone here has been giving me funny looks. A young black man with a five year old little girl. Not my fault though. I couldn’t leave her. She’d lost her parents and was sobbing in a dark alley. I had to bring her with me.
“Would you like to go to the moon?” I ask Alice.
“Yeah! That’s awesome. Is the moon made of cheese?”
“No, it’s not. It’s made of dust and moon rock. They say that there’s still an American flag up there, but the sun has made it white.”
Alice shrugs. “I want to put my own flag up there. And some flowers. Could we plant flowers on the moon?”
“I don’t think so…”
Alice’s smile drops. “Why?”
“Because the environment isn’t good there for flowers. Or humans. You need a special suit.”
“Like the CEDA people?”
“Kinda…”
Alice calms down. The carriage we’re in comes to a halt. It had been a super long journey, but we’d finally made it. Ten days of surviving in the wilderness, avoiding the infection, avoiding the infected, barely making it. But we are finally here. Not sure where here is, but we’d been told this was a safe haven.
Someone in a large orange quarantine suit walks by, which Alice points at, grinning. I try ask him where we are, but he ignores me to talk to another CEDA agent. I take Alice off my lap and leave her in the seat, straining to hear what they are saying.
“… What if they don’t come out clean? What do we do with them?”
“Standard procedure. Destroy all remains.”
I glance back at Alice, who is making her little space ships crash into each other, then at my wrist. The bite marks have faded away, but not completely. Alice’s wounds though are much… fresher.
All this way, all for nothing.
Countdown
“Ten.”
Ahead of me are two buttons. One of them will stop the detonation of a dirty bomb in the middle of Vestra, the small village where my whole family live, where I grew up, where my partner and kid are both playing happily at home. The other will detonate a dirty bomb in Thre-Etas, the capital city. One will kill everything I’ve ever known. The other will kill millions upon millions. Pressing one will cause the other to detonate.
“Nine.”
I told Arksi that I’d be home tonight. I’ve been away on business for a week now. Θ-Class work. I can’t help it sometimes. I promised him that, since our kid Retvik is going to join the Young Stratos in two months, I’d spend more time at home. Help teach him what he needs to know. No one taught me anything before I ended up in the Young Stratos.
“Eight. Make up your mind, Rethan!”
The monster doing this to me is a Cassid. Feral, insipid creatures, they are. Thieves of knowledge. Don’t understand why they want to ruin existence for every other race. Us Rethans gave them what they wanted. Yet some of them, like this fucker, want to… just kill. And what for? If they were peaceful towards us, we’d share our knowledge.
“Seven.”
I’m clearly stalling. Hesitating. Arksi is going to die. Retvik will die. My family will die. Well, those who are still alive. I’m thankful that my mother, my brother, are both already dead.
There’s no point delaying this. My entire life will be destroyed. I will never forgive myself. I can’t… I can’t…
“Six. Come on!”
I reach for my gun and shoot the Cassid in the face. I wish he’d shut up. Now he has. I’m not supposed to be a killer. Doesn’t matter. So many are going to die. I mutter my goodbyes and press the button that will destroy everything I ever cared about.
The timer drops down to three.
I turn the gun around, holding it to my chest.
“TWO.”
If Arksi is going to die, so should I.
“ONE.”
I pull the trigger. It’s the least I can do.
“ZERO.”
Suicide Note
So yeah, there’s this note. I didn’t see it at first. Thought it was jam. Turns out it’s blood. And my handwriting. Like, a suicide note.
Clearly this is some kind of practical joke. A very sick one.
That’s real blood though. Reminds me of when I accidentally stepped on broken glass. That bled so badly. Dad had to take me to the hospital. Dave was just a little boy and mum was looking after him. We weren’t allowed to play on the grass for weeks until dad paid someone to help clear it up.
Back to the note.
It’s dated from three days ago. What was I doing then?
I try and think back. I don’t remember though. There was a party. Pretty lame. I didn’t want to go. Someone made me. Said I didn’t go out enough. I pouted.
There was drinking. Lots of drinking.
We did drugs too.
Just the normal stuff I think. Pot. Magic shrooms. LSD. Speed. Stuff like that. I’d done it all before.
Wait.
I remember. Someone had this special drug. Said they’d wanted to try it out for ages, that it was a fan with all the super wealthy people. Some called it the Soma Switcher, or SS. Someone else suggested that it actually worked and switched people’s bodies. Dunno why the rich people would want that. Pretty sure we all thought it was BS. But yeah we were all plastered so we did it anyway. I took mine with this old high school buddy of mine. People always said we looked like dead ringers or something, apart from the big scar across his eye.
Oh yeah. That’s why the front door is open. I just came in. Still got shopping in my hand. Couldn’t find my key so I used the spare one. Kitchen counter is here. I peer over it.
There’s my body, lying on the ground.
In a panic, I rush to the bathroom. The first thing I see is the mirror. It’s fucking filthy. Like it’s not been dusted for three days, or someone’s thrown up on it or something. I wipe the dirt o-
Shit.
That stuff actually worked…
Escape or Death
Behind her were ten guards, all with guns. Ahead of her was a small rope, sliding down the cliff. They’d held her captive for a week and there was no way she’d let them get her again. Her chances of surviving in the wilderness were slim, but she wouldn’t let that stop her. She had to do this. It was escape or death and she wasn’t ready to die yet. The rope going down was her only option.
The angry guards were getting closer. She could hear their foreign voices, growling and roaring and swearing.
She had to go now.
The rope was thin. Tattered. She panicked at first, scared that she’d fall. But she didn’t. The rope burned in her hands and between her legs as she clung on for dear life. Only as she scrambled out of view from the guards did her fears start to die down.
It would be a long climb down. It was best for her to just concentrate on holding on to the rope, and slowly descend.
Something fell by her. Pebbles. Stones. It came from above. Someone, one of the guards, had seen the rock. They were shouting. Again. In their vile language, beckoning the other guards to come and get her. They wanted her alive.
She was having none of it. There was no going slow now, she needed to move. As fast as possible. She could feel the blisters forming on her hands. But the rope was getting taut, they were trying to pull her up. Gravity was on her side as she slid down the rope, but friction was currently her worst enemy.
They were still shouting. But saying different things. The rope was no longer defying her and trying to carry her back up to them. She didn’t slow down.
Suddenly, the rope was no longer taut.
They’d cut it.
She didn’t bother to scream. She accepted her fate as she fell to her death.
Civilization
The island is too far out. Our clan is tired and weak, we can’t sail out there and hope there’s food. At least the river means the water is pretty fresh, that there’s life in it. There must be, other clans have settled down near here. At least, if things go wrong, we can trade with them. Work with them if we have to. I need to do my best to protect my kind. The other clans have made great cities. Perhaps we can do the same. Capture the large, passing trade. The river must be of use to them.
Of course, we’ll start fishing. The soil is nice and fertile too. I don’t know if the river floods, but we can avoid that by building far away. Maybe grow something that doesn’t mind too much water. Rice could work. Might be too wet for wheat. Trees might be a problem. There aren’t many. We’d have to find some other building resource, but the mud from the river might help. Mud brick homes. Strong. Good against an attack.
That does make me wonder, are the other clans friendly? I hope so. But even if they are not, we can take the river and sail away. Or walk away, if they burn our boats. There is nowhere to go on a group of islands.
I hope we’ll survive.
Pain
She pulled the knife from her chest and smiled. “Was that supposed to hurt?”
Tenuk stared the creature up and down. “Um…”
“You going to answer me, rather than stare at my beautiful bust that you just ruined?” The creature was grinning, with a mouth full of needles rather than teeth.
“Uh…”
“Oh come on!”
Tenuk finally snapped out of it. “Don’t ‘come on’ me, Death! You’re the one who tried to seduce me while I was sleeping! You’re not even wearing any clothes, and you know I carry a dagger on me at all times!”
Death healed up the wound where her heart should have been, then smiled again as she made her breasts bigger. Being the personification of the end of existence had some pretty decent benefits. Tenuk tutted as Death prettied herself up, then decided to get out of bed.
“What are you doing in my house anyway, Death? Trying to kill me? Take my soul away? What?”
Death giggled. “Oh no, nothing of the sort. I like going to people’s houses and making them jump. Most of the time they urinate themselves or, worse, defecate everywhere. Humans do that a lot.”
Tenuk rolled his eyes. “Death, you really need to get a new hobby.”
“But Teeeeeenuk!” Death pleaded. “I liiiiike scaring the shit out of people!”
“How about painting?”
Death ceased her whining. “Painting? What is that?”
Tenuk wandered across the room to where a desk and a drawer were. “Come here and I’ll show you…”
Sharks
God is a fucking gigantic bastard and I hate him. Also I hate my GPS for getting me into this shit. And the stupid forest department for saying that this track led back down to the village. It bloody well doesn’t.
There could be anything in these woods. Snakes. Wolves… Bears… Sharks… Yes, I said sharks. Fucking insane, I know. There was a thing years ago. Some called it a rapture or something. Rules of the universe changed. Cats can fly now. Pigs live underwater. Sharks have relocated to our forests.
So yeah, I’m currently lost in a shark-infested forest.
Already I am hearing things. Things rustling. That’s a good thing though. Sharks swim through the air. Sharks have the ability to move through a three dimensional space, as the guy at the info thingy said. I don’t. I only really have the ground to run on. If there’s something nearby, that means it might distract the shark.
I mean, it’s not like shark attacks are common but…
I pause. The rustling has stopped. I look behind me and see nothing. I turn back and see nothing. There’s nothing here but me. I’m just being silly. I should keep on moving.
Suddenly, I feel something drip on my head.
I don’t get a chance to look up…
Watering
Jessie is getting tired. Her pace has slowed down dramatically since the sun rose. It’s this damn heat, coming at us from all angles. The wind gives no relief either, it’s full of dust. That is less of a problem for Jesse, she’s above most of the choking sand. For me, it’s not so fun. But I put up with it.
Problem is, Jessie needs watering. Both her and the trees growing from her back. I’ve seen her drink a pond dry in a couple of minutes. Liters upon liters of water. She can hold on for a while, but it’s been a week and a half and her thirst must be sated. But we are in a desert. There is nothing here. If we push forth though, we will find a river, or so my map says.
I’m not sure how munch longer she will last. I have my own small supply of water. But what may last me a few days won’t last her more than a few minutes. Jessie is a humongous beast.
These lands used to be full of her kind. The great Forested Saurans. Not just her kind, but loads of other forested animals, also covered in trees and plants. They were our sustenance. But we killed too many of them. Now they are a rare sight to see. Nearly extinct. That’s why I was keeping Jessie with me. I’d grown up herding them but Jessie was the last of her family, and I was the last of mine.
We keep on walking, and I realise that the map is wrong. If there was a river here, there would have been life. Some plants. Some animals. Anything at all. There is nothing but dust.
Jessie is tired now. We’ve been walking for too long. She falls down to her knees, her extreme weight making the ground shake. She can’t go on any more. I stand by her side, petting her gently. Jessie lets out a low growl and falls to one side. The trees growing on her back have gone dry, every tree’s leaves having turned brown and fallen off. Even the evergreen pine trees have grown weak and died.
Desperate, I scan my map and my surroundings, looking for anything that could help save her. But alas, there is nothing but deserts and dust.
There is nothing I can do.
“It’s alright girl, it’s alright…” I mutter as the last of the Forested Saurans closes her eyes and passes away.
House
People have always said that my aunt’s house is amazing. Strangest thing they’ve ever seen. But they don’t know how strange it gets. You see, I get to go there every summer. I spend my summer holidays there, as my parents work full time and don’t have anyone to look after me. I sweep the path to my aunt’s house every single day. It needs it.
Few people get to see inside the house though. You know why? Because it’s messed up. They have no idea.
You step inside and everything actually seems pretty normal. While the house outside is covered in vines, the first room you enter is like a living room with a TV and some basic house plants and a small coffee table with a flowering plant on it. The plant always turns to face whoever comes in, as if it’s some sort of pet. That’s because it is. It’s my aunt’s pet. But it’s also part of the house.
Most people who come in don’t see much past this. Not that we get many people coming in here apart from me, but still. That’s because my aunt always gets them to sit down in front of the plant. Then the same thing always happens. The plant opens up to reveal a glowing center and suddenly the visitors are frozen. Well actually they’re paralyzed, that’s what my aunt says.
Once they can’t move, the house starts to move on its own. Tentacles come out from the floor and drag the victims down a hole in the ground. The bodies then get thrown into this pit in the basement where they are pulled apart and dissolved. My aunt then uses this liquid to water the outside of the house. She says it makes the best fertilizer ever.
Of course, I could go to the cops, but then my aunt would find out. And then she’d feed me to her house.
After the Cities Burned
The Thanatians had invaded. We did not want to be taken, or imprisoned. But nor were we just going to roll over and die. It was painful watching our cities burn, but it was the only way we could stop the reptilian menace from gaining anything in their insipid attacks.
As to where we would go, that was easy. There were mountains everywhere. The Thanatians hated the cold nearly as much as they hated the heat from our burning homes. We would climb the mountains and build new homes there.
Luckily for us, scaling mountains was never hard. We were small and light, but strong too. We could carry the world if we had the chance. The mountains were no real challenge.
No, the challenge came from what we found up there.
There were creatures already living among the mountains. Despite all the time we’d spent living under their shadow, these creatures had never been seen before. Winged monsters. Fire-breathers. These creatures were threatening, all wings and scales and claws and horns. We weren’t sure whether they where intelligent until one of them landed in front of our leaders and announced what it was.
Apparently they were called Thraki.
That was all we heard though. Our leaders decided to try and talk to them privately. Make plans, discuss the sharing of their land. Something must have happened though, as the Thraki began to attack us. Before we knew it, the Thraki were chasing us back down the mountain.
Right back into the invading Thanatians. It turns out they were working together.
Few of our kind survived that day…
Island Interior
The island was small, but covered in dense trees. Apparently, in the center of it was a house. In this house lived an old man. He’d always been there, I remember my mum talking about him. Occasionally, we’d see him at dusk,coming out from the interior of his little island. We never knew who or what he was, until we saw him drag a boat to the water’s edge.
It was a small row boat, complete with a single oar. It looked like it was carved from a single fallen tree.
Rather than running away and going home like we always did, we decided to watch. We’d never seen him do anything of interest. He only ever came out to fish, or to collect pebbles from the tiny island beach.
The old man didn’t do anything at first. He seemed to be checking the air, seeing which way the wind was blowing. Only then did he actually get into the boat and start rowing. At first though he didn’t seem to know which way to go, but when he spotted us, he started heading over.
My friends all panicked, but I decided to stay put. Or was I just too scared to move? I don’t remember.
Either way, it was only a couple of minutes before he was climbing up the beach towards me. I was a bit frightened, but he was an old man. He walked up to me. He had nothing on him, having left the oar in the boat. There were clothes, a ragged t-shirt and something that could have been described as trousers if they’d been worn ten years ago. He looks me up and down, and I looked at him, standing my ground.
“Who are you?” I finally stuttered.
“That’s funny, I was going to ask you the same thing!” the man asked. He wasn’t as old as I thought. His long, bedraggled hair just made him seem ancient.
“I’m Dean. I live in the village over there.” I felt less scared, seeing that he could speak the same language as me. “Who are you?”
The man sighed. “I wish I knew, kid. I wish I knew…”
Where he had disappeared
“He disappeared! I know he did! I know where!”
Jenny was screaming again. She’d been like this ever since her boyfriend Chris hadn’t come home from work. They’d only been together for a few months but everyone thought they were the cutest couple ever. Jenny’s friends had been quite jealous, since Chris was the nicest guy ever, but they were still her friends.
“Jenny? What’s wrong?” Amy rushed into the room. Since he’d vanished, Amy had decided to let Jenny stay with her. She’d have lost her mind if she’d stayed at Chris’s place. Charlie and Jessica, Amy’s other room mates, also hurried themselves in.
“I know where. I know where he went!” Jenny repeated frantically. “I saw him! In a dream!”
“Where did you see him?” Charlie immediately asked. She was Chris’s ex and was almost as upset as Jenny was.
“The house next door to his! The weird neighbours!”
Amy held Jenny by the hand. “Okay, calm down. You know that place has been abandoned for ages.”
“We have to go! We have to!” Jenny was having none of it.
Jessica and Charlie both quickly gave in to Jenny’s pleas. But Amy felt like something was off. Jenny started screaming louder this time.
“Come on, Amy. Do it for her.”
“Okay, we’ll go but I’m going to call the cops if we see anything… you know…”
Charlie sneered at Amy. “Oh for fuck’s sake. Jenny, come on, lead us to where he went.”
Jenny immediately got up and started heading for the door. Jessica and Charlie followed. Amy hesitated, grabbed a torch, then followed. This wasn’t the first time Jenny had done this.
Luckily, Chris’s house was just down the road. The police had sealed it off, but at this time of day there was no one there. Jenny ignored his home though and went straight to the front door of the house to its left. Damn place had been available to rent for years but no one had taken it up because there was no electricity there. It had been cut off years ago and no one had bothered to fix the many electrical faults that had gathered over the years. Luckily though it was early morning so everyone could see fine.
Jenny rushed in, ignoring the stinging nettles that littered the small path to the house. Everyone followed, but with a hint of caution.
She knew exactly where she was going. Through the house, into the back garden. That was where he was. Her pace quickened as she realised she was close. Her friends weren’t catching up. She didn’t need them.
Suddenly though, she wasn’t running any more. She was tumbling. She was falling. Further and further. The walls were closing in. Her arms were scraping against them. Rocks jutted out. Something hit against her head.
Then nothing.
Jenny’s body hit the ground with a thud, on top of Chris’s body.
Behind the Cloud
Everyone who had climbed up the mountain and gone behind the cloud had disappeared. Never to be seen again. Gone forever. The cloud was always there. Wise men from the city claimed that the cloud was full of gases that were toxic to us and would just kill us after a few minutes. The king’s mages suggested that perhaps the cloud was hiding a great treasure. The insane ones thought that maybe the cloud was alive and swallowed creatures whole. People had gone to get samples of the cloud, but even they had never returned.
Thymos though was determined to go up there and find out. He was being paid good money to know. Well, his family was.
The climb wasn’t hard for him. His large claws meant he had a good purchase on the rock. And despite the mountain’s height, the cloud kept everything warm, meaning that his Thanatian blood didn’t get too cold. He’d only taken minimal supplies though. Even though everyone else had died, Thymos had a plan, and it required being as light as possible.
The cloud was only a couple of meters further.
With his head only inches beneath the thick fog, Thymos held his breath to climb the last foot. There was nothing to see at first, apart from dead bodies. It seemed that all of them were trying to crawl back down but hadn’t made it in time. While still holding his breath, Thymos reached round for a jar, tentatively opened it with one hand and waved it around, catching some of the gas.
Suddenly, Thymos’s knees felt weak. There was something in the back of his mind edging him to go further. He tried to push those thoughts to one side, but they were quickly bashing in on his skull. No wonder all these people died. It was constant. Begging, pleading him to climb further. There was treasure higher up. Everything he wanted was further up that mountain. All he had to do was climb.
He wasn’t going to make it. But then Thymos remembered the bag on his back. The string coming off it.
In one final act of defiance, Thymos threw himself backwards, away from the mountain, and pulled the string. A parachute opened up, catching in the wind and dragging Thymos away from the mountain, into the clear blue air below.
He’d made it, despite all expectations. All he had to do now was get the jar to his king and claim his fortune.
The Crumbling Brick Door
It beckoned me to come in. The door at the house at the end of the road. It had been abandoned for years. Even when I was back in school, it had been a weird place, never really seemed occupied. But three years ago, a bunch of black trucks came along and the occupants moved out. Well, occupant. Just a little lady. Never even knew her name. Upped and left it. I heard that her husband had died. Or maybe her kid. The most common story though was that she moved out to live with her sister before she died. That was what everyone thought anyway. Either way, it was empty now.
The house had been falling apart ever since. Locked up and abandoned.
That was until I walked past it. I was on my daily jog and decided to take a different path. I’d never noticed the small red box sitting by the door. I found all those childhood feelings of mystery welling up inside me. I felt compelled to investigate. The door begged me to enter.
The box contained a key. I assumed it was to the door. So I was surprised when the key didn’t even fit in the lock. In fact, the door just sort of swung open on its own.
I admit I was disappointed at first when I realised the place had been completely gutted. Everything was gone, leaving nothing but bare walls. The plaster was coming away, revealing the brick underneath. A broken window suggested that anything that had remained had been stolen ages ago. Not that there was anything worth stealing.
Unfortunately, most of the house was featureless. There were barely any walls. Nor stairs. What remained of them had rotted away, as if they were made of wet wood. The only object of note was a fireplace at the back of the room. Since I had already wasted my time going in there, I decided to investigate.
The fireplace had a fence on it. A small, locked metal grate that would have stopped kids and pets from trying to get in. That was what the key was for. The whole front piece swung open, giving me access to the fireplace. It must have been wonderful when it was lit.
Curious, I decided I wanted to set a small fire. Just to get that feeling of wonder. The first thing I had to do though was check the chimney wasn’t blocked. Turned out, it was. Completely. No light or anything came through. Should have though, since the chimney went straight up. I grabbed the first long, pointy thing I could find, and, without thinking, I shoved it up the chimney. The blockage was really very close.
At first, nothing happened. So I climbed in to get a closer look and to poke a bit more.
Suddenly, everything came loose. Dust and soot poured from above. I gasped and choked, narrowly avoiding banging my head as I pulled away. The blockage, whatever it was fell to the ground by my feet, throwing up even more dust.
The blockage was a human skeleton.
A small human skeleton.