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!