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.
Starting us off..
Celia couldn’t sleep. As she stepped into the night, an eerie hush hummed in the coolness.
Suddenly, a cat growled nearby, startling her, it’s back arched as it recoiled, hissing.
Then, in horror she noticed her hands, covered in fur.
“Damn full moon!” she howled. “Sorry, kitty.”
~kat
280 Characters
From Reena at ReInventions:
Writers’ Block
Be not proud, Sun and Moon! Artificial moons dot the night sky.
The writers’ block hits me at this point. How do I take it ahead?
I feel a shadow hovering over me, shifting shapes. I let her out of the balcony door, and write …
A troubled soul on moonless nights…
The story starts ….
(280 characters)
From Deepa at Sync with Deep:
Love in the Moonlight
they
kissed
under the full moon
on their anniversary
the hungry souls
could not bury their love
in the graves
From Amritha at Igniting Hope:
Dreams on Fire
As the reflection of the full moon glittered in her twinkling eyes, little Sara slept beneath her neatly tucked up blanket.
“Good night dear sun, my favourite cat, my doting humming birds!” she whispered.
Finally she thanked the moon in her sleep for lighting up her dreams.
(274 characters)
From
Martin at
Martin Cororan:
The Night the WiFi Went Down
They told us it could never happen…that there were redundancies built on top of redundancies. I can still their faces – gaunt, pale and deprived of stimuli, staggering down the dark streets in their sweatpants murmuring about brains and click-bait.
#NeverForget
From Michael at Morpethroad:
Things That Go Bump in the Night
It was a stinking hot night, not a breath of cool air anywhere.
We sat on the veranda for in the house was unbearable.
The air was so still, and at first, we didn’t hear the bump.
Then there was a second one then a third.
Dad investigated and discovered a kangaroo in the kitchen.
(277 characters)
From Willow at WillowDot21:
Things That Go Bump in the Night
Traffic stopped people got out of their cars to stare.There were two moons. Acsentuated by the lack of street lighting.
Satan stifled a grin, how could he be responsible.Azriel had, at his suggestion,taken Gabriel’s torch to”Show the humans the way” Gabriel would not be happy!
(279 Characters)
From Fandango at This, That, and the Other:
Just as he did every night, Sam took his dog out for her last walk of the night. The moon was full and bright, illuminating their usual route, so Sam left his flashlight at home.
Perhaps if he’d brought his flashlight that night, he’d have seen what was lurking in the bushes.
(275 characters)
From Anthony at Dear Daughter:
A Howl in the Night
It has been a long day. Our baseball team had made it all the championship game in the 90-degree weather. Just for the outcome to go in the other teams favor.
So when we got home I needed to have a little time by myself, so I decided to take a walk with my pup. While on our walk we get a glimpse of the moon, and it was absolutely stunning tonight looking very close to earth it must have been a super moon.
That’s when we heard it….You’ll need to read the rest here (191 words) 😉
From The Dark Netizen:
DIRGE
I hear it every night, the dirge.
Its dark melody does not let me sleep. The song calls out to me. It’s disturbing.
Why can’t my victims just stay dead. Why do they have to sing? If they had learned to shut up, they would have been alive.
Jeez! Annoying even in death….
Character Count: 270
From Jan at Strange Goings on in the Shed:
Things That Go Bump in the Night
She danced across the sky,
Nimble footed goddess of Shadows,
Silently does she call her children,
Werebeast and melancholic shades,
Silently does she pour Nightshade and Wolfsbane,
Ushering in things that go bump
In the night,
Ushering in things of terror and strife,
Stay if you dare.
(279 characters)
From Piyali at Piyali’s Blogs:
The Drive
Driving on an empty road at 3 am was least of his worries. Rather, the rattling sound coming from the back was making him concerned.
“Stop, or I’ll crush your tiny skull with my bare hands.”He yelled.
Shedding helpless tears, the boy, bound and gagged in the trunk, stopped kicking.
280 Characters
From Deb at Twenty Four:
She stood on the curb, looking up at the night sky with a slight smile. It might be chilly, it might be dark but it was perfect … there was a full moon.
She took a deep breath, there would be enough light to navigate by.
Running through the park might be treacherous otherwise.
(278 characters)
From Peter at Peter’s Pondering:
Things That Go Bump in the Night
I told you not to mess with that laser gun again, now look what you’ve done. You’ve made a hole in the sky!
How are you going to explain that to your Probation Officer?
Alien space ships are falling through. That big orange one just burned straight through a double decker bus!
(277 characters)
From
Anurag at
Jagahdilmein:
We Rule the Night
I cautiously made my way towards the graveyard, jumping at the slightest of sounds.
They knew I was a vampire now, and I was no longer safe.
But I had no option but to go on.
I just wish I’d had better sense than to fix a date with my werewolf girlfriend on a full-moon night.
277 Characters
Well done everyone! Thank you for joining the challenge this past week. Several of you mentioned that the photo gave you an opportunity to try your hand at horror. It’s fun, I think you’d agree. So for this week’s prompt photo, another snapshot that I took while walking my pup. It could launch a creepy or scary tale, or not. It might just inspire a tale of loss. I’ll leave that to you. And for those of you who mentioned you’d like a little more practice writing thrillers…here you go! Have fun! I’ll see you at the roundup next week.
Twittering Tale #98
It seemed to be the perfect hiding place. The thief lowered the satchel of cash into the sewer drain. He would retrieve it later.
Then the rains came. Days of rain. The sewers overflowed into the streets.
When the thief returned for his booty, a group of detectives was waiting.
~kat
277 Characters
like mercury colliding... 