100 Word Story | Noah Looked Worried

Noah looked worried.

He had never before been vomited upon by a pretty nurse and he didn’t know the protocol.

“Are you okay?” he ventured. “I could grab a paper towel or something.”

She started crying, tears leaving her face red, but slightly less covered in sick.

“I’m sorry,” she tried to say and found she couldn’t. Instead, she closed her eyes and breathed softly.

Noah found her beautiful.

“Would it help if I did the shot myself?” he asked.

The nurse looked at him and cautiously handed him the syringe.

Unfortunately, Noah couldn’t stand needles either, and promptly threw up on her.

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100 Word Challenge | The 13

The following is my 100 word story submission to Julia’s Place. The fact that there are 102 words shouldn’t dissuade you from reading it. The prompt words (“the 13”) don’t count toward the total. Enjoy!

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Many have mused over the thirteen cryptic ingredients of Haley’s Miracle Tonic, but only one has made a fortune by his interpretation—Jack Tupper.

“Obviously, the ingredients correspond to a unique mixture of spring water, cane sugar, ginger root, and some secret spices,” said Jack in a rare interview. “What else could ‘bubbling tears, honeyed rod, a red man’s toes’ and so on mean?”

Gruesome as they were, no one bothered to try the literal ingredients until Todd Winston came along. Only he knew that the miracle of the tonic was worth more than Jack’s fortune. With one drink, Todd became all-powerful.

100 Word Challenge | But where did the noise come from…

Light filtered strangely through the mosaic ceiling. Lightning threw the faces into sharp relief as thunder gave voice to the demons depicted.

Jess stared, transfixed as she listened to the audio tour.

“The Baptistry of Florence has seen the baptisms of many notable figures. In fact, the poet Dante, famous for his Divine Comedy…”

The player abruptly died in unison with the structure’s artificial lights.

Rain turned to hail. Thunder laughed as the mosaic crumbled, revealing a blood red sky.

No lightning, realized Jess numbly as winged figures swept in with the hail but…  Where did the noise come from?

100 Word Challenge | Heat

“I can’t believe Lucy came. She’s so ugly,” whispered Jen, the troop’s top cookie seller. “Why would she want to come camping with us, anyway? Doesn’t she know she’s unwanted?”

The director finally finished relaying the campfire rules, and handed out marshmallows.

“Remember,” he said. “No swashbuckling.”

“What?” whispered Jen. “Swash-whating?”

The heat kept the girls a few feet out, arms stretched toward the fire. When Jen’s marshmallow caught, she started waving it back and forth.

“Stop,” said Lucy, “Weren’t you listening?”

“Shut up!” hissed Jen.

Then life changed when the marshmallow flew, and stuck to Jen’s face, flames and all.

100 Word Challenge | Pink Nails, She Cried

“Hey Jane,”said Monica, “package for ya. From Richland.”

Richland Construction was Jane’s former employer. After years of getting passed over for promotions, Jane finally quit and started her own company, Athena Construction.

Jane approached the package warily. She flicked the packaging tape and popped the top. Sifting through some crumpled papers, she held a smaller box aloft.

“Pink nails!” she cried.

“”Who has time to paint framing nails?” asked Monica,

“Huh,” said Jane, eyeing a crumpled paper. “I doubt they meant to give me this.”

“What?”

“A list of bids on upcoming projects. Would you call Richland for me? Thank them for the nails.”

100 Word Challenge | Yellow

I took some liberties with the prompt. Yellow, in addition to being a vibrant color and a weakness of The Green Lantern, can also portray and idea of fear. Imagine that our main character is afraid of heights and it fits the prompt. Forgive me if that is too much a stretch for you.

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The masked bandit stepped tentatively onto the cable, steadying himself against the pole before taking hold of the top wire.

I hate heights.

Any other day, he’d be asleep in his nest of a bed, dreaming. But not today.

No. Today he shimmied across the expanse toward the house he once called home, evicted before he could move his stolen goods. Today was as good as any.

Twenty more steps.

Birds scattered, leaving a slick hazard that made his hands slip on the wire.

I’ll definitely be washing these later.

Ten steps to go.

I hope no one is watching me.

100 Word Challenge | The points were sharp

Rolf the royal coinmaster didn’t have time for this.

“The king won’t be happy if you kill his coinmaster,” he said, looking along the shafts. The points were sharp, but not as sharp as Rolf.

“His happiness ain’t our concern,” said a highwayman. “His gold is.”

“First, you may wish to authenticate the gold. His majesty oft uses counterfeits as decoys.”

One of highwaymen lowered his crossbow, picked up a coin, bit it and passed it to the other who did the same.

“Seems real enough to me,” he said.

“Good,” said Rolf. “Unfortunately, if it isn’t a decoy, it’s been coated with poison.”

100 Word Challenge | The Queue Was So Long

Feels like a while since I’ve participated in the Julia’s Place 100 Word Challenge. Anyway, I’m back. Be sure to click the image to the right and see the other participants’ entries. Maybe consider giving an entry of your own!

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Tickets for the show in hand, my date and I went to the back of the queue.

“Was ‘So long’ the best you could do?” said a young woman in line ahead of us, staring at me.

“Beg your pardon?”

“Do you know how devastated I was when you didn’t come back?”

“Um…”

“Mum made excuses for you, but I knew that it was my fault. I was the reason that you left.”

“Miss,” said my date.

“Don’t ‘Miss’ me! I have waited too long.”

Icy cola splashes my face, followed by a fist. Then she’s gone.

“Who was that?”

“May have been my daughter.”

100 Word Challenge | The Unseasonal Weather Meant…

The cold snap was almost enough to make Frank Lumly give up on the orchard altogether.

Since his was just a family farm, without all of the expensive equipment the larger outfits had, the unseasonal weather meant that most of this year’s crop would die.

Frank looked out over the frost-covered buds and saw a vision of his own frosty corpse.

“What are we going to do?” asked Harriet, Frank’s wife. “Cut down the trees and sell firewood?”

It was her joke, the one that she always said. But this time, it didn’t sound as funny.

“How do you feel about retirement?” asked Frank.

100 Word Challenge | Only Fifteen More & Despite the Pounding in My Head

The following story combines the prompts from my own challenge and that of Julia’s Place. Hope you enjoy!

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She had been gone a year, but it felt like more. Time moves slower behind bars.

Ironically, it was bars that landed me here in the first place. On the night of Isabel’s disappearance, I was too drunk to drive. Too drunk to remember driving anyway.

I woke up to blood and bile. The dent in my forehead matching the one in my front bumper. But the sound was the worst part. Despite the pounding in my head, she was louder.

“This is the last straw!” she screamed, and then she vanished.

Only fifteen more years until I can start looking. To find her and apologize.