Hilary

337 words (inc. the title) and I managed ‘mood’ and ‘uniform’

FREEDOM JONES; AN INTRODUCTION

He remembered a time when he had been ordinary; when he had played with the other boys. A time when he ran, fought, laughed, and scraped knees with the other boys. When they had climbed trees and stolen fruit and snatched apple scones from the kitchen…[Read more]

Easy peasy

Yesterday evening, me  in mindless  mood, scrolling between television programmes, and phone an Instagram a reel came up, featuring the ever- crumpled face of Mick Jagger. He answering some question about song writing, where he got his inspiration from.

His ‘Everywhere! -Sometimes I only have to look out the window –‘  spanne…[Read more]

488 words excluding title

FICKLE HEART

The small fluffy Cumulus clouds at dawn had promised a fine day, but by eight o’clock they’d grown into dark, lowering beasts threatening a thunderstorm ahead.  I resigned myself to a day indoors and this did nothing to improve the already black mood that had descended the night before when I received th…[Read more]

I’m not surprise your story was picked @Libby, it was really top notch piece of writing.

Thanks for the theme, @Seagreen. It certainly made me think hard!

I was pleased to have my mind returned to the time I effortlessly wrote dark, so thank you for this, challenge, Sea, ad well as all the contributors – entertaining every one, but I confess to especially enjoying Libby’s contempt for the policeman.

No need for apologies, Seagreen – I’m sure we all understand the delay.  You set an intriguing challenge and have given a comprehensive and thoughtful judgment on each darkly intriguing entry.  I loved all the others and echo the reasons you have expressed.

Congratulations, Libby.  Well deserved.  As I read, I could almost feel myself in the cha…[Read more]

Thank you for indulging me with these entries and apologies once again for being so late with the results.

@Jill: you gave me exactly what I asked for – an insight into the mind of a killer – in this case, a victim of domestic abuse who was finally pushed too far. Your words paint a quiet picture of an unseen tempest.

@Sandra: Your words pai…[Read more]

Apologies, all. Just home from work and, while the mind is willing, the body is most definitely wrecked. It’ll be tomorrow before I get a chance to read the entries.

Read the others. Wow what hides under the surface!

Body of evidence.

It’s not as though this is the first body I’ve seen, and it’s not as though this is the first person I’ve killed. As a death it was unremarkable: quick, expected, and I imagine she knew nothing about it. A clean shot through the back of the head in mid-conversation. Only a few of my targets have been so lucky, but my intenti…[Read more]

Episode from  long-running tale ‘The Blacksmith’s wife’

Kick a corpse to life and you’ll inevitably disturb carrion.

Tao knew this but only recalled it on attempting to leave his inn-room. The body that had earlier impeded his exit messenger for the man whose name Tao had evoked in hope of boosting his financial standing, believing those who…[Read more]

(Certainly stretched and apologies for one fleeting mention of blood!)

444 words excluding title

Behind Closed Doors

Neighbours stood around gawking.  I saw them from the window as I stood handcuffed to a policeman.

Our quiet cul de sac was a scene of mayhem with ambulance and police cars; blue lights flashing.

The paramedics stretchered him…[Read more]

Thank you, Athelstone.  It has come back to me now and I probably did enter the Word Cloud ones.  Wrathner was a lovely member, but it all seems so long ago…. Glad The Den took up the idea.

The original idea came from Harry Bingham on the WordCloud, who presented a bottle of something similar to Champagne as a prize each month. When it began to fall apart it was taken up by Wrathnar the Unreasonable (sans Champagne) and then by the winner of the competition each month.

It was adopted by the Den when the Cloud finally closed

Yes!  I did mean to say the medals included Libby who prompted us so well in the heat of 2026 August!   Encouragement…
For me, these monthly competitions have been ensuring those writerly muscles are kept in peak condition and other writing has emerged too, so thank you to whoever dreamt up the idea!

Great monthly comp, Libby. And a well-deserved win for Seagreen.

Thanks for the prompt Libby. It seems to have been an age since I  tested the writerly muscles…

And I second Jill’s call for virtual medals all round! 🙂