Day 296 Writing Short Stories

Drum

The beat echoed through the fields. No one knew where it was coming from. It had been reported to echo there day after day and night after night. People were afraid to go there. They said that the field was haunted by the former soldiers of past eras. No one knew which soldiers, or why, as there had been no major battles in the former cow pasture, now left empty.

Even as they left the field alone, the drums echoed still. People were getting desperate, especially as the sound seeped into the nearby houses. Professionals were called in, but the police and scientists could do nothing about the issue. No one knew where it came from or why. The drumming sound was said to be seismic activity, according to the newsletter for the area. But everyone knew the authorities were lying. There had been no seismic activity in the area, not at least anything going to the rhythm of battle drums.

People were desperate enough that they called in the folklorist, the ghost hunters, the priests, the saints, and the amateur sleuths. There were no fairy circles. There were no background statistics. There was no holy interference nor crimes committed. Yet, the sound persisted, driving everyone crazy.

But one night, it ended all of a sudden, on its own. When the sound was no longer there, and people were sure they hadn’t gone deaf, people started noticing that the neighboring houses had lost their milk, their cheese, their dried meat, their old woolen socks, their pennies, and grandmother’s jewelry. All gone. Even Mrs. Dent’s cat had gone missing. But all thought it was a small price to pay for the drumming to go away.

Soon, everything went back to normal. The field was once again full of cows, and the whole incident was forgotten. But not by Susie. She was pretty sure she had seen small blue men come into her home and take the cat, the meat, the socks, the pennies, the milk, and the cheese with them. They had waved their tiny swords at her and cursed in a language she had no knowledge of. She didn’t mind the cheese, the pennies, the socks, but she minded losing Barnaby, her cat.

She tried to tell others what had happened, but they refused to listen. They silenced her with another cat, and that was that of the mysterious war drumming.

Furies

A fury latches onto a man. I skipped this one because I put all my effort into the first one. I have a bad night’s sleep behind me.

Locked In

A worker falls asleep on the job and is locked in the office. She doesn’t dare to call anyone for fear of losing her job. So she spends the night in the office, going through everything, especially her boss’s filing cabinets. I skipped this one, too, for previous reasons.

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

I feel bad about not being able to write the prompts. But the badly slept night is taking its toll. I kept waking up constantly because of thoughts and sounds. It’s too bad, as the prompts looked fun. But I know that my mind isn’t working. I could even write my book. I tried to piece together what is going to happen to my heroine, Penny, but I got nothing. Just inaudible noise in a highly critical tone. So, I had no choice but to give up.

Sigh, this is just one of those days. I take a short nap before heading to work. Seeing you tomorrow, and let’s hope it is a better day.

Thank you for reading ❤ Have a cheerful day!