The Bullet

The Assassin rode through the quiet snowfall on his black mare – a dark shape in the pale forest. The Northlands were dead and silent at this time of the year. The Assassin never enjoyed coming this far up and it was only the urgency of the matter that brought him this time through deep snowdrifts and over frozen lakes.

Prompt: “She peeled back the old, dry, cracked paper, and he tried to hold back his tears.”

When Lorraine was eight years old, she drew a portrait of Mrs. Hershaw. She drew her with great detail as her small hands gripped the pencil and moved it carefully across the page to create the wiry strands of grey hair, the roundness of her eyes, and width of her broad shoulders. As she drew, the old woman disappeared little by little, and when Lorraine finished the portrait, Mrs. Hershaw had completely vanished from existence.

Prompt: “She sits on me, licks my face, and purrs affectionately as I massage her neck.”

It’s been four years since I adopted Yasu. Like a white fluffy snowball she sits on me, licks my face, and purrs affectionately as I massage her neck. Thinking back, I can hardly believe how I became who I am today. I don’t regret it, but I don’t think if I knew what life would be like afterwards, I would have chosen what I did.

Prompt “Quick, hide the giraffe!”

Part 2 (I suggest reading Part 1 first)

Never in my life did I imagine sneaking into a zoo at night with a bunch of lemurs – and the craziest part was that they were humans.

The head lemur turned out to be the security guard, so he was familiar enough with the security systems to get us in through the back. Now we stood inside the zoo once again – the same zoo that I had inspected an hour ago and thought everything was in order.

Prompt: “It was more problematic than terrifying – still I was quite caught off guard to find at least a dozen lemurs jumping around behind the locked door of my Mercedes-Benz.”

Part 1

The zoo inspection had been a little strange, but at least it was done and I could go home now.

I flipped through the forms attached to my clipboard and signed my name at the bottom with satisfaction. Everything was operating smoothly and the Federal Association of Zoos and Aquariums would be pleased to hear that the small but well-maintained Markham Zoo had once again passed its yearly inspection with flying colours.

Prompt: “Bruh, that’s not what the tiny egg said.”

“Check it out,” said the Blue Knight. “This den got even more swag than the last one.”

The Blue Knight and the Red Knight got to work filling their cloaks with treasure.

“It was so worth slaying this dragon,” said the Red Knight. “I didn’t think it had this much treasure. We’re finally getting paid the way we should be.”

Prompt: “Bloviate”

I actually took this prompt as an opportunity to write a short episode from the past/backstory of the novel I’m currently working on. The kingdom has three high authorities in the novel and this is about them when they were younger.

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“I have realized by now,” said Hespera, standing very still in the midst of her courtiers with tears flowing freely down her cheeks, “that I really cannot do this. All my life I have thought that it would come naturally from my upbringing but I am convinced now that I was wrong. I am not wise like my father nor beautiful like my mother and I know I do not have the competency to rule this kingdom like the good kings and queens before me.”

Prompt: “It ain’t exactly rocket science.”

“Mr. Finley,” said the scientist. “We’re excited to have you join our team. How are you feeling for your first day?”

“Great! NASA is even more magnificent than I imagined it would be.”

“Oh you haven’t seen anything yet. Wait ’til I show you the operations room.”