Rebecca Clare Smith's Journal

Competition closed

2012-05-29T16:40:25.892+01:00

Competition closed

Great ending.

2012-05-28T14:04:40.693+01:00

Great ending.

What a great, subtle way to write about a horrific...

2012-05-28T14:03:38.220+01:00

What a great, subtle way to write about a horrific topic.

Power Undesired Lianasa’s tone was both harsh and...

2012-05-28T02:03:31.740+01:00

Power Undesired

Lianasa’s tone was both harsh and concerned. “No witch can teach you what you desire, child. It is men’s magic and is magic most foul. Power it offers, aye, but at a price. It warps the mind, the body, the very soul of those who succumb to it. Do not do this!” The girl left her.

She sat in a submissive pose, hands bound by silken cord and her mouth taped. The mage had demanded such before he would begin.

“The wonders of the Wild Magic shall I show you, sweet one, shall I teach you. Let your eager eyes see through me and witness the origins of true Power.”

As the images and their force flooded into the young witch, she knew she had erred most grievously. Her bulging eyes burst in response and a wail of unending terror ripped the tape asunder. She screamed for a very long time before she, mercifully, died.

155 words @klingorengi

Just Like Daddy By Lisa McCourt Hollar Ann alway...

2012-05-27T21:40:40.361+01:00

Just Like Daddy
By Lisa McCourt Hollar

Ann always could see through me, her eager eyes watching my every move. She was my conscience. I could do no wrong when she was around. It was when she wasn’t that I tended to stray, doing the things I dreamed about.

Crossing the street in front of my car, the young girl caught my eye. I offered her a ride. She hesitated, but there’s something about my face that makes women trust me. They shouldn’t. The only one I could never hurt was Ann.

She knew when I came home what I had done. I could see the accusation in her eyes, “You’re just like daddy.” She didn’t say a word. Took the bag I offered her and went to work, cutting up the onions to go with the girl’s liver. In a way I think she enjoys it, just a little, though she’d never admit it, even if daddy hadn’t taken her tongue.

Word Count: 155
@jezri1

Wow, that made it worse. No more updating from my ...

2012-05-27T20:51:00.628+01:00

Wow, that made it worse. No more updating from my phone.

Here is the correct story.

Don't Speak

Don’t speak. There’s nothing to say on this most bleary of days, where the sun fades and my heart betrays all. I already know the future, and you do to. Your eager eyes see through me, to the depths of my being. Beyond my soul, to the depravity within.

No, words are… unnecessary. Meaningless. I will leave everything behind for you. It’s already written in the stars. My worth will crumble, my fatherless children begging on the streets for scraps. A stronger man would resist, would save them. But alas, I’m no stronger man.

Let your soliloquy lay dormant for eternity. For your poisonous words garner rapturous glee in my heart, beguiling years of honed defenses. You of antiquity, bred to seduce the temporal and weak. You entice, culling eros from love, glimmer from solid foundations.
Don’t speak. My grief, my shame are sufficient communication. Drawn to your unparalleled beauty, they say “Yes. I’ll follow.”

@Leo_Godin 155 words

Don't Speak Don’t speak. There’s nothing to s...

2012-05-27T16:33:23.727+01:00

Don't Speak

Don’t speak. There’s nothing to say on this most bleary of days, where the sun fades and my heart betrays all. I already know the future, and you do to. Your eager eyes see through me, to the depths of my being. Beyond my soul, to the depravity within.

No, words are… unnecessary. Meaningless. I will leave everything behind for you. It’s already written in the stars. My worth will crumble, my fatherless children begging on the streets for scraps. A stronger man would resist, would save them. But alas, I’m no stronger man.

Let your soliloquy lay dormant for eternity. For your poisonous words garner rapturous glee in my heart, beguiling years of honed defenses. You of antiquity, bred to seduce the temporal and weak. You entice, culling eros from love, glimmer from solid foundations.
Don’t speak. My grief, my shame are sufficient communication. Draw to your unparalleled beauty, they say “Yes. I’ll follow.”

@Leo_Godin 155 words

She was 15. I found her in the master bedroom’s wa...

2012-05-27T01:41:21.347+01:00

She was 15. I found her in the master bedroom’s walk in closet. In her underclothes. Tied to a chair. Her mouth taped shut. Her eyes were haunted, wounded. I pulled out my phone. Pushed the button. “She’s here. Alive.” She looked terrified. “Don’t be afraid.” My knife severed her bonds. I pulled a shirt off a hanger. Handed it to her, then left. My job was done.

CNN had shown the pictures. A house in Georgetown. Police breaking through the door. Three dead men where I’d left them. They explored the house. Downstairs. Upstairs. The closet. Finding her. She’d been there three weeks. One more and they’d have killed her. Like the previous 9. They asked her what she’d seen. “A man. In black. His eyes. His eyes...”

As I’d left, she spoke. “Your eyes. Your eager eyes... See through me...”

150 Words.
@LurchMunster

“You talk too much.” He tore a piece of white mask...

2012-05-26T02:28:31.317+01:00

“You talk too much.” He tore a piece of white masking tape and put it over her mouth. Her hand were already tied to the chair and her ankles to the legs. She tossed her head, but it didn’t help, just got hair under the tape.

“Stop looking at me like that or I’ll blindfold you, too,” he warned. She blinked away tears of fear and rage. How had this happened? Why did he kidnap her? What was she to anyone? No one was looking for her. No one would be looking for her.

Perhaps that’s why he’d picked her. He knew she was safe to steal.

“Now you just close those eyes and we’ll get along fine, Fanny. Go on.” She whimpered and closed her eyes. “There. Can’t let your eager eyes see through me. You’ll know I’m not going to hurt you. And where’s the fun in that?”

@angelicadawson
150 words

Competition's closed

2012-05-22T10:24:18.940+01:00

Competition's closed

The clouds, mountains and valley were black, like ...

2012-05-20T18:12:19.830+01:00

The clouds, mountains and valley were black, like foreboding premonitions blending together in your soul. I watched, wings extended, hanging in the sky. Beams of light ripped a hole in the black, illuminating the valley and mountains below.

Little flecks of silver metal appeared in the light, forming a circle. Then a second circle of flakes grew, passing the first, and spreading out of sight in all directions. Four large metal fragments appeared, and spread to the four points of the compass.

The source of the light appeared. A white and silver ship, half the size of a mountain, settled onto the ground. A ring of openings appeared at its base. Thousands of bits of metal came out of it. Surrounding it.

The humans and their war machines had arrived. I looked to the sky, and screamed. A scream that split the air, warning everyone.

The war would soon begin.

150 words
@LurchMunster

Dawn is coming. Sooth, alone in all the Night, is ...

2012-05-19T20:22:38.703+01:00

Dawn is coming. Sooth, alone in all the Night, is blind. Sooth alone can see the coming day.

He sits on the mountaintop and waits. Light warmth filters through the cold of Night. In the valleys and dens below the people reveled in the sickening weight of sin. Sooth’s body is worn by altitude, wind and cold—a small price to keep his spirit free.

For years mystical wisdom was ascribed to the blind hermit of the mountain and there were people who would climb the sharp rocks to hear him speak. However the climb was hard and life below was easy. In time people stopped coming.

Now at last Dawn shattered the dome of the sky and illuminated the world ruled by Night. The people were made blind by the light blending in Sooth’s soul and opening his eyes.

Sooth wept, the world stretched before him, glorious and terrible.

150 words
@DavidALudwig

I'd come here to die, but upon realizing that ...

2012-05-19T18:38:03.386+01:00

I'd come here to die, but upon realizing that the sky's once fathomless, aphotic depths had been broken by the damnable light of a horrible new day, I sighed the angry breath of the newly living once again.

"Why won't you allow me to die?!" I screamed, expecting the dried parchment whisper of the doctor to answer me with his familiar taunt, but there was no answer, no sound at all.

The air left my lungs with frustrated force, but in those pulmonary twitches was a wheeze of confusion as well. Surrounded by the cyclopean crags, I searched with increasing anxiety for a second set of footprints. The doctor was never here.

This, I determined, is what he had always hoped for. The Icct Hedral solution no longer needed to be administered in order to bring me back. It was a part of me now, perfectly blended with my soul.

150 words.

@AMarquise

“Shh” “What?” “Shh” The flickering candle-flame...

2012-05-19T15:28:22.291+01:00

“Shh”
“What?”
“Shh”

The flickering candle-flame barely lit our passage, but that didn't matter so much; she led me by the hand. We had stopped for a moment, and she scolded me for the noise that came from my breathing. It was barely audible - just loud enough to mask what she was trying to show me.

“Do you hear it?”
“Hear what?”
“Listen.”

I did, and heard nothing at first. Slowly, however, I heard something else. It wasn't one sound, rather a thousand sounds merging together making one blanket of noise.

“We're close, come on.”

We moved further through the tunnel, travelling in silence. The turbulence grew louder, then quieter again. Another light illuminated the passageway, an outside light.

Stepping outside, the light was painful at first. For a brief moment, the storm had faded and the clouds parted.

“We can't stay, Mama says the air'd make you ill.” She whispered, and we departed.

155 words

Competition is closed.

2012-05-14T14:25:21.914+01:00

Competition is closed.

It had been the sweetest of kisses. They had been...

2012-05-14T12:28:05.006+01:00

It had been the sweetest of kisses. They had been waiting outside the church, for parents to pick them up. No cry out of ‘cooties’. She gave a giggle, the high sound bubbling out from her lips. They hadn’t seen anything wrong until angry hands pulled them away from each other, digging into soft flesh. There was only confusion, burning up their concentration as they looked at each other, confused around the yelling adults.

They had been having fun and blowing the puffy balls of dandelion seeds into the wind. They didn’t understand the concept of betrayal or hatred.

She stared at him over her shoulder as she was dragged away, large tears sliding down her face while the claw of a hand that held him attached to the tight lipped face pulled him in another direction. Out of each other’s sight.

142 words
@solimond

There's no justice if this story doesn't w...

2012-05-13T22:07:59.468+01:00

There's no justice if this story doesn't win.

The estate room at Ludwig & Sons was deep, and...

2012-05-13T21:46:17.856+01:00

The estate room at Ludwig & Sons was deep, and dark, and full of strangers. Fabrizio shuffled down the aisle, cane in hand. White flowers lined the walk. It might have been a wedding, but Eliana had married someone else, long ago.

He chose a seat on the right, near the back, out of the way.

The executor stepped to the front. He read her will slowly, the words careful, the tone loving. Murmurs rippled among the crowd at each bequest. The Milan estate went to her niece, the paintings to her nephews. The gifts were generous. The strangers smiled and cried.

At last his name was called. “To Mons. Fabrizio Castelli, I leave my fondest memory.”

He accepted the vial. He inhaled the scent.

It took him there, to the wall, to the warmth of the sun. His lips pressed her cheek. She laughed. They were together. And he was happy.

@MLConklin

--152 words

Well done! Great concept.

2012-05-12T22:03:26.778+01:00

Well done! Great concept.

The future is what hasn’t happened yet—even if it ...

2012-05-12T21:58:42.626+01:00

The future is what hasn’t happened yet—even if it has. We are born in a future. Our future is full of wonders, strange, terrible, and many. We are here because our future is one without a future.

Girl-child. Boy-child. They sit on bricks and Boy-child kisses Girl-child, who laughs. This present is simple, pleasant. It will change. One will kill, one will die. The One Who Dies must create us when they grow into maturity. The One Who Kills destroys further futures by their adult actions.

Keeping time frozen is burning up our concentration. If we kill The One Who Kills, our future will have future and all will be well. If we kill The One Who Dies we will not be created and The One Who Kills will be unopposed. If we kill both, will the future be safe without us?

Did The One Who Dies begin as a Boy-child or a Girl-child?

155 words
@DavidALudwig

This image was one that stirred feelings so deep a...

2012-05-12T17:52:00.663+01:00

This image was one that stirred feelings so deep and so powerful, it was almost as though some higher power had intended I thumb through the entire dust ridden album just to to find it. A feeling so incarnate that I had to question how it could ever be captured by anything so artificial as celluloid.

The smile on Jessica's face never altered with age. I can only look at it for a heart beat before that very same heart is broken beyond repair. I wish with every fibre of my being that I could turn to the back page and see the two miscreants stood at the alter.

The boy in the photograph faces away from whichever intruder dared immortalise the summation of an entire childhood. For that, at least, I am eternally grateful. I could not conceive looking in to those eyes. An innocence lost.

147 words
Michael Hedley

His hands slid under her shirt, lifting it up. She...

2012-05-12T16:59:25.963+01:00

His hands slid under her shirt, lifting it up. She shivered at his fingers on her ribs. This shouldn’t be happening, she should stop him, but he was burning away her concentration so quickly, so easily, just as he always had.

For all the flaws in their marriage, physical chemistry wasn’t one of them.

“Harry, Harry, stop. We shouldn’t.” She gasped as his mouth closed around her nipple.

“Of course we should,” he murmured, sliding down her body, taking the waist of her jeans in two hands. He had unfastened them a while ago, slipping his hand down her pants and leading to the position she now found herself in.

No one could turn her on like Harry.

“We’re not good for each other,” she muttered, the fight gone. She needed this. She needed him to do this.

“We’re perfect for each other. We have been from that first kiss.”

150 words
@angelicadawson

The First Kiss They sat together on the wall, dis...

2012-05-12T16:57:40.660+01:00

The First Kiss

They sat together on the wall, discarded lolly wrappers and sticks underneath their feet. The usual Saturday treat when the ice cream van came calling.

Only today there was no Simon sat between them picking at his scabby knees. It was nice to sit beside Jacqueline for a change; he caught the scent of apple shampoo in her hair and could hear her steady breathing.

Their mothers were talking in hushed tones, some grown-up crisis. His mum had been crying this morning so he offered her his hankie, it was almost clean. He’d never seen her cry before.

He really wanted to kiss Jacqueline, she was the prettiest girl in his class at school and smart too, always waving her hand in the air.

His chance may never come again to sit so close.

Burning his concentration he kissed her quick and she tasted as delicious as a strawberry lolly.

150 words Sarah @reravelling

Sat on the usual freezing brick steps I stared at ...

2012-05-12T16:07:25.737+01:00

Sat on the usual freezing brick steps I stared at my shoes, though never truly seeing them. I should be at home, studying my brain continuously squawked in the back of my head, like a parrot emulating it's master. Though all I did see was her... everywhere. In the backs of heads, the flowing shapes of the clouds, the white-froth of streams, half frozen over, as if to mimic my moods...

And yet every time I sat on this brick step, my hands quivering with a mixture of nerves and cold, she had a way of burning up my concentration. My eyes would dart up, not unlike an eager child, when I heard her footsteps. Fool, I though solemnly as I kicked a snow-coated stone away and got to my feet. Walking away was always the hardest part...

“Daniel?” her voice rang out.

The snow would surely melt from the blushes.

152 words
Connor McDougall
http://distortedfaith.tumblr.com

Unconventional Warfare He knew his fighter had cr...

2012-05-12T15:27:24.510+01:00

Unconventional Warfare

He knew his fighter had crossed their outer perimeter when the first tentative probes reached out for him. Cold, glistening claws of alien force raked his psyche, thrusting and scrabbling to dominate his will.

He slipped into a defensive trance, knowing if his focus were to waver then death would be preferable to the alternative. His mind would be theirs to command and his actions theirs to decide.

As he closed, their attacks intensified, burning up his concentration like dry grass in a wildfire. He cycled through defensive images: his first baseball glove, fishing on the riverbank with his dad, his first kiss on the cheek of an unsuspecting Mary Sue Masterson.

That did it! With a whoop of victory, he felt their presence fade and the mental fog lift. He chuckled, knowing Vice Admiral Mary Masterson would not be amused to know how powerful that particular memory was to one scruffy old fighter jock.

155 words @klingorengi