Taken down for editing.

Challenge: Write a story based off of the holy virtue of Diligence.
Ink's story has been taken down for editing.

Practice Makes Perfect

“No, Not like that!” He yelled at her, ripping the gun out of her hands. She turned to him, resisting the urge to strangle his neck.
“Like this.” He shot at the target in the distance, every single bullet piercing the red circle in the center.
“God Schwartz you’re pretty lousy at this.” He smirked at her. She bit her tongue and turned away from him, stomping out of the gun range.
“Motherfucking cocksucking bastard.” She mumbled under her breath.
It was the third time this week that this had happened. She’d practice over and over and still no results. Jerry Gernham would come in and hit the target. Every single fucking time. She hated him to her very core. And when he gave her that smirk, the ‘Face it, I’m better than you smirk’ she wanted to take the gun and shoot him. Where she would shoot him, well that was another thing all together.

She was almost in her drive way when her phone buzzed.
“Hello?” She answered.
“Whoa, what’s wrong?” It was Lila, her best friend. Lila always new when something was wrong.
“It’s JERRY FUCKING GERNHAM. That’s what’s wrong!” She yelled into the phone louder than she meant to.
“Jesus Lindsey, I’d like to keep my hearing thanks.” Lila yelled back.
“Sorry Lila..it’s just I really wanna murder the bastard. I really do.” She said. Lila chuckled.
“What he do this time?” She asked.
“Same thing he does every day! Show’s me up. I’m trying my hardest and he has to come in and make me look like a fool.” Lindsey pulls into her driveway and puts the car in park.
“Lindsey, you can’t let him get you down. You need to try harder. Like have you ever thought about going to the shooting range when he’s not there?” Lila asks.
Lindsey grunts. “You don’t get it Lila! He’s like a fucking phantom or some shit. When I think he’s not there BOOM! He comes out of nowhere.” She says.
Lila starts laughing and soon Lindsey can’t help but laugh too.
“Okay, okay…maybe tomorrow I’ll start going at night. I never thought about that.” She says.
“DUH! Oh Sis, you scare me sometimes.” Lila laughs.

Lindsey went to the shooting range every night from then on. Jerry Gernham was nowhere to be found and suddenly Lindsey got better. She practiced and practiced. She tried different guns, and different distances. She smiled to herself every time she imagined one of the targets as Jerry’s face.
Then when she knew she was ready, she went in the morning.

“Hey Schwartz, haven’t seen you here in a while. Did I scare you away?” He gave her the smirk, but Lindsey only smiled. She grabbed the gun from his hand and shot the target, hitting every red spot with complete accuracy. Jerry’s mouth hung open in confusion and shock.
“Jerry, I believe this is the part where I tell you to suck my non-existent cock.” Lindsey puts the gun on the counter space, turns around and walks out of the shooting range with a huge smile plastered on her face. 

Challenge #27

Hello all!

The challenge for this week, off of the Seven Holy Virtues, is Diligence!

"Budgeting one's time; monitoring one's own activities to guard against laziness. Upholding one's convictions at all times, especially when no one else is watching"

If you would like to submit something for Fan Friday based off this challenge, please do! Just send it to us at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com!

See you all on Wednesday!

Shit! It's Wednesday!

            The bureau drawers were empty. The couch was slashed to bits and turned over. The pockets of every shirt, pants leg, and jacket were over turned. Her purse was cleaned out on the table, as was his briefcase. Empty jewelry boxes and books were displaced and on the floor. If someone had come in, someone who did not know what today was and what it meant, they would think a robbery had taken place.

            Today was Wednesday. Judy and Carl had to find money somewhere to be able to pay for their daughter’s medical treatments. They were only eighty-seven dollars short. That’s all they needed, and they couldn’t find any spare change in the house. They had called their friends, but all of them were either at work and unable to pick up, or didn’t have a nickel to spare themselves.

            This left the couple sitting, desolate, in the middle of their living room with feathers and shredded fabric laying about them. Judy was looking off in the distance, as if she were lost in trance. Carl’s hands were shaking and he felt like a failure. They had been late with payments, had made deals with banks by taking out mortgages, and had even taken extra work that left them alien to one another. The only thing connecting them was a thin strange of silk from their seven year old daughter in the hospital.

            They had twenty minutes to make the payment for this month. Twenty minutes to get to the bank and transfer the money before they would have to make a late fee payment. On their way out, covered in feathers and desperation, they saw a man across the street. He was tattered and old, smelled like the inside of a trash can, and most likely hadn’t bathed in months. He was moving a shopping cart filled with old clothes, random knick-knacks, and bags filled with plastic and aluminum for recycling. He looked over at them and asked if he could go through their trash to get anything recyclable, and Carl told him that they had a recycling bin inside the garage and to help himself. Carl dragged it out himself while Judy sat in the car and wondered what would happen to her little girl if they weren’t able to make the payments. Then she stopped thinking about it, she couldn’t.

            The tattered man thanked Carl and gave him one of his knick-knacks, which Carl really didn’t want to take but was forced to because the tattered man had a crazed look in his eyes. When he got into the car, Carl gave the knick-knack to Judy and drove towards the bank. Judy hadn’t been paying attention to what had happened between Carl and the tattered man, so she opened the knick-knack, which was a gold painted tin, and gasped. Inside the tin was a pearl necklace and a set of pearl earrings. Judy forced Carl to drive to the pawn shop and they received more than enough money to make this month’s payment with four minutes to spare.

            When they got back home, the recycling bin was empty, and a jar was placed on top of it. It had a note taped onto it, “Charity Accepted.”

When Time is Kind

“Excuse me sir, can I borrow a dollar?” The little boy asks the man standing at the counter. The man turns toward the boy and smirks down at him.
“Borrow? You know what borrow means don’t you boy?” The man asks. The boy stands there quietly for a moment, thinking.
“It means that if I give you a dollar, you’ll have to pay be back eventually. How can you do that if I don’t know you?” The man asks. The boy sighs, feeling defeated.
Suddenly the man laughs, throwing his head back and letting roar across the grocery store.
“I’m just kidding young man!” He says. He opens his wallet and pulls out a piece of paper, but its not a dollar. It’s something else.
“What’s this?” The boy asks.
“This is how you are going to pay me back.” He hands the paper to the boy.
It’s a strange sort of paper. The boy runs his fingers along the edge, feeling the grooves cut into the paper. On the front are symbols and numbers that the boy has never seen before.
“Keep that boy. Keep it until the front of the paper changes and do not give it away. Because remember, you are borrowing it. That means someday you’ll have to pay it back.” With that the man walks out of the store.
The little boy looks down at the paper once more before tucking it away in his pocket.

In the years to come, that boy will look in the mirror and see a face. It will be his own face, but it will always look similar to the one he had seen that day at the store. In the years to come that boy will wait, and wait, and wait for the paper to change when it does, that boy will become the richest man alive. So rich in fact that he’ll invent something no one has. He’ll use that invention to visit a young boy, at a grocery store in need of one thing. A dollar. 

Challenge #26

The challenge for this week is to write a story based off of the Holy Virtue of Charity!

If you would like to submit your own work based off of this challenge, please send it to us for Fan Friday at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com!

See you all Wednesday!

Just Hold On

Billy sat outside the classroom, looking down at his little feet dangling off the chair as he swayed them to and fro. He had been the center point of a prank, and the teacher, for some reason, had sent him and the bully outside until she deemed it time for them to come back inside. It might have been because, after the bully had glued Billy to his seat, Billy had torn his pants getting up and everyone could see his underwear. The teacher probably sent him out so the other children wouldn’t laugh at the little race cars frozen in their race.

            The bully, Steven, had a smug look on his face and was red from his laughter. Even after the teacher scolded him he still continued to laugh like a jolly little Santa from Hell. He giggled and asked Billy about his underwear, wondering if his mommy had bought them especially for him. Billy didn’t have a mother anymore, Steven knew this, and continued to laugh. Billy only looked at his shoes and felt his heart start to crack against the pressure.

Luckily, before Steven was able to taunt Billy another time, when Billy was starting to think of taking his chair and whipping it at Steven and yelling at him to shut up, both Steven and Billy’s fathers came in to the hallway where the boys sat. Billy’s father was wearing a crumpled tan suit, his red and white poke a dot tie was slightly askew and his hair was disheveled. He was carrying a plastic bag with some clean clothes for Billy to change into. Steven’s father was wearing a plaid shirt stained with oil from working under the cars, his knuckles were still black and chances are, so were the finger prints on the steering wheel of his car. Both fathers looked at each other and then their children.

“Sorry about this. Steven hasn’t been the same since his mother left us.”

“It’s no problem, Billy is used to kids picking on him since his mom died. For some reason, they just don’t get the concept of someone never coming back.”

“I know what you mean. Steven still thinks his mom is coming back. Look, I’ll pay for the pants. It’s the least I can do.”

“Thanks, man.”

At the end of the day, Billy asked Steven if it was true what his father had said. Steven nodded and said that he didn’t feel as bad about his mom leaving him when he made Billy feel bad about his mom never coming back from the dead. Billy nodded and asked if they could be friends now. Steven nodded and said that would be nice.

If The Hunger Takes Me

They all sit around me with beating hearts and random breaths. They are all in their own world.
But here I sit hyperaware of everyone around me. I am unable to concentrate on anything else, but those beating hearts. My fingers shake and I grip the table to control them.  My stomach churns with a deep hunger and my throat burns.
Sometimes I don’t understand why I do this to myself. I could have anyone of them, right here and now. My stomach would no longer ache and I would be satisfied.
“Hey buddy, are you okay?” A girl with short brown hair asks me. She’s wearing a name badge and her apron is green to match the coffee shop.
My stomach churns again and I can feel my teeth poking through my gums. I try to control it.
“Yes, I’m fine.” I say. She gives me a doubtful look.
“Uh I hate to do this, but you kinda have to order something if you sit here.” She says.
I look at the menu behind the counter. Coffee, Coffee, Coffee, Tea, Smoothie. None of those things are what I’m looking for. But of course they wouldn’t have what I want on the menu.
“Uh..I’ll take a cup of black tea please.” I say, smiling without showing my teeth. She smiles back at me, but she still looks concerned.
When she walks away I almost crumple to the ground. She was so close, and she smelled so good.
I take a useless breath of air to fill my dead lungs. The shaking in my hands seems to spread to rest of my body.
She comes back with my tea and sets it on the table. “Are you sure you’re okay?” She asks again. Her eyes are full of concern.
“NO! I’M NOT FUCKING OKAY! I WANT TO RIP YOUR THROAT OUT AND DRAIN YOU!!!!”  I almost scream at her. But I keep my mouth shut. I can’t do this, I can’t keep this up.
“Actually no, would you mind meeting me outside? By the back door near the trash cans?” I look her in the eyes. I can feel her will power resisting me, but then without saying anything, she heads towards the back. I get up and follow her.
She stands near the trash cans, her eyes devoid of life. I hate seeing them like this, like zombies. I did this to her and soon I’ll do more. My fangs slide out from my gums when I come closer to her.
“I’m so sorry…God I’m so sorry. Please forgive me…please.” I say to her. My teeth are inches from her neck and I can hear her heart beating. Then I feel her arms encircle me, pulling me into a hug.
I jolt away from her neck and look into her eyes. They’re the same as they were before, dull and lifeless.
“Can…can you hear me?!” I ask her. Her arms drop back to her sides and I jump with surprise.
“This..can’t happen. This isn’t supposed to happen!!” I yell at her. She stares at me with the same expression.  No one’s ever been able to break through the control, but somehow this girl did.
I kiss her forehead.
“I’m so sorry.” I say and run off down the street. Soon she’ll come back, and then she’ll remember me. Remember everything.  My stomach aches and my fangs still remain in place, but I ignore them.
I’d rather die of hunger than have to hurt anyone again. After all, I used to be just like them. 

Challenge #25

The challenge for this week, based off the Seven Holy Virtues, is Temperance!

"Constant mindfulness of others and one's surroundings; practicing self-control, abstention,moderation, zero-sum and deferred gratification. Prudence to judge between actions with regard to appropriate actions at a given time. Proper moderation between self-interest, versus public-interest, and against the rights and needs of others."

If you would like to join us for Fan Friday, please send us your work! Just e-mail it to us at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com! 

See you Wednesday!

Virgin Bride

            She lay in the green grass, sprinkled with dew that early May morning. The wind rustled the leaves of the trees above her and, if she had inhaled, she would have smelled the fresh sap on the wind. The sun had risen an hour ago, it fell on her hair and made it gold and warmed her cold skin. Her skin, pale like the moon and as soft as a feather to look at and touch, made her seem like a Snow White after being put into her glass coffin.

            Her nightgown was as white as her skin, if not whiter, and made her look like a pressed white rose from between the folds of a book. The only marks on her, that made her look tainted, were the purple petals around her neck from a her father’s fingers and the dark earth staining her feet from how far she had run.

            Fourteen years she had spent in that cottage. Fourteen years without a mother and a drunkard father. Fourteen years she had spent untainted. And fourteen years she had spent fighting back. This last day of her fourteenth year was a triumph to her kind. She had run and fought and screamed and cried. She caused such a fright in her father that he would be caught that he ran when his senses came back to him, letting him flee the scene and leave her intact.

            She was his now, that old crow’s. The one in the shadows, who prospers in another realm to guide souls from one place to another. He fell for her when she fought, he fell for her when she lived, and he was sure to have her for his own no matter the cost. So when it was time for them to fly, the crow and the dove, he told her of everything and anything she wished to know. He held nothing back and proved his love slowly, knowing that time is all it takes for a rose-bud to blossom in the light of the sun.

            And he was her sun, he knew that very well. And it seemed that she did as well, for when they reached the golden gates in the clouds she sighed a wish to the angels guarding the door and they nodded in blessing. This blessing was pure, as pure as she, and the two flew out happily to marry and just be.

When Love Waits

When I opened my door that morning I was confused with what I found. He brought me a white rose with wide beautiful petals, one of them dyed blue. The thorns still intact, and dew droplets clinging onto it.

~

“Marina give me my hat!!” Tyson yelled. I ran away from him, the tall grass skimming my knees. I giggled all the way across the field as he chased me. I was sixteen and he was seventeen. 

I popped the hat onto my head right as he grabbed me from behind. I laughed even harder as we fell to the ground. He grabbed his hat, the rim was beginning to fray. I smiled up at him and he smiled back at me. His whole face lit up when he smiled, even his eyes seemed like they glowed.

“Can I kiss you?” He asked. I was silent, frozen in spot. I didn’t know if I wanted him to kiss me. He’d been my friend for so long. I swallowed the lump in my throat before I spoke.

“You can kiss me when you find a white rose, with one blue petal.” I say, leaning in closely and kissing his nose. I pluck the hat off his head again and run off back through the trees giggling all the while.

I was barely seven years old, and he was eight and a half when I met him.  The hat barely fit him, but the team logo was brand new then. I said hi to him and he responded by throwing dirt in my hair. Kids are kids so they say. I responded with a fist to his eye, and that's how we became friends.

"Tyson, where'd you get that hat anyway?" I asked him one day in middle school.
"Oh, this old thing?" He asked. We were eating lunch by the old tree. He pulled  the crusts off his sandwich and gave them to me.
"I got it from my big brother." He said taking it off to show me. By now the team logo was dirty, no longer the bright white it used to be.
"He gave it to me before he went to Afghanistan." Tyson looked at the hat like it was an old friend.
“I miss him sometimes you know?” He said. I touched his shoulder, trying to comfort him the best I could.

~

When I looked up, he was standing there. He was wearing that stupid old hat, and a smile was spread across his face. I hadn't seen him since he joined the army, almost 4 years ago.

“Do I get that kiss yet?”

Challenge #24

The next seven weeks will be based off of the Seven Holy Virtues! This week, we will be writing stories based off of the virtue Chastity! 

"Abstaining from sexual conduct according to one's state in life; the practice of courtly love and romantic friendship. Cleanliness through cultivated good health and hygiene, and maintained by refraining from intoxicants. To be honest with oneself, one's family, one's friends, and to all of humanity. Embracing of moral wholesomeness and achieving purity of thought-through education and betterment. The ability to refrain from being distracted and influenced by hostility, temptation or corruption."

If you would like to join us this week for Fan Friday by submitting your own works based off of this challenge, please do! You can send us your work via email at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com! 

See you all Wednesday!

Thank You Video!

Thursday Fan Entry

About Angela: Angela is the Fan who submits drawings instead of stories. She is the one who created the Feather and Ink characters that we now use constantly. She is super talented and if you would like to check out more of her work you can go here: http://iessentials.deviantart.com/

~

Wednesday Fan Entry

Bio:
Josh is a scatter-brained 17 year old man-child whose aim is to get through life as awkwardly as possible. So far he is succeeding with flying colours. He likes reading, writing, listening to indie music, playing video games, and bad puns Oh, and pizza. Pizza’s pretty cool too.

Josh started writing and reading Feather and Ink's stories after Ink introduced him to them from Vindictus. The two play there as much as possible. It seems like a swell trade since Josh introduced Ink to nutella and peanut butter sandwiches.

Water Element Entry:

The Ocean by Her Lonesome

The rhythmic crash of waves from the perpetually churning sea sounded once more in the boy’s ears. It was an odd thought that it had presumably behaved this way for every other person who had ever been on this beach since time began. He raked his fingers through the sand that he lay on again, and stared towards the ocean. The horizon seemed to be set ablaze by the setting Sun. He spoke aloud, briefly gazing at the stars above, beginning to peep out of the darkness. “Hey, do you think it’s kinda neat that something so... ancient still exists?” His focus returned to the shimmering palate of colours that was the ocean.

 The girl lying next to his right, also on the fine sand asked, “What do you mean?”

The boy continued, “I mean this ocean. It was here when my grandfather was alive. It was here when my grandfather’s grandfather was alive. It’ll be here when my grandchildren have grandchildren.”

“I suppose when you think of it like that, it is pretty cool, yeah. So many things from the past have disappeared. It’s awe-inspiring to think that the first humans ever would’ve seen something beautiful like this, and that the last humans ever will also see the same thing.”

The sweet, somber light of the twilight sun reflected off the dark glittering jewel that was the sea, and cast an orange glow on beach.

The boy softly spoke. “I know it doesn’t really, but the ocean seems to go on forever, doesn’t it? Have you ever thought that maybe, there are two people like us lying in the sand on the other side, seeing the Sun come up?”

The girl furrowed her brow. “I guess so. I mean, I know this world’s a great big place, with lots of people everywhere, but it seems almost... surreal to think that there other people in some far off land I’ll never see, just living their lives like us.”

The boy laughed, and the pair was silent again.

  “Y’know, you might think this sounds stupid, but maybe if the ocean doesn’t go on forever, do you think it might at least exist forever?,” the boy wondered aloud. He lifted his hand out of the sand and watched the grains fall through the spaces in between his fingers.

The girl pondered the thought for a moment, and looked at the sand sifting through the boy’s hand. : “Hm... maybe it will, maybe it won’t. I’d like to think it would always be around in some form or another, but I haven’t seen anything on Earth that lasts forever. Not cities, or buildings, or even mountains and forests. Who’s to say the ocean’s exempt?”

“Time takes its toll on all things, it’s true. I suppose the ocean is no exception to that. But mean, it makes me kinda... sad, that maybe someday humans won’t be able to see something beautiful like this,” the boy said melancholically. The salty smell of the sea mixed with the fresh air that blew from the ends of the earth towards the sandy enclave where the two lay. The Sun finally sunk below the once ignited horizon, leaving Night to cool the Earth and her waters in its soothing darkness.

As the glow of day faded from their skins, she smiled, and turned her head to look at boy for the first time in hours. She gently put her hands in his and said, “Well, maybe humanity will somehow continue to exist when this world is dead and gone. Maybe they’ll find something even greater, more mysterious, and more wonderful than this ocean could ever hope to be.”

The boy looked back at her, and smiled in return, “Maybe.” Still not letting go of the girl’s hand, he stood up, and helped her stand up. “I guess we should be heading back home now that it’s dark.” He gazed upon the ocean once more, and saw that without the Sun, the ocean had become cold and dark like ink, with the light of the pale moon beginning to glower off the shadowy sea. He smiled as he realized that the ocean was just as beautiful as it was during the day, in its own haunting, lonely way.

The girl tapped him on the shoulder, “What’re you thinking about?”

The boy snapped out of his thoughts, and looked at the girl a bit stunned. Then he laughed a little. “I was just thinking about how your dad will kill me if I don’t get you back soon.”

The girl laughed as well. “Well, we better get going then.” She took her phone from her pocket and looked at the time. “It’s only a quarter to ten. We should have plenty of time to get back.”

She put her phone back, and then the two walked hand in hand down the beach towards the lights of the small town nearby, leaving the ocean by her lonesome.