Archive | May 31, 2016

Key

May31

Content warning: implied gore

The key could have been there for months. I’ve always been a bit of a packrat with small things – my purse, you know, my attache, my keychain. My apartment might be tidy and free of clutter – at 100 feet square, it’s kind of got to be – but you could find a door to Narnia in my purse and not be all that surprised.

And my keychain? Keys from every place I’ve ever lived or worked or even crashed. I’m a compulsive key-copier, not because I want to break in anywhere, just… I like having them.

This one was pink. It looked like some sort of office key, thick and official and Do Not Duplicate… and pink.

And it was new.

I found it Saturday, while looking for the key to my mother’s place – feeding her dogs while she’s out of town, crashing there ’cause the guest room is three times the size of my apartment. And now that I have it, I’ve been trying it in every door I can get away with trying it in.

Today I found the door it opens.

And I’m feeling like Bluebeard’s wife, except nobody warned me.

The question is, if I call the cops – and I really ought to, I really, really ought to – how do I explain how I just happened to have the key? When I don’t even remember, myself, how it got here?

Written to the prompt here: https://promptuarium.wordpress.com/2015/12/23/new-key/

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1115074.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Seconds to Love

May31

He was late.

Ruth shifted from foot to foot while she scanned the museum.

He’d always been late, she supposed: her friends had been born with soulmate timers that read eighteen, twenty, maybe twenty-two years. Ruth’s had read twenty-six years, three days, and 13 hours.

Now it read 30 seconds, and her “blind date,” the love of her life, was late. Didn’t he have a timer, too? Ruth had heard horror stories, one-way loves…

“Put your hands up. Stay cool and nobody gets hurt!” A strong grip pulled Ruth against a sturdy body. The wrist against her throat beeped 0:00.

Written to the prompt here: https://promptuarium.wordpress.com/2016/05/30/countdown-to-love/. 100 words.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1114766.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Leftovers, ficlets of the Stranded World, are available on Patreon for all to read

May31

The story that began with this little series…

The RoundTree Siblings Prepare for Thanksgiving

The Family That Knots Together

A Family Tree

…is completed here on Patreon.

“Your mother is something else.”  Marina glanced at the back seat of WInter’s sensible and spacious sedan, where Mila and Henry were sleeping.  “Your family is… is something else.”

Winter smiled, because he thought it would make her uncomfortable if he frowned.  “Is that a good thing?”… (read on…)

Pledge now and read all my stories!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1114434.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Leftovers – A Patreon Story

May31

This is the requested continuation of the following stories:

The RoundTree Siblings Prepare for Thanksgiving

The Family That Knots Together

A Family Tree

“Your mother is something else.”  Marina glanced at the back seat of WInter’s sensible and spacious sedan, where Mila and Henry were sleeping.  “Your family is… is something else.”

Winter smiled, because he thought it would make her uncomfortable if he frowned.  “Is that a good thing?” Continue reading →