Today’s Picture Prompt
Today’s Word Prompt!
The following may be used as a sentence in your story OR provide a basis for it:-
“leaving delirium”
Read on for the rules!
Rules!
- You may enter as soon as this post appears.
- Post entries in the comments – you may simultaneously display them on your personal blog etc but please show a link back to this competition post.
- Stories must be 150 words – margin of 5 words either side – AND based on the picture and written prompts.
- Entry titles do not count towards the word count.
- Only one entry per entrant.
- 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 usual 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 judge/s – 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.
The Judge
This week’s judge is…
That’s right. This week it’s me. Sorry to disappoint, but if you are interested in being a judge then please send me an email on the address supplied on my contact page.
How You Can Help
Give a +1 or a tumblr reblog or click the ‘tweet this’ link up on the right hand side or share from the facebook fan page or retweet from my twitter page to spread the word.
Or, even better, go on the #SatSunTails twitter search results and retweet other entrants.
The more people that hear about #SatSunTails, the more entries there are and the better the competition becomes!
So What Are You Waiting For?
Go on. Have a go!
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It isn't real, she told herself, yet the sensations were all too vivid.
This was more real than the serene, smiling mask she'd once worn, ignoring the growing cracks until it shattered beyond repair. She could no longer pretend, not while doctors held her here, trying to piece her back together.
She watched her hands harden into porcelain. Her body shook, forming cracks. It didn't hurt. A doll couldn't feel, after all… so why was panic consuming her?
Her face started to go numb. Splintering filled her ears. She lifted one stiff hand to her cheek, and a shard came away. The fissures widened as she forced her mouth open and screamed.
Footsteps sounded. The door burst open, and a hand rested on her shoulder. "Try to calm down. Breathe," a woman's voice urged.
Upon leaving delirium, the cracks disappeared and porcelain became flesh. Warm tears ran down her cheeks. Her facade truly had fallen.
Pippa Jane – 155 words
When Compassion's a weakness …
Leaving Delirium was easier than he'd thought.
Though she scratched at her wrists, screamed like a banshee, Damian was out of guilt this time. And he was prepared, with his typewriter in a suitcase, through the bathroom window and down the fire-escape, Del *still* bellowing at the locked door. There was nothing she could threaten that she hadn't tried. Damian chuckled at the 'drinking bleach' one, remembering the shampoo indecent.
Completely cracked.
Street-level, night was revving up. Crowded, steaming tenements leaned in on him, sirens blared. Hustle and sleaze pitches that once seemed real were now filled with Boxing Day inadequacy. Time to move on.
Waiting at the bus depot, fresh meat disembarked.
'Go back,' he croaked at one forlorn woman, though she blinked through him, and into the meat grinder.
But, for him, it was enough. Delerium hadn't robbed him of all compassion. Not intact, but it had survived.
@gethinmorgan 154 words
Unbalancing Act
Lydia dry-swallowed her pills, grimacing at the unpleasant coppery aftertaste they left behind. She’d had the last two with a healthy swallow of bourbon, which had proven…unpleasant but what else was she to do? Everyone knew the government put experimental chemicals into the water supply so that was hardly an option.
Chinese food…she needed Chinese food. Rubber ducks…now who ever came up with the idea of crafting ducks out of rubber?
Caramel corn…hopscotch…jabberwocky…twaddle!
She could feel her tenuous hold on reality slipping away…again and didn’t much care that any semblance of lucidity was departing her locale on the 11:15 train to somewhere the Hell else…yep, it was egressing…shuffling off to Buffalo…leaving.
Delirium, dementia and psychosis were, after all, her three bestest besties in life and she certainly couldn’t afford to neglect her friends, now could she?
Tangerine…wiffle ball…skorts..cream cheese!
Yeah, she giggled, it was gonna be another one of those surreal Saturday nights in Lydialand.
155 words @klingorengi
The rose is nearly dead. Three more petals and my time will come….
It wasn't really a choice. We all knew what I'd do. I mean, when offered your every dream, don't you take it? At all costs. And isn't energy required? With no energy there's no magic.
A simple nod of the head was enough, no voice needed. Not with Silena's screams reverberating throughout the room. I can still hear that scream, instantly cut off by the touch of his hand. It haunts me. I never want to hear it again, and yet, she's so beautiful — like the day she went under. Me? Not so much. I've aged. More than most. Success requires it's own tole.
She stirs now, the unwilling sacrifice for my good fortune. Just murmurs, incoherent threats. Oh she will scream. With every petal falling, she's leaving delirium behind. Her power grows. Will she forgive?
One more petal fell today.
@Leo_Godin – 155 words
Hazy sunshine and wide grins. A glinting ring. Bubbles in glass flutes. Rose tinted memories. Pure delirium.
I was handed the mirror. Relatives and doctors smiling encouragingly. Bright lights. The scent of flowers almost. I glanced down. My smile cracked.
Jagged, angry lines traced across my cheeks and neck. A torrent of memories came crashing down around me, no rose tint this time. My smile cracked, a tear traced down my cheek.
Hazy sunshine and wide, angry eyes. A glinting shattered bottle. Screams. Shouts. 20:20.
They rushed to comfort me. Hands on shoulders, empty platitudes. All I wanted was him. His arms…. gentle kisses… soothing words.
I had been happy. I had been happy.
I saw him again. Behind glass, flanked by security guards. Men in robes and wigs asked me probing questions. A bench of 12 strangers rubbernecking.
He got two years. I got life. I smiled, leaving delirium behind.
Better.
Kathryn Rebecca – 153 words
Exit stage…doesn’t matter. The bicolored eyes should have given her away. I was too enthralled by her beauty to notice.
One fact, Werecats are violent. Don’t cross them.
“Save yourself,” she yelled at my retreating back.
My motif operandi is to flee violence, then again, I’m easily taunted. I stopped short, whirled, and withdrew the thin rod housing more than the heartstring of a dragon.
“I am a wizard," I said stiffening my back. My intent, flick the wrist, a smidge of forbidden magic, slay my enemy.
I fell to my knees.
My folly…it wasn’t the Werecat I should have worried for, but the pixie disguised as a flower. Lethal magic stopped my heart as Delirium smiled those jagged pointed teeth.
My demise was in leaving her, not in leaving the Werecat. My epitaph would read, here lies a fool who couldn’t see the truth through the cracks of lies.
@fetterslopez
word count 151
The family house Delirium was always the place where my fears came to life. I’m not talking figuratively either.
As I walk through, I feel cobwebs brush across my face; hear the crunch of dead bugs beneath my feet. If only I could have just had the house torn down before walking through it…stupid regulations.
The house is exactly as I remember it…well minus the dead bugs. I step through the last room…my old room. A rat scurries from under the bed as the floor creaks under my weight.
I see it before I brace myself for the future reality it will show. I look into the mirror and see my blue and green eyes staring back at me, cracks forming across my face. I brush my hand across my face and feel that the mirror has now become reality.
As the cracks form, I know I will never be leaving delirium.
Kaylee Hamelink
word count – 152
Norma Jean’s Delerium
By Lisa McCourt Hollar
What happened was her mama’s doing. Woman had her sights set on Hollywood and Norma Jeanne was gonna be a star. Yeah, she named her after Marilyn, even tried to make her look like the starlet. When Norma turned 21, there wasn’t anything real about her, including her eye color. That’s when Norma started seeing things.
Her mama’s solution… have her drugged. “All the stars are a little insane, Norma Jean, but if we want to get to Hollywood, you need to leave some of that delirium behind.”
Turns out the drugs had side effects. One day Norma Jean started screamin’ there were bugs under her skin, grabbed some scissors and started cutting her face. When her mama tried to stop her… well, she did become famous, what with the trial and all. Her mama was right though, she did make it to Hollywood. She’s been here ever since, Hollywood Hills Sanitarium’s most famous resident.
Word Count: 155
@jezri1
Competition is now closed!