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.
Photo prompt by Leigh Heasley at Pexels.com
Starting us off…
He tapped the steering wheel absentmindedly. She leaned against the door, face pressed against the glass, when a stone column caught her eye, “Hopewell”.
“More like hopeless,” she thought.
He broke the silence, “We could adopt…”
“Really?” she slid over, leaning into him.
(276 Characters)
From Michael at Morpethroad:
Hopewell’s creaking door, the butler’s crossed eyes, his hideous hump and a habit of standing too close were all signs to beware of.
The chill as you settled in bed, the ghostly screams in the night,
The rattling of chains, Cousin Boris’ slimy handshake ensured a sleepless night.
(278 characters)
From Willow at WillowDot21:
Another morning in the gray soulless house. She crept out of the door into cold gray air. Her case was light as she carried it down the drive so as not to wake those in the house
Out of the gray gates for the last time! Today the first day of her life in colour.Farewell Hopewell.
(280 Characters)
From Reena at ReInventions:
Get Well Soon messages indicate you are unwell. But Hope well?
“Jim, better check the map again. I have a hunch we are heading for trouble.”
(139 characters)
From Fandango at This, That, and the Other:
“Hopewell?” Dan said as they passed the ivy-covered stone post on the road to the hospice. “I see no hope and nothing well about any of this.”
“Don’t worry, son,” Alex said. “My time is just about up and I hear the drugs they give at this place will make my passing quite pleasant.
(280 characters)
From Rules640 at Life at 17:
“Before you is a little place,
Go there and you will enjoy your stay
But if you wanna leave,
If you wanna go back to your place,
You should know you won’t be allowed.”
“Read this before you enter” the guard had told her. Days after being stuck inside she wished she had read it before.
280 characters
From Jane at Jane Dougherty Writes:
Just terrible bad luck, the inquest said, that she had wandered in during the few seconds the security barrier was down.
The coroner ordered the establishment to clean off the ivy from the plaque that indicated ‘Hopewell Psychiatric Hospital.”
244 Characters
From Hayley at The Story Files:
All that was left of the old manor house was the front gate post with the name plaque on. The driveway led to nothing and nature was running wild. What happened no one knew for sure, there were too many secrets that the dead now kept.
From Jan at Strange Goings on in the Shed:
She stared at the name intently, it filled her with dread of the darkest kind. Her soul curled at the edges, repelled by the prospect of revisiting old nightmares. Ana was the last of the bloodline and had to break the Curse. They warned her not to return, too late she was back.
(279 characters)
From Lorraine at My Frilly Freudian Slip:
Hopewell. They’d all hoped well. Her parents, the doctors.
The wail of approaching fire engines over-powered screams from inside the institution.
She smiled as she walked past the gate. She had hoped well enough.
[211 characters]
From Leena at Soul Connection:
She:-Silent Plce.Bird Chrpng,Sound Of Dry Leaves Crushng n..
He:-N Spirits Roamng(Laughng)
Very Funny
HOPEWELL
Wht?
Its Wrttn Here.C On Pillar
She Clckd Pic n Draggd Him 4wrd
Its Gng To B Dark n V R Alone
No
(Teasng)U Mean V R Nt Alone?
Ahaa Haa.Shut Up
As Dey Crsd Pillar,Spirit Follwd Dem.
From Joy at Poetry Joy, 3 Tales:
Obscured
Almost obscured by leaves
this sign breathes renewed
hope into her sad soul
signalling a new beginning
where joy and optimism
overcomes pain
(139 characters)
We hop
She squirms higher in her seat because, at age 5, she can barely read. But she sees “hop we” as indicator of her family being happier here.
(139 characters)
Secrets lurk within
Hedged in by dense
undergrowth, accessed
by dusty driveway
a house stands proud
looks inviting but is
far from it, for deep
secrets lurk within
(140 characters)
From Peter at Peter’s Pondering:
For a school founded in 2001 it sure was a strange old gate post.
Mo had chosen this particular High School for the sports, and he was looking forward to joining the athletics team.
He was a little wary though because to be accepted he knew he must first find the other gate post!
(280 characters)
From BroadsideDotMe, a bit of history on Hopewell?
“Hopewell”, the little known public school where the teenage Adolf Hitler spent a year learning English. The school was so proud of its connection with “Mien Kampf” that to this day the gateway has but a single, well lets not be vulgar about this, a single roundel upon the gatepost. It would be prudent not to mention the school song.
From Radhika at RadhikasReflection:
Uma slammed on the brakes, bringing the car to a screeching halt. The place looked very familiar. Recollection came in a flash. Her husband, in her previous birth, had brutally murdered her a few months after the wedding. She recognized the old man walking out. She knew what to do…
Letter count 280
Very creative takes this week. There was something mysterious about this ivy covered entrance with its name…Hopewell…Hope Well. You all took a few twists in the road on this one. Excellent tales! This week, I had a little fun with the photo…sorry, couldn’t resist. But I think there might be a few more stories hidden here. A ditch, a broken down bridge, a fence in the distance, a lake in the background. Something happened in this place. The question is, what? Have fun fellow tweeters. See you next week at the Roundup!
Twittering Tale #73 – 27 February 2018
photo by MabelAmber at Pixabay.com
Paw Paw got tired o’ waitin’. He took to buildin’ his own wall. Make ‘merika great. Give ol’ Mr. Trump a head start. We never woulda guessed they’d of impeached the greatest president this country’s eva’ seen. But that’s what they done. Paw Paw pretty much gave up after that.
(277 Characters)
~kat
This past week provided me with a reality check. It was a gray meteorologically, but an astute observer might also have sensed a tinge of internal grayness in my writing as well.
