Xander Michael

Failed on the basics.
I’d been riding pillion on a BSA since my teens. Clandestinely to start, because my parents forbade me, but by 2004 I was well past that, and three years past my first BSA rally, which had taken us to Australia. Being one of 200 bikes wending our way across rolling golden hills an unforgettable experience. Even so, that…[Read more]

I really enjoyed your story too, Newbie!

Thank you Raine, for being a wonderful comp host, it was funfunfun like I knew it would be 😃🦇🎃👻

Couldn’t agree with Ath more, we duh best 🥳✨

On the phone so I’ll keep this short…

I’m not the same person I was ten years ago (or even five years ago) and the things that impacted me then are not the things that impact me now.
I see it as growth ☺️

Ath that creepy as hell, man 😭😭

All done! Lost the ending I wanted to word count woes lols, but this was very fun none the less 👻🐱‍👤

Lost

Tall pines creak in the eeriness of night, blown by a sudden, fierce gale. It tears through the forest like a spectral fox hounded by wild and ghostly dogs, and the darkness feels alive with power and invocation. Two, small boys stop running…[Read more]

oooOoOoooooh!! I love it. This is going to be funfunfun 🎃👻🦇

Done! and lol! 😀

Go for it!! I don’t need to tell you whose piece tied with hers in muh heart 😍😍 haha #mybiasisshowing

@knickylaurelle just to let you know Sandra won’t be able to set a challenge as she’s offline for a wee while. Did you want to set another? Or I can invent something?

Woohoo, Sandra! Congratulations! ☺️

And well done, Knicky. Thanks for a challenging (for me, anyway) comp 👍

Very deserved win @sandradavies, well done! & thank you for an unusual, fun challenge @knickylaurelle. Everyone’s entries were great (& fascinating insights into your psyche!!).

Okay guys, I’ve completed my reading and I really must say these are all so good and left my expectations very well-met.

@squidge – I enjoyed this far-away, fantastical dream sequence, with its lightly pressing sense of isolation, elusive understanding, and finally, lucidity.

@athelstone – Gorgeously streaming subconsciousness with this one,…[Read more]

Hello and thank you to all who took the time to participate. I have just finished up work for the week and really look forward to reading the last few entries over the weekend before I select this September’s winner. Please bear with me as I get it done. Results will be posted by Monday latest ✨

449 words. CW – it’s a little bit dark.

The Hounds

Dark water curls around the bases of the towers and somewhere the hounds are baying. From here, on the bared skeleton of the top floors you can see fires burning on other towers, flags red as blood flying like strings of prayers and there is safety there, possibly, but they are as far away as…[Read more]

Another pieced-together piece, and only 245 words, but best I can manage.

Bourbon dreaming

A bottle of Makers Mark from my husband for Christmas and a wine-free tea (Köstritzer Schwarzbier instead) so I took a glass of bourbon to bed with me, along with John Rebus.

And I dreamt, more vividly and memorably than usual, with more logic than usual…[Read more]

Couldn’t make more than a patchwork quilt of the remnants of my dreams so was forced to resort to the daydreaming option. (Can you tell I’ve been watching Supernatural? 😊)

SACRIFICE

Awareness filters into my consciousness like oil seeps into unleavened bread, slowly and without fanfare. The darkness in my mind begins to withdraw.

I feel not…[Read more]