Welcome back! This week is the last contest of year one!!! It's amazing how fast this year has gone. Thanks so much for making this year great, and giving us some wonderful stories to read. Next week starts year two, so this week is kind of like New Year's Eve for the contest - Let's go out with a BANG!!!
SPECIAL FESTIVE CHALLENGE: Streamers, noise makers, or other party items!!! :)
If you need to read the full version of the rules, go here. Otherwise, here's the short version:
Rules:
1. Up to 500 words
2. Keep it clean (nothing rated R or above)
3. Start with the given first sentence.
4. Optional Special Challenge
5. Include: Twitter/email, word count, Special Challenge accepted
6. The challenge is open for 24 hours on Tuesday EST
Oh, and feel free to change pronouns, punctuation, tense, and anything in brackets to fit the story/pov/tone. I'm not going to be TOO picky... Our judge however...
Our Judge today is Emily Karn. Check out her blog here. Read her winning tale from last week here! Here's what she has to say about herself: I am a fifty-year-old woman living in the beautiful Finger Lakes Region of New York State, USA. I enjoy reading, writing, cooking, and assorted crafts. I am the person of one cat.
Your first sentence for FINISH THAT THOUGHT #52 is:
The massive 2:00 am explosion jolted the town awake.
Your SPECIAL CHALLENGE from the judge is:
Rampaging dinosaurs
AAAAAAAND WE'RE OFF!!!
Can't wait to read what you come up with!
ReplyDeleteThe wish
ReplyDeleteIt was pitch black outside when Gin turned the blinds up. She had always loved the darkness of night before the light of day. Everything got so magical when it was dark. Leaning her head against the window, made her aware of that the glass in the window was shaking, like it would be an earthquake. A low rumble accompanied the trembling. Seconds later it was brighter then the day. What the…?! Gin closed her eyes and got startled when the blinds dropped down again. She hadn´t notice she thrown herself on the floor. Her dad would have been proud over the quick reaction, too bad he couldn´t see it. The noise outside were growing. What on earth could make that sound? She didn´t recognize the sound. None of the recordings had anything like this. The trembling got more noticeable by the second.
Gin went up on the roof. It would give her a better chance to find out what happened. Scouting out across the city's rooftops, didn´t reveal anything out of the ordinary at first. The second glance gave away movement on her left. It hurt her eyes looking at the fire but she saw shadows coming closer. What was it? Gin had never seen anything like it before. Was it…? No it couldn´t be… They were a myth, weren’t they? The pictures didn´t do them justice. The light from the fire made the colors glitter and made them look even more out of this world. Which, obviously they were. Out of this world, that is. Standing at the edge of the roof Gin calculated the distance to the ground. She could do it. Without a second thought she took the leap out in the air. The landing got her teeth to rattle a little. After a quick check over her shoulder told her no one had seen her land. How far had they travelled by now? She slowly turned her head 360 degrees. There! They were on the next street.
When Gin turned the corner to the next street she saw them up-close. They were formidable! The colors, their sizes. The pictures got nothing of it right. She had to touch one of them! They were all so big. The risk of her being trampled to death was enormous. She would have to find a smaller specimen. Then she saw it, a little baby. Well little was probably a matter of definition really. Slowly she got closer to it; it looked like it was hurt. The feeling of touching the skin was amazing, kind of electrifying. Dinosaurs were just stories you told the children.
Headlines in the news bulletins were: “The massive 2:00 am explosion jolted the town awake. Rampaging dinosaurs!! How is it possible?!” “A young offspring of Vlad the Empaler is missing, have you seen her?”
Special Challenge accepted, word count 472. @frjdendalsonja
The massive 2:00 am explosion jolted the town awake. I heard the cacophony in the street as neighbors threw open windows and stumbled out onto porches. Mister Thompson’s voice rose above the din, demanding to know what was going on, as if being the precinct captain gave him some kind of special authority. Me, I rolled over to go back to sleep. They’d be at my door soon enough, and us time-traveling dinosaur hunters need our rest.
ReplyDeleteI should’ve known that Mister Thompson wouldn’t be so decent as to let me sleep in until a decent hour. I mean, sure, the transformer which supplied the power to the safety fence had blown up, but the Apatosauruses were kind of slow, and it should be hours before they started causing problems. I let him pound away for long enough to let him know I wasn’t at his beck and call, and then slowly opened the door, taking a sip of coffee as he began spluttering.
“Miss Collins! What is the meaning of…” I didn’t let him finish.
“It’s Doctor Collins, as you very well know, and as you also know, PETD is busy trying to free the dinosaurs again.” I took another sip of coffee and sat down on my foyer bench to put on my boots. I did not invite him in.
“Well, young lady, what are you going to do about it? We hired you – at great expense to the town, I must say – to stop this kind of thing!”
“No, Mister Thompson, you hired me to catch the dinosaurs once they escaped, as the temporal warning system told you would happen. As they haven’t escaped yet, I’m actually not, so to speak, on the clock. But if you’ll be kind enough to get out of my way, I’ll go take a look and see what I can do.”
We walked to the hyperloop station, and I called my contact to find out how bad the damage was. He didn’t answer, as planned, although I didn’t let Mister Thompson, and I carried on my end of the conversation as if he’d given me the run-down and the problems were pretty small. If he’d done his job correctly, however, there would be nothing small about what we were about to see.
The hyperloop glided soundlessly to a stop, and we exited into the tube station for the last time. The tube was in vacuum, and we hadn’t heard anything until we’d stepped out, so the sounds that hit us were staggering. As was the Apatosaur stomping toward us. Mister Thompson turned to me. “Well, Miss, there he is! Catch him!”
I smiled. “I told you, it’s Doctor. And why would I stop him when we worked so hard to let him go?” My Timetransporter beeped. “I really should have given you my full title. Doctor Collins, People for the Ethical Treatment of Dinosaurs. You wanted the zoo, you pulled them out of their time? They’re yours now.” And I vanished.
@drmagoo
500 words
Special Challenge accepted
The massive 2:00 AM explosion jolted the town awake. Lights came on in every house. People staggered outside wearing robes, to see if they could figure out what had happened. Neighbors met outside, wondering what had happened, as they watched the inferno at the Eastern edge of town.
ReplyDeleteEverything went as I’d planned.
I walked along the streets, a gun in each hand, with eight spare clips ready for use. Each time I saw a white man standing, watching, I shot him. And I know, not one of them went to heaven when they died.
I shot the Sheriff and his deputy, then the mayor, the judge, the doctor, the lawyer, the pastor, and the deacons of the church. I shot them all.
Mrs. Simmons took her daughter and left town when the pastor’s son got little Sally drunk, then got her naked and had fun with her, showing of the pictures of what he did. And the white men made sure Tommy’s future wasn’t wrecked by what he’d done.
Mrs. Waters hadn’t slept at night, since Deputy Bob gave Beverly that glass of tea with Ecstasy in it. Bob and Sheriff Don decided she liked two men at once. Now Beverly spends nights naked, in front of her Webcam, putting on a show, and you can watch her all you want for $9 a month. She’s slit her wrists twice now, and someday, everyone knows Mrs. Waters won’t find her soon enough.
I could have written stories about those evil men. About the girls they ruined, and the families they destroyed, but that wouldn’t have accomplished anything. They’d still be unpunished for the things they’d done, and they’d ruin another mother’s daughter, just to have some fun.
But the day we put Lenora in the ground, I’d promised her those men would never hurt another girl again.
Lenora had loved flowers, cats and dogs, and horses too. But those men never got over how she once had been a boy named Leonard, so they tortured her no end. Bobby shot her dog one day, for no reason he could explain. And they let their sons push her around, knock her down, and beat her. And the doctor wouldn’t have, “one God Damned thing to do with that thing,” named Lenora.
I told her we’d leave town soon. At the end of the school year. Two days later she climbed a tree, tied a rope around her neck, and a sturdy limb, and escaped the torture they made her live in.
After I shot everyone I could find that night, I stood before Lenora’s tombstone, at her grave site. “I got them all, sweetheart. They won’t hurt you or anyone again.” I let the fingers of my hand trace the outline of my daughter’s face on the cold, hard granite stone. “And soon, now, you won’t be alone.
I put my last clip in my last gun and knew I’d never see the dawn.
492 Words
@LurchMunster
Ninja Submission:
ReplyDeleteThe massive 2:00 am explosion jolts the town awake. There’s no doubt that it’s the 2:00 AM factory that just went up in a ball of flame. We in the crowd are ripped out of our daydreams. Thank goodness. I don’t think I could stand another minute of people arguing over loading docks at our main employer. People race for the windows to watch the spectacle. Rachel grabs my hand and we race out of the meeting hall and take the stairs to the roof. One of the perks of working for Public Works is that you can open the door to the roof. The down side is you have to come to township zoning meetings that are complete snoozefests — until something blows up.
The 2:00 AM factory is glowing like a four year old aiming a magnifying glass at a peep. Or so I’ve been told.
“This will destroy our city. That’s the only factory,” Rachel says. “It’s times like these that I’m glad I rent instead of getting sucked into buying.”
“Thanks for reminding me about why I can’t ever leave this place,” I say.
“Without 2:00 AM there’s nothing left in this town. Just retirement homes and the VA.”
“Considering the gummers keep all the jobs at 2:00 AM for themselves what does it matter?”
Rachel turns like I slapped her tush. “You men never understand. 2:00 AM makes the finest utility totes. I have seven. They are an institution. The free world will miss them.”
“What does the non-free world tote their stuff in?” We stand close together, but not touching. Rachel has solidly kept me in the “You’re like a brother zone” since we started hanging out in high school.
“What is that coming from the VA?” she asks.
There’s a black snake reaching out and heading towards downtown. By downtown I mean the seven buildings where Main meets River Road, but it counts as our downtown. As the snake nears I can see its mobility scooters. More than I have ever seen at one time.
We take the stairs out of the building and head for Downtown. By the time we reach it the scooters have arrived carrying crusty vets and their spouses.
“The company burned down the factory because of you,” one former Marine screams while lighting the Handyman on fire.
A navy vet (identified by the boat on his baseball cap) bellows to the sky, “This is ruining my retirement” as he rams his scooter into the door of Jillian’s Sports Center.
We watch as downtown is broken, and then burned down. The four scooters of the apocalypse chase us.
“Those things are faster than they look,” I shout as we cut through backyards.
“And that is why I rent?”
“Eh?”
“So I can just leave when the dinosaurs go on a rampage.”
478 Words
@supersekretninja