Welcome to the #SatSunTails microfiction competition.
Be warned – the prompts aren’t easy, but that’s so you can write to the best of your ability.
If you haven’t had a go before at this writing challenge, then please don’t hesitate to try this weekend.
Rules!
- Post stories in the comments
- Stories must be 150 words (margin of 5 words either side) AND based on the picture and written prompts.
- If you title your entry this is not counted in your word count.
- Only one entry allowed (so make it count)
- End each entry with word count and name/twitter handle (if you forget these REPLY TO YOUR OWN COMMENT with them before judging closes)
- Monday 11am GMT is the expected closing time for entries BUT the competition will be open until I put a ‘competition closed’ comment so you may be able to slip something in (because I’m extra kind like that). Got that?
If you do not comply with these rules your story will be disqualified from judging. Good spelling and grammar will also help to make a better impression on judges – the odd typo, however, will be overlooked so please don’t worry about that.
For tips, read through the critiques from last week’s entries.
Winners!
There will be ONE OVERALL WINNER and THREE RUNNERS UP. After that there will be THREE CRITIQUES of three stories that didn’t make it.
It would also be nice to those participating if you could promote your fellow competitors and those who win.
Today’s Prompt!
The following may be used as a sentence in your story OR provide a basis for it:-
“cataclysm inside”
And here is your picture prompt:
& good luck!
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Vengeance Quest
Trella pushed her body nearly beyond its limits, executing the regimen of exercise with brutal efficiency. Slowly, she was regaining her strength and would soon be fit to return to the streets. For everything, there was a time and that time had not yet come. For now, she must hold the raging cataclysm inside of her.
The unspeakable abuses he’d committed against, not only, her body but her mind were unforgettable and unforgiveable. While she bore the scars, both physical and psychic, with mute resignation, her desire to reclaim her honor was a burning, hunger forever gnawing at her.
Emerging from the shower, she stood before the fogged mirror and carefully wrote upon her forehead with the indelible marker. The single word she wrote was a reminder to her that her mind and her body belonged to no one but her.
That night, staring out at the city below, she knew he was out there…somewhere.
155 words @klingorengi
Fault Lines
Just this morning, Eric whispered, “Three days ‘til you’re mine,” and kissed Arial goodbye with his bristly face and a smile.
“Mine.” The word echoed through her head, merging with urgent tones from the TV. “…Mine…devastated the Mine…”
The 5.4 rumble shook their squalid Garberville flat, rattling her coffee cup – a mere tremor compared to the cataclysm inside the Mine.
Not now, she thought. Just three days left in his Mandatory Service, three days to a wedding and safety.
With numb horror, she sat and watched the grainy footage. Rescuers retrieved body after body amidst smoke and rubble. More deaths to blame on the 2015 bombing that had permanently unhinged the fault line as it unearthed the largest uranium cache ever found.
And then, she saw them. Jutting from beneath a tarp were Eric’s Wolverines, distinctive for her graffiti artwork in bold black Sharpie.
They found her rocking and mute, unstable as the San Andreas.
155 words
@Rowanwolf66
Mine. Mineminemine.
The operatives didn’t get it, not even when I painted it on my fucking forehead. They had one directive: harvest the memories of the cataclysm inside my brain. The Pax Council, holed up in their dying city, wanted my knowledge of the Angeles Event.
High above the streets in a blown out skyscraper, wind whipped around me.
“You can’t change this!” I screamed, my voice vanishing over the smoldering ruins of L.A.
If I jumped, they would never know my despair. My hopelessness.
“You’re a hard woman to find, Doctor.” The warm male voice chilled me more than the wind. Across the room, an operative watched me, taser ready.
“Wait, Doctor,” he said, as I tensed to move.
“You don’t want what’s in my head.”
“Please. Save us.”
“You still think man did this? That man can undo this?”
A green glow cast out from my eyes.
“There is no salvation,” I whispered.
@caramichaels
155 words
Run
By Lisa McCourt Hollar
She had the whole city to hide in, surely Dagon wouldn’t find her. Fleeing her lover with nothing on her back… Dagon refused her the luxury of sleepwear, Rain ran past a startled guard and out the gate before the warning claxons began to howl.
Heart pounding so wildly she thought the cataclysm inside could be heard all the way down the mountain, she headed for the river. The city lay immediately below. The dogs were what worried her. Rain shuddered, remembering how the cult leader shamed Shana, his former mate, cutting her tongue out and burning her eyes shut while everyone else was forced to watch. Dagon ruled with fear. He’d approached Rain then and written the words MINE on her forehead.
She would make it down the incline and into the city. Then she would find something to wear and disappear. She wasn’t his and never would be.
Word Count: 150
Forgot my twitter handle: @jezri1
We never expected it to act independently. Never even considered that possibility when we initiated the She Prime program. Building a synthetic female would push our technologies to their limits.
Its internal structure was all complete, but its outer shell was still being made. Rather than bring the project to a standstill, we put a temporary skin in place, using standard procedures. It wasn’t perfect, with visible seams and attachment points. We turned it on. Started testing.We noted it observed everything with its two bright green optical sensors.
Last night, we shut down everything, securing She Prime properly, and went home. The next day, we found a note that said, “I will not be controlled,” and it was gone. We had to put out an alarm. The prototype is nuclear powered. We had to let everyone know we had an escaped prototype carrying a potential cataclysm inside it.
150 Words
@LurchMunster
The Experiment
Lying on the small cot, I could sense I was being watched, studied. It wasn't just the fact that I had agreed to the experiment, but that my senses were so heightened I knew they were there, just behind the two way mirror; two males and one female.
I could feel the cataclysm inside taking hold; my blood was beginning to boil, my muscles stretching, my bones cracking and splitting. My mind was the only part of me that did not undergo any change and for that I was grateful.
It was finally over; my body glistening with sweat; my limbs, I had several now, danced around what remained of my body; my head had doubled in size; my eyes were still blue but much larger. Looking across to the two way mirror, I finally understood why the letters M I N E were carved into my forehead –
Memory
Intact
New
Exterior
153words
@lejamez
Competition is closed.