Day 210 Writing Short Stories

Duck

The creature that had once been a duck now stood in front of them. She, if she were a she, looked like a tall giraffe morphed into a human. Her purple neck ran long, and her oblong face reminded more of a pixie than a human. She bowed her head deeply.

“We will return you to your own timeline as soon as we get it working. You don’t have to worry, you won’t remember a single thing about this unfortunate event.” Her accent sounded wrong despite her English coming out pure.

They just stood there like she was supposed to pull a rabbit out of her hat. All of them were disoriented and confused, to say the least. Suddenly, the universe had stopped making sense. It wasn’t as it was supposed to be. There were these beings that tried to fix it, meaning they had somehow mastered it. And here they were, the humans, who didn’t even know how to make their own lives work.

There was a general sigh as the alien released them from her gaze. “Food and hot drinks will be served soon. In the meantime, I suggest taking a break from yourselves and just enjoying your stay on our temporary Earth 3.1.”

Luckily for all of them, her words weren’t registered. Otherwise, they would have had a whole lot more complicated thoughts going on inside their heads than the fact that there was this being who had been a duck had brought them somewhere else while their universe was being fixed. The idea that there had been more Earths before the one they now occupied wouldn’t have gone down well. There would have been questions and most likely loss of faith and probably a lot of wailing and screaming, and who knows, even attempts at violence.

They took their seats in the meadow, obeying the being. The idea of letting go of oneself seemed easier here and now than it had ever been to anyone sitting on a meditation stool. Here, there was no need to hold on to oneself. Here, life made all the sense and none of it. They just stood there, rebooting their brains, sitting in silence, and watching as other Earthlings did the same.

This would have been a perfect time to reprogram the lot, if someone had thought of such a thing. However, whoever the beings were, they didn’t even think of intervening too much. It was bad enough they had to bring the humans here. The whole space-time falling apart wasn’t meant to happen for a long, long while.

Two Ships

The fog had rolled over the sea. There was no sign it would come. The skies had been clear, and when night fell, the stars shone brightly. Now the fog had taken over everything. They let the ship float slowly across the sea.

He stood as a lookout for reefs and rocks piercing the surface. This was not their usual cargo route. The captain had chosen it, thinking he could cut time. He had thought it to be a good idea. Now, the shortcut with the fog was looking like he would never return home in one piece. They all knew what the sea was like and how easily it could lose them.

He kept his eyes on the black, cold water and his hands ready to signal the message onward to the captain, if a new course was to be set.

The waves shifted orientation, and the water splashed against the ship’s hull. He could hear something in the fog. Not stone. Not a reef. Not a whale. Something bigger. He held his hand in the air, and his message was passed on. The speed of the ship died down.

He met the fog with his gaze, searching for the source of the sound. Then it came into a few. It was a wooden ship, far bigger than theirs. Its rails were tattered. He heard as the men on the deck fell silent. No one dared to speak. No one dared to ask whether help was needed. They all felt it in their guts. If a word were uttered, it would break the spell, and only the sea gods knew what would happen to them.

They watched in silence as the ghost ship sailed past them. None of them could keep their eyes away. The least of all, him. He was sure he saw creatures, people, something moving on the ghost ship’s deck. He dared not face their eyes, but he kept searching for anything he could recognize.

The huge ship glided past them, and when it was gone, the fog cleared.

Mansion

The car moved slowly past the huge oak trees. She had taken a taxi to her new home. A place her aunt had left her. She hadn’t known she had an aunt, let alone someone with enough money to live in a mansion. One day, there had been a call that she had inherited from her aunt, and she was to come to the reading of the will. She had been only on there. The lawyer had proceeded with solemnity of the event, unable to answer any of her questions about her aunt or where she had appeared. All there was was the will and the demand that she inherit it all if she moved into the mansion for the rest of her life.

There was nothing keeping her in her old life, not when the will would cover all her yearly expenses and let her live a moderately wealthy life. It was as if fate had intervened and given her a perfect escape to concentrate on her art.

She had packed everything and flown to the other side of the country to inherit her aunt’s estate.

It had all sounded good and exciting, but now, as the car slowly rolled on between the tall oaks, shadowing the road, there was a small, distinctive sense of threat growing inside her. More so, as the mansion came into view, it was an old Gothic building. She didn’t even know such things existed. She had only seen them in movies and TV shows in faraway places. They had always seemed so romantic. This one didn’t. This one looked like it was stolen from a horror movie.

She pushed past her thoughts and gut feelings. She was just being silly. It was a magnificent house. It could house a town. The taxi stopped at the front steps. The driver refused to come out. He cursed in bad English and spat over his shoulder. She was forced to get her things out of the car on her own. She was left alone as soon as she closed the car door behind her.

The mansion towered over her. The iron key she had had in her pocket all this time felt burning in her hand. It beckoned her to open the door.

Every part of her screamed at her to escape, but she refused to believe such nonsense.

—

I have to cut this short; I need to leave. I’m not entirely sure what happens next. What is the strange pull in the house? I think it is more than a ghost. I had the feeling it could be vampires, but I’m not sure I would have gone down the path if I had continued writing.

The prompts are from the book A Year of Creative Writing Prompts.

It is so hard to write from a general perspective. I wanted to keep trying it today, too, continuing yesterday’s prompt. I’m more accustomed to writing from a third-person perspective or first-person. But it was good practice. I’m happy that I tried.

I won’t be able to write tomorrow and over the weekend. I will take a short holiday overseas and focus on resting and spending time with my husband.

Thank you for reading ❤ Have a wonderful weekend and see you next week!