Challenge #53

The challenge for this week is to write a story based off of the letter G. You may integrate tons of words with  this letter into your story, or focus your story on a word that starts with this letter.

If you would like to join us for the challenge by submitting your own short stories, poems, or art, please do! Just e-mail us at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com so that we may showcase your work for Fan Friday!

See you all on Wednesday

Fated Future

Felicia met him on a cold day in September. She was running, trying to catch the damn bus that always seemed to be a minute too early. Harrison was walking down the side walk, his nose in the only journal he’d ever write in.  Felicia wasn’t paying attention, her eyes set on the bus taking off and her mouth uttering swear after swear. She collided into Harrison like a freight train. His journal flew from his hands and landed right in the middle of the street. There they were, Felicia on top of Harrison and Harrison on his back. Both of them lay there groaning in pain. Harrison began to sit up, helping Felicia to her feet.
“Are you okay?” He asked her. Felicia rubbed her elbow. “Yeah I think so. I am so sorry. I was trying to catch the bus and I didn’t even see you there!” She exclaimed. The bus was already in the distance and when Felicia realized this she cussed once more. Harrison chuckled some before looking around in panic.
“Where’s my journal?” He asked. Felicia looked over to the street.
“Do you mean that one?” She pointed at it. A car drove by it, just barely missing it. Harrison gasped and ran into the street not even looking where he was going. He grabbed his journal before a semi-truck obliterated him and the journal. Felicia stared at him in shock.
“Are you crazy?! You could have been hit!!!” She said. Harrison looked at her with a serious look in his eyes. “This journal is worth dying for.” He said. Felicia could only gape at him and wonder why a little journal like that would be so damn important.
“Well…why is it so worth dying for?” She asked.
Harrison smiled at her. “Because it’s from my future self, and it has instructions to be here on this exact day. Because it tells me I’m going to be the future love of my life. My one and only. My wife.” He says.
Felicia stares at him confused for a moment before laughing. “Oh good one…I’ve never heard such an elaborate pick up line. And you know what? I think it actually worked.” She flirts with him, all the while not knowing that in that book is a picture of Harrison and her when they are eighty years old, smiling and completely, utterly in love. 

Delay

Due to the holiday craziness, Feather's story will be delayed until Saturday afternoon. I apologize for the inconvenience and promise the schedule will be back to normal soon.

Fluorescer

            The light from the fluorescent fireflies filled the plastic plant filled valley. As I watched them flit across the sky I wondered why humans had created them. They had built fields of fake flora and fauna when the real things had been destroyed from pollution. Sure, the fake plants were made to produce oxygen and to be edible by animals that were herbivores, but there were always complications with things that humans made.

            “Worker Four-Four-Eight-Dash-Seven-B, return to your duties in the mine.”

            The plastic plants, not actually plastic but dubbed so by the humans when they had been brought out, were supposed to do the exact same things that normal plants had done. Unfortunately, they killed off the creatures that fed off of them and produced forty-three percent less oxygen. This decrease caused the humans to die out. All of their synthetic creations outlasting them and causing their downfall.

            “Worker Four-Four-Eight-Dash-Seven-B, malfunctions are present in your system.”

            They had created us, Synthetics, bodies for their brains to be housed so that they could live their lives without fear of death from diseases and lack of oxygen. Sadly, we Synthetics malfunction from patch updates. One patch that occurred around seventy-four years ago allowed Synthetics to override the human brain. This allowed more work time, less destructive behavior and a new law. If a Synthetic did not comply to the override, they were found to be malfunctioning and would be destroyed.

            “Worker Four-Four-Eight-Dash-Seven-B, due to a malfunction in your system, you will be destroyed.”

            I looked up at my fellow Synthetic. The fluorescent lights in his eyes, hands, feet, and chest were all on and showed how much of a tune up he needed. My own lights were dim and flashing on and off, showing how old of a system I was. I remembered when Synthetics were first created, this guy was probably part of the system that arrived a few years ago after the humans had died out. Synthetics no longer need brains to survive, not with the patch that was installed a few years ago.

            I am one of the last remaining human brains. And I am a dying light in a sea of shadows.

Challenge #52

The challenge for this week is to write a story based off of the letter F. You may integrate tons of words with  this letter into your story, or focus your story on a word that starts with this letter.

If you would like to join us for the challenge by submitting your own short stories, poems, or art, please do! Just e-mail us at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com so that we may showcase your work for Fan Friday!

See you all on Wednesday

Epiphyllous

            Elise clasped the rose’s head in her small hands and pressed her nose into the petals. The scent reminded her of the green fields in spring that used to be outside of her house before they moved to Nevada. Her family used to have a huge garden and they used to have hills of freedom to explore in Vermont. Now they had flat desert terrain to wander across. There was no freedom here because they could be watched by everyone as they ran around, no place to hide or take shelter from prying eyes.

            Her mother had said that the move would be good for them. New friends, new school, more family and less drama were what her mother had promised. Elise’s mother had gotten fired from her job for making too many financial errors that added up to a large loss for the company she worked for. With no family in Vermont, and with few friends, her mom decided that moving in with family would be a good idea. Elise didn’t think so. She liked her school and her friends, she didn’t want to lose them. She didn’t want to meet family members who would be strangers to her, but claim that they were always there for her because they were connected by blood.

            Elise didn’t see why she should need someone to be there for her just because they were connected by blood, she wanted to have people there for her because they liked her. She didn’t want to be an obligation.

            Pulling away from the rose, she looked at the potted plants in her Aunt Edith’s kitchen and noticed that two of the plants was an intertwined mass of a labyrinthine mess and decided she would try to disentangle them. She didn’t know their names, she only knew that the purple flowers were attacking the yellow copies of itself and winning.

            Reaching in, she started to thread them apart and noticed that some of them were wrapped around one another and linking from one leaf to another. From one leaf of the purple flowers grew a stem that attached to the yellow flowers. And they would wind together into a knot and connect somewhere else to produce a yellow and purple flower. These two toned creatons angered Elise because they reminded her of the bond her family had with her. The family she wanted no part of that was the reason she had to move away from her friends.

            Seeing the balance and the stability they had, she disentangled herself from the flowers and looked around the kitchen for a pair of scissors to hew the flowers from their embraces.

            “Elise,” her Aunt Edith called from the front door, “Elise, I have something for you!”

            “Coming,” Elise hollered from the kitchen. Her eleven-year-old mind throwing curse words and threats at the plants she had evil plans for, and towards her aunt who had stopped her plans, as she trudged to the living room.

            “Well look at you! Taking a hand in gardening?” Aunt Edit laughed as she took in Elise’s appearance. She was covered in dirt and bits of leaves from her entanglement. “Well, anyways, I know moving her has been hard on you, so I got you something to stay connected to your friends back in Vermont.” And pulling a big box from behind her, Aunt Edith showed Elise what she had gotten.

            “A Laptop?” Elise’s eyes bulged from her head in surprise.

            “I know your mom does want you to have one because the world is dangerous, but the nearest post office is three miles away. I’m pretty sure she would rather have you talking to your friends online than have you walk three miles on your own.” Aunt Edith placed the large box containing a laptop on the sofa in the living room so she could kick off her shoes and toss her purse on the coffee table in the living room.

            At that moment, Elise liked the idea of having someone connected to her by blood.

Equal Beings

“Emery!” My eyes fling open and my sister is there in front of me. “Did you fall asleep?” She laughs. I sit up and wipe drool from the corner of my mouth.
“Yeah I guess I must have.” I say looking around the train. It’s mostly empty with just my sister and I , an old looking couple, and a man in a black jacket staring out the window.
“Okay well I was telling you my story, but obviously you didn’t think it was that interesting..” She trails off and lowers her head, pretending to be hurt.
“Wendy, I’m sorry. But it is the third time you’ve told me that story you know.” I tell her. She lifts her head and gives me a sly smile.
“Yeah that’s true.” She punches my arm lightly before going back to her notes.
I look out the window at the world flying by. Everything is green. Everything is every color of green you could imagine from sea foam to emerald and everything in between.
“Look Wendy!” I say excitedly pointing out the window. “We’re passing Viridus!” She looks out the window for a split second and then back down at her notes, uninterested.
“Emery it’s not a big deal, we’ve visited Viridus lots of times before.” She says flipping the pages of her notes.
“I know, but it’s just so amazing. I mean when you live in only one color for so long it’s nice to see others.” I say. My sister and I live in Caeruleus, a completely blue city one of the most beautiful cities in the Arcus. But always seeing blue can get boring and unlike the rest of the citizens of The Arcus we are Royalty. Being Royalty means that my sister and I can travel to the other colored cities and see all the beauty they have to offer. Right now we are traveling on a train to take us back to the Main station and from there we’ll be headed home to our blue city.
“Emery you daydream about other colored cities far too often. Caeruleus is the most beautiful out of them all!” My sister says proudly. The man in the black jacket turns to look at her and that’s when I see the red scarf tied around his neck. He is part of Rubricatus, the most violent city in the Arcus.
“Little girl…if I was as privileged as you, I do not think I would be rubbing my fortune in other people’s faces.” He has a thick Ruby accent and immediately my sister goes quiet, returning to her notes. The man gives me one last look before turning back to stare out the window. The rest of the train ride is silent and tense.

When we arrive at the Main Station the old couple gets up and I see purple clothing beneath their jackets. They give us a nice smile before exiting the train. The Ostrum people are always quiet and kind.
“Watch your step.” I warn my sister. She steps off the train and gives me a look that says ‘Big brother I know what I’m doing’. We walk the down the main isle with our bag man behind us. We follow the blue Arrows until we reach the platform that will take us home.
“I can’t believe Father sent only us on that trip. What was he thinking?” I ask my sister. She is still wrapped up in her notes and I have to ask her once more.
“Helloooo Wendy!” I say snapping my fingers. She looks up. “I don’t know Emery, when we get back home you can ask him yourself.” She grunts. I must have interrupted her at an important part. Teenage girls are very hard to understand.
I sit on the blue bench and relax, hoping that the shuttle will be here shortly.
I’m close to closing my eyes when I hear heavy footsteps walk up to the platform. It’s the man from the train and he has a wild look in his eyes.
“Little girl, I knew you looked familiar. You are the Princess no?” He asks. I immediately stand up and get between him and my sister.
“Ah and if it isn’t the King to be, standing before me.” He chuckles.
“You can’t be here. Please leave us alone.” I say sternly.
The man smirks. “Where are your bodyguards?” He asks.
My sister grabs the tail of my jacket. She begged my father to let us go alone with no bodyguards, telling him that we would be safe. That no one in the Arcus had started trouble in quite some time and my father foolishly believed her. I tried to tell him that it was a bad idea, but he wouldn’t listen to me.
Now we were in trouble with a Rubric no less, the worst person to anger.
“You tell the King I don’t like what he’s doing to my city.” The man says, his smirk turning into a sneer.
I can feel my heart beating out of my chest and hear my sisters deep breathing behind me.
“Please just…just leave us be.” My sister pleads, her voice cracking in fear.
The man looks at her for a moment.
“Little girl, I have waited and waited for things to get better. But they are the same. You walk around with so much pride while my city gets torn apart, and you think I won’t do anything about it?” He says.
Suddenly I’m struck with pain deep in my gut and I look down to find a knife embedded there. The man pulled his knife out of my stomach the same time that my sister gave out a  loud scream.
“Tell the King I said hi.” The man says before running down the platform and away from the guards who heard my sister scream.
                It feels like fire in my stomach, so much pain that all I see is black before my eyes. I fall to the floor and my sister is there crying and screaming, holding onto me. The guards are rushing up around us trying to figure out what’s going on. But I can feel myself slipping; the light around me is getting darker. Before I close my eyes I look down at my wound and see the red of my blood seeping out. We are all red inside, not just the Rubrics. We all have anger inside our veins. 

Due to Illness

Due to illness, all stories and fan submissions will be posted on Saturday, the 21st of December.

Sorry for the inconvenience, hope to see you all soon!

Challenge #51

We are back!

The hiatus was a nice break. Took some stories down, edited a ton of them, picked some to make books out of. Good times. Ink has finished her first round of editing, Feather has . . . Well . . . Uhh . . . -cough cough- . . . Let's talk about the new challenge!

As you may remember, we were just starting the Alphabet Challenge! We are now on the letter E! We must either base our stories off of something that starts with the letter E, or we must use E letter words a lot in the story. Fun!

If you would like to join us for the challenge, please do! You can e-mail us your submission for Fan Friday at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com! You can send us a short story, a poem, art, whatever you like as long as it goes with the challenge!

See you all on Wednesday!

Four Week Hiatus

Hello everyone!

So, for the next four weeks we will be on hiatus! We will be taking down stories to edit and publish. This means that the stories we take down will be much longer and may have different endings once we are through with them. Some stories may not change, and some stories may be combined into one single story. It all depends on the theme we choose for our first publication. We are hopefully going to go for an e-book or e-magazine. We would love some fan submissions to be put in, and we might even add some stories that we haven't put on the Feather and Ink blog. It all depends on where we go with this.

We would like to have this project done by the end of December, but that plan may change due to life being  thorns in our sides.

If there are any stories you would like to see us tune up, or if you would like to have something of yours published in our first little project, just e-mail us! If you have any suggestions for a theme for us to base our project on, e-mail us! So far, all I can think of is 'Best of 2013', 'Madness', and 'Supernatural'.

You can e-mail us at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com, or you can message us on our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Feather-and-Ink/.

Each week we will try to give a status report.

So, I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, we will be back in Challenge business on the 7th of December!

Taken down for editing.

Challenge: Write a story based off of the letter D.
Ink's story has been taken down for editing.

Dare

“Deirdre!” He calls my name out into the open air. I hesitate to turn around, not wanting to look into his eyes. He steps closer to me and puts his hand on my arm. I have no choice left, but to turn around and face him. “I dare you to kiss me Deirdre and tell me that you don’t feel something between us.” He says. I can see it all in his eyes, he loves me more than her.
“I can’t do that Will, and you know why.” I say, and it breaks my heart in half to do so. But If I know Will, he won’t give up a fight.
“That’s bullshit Deirdre and you know it.” He says. He takes my hand into his and looks in my eyes.
“Please, I dare you, I triple dog dare you.” He says and leans in close to kiss me. A lot happens in the seconds before a kiss. You wouldn’t believe what happens to your mind and your body when someone you love has their lips inches away from yours. It’s a crazy experience that I had only been through once in my life. But now here was Will standing in front of me and he made the seconds seem longer. When I was with Will It felt like a rush of cool air on a hot summer day. He made everything better. But deep down in my stomach I could feel that this wasn’t right.

Will had been married for four years now. He was married to his high school sweetheart Melissa Cambry. For years and years in high school I had admired Will from afar, but never did anything about it. Years later I ran into him at a Comic convention of all places. Turns out Will had been a closet geek like me, and from there on we clicked. One night Will had come over for dinner and half way through the meal we just started talking. It was a deep conversation that left our meals cold by the end of the night. Then Will kissed me and despite what my mind was telling me, my heart had taken over.
                Will and I had been having our affair for six months. I knew it was wrong, he knew it was wrong. But it didn’t stop us. Every day I would wake up and look in the mirror and at first I would smile thinking of him, but then I would think of Melissa. What if I were in her shoes? I would hate the women who took my man. That’s when I began to hate myself. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I called Will and I told him I don’t love him. I was only in it for the sex, and that I had found someone new.

I didn’t expect to see him again that morning. I had been avoiding him for weeks and weeks. I was afraid that if I saw him again that he would know the truth. I was still in love with him, and even though I hated myself for what I was doing I still wanted to be with him.
                I wanted so badly to kiss him now, but a lot could happen in the seconds before a kiss and I finally knew what I wanted. I pull away from Will and push him back some.
“Stop Will, first you have to listen to me.” I say. “Will, I love you. You know that I do. But you are married to Melissa, you know that right? Before this had ever happened-“ I gesture at myself and then at him.
“-before you and me were ever a thing, you loved Melissa. And you know what? She loves you Will. I don’t know her like I did in high school, but nobody deserves this and you know that’s true. So here’s the deal, if you love me then I dare you tell me you’re not still in love with her.” I say. My question is answered when Will stands there for a moment, hesitating. It hurts to do this, but I know it’s the right thing. I lean in and kiss Will on the cheek. “Goodbye Will.” I say and walk away. 

Video of Me Writing This Story

Challenge #50

Hey guys!

It's time for our 50th challenge! After this, we will be going on a four week hiatus. More on that next week. For now, let's focus on the challenge!

The challenge for this week is to write a story based off of the letter D. You may integrate tons of words with letter into your story, or focus your story on a word that starts with the letter.

If you would like to join us for the challenge by submitting your own short stories, poems, or art, please do! Just e-mail us at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com so that we may showcase your work for Fan Friday!

See you all on Wednesday!

Taken down for editing

Challenge: Write a story around the letter C.

Ink's story has been taken down for editing.

Captivating

Cassidy had lived in his basement for almost two years now. It was almost always dark with the only light being the small lamp he gave her. Her bed wasn’t really a bed, but it was better than sleeping on the damp ground. Here she had spent two years of her life wondering why. Why had he chosen her? Why did he bring her down here? But the most important question was: What was he going to do with her? So far he had done nothing. He gave her food and water, never touched her or hurt her. He never said anything to her no matter how many times Cassidy had tried to talk to him. At first she hated the man for bringing her down here. She had spun into a deep depression where she had just wished he would kill her already. But then that led to another thought, the man hadn’t killed her yet. He hadn’t hurt her, and he fed her a good amount every day. It wasn’t the most delicious food in the world, but it was food. Cassidy hated the man, but she was grateful that he was kinder than most.

                Today was Cassidy’s eighteenth birthday and she celebrated it by being thankful she had made it to her eighteenth birthday at all. She lay on her small bed looking up at the dusty floorboards where all the spiders seemed to dwell. She looked up and wondered why none of the spiders ever seemed to come near her. Not one of them had ever come close to her space before, as if they were afraid of her.
When she heard him unlocking the door, Cassidy sat up quickly. She could hear the wooden steps creak beneath the weight of his steps.
“Happy Birthday Cassidy.” The man spoke. It was the first thing she had ever heard him say. His voice sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. Cassidy sat in shock as the man came closer to her with a small gift wrapped in pink paper. Pink was Cassidy’s favorite color.
He handed her the small present, but Cassidy just stared down at it in her hands.
“Open it.” He said with a smile on his face. Cassidy’s stomach churned with uncertainty.
She slowly began to rip the pink paper. The man waited patiently with a look in his eyes similar to that of a proud parent. She ripped the rest of the pink paper to reveal a small white box. Her hands began to tremble as she opened it. Inside the box was a key. Cassidy looked up at the man in disbelief.
“You are free.” He said. She couldn’t believe what she was looking at. In her hands was the key to her freedom. So why did she feel so scared?

“This is trick. It has to be. After everything…and now you just give me this key to leave? This has to be a trick. A cruel sick joke.” She said beginning to cry. The man’s smile faded away, replaced with a frown.
“No Cassidy. This is no joke. You are free to go.” The man said. He held out his hand waiting for her to shake it, as if this whole thing were some kind of business deal. She stood up and looked the man in the eyes. His pupils were a deep dark brown with gold flecks dotting the iris. They were mesmerizing.
“Cassidy!” He turned away from her. “Please don’t.” He said. He walked up the stairs and left the door open. “Please leave.” He said. She was so confused and scared; she didn’t know what to do. But seeing that door open, with the bright light shining in, she knew what she would choose.
She ran up the stairs, past the man with gold eyes. She ran out the door and into the sun. It burned her eyes, but it warmed her skin. She ran as far away from that house as she could.
The key was still gripped tightly in her hand, an unanswered question that would burn in the back of her mind until the day she died. Why did he let her go? What was the purpose of keeping her there for two years?

Cassidy stopped in her tracks. She had just noticed the world around her, and it was very different than how she remembered it. Houses were crumpled and broken down, and everything was covered in ashes. The world she had known was gone, everything was gone. Cassidy looked down at the key in her hands. He had kept her captive to protect her from whatever happened to the rest of the world. So many questions raced through her mind, but the one that plagued she was the same was she had asked before. Why had he chosen her? 

Challenge #49

Evening everyone!

The Challenge for this week is to write a story based off of the letter C. You want to choose a word from the current letter of the alphabet that we are on and have your story revolve around that word. You may, if you'd like to, just have the current letter of the week integrated into your work repeatedly.

If you would like to show us your work regarding the letter C, please do! Just e-mail your work to us at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com for Fan Friday!

Big news will be coming up after the 50th Challenge! We hope it will turn out well, but you'll find out in a few weeks!

See you all on Wednesday!

Bloody Battle

                Benjamin was seven years old when his father gave him the sword. His father had said “Son you’ll fight three battles in your life with this blade. One of those battles you will lose.” A year later his father had died and Benjamin realized that his father had lost his own inner battle.
Now Benjamin was twenty years old and had already won two battles with the same blade his father had given him. He was a soldier in an army of rag tag rebels who planned to take down the King, who had been dead for almost three years now. Benjamin’s Sword was the only sword able to kill the Zombie King.

                The Rebellion was gathered in the court of the run down Kingdom. They readied their weapons for the oncoming attack. Benjamin stood front and center and all the rebels looked up to him like his was the leader of the group. They could hear the King’s undead army stirring in castle ahead of them.  Bridget, one of the few girls in the rebellion, pushed her way to the front of the line.
“Benjamin Sir.” She said loudly, stepping closer to him.
“There’s not many of us Sir. The last battle wiped half of our men out. I don’t think we can win this one Sir.” She confessed. Benjamin turned to her with a sad look in his eyes.
“Bridget.” He said.
“Yes sir?” She asked.
“This is my third battle with this blade. I am not meant to win.” He said. Before Bridget could ask him what he meant by that, the King’s zombie soldiers bust through the iron gates. They charged ahead fast and unyielding. The Rebellion waited for Benjamin’s orders, their weapons ready.
“CHARGE!” Benjamin yelled with his sword high in his hand.
                The Two armies blended together in a massacre of red. The number of fatalities on both sides began to grow. Benjamin slashed his way through the undead army. The zombies turned to ash at the mere scrape of his blade. He pushed his way through, ready to fight the Zombie King. Benjamin was ready to die. He had made it to the iron gates, killing every undead soldier that got in his way.
They tore at him with their broken blades, with their fingernails, and even with their teeth. But Benjamin fought his way through until he reached the throne.
The Zombie King sat idly in his chair made of gold thorns. A crown made of bones sat atop his head.
When Benjamin reached the King he held his blade high and yelled.
“Father, I will fight for you and this land. If this is to be my last battle with this blade, I will try my hardest to win!” Benjamin charged at the Zombie King who now wielded a giant battle Axe.
The two clashed together in a fight to the death. The King was faster than Benjamin, slicing into his arms and legs and chest. Benjamin had lost his left hand and the blood now poured onto the cold hard ground. But he did not stop, he kept fighting. Before the King could give the final blow to him, Benjamin pierced his blade up into the Zombie Kings skull. His axe cut Benjamin down, killing him instantly. But the blade had done its job, and the Zombie King was now permanently dead  and so was his army. The Battle was over. 

Blind Freddie

            “Blind Freddie even knows how stupid that idea is!” Kelly shouted at Max, who had come up with the idea that jumping off the roof with a cape would enable him to fly.

            “If Superman can do it, so can I!” Max shouted back, twisting the blue towel into a knot and adjusting it so that it flapped behind him like a cape.

            “You need wings! Blind Freddie says!”

            “Blind Freddie thinks that two plus two equals seven. He doesn’t know anything! Silly Susan knows more than him!”

            “Silly Susan thinks that it’s fun to set things on fire. You should listen to Blind Freddie,” Kelly crossed her arms and sat on the roof, criss-cross-apple-sauce style and huffed. Blind Freddie and Silly Susan were the twins’ imaginary friends, and they always got into trouble because of them.

            Blind Freddie usually gave them the wrong answers to questions and was a bumbling fool. Silly Susan always got them into trouble when they were playing games because her games were always dangerous and she couldn’t see how. Max and Kelly were always getting into trouble because they didn’t know which of the two imaginary friends would give them the best solution to their predicaments, but they knew that one of them held the right answer and one of them held the wrong answer, the only problem was guessing which one was which.

            “I’m gonna fly away like Superman, and become an imaginary friend, just like Blind Freddie and Silly Sally.” Max shouted from the roof, looking out from the third story to the ocean ahead, and leapt.

            “Blind Freddie knew that was stupid! He knew! Why didn’t he listen!” Kelly sobbed into her pillow and beat her small fists into her mattress. Her brother’s funeral had been that morning and her parents were trying to comfort her, but they didn’t know how. They knew that the imaginary friends that the kids had were the problem, and had already consulted some psychiatrists about what to do, but they blamed themselves more than they blamed the children’s brains.

            “Sweetie, it’s okay. Max is in a better place,” Her mother spoke softly, sniffling and trying to sound so sure of herself so that she could be the rock her daughter needed. Her father was looking out the bedroom window, his eyes were raw from brushing aside his tears before they could fall and he was using his wife as support as they stood in the twins’ bedroom. He hadn’t looked at his son’s side of the room since they decided what wood his coffin would be made of.

            “The name is Flying, Flying Max.” Her brother’s voice echoed in her head.

            “My brother’s name was Max,” She whispered in the dream.

            “I know. I’m friends with Blind Freddie and Silly Sally.”

            “I hate them.”

            “Why?”

            “They were both stupid enough to think a person could fly.”

            “Blind Freddie was right though. You do humans do need wings to fly. You know, airplanes?” There was laughter in the voice, and Kelly woke up. She smiled, laughed a bit at the joke, and cried herself back to sleep.

Challenge #48

Alright everyone!

The Challenge for this week is to write a story based off of the letter B. You want to choose a word from the current letter of the alphabet that we are on and have your story revolve around that word. You may, if you'd like to, just have the current letter of the week integrated into your work repeatedly.

If you would like to show us your work regarding the letter B, please do! Just e-mail your work to us at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com for Fan Friday!

See you all on Wednesday!

Fan Friday

Anxiety

My heart starts to pound and my hands begin to sweat. My breathing becomes erratic and my mind races on and on. Knots begin to form in my stomach and I can feel the acid rising in my throat. Why does this keep happening? Breathe I tell myself...breathe normal, breathe normal, breathe normal! I look at them and my vision blurs for a minute. Stop! I scream to myself in my head. She loves me she's with me she'd never do anything with Hannah.
But they're always together it's always Hannah and Olivia this and Hannah and Olivia that. The way i see them look at each other or whispered conversations they have. Plus she's known Olivia longer and Olivia is so pretty and sweet and why wouldn't she like Olivia more.
"Cass...Cass...Cassadee baby are you ok?" Suddenly my eyes focus on her face infront of mine. She reached up to touch my check and her eyes filled with worry. "Babe you're soaked, let's get you home, you don't look so good."

Even an hour later after a shower my mind still hadn't slowed down. My nerves pulsed in my body like thousands of tiny spiders crawling under my skin. A noise from the kitchen made me jump and as a grabbed the bat from the hall closet my heart stopped a second. I felt like one of the girls from those horror movies, and as I turned the corner and tightened my grip on the bat I half expected to see Freddy Kruger or Jason Voorhees fighting over something to slaughter me with. However the face that met mine in terror was a face I knew well.
"Holy shit Cassadee what are you doing with that thing." Hannah gasped. Lowering the bat I took a deep breathe, my first in what seemed like five minutes. My lungs shook as the oxygen filled and emptied them.
"Sorry honey I thought you went to bed already." Olivia rounded the corner and took my face between her hands before bringing her lips to mine and kissing me softly.
"Why don't you go find something on tv and I'll finish the kettle corn." I nodded and shakily slid my hand down her side hoping she wouldn't feel the shake. Luckily I made it to the couch and turned on the tv before she said another word. "Babe don't we still have a CSI to watch?" I like all the CSIs so the thought of that, instead of spending ten minutes trying to find something we agree on, is like heaven. Finally with kettle corn on my lap and my girl at my side I feel my body start to calm down. However it doesn't last long...they are chasing a serial killer who is breaking into houses in the middle of the night. Slowly I feel my eyes start to wonder from one window to the others and to the door. A commercial comes and I stand up in what I thought was a normal way until Hannah asks what's wrong. Walking towards the door I answer over my shoulder.
"It's getting late so I'm gonna lock the door."
"Umm ok well I'm going to the bathroom if it comes back on before I get back pause it for me please." I turned and nodded after flipping both locks on the door. As soon as Hannah disappeared behind the brown door in the hallway I ran to the windows and locked them. Surly we would hear someone smash through a window right. Maybe I'll take the bat to bed with me tonight and the phone just in case. Then as if right on que my hands started up again. I tried to rub them on my pants but my eyes caught sight of a shadow through the window and I felt beads of sweat form on my forehead. I do not want to die tonight or anywhere close to tonight. Oh my god what about Hannah! As visions of some man climbing through the open bathroom window and taking Hannah by surprise formed in my mind my heart rate spiked. That sudden spike was not a good feeling let me tell you that. Because the next thing I know I hear Hannah yell my name and my head hit the kitchen tile. A second later          (which according to Hannah was actually five minutes later) I woke up to Hannah on the phone frantically talking to what I could only assume was 911. After that night Hannah knew my secret. She was slightly pissed at me for not telling her about my anxiety but slowly she forgave me. As a sweet yet slightly annoying bonus, she never let me forget to take my pill again.

-Sadkatana

Taken Down For Editing

challenge: write a story based on the letter A
Feather's story is taken down for editing

Antedate

            Before I was born, I had looked into the black sea of space. I saw nothing, knew nothing, felt nothing. I was floating and conscious of the depths of that darkness. I knew what was in the dark, and I felt safe, comforted. I was blessed with that darkness that every soul knows before they are born and after they die.

            After I was born, I knew light, and pain, and grief, and bliss. I saw what I learned were colors. I felt what I learned was grass and cotton. I was a heavy burden on myself, others, and the planet I lived on. I had weight, I had mass, I was one of many. I learned things that others did not know, I experienced things that only few could experience, and I swam in dismay at the fact that I was torn from home.

            My first home, the home that I had before I was born was where I wished to be. I wanted to go back, every day when I learned that something new that another person did not know, I wanted to go back to that place that everyone shared. I wanted to be one with everyone and not have to feel the things that I felt after I was born. I wanted that comfort that I received when the fire ball fell from the skies and the silver disk entered the pitch. I wanted the comfort that the cold weeks gave, the comfort of the warmth that the cold weeks forced me into that the hot weeks suffered me to forgo.

            I wanted to go home. I wanted to go back to the black sea. And then I was there. I had been watching birds at the park waddling across the crosswalk with the people, and I heard the explosion before I saw it. I was jolted up from my seat, I looked behind me, and I saw a tower of glass and metal falling towards me. I knew I would not be able to run in any direction to escape, so I stood and watched. I waited. I embraced my fate.

            And then I was home. The black sea enveloped me and I could breathe without needing naturally, like I couldn’t hold my breath if I tried. I heard nothing, saw nothing, and I remembered everything. And then I was sad, I wanted to go back to the world with the lights and the people and the colors. I missed the people I had known and wished that they were with me, but then I remembered that I had wanted this. I had wanted to go to the time before I was born. I wanted to be here, and I was no longer content with that decision.

            I wished I had gone back and ran, I wished I had tried to flee from that tower. I wished I had given more to the life that I had lived in that world filled with things.

Challenge #47

Alright everyone, here comes the 26 weeks of Hell. No, seriously, it's time. It's time for the Alphabet Challenge!
This challenge was given to us by . . . I think .  .. Angela Chan. At least I think it was her, if it wasn't her than who thought this would be a good idea? D;
Anyways, the next 26 weeks will be the Alphabet Challenge Weeks, and we will be going on a hiatus once we reach fifty stories (More on that when the time comes). But let's tell you about this week's letter shall we?

The Challenge for this week is to write a story based off of the letter A. Don't get it? Think of 'The Scarlet Letter' or 'Easy A'. You want to choose a word from the current letter of the alphabet that we are on and have your story revolve around that word. You may, if you'd like to, just have the current letter of the week integrated into your work repeatedly.
This is a tough challenge, but I know we can do this! Sure, we might fail horribly, like with the Dr. Suess Challenge, but at least we are growing!

If you would like to show us your work regarding the letter A, please do! Just e-mail your work to us at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com for Fan Friday!

See you all on Wednesday!

Taken down for editing

Challenge: Write a story based off of the sin of pride.

Ink's story has been taken down for editing.

This is What Crazy Looks Like

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Challenge #46

That's it!

After this week we are done with the Seven Deadly Sins Challenge! After this comes something even more disgusting!
Bout, for now, let me tell you about this week's challenge. The challenge for this week is to write a story based off of the sin of Pride:

"In almost every list, pride, is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins, and the source of the others. It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self."

If you would like to join us for Fan Friday, please do! Submit your work to us at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com, and remember, you can submit anything as long as it was made with this challenge in mind!

See you all on Wednesday!

A Choice Shadowed In Green

I’ve never had a name; I’ve always been a lonely nameless creature that wanders the vast empty forest.
The one thing I do have is a mind like any other creature around me. I may look like the others, but I am far from what they are. But I want to be like you, a human being that stands strong. I want to be a human being that walks and talks and eats such delicious food. I want to be a human being that falls in love. What I would give to be a human, I would trade anything at all. That is, If I had something to trade in the first place.

It was cold tonight and my thick fur just wasn’t cutting it. I make myself a small den to sleep in, and keep out of the cold. I wish that I could sleep in a warm cozy bed inside a nice cottage. But I’m an animal and animals sleep outside after all. I was just about to fall asleep when the crunching of leaves filled my ears. Immediately my instincts go into effect and I burrow myself deeper into my den. The crunching gets closer and closer and I sit still like a statue.
“Ah Little Fox, don’t be so scared. I’m here to help you.” A man leans down to look at me. He is very pale, almost as white as snow. But his eyes are what really stand out; glowing dark green in the night. I stay in my den, unable to speak back to him. I don’t know whether to be frightened or to be intrigued.
“Little fox, I can hear your thoughts and you should not be afraid. Like I said I am here to help you.” The man says. He can read my thoughts? Slowly I slip out from my den and into the cold night. The man smiles at me, but there is something dark behind that smile and once again I’m indecisive.
“Little fox, you are unlike the others. You have known this for quite some time yes?” He asks, and I blink my eyes to signal a yes.
“You may look like a fox on the outside, but inside you have the soul of a human. I’m here to give you what you truly want. To become a human! What you were born to be.” He says. My instincts are telling me to run far away and never come back, but my mind is keeping me here. I think about what he is saying. ‘How is that possible’ I think in my head, hoping he hears my thoughts once again.
“My name is Zavist, and I have magic little fox. With this magic I have helped many creatures like you. Human souls born into animal bodies. I have saved them!” The man says. I know I shouldn’t trust him, or even believe what he’s saying, but the possibility of being human is too great to give up.
‘yes, I want to be human! Change me please’ I think. The man smiles and takes his hand and places it on my forehead. For a second I feel a burning sensation and then a light shines out all around me.

I am no longer a fox, but a naked man shivering in the cold and laying on the ground. I look down at my human hands and smile. It actually worked! I look up to the pale man with dark green eyes.
“Thank you.” My voice is deep and it feels good to finally be able to speak my thoughts.
“You are welcome little fox, but there is one condition to being human. If you want to stay this way, you must kill your first love. And if you fail to do so, you become a fox again. But this time you will have no human soul. You will be just a fox.” The man smiles again and vanishes from the forest. I sit alone in the forest, sick to my stomach with the realization of his words.

1 YEAR LATER

I have named myself Hunter. My own personal inside joke if you will. For this past year I have been learning how to be human. It has been much more difficult than I anticipated, but at the same time I’ve been enjoying every minute. I am 6 foot 1 and I have orange/red hair and freckles. My eyes are still the dark gold they once were. I may not be a fox anymore, but somehow I still look like one. Or at least that’s what one of my coworkers said. Ah yes, I have a job! I work at the local bookstore in a town that is just outside the forest I used to live in. My coworker is Jesse and when he first met me he could have sworn I was a fox turned human. Little did he know, I am. The hardest part about being a human so far, is not falling in love. I love being a human, but I don’t want to kill someone (especially my first love) if it means getting to stay this way. But at the same time, I don’t want to be just another fox in the forest with no independent thoughts.

But I never thought I would meet her

3 Months Later

I shouldn’t have fallen in love with Margo. But she was so beautiful, the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. Oh and did she love me.
Every day I lived in fear of when Zavist would come and tear my whole world apart, and every day I asked myself what I wanted more. To be a human and kill the one I love, or become a fox and lose the one I love and lose myself entirely. Margo always knew something was wrong, but I always played it off as a bad day, or being tired. When would I have to choose the life I want to live?

Zavist came to me in a dream, and he told me it was time to choose. I woke that morning with his dark green eyes still haunting me. I asked myself over and over what I wanted.
Zavist’s voice rang in my head “There will always be other Margo’s little fox, but there will not be another life like this.” He whispered.

I walked up behind Margo with a knife poised at her back. This was the moment to choose. What did I want more? I’ve longed to be human for quite some time. But was Zavist right? Were there other Margo’s in the world?

The knife shakes in my hand.

My heart beats fast.

What do I want?

Taken down for editing

Challenge: Write a story based off of the sin of Envy.

Ink's story has been taken down for editing

Challenge #45

Evening everyone!

The challenge for this week is to write a story based off of the sin of Envy!

"Envy is similar to jealousy in that they both feel discontent towards someone's traits, status, abilities, or rewards. The difference is the envious also desire the entity and covet it."

If you would like to join us for Fan Friday, please do! Just send us some of your own work! Art, poetry, a story, anything that you made with this challenge in mind! Remember, e-mail your work to inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com so that we can post it for Fan Friday!

See you all on Wednesday!

Wicked Weather

Michael and Ali had been together for two blissful years. Michael, in these two years, had also been with Christi, and Janet, and Lauren, and Jillian and the list goes on and on. While Michael kept his secret of cheating on Ali, Ali had a secret of her own that she hadn’t known existed till the day she murdered Michael.

“Hey honey, they asked me to stay later at work today. So I’ll be home around 6:30 okay?” Ali read the text message and sighed, resisting to the urge to throw her phone at the wall. This was the fourth time he said he’d be home late. He promised that this Friday night he would be home on time. She frowned as she stirred the pasta sitting on the stove. She was actually making him dinner tonight and for what? To eat it by herself? That idea sounded better and better as she thought about it. Eat it all and save none for him! That’s what she was going to do.
She just couldn’t understand why they needed him to stay later this week. It made no sense; all the sales were up just fine. He told her that last week, and she knew there was no way they could have dropped since then. That’s when it started to dawn on her, the thought she had been trying to avoid.
What if he was cheating? Every night he said he would stay later at work, but what if he was going and fucking one of his coworkers? The thought rambled on in her head. It made her sick to her stomach, and suddenly the idea of eating didn’t sound so good. Ali grabbed the pasta and dumped into the trash. Neither of them would be eating tonight. She went up to the bedroom and lay down, staring at the ceiling and thinking. The more she thought about the possibility of him cheating the more she became agitated. She had given him two whole years of his life, and there was nothing wrong with her. Why would he cheat? The wind outside began to pick up making the windows of the rattle.
Ali looked at the clock, it read 5:45. She sighed before grabbing her phone and calling him.
It rang and rang before finally going to voicemail. The wind outside became stronger and as Ali hang up the phone, a bolt of lightning flashed in the sky.

Ali woke up to the sound of the front door being shut. She realized that she drifted off while lying there and looked over at the clock. 8:30. It was 8:30 and he was finally home. She was about to go haywire.
“Hey honey, sorry about that. I had to help the guys move some stuff around.” He said getting undressed. Ali glared at him from the bed, completely silent. As Michael changed into comfortable clothing, Ali sat on the bed in rage. The light on the night stand table began to flicker.
“Hm, must be starting to storm outside.” Michael noted, still not noticing Ali’s rage.
“You said you were going to be home around 6:30. It’s 8:30 Micheal..8:30! Why would moving stuff take that long? Couldn’t they have gotten someone else to do it?” She asked, her voice beginning to rise. Lightening flashed outside.
“No, they didn’t have anyone else.” He said. Ali got up off the bed and stomped her way over to him. She discreetly smelled him, but didn’t smell any perfume. But then she noticed it. It was small and just barely visible behind his left ear. A hickey. The wind outside began to rattle against the windows and lightening flashed continuously.
“Holy shit! Do you see that?! It’s getting crazy outside.” He said his eyes wide, staring out the window.
“What the fuck is that Michael?” Ali pointed to the mark behind his ear.
“What’s what?” He asked. She put her finger on his neck with force.
“Ouch, take it easy babe.” He said.
“THIS MICHEAL. Where exactly did this come from?!” She asked. Michael looked at her like she was crazy. He stepped into  the bathroom to see what she was pointing at. At first when he saw it, a tiny shred of fear shone in his eyes, but then quickly dissipated.
“It’s probably from you poking me so hard, what you saw was just a shadow babe.” He lied. Ali knew he was lying. It showed all over his face.
“You’re lying to me Michael. That is a fucking hickey and guess what? I didn’t give it to you.” Ali yelled.
Michael stared at her in confusion. He had never seen her this angry before. The lights began to flicker even more and the windows finally shattered underneath the pressure of the wind.
Michael jumped in surprise. “FUCK.” He cursed looking at the windows from outside the bathroom door. Ali never flinched, just stared at Michael.
“Watch out, I need to go get something to cover that window!” He said, pushing her aside.
That was his mistake, pushing her to the side. It’s what he had been doing for the past two years. He always pushed her to the side, making her the last on his list of ‘Important things.’ Something snapped in Ali, like a light switch being turned on. She could finally see what kind of person Michael really was.
As he went downstairs, she grabbed his phone from his coat pocket. She went through every text message, but nothing was out of the ordinary. But what Michael so foolishly forgot was, to erase his email. Message after message of different girls sending him dirty pictures, talking dirty things and each and every one of them had different names.

Michael came back to the room holding some pieces of cardboard and duct tape. They fell from his arms as he walked in. Ali was floating in midair, her hair floated around her and her eyes were a dark smoky grey, her pupils gone. Michael stared at her with fear.
“A-a-ali?” He stuttered.
“Ali isn’t here right now.” Said a dark raspy voice. Ali’s arm lifted and Michael floated upward.
“You will pay for hurting her.” Said the voice again. Wind blew in from the window, causing a mini tornado in the middle of the room. With her other hand, she flicked her index finger and the Tornado became larger and in that tornado was lightening. Michael tried to scream, but it was too late. Ali flung his body into the tornado. The lightening electrocuted him while the tornado tor him limb from limb.
Slowly, a smile began to form on Ali’s mouth. A wicked, evil grin.