May 15, 2018

Twittering Tales #84 – 15 May 2018

About the challenge: Each Tuesday I will provide a photo prompt. Your mission, if you choose to accept the challenge, is to tell a story in 280 characters or less. When you write your tale, be sure to let me know in the comments with a link to your tale.

A final note: if you need help tracking the number of characters in your story, there is a nifty online tool that will count for you at charactercountonline.com.

I will do a roundup each Tuesday, along with providing a new prompt. And if for some reason I missed your entry in the Roundup, as I have occasionally done, please let me know. I want to be sure to include your tale.

Finally, have fun!

And REMEMBER…you have 280 characters (spaces and punctuation included), to tell your tale…and a week to do it. I can’t wait to see what you create this week.

First things first. We had a late entry from the previous week’s prompt, “The Doors”, from Francine at Woman Walks Dog:
The Rehearsal
Today’s rehearsal is for stage directions.
Romeo enter door 4, Juliet you through door 7 quick kiss exit door 1.
Mercutio enter door 5 call for Romeo, exit door 2.
Juliet poisoned collapse in front of door 2, Romeo stabbed stagger & fall next to Juliet
Nurse & Mercutio enter door 3 & weep.
All clear now ? It’ll be fine on the night!

Twittering Tales #83 – The Roundup

Photo by Fabio Santaniello Bruun at Unsplash.com

Starting us off…
Lost Soul
Madge got off the bus. She knew the way home on Elm St. but Elm St. was closed. The street sounds blared louder, louder.
The road crew noticed her pacing, repeating, “Elm St. Elm St.” and called police.
Poor Madge was escorted safely home, but she couldn’t recall how she got there.
280 Characters

From Hayley at The Story Files:
Working
Were they digging to the center of the earth? I didn’t know but I just wanted to sleep. The sounds of the drilling vibrated everything, so there was no way to block the noise out. I looked up hotels and moved out for the weekend. Peace at last!

From Michael at Morpethroad:
We’d picked the best place with our taste buds bubbling.
So much expectation, we knew our order.
But in front was our dream in ashes.
Smouldering before our eyes, the chicken, the beef, the special lamb.
We couldn’t believe our eyes, our stomachs cried.
We went next door to Maccas.
(277 characters)

From Reena at ReInventions:
Gratitude
“Hey! This little fella appears to be working hard with you.”
“We saved him once from a conflagration, and he’s been our ally since then.”
“I wish humans showed the same gratitude, as these four legged creatures do….”
(215 characters)

From Deepa at syncwithdeep:
The Stink
I stink
to clean your stink.
I collect your garbage,
and clean your shit.
I am covered with rashes,
And you are covered with robes.
while I wash your stink with water,
you bathe in luxury foam.
I drown in spirits,
to escape the stink.
to keep my family alive,
I clean your stink!
(280 Characters)

From Fandango at This, That, and the Other:
Time For Some Dictation
Her text read, “You should stay in town tonight, honey. The power company has the street torn up and it’s so loud that you’ll never get any sleep tonight if you come home. Love you. See you tomorrow.”
He winked at his secretary. “Can you stay? I have some dick-tation for you.”
(276 characters)

From Team Wellness at World of Wellness:
Oceans Two
The tunnel to the Premium Mobile Store at the corner was ready. They needed to deliver all the mobiles by daybreak…the payoff was good!!!
140 Characters

From Jane at Jane Dougherty Writes:
Fighting Fire
Jim heaved himself through the manhole gasping for breath the fumes of toxic gas billowing around him. Heavy hands on his shoulders stopped him. Harvey.
“Back you go. The fire’s not out yet.”
With a grin Harvey slammed the manhole cover back in place and hurried back to Jim’s wife.
280 Characters

From Willow at WillowDot21:
Well it certainly wasn’t a sinkhole, it was incredibly deep. There was no explanation for this huge hole in the road. Suddenly the machinery stopped, silence engulfed them. Then the pounding started, strange lights shone like arcs into the sky.Tentacles appeared, and so it began.
(280 Characters )

From Leena at Soul Connection:
Trapped
“Its A Long tiring day.Wrkng since morning n now its dark.Dnt evn knw wht we are looking for.”
“Evry1 says they hear strange noise frm underneath.Nw do U See smthng dwn there?”
While evry1 searching below they failed to notice face appeared in smoke above thanking for freeing them.

From at The Dark Netizen:
FALL
“The poor man is mangled beyond recognition.”
“He was neither poor, nor needed recognition. He was mad is what he was.”
“You knew him?”
“Everyone did. That’s Mr. Icarus – mad inventor. He was testing his nuclear jetpack yesterday.”
“Must have flown too high to have fallen so deep.”
Character Count: 280

From Kirst at Kirst Writes:
Werewolf
Humid today, huh? Best time to work, moonlit night. Nobody around neither. Drill down to the gas main and…
You hear that?
Some drunk, is all. Man, this neighbourhood!
No. An animal. Kinda snarling.
Like a werewolf? Awooo!
Ok, c’mon. Hey – there in the steam, see?
It’s coming. Run!
(277 characters)

From Indhu at Always:
The Treasure
“It is been 2 hours since Dave went in. Should we send more men?” asked Dan.
“I am not sure what’s taking him long” said Ron.
Dave dug faster. He has to hurry up before someone finds out. He secured the treasure bag in a pit.
“Hello” said a voice with a gun pressed to his head.
<278 characters>

From Debbie at Twenty-Four:
The call had come late and consequently he was now standing on a dead end street in the middle of the night- tired, cold and hungry.
His boss had gone mental – this was going to inconvenience everyone.
John smiled, being home without water wasn’t his problem this time.
(267 characters)

From Peter at Peter’s Pondering:
Ah, there you are Carruthers! What a marvellous idea it was of yours to build our new listening post below the existing embassy. Unfortunately our excavations have hit a bit of a snag. Seems there is a team of Russian builders already working down there on some project or other!
(279 characters)

Great Roundup this week! Once again, quite a variety of tales. Well done everyone, and thank you for participating. This week’s prompt photo is by malmanxg at unsplash. I think there might be a few good stories here in this dark theatre. Give it a try in 280 characters or less and I’ll see you at the Round-up next week!