Day 273 Writing Short Stories

Chimney

The cawing was loud, sounding horrendous. She had been searching the cottage where the sound came from, and she had found a crow stuck in her chimney. She had been living in the cottage for five years now, and nothing like this had happened before. She was sure there was a net in the chimney to prevent something like this from happening. Yet, there it was. The most beautiful crow she had ever seen. Its back feathers were smutted with soot.

She put on her work gloves and shimmied into the flue to get the crow out. She wrapped her hands around its wings and legs and pulled the thing out of the chimney. It rested in her hands as she brushed it clean.

The crow was calm. Calmer than she was. It didn’t peck her.

She took the crow into the garden and expected it to fly off instantly, but it stayed there, lingering next to her. Then, if left, when the summer breeze blew across the yard.

But it was back the next morning, and the morning after that, and that. It stayed with her for a year, even during the wintertime. She let it come inside her whenever it liked. It was a courteous guest, and she enjoyed talking to the crow, who always replied to her chatter.

She smiled as she brewed her tea, and the crow perched on her shoulder, watching the process. She took a biscuit out of the tin and handed it to the crow. It never tried to take them without her approval. Never. Sometimes it demanded to have one with caws, but that was only to be expected. She bought them just for it without sugar, just like you did for a friend.

I almost didn’t write this one. All I could think of was a Santa stuck in a chimney.

Strange Package

The doorbell rang early in the morning. She had already been up, drinking her tea and writing her diary in the back garden, listening to the morning birds sing.

She had hurried to the front door only to find a strange black package waiting for her on the front steps. She had taken it in. The package had her name on it, but she had ordered nothing.

She carefully opened the package, breaking the seal with her scissors. Inside, there was white, fluffy packing material, and as she went further, she found a black envelope with a red wax seal.

The black envelope’s paper felt luxurious under her skin. It was as if it were made of fabric rather than paper. She peeled the seal open. She paused and took a breath before opening the envelope.

She had received an invitation. It had a date, time, and a place, and her name on it, but no information about what it was about. The dress code was black-tie.

She turned the card around, and there was one word typed there with an old typewriter: Wraith.

She dropped the card and backed away. She had thought it had been a hoax; it had been nothing when she pledged her devotion to the Wraiths at college. Nothing had come of it. She had had silly fun with the occult, the ghosts, the demons, and vampires, playing pretend, until Lucas had gone missing and then been found dead. She had separated herself from the group. None had contacted her before.

Door-to-Door Salesman

A door-to-door salesman tries to get into a house. I skipped this one.

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

Today’s prompts didn’t spark joy. None of them were like, “Yay, I want to write this one.” But I tried, and that is all that matters. I know finding them hard isn’t all down to my mood. I wrote my book this morning, and I went well. Really good, actually. Finally, it has that purpose that was missing for months, and that’s why I put it on the back burner while I worked on the sci-fi novel. Beta readers are still reading it. The comments thus far have been positive with minor improvement ideas. So, I’m happy about that.

I’m not pleased with how I ended the Strange Package. It should have had a second act that explained more. Now it was more of a teaser. Okay, I have done those before, but somehow this left me unsatisfied. But I don’t have time to finish it. I have to hurry to work.

Thank you for reading ❤ Have a joyous day!