55 Word Challenge
Week 9
Happy Hump Day and welcome back to the 55 Word Challenge. This week’s judge is my husband, @Klingorengi. (Yeah, I know, I know, he’s half Ferengi, but offering him a bribe will not influence the outcome. He has promised me to behave...as much as he can anyway. ) He also is a talented writer and blogs almost daily, so check out his blog here.
For those that are uninitiated, the 55 Word Challenge is a contest to write a story in 55 words or less. Not an easy task, but fun and I have been blown away by some of the entries. See for yourself, all the past contests can be found here.
The challenge begins at noon Eastern time every Wednesday and ends at noon Thursday. The story is based on one of three photo prompts and can be written in any genre you choose. The story is to be posted in the comment section below, along with your twitter handle or email address, so I can contact you if you are the winner.
And what does the winner get? This purty badge for one. For two, a gift card for $5.00 from Amazon. (The prize will be rewarded within a week and sent to your email.) There is also a third prize this week. Jeff's collection of stories, A Cold and Dark Christmas. Ok, it's not Christmas, but these stories are good all year long. 
If anyone is interested in guest judging please let me know, also if you would like to donate a prize for next week’s contest, (or any other week,) let me know. This could be a copy of your book or anything else you want to offer.
She wasn’t alone. The only thing that mattered. She pulled the man towards her, his face impassive and his eyes distant. He didn’t resist as she took him into her arms. The flowers that decorated the raven locks emitted a cloying sent. As long as he smelled those, he would be her’s forever.
ReplyDeleteShe smiled.
55 words
@solimond
Young love fades like a fleeting thought. Very few last to see even a dozen cycles of the moon. And yet this one was different. Together they stood, embracing, he resting his chin against her head, she pressing her cheek against his chest. So young, so in love, gone from this earth far too soon.
ReplyDelete55 words
@rastrohman
Jeff crouched at the edge of the trail and shook his head. The path dropped vertically fifty feet straight down. He’d seen the road cutter earlier, but hadn’t expected this.
ReplyDeleteHis stared at the cable fence and gritted his teeth. Climbing would be a bitch, especially with his bike on his back. “This’s gonna suck.”
55 Words
@SiobhanMuir
I'm not trying to bribe the judge, the guy just looked like a "Jeff" to me. ;)
Rest assured no Ferengi worth his lobes would consider that much of a bribe. :D
DeleteCall To Arms
ReplyDelete“My pardons, Majesty, but a simple Winter’s Kiss will hardly convince these…beasts to stop spewing toxins into our blessed stream.”
The Fae Queen’s expression was equal parts inscrutable calm and implacable sadness.
“No, child, it will not. Yet, every war begins with an opening volley before the blood and the fire that must surely follow.”
55 ineligible words
@klingorengi
par'Mach
ReplyDeleteFanfic by Wakefield Mahon
"But, I've travelled across frozen streams, through worlds were the very laws of physics collapse like a wormhole, just to be in your arms."
"I'm sorry Quark, you still have to attend the bat'leth challenge or find another mate."
Trembling he picked up his weapon. "Not for all the latinum in the quadrant, Grilka!"
54 blatantly brown-nosing words
@WakefieldMahon
The shaded ravine gave way to blinding light. Over murmuring water trying to turn him back, he thought he heard them.
ReplyDeleteAgain in the countryside his trail dropped suddenly off, as if to say “not this way”, he thought he heard them.
In truth he only ever heard her. “Your brother belongs to me now.”
55 words
@DavidALudwig
The trap is set. I feel the change on the air that it comes. The ground quivers and the shadows rustle with its touch as it finds its way up stream. The scent of the trap entices only to its nose. Closer it comes. Reflective eyes focus on the opening. Its maw opens encompassing me.
ReplyDelete@ChuckWesJ
55 Words
Putrid, diarrhoea coloured scum belched out of the sewer. He loved its taste. It floated on top of the fetid rivulet that dribbled out, killing everything in its path. He envied its strength. Like the skeletal black trees he had little substance, his only ability to put fear in the hearts of good little fairies.
ReplyDelete55 Words
@PurpleQueenNL
Unrepentant as always, she pressed herself into his arms and murmured a careless apology. The wreath of flowers cloaked his sanity with false sweetness but he knew it.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn’t right that he could forget her lies. It wasn’t right that he loved her.
But how could he walk away now?
When he loved her.
55 words
@Afsaneh_Dreams
No one had ventured from the compound in generations, not since the plague struck humanity.
ReplyDeleteNow Sabian stared back at the trickling water fluttering out of the pipe and into the stream. It had led the course he followed to his salvation.
He had to know, had to see for himself what was out there.
55 Words
http://writingbeard.wordpress.com/
Title: End of an Age
ReplyDeleteWith every drip and drizzle from the tunnel, the ravine slowly died. Its life leeched away by the polluted sludge that crept along the water’s bed. No longer could the waters feed and protect the delicate tiny creatures and beings that resided in the soft soil and tender greens.
@MLGammella
49 Words
I knelt where the road fell away at an unnaturally precise right angle then jogged another ninety degrees forward far below me. The fence edging the road made the same precise turns.
ReplyDelete“When the hell did Escher become a civil engineer?”
“Right about the time you let me play in your dreams,” a voice whispered.
@caramichaels
55 words
The Last Cafe on Earth
ReplyDeleteRaymond C. Morris
“Through the tunnel,” she said, quick and harsh.
I glanced back, ignoring the gun, to look one last time at the scene of decay that spread away from the culvert, like a slovenly whore uncaring of her wares.
She’d promised a new world on the other side, but I saw the spices, the butcher knives.
“Stop right there,” her father warned her. “The boogey man lives in that drainage pipe.”
ReplyDeleteShe kept walking, trembling but resolute.
“This is your last chance,” he said. “If you keep going, that’s it. He’ll get you.”
Heart pounding, weeping, still she walked. The boogey man ahead had to be better than the monster behind.
55 words
@postupak
"Get Closer"
ReplyDeleteShe wrapped around him like a vine, arms and hands constricted like a metal dodder: relentless and hungry. He was rooted to the spot, paralyzed long ago by the sweet spores that burst from her flowers when prey was near. And he was so near.
He would only get closer, eventually absorbed into her essentia.
55
@J_M_Blackman
Essentia sounds like a dirty word, just sayin'.
DeleteHell Hath No Fury
ReplyDeleteSamantha O'Brien
The grip on his arms tightened, her breath stuttering in time with her heartbeat. He sighed into her hair, committing the scent to memory. Finally, she laid her head down on his chest, staring out into the distance but seeing nothing. Cooling fingers trailed down his arm as he let the blade fall.
53 Words
@QuillsWithin
55 Word Challenge is now closed. I will announce the results when @Klingorengi makes his decision. Thank you everyone for such great entries! I know it will not be easy to pick a winner.
ReplyDelete