This week ’s construct art writing prompt takes us to a real localisation , inside the creepy-crawly bathroom of an empty coal mine . It could be the setting for a nervous tale — or some other variety of fib entirely . What do you suppose takes office inside this unnerving room ?
Here ’s mine :
Velma shut off her flashlight and placed it in its holster , let her eye adjust to the near iniquity . She had n’t been thrilled to pull mine duty , and they almost get her off thanks to that incident during the sewer reclamation . But she was determined to raise that she could pull her weight , even if it meant going underground . shaver come into the mines all the time , right ? They snuck down here to make out and hide whatever godawful brew they were trying to work this calendar month .
At least they had been able-bodied to tell Reclamation where the good stuff was , and Velma had to admit to a flutter in her pectus when she get a line the uniforms suspended from the ceiling . In unlike fate , they would have been a sinister sight , a silent , upside down safety equipment waiting for a trespasser . But fabric was in high-pitched requirement topside , and these would make for excellent sun - blocking collapsible shelter material .
Velma climb onto the bathroom ’s farsighted communal sink , feel her sole flex against the backtalk . She push on the pulley electric cord with one gloved hand , thankful that the miner had used nylon cords or else of metal . The first uniform come down so rapidly Velma nearly fall back her Libra , but caught the coverall rather . She steadied the electric cord and leaned back , permit the smell of the cloth flood her nostril . She ’d been trained to find dozens of types of toxic clay sculpture — and she had the prophylactic medicinal drug routine to fit — but there was n’t even a hint of must . It was as if time had clean them . Of of course , they ’d still be pounded with hot sand and result to bake in the Dominicus once she draw them topside .
Velma was already going over the pushcart requisition in her head when a flood of phantasm raced past the recess of her eye , accompanied by a whisper of claws against Harlan Stone . Velma let out a yelp of surprisal and her shoe lost their footing , sending her tumbling back into the sink . She thudded ass - first onto the cold alloy , and , after checking that nothing was broken , reprimand herself for being so easily startled . The food waste that the kids brought into the mines must have attract rats . Velma made a mental note to sequestration ambush ; if the mines could provide a steadfast supplying of meat , all the better .
put up on her toe , she grab the lip of the sump and was about to pull herself back up when she heard a faint metallic strait in the length . Velma lactate in a breath . If water was dripping from the ceiling , there was a good chance that some of the uniforms were deflower beyond repair . She walked the length of the sinkhole ’s basin , following the sound . When she was practically on top of it , she pulled out her torch and shone it at her feet . It get down on a pool of black liquid , interrupt by an arhythmic dripping from above . Slowly , she trace the path of the dripping until her flashlight lit on a bunch together up uniform , wrap tightly with rope and soaked at its base of operations . all of a sudden , she hoped that what she was seeing was toxic mold .
Velma jumble back onto the sink ’s lip and gingerly loose the pulley electric cord . This was so much heavier than the first uniform , and Velma could feel her breakfast rising in her belly as she let the mess of fabric and liquid quietus in the sump . She slid down the side of the sink , careful to position her branch on either side of the objective as she set ashore .
She did n’t know the boy ’s name , but she had seen him before , with the other teenagers who spent their gratuitous time get the picture beets and making wine . His forehead was disconnected , his center full in a mode that suggested that he was trite of being surprised . Velma slumped against the side of the cesspool . None of her phobic disorder had set her for this .
James Ryan ’s storey :
It was metre for the Newly Rereleased Soul to have a chance to pluck what it want .
It thought about all the selection it made before ; despite the disadvantage it tended to pluck being feminine . Something about the linear perspective appealed to it , both from standpoint and what it could observe from where it finish up . And the alternative of conception was always unattackable ; even if it did not become an creative person every go round , the hazard to be a mother was always there .
( A few times before it take place before it was ready , but even the failures and bad luck did n’t discourage the Newly Rereleased Soul . )
The options before it were as endless as the last few times ; the Newly release Soul had been through the Cloaking so many times , through almost as many iterations as the Universe allowed since the very beginning , that it bring in any choice it desired .
The one in the center , the actress who was going to going to get three Academy Award and with her second marriage become First Lady ; the one three rows over , the lensman whose grandson would abduce her an the influence for Collage - o - matic Cinema ; the alternative two to the right from that one , the farmer ’s married woman who as a widow woman turned her husband ’s land into an orphanage that would prompt grand without hope to become the best blasted people they could …
She briefly consider the one hang just two pick away , as a change of pace ; a man born of perquisite and pass on the key to the land at only 23 , with a succession of trophy wives and mistresses . The Newly Released Soul enquire ever so briefly if being in that position whether any new insights could be granted from being on the other side for a change …
And yet , the fresh Rereleased Soul kept number back to the options in the forgotten corners , as it had the last few instances . It knew why so many other entity kept away from these ; pay the choice between work so hard in the Material , which is intemperate enough to be immersed in as it is , the natural pick is to take the track of least resistance .
But the Newly Rereleased Soul had more courageousness than precaution , and it kept seem for these wall hanging at the edge . It learned a few terms for what made it do what it desire : stoic ceremonial , willing to leave alone it in the Universe ’s hands , rifting the way of life the good wind does …
And he find her ; the chances that she ’d be dead by fourteen were pretty high , either from a random shot or an opprobrious boyfriend , and if she live beyond that stop she faced few prospects as her speculative education and darker skin keep her at the margins of society at prominent . A spirit of labour and abuse from beginning to end .
The Newly Rereleased Soul laugh rebelliously as he donned her case and became her , ready to take on the Material yet again …
Thezombiemessia ’s story :
“ Any sufficiently advance technology is indistinguishable from conjuring trick . ” – Arthur C. Clarke
“ As the rightfulness of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural phylogenesis is considered consecrated , no Star Fleet personnel may intervene with the normal and healthy evolution of exotic animation and culture . Such interference include introducing ranking knowledge , intensity , or engineering science to a earth whose order is incompetent of treat such advantages wisely . Star Fleet personnel may not dishonour this Prime Directive , even to economize their lives and/or their ship , unless they are play to redress an earlier violation or an accidental taint of said culture . This directive takes precedency over any and all other consideration , and carries with it the high moral responsibility . ” – The Prime Directive , Star Trek
hit the futurity was always go to be hard , even for the Sci - Fi fans . Everybody tried their best to acclimatise themselves to the comparatively pocket-size advances we were making when we begin to explore space properly , and everybody was convert that what us mere soul had come up with in our fiction was close enough to reality to be take as fact .
Problem was , the actual intergalactic federation of coinage we met as we soared beyond our own solar system did n’t really cerebrate like that .
They figured that any coinage that could get out of their own system was full enough to unite them . We all thought that was somewhat strange , but all these different creature apparently live harmoniously and using such advanced technologies as to seem to be maintain magic ?
Why would we query that ? Surely any electronegative effect would be completely out - consider by all the positives ?
But they never recollect about the “ minuscule people ” the ones that just want to get by , daylight - to - day , go to work , do their job , come home , drop time with the family , go to bed .
By the time we reached the boundary of our organization we were still dependent on fuel sources mined from the planets . All of that change when we were acquaint to the magic of our neighbours .
Almost over dark our entire species forced themselves to adapt to the change , out explore the macrocosm and expanding their horizons , but me ? I just want to continue in the mines .
voidPortal ’s story :
Everyone always looks up when they come into the effin ’ way , as if that ’s where the important spot is . I bid just once , just one god - curse time , someone would pace into the way for the first time and front - not at the rows and row of eery , old uniforms hanging from hooks in the suspended metal ceiling or then at the retentive , flighty wooden workbench draped with hair-raising chains throughout the room - but at the effin ’ floor .
But you do n’t notice the floor at first . I did n’t . No one does . Except that one bozo . He was blind . I do n’t know why they let a blind guy come into a purportedly abandoned coal mine in the first place , but what do I know ? I only work security in this dumpsite , and that mean Jack .
Not that I think anything ’s * wrong * with the floor or necessitate to be looked at . I just get bored . And run across everyone immeidately look up at the ceiling , level , and get creeped - out looks on their brass get former several months into this gig . And I ’ve been here for almost three geezerhood , if you may believe that .
No , the blind guy , he was unlike . Of of course , I have sex that he could n’t effin ’ * see * the eery uniforms or the spooky benches , but the lady who came in with him sure could . And she was quite a smasher . Easy on the eyes , if the guy wire even * had * eye , I do n’t know .
He tire out dark sunglasses , and he had a white cane , which he used to rap the floor in front of him before he affect forward . And when she puff and pointed , he turn over out for her wrist joint - a practiced gesture - and said , “ Julie , are you OK ? ”
She ’d gotten a short picket , but he manifestly could n’t see that .
“ I ’m fine . Just a small startled . There ’s strange clothing hanging from the ceiling . Lots of it . I think it ’s erstwhile mineworker coverall . ”
“ Hmm , ” the blind bozo said .
If you ’re wondering , the ground I could hear and see them so well is that that ’s my problem : sit down in the dusty part and watch and take heed to the multiple video provender from the different part of the mine . I do n’t know why they had such excellent audio / TV paraphernalia in an one-time mine . Something to do with indebtedness and covering their incarnate asses was what I was tell when I was charter .
“ It ’s not up there , though , ” the blind guy tell .
“ What ’s not up there ? ” asked Julie .
“ The strangeness , ” said the blind guy . “ It ’s in the floor . ”
I mean she ’d express mirth , that he was joking with her . Did I say that she was a spectator ? A long , marvellous drink ?
But she did n’t laugh . She just said , “ I want to get out of here now ! ”
Then the unsighted guy pronounce something kind of funny . “ Your wish , my ma’am , ” he say , “ is my command . ” And they left that room very quickly .
And ever since then , I ca n’t help it , but I wish someone would look at the floor , just one idol - anathemise time .
Michael Munro ’s story :
44 day after the Chelyabinsk Meteorite Event of 2 February 2025 , the first cases were reported via Russian tabloids . Local contagion of human and mammal populations by extraterrestrial extremophiles – bacterial spore – had attain epidemic proportion by March 27th .
Symptom clustering 1 : Halitosis , photophobia
Symptom clustering 2 : an as - yet - unnamed condition resemble trichothiodystrophy , trigger-happy paranoia , abnormal swelling of the adrenal glands
The infected then lapse into coma , followed by death ( 33 % of reported cases ) or metamorphosis ( 77 % of report cases )
Regardless of original species , the Transformed are carnivorous predators . They can breathe out a miasmic toxin , dumbfound to mammals . They form clusters ( colloquially котлы , “ cauldron ” ) whose corporate behavior resembles that of the marabunta , or “ United States Army ant ” . item-by-item member display subhuman news but metahuman tier of brawny strength , resiliency and lightness . Fatally vulnerable to electromagnetic radiation therapy within the 10 New Mexico to 400 nm spectrum , they are nocturnal and invariably cloak their soundbox in layers of protective textile ; wool , cotton and plastic canvass , tarpaulins and oilskin have all been notice .
The Transformed become completely torpid during the hour of daylight and colonize subterraneous chambers . Since April 12th , 2013 , 34 of these nesting sites have been acknowledged by the Russian authorities .
Drabbler ’s story :
Ben tried not to front up as he sat on the cold , strong workbench and waited . About a minute before the scheduled commencement time , almost all of the bench in the spacious sleeping accommodation were full , citizens wobble nervously in their assigned place .
“ Welcome , citizen , ” a vocalism intoned , “ to jury duty ! Before we begin , is there anyone who thinks they may be ineffectual to serve ? ”
Near the back , a woman ’s handwriting tentatively rose . Immediately , the ghostly mordant form over her , one of hundreds hang from the ceiling , snatched her and carried her back up . Seconds by and by , her screams terminate .
“ Anyone else ? ”
abandonedFiction
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