The Luckiest Girl of All

I wrote this story for a contest with the theme "lucky". There were no further directions than that. This story is purely fictional, and it's maybe a little different than the style I've been using.

The Luckiest Girl of All

     The room was unnaturally quiet for a change. The students were busy taking their midterm exams, and Maria paced the aisles, searching for cheat sheets and wandering eyes. She had warned them sternly to turn off their cell phones before the test, so when hers started ringing loudly from her desk at the front of the room, every eye was on her. Some clucked their tongues, and others giggled. Her face grew hot as she rushed to turn the thing off.

     “Sorry,” she whispered while fumbling for the phone. She silenced it and returned to her pacing.

Fly on the Wall

I wrote this story in the past few days for a contest. The theme is "invading privacy". The notion of what it would be like to be able to be inside someone else's mind has always intrigued me, much like a fly on the wall in another's consciousness. I'm still working on it, but here's what I have so far.

Fly on the Wall

     I was always a bit too curious about other people. I often wondered, or even obsessed, about what drove them, what their innermost truths were. I don’t know what prompted this unnatural inquisitiveness, but sometimes it took hold of my attention like the jaws-of-life to a wrecked car, incessantly pulling and prodding until its contents were ultimately released. Wide-eyed on many nights, sleep but a whisper of hope extinguished by my churning speculations, I wished I could be a fly on the wall in others’ minds, sharing their secrets and desires, understanding their motivations, making sense of those I found senseless. However, when I finally got the chance, the experience was not what I imagined. It was much more terrifying.

Under the Milky Way

I wrote this story recently, after an experience similar to the one in the story. I had to get an MRI because of a weird buzzing in my ear. However, my ending was a lot better than the main character's in the story!

I may enter this one into a thriller/suspense contest. I was trying to write a horror story, but I don't think it fits that genre as well. What do you think?
　

Under the Milky Way

            “You’re going whether you like it or not!” Randall’s mother bellowed over the phone, but the buzzing noise in his ear drowned out her high-pitched voice almost completely.

            “You don’t understand,” he said with an exasperated sigh. “Final exams start in just three days. I have to study!”

            “Yes, you do need to pull those grades up, but the MRI is already scheduled for this afternoon. I can’t just change it at the last minute. So, I’ll pick you up at two sharp.”

Soul Crossing - Prologue

This is the prologue to a novel I've been working on for the past two years. I thought I'd lost it when my old computer died, but thankfully, I found it again recently! I think I'll keep at it.

Synopsis

During the biggest snowstorm to hit Detroit in years, two cars collide on the black ice shrouding Davina’s Bridge. In that instant, the souls of the drivers intertwine, repeating the tragic events that befell Davina and her lover so many years before. Trent walks away unscathed while Kendra suffers severe injuries, falling into a coma for nearly three weeks. When she awakens, she is paralyzed from the neck down and unable to speak more than a whisper. In a world completely out of her control, she must rely on her increasingly distant fiancé, the despondent nurse assigned to her and the cop who risked everything to rescue her.

When Kendra enters a dream world induced by the myriad of drugs coursing through her IV, she finds herself as an observer in Trent’s mind, unable to do anything but watch as he plans the perfect murder.

Trapped in the insidious state of Trent’s diminishing sanity, Kendra must find a way to stop him before he exacts a revenge that will shatter the lives of many.

April's Fool

Here is a short story I wrote recently in response to a prompt about finding something unexpected in your glove compartment when pulled over for speeding. It had to be less than 725 words, which was quite challenging, but ultimately made it pretty concise. Hope you enjoy!

April’s Fool

     If Sophie’s hair hadn’t turned orange, I would never have thought I’d have to marry her creepy brother.

      We were getting ready for the biggest party of the year, and her hair was downright polka-dotted a sickening shade of tangerine. I tried not to laugh. But when she looked up at me with sheer panic, I couldn’t contain myself.

Mommy's Coming

This was my entry for the WritersWeekly.com 24-Hour Short Story Contest. I had to respond to a prompt given at a certain time and had 24 hours to write and submit my story in 925 words or less.

Here is the contest prompt I had to write about:

She was standing on the porch of a sagging cabin with bright yellow leaves collecting around her feet. As the cold wind billowed her skirt, she shivered and wondered if the owner of the purse really lived here. She knocked timidly and the door quickly opened, revealing a tiny girl holding a hideous, bald doll...

Here's what I came up with:

Mommy's Coming!

     "He still doesn't think my boobs are big enough. I just can't seem to win with him, you know?"

     "Hmm..." Derek said, trying to look elsewhere. Instead, he focused on the box she held with ribbons cascading down the front. "Why don't you put your gift on that table and perhaps we'll discuss this later."

     As the woman sauntered away, Derek heard giggling behind him. "They just don't leave you alone, do they?"

     Derek turned to find his sister-in-law wielding a large knife. "Guess not. You would think that even though I'm a psychiatrist, my wife's baby shower would be off-limits."

Magnificently Magnified

Here is another story I wrote for a contest. The deadline had already passed, but I wrote a story anyway just for fun. It's a bit twisted, but I liked how it came out. What do you think?

Here is the contest prompt:

She always kept the object safe and close to her. Mama made her repeat the promise over and over again during those last days. "I will never show it to a living soul. I will never show it to a living soul."

She cried about Mama less now, not as much as she had before. She was missing Mama now as she did each night when she removed her scuffed shoes. She then carefully peeled the gray sock off her foot, and waited for the familiar object to fall out. Nothing happened. Panicked, she quickly turned her sock inside-out. It was gone.

Here is what I came up with:

Magnificently Magnified

     I am Alex, the one in charge. Even when the others take over, I pull the strings from the balcony.

     I dial 911 and wait for the dispatcher to ask the nature of my emergency.

     “There’s a car fire on Interstate 27, right past the Love Ranch on the southbound side,” I say with mild panic. After the dispatcher promises to send out a patrol car, I click off and throw the disposable phone into the woods behind me. I wait patiently.

The Dead Man's Letter

This story I wrote for a contest, but I decided not to submit it yet. I think it needs a bit of work. It had to be less than 4000 words, and I had some difficulty getting across what I wanted to in that word count. So, now I'm debating whether to expand the story into something more significant or try to cut it down to submit for the contest. I like the idea, anyway... Oh, by the way, it's actually based on a true story. Something somewhat similar happened to me. I got a letter from an inmate in prison, but it was to the wrong person!

The Dead Man’s Letter

     The only joy in my miserable life was my daughter Ariana. Each day when I went to pick her up from nursery school, I felt almost human. On a warm Friday in April, I was in a panic because my boss at my new job kept me after and I was terrified I wouldn’t have dinner ready in time. I rushed to fetch Ariana, thinking of some sort of meal I could throw together quickly, when the playground teacher stopped me.

Dropping Eve

I wrote this story recently. Imagine if you overheard someone on their cell phone plotting to kill someone. What would you do?

Dropping Eve

     Senility had embraced my mother with great fervor, and her latest pastime was sending me odd and unnecessary gadgets she saw on television. Every week or two, I could look forward to another package waiting in my mailbox. There was the special dog collar that controlled excessive noise. What a clever and useful item, if only I owned a dog. Then, there was the pickle picker-upper, to prevent one from getting their hand caught in a pickle jar. That was certainly a common problem that needed a remedy costing $9.95 plus shipping and handling. My favorite was the bra extender, which would have been perfect if my size A breasts would ever suddenly bloom into a size B. Then, such an item would surely come in handy. If she hadn’t sent the latest must-have gizmo, I may have never killed the blonde girl with the pink beret.

The Meaning of Perfection

The Meaning of Perfection

     None of the day’s events would have happened if the new nanny hadn’t called in sick. At 6:30 that morning, as Dr. Mika Landis stirred from a deep sleep filled with disturbing dreams, her new AppleSoft MindPhone announced loudly that she had an important call. Before she could figure out how to turn it off, Jania’s sickly voice was on the line, interrupted by bouts of coughing, apologizing profusely that she couldn’t make it there that day. Jania had only been with them for a few weeks, so it came as a surprise that she was already asking for a day off. Normally, Mika would have taken the news in stride, but she had two satellite radio interviews and a DTV show to do and it wasn’t a great day to be so highly inconvenienced. What was she going to do with Zendra now?

Death Quotient - Part 1 - Chapter 1

Below is the beginning of another novel I've been working on. It's in a very rough form right now, but I think it has many possibilities...

Death Quotient

Synopsis

A reality show like no other has aired all across the country. What makes this particular show unique? Its contestants are unwilling participants, a group of citizens kidnapped from their daily lives and forced to be the stars of the show. And now it is up to the voters to determine which contestant should die each week and how their lives should be ended. It is up to the other contestants to enforce the punishment that the voters decide, or they shall pay the consequences.

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PART ONE – The Tragedy at Limelight Bay

Chapter One

     “I just can’t do this anymore!” a tearful blonde said as she hovered for a moment of privacy in her tent. Her face flushed redder than her persistent sunburn, and she wiped at her eyes with shame. The more she tried to stop the steady flow, the harder her tears fell.

     She tried to control her breathing, repeating the same mantra to herself over and over. “This will be over soon. You can do it. This will be over soon. You can do it.” The more she told herself this, the insipid self-doubt that was always lurking beneath her confident facade denied her the ability to calm down. Instead, she grew more agitated.