Wednesday, April 30, 2014

100 Words a Day 602

Jefferson and Ophelia had not moved in several hours, except as required by the video game they were playing.

“This is awesome,” Jefferson thought. “Ophelia is awesome.”

He was shocked out of his brief thought by the sound of his character dying.

“Boo yah! In your face,” Ophelia shouted, jumping off the couch for emphasis.

She pushed her thick-rimmed glasses back into place and sat down, cracking her knuckles while she waited for Jefferson to pick a fighter from the character selection screen.

As darkness descended, a chill filled the air.

“I’m cold,” Ophelia stated.

“I’ll get you a blanket.”

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

100 Words a Day 601

“I entwined myself in the rope and lowered myself from the rafter. Lord Kodo was sleeping alone. That was not part of the plan, but I proceeded unfazed. After Lord Kodo had breathed his last, I returned to the ceiling and considered Lady Kodo’s likely location. After deciding she would mostly likely be in her sister’s apartment, as she was visiting from her own estate. I arrived at the guest suite via the rooftops. After disabling a guard, I made my way through each room until I located Lady Kodo. After ensuring the dripping poison had taken effect I egressed.

Monday, April 28, 2014

100 Words a Day 600

The car was in the driveway and the front door open. The whole house was silent, unmoving. Max approached, peering at the windows, trying to ascertain whether or not anyone was inside. Seeing nothing, he opened the door with the tip of his pistol, listening for any noise within the home. Welcomed into the home by silence, he stalked through the foyer and into the kitchen. He faced the door on the other side of the kitchen, but searched for anything unusual with his eyes. A knife was missing from the knife block. It was not in the dish drain.

100 Words a Day 599

The man had a round, bare head. It looked as though it was from a combination of balding and shaving. His face blended into his fat neck, both were bare of hair. His unremarkable lips wore a smile and were framed by light jowls, the sign of a man on the cusp of giving into sloth. A life indoors had left him with pale skin, but splotched with red from too much drinking and a generally indifferent attitude towards health. His eyes sat behind an unremarkable nose, their blue irises startling and were filled with not intelligence, but animal cunning.

100 Words a Day 598

It was raining. Johnny and Steve sat by the window, head in hands, and looked at the wet, grey world, expressions of boredom plastered to their faces. They had already exhausted their allotted video game time for the day, and then some, and their mother was deaf to their pleas for more time. The boys had read until they could not stare at the page anymore and determined that it was Colonel Mustard who in fact was the murderer. Now they looked out the window, hoping against hope that the rain would stop and they could play in the yard.

100 Words a Day 597

It was on an abyssal night and under a gibbous moon that I stumbled upon the cyclopean ruins in the wild land time has forgotten and first saw upon their twisted steles the eldritch writing that no the mind of man could not comprehend, composed of sounds that no human tongue could pronounce. The strange letters made my mind ache, sending me stumbling deeper into the alien ruins until I was hopelessly lost. I wandered the overgrown site until the setting of the moon, when the place was plunged into ebon blackness and the strange animal sounds began to echo.

100 Words a Day 596

Gertrude, not her given name, found a seat on the bus and pulled out the zine she had picked up from Vinyl Only Records. The zine was printed on cheap paper with an old printer, giving it what they liked to call a vintage look. That is to say, it was hard to read sometimes.

There were reviews of several recent releases, they were too mainstream for Gertrude though, and she skipped over them. Below that were reviews of shows in people’s garages. One review caught her eye and she resolved to attend their next garage show, Makeshift Bidet.

Friday, April 25, 2014

100 Words a Day 595

Johnny stared out the window, waiting for the mailman. It had been four weeks since he sent in his twenty box tops and fifteen dollars. His propeller beanie should be here today, the cereal box said four to six weeks.

He checked the clock again. Thirty seconds had passed. He wondered if the mailman would even come today. He had to though, to deliver the beanie.

“Sweetie, I told you it might not come right away.” His mom said, passing through the room and seeing him. But her words were cold comfort to a boy that just wanted his hat.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

100 Words a Day 594

He sat at the keyboard, sweating. The hands on the wizened clock on the desk next to his laptop marked time’s inexorable progress towards the deadline. Each tick was like the turn on a lever controlling the tension on a rack. Roger felt the tension building as the gears cranked on. He had visions of himself being torn asunder when the clock ticked over.

The document in front of him was blank. He needed something, an idea, anything, to submit tomorrow. It did not have to be great, just good enough, but he could not think of a single thing.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

100 Words a Day 593

The python squeezed its coils and threw another loop around my body. The scales made a hiss as they slid past each other. Remembering something I read somewhere, I attempted to unwind the snake by pushing against head. As I felt the breath being squeezed from my body I abandoned any pretense at reason and began to struggle as wildly as I was able. Suddenly I awoke in bed, but I still felt that python constriction. After a moment, I noticed a familiar smell and realized what was wrapped around me so tightly, my girlfriend, cuddling me in her sleep.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

100 Words a Day 592

Sara stepped off the elevator on the fiftieth floor. Even the door to the firm was nicer than any other door she had ever seen. When she pushed, it swung open on well-balanced hinges. The receptionist was polite and helpful, directing her to her new desk, which faced a window overlooking downtown.

The skyscrapers of the city had been constructed during a time when buildings were about aesthetics rather than symbols of domination or wealth. They held her gaze for some time, though it was eventually pulled away by the shimmering azure water of the lake that hid behind then.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

100 Words a Day 591

“Everybody wants the events in the life to have meaning, fit neatly into some story. That’s why you are here; you want to figure out what drove me to do what I did.”

“I’m just here so you can tell your side of the story.”

“My side of the story? Will that change things?”

“I suppose not. But just like everyone wants to have life be a story, don’t we all want to be the one to tell it?”

“Not me.”

“Why not?”

“I’d rather be silent and leave you tormented by the why than indulge in some egotistical narrative.”

Friday, April 18, 2014

100 Words a Day 590

She realized she was awake when she could feel the rough wood of the table beneath her. She tested her legs and then her right arm, moving each in turn with no pain and a full range of motion. When she moved her left arm it felt clumsy and heavy. She turned and saw why. Her arm was no longer flesh, but a construct of metal and wood.

“There was too much damage to repair,” a voice behind her said. She tried to look back, but was unable to see the speaker.

“It’s okay. It’s better than it was before.”

100 Words a Day 589

It was the first warm day since the previous autumn and the people were out in droves. The buses were packed with people wearing the shortest shorts they owned and tops that cried spring with all the desperation they could muster. Lily found herself stuffed between two middle aged men and regretting her decision. Every time the bus hit a pothole, the jolt cast her into one of them. She cringed at the feeling of their fatty, wizened flesh rubbing, however incidentally, against her own. Eventually, the bus deposited her at the beach where the it was colder than expected.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

100 Words a Day 588

Cecil watched the monster warily. His former friend’s arms had been turned into snakes. They hovered in the air, looking for an opening. Cecil advanced with his sword held before him. Before he could strike, the snakes were on him. He did his best to dodge their fanged mouths, but when he broke away he was bleeding in several places.

His former friend flashed him a monstrous grin while the snakes waited for him to attack again. Cecil steeled himself and advanced anew. This time, he accepted the bites of the snakes and struck the head from the former man.

100 Words a Day 587

Mclean looked out the window of the Celestial Keep. He could see Storm Island, home of the elementalist, floating in its perpetual thunderstorm. The black clouds roiled, sending purple lightning to slam into the ground below. Mclean had read that the storm had left the world below crisscrossed with lines of craters, though he had never left the floating islands and could not speak to the veracity of such things.

The door opened; it was one of the acolytes, wearing a white robe.

“Teacher, they are ready in the hall.”

Mclean nodded and followed the young man down the stairs.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

100 Words a Day 586

Hekus stood at the edge of Charnoptus and stared down at the blasted realm below. He contemplated one of the vast oceans created when the floating continents had been torn from the surface of the world. His people were considered to be among the most bizarre living in the skies, but the creatures below, mutated beasts and warped parodies of men, were far more outré. A noise made Hekus turn; a corpse construct stood behind him.

“It is time,” the thing projected into his mind.

Nodding, Hekus started towards the great citadel where a ship awaited to take him below.

Monday, April 14, 2014

100 Words a Day 586

The students stood at the front of the classroom, expressions ranging from bored to nervous visible on their faces.

“Does anyone have any questions for our study abroad alum?” the advisor asked.

A girl in a striped shirt raised her hand. “What was the hardest thing about communicating that you encountered that you weren’t expecting?”

The tallest student responded. “There’s a lot of essential vocab that you are never taught. For example, how do you talk about how you want your hair styled? You can give general indications with the vocab you learn in school, but it won’t be perfect.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

100 Words a Day 585

Grok inhaled deeply and placed his hands on the tunnel wall. He exhaled slowly and felt the veins of ore running through the rock; there was a rich seam. He opened his eyes and marked the spot so the miners would know to make the next cut there. After returning his chalk to his pouch he wiped his hand on his robe, leaving an infrared dust smudge on the smooth fabric. The small goblin moved down the tunnel, searching for the next vein. A small ooze trailed after him. It appeared bright purple to his darkvision. Its name was Glop.

100 Words a Day 584

Their whole lives they had been preparing for the tests they had just passed. The boys were excited as they entered the training hall. The expansive room was larger than any building in the small villages they hailed from. Along one wall was a rack holding a myriad of strange implements of death. They ranged from small daggers to long polls with enormous spiked heads. The children were shuffled into the room by two attendants dressed in blue. Once they were all inside, the doors shut with a boom that reverberated throughout the unyielding, grey stone of their new home.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

100 Words a Day 583

The doorbell rang. He jumped up. It was a delivery. He cradled the package as he made his way back to his room, smiling. Inside, he shut the door and eased the box onto the bed. Grabbing a pair of scissors, he sliced the box open with surgical precision. Reverently he lifted the flaps and removed the contents. It was protected by Styrofoam, which squeaked as it was removed. Finally free of the packaging, his computer was resplendent. He held his breath as he opened the screen before hitting the power button. A blue light came on and he beamed.