Without You

                All the boxes were packed up, boxes and boxes all stacked up in the corner of the room. I stood there and just stared at them. I wiped the warm tear that fell down my cheek. I just couldn’t believe she was gone. Here in her room was all her stuff, but she was gone. I took a deep breath as the thought that had plagued me played over and over in my head. She was gone and I was still here.
                “Liz, are you okay?” Benny came up behind me, laying his hand on my shoulder. I already felt more comfortable just by having him there.
“Yeah it’s just..tough you know?” I said, wiping another tear that had escaped. Benny came around to face me. He smiled at me, just wide enough to make me smile back.
“Trust me, I know. I’ve been there.” He said. I laughed some before sitting on the hard wood floor. He joined me by sitting down in front of me.
“You know it’s gonna be okay right? It’s gonna get better.” He said. I looked down at my hands sighing.
“I don’t think it really does Benny.” I said.
                Benny looked around the room before he spoke. “You know I don’t know much about this whole life and death thing. But you know what I do know? You are strong Elizabeth, and I know you will see Aubrey again. It might not be today, or tomorrow, but I promise you that you will see her again. I’m not gonna say she’s in a better place, because I don’t know exactly where a better place is. But she loved you so much.” He said. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. The tears came rolling now, my whole body shaking as I began to sob. Benny reached his hand out, almost touching mine.
                I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. “Benny, I just don’t understand.” I spoke through my tears, my voice almost cracking. “My big sister is gone, what am I going to do without her?” I said breathing deep. “I have to lose her. Just like I had to lose you!!” I sobbed. Benny looked down now. “Yet here you are, but where is she Benny? Why can I only see you?!” I asked.
                Benny was my best friend and more than that. He wasn’t just my boyfriend, he was my soulmate.  Two years ago he passed away in the hurricane that hit our small town. Three days after it happened, long after I had heard the news I found him in my bedroom. He was there, alive and well and standing in my bedroom. I thought I was just seeing things, that it was some kind of joke. Turns out it was a joke, because Benny wasn’t really alive, only his soul was. He drifted in and out, showing up when he could. It was hard every time he came and we still couldn’t figure it out. Two years later and I still can’t believe he exists, when I didn’t even believe in ghosts in the first place.
                Then there was Aubrey. My wonderful amazing older sister who had helped me get through everything. She got on the back of that damn motorcycle. With that stupid guy I told her was just a phase, a phase she needed to get rid of. I tried talking with her, tried telling her that he meant no good and that he was no good. But she didn’t believe me. She had rose colored glasses and all they could see was him. I remember a time when I was like that with Benny.
                We got into a fight that night and she stormed out of the house. I remember telling her that I loved her, but I couldn’t stand seeing her with him anymore. I was going to cut her out of my life that night, and then I got the call. She passed away that next morning.
                Benny drifted in and out and I wished so bad that he could’ve held me in his arms. Sometimes I swear I can feel him, but most times it just feels like cold wind brushing against your skin.
I waited and waited, thinking that maybe if I could see Benny that Aubrey would come too. But five days had passed and she still hadn’t shown up. I asked Benny, but he was as clueless as I was. Benny couldn’t really keep a memory; this afterlife wasn’t something you just figured out right away. It was something that we couldn’t understand or comprehend.
                “Liz, I told you..this life..if you can call it that. You wouldn’t want to wish that on her. I promise you that.” He said. I looked up at him and wished so badly that I could kiss him, to comfort him.
“I’m so sorry Ben. I’m so glad that I can see you, but I just wish you could move on. I want you to be happy. I’m so sorry!” I started crying more. My whole life felt like one big mess. “Why can’t you go?” I asked. Benny stood up and I could see that his image was starting to become fuzzier. “I’m fading again.” He said simply. I stood up stepped closer to him. I could almost see behind him as his image became less clear and his body became more transparent. “I love you Benny. I love you so much. If this is the last time I see you I just want you to know that.” I said. Benny gave me a kiss on the lips. I couldn’t feel it, but I knew it was there. He could no longer speak at this stage, but I knew he meant the same for me.
                “If you see her, tell her that I love her too and I miss her. I miss you both so much.” I said. He gave me one last smile before finally fading completely away. Again I was left alone in a room full of boxes and sad memories. 

Deception is the Game

            Rushing through the doors, Alice sprinted down the casino’s hotel room halls. Turn after turn, she found herself trapped in a maze of never-ending red and gold hallways, the thumping sound of her heart matching pace with the thumping of feet behind her. Five black suited men ran after her, threading swiftly through one hall and into another, knowing the building better than she did and laughing inside at the scared little rabbit.

            Finally reaching an elevator, Alice slammed her palm against the button. Over and over again, she pressed the button, looking behind her and seeing the men get closer, smirks on some of their faces and grimaces on the others. Seeing the slow climb of the elevator from floor eleven to floor twenty-seven made her shake in fear and anxiety. She looked at the fire exit and made a move towards it, only to be grabbed by the elbow and thrown onto the ground by one of the black suited men.

            The carpeting stopped her head from making a cracking sound against the floor, but it didn’t stop her shoulder from snapping out of place. Once they had dragged Alice back into the hotel room, they threw her into a chair and stood around her, waiting for the boss to come and demand the quarter million back from Alice McCade, one of the best thieves on the West Coast.

            By the time the boss had come in, Alice was convinced that she would be skinned alive. She had lost the jewels by believing her friend Cat would hold onto them while she made plans for their escape out of Vegas to Spain. Sadly, Cat was a two-faced sociopath and Alice had a tendency to believe in the wrong people.

            The boss, whose name was Aleksander Greaven, sighed, looking down at Alice, already knowing what had happened to his money because he knew what had happened to Cat, since he had been the one to make Cat’s body disappear in the desert. He was light hearted and happy on the inside, finally able to have a thief under his control. It would be easy enough to accomplish, now that Alice had had her life in his hands, and someday, he would have her body and heart as well.

Challenge #84

Hey guys!
The last genre for the genre challenge is going to be Drama. So we are going to be writing stories with the drama genre in mind.

If you would like to join us with your own work that fits this theme, please do! Just e-mail it to us at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com for Fan Friday!

See you on Wednesday!

The Haunted Basement

              "Jamie we shouldn't be doing this." Laurie said. The two girls were making their way to the basement doors of the abandoned toy store.
"Oh come on don't be such a baby." Jamie said. The two of them had heard stories about the basement that was supposedly filled with old porcelain dolls.  As if that wasn't creepy enough, it was also rumored to be haunted.
             When they reached the basement doors Jamie took a deep breath. Laurie was shaking so hard with fear that the light from her flashlight jumbled all around.
"Okay are you ready?" Jamie asked. Laurie gave her friend a look completely full of fear, but just nodded.
If they didn't do this, everyone would make fun of them come Monday morning. That's the deal with bets and dares, especially when peer pressure is added to the mix.
The door to the basement wasn't even locked, which seemed strange to them. Wouldn't they want to keep it locked up so kids just like them wouldn't go messing around? Soon those thoughts quickly dissipated as they walked down the steps. Laurie's heart began to race as a sense of dread filled within her. It was a feeling she couldn't quite place, but it was also mixed with the feeling of someone watching you. Or a thousand someone's watching you.
               They scanned their flashlights around the room. All sizes and assortment of dolls stared back at them with cold unblinking eyes. The two girls grabbed each other's hands.
"We should go." Laurie said, not wanting to venture any farther into the basement.
"No we can't go yet, we have to take one of the dolls as proof." Jamie said, swallowing the lump of fear in her throat.
"Fine then just take that one!" Laurie whispered, pointing to a small doll in the corner who wasn't as creepy.

"No we need to find the one doll that Tyler told us about. You know the one with one eye?" Jamie said.
The girls began moving slowly through the basement, their flashlights continually moving  as they kept their eyes on the dolls. "He was probably just making that up." Laurie said.
               Some dolls looked newer than others, but most of them were quite old. One doll was so old the paint from her face had faded away leaving only a white blank face. Almost all of the dolls had cobwebs in their hair, and every single one of them seemed to be covered in dust. Except one of them, a doll far away in the corner near the basement window. It wasn't covered in any dust, as if it had been moved several times. It was a fairly large doll, and the face was horrifying. It had a smile that seemed almost too happy, with wide green eyes.     Laurie couldn't take her eyes off it. Out of all the dolls in the room this one was the scariest. Her heart beat faster and faster the longer she stared at the doll, and her uneasy feeling only intensified.
"Jamie, I want to go. NOW!" She said. Jamie turned to see what was wrong and almost gasped seeing the doll by the window. "Oh my god that one is...so creepy. It's perfect, we should take that one."
"NO! We are not taking that one, we are not taking any one! I'm getting the hell out of here." Laurie said turning around and heading back for the door. "Wait, hold on." Jamie said following her friend. Laurie was almost running now, trying to get away from the creepy feeling that sent goosebumps up and down her arms. Jamie followed close behind her. "Laurie just hold on!" Jamie said. But Laurie didn't stop until she was outside, breathing in the crisp night air. 

                  "I had to get out of there..I just..I just couldn't take it anymore. And that doll, god that doll was so fucking creepy." Laurie could just see the face of that doll, like it was burned  into her brain forever. "Well what are we gonna tell everyone? We don't have any proof." Jamie said. Laurie started to walk to the car.
"I don't care!" She said.
"Well I'm going back, I need to get at least one doll." She said. Laurie whipped around. "What?! You can't go back in there!" She said grabbing her friend's shoulder.
"It'll only take a second, I'll be fine. It's not like it's really haunted. Laurie please tell me you don't really believe in that crap?" She asked. Laurie didn't really think she did until she was down in that basement, and the feeling of panic that came over her when she saw the doll by the window.
"Just hurry, please...just hurry. And do not grab that fucking doll by the window." She said. Jamie looked at her friend with knitted eyebrows. "That's the second time you've cussed tonight, you never cuss."
Laurie sighed. "Yeah well, that's what happens when your best friend drags you down into a creepy haunted basement full of porcelain dolls! Now go! I don't want to be here any longer than I need to." She said. Jamie just laughed before running back towards the building.
                   Laurie watched as her Jamie disappeared and walked closer to the building, hoping her friend wouldn't take long. She stood there watching the building when a glimpse of light caught her eye. She turned to right to look, and there she saw the basement window. Glancing in she saw the figure of the creepy doll. She shined her flashlight in, hoping to see Jamie. But then suddenly the head of the doll turned completely around to face her. The wide green eyes now moving to meet Laurie's, and her smile widening even further. The last thing she heard was her Jamie's blood curdling scream. 

                  

Incognito

            “I ran through the dark woods, the moon making the world blue in hue. The trees entangled me and snarled my hair, and I heard the growling up ahead and ran towards it, even though my brain screamed at me to run away from the noise. But Joshua was ahead, my cousin and best friend was ahead of me and I had heard him screaming before I had heard the growling.”

            “By the time I had reached the growling, I could hear a wet noise, like slurping, and looking up into the trees, towards the noise, I saw legs dangling from one of the tree’s branches. The swayed like leaves in the wind from the movements of the black thing on top of the body. I screamed, it lifted its head and it’s eyes glowed white, like the eyes of an animal when caught at night in a headlight. But there was no light, save for the moon in the sky that glowed down on us.”

            “It was silent, it was massive, and it moved towards me. It was on four legs, it was furry, it was the size of a mastiff and it made my heart feel like it was going to explode out of my body. And then I wake up. Right when I can see it smile at me with its bloody maw,” Alexandria took a deep breath. Her story, the story that she had been telling everyone since she had been found in Tanknuck Woods, covered in blood, was finished. Some of the group members stared, some giggled, some shook back and forth while scratching their heads in irritation from the imagined bugs crawling inside of them.

            The Everfrost Psychiatric Facility was Alexandria’s home. It had been for seven years, and she had always refused to believe that she had been the one to kill her cousin. Until today. Her breath quickened, her eyes teared up, and she couldn’t believe that she was going to say something she didn’t believe just so that she could get out of the facility and out into the real world.

            “And I know now that it was just a dream. It wasn’t real. It was in my head. It was the monster inside me that I created to hide what happened. I know I did it. I know I killed him.”

            Doctor Monroe nodded, making a note on her paper and asking Alexandria some questions about the revelation, asking the others in the group if they had any comments. A few months later, after making sure that Alexandria had actually recovered from her delusions, she was released.

            “I saw it again. I followed it to Dr. Monroe’s home. I knew it would kill again, and I wanted to stop it. I wanted to avenge my cousin’s death. So when I saw the beast lumber out of the shadows on my way back from the grocery store to the motel, I knew I had to follow and kill it. But I couldn’t.”

            “I was too late. I heard Dr. Monroe scream, and the world turned blue from the moon. I ran to the door, already smashed open, I followed the growling upstairs, into the study, and heard the wet slurping. Her legs were shaking like tremors from an earthquake from under the table and I saw it’s black furry tail run from under the table out to the edge of the rug, a good four feet. I stepped slowly towards it, it’s tail stopped in mid sway, and it lifted its massive black head to look at the intruder. To look at me.”

            “And then I was it. I looked at the empty doorway, I looked down at the ground. Blood was all over me, and her body was on the floor. A round mirror reflected the beast. It reflected me. It showed me my true face and the face I had hidden from the world. I am Death. I am The End.”

Challenge #83

Hey everyone! Sorry for the last minute update about the challenge. Both Ink and I have been very people this past week.
But the challenge for this week is to write a story based off the Horror Genre.

If you would like to join us you can write a story and submit it to inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com and we can feature it on Fan Friday!

Happy Writing! :)

Sweet Caroline

He gently took her hand in his, leading the way while her eyes were blindfolded. She knew they were outside from the light wind that blew on her face. The wind wafted the scent of honeysuckles her way and Caroline couldn't help but smile. She already knew exactly where they were.
“Where are we going?” She asked already knowing the answer.
“You’ll see.” Was all he said. She could hear the excitement in his voice.
“Wait here.” He said and let go of her hand. Caroline stood there with a wide grin, a giddiness rising inside her stomach.
                He was back in front of her now, she could smell the musky scent of his cologne. Before untying the blindfold he gave her a small kiss on the lips.
“Surprise!” He said excitedly. Her eyes adjusted to the tiny garden, with the small gazebo. Dozens of candles circled around it.
“Oh Arthur, it’s beautiful! You’ve taken my breath away.” She said. Arthur held her hand once more, using his other hand to hold her waist. Slowly he led her under the gazebo.
“Well we don’t want that!” He laughed. “Would you like to dance?” He asked. Caroline looked down at their feet which were already beginning to move.
“I think we already are.” She smiled back up at him. They swayed together under the gazebo for what seemed like hours. Her hand in his, breathing in the sweet scent of Honeysuckle and his cologne. It filled her with a happiness she had never felt in all her life.
                “Caroline!” A voice yelled in the distance, startling them both. “CAROLINE!” The voice yelled louder. 
                

“CAROLINE!” Her eyes flew open, standing above the bed was her sister Tracey.
“You gotta get up you’re gonna be late for work.” She said. Caroline slowly sat up in bed, the dream still clouding her mind. “What?” She asked looking around.
“Work, you know that thing you do to make money?” Her sister said sarcastically. Caroline at the realization that it was only a dream, that Arthur only existed in her head.
“What’s wrong?” Her sister sensing her mood. Caroline threw the covers off. “Nothing, just having a good dream that I didn’t want to end.”

When she got to work her mind kept drifting back to the dream. Every once in a while she could’ve sworn she smelled Honeysuckle somewhere in the office, but she knew her mind must have just been playing tricks on her.
                Today her boss wanted her to train the new interns and Caroline couldn’t find the motivation inside her to act peppy. “How many do we have this time?” She asked.
“Only four, and Caroline please make sure you go over the Quota for the week okay?” Her boss asked before giving her four folders. “I will make sure I do that.” She said.
                Walking towards the elevator Caroline almost froze in tracks when she once again smelled the scent of Honeysuckle, except this time it was laced with another familiar scent. She took a deep breath, breathing in the scent before finally pressing the elevator button.
She rode the elevator three floors up to the conference room and braced herself for hard work that was about to be at hand.
                When the doors open Caroline stepped she almost dropped the folders in shock. Immediately her eyes locked with one of the new interns. He looked exactly like Arthur from her dream, so much so that she was convinced it was him. The look on his face gave her chills, almost as if he recognized her as well. He smiled at her before stepping closer, close enough to whisper something in her ear.
“Would you like to dance with me my Sweet Caroline?”

Maybe

            Kara stared at the man in front of her. She had spent her whole day trying to find this man, the supposed man of her dreams, and this is who she found. The night before, he had seemed charming, mysterious, cunning, and, well, perfect. She knew it wasn’t the alcohol that had made him seem that way, because she had only had an Irish coffee by the time he had come in to the bar and she hadn’t had anything else to drink, that was alcoholic, until they had gone to a nightclub four hours later.

            The man in front of her, dressed in a crumpled white button-up and dirty black slacks, looked like he had just finished a night of work as a busboy.

            “James! Five minutes and then back to work! Those tables ain’t gonna clean themselves!” A slightly muscular man shouted from the backdoor of Caraway’s, the restaurant Kara had found this loser in. She had been hoping he was the cook, with how well he had cooked her a late morning dinner before departing when she had fallen asleep. Or the owner, with how well he knew about how businesses ran themselves and worked, but she never would have thought that he was a busboy.

            “Couldn’t keep away from me,” The guy, James, smirked and made a move to hold Kara’s hand, but she stepped back, aghast and confused. “What’s wrong?”

            “You’re . . . You’re a busboy.” She stammered, wiping the sweat from her brow that she had gathered from running five blocks just to meet this man of her dreams. The man who had made her laugh so hard that she had snorted, something she hadn’t done since middle school. After middle school, she had to be serious and grounded after her father died. She had to take care of her mother and brother. They had been counting on her, and she had never found time for herself since.

            “Yeah? Is that a problem?” He looked confused, like wealth and occupation and security were things that didn’t matter in the world. To Kara, they did. And they mattered so much that she fainted because of the strange pressure that her heart and her head decided to push her with.

            “That stuff matters to her? That’s no problem, I get the reasoning, and I would love to keep going out with her. Last night was magical and amazing. I didn’t think I could feel that again after my ex. But I have another two years till I get this place from my uncle,”

            “Yeah! I know! It sucks. But I don’t think she’ll-,”

            “I do!” Kara shouted, leaping up from her makeshift bed that James and his uncle had made for her in the break room after she had fainted. “I mean . . . I will. I’m fine. With it. With you. I’d like to keep seeing you.” She stammered. Her friend Mel staring at her with her eyes bulging like a frog’s from how shocked she was. James looked at her, his face going from concerned to ecstatic. Neither of the two knowing that, while Kara was passed out, she had a dream of her dad telling her it was time for her to relax and find happiness, something that she deserved to have after the many years of work she had been putting herself under.

Challenge #82

Hello all!

The genre challenge for this week is romance! So we must write a story for the romance genre. If anyone would like to contribute to Fan Friday, please do! Just e-mail us at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com!

See you on Wednesday!

Don't trust crazy cat ladies

The fucking cat won’t stop staring at me. It’s stupid tail keeps swaying back and forth as it gives me the death glare. I stare back at briefly before trying to ignore it. But it won’t look away, it just sits there with its judging gaze.
“What?!” I ask it, annoyed. The cat of course just sits there doing what it was before, it’s eye’s practically boring into my soul.
I look at my watch and sigh. My date is still upstairs getting ready, I don’t know much about her, but I do know this: She’s taking too long! Plus the fact that she’s left me down here with this stupid fucking cat irritates me to no end.
              “Listen buddy,” I start looking the cat in the eye. “Why don’t you just go away okay? Cause if you don’t go away I’m gonna make you go away.” I tell the cat. The cat yawns at me, unfazed by my threat. Did I really just threaten a cat? I didn’t think I could stoop to this level, but the past week has been nothing but hell.
“I’ll almost done I promise! I’m so sorry!” My date yells down from the stairs.
“No worries take your time!” I say sarcastically. But she must not have heard the tone in my voice because she gives me a cheery okay back.
“Fuuuuuucccck.” I whisper under my breath. Sitting back on her ridiculously uncomfortable couch, I notice something strange on the coffee table. It’s a small book stuck on the very bottom of a medium sized stack of books. I pull it out and investigate it a little closer. That’s when I realize it’s not a photo album at all, it’s a photo album. Inside the photo album are pictures upon pictures of fucking cats. All over every page are pictures of cats. Then on the three last pages there are pictures of cats and her and me. We’ve barely chatted on the dating website, but here she has my picture printed out on a booklet with fucking cats.
                My crazy-girl-is-gonna-kill-you instincts kick into high gear as I leap off the couch dropping the booklet on the table. The cat looks up at me and I can swear I see it smirking  at me.
“All ready to go!” My date says walking down the stairs. My jaw drops open when I see what she’s wearing. A tight red dress that accentuates each and every curve, and her hair is down in long waves. I gape at her for a moment, forgetting all about the book.
“you-you look amazing.” I say. She gives me a small devilish smile.
“Aw thank you, sorry it took so long, but you can’t rush perfection!” She tells me. That’s when I remember about the book and my eyes go wide with fear.
“Hey uh listen, do you mind if I go to my car real quick? I have something for you. I was gonna surprise you with it when we got to the restaurant but I think you deserve it now.” I tell her. Her face lights up with crazy enthusiasm and I thank God she believes me.
“Okay!!” She says smiling wide.
“Okay then, I’ll be right back.” I say giving her a thumbs up.
Once I open the door I try to restrain myself from full on running to the car. I walk briskly, turning my head back once to make sure the crazy bitch isn’t following me. A wave of relief washes over me when I get inside my car. I quickly turn it on and speed out of there as fast as I can, not caring whether or not I get pulled over.
                I drive home smiling at the fact that I got away from the crazy cat lady. When I pull into my driveway I’m almost giddy that I actually made it out alive.
I walk from the car up to my porch, reaching my  hand in my pocket to retrieve my keys.
My hand freezes and my breath catches in my throat. My phone is not in my pocket, but the image of it sitting on crazy cat ladies couch fills my mind. The realization overcomes me and I almost want to scream. “FUCK!” I yell into night. I run up to my porch and let myself in as all the possibilities of what she can do with my phone rumble around my brain. Finally I sit on my couch resting for a moment, stuck in thought.
“Well…looks like I’m gonna have to move to Alaska!” 

Really?

            Julie entered the bar, dressed in red and in a black leather coat. The man she was looking for tonight would be the man of her dreams. And if not tonight, then maybe tomorrow night. She had nowhere better to be and nothing better to do. Her smoky eyes and jet black hair made her look dangerous, and her curves made her delectable to many of the eyes that scanned her as she walked in.

            Sitting on a bar stool at the bar, she positioned herself like a prim cat and called for a whiskey in her best sultry tone. Unfortunately, the spell she was trying to cast was about to be broken as her on and off again lover walked through the door.

            His lanky figure and greasy hair made her toes curl in excitement. An excitement that she wished she didn’t feel. It wasn’t that she didn’t like his looks or his personality, it was that she didn’t like the way picked his nails at the dinner table. The two looked incompatible, and they were from two different worlds, but there was something about him that drove her wild, and of course, he was happy to have someone out of his league clinging to his arm.

            “Hey, babe,” Max said, swaggering his way up to her like some actor in a disco era movie. “Thought I’d find you here slumming it. Why don’t you come back. I trimmed my nails.” He smirked and showed Julie his freshly cut nails. They were cut so short that it would take weeks for her to get annoyed enough to leave him again. Biting her lip, Julie shook her head.

            “Nu-uh, buster. Not this time,” the voice escaping her lips as high pitched and sounded cartoony, “I know you’ll just grow ‘em out and start plucking dirt at the table. I can do better!”

            “Aw come on! The apartment is a mess and I’m starved!”

            “Learn to cook and hire a maid.”

            “We can play that game,” Max winked. And that was it. She swooned. She fell. She walked out the door with a giggle and a fire in her eyes.

            “Really? Again?” Danny, the bartender sighed.

            “Yup! Now pay up!” Charles laughed, raising his glass. The bartender sighed and shook his head. Bringing out the expensive stuff that he had put up for the bet to see if she would find a new guy that night. Danny lost, but then again, he was planning on being the guy she would go home with.

Challenge #81

Hello everyone!

For the next four weeks we shall be doing genres! This week we will be tackling the comedy genre! So the challenge for this week is to write a short story that is a comedy.

If you would like to join us, by submitting your own short story, poem, or art piece, please do! Just e-mail us at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com!

See you all on Wednesday!