Book Nook and Writing Corner discussion

good prompt

"It's for the best."
"You sure?"
"Of course I am. Let's go for it. The specimen must be captured."
How could they know?
I run toward the door, but they're too fast. The first one grabs me.
"We have to tell you how you got your abilities," he says solemnly.
*******************************************************
I'm five years old, and happy. But Destin Williamson pushes me, and suddenly I get angry. Wouldn't it be nice if he got blasted across the playground! I thought.
And he did. I expected to get punished, but instead I was sent home--permanently. Not expelled. They said I was 'too special' to be expelled.
*******************************************************
The voice brings me back to the present.
"You weren't just lucky, Kale. Your parents are scientists, as you know. They experimented on you."
The world looks so big from a toddler's viewpoint.
"Drink this," he orders me.
"Daddy, I don't want to!"
But finally I do.
The window shatters and the man smiles.
"Good! Just do that when you're being monitored and we're all set!"
I jump out the broken frame and land, somehow, on a neighbor's roof.
Later, as I walk along the road, a car stops.
"What are you doing out so late, boy?"
I can't help but explain everything.
He doesn't look surprised.
"Yes, I know. I'm your real father. I've been receiving updates on you for years. Now come with me."
I'm finally home.

“Great, you screwed up the darned plan!”

“I did what I was s’posed to do!”

“You did it too soon!”

Alora awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of gruff voices whispering harshly just outside her door. At first, she thought that it was a dream, and that she was very much asleep, but she felt rather awake. But when she pinched herself, she didn’t feel anything at all, so in the end she assumed it was a mere dream.

But why was she so aware of everything? Was she lucid dreaming?

Alora looked down on her younger sister, Alana, from where she currently sat on her top bunk. Alana was curled up under her blankets, blonde hair splayed wildly all over her pillow, still sound asleep.

Climbing down the ladder, Alora intended on investigating the mysterious voices right outside their bedroom door, who continued to argue over some plan. Alora identified them both as males; she vaguely recognized one of the voices, but the other was completely foreign to her.

Just as she climbed down the last rung, the door opened, and light flooded into the room as two tall silhouettes walked in. Alora froze. The first thing that she noticed was that the man on the right just so happened to be her Uncle Todd, which explained the voice she thought she recognized.

The second thing she noticed was that they were carrying menacing knives. Not only that, but the knife the unknown man was carrying dripped crimson.

Her initial instinct was to protect Alana. “Don’t you dare touch her!” she screamed at the men, but they didn’t even seem to acknowledge her. “I swear, if you dare to lay a finger on her-” They walked straight past her. Actually, that wasn’t exactly correct. Unknown Man walked past Alora, whereas Uncle Todd walked through her. She turned abruptly on her heel to watch as they continued to creep up on her sister, who was still lost in a deep slumber.

“I’m taking care of this one,” Uncle Todd whispered maliciously. “And after this we execute part two.”

Unknown Man chuckled. “‘Execute’. Funny, funny man.”

The way that the two men were talking caused Alora to feel sick to her stomach. They weren’t seriously going to kill Alana, were they . . . ?

“STOP IT!” she screamed again. It was all too real to be a dream. But the men still refused to acknowledge her presence. Conflicted thoughts floated around in her head. Was this a dream, or was it not?! Either way, Alora desperately wished her parents were home, but they didn’t return from their three-day business trip until the next day. And if this wasn’t a dream, they would come home to their dead children . . .

“STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!” Alora continued to scream as they slit Alana’s throat, but it was no use whatsoever.

“Now that those two are taken care of, nothing’s in our way,” Uncle Todd said, and the two of them exited the room, laughing with each other.

Then Alora realized something. ‘Now that those two are taken care of,’ her uncle had said. There had been only two of them to begin with - her parents had never wanted more children. And Alora felt alive . . .

But was she alive?

Nervously, she climbed back up the ladder to her top bunk. And there Alora lay, still as a statue with red coating her throat.

Ok this is going to be pretty long and really strange, but here goes

Nightmare

I awoke with a jolt, flying upright in my empty bed, and holding back a scream. I tried to calm myself; breathe in…breathe out…breathe in… I let go of the sheets I had been holding onto with an iron grip and wiped the cold sweat from my brow. What had woken me with such a start? Nightmares? Noises? I had no clue why I had been so shaken, but for some reason I could almost feel it in the air that something was amiss. I can’t explain the feeling, but it was similar to when you sit in class and you can virtually sense someone staring at you.

Take her. No one can hear her from here. Now’s the only chance.

I sat up, even more alert now. I swung my head left and right, looking around my dark room. Nobody was there. I could have sworn I heard voices, and yet there was no sign of anyone else here. Unease settled in underneath my skin, filling the pit of my stomach with the lead weight of panic. I couldn’t have imagined it, could I? My therapist told me I was still sane, even after all that had happened.

Right in here. Right now. Tonight, we take her.

There it was again! The voice, so quiet you think it was just a whisper, yet so clear you would think they were yelling right in your face. I had actually felt the voice, like a breath of icy air in the summer; traveling across my body, raising every hair along my arms and back of my neck. I knew I couldn’t have imagined it now, it was all too real. But, now that I knew it was real, the severity of the situation thoroughly sank in. No one can hear her from here? Tonight, we take her? Whoever was out there wanted me for some reason.

How did they get in? Why do they want me? Where can I run? All these questions ran through my head as I frantically thought of a plan. My phone! It was on the nightstand, right next to my mirror! I can call the cops and whatever psycho is out there will be arrested before anything goes wrong. I silently slipped my sheets off and moved to get out of my bed, but stopped dead in my tracks.

“What the hell…,” I gasped as my jaw went slack, staring at the wall like a deer caught in headlights. How hadn’t I noticed it before? It was so plain to see, why had I not seen it when I looked all around my room? There was no way the police could save me from here now. My wall was completely blank, like all my other walls. There was still paint and the wallpaper, but it was missing something very important: the door. How does one’s door suddenly go missing? It’s not possible!

I ran across my room and felt the wall desperately, groping around for a knob, a hole, or any clue that my door was still there behind all this. I hoped this was all just a lie; like some big prank my friends decided to play on me. But, I searched every inch and there was absolutely no door. I slumped against the wall, burying my head in my hands to cry. “This can’t be real…this isn’t real…it’s impossible… I must be dreaming. Wake up. Wake up! Wake up, Lizzy! Snap out of it, damn you, and wake up already!” I shouted to the empty room.

Denial was just a word used to describe something so crazy you can’t bring yourself to believe it so you lie to yourself until you’re spiraling into a made up world you invented to hide the fear. Right now, I was in serious denial, just as I had been for the past eight years. Ever since Lyle lost his mind and killed most of the graduating class, including himself, right in front of me I’ve been in therapy, trying my hardest to see through the lies I created to cover up the truth; that my class mates, friends, and even my twin sister, were dead. But now that these crazy things were happening, I was suddenly found in that same denial I was in eight years ago.

Isabelle crouched in front of me, setting a gentle hand on my shoulder. “It’s alright, Lizzy. It’ll all be okay.” She smiled sweetly and gave me a small hug.

“I-Izzy?” I choked out, gaping up at her. “Is that really you?” I was on the verge of tears; seeing someone, anyone, was such a relief.

“It’s really me, Lizzy,” she said, still smiling. Her eyes still had that sparkle in them, like they always did. “I’m here to take you home with me.”

“Home? What do you mean?” I asked, generally confused.

She laughed, the sound so familiar and musical I really did start to cry, overwhelmed by all this. “What’s wrong?” she asked me, leaning in close. “Don’t you want to come home with me? I thought you missed me…”

“I do miss you!” I said quickly, wiping away my tears. I didn’t want her to leave so soon. “I missed you a lot, but you’re here now so, please, stay. I don’t like being alone,” I added meekly.

“I was alone that night, you know. You left me all alone. It’s your fault,” she said, no longer comforting, no longer the happy sister I once knew. “It wasn’t Lyle that killed me, it was you killed me. If hadn’t left me alone, I would be alive. It’s your fault, Elizabeth. It’s your fault! It’s your fault!” Izzy screamed, piercing my ears, the sound literally hitting me with a force strong enough to knock the air from my lungs. “ALL YOUR FAULT!”

“Your fault!” someone yelled, and I instantly knew the voice: Macy. She was my best friend from freshman year; I loved her like a sister. Macy, Izzy, and I acted like triplets and were inseparable. She appeared right in front of my face and screamed those two words over and over.

“Your fault!” another voice yelled.

“Your fault!” yet another yelled. Those words kept being shouted, over and over and over again, filling the air with their screams, as one by one people from my past appeared in my room. I rocked back and forth, crying and sobbing so hard I could hardly breathe. I covered my ears, but it did nothing to stop the screams.

“Come with us,” a voice called, the same one I heard from moments ago, the one that woke me with a start. All the yelling stopped and the speaker stepped forward at last. Lyle stood in front and center, the toes of his shoes touching mine. He looked indifferent, no emotion behind his piercing green eyes; so different from the enraged faces of the others. I looked up at him with fearful eyes, still shaken from the scene before. “We’ve come to take you with us, there’s no way to fight it,” he said regally, holding a hand out to me. “You will come silently and stay silent. You will pay for what you did. Your punishment starts tonight.”

All my fault. I grabbed him hand and came silently, just as he had said. All my fault. He pushed me into the crowd of my peers, making my fall mercilessly onto my knees. All my fault. They swarmed me, ripping and tearing my clothes, attacking me like animals. All my fault. I didn’t try to stop them; I just let them do their bidding, because, after all, I was the one to blame. All my fault. I just looked at Lyle’s emotionless face as he watched me get torn to shreds by those I once called friends.

A blood curdling scream broke through their frenzied growls, making my skin crawl as shrank back and held my bleeding ears. Then, I realized, it was my own scream, and I wasn’t being attacked, my school mates weren’t yelling at me, Lyle wasn’t here, I wasn’t in my room at home. I was back in the cushioned white room, having yet another nightmare; making this day two-thousand- nine-hundred-twenty-one of endless nightmares.

I woke up in the middle of the night, as I was prone to do. I was about to call for my lady in waiting, but I stopped as I heard a voice outside my door that did not belong to my guard.

"She's right here. You can't tell me you're going to pass up on the opportunity to kidnap the princess heir, Johann!"

Johann! That's not possible! Maybe it's a different Johann. Yes, that's it.

"But what if she won't come with me? She knows that it's for the good of the queendom to marry the duke, and she won't disobey her mother." My fears were realized. It was Johann, my sweetheart who I had thought could do no wrong. Now, not so much.

I tiptoed out of bed and gasped to see my lady in waiting standing at the door... With a knife.

"Rose? I can't believe it! What's going on?" I whispered.

"Oh, my dear. I'm so sorry." Tears began streaming down her face as she repeated, "So, so sorry. I never meant for it to end this way. I'm so sorry." She caressed my cheek, as she had done for years. The problem was, she only did that when we were saying goodbye.

It's really short, but I've been under a lot of stress lately, so I have an excuse if I don't win :)

Claire wrote: "It's really short, but I've been under a lot of stress lately, so I have an excuse if I don't win :)"

Plus, everyone else's so far were way better that mine :)
Good job, everyone!

Great job, Gabby! I must say that yours was my favorite also.

When will there be a new prompt?

Oh sorry, I've been a little caught up in back to school stuff oops hehe and wow thanks a ton guys, I'm still surprised I won.