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Welcome to the latest installment of Friday Flash Fiction. Enter
your short work of fiction (generally between 100 and 1,000 words)
based on this prompt by midnight Saturday to be eligible to win! The
best entry will be published on the site, along with a short author
bio; bringing you fame, fortune and bragging rights. Winners also
receive a small prize. Entries may be posted in the comments or
emailed to theoneminutewriter@gmail.com. If you post in the comments, please be sure to leave us a way to contact you in case you are our winner. Good Luck!
I am looking for a story about going into the unknown. A place where you don't know what is coming or what is next. You only know what is behind you. I think in our personal lives we have all been there a time or two...and I am pretty sure half of all my socks live there permanently. So today, I would like you to write a story about having to go there. What is it like making those decisions that navigate us through those times of uncertainty? You can make this as lighthearted or as serious as you would like.
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I have received some entries about the topic, but not stories. I am looking for a STORY. Remember this is flash fiction. This prompt is a little tougher maybe in the idea. Think about maybe writing a story about what is going on with the subject as they are going through The Unknown. What brought them there? How are they navigating through? What will they do when they leave?
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Friday, February 8, 2013
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We're twins; and you know how it is with twins--we feel incomplete when the other is lost. Well, I'm the one that's lost. We get separated when we get washed, but we're usually not far apart, also when we're getting dry, we go our separate ways but then we get back together.
Except something happened, something horrible and it happened so fast I don't quite know what it was. Is kidnapped the word? Snatched? Teleported? Transported? To me the word is LOST! I'm lost because I don't know where I am or what happened to me. And I've lost my twin.
Oh, I'm not alone. Lots of others are around here, each alone, nearly all had a twin. We share the same misery and so we do have company but that's not really a consolation. I WANT MY TWIN!!! Nobody else is the same beige and white and brown argyle pattern, size 8, slightly thin at the heel.
Where am I? Where is my twin, what will become of us without one another? They all say there's no way back. We're lost forever.
The One-Minute Writer: FFF: The Unknown Writer to be said...
Walking with an unsteady step i entered a crossroads and the sign in the road read, Less Travelled Lane Most Travelled Road, Adventure Lane and Easy Street. I stood there for a few minutes. What the hell ? I had never ever seen a road sign like this before. There had to be a reason why the less travelled road was so named. Maybe there was danger on that road that's why it was hardly used. Most travelled surely seemed the best choice. But adventure lane seemed to be calling me, tugging my sense of adventure strings. Easy street was the logical answer. I had always loved the easy way out, no sweat, no worries, surety. Somehow the pull onto adventure lane was too strong. I could not control my feet and mind. The eeriness of the surroundings as I took each step embraced me. My breathing was rushed and my heart was stuck in my throat. Fog was rolling in and enveloping me. I could not see ahead of me, not even my feet were visible. I kept on walking very unsure. My eyes felt like it was popping out of my head and my hands were clammy and yeasty like dough rising. I started talking to myself. "It's just fog, I'm safe, why did i take this road?" I kept on walking. My body didnt want to turn around. No I didn't have a watch, let alone a cell phone. I was not sure how long I was on the road. As suddenly as the fog had appeared it poofed into thin air. There it was, my family home, right in font of my eyes. I ran toward it, opened the steel gate my Dad had built and ran double steps to the front door. I turned around and looked back toward the road I had taken. I then realized that " no matter what road I took in life I would always make it home"
All I am thinking, screaming, in my head is where should I turn? Should I try to hide? But I continue to hear large boots behind me crunching onto branches and fallen leaves. Beams of light are flashing through the moonless dark night, illuminating bushes and low hanging tree branches. My heart is pounding uncontrollably in my ears, sweat is trickling down my face and chest as heat rises from my body. I pump my arms and legs harder and harder, don’t slow down, I think, whatever you do not slow down. They are out to get me and I can’t stop running, not yet, I’m not safe.
My feet pound the forest grounds with urgency, in a steady rhythm that cries out danger. People are behind me. People with unknown faces and unknown names.
“Do you see her?”
I want to turn my head around to see where the hunting party is, see how close they are, but I keep running, head straight, hoping, praying, that the man who asked the question with that sharp cold voice is not the one who catches me in the end.
For some reason my feet did not fail me, even though I want to stop, massage my hurt body, breathe again. But the chilled voice terrifies me it makes me question if I will make it home. Instead of stopping my lungs and legs work harder. I keep running, pounding my tired feet onto tired ground, I still hear the men behind me, I still see their flashlights. Scared, lost, and unable to see in the dark, I fall over branches and barely dodge stray limbs of trees. I don’t know where I am going, but I keep moving.
Run! Run! Run! My thoughts screamed in my head. The adrenaline in my body pumps harder and harder. STOP! Before my brain registers that an obstacle is in front of me, I fly through the hedges, tumbling out on the other side.
I slowly pick myself up and find that I have scratches and am bleeding from unknown places. Keep going, I think, but I am in pain from head to toe, and in front of me there is another hedge towering above. I turn my head to the left, then I turn my head to the right. Where can I go? Sweat impatiently pours off of my drenched skin. I hear the voices of men still behind me, lights flickering through the thick hedge I just jumped through.
Run! Run! Run! But I can’t, there is nowhere to go. Wait, my mind shouts, is this a maze? Why is there a maze in the middle of the forest? There is no time to let the thought role through my head because a beam of light hits me in the face.
“There she is,” the owner of the cold voice spoke again.
NO! I run in the direction away from the men. Will I be able to stay away from them? Are they faster than me? Where do I turn next? I can’t see the next turns! I run, arms and legs pumping again, but this time I almost choke as I try to catch my breath. Keep running! At the end of path I make an impromptu left. Where am I going? What will I do when I hit a dead end? The men are right behind me.
Why can’t they catch me? Should I look behind me? No! Don’t look behind! Just keep running!
I run, wanting to stop, needing to stop, my body wished to give up, but I couldn’t. Pain quickly and abruptly shoots through me like an arrow, filling every cell in my body. I slow down. Did they hit me with something?
My thoughts are losing their hurried cries, my brain is becoming slush. I turn right. The thought to run is now being played in my head as slow motion as I barely lift my legs. The men are still behind me. I feel their breath on my neck, heat of the flashlight burning my skin, but no hands grab my arms and legs that no longer pump.
My run becomes a jog. I slowly think, Is this my body giving up?
My turns become sluggish. But still no one catches me. What are they waiting for?
I trip over something invisible on the path as my eyesight begins to deter. My rational thoughts follow suit, jumbling up in my head. And lastly my limbs begin to feel of lead.
JUST, my brain slowly says as my knees sink to the ground. KEEP, the rest of my body hits the earth. RUNNING, my tired eyes drift closed as I think a hazy thought, why can’t I see the next turn?
A minute seemed to pass like an hour. His watch still worked, providing a small connection to reality. He looked up, through the cracked windshield; nothing on this street looked familiar. Pain throbbed in his head with every heartbeat. He felt the goose egg on his head and came away with blood on his fingers, then saw a bloody smear on the side window. A hissing sound in front seemed connected to steam rising from the hood.
He looked at his watch again. 4:13 AM. Shoving open the driver’s side door, he climbed out of the wrecked car. Fresher air out here, away from the gasoline smell inside. Other than his head wound, he wasn’t aware of other injuries. Looking up then down the street, it didn’t seem to matter which way he walked. He shuffled around the car, then continued in the direction he’d been driving. Seemed like progress, since he must have been going that way for a reason.
4:15 AM, his watch said now. He walked through an intersection, the stop light flashing yellow in his direction. All businesses and houses in the area were dark, and he had still seen no one. Up on the left, a block or so away, he saw light coming through a door.
He checked the time again. 4:19 AM. Now drawing up to the lighted door, he saw a few people inside. He took the steps one at a time and pulled open the door. Walking inside, he saw three people wearing uniforms. They all looked at him.
“Sir, how did you get that bump on your head?”, one of them asked.
“I don’t know.”
“What’s your name, sir?”
“I don’t know.”
After I had packed my two allowable suitcases, I packed four boxes of photographs, journals and other irreplaceable items, sold what I wasn't keeping and gave away what was left. I boarded the jumbo jet in Houston, Texas with blind faith and landed 24 hours later, on 1/11/11, in Cape Town, South Africa. I had left everything behind and stepped into the next leg of my life-long journey. Alone.
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