100 Word Challenge

[vamps]

I remember the days life wasn't a maze, but rather simple bliss.
When on the night my heart took flight, it started with a kiss.

Seeing in your eyes that glee of surprise as it caught us both unaware.
That moment in time when you became mine, I was lost in your stare.

Taking your hand we made a stand, nothing stood in our way.
Holding on tight with all our might, come whatever may.

Within my heart we've drifted apart, your words no longer ring true.
Should you ever care to go back there, I will gladly follow you.

[Elizabeth]

I remember the days life wasn't a maze, but rather simple bliss.
When on the night my heart took flight, it started with a kiss.

Seeing in your eyes that glee of surprise as it caught us both unaware.
That moment in time when you became mine, I was lost in your stare.

Taking your hand we made a stand, nothing stood in our way.
Holding on tight with all our might, come whatever may.

Within my heart we've drifted apart, your words no longer ring true.
Should you ever care to go back there, I will gladly follow you.

*fan girl squeels*

[Leah]

Enough. You're not leaving again.

It was all she wanted him to say. The only words she wanted to hear come out of his mouth. She stood before him, blonde hair looking like an abandoned barn swallow nest, a total wreck. There was nothing she could say, she knew; it was too late for her to back down now. She couldn't take back what she said. The only thing that could salvage her heart, was the only thing she wanted to hear: Enough. You're not leaving again.
Instead, he broke the silence with, "I guess this is good bye, then."

[Jaenelle]

They stripped her soul for parts.

One piece at a time.

They shocked her, over and over, currents of electricity pouring into her body, overloading her synapses.

All so they could 'observe' her brain.

To learn all about 'her kind'.

They treated her like an animal.

The rooms were the worst, blank empty spaces, where there were no imprints of humanity.

Blank spaces she filled with her own screams, her tortured sighs and whimpers. They didn't need locks and bars to keep her in, her mind created its own prison.

So piece by piece, they stripped her soul for parts, and left a damaged monster behind.

[Xedanis]

My response to this is lifted straight from an old draft of my novel, Dawnfather, a scene that i sadly had to cut from it as the story moved on because it gave away too many details.

Still, I thought it was very moving (and still do) so here it is:

“Pur, pur cilda,” Zapporah lamented. “Feta Arco Mertae.”

“Fated to die?” the Old man’s tone was laced with dismissal. “Zapporah… you don’t know what this child’s story is, vision or no. You can’t presume that his destiny is already determined-“

“My Visions do not lie, father,” Zapporah’s flame came out in her voice. “The god Cei’Phas himself showed me. I saw the child consumed by fire.”

“It’s a fool that takes the word of the Ancients literally, my daughter,” Zi’Miri countered. “Especially Cei’Phas. Remember his blessing.”

“Te Sa’juri si Uniscrita,” she recanted, suddenly thoughtful.

“The future is unwritten,” Zi’Miri smiled.

[ophelia]

Please, she said.
What, he said.
I don't know, she said.
Tell me, he said.
I'm scared, she said.
Don't be, he said.
I can't, she said.
You can, he said.
What if, she said.
What if, he said.
Did this happen, she said.
It did, he said.
How do I, she said
We work, he said.
Tell me, she said.
Anything, he said.
Touch me, she said.
Anywhere, he said.
It'll hurt, she said.
I'll protect you, he said.
What do I do, she said.
What feels right, he said.

Come home, she said.
I'm already there, he said.

[Nemesis]

It is raining. No. That is not right. That is not it. Maybe? Is it springtime yet? What month is it?
All this time has passed.
Worms in my skin. I can feel them slithering. No. That is not it. I have wrapped myself in a shroud.
My cocoon.
My safe place.
Lost.
What have I lost?
Nothing.
I ruin all that's given me.
No one.
A shadow, lurking in the shadows, doing everyone else's dirty work.
The outward weirdo, the crazy voodoo lady.
Always in a shadow. Nothing of my own.
I had my self-pity's warm embrace.
No more.

[Vamane]

He leveled the foregrip of the crossbow atop the unsteady brick. Part of the hunter's shirt had rode up, baring flat stomach on the chilly rooftop concrete. It's like shooting a dog, he thought. Putting it out of its misery. Inside the apartment straight across, the vampiress talked heatedly on a cellphone. Their window was open. It acted female, had the body of a female, hair thick blonde, body curved how he liked human woman. But this creature was a parasite - possessed, infected. How human-like, he thought. His finger curved around the trigger. But still nothing but an animal.

[Tifereth]

You've never held a heart in your hand.
But he's got yours in his palm and his fingers are squeezing--so hard it almost takes your breath away--

(It does.

You drown.)

--and he smiles: all sharp red teeth in the darkness of that cave of a mouth and your heart, it--

(flutters, shudders, stops)

BURSTS--

And he plunges the blade a little deeper, pushes a little further in the empty hole of your chest, says--

("I love you")

--and you laugh even through the burning swell of tears under your dillated eyeballs--you could, so you do--

("I love you, too.")

[vamps]

Shuffling throughout the twisting, dimly lit corridors of reason, insanity was becoming incensed.

She could feel it pulsing deep inside her head, a glowing ember within a whirlwind rapidly turning to flame. One one hand she could snuff it out of existence, and on the other she could coerce a turbulence of fire and fury...consuming everything she once held dear.
In the balance lay far more she could ever understand, the fate of her entire world hinged upon what she did next.

Sitting on the toilet with the test in her hand, looking at the biggest '+' she'd ever seen.

[Seppuku]

14 October, 1943

She was just a child—your child. How did it feel to sink your fangs into that soft neck? Was it satisfaction? Was it anguish? Was it rage? You went crazy, didn’t you. You felt her blood—your blood—rush out to meet your tongue. She tried to call for her mother, but you bit down harder. You crushed her throat, vampire. Her precious heartbeat faded. You listened. You felt her go limp in your arms; she was a lifeless doll, one of her own. You returned her corpse to the shelf…

And that’s where she stayed.

[Aziza]

They were simply called 'The Handlers'.

None of the girls even knew if the men had names. They were always introduced as 'Your Handler' and then you would commit their face to memory or be punished for asking if anyone else remembered 'that guy from yesterday'.

One might think this system would be confusing.
It wasn't.

You -knew- your Handler. They were the only one you dealt with, the only one allowed to pass you off to interested parties. Also known as 'The Clients'.

Yes. You were a slave.

And you didn't get a choice.

But you became the best.

[Aki]

It had come to him in a dream; a whispered promise of an ending. Slowly it had burrowed deep into his subconscious and left him with an unquenchable thirst that for once felt right. Upon silver wings the gentle words she had uttered soothed his troubled mind. It had been a dream like no other and it had lead him to this point – she had lead him to this point.

‘Come home.’

Two words uttered in an illusion of the mind.

Two words softly spoken inside a broken man’s nightmare.

Two words that had ignited a fire inside a statue.

[Jaenelle]

I've actually a bunch of these, muse hit but not for what I've been working on. :/

No one heard Earth's last breath.

How could they?

Did they expect howling winds, swirling seas, the heavens opening as torrential ran pummelled the earth?

Hell being released as giant earthquakes ravaged countries?

Millions dying in horrific natural disasters?

There was none of that, life continued on for Earth's citizens, unbeknownst to them all that this was the end. No Heavenly proclamations.

Because, in the end, no one heard Earth's last breath. Because it was only a tiny whimper, an exhale of sound, as the Earth simply gave up. Stopped fighting. Embraced destruction.

For the Earth could only give so much, when nothing was given back.

[Jaenelle]

I'm not enough, I know that…

But for some reason I still try.

Still fight, kicking and screaming, to meet their ideals.

Despite knowing that I'll never meet the criteria they expect.

They expect perfection. The perfect, quite, one.

They don't know what to do with me, I'm too different from them.

The expectations are too high, but I strive to meet them, even knowing that as I do it, I'm letting a part of myself die in the process.

I'm killing parts of myself to fit.

I'm a round peg in a square hole.

I know I'll never fit there properly, but still I try.

[Jaenelle]

Don't play with hearts, they break.

They should teach that at school, make it a nursery rhyme.

"Don't play with hearts, they break.
Don't play with souls, they'll tear.
Don't play with spirits, they'll disappear."

Sounds silly.

But maybe just maybe, someone will listen, they'll take the nursery rhyme away with them.

They'll learn that they shouldn't toy with others emotions like a set of building blocks.

Block upon block, one atop the other, building higher and higher.

Then the game suddenly becomes boring, and with one quick swipe, the blocks come tumbling down.

Crashing hard to the ground, many will be scratched, damaged, broken. Unrepairable.

[Vamane]

He was crippled, not in body but mind. Palms sweating. Face flushing red, heated. It felt like a hook stuck in through his stomach and ripped upwards in a constant, steady haul; anxiety that started at the pit of his gut, working its way through every organ, attaching into every bone.

"Please," he whined. The bathroom was empty; pearl white tile, tub, a crooked motel mirror. He tried pills, no luck. He tried alcohol, bottles scattered on the dresser top, but to no avail.

"Please," he begged. To God, to the Devil. To anyone, the ex-soldier prayed. "Make it stop."

[John]

Your hands are covered in blood and guts. The little heart stopped beating, but yours has adopted its rhythm like a child, double-time. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Life has a strange beat to it, if you put your ear to the ground and listen. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Every heart of every fish you've ever killed beats back at you, thumps in your chest, like little fists knocking on the roof of your diaphragm. You gut the fish and thank it for its little heart and lungs and meat and its sacrifice.

You wonder if the fish ever thanked the fisher.

You think not.

[Aki]

'I give up, you aren't worth it.'

Seven words broke her and all she could do was smile. Her eyes were moist and her hands shaking, but she said nothing. What could she say? She couldn't beg them to come back and she wouldn't let herself chase after them. There was nothing else she could do.

'Aren't you even going to try?'

A blazing fire shone in their eyes as they tore her to pieces. The world was shaking and crumbling and still she just gazed through dead eyes. They wanted her to fight, but she couldn't. She was dead.

[ophelia]

It's not fair.
You were never promised fair.
I shouldn't have to choose.
Everyday is a choice. So do it.
But someone's going to get hurt.
Someone's always going to get hurt.
I don't want to be the one that makes the decision.
You've been doing it for years.
It doesn't feel like it.
Feel is the key word.
I don't understand.
Yes, you do.
What if I choose wrong.
There is no right or wrong.
This is too much.
It's never enough.
Maybe it will be this time.
Maybe.
Will you stay?
I'll never leave you.
I'm tired.
Shhh.