Tag: 100 word story

Gaia’s New Messenger

Chris Hall37 Comments

My uncle warned me of the hallucinatory effect of smouldering henbane, but it is the essence of my initiation. Surrounded by the maze of megaliths, my body floats. I round up the shrill cacophony of chanting voices, which buck around my head like wild horses at a rodeo, and corral them in a corner of my mind.

My head is clear and I am ready; the only sound I hear is the sweet voice of a nightingale singing.

The message is within me and I am the message.

To this modern world
which ransacks Gaia’s riches
I bring her revenge.

Image credit: Joshua Hicks, Unsplash

Written in response to two challenges:

– Di of Pensitivity101‘s Wednesday’s Three Things Challenge – MODERN, SING, SURROUNDED
– Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – RODEO

I have also set myself the additional challenges of confining my piece to 100 words exactly and writing this, now ongoing story, in the haibun form. Just for fun!

The Initiation Begins

Chris Hall45 Comments

We assemble at sunset. Goose-bumps cover the bared skin on my back, still tender from the previous pricking of the needle, which has marked me indelibly and for eternity.

Henbane and yarrow scent the air; charms and enchantments encircle the glittering granite standing stones, in a kaleidoscope of crashing consonants, while my uncle, a comfortable presence in the growing darkness, heralds the start of the ceremony with a single beat of an unseen gong.

Blindfolded, I am led to the centre of the circle. The ceremony begins.

In moonlight’s sphere
runes on ancient stones ignite;
the Mark of Gaia tingles.

Image credit: unsplash.com/@artifactflash

Written in response to two challenges:

– Di of Pensitivity101‘s Three Things Challenge – COMFORTABLE, SKIN, TENDER
– Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – KALEIDOSCOPE

I have also set myself the additional challenges of confining my piece to 100 words exactly and writing this, now ongoing story, (loosely) in the haibun form. Just for fun!

Passing the Baton

Chris Hall57 Comments

My uncle is ebullient this morning, remarkably so. He is a man transformed; overjoyed outpourings spill from his lips as he beams at me across the breakfast table.

I, however, having  ploughed through piles of obscure texts and ancient tenets from the towering oaken shelves of my uncle’s library (previously off-limits to me), am less so. The taste of the delicious food on my plate is spoiled by the knowledge I have swallowed down over the weeks since my discovery.

I am to prepare for my initiation, he declares.

Passing the baton
gladdens the master’s heart; yet
the burden remains.

Image credit: unsplash.com/@romankraft

Written in response to two challenges:

– Di of Pensitivity101‘s Three Things Challenge – DELICIOUS, OVERJOYED, SPOIL
– Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – PLOUGH (PLOW)

I have also set myself the additional challenges of confining my piece to 100 words exactly and writing this, now ongoing story, (loosely) in the haibun form. Just for fun!

Destiny calls

Chris Hall53 Comments

There is no going back from here, for what I discovered up in that dusty attic on that cold winter afternoon has marked me out.

Now I am one of them.

I should have obeyed my uncle’s directive, but I’d been determined to find out the truth. The secret that was hidden from me, that was buried along with my parents, whose mysterious disappearance has never been discussed.

But now I have the truth, I must face the challenge ahead: the one that all our people must face.

On the lonely road
our kind must travel alone;
destiny calls me.

Image credit: Chris Leipelt on Unsplash

Written in response to two challenges:

– Di of Pensitivity101‘s Three Things Challenge – CHALLENGE, GOING, ROAD

– Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – MARK

Remembering how it used to be…

Chris Hall80 Comments

She stands on the hot, hard pavement, inhaling the ozone-laden breeze. Her eyes feast on the tempting glint of lapping waves breaking gently on the crescent of white sand, which circles the foot of the flat-topped mountain rising from the shining city by the sea.

Here in the city, where two oceans meet at the southern-most tip of the continent, she remembers all the summers when the whole world, it seemed, flocked to the beaches where they bathed and frolicked in the clear blue water.

The beaches are empty now.

An army truck rumbles past.

To keep it that way.

Image credit: Laurette van der Merwe

Written in response to two challenges:

Di of Pensitivity101‘s Three Things Challenge – CRESCENT, WORLD, BATHED

Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – OCEAN

The Mask

Chris Hall50 Comments

She’d always wanted to be the perfect lady, all glossy hair and high-heeled shoes, smiling graciously behind flawless make-up, while people marvelled at the poise of her bearing and her chic couture.

But nature was cruel. The golden-haired baby girl grew into a spotty awkward teenager. There was no extraordinary mutation from ugly duckling to elegant swan for her; no amazing transformation in her teens nor late-blossoming in her early twenties.

And so she became a writer, acclaimed for her literary accomplishments while sheltering beneath the camouflage of the well-turned sentence and gorgeous prose.

What lies behind your wordsmith’s mask?

Image credit: Ava Sol on Unsplash

Written in response to two challenges:

Di of Pensitivity101‘s Three Things Challenge – LADY, PERFECT, HIGH

Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – MARVEL

What lies within?

Chris Hall69 Comments
photo of an old trunk

Kneeling before the old chest, watching the winter sunlight filter through the dusty window of the attic, I’d paused in trepidation. I’d never been in this part of the house, as my uncle had forbidden it and his directives were not to be ignored lightly; but I’d been driven to explore the unexplained parts of my past and now I’d discovered that the chest contained the final few pieces of the puzzle.

Finally, I’d unlatched the lid and lifted it.

If only I hadn’t. My uncle had been right.

That day I learned that some things are better left undisturbed.

Image credit: Pinterest

Written in response to two challenges:

Di of Pensitivity101‘s Three Things Challenge – PAST, FEW, CHEST

Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – FILTER

Aging Ain’t Easy

Chris Hall12 Comments

the tribulations of an aging star by chris hall lunasonline

Dumbo Olivier III stared at his reflection in the dressing-room mirror. His trunk drooped as he examined the growing number of wrinkles on his once-youthful face.

‘C’mon, Dumbs, this could be your big break.’ His agent waved the new script at him. ‘It’s regular work, Dumbs.’

‘A middle-aged medical examiner in a two-bit cop show?’

‘A show which airs every Sunday afternoon, Dumbs. This is the real deal!’

Dumbo shook his crinkly ears. ‘I’m not ready to be a character actor.’

‘Chicks love older men. Think of George Clooney!’

Dumbo turned to regard his profile. ‘Move over, George,’ he murmured.’

Written in response to a prompt from Susan T. Braithwaite
Genre Scribes Friday Fiction Writing Challenge #36

The challenge this week was mirror.
Photo credit: litreactor.com

Dumbo Olivier III, The Early Years in Catch a Falling Star

The Chocolate Cake Club

Chris Hall18 Comments

chocolate cake club by chris hall lunasonline

I stare wide-eyed at my invitation. As if I wasn’t already the breaker of a thousand diets.

I do not need any more temptation in my life.
My fingers stomp on the keys like an over-weight middle-aged woman taking out the trash in which she’s concealed the evidence of her failure to stick to salad.

It’s virtual, a celebration for us girls, the ones who can only dream of those lithe bodies with which they once entwined.

Virtual chocolate cake? What’s the good of that?

Are you sure I can’t tempt you? Go on. See how many hits you get.

Written in response to a prompt from Susan T. Braithwaite
Genre Scribes Friday Fiction Writing Challenge #34

The challenge this week was celebration.

Author’s note: I was so taken with Violet Lentz’s response to this same challenge that this is what I found myself compelled to write. It’s also a little experiment about the magical pull of lust and chocolate!

If you go down to the woods today…

Chris Hall21 Comments

what do you see 14 by chris hall lunasonline

– Hey bro’ what’s up with you?

– There’s a loada trouble goin’ down in the faerie ’hood.

– Like what?

– The Myco Boys are musclin’ in on our territory. Bringin’ in a whole bunch of new ’stools and ’shrooms. Stuff that’ll make your head explode.

– So, what we gonna do about it?

– We’re goin’ on the offensive.

– Doin’ what?

– Look here bro’, I got the seeds of a brand new product. Popweed from the Wealdan Woods. This stuff’s goin’ to blow their minds. It’s super-fast growing too. By next month’s Faerie-Fest we’re gonna have the pretty-wing girls’n’boys eatin’ right outta our hands.

Written in response to Sadje’s What Do You See #14 photo prompt.
Photo credit: Flickr