Prompts

Perhaps fate.  Perhaps happenstance.  Or perhaps I just have been waiting for something to speak to me.  And something did.


I was reading a friend's blog (what better way to come up with ideas, than to copy someone else's ideas) who was all excited by a writting prompt challenge.


I said to myself, "that's exactly what I need.  A prompt."  I thought, "surely I can find a prompt somewhere online."  And I found one.  For a contest, no less.  Of course they want me to pay them money or some such nonsense to enter, so I said, "haha, you're funny.  I'm not going to pay you anything.  But, I will steal your prompt and do my best to fufill the breif."  Okay, so I may have been alone and just said those things in my head.   

So here's the prompt:

Your character is in a car accident. Describe their reaction.
The task is simple: Write about your character's reaction to the car accident as an exercise to introduce your character to the reader.

Your story must:
Introduce your character using the given prompt.
Be written from the third person limited point of view.
2000 words or less: Word count must be provided at the bottom of the item or your entry will be disqualified.
Genre: Sci Fi

My Response:

The windows had fogged and the slightest touch sent rivers of condensed wet sliding down the smooth surface.  Smudging her hand along the glass provided Ekaterina with a clear view of her world as it disappeared behind her into the dark and white of winter.  She let her head lean against the coldness, feeling the frosty outside attempting to snuff out the rosy pink flush across her cheek.

With each bump and jolt, Ena’s head would tap loudly against the window.  Her blond hair would slide and leave behind a hundred thin trails for water to slip down.  She liked the thud she felt as her head returned to the cold glass.  She wondered if the reckless driver were to hit a big enough hole, if her head might break through.  The thought delighted her for an instant.  She imagined how the night air would let her breathe in a way the stuffy artificial heat of the car had been suffocating her from the moment she was herded into the vinyl prison.

Tears refused to come.  She had always thought they would make an appearance if she found herself on this road, in a car, moving faster than her feet could ever carry her.  Perhaps they had decided they were unneeded, that the wet fog sliding down the window and Ekaterina’s cheek were more water than the occasion required.

Her hand in her lap fidgeted restlessly with the parcel in her hands.  The course brown paper that covered the perfectly square box on her lap weighed no more than a hide leather bag her mother was famous for crafting and looked to be no bigger than a hat box.  It was all her mother could offer and so she clung to it like the lifeline she knew it was meant to be.

While the bags her mother created were beautiful and were worth an ungodly amount in The Center, they would not be likely to save Ekaterina from her fate.  Still, she held it tightly and hoped the offered bribe with help in some small way.

Staring blankly into the town that she once called her home the girl with the pink cheeks bid farewell to all she had once loved.   Lost in her own self-pity and fear, Ena closed her eyes. The darkness lasted all of a moment before she heard the loud screech of tires beneath her, and the unsettling whoosh of sound and speed as her body was lurched away from the window and into the padded bench in front of her. The floor came up to meet her and the air rushed out of her with this second hit. She felt the spaces around her stir, meld, bend, and break.  The sounds that accompanied the movements were stark, harsh, and jarring.  All sense of self-orientation abandoned her and the girl with the pink cheeks found her final resting place.

Only the girl with the pink cheeks was not ready to finally rest.  Her moment of self-pity played out, and the girl with the pink cheeks took a sharp shallow breath and crawled onto her elbows towards the cold night air that tickled her skin.

++++++

It's just a start.  But, what do you think?  Do you care about Ena?  Want to know what happens to her?  Why she was in the car?  Let me know.

K