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!