Day 290 Writing Short Stories

Kite

My mind is blank. I couldn’t find the story.

Challenge

This prompt was about a challenge I have faced, but as I wrote Meteor first, I feel like my head is empty, and I don’t know what to write here.

Meteor

Once, I thought life was fragile, something you could take away too easily, but then the world ended, and darkness took over the world. People died, but some survived. Enough to make one try to piece the world together. Enough to make me believe that humans can survive anything.

I have gotten used to the darkness, to the constant smoke blocking the sun. I have gotten used to the world after the meteor. I have gotten used to working long hours in the fields to do my share to make us survive. And I understand how blessed I am to have most of my family and friends around me, that we have the old farming equipment to plow the land, that I have a place to live, and food to eat. We have seen enough vagabonds to know that we are the lucky ones. I have seen enough killing to know that there is a balance between kindness and strength.

I would love to leave my recount here. To tell you we survived, and the sun finally came out. For a while, it looked as if it would be so. But then the shadows began to move. There in the utter darkness, something lived. At first, we heard it howling in the distance. Screeches that filled my heart with terror. Then people began to go missing. You couldn’t go out at night. The windows and the doors had to be boarded up. We heard claws rattle against the boards, against the roof.

We gathered that as long as we stayed in the nights, we would be safe. It was so for months. The howls were there. The claw marks against our walls were there when morning came. Yet, we were safe.

But I made a mistake. I took the long route to get water. I thought I would clear my mind after fighting with my older brothers. It was stupid. The darkness came sooner than I had thought. I could feel something stirring in the darkness, in the constant gray mist. I wanted to run. But it felt like I shouldn’t. It felt as if it wanted me to run. It wanted me to be scared.

Something scraped against the forest floor. Something heavy and big.

I stood there frozen, buckets in both hands. It observed me. There was a pulsing breath. It smelled of rotten things. It smelled of death.

Please, please, please, I thought. Yet, no amount of begging would save me. I was dead. I knew it.

It readied to launch at me, and I ran. I dropped the buckets down and sped down the path to my home. They wouldn’t open the door for me. That was the rule. But the barn would do. If I go there, I could shield myself in.

I heard its rattling gallop behind me. It was gaining on me faster than I could run. Then the sky turned orange. I saw my brothers with their torches, and I dived to their feet as they threw flames over me.

The night was pierced by a high screech.

I twisted myself to see, to see what was there in the shadows. It was a monstrous thing. Its head was a split skull full of shark-like teeth. Its skin was oily black. It was on all fours, its talons clutching the burning earth. Its tail thrashed about as it tried to get past the fire to us.

My brothers took me by my collar and dragged me away. We shielded ourselves in the barn, and soon the creature was there on the roof, trying to get in. We stayed awake all night, standing guard, but it didn’t get in. I was alive by a miracle, by my brothers.

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

Today, writing the last prompt took all my effort. I fear something is missing from the prompt, but my mind feels too scattered to fix the issue. I got distracted by everything. Mostly checking my phone without a reason. That is my cardinal sin when writing. I should hide the evil thing and leave it there forever. But I guess that’s not possible. I just have to teach my brain not to do that as an escape.

Also, my sugar cravings are back. I went and ate sugar a few times this week, and now I feel like I need it to stay alert, which means I’m not getting something from my food. I just have to figure out what. Most likely, I have eaten too few calories, especially as my last training module was quite harsh. Now, luckily, I have a rest week, and I even honored it today. I was about to do all my morning training that strains my forearms, but I stopped myself. Not doing my routines is hard for me. My mind instantly screamed that I’m cheating. I said, “Go and screw yourself,” and it did the trick. I have become better at talking to myself when I started talking aloud to myself. It’s a really good mental trick. Highly effective with overthinking, emotion regulation, and solving issues you have.

Thank you for reading ❤ Have a day full of people and kindness!