Day 341 Writing Short Stories

Yowl

Her blood ran cold when she heard the yowl from the shadows of the darkened forest. The sun had set a long time ago, and she had been walking in circles ever since. This had never happened to her before. She had walked these woods so many times that she knew them by heart, yet here in the darkness everything seemed strange, every shadow stretched long.

She swallowed, listening to the forest, waiting for another yowl so she could calculate where it came from. There was only the silence of a forest that should be fully alive in the darkness.

You were never really lost in the woods, that was what her late father had said. There was always a way out. The circle you thought you were walking wasn’t a circle. You always looped back to the original point you started from. So she had to stop letting her mind lie to her and look at the trees. Really look at them.

But there was the yowl again, and it came closer. So close that she could feel it resonate in her body.

She couldn’t run. There was no point to run from and to.

“Don’t panic,” she said aloud. The words didn’t help. She wanted to panic.

There came a rustle, and then a branch cracked. She jumped forward and began running towards the rocks rising in the landscape. Something was coming behind her. She could hear their paws hit the forest floor. Whatever it was, it was fast and big.

And then she flew. She flew against the rock pile, plunging to her hands and knees. She swirled around to face whatever was coming, blocking her face. But there was nothing. Just the darkness and her quickened heartbeat.

She sat up, cocking her head around to see if there was anything around her. There wasn’t, just the forest and a path she recognized. She limped up. Her knees and palms were bruised and bleeding. She followed the path, not stopping to mend her wounds. The yowl, the rustle, and the crack never came again. There was only the path she had taken so many times that it felt like home. It felt like home even in the darkness. It led to her car, for all this being over.

When the car came into view, she let out a long sigh. She vowed never to go into the woods this late. Not even how bad a day she had had at work. This was not worth it. A long, hot shower would take the edge off.

The car was as she had left it, except she found a little black kitten curled up at the hood of her car.

“Are you lost?” she let out.

The cat blinked, but said nothing. She scooped the little lost thing into her lap and opened the door to her old Opel.

She sighed when inside as she lay the kitten on the seat next to her. The darkness of the forest seemed less dark, and the kitten less lost now that she was inside her car.

“So you were the reason why I came here then?”

The cat blinked its huge eyes at her, as if it and she had always been together.

It let out a little soft yowl.

The End of the Rainbow

A man stumbles to the end of the rainbow. I skipped this one. I couldn’t find the story. I know if I pushed myself a little, it would come, but there is no stamina left.

Hot Summer Day

The same goes with this one, too. This is about a hot summer day, and boys smoking behind a store, and something happens. I got lost in the woods with the first story, and I can’t seem to find my way out of it.

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

I went to bed too late last night, and I’m paying a price this morning. I couldn’t get up at my usual time, so I’m running an hour late from my morning routines. Luckily, I don’t have to go to work until 10 a.m.

I broke my phone yesterday. I went climbing, and it slipped off my hand. Now I need to replace it. Altogether, yesterday was an odd day. I climbed an easy highball, and the top was scary as heck. I needed to scramble up the wall, and one slip would have hurled me down, and the consequences would have been bad. Finding a way up safe and sound felt good once I did it, but it was a stupid thing to do. I should have checked the top before I went up the easy climb. The sense of invincibility and full aliveness that comes afterward is not worth the risks.

Anyway, the climbing after work is the reason why I went to bed too late and now feel too sluggish to write. I’m happy that I managed to edit my book. However, I’m not sure if I made the right calls with it. I got feedback on the relationship between Lucas and Owen, two brothers, and I want to polish it so Lucas doesn’t come across as too much of a bad boy. I want him to feel more organic. It’s not easy to do, as Lucas serves a point as he is. He is there to show the selfish part of society, the part when money and things come before everything else, and what lengths people are willing to go to obtain the flashy life, that leaves them still alienated. I just need to make it more subtle. Oh, what it is to be a writer. The constant problem-solving.

Thank you for reading ❤ Have a day of wonder!