Day 256 Writing Short Stories

Barrel

The little fucker had hidden well. They had been looking for her for an hour already, and there was no going home without her. Her mother would go livid if she returned without her little sister. It had been bad enough that her mother had forced her to take Bea with her, and now this. Her friends had started murmuring about ditching her, too.

They were playing hide and seek at the old witch’s house that had been abandoned since everyone could remember. She and her friends came here to get away from adults. Sometimes they just sit and talk, but today they played hide-and-seek to get her sister off her back.

Maybe the witch had gotten her. That would show the little fucker to behave.

Her stomach turned. Maybe something had actually happened to Bea. She started to run around frantically, yelling her sister’s name. The abandoned house was empty. The yard was too. She ran to the old well, but it was empty. Her friends caught her mood, and they stormed around the place likewise.

Then the barrel next to the stone steps rolled over, and Bea crawled out of it.

She just stared at her sister in disbelief. The little fucker was beaming with joy. “Did I win?” she asked.

For a second, she thought to scream at her all the insults she could think of, but she rushed to her little sister and hugged her tight.

A Pathological Liar

A friend watches as their pathological liar friend tells tales to their admirers. I skipped this one.

Twins

Twins chance lives for a day. I skipped this one, too.

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

I found it hard to write today. The prompts weren’t that interesting, and I have the flu, so everything is doubly hard today.

I got beta readers for my novel. I got the first notes back, and someone had thought to use AI for the feedback. I feel stupid for not seeing that one coming. I have been reading their work through and commenting on it. I guess AI is something I have to get used to. That people pass AI notes as their own. It makes me sad and angry. Also, it makes me laugh. It is all that my novel is about, and they are proving right that we are in deep shit.

Now, I will go and rest. Hopefully, the flu will be gone by tomorrow.

Thank you for reading ❤ Have a wonderful day!