Technical Difficulties

Due to technical difficulties, Feather and Ink will not be posting stories until this Friday. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Challenge #70

The challenge for this week is to write a story based off of the letter X. 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!

Wishing Well

Once upon a time in a small village in Ireland, there was an old wishing well. It was tall and sturdy made with different colored stones. Delilah had lived in this small village all her life and had been to the wishing well at least once a month. Every time she would go, she would bring a pebble to throw in instead of a stone. Her grandmother had told her once that a pebble from god’s green earth was worth more than any coin would ever be. Delilah would throw a pebble in and make a wish to have a child. She was older now and her husband had passed before they could have any kids. But Delilah knew she couldn’t leave this earth without being a mother first.
                One day in late spring, Delilah took a pebble she had found on the side of the road to the well.
This pebble was heavier than most and it had a tiny hole right in the middle of it. She knew it would be the perfect kind of pebble for the Well. It began to rain hard as her yellow rain boots sloshed through the mud, the pebble tucked safely in her pocket. She sweared as her umbrella bent every which way in the wind. For a moment Delilah had thought about turning back and throwing the pebble in another day. But she had made it this far, and was determined to throw that pebble in. When Delilah had finally made it, she took the pebble from her pocket and gripped it tightly in her hand. She closed her eyes and said the same thing she did every month. “I wish to be a mother, I wish to have a child, I wish to not be alone anymore.” She said this mantra three times before kissing the pebble and finally throwing it down the wishing well. The rain continued to pour as Delilah stood there with her eyes closed. She took a deep breath before leaving and sloshed back home in the rain.
                A month had come and gone and still no baby had magically shown up at her doorstep. Delilah’s hope for a child grew dimmer and dimmer and she decided that this month she would wish for something else at the well. It was a sunny day outside and it brightened her mood some as she walked to the well. There was a small skip in her step, and when she finally reached the well she knew exactly what to wish for. But before she could even grab the pebble from her pocket, she heard a strange noise from the bottom of the well. She gets closer and peaks her head over the side, looking down. The well is deep and dark and she can’t even see to the bottom. The old rope sways back and forth as the noise comes again. “Hello?” She asks. The noise is louder this time and clearer, it sounds like crying. Delilah thinks she’s gone crazy, that maybe she’s just hearing things, but the crying continues. She grabs the rope and hauls the pale up and realizes it’s heavier than usually. The crying gets closer and closer with each pull of the rope and finally she finds a baby wrapped up in a blanket, in the pale. Delilah gasps and quickly grabs the baby from the pale and tries to soothe it. She thinks to herself that this must be a miracle. She discovers that this baby is a boy and there’s something different about him. There are two little horns growing at the top of his head. She is more than surprised, but she isn’t scared. This is the child the universe had sent her and it was her responsibility to raise him. “Don’t worry little one, momma is here. I’ll call you William.” She soothed the child until finally it stopped crying. “Don’t worry William I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”

                Years and years went by and little baby William wasn’t a baby anymore. He was sixteen years old now and Delilah was grey-haired and covered in wrinkles. She loved William and protected him, teaching him at home instead of sending him to school. She made sure to keep his hair long and file back his horns so no one would notice. One day when Will was twelve he had asked her why he was so different. “William, you are different because you are special. There’s a reason why you are the way you are, and even though I don’t have the answer, I know that one day soon you will find out the truth.” She had told him. Ever since then he wanted to know the truth, he had asked her so many questions, but they were questions Delilah could not answer.
“Just no that no matter what, I will always love you.” She told him time and time again. But it didn’t stop William from wanting to know. As he got older more and more things changed about his appearance. After losing all his baby teeth his new teeth grew to sharp points. His eyes that were once a dark brown became lighter and lighter and turned to an almost yellow hue.
“Mom I can’t do this anymore, I’m becoming a monster!!” He told her. She hugged him tightly and knew deep in her heart that he was right. The more he would change, the harder it would be to hide him. Soon people would be at their door with fire and pitch forks. Delilah knew the choice she had to make.
“William, the day you turn eighteen is the day I have to let you go.” She told him with tears in her eyes.
“What do you mean?” He asked.
“You know how much you are changing and soon I won’t be able to hide you from the rest of the world. I am lucky enough to have been able to keep you this long, but soon you’ll have to go back from where you came.” She told him about the well and the wish she had made so many years ago. Will didn’t want to leave his mother, but the truth of what he was, was too great not to know.
                When Will was finally eighteen he had dark black wings that sprouted from his back and he looked like the monster he knew he would eventually become. He fled from his village at night and flew to the Wishing Well his mother had told him about. He took a deep breath before plunging into its darkness. That’s when Will found out the truth. The wishing well was a portal to another dimension. 

Wick

            Somewhere in the darkness of Willoby High, a match is struck.

            Willow and Walsh stood side by side in the dark recesses of the gym, hiding under and behind the retractable seats, as far back as they could from the creature chasing them. They had wanted to summon a demon, something to give them the power to fight back against their bullies and suppressors. What they hadn’t expected was for the thing to ooze out of the blood they shed to become their bully and suppressor.

            The black and red veined thing that came to supposedly do their bidding was, certainly, what they had expected to see. Something grotesque and beautiful in its own way. What they hadn’t expected was for the thing to jump at them and try to claw its way inside their heads. Three large claw marks served was a reminder of why they were running on Walsh’s head. Willow had burn marks from ripping the creature off of Walsh, its skin was like touching the inside of an oven when the turkey is ready to be taken out and cut up.

            What the two teens hadn’t known, was that as long as their blood still lay on the floor, more demons would spew forth from it until it was all used up. The second demon was the one they saw slither through the dark gym. The first one chuckled excitedly from above.

            Somewhere in the darkness of Willoby High, a match touches the wick of a bomb.

            Willow and Walsh attended school the next week, strangely luminous and god-like. Willow’s hair, which had been a dull and limp brown, now had a sheen one would see on a luminous halo. Her green eyes were a multitude of colors, changing ever so slightly from one hue to the next in different types of lights. Walsh had gained perfect eye-sight, something each girl seemed to notice and swoon over. Holding hands, the two lovers walked down the halls, preparing for their symphony of screams.

Rounding up the teachers was easy, both students were straight A academic stars and were involved in almost every aspect of the school. The students were a more difficult problem, however, thanks to their new found demonic powers, only a fifth of the schools population escaped while .01% were killed before their final plan could go into action. They had no problem with the killing, in fact, they rather enjoyed it.

Somewhere in Willoby High, all of the people are going to die.

Willow went do to the basement to do the final preparations while Walsh called the police with a little poem, a jingle, something fun for the police to play with. If they came, more would burn, if they didn’t, maybe guilt would eventually send more of them to the gates of Hell. The side door that Willow and Walsh had opened was still open, a pin prick of blood keeping it active. What would happen, the two wondered, if blood from the explosion leaked down and touched the door. Would more of their masters come through?

Challenge #69

The challenge for this week is to write a story based off of the letter W. 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!

Violet

Violet was a curious young girl with short black hair and brown eyes. She was an imaginative little child who would love to explore. One day when her grandparents were napping Violet decided to explore the backyard. The backyard at her grandparent’s house was large and only a small white picket fence kept it closed off from the rest of the land. The rest of the land was all trees and tall grass and fireflies that liked to sneak into the yard at night. Violet walked to the white picket fence and looked out among the trees. It was one of those moments where you take a deep breath and you feel like you could live in this moment forever. Violet threw her head back, looking up at the clouds and smiled in complete bliss. Suddenly her feet lifted off the ground and Violet began to float in the air. Her bliss was replaced by shock and fear and her body dropped back to the ground. She sat there on her hands and knees breathing in and out her eyes wide. Violet had just learned she could fly.
                Violet never told anyone about the day her feet lifted off the ground, but she had been trying ever since to do it again. But nothing compared to that small perfect moment. For years she hoped that birthdays, and Christmas’s, and family get togethers would make her as happy as that. But those kinds of happy were different than what she had felt that day. That day she felt the kind of happy you feel when you realize that life can be absolutely amazing.

The second time Violet’s feet lifted off the ground was when she was seventeen. At this point she had convinced herself that the day she floated was just a silly daydream she made up in her head. She convinced herself that it had never happened. She didn’t realize how wrong she was until she kissed Ethan Grove for the first time. She had a huge crush on him and it was her first kiss and her whole body floated up in the air, while her lips stayed put. Her surprise of being able to fly grounded her once more and she was glad that Ethan kissed with his eyes closed. Violet now knew that flying was real and that it took a certain kind of happiness to trigger it.
                Ever since that day Violet has practiced and practiced and gotten much better. But she could only fly in secret; in places she knew no one would see her.
“Hey Violet what are you doing after work today?” Her coworker Maddie asked her. Violet was now in her twenties flying became a regular thing, especially on days when she was going to be late to work. She knew that it was risky, but she broke the rules every once and a while.
“I’m volunteering at that Easter Event for kids.” She said. Maddie sighed.
“DANG IT! I need someone to babysit Max for me.” She said.
“You know..I could always bring him along. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.” Violet offered. Maddie’s face lit up some. “Hey that’s not a bad idea! Okay cool. I’ll drop him off around 4 does that sound okay?” She asked.
“That’s perfect I don’t have to be there till 5:30 anyway.” Violet said.
“Thanks so much Violet!! You’re the best!”
When she got off work Violet walked a ways until she reached the same route where she liked to fly home. She was glad she lived in a small town with lots of open sky, and trees to hide in.
She stood for a moment with her palms open and thought of memory that made her happy and suddenly she was flying high above the trees. She laughed as her body soared through the sky. She flew as fast as she could making sure to look out for her surroundings. Her short black hair rustled along her neck, tickling her. She giggled some before swooping lower near the trees. The birds always kept their distance, but it was an amazing feeling flying in the same sky as them. Violet closed her eyes for a brief second, taking in the beauty of it all. When she opened them again she realized she had swooped to close to the ground and before she could stop she plummeted right into someone.
They crashed to the ground tumbling in the tall grass below. Both of them grunting as they lay there.
“WHAT THE HELL?!” The other voice asked. Violet sat up as fast as her body would let her. A young man around her age with orange-red hair sat next to her. He had grass sticking in his short wavy hair and a small cut on his face.
“Are you okay?!” Violet asked. The ginger man just stared at her. “Yeah I guess so..where the hell did you come from? It’s like you just fell right out of the sky!” He said throwing his hands up.
Violet blushed some before coming up with a clever lie.
“I was climbing that tree!” She said pointing up. “I was swinging from one branch when I slipped and I tried to catch my balance but I just fell.” She said. He looked at her unconvinced.
“Yeah okay, well why didn’t you scream then? Plus you hit me like a freaking bullet!” He said. Violet now realized he had a bit of an accent, maybe Australian. In that moment she realized how cute this boy was.
“Well I don’t know I was climbing that tree pretty fast, so you never know.” She said. The boy stood up, looking at the tree and then back down at Violet.
“Whatever you say. What are you doing climbing tree’s out here anyway..especially in that.” He asked.
Violet looked down at her work clothes, that were now stained by the grass.
“Oh..uh it’s kind of a long story.” She said. “And you know I could ask you the same thing!” She said.
The boy laughed some. “Yeah well I kind of live out here.” He said. Violet just stared at him confused.
“Live out here? Like in the woods?” She asked.
“Yep. My tent is right over there.” He pointed to a spot a couple feet away where a large tent was set up. A whole campground was made for him in that tiny spot.
“Oh..” Violet said. She felt bad for asking. “Uh well I better get going.” She said.
“Wait..what’s your name?” He asked her.
“Violet.” She said. He held out his hand.
“My name’s Tucker, just wanted to say thanks for falling on me. It’s definitely going to be an interesting story to tell.” He said smirking. Violet’s heart seemed to skip a beat and she knew it was love at first sight.

Later on in the week Violet had gone back to that same forest where Tucker lived and tried to find him again. This time she walked instead of flying, knowing better.  But when she came to his tent he wasn’t there. “Tucker?” She called out, but no answer. Sighing Violet turned around and stopped dead in her tracks. A bear was sitting there staring at her. She thought she might die of fear right then and there and save the bear some trouble. Her breathing became erratic as she stood there silently not making any movements. But the bear just sat there until finally turning and walking away. Violet slumped to the ground in shock, thankful that she was still alive. For a minute she was confused, the small town where she came from did not have bears, so why was one in this forest? Maybe she had imagined it. But her heart was beating so fast.
“Violet?” Tucker had come out from behind a tree not too far from where the bear had vanished to.
“TUCKER! Be careful, I just saw a freaking bear!!” She said. Violet looked at him and almost melted. He was shirtless and looking at his body made her want to drool.
“A bear? No couldn’t be. There’s  no bears around here” He said. Violet noticed his ears turning red. It was the same thing that happened to her ears when she lied. Suddenly an idea dawned on her, it was far-fetched, but it was possible. Maybe Tucker was the bear all along. She didn’t know how, but if you she could fly, anything was possible.
“Tucker..I’m going to ask you a strange question and even though we don’t really know each other, I want you to answer honestly okay?” She said. Before he could answer Violet spoke.
“…Did you transform into that bear?” She asked. Tucker couldn’t hide his reaction and Violet knew it was the truth.
“How-but..wait.” He stuttered.
“Tucker..it’s okay. I’m different too.” She said stepping closer to him.
“You can shapeshift?” He asked her. She shook her head no before thinking of a time when she was most happy. Her memory drifted back to the day she met Tucker and saw that wonderful smirk of his and she floated high above him.
“JESUS!” He exclaimed stumbling backwards. “I can kinda fly.”
She lowered herself back to the ground.
“I knew you didn’t fall out of that tree!” He said excitedly. “I can’t believe this. The irony of it all. The two weirdest people in town finally meet.” He laughed. Violet put her hand on his shoulder.
“Tucker, what if we’re not the only ones?”

Victuallage

            The hen house, painted a bright red with white trim several decades ago, was peeling to reveal it’s rusted nails and dirt brown interior. One would think that it wouldn’t be able to hold any food source, since its decaying body was withering away to termite dust by the week, but somehow the Vindell’s had managed to store enough supplies and food to keep from starving in case the world went to shit.

            It wasn’t like they were expecting anything drastic to happen, it had started off as a school project for Mindy, the youngest daughter. She needed to save up as much canned goods as possible for a school fundraiser, the child who donated the most would receive free lunch for six months. That was enough money to buy two cases of candy bars, something Mindy had an addiction to.

            After the hen house had been packed to the brim, the family realized that they could dig under the hen house to save more food, which, after awhile, the realized they could dig a tunnel from the basement to the hen house and make a sort of make-shift tunnel system. Steven, the father, was a contractor who was on the verge of being let go from work, so the idea of building something helped him take his mind off of the threat of being sent back out to the ocean to swim around in hopes of finding a new reef.

            Once word reached the town that the Vindell’s were building something underground, the Vindell’s were marked as weirdoes. Doomsday Prepers, and religious wackjobs were two of the things that the Vindell’s heard spoken of them behind their backs when they went through town, but that didn’t stop them from storing as much food as they could for Mindy, who every once in awhile would tell her parents that they could stop saving if people were going to make fun of them for it. At this, her parents told her that this was just a part of life that she should face now, instead of later, so that she would be prepared to face it head on when they were no longer around.

            None of this mattered however, because a tornado hit, striking the town in a whir and flash that left the whole town homeless and without food. Body counts rose as soon as a scrap of wood was lifted, or a car pulled from a field.

            Luckily, the small shaft the Vindell’s had created had saved their lives, as well as stored some food and supplies, which they had shared with the town survivors who had once criticized them.

Challenge #68

The challenge for this week is to write a story based off of the letter V. 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!

Underneath

Underneath

They told me to never ever go to that bridge. Something evil lived beneath it and no one ever goes there. But like a moth drawn to the flame I was drawn to all things off limits. It is said that the devil himself lives underneath that bridge. Maybe that’s why Susan Gambles jumped off last year, cracking open her skull. Of course she hasn’t been the only one, there’s been many more. The bridge’s name is Saint Joseph’s Bridge, but everyone I know calls it the Suicide Bridge. I myself am not suicidal, nor have I ever been. But today I was going to find out why so many people before me had found the urge to jump.
                I knew that it might be a stupid idea going there by myself, but I had to take the risk. The thought of not knowing would drive me insane; it’s just the way I work. The bridge was down and old dirt road and I drove until my car couldn’t take it anymore. Reaching the halfway point I park my car and walk the rest of the way. The bridge is tall, with no water beneath it. Its dark underneath like a shadow permanently resides there. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes for a quick moment and prayed to any god that would listen and then I walked up to it. Everything was quiet around it, as if every animal was scared to even live near it. I walked up the same place where so many had taken their lives.
                When I look over the old railing I’m shocked with what I see. Underneath there is a river that was never there before, a river flowing with bright blue water. The water glimmers in the sunlight and I can see something beneath the water itself. I step over the railing onto the other side trying to get a better look. People are swimming underneath the water and they look so peaceful. When they see me, they beckon me to join them. My eyes go wide staring at that water and an impulse rushes through my body. I have the overwhelming urge to jump in the river. I try to hold onto the railing tighter, resisting the urge. Down below the people swimming keep beckoning me and I can even hear their voices.
“Join us! The water is perfect! It’s so nice down here.” They keep yelling up at me. Continuous voices that don’t rest, they just keep calling out to me. My foot hangs in the air and all I want to do is fall forward and feel that cool water on my skin. Then I see Susan swimming amongst the others. Her smile falters for a second when she sees me. She gives the tiniest shake of the head, telling me not to jump. I try to climb back onto the bridge, but my foot slips and I plunge down. The water is not cold, but a deep burning that boils my skin. I now know that beneath the bridge lives a portal to hell. 

Unarguably

Una Gonzalez, one of the most normal girls in the world, had my heart. Brown straight hair with natural honey highlights and brown eyes that reminded me of dark coffee, I couldn’t help but wonder what was so special about her. She was five foot seven inches, and average weight, nothing special, just average.

            She works in Petco, selling animal supplies and that’s where I first met her. She seemed so interested in me, and what she sold, and she seemed to love her job. I was buying cat food for my sister while she was picking up her daughters from elementary school. It was a generic conversation with bits of imaginative foreplay intertwined to keep me from realizing she was just another drone trying to sell me things I didn’t need.

            I left that store with mediocre cat food and an urge to come back to the Free Adoption Day event, just so that I might have a chance to see her again. Make more of a conversation with her that had more to do with my life and not my sister’s cat’s dietary habits. It wasn’t just that I wanted to show my ex that I had a life outside of my sister’s life, it was something else. Something that made me want to keep talking to her because there was something about her.

            The next time I saw Una was at the grocery store. She was trudging along the frozen food isle, shoving the grocery cart along as if she were Sisyphus, rolling the rock up the hill for the first time. Well, if Sisyphus was a bored girl. Una’s eyes were blank as she glanced at food in the freezers, and I wondered what would be a good, non-sketchy way to make a conversation with her.

            Let’s just say that the conversation started with an awkward tap on the shoulder, and ended with a weird handshake wave dance that had left me so shell shocked that as I put my food on the shelf for the cashier to scan, I had been grasping at air and placing nothing on the conveyor belt for a few moments before the kid behind me asked if I was okay. I knew it wasn’t her, she was no Angelina Jolie and there was nothing about her that struck me as gold, but I knew it wasn’t me either. I had been around the block before, I had wooed ladies and gotten numbers just because I could. But there was something about Una that made me feel like she was my first conquest, and I couldn’t explain why.

            So, on the Adoption Day event, I went and had a whole plan laid out on how I would be smooth and I knew I would find out why she made me so weird whenever I saw her. I’d find out why I wanted to see her after already seeing her. I had only seen her twice, but both times I had wanted to run back in and have a do-over so that I could ask her out on a date.

            Walking in, I found her first. My heart was beating so quickly that I felt like a criminal on the run and hiding from the cops. She was smiling and petting a Doberman that was missing a leg. I wondered if she would think I was sweet if I adopted it, but shook that thought from my mind. There had to be a reason I was so wound up over her even though she was so ordinary.

            Nothing went as planned. As soon as Una saw me, she gave me this ‘Oh geez, not him’ look and brushed it off with a sparkling smile. I stuttered, tripped, and fell over my words and inquiries. She nodded, replied, and excused herself gracefully to go and assist other customers. I felt like an idiot and left with a bag of dog treats without a second look back.

            That night, a few of my high school friends went to a bar and reminisced while checking out some girls that might give us a night of short bliss and escape. And then I saw her. And I remembered. Una Gonzalez. Seven years ago, when I was on my senior ditch day to Lake Tahoe we had met under the stars at a bon fire party. She had had her hair up with some curled tendrils framing her face. Dark eye liner and red lipstick, a red skirt that bloomed when she twirled and a black tank top that showed off a fairly new tattoo of Icarus falling from the sky. We had danced, kissed, and she was anything but normal that night.

            That night, at the bar, I realized why I had been such an idiot in front of her. She was the one that got away. I had lost her phone number somewhere in my car and had been so upset over it that I forgot about my last four essay assignments. Thankfully, two of my friends reminded me about them the day before they were all due, so I was able to get it all done. But still, she had messed me up.

            Her eyes met mine between the arms, shoulders, and necks of fellow bar patrons and I suddenly felt calm. I felt strong and I didn’t feel like my heart would pound out of my chest. Her eyes fluttered like butterfly wings in slow motion as I stared at her and realized that I was unarguably, undeniably in love with her.

Challenge #67

The challenge for this week is to write a story based off of the letter U. 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!

Taster

My job is simple. It is to eat and survive, or eat and die. Life or death, it’s all left up to who prepared the food, who handled it, who wants my lord dead. I know I do.

Handsome, well-bred, rich, powerful, cruel, sinister, manipulative, these are all words that describe him. Before becoming a taster, I had been one of the girls in his harem. I was demoted to this position after accidently sleeping in instead of rising early for his morning massage. Before being a part of his harem, I had been sales clerk at Best Buy. Yeah. I got to this point by walking home drunk early in the morning when the sky was still dark in Amsterdam.

I’d give anything to be back at my old job, telling a seventy-nine year-old woman for the tenth time how to work a 3-D printer. But hey, at least I never had to sleep with my lord. He was actually pissed off when I was brought to him. Something about wanting them to have bought someone for the kitchens, not some drugged up new whore. He was so angry, I got off free that night. Apparently there are no refunds at illegal slave markets.

And now, here I was, sitting at his left waiting for the food to be served so that I can see if today is my day to die from poisoned food. I’m kinda hoping that it is.

“You know how much of everything to eat, correct?” My lord asks me. This is the first time he has actually spoken to me, so I looked at him with eyes as wide as a startled dog’s. I nod my head slowly, not sure if I’m even allowed to speak. “Good. Some girls eat too little, and some girls eat too much. I’d have a male do this, but they are much harder to control. They also get sold much more quickly by torturers.”

I’d heard of torturers. One of the people who had been in charge of watching over a few girls, myself included, had been talking about the different types of people who shop at the market, I was glad I wasn’t sold to a torturer.

“After a full year of taste testing my food, we will have someone else do it, and you will be sent back to the harem. Understood?” I nodded again, really hoping that I wouldn’t make it the whole year.

The food was served, hot on white plates with teal flowers scrawled on the edges. The lord’s voice sounded like it was Australian, or Scottish, something around those parts. If I could hear him speak for more than ten seconds at a time, I would probably be able to place it, especially if I was able to ask where he was from, or where we were. But those questions were against the rules. So when I saw the food, I really wished I knew where we were. One plate had some sort of meat dish, another with some weird green soup looking thing, and the final one had these odd caramel covered chocolate scone things.

Looking at the food like it had come from another planet infested with live jello blobs, I tentatively took a fork and pierced each edible treat they had prepared for my lord. They were each interesting, and if I had been with friends, it would have been a great thing to share and laugh about. After each bite, they asked me how it tasted, and I had to describe it. When I tried to describe the green thing, my lord laughed under his breath and covered his smirk with his hand. Until I mentioned that it tasted a little too sweet.

He looked at me how I had looked at him when he spoke to me. All shocked dog. My eyes grew a little hazy, I could feel my eyes wanting to droop, and my throat felt like it was shutting. I didn’t really try to fight it either, it felt terrifying and comforting at the same time. This is what death felt like.

I woke up to a white room and a light beeping noise. I knew what that noise was, it was the same noise I heard when I was in the hospital, listening to my mother’s heart beat as she slipped away.

One day down, three-hundred and sixty some-odd more to go.

Tea

"In the morning when I wake,
and the sun is coming through

Oh you fill my lungs with sweetness

and you fill my head with you."

Audrey hummed to herself as she put the kettle on the stove. A cool spring breeze blew through the window rustling her silk robe. It was sunset on a Sunday evening, a perfect time for relaxation. Audrey kept humming all the way to the bathroom where she got everything ready for her bath.
Tea light candles were lined up along the bathtub and in the corner sat scented bath salts. She turned on the old faucet and let the hot water fill up the big white tub. She took a deep breath and smiled, excited for the serenity that awaited her. Her humming now turned to a low singing as she lightly danced back into the kitchen. Her black cat Max Minx purred up at her, twisting his tale around her bare legs. She laughed at how it tickled the back of her knees.
                The kettle whistled loudly and Audrey grabbed it off the stove and poured herself a big cup of tea. The scent of mint wafted into her nostrils making her sigh with delight. She kept singing all the way back to the bathroom where the bathtub was almost full. Audrey set her tea cup down in the corner before turning off the old faucet. Her little house was quiet, but for the sound of the great clock ticking in the hallway. Max walked into the bathroom and meowed up at Audrey. “Yes, I think we need some music to fill the air, don’t you think so Max?” She asked the cat. He meowed up at her again.
“Alright then, but what to play?” She asked. Audrey stood in the middle of her bathroom pondering and pondering what music she wanted to play. There was French songstress, the newer stuff on her ipod, the radio. But then she remembered something even better. “Ah-ha!” She announced before running out of the bathroom and into the living room. There in the corner sat an old record player. She grabbed her favorite old record that had lots of old piano ballads and put it on. The music filled her whole house and she smiled, dancing all the way back to the bathroom as if she were a ballerina.
                Audrey slipped off her white silk robe and hung it behind the door. She sighed in content as she stepped into the warm bath. The warm water kissed her skin as she slid deeper and a feeling of ecstasy overcame her. Closing her eyes she sat for a moment enjoying the music and the bath and the smell of mint tea in the corner. It was an amazing feeling that she wished could last forever. She grabbed her tea from the corner and took a sip. It was the perfect temperature and it tasted like perfection.
“This is the definition of relaxation.” She thought to herself. She lay there enjoying the harmony and peace she felt, when his face crossed her mind. She couldn’t help but think of him especially in peaceful moments such as these. Her heart swelled just thinking of him. She smiled to herself thinking of the time when he showed up in the rain with flowers and she made him a warm cup of tea. That night they kissed and she knew she was in love. It was an old memory from when they first started to see each other, but it was one of her favorites. He was the best thing that had ever happened to her and she sighed as she looked down at the ring on her finger, and thought of the many memories that they would make together.