October 30, 2018

Twittering Tales #108 – 30 October 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.

Twittering Tales #107 – The Roundup

Starting us off…

Every night she dreamed she was in an insane asylum surrounded by hundreds of ravens, cackling wildly. But it was the grounds that were most terrifying. There were people hiding behind trees everywhere.
“Don’t drink the pumpkin spice lattes,” they screamed.
It was horrible!
~kat
(276 Characters)

By Michael at Morpethroad:
Something weird happened when the pumpkins developed a skin, not unlike his own.
He had nightmares, where he was in a forest and hands, and arms appeared around the trees, he felt threatened, scared and somewhat confused more so by the flock of crows circling their old house.
(273 characters)

By Reena at ReInventions:
Common Sense
“The birds know, the pumpkins in the field know…”
“What?”
“The secrets hiding behind the bushes ….”
“And how do we know that?”
“Simple, Mama … walk over to the other side of the tree.”
My little one can sure apply common sense to fairy tales. Reading out a story is not fun anymore.
(277 characters)

By The Dark Netizen:
1-Missing
Any leads on the missing men?
Easy for my boss to ask. I was the one who spent the entire night searching for the three VIPs who had all gone missing yesterday.
Now, the rain has stopped. The sunlight reveals the crows having a feast.
I suspect they have found the bodies.
Character Count: 270

2-Forest of Hands
Many years ago, the government had decided to clear the forest. All trees were to be cut down. In response, a group of naturalists had started a tree hugging movement. Since they loved the trees, the trees absorbed their bodies.
Only their hands remain visible, to this day..
Character Count: 275

By Fandango at This, That, and the Other:
Never Should’ve Moved Here
“I knew we never should’ve moved from Idaho to Oregon,” Clyde said.
“We talked about this before I accepted the job,” Sue said. “You said you were okay moving here and being a househusband.”
“It’s not that.”
“What is it, then?”
“It’s all these damn liberal tree huggers around here.”
(279 characters)

By Kristian from Tales from the Mind of Kristian:
The Passing of Power
She rested in the ruin, the constant sound of the crows lulled her to sleep.
Keeping up the public façade was exhausting and her title no longer bestowed the power that used to enchant her so.
She accepted her time was over.
Satan ruled openly now, money was the way he kept score.
[280 characters]

By Willow at WillowDot21:
SILENCE.
There’s no peace since the ravens arrived, crawing and whirling around the roof.
The day they began to roost was the day the Ents came.Trees with arms and voices
Surly it couldn’t get any worse?
Then the grumbling pumpkin turned up in a box of gourds. I’ve not slept in months.
(277 Characters)

By Hélène at Willow Poetry:
Pumpkin Patch
“Don’t go play too far George!” yells mom.
But George wasn’t there.
Panicked she runs to the pumpkin patch.
Pumpkins’ are carving their own Halloween structures.
George is there, light coming out his eyes, nose and mouth.
A big pumpkin grabs mom.
She joins George up on the fence.
(279 characters)

By Radhika at Radhika’s Reflection:
Haunted Halloween
Amy decided to take the spookiness level of her Halloween party a notch higher. The haunted house in the woods with ravens clucking around, the crinkled pumpkins added to the eeriness. But, the hands creeping around the trees was not a part of the theme….now fear gripped her!
Letter count : 279

By Ramya at And Miles to Go Before I Sleep:
Nature’s Play
For the lack of trees, flock of birds started seeking shelter in mental asylum.
Patients from the asylum, cared the for nature and started tree hugging movement to save forests.
And nature’ s harvest was pumpkins with boils all over for the people who didn’t cared!!
Character Count – 264

By Jan at Strange Goings on in the Shed:
Well Appointed
House for Sale
Well appointed mansion in exclusive area of town.
Ravens optional.
Decorated in Baroque splendour,
With grand staircase in hallway.
Spacious crypts resplendent with cobwebs and creaky doors.
Nullifying, soul destroying atmosphere lends exclusivity to property.
Quick sale
(280 characters)

By Jane at Jane Dougherty Writes:
There are bars at the windows to stop us flying away, but the sisters are waiting. It’s coming, they say, and when the sky is black with crow wings and the sun and moon are eggs cracked open and eaten, their light devoured, no bars will hold us back.

By Hayley at The Story Files:
The birds were flocking around the house like they had done every morning now. I stopped my delivery bike, newspaper still in hand and wondered what was going on. Walking into the back garden, clouds of birds wheeling, I saw why. There was a dead body on the lawn.

By Deb at Twenty Four:
She had ignored the changes initial but there came a time when enough was enough and while they didn’t care, the word neighborhood still bore meaning to her.
Dorothy glanced at Toto, ravens as pets? It was the final straw – that wicked witch was going to hear from her lawyer.
(276 characters)

By Anurag at Jagahdilmein:
Pumpkin for the Princess
“Uncle,” the Princess petulantly cried out, “that pumpkin dish was horrible.
I HAD to throw it to the crows.”
I needed to find a new Cook fast, or find a better way to poison my niece.
273 characters.

By Peter at Peter’s Pondering:
Let’s face it!
1-Peter, the pumpkin, was feeling really glum. You could see by the look on his face.
He’d been in this pile of pumpkins for 2 weeks now and, despite having worked his way up to the top and front of the pile, no-one had chosen him to be their Jack-o’-lantern for Halloween. Sad face!
(280 characters)

2-An educated palate
The crows all knew that it was only a matter of time!
The boarding school was absolutely chock-a-block with small, tasty, children.
The birds were salivating with the sweet smell of young flesh, rising up on the thermals.
They had to come out soon.
It was only a matter of time!
(275 characters)

3-Retired hurt!
The naturist tree huggers club had chosen their site really badly for this year’s convention.
The forest was mostly made up of young oak trees and the bark was really rough.
The opening “get to know your tree” dance resulted in multiple injuries and most members had to retire hurt!
(280 characters)

By John at Broadsides:
Trick or tweet” said the little boy in the monster mask.
You mean treat?
‘Here’s the deal, you give me 100 bucks or I tweet that you molested me in my monster suit”
The tin of sweets dropped and he looked to the heavens. Reaching for his wallet – “I’ve only 50 dollars”
“That’ll do” and the little boy turned and left. And the Vicar closed the door

I believe you all enjoyed last week’s photos. In fact a few of you wrote several tales. And some of you used all three photos in one story. I enjoyed them all! What fun! 😊

This week, a photo by graehawk@pixabay.com. There are quite a few stories waiting to be told in this one. Have fun with it, in 280 Characters or less…140 if you’re up for a challenge. And I’ll see you at the roundup!