“Babe, it’s time to run the kids to school they’re gonna be late!”, my wife said angrily, as I tap tap tapped on the glass of my iPhone. I have no idea how much longer I’m actually going to take, you can’t rush the genius pouring out into your Daily Prompt or the shit coming out the other end. To restore calm to the aggravated love of my life I yell through the door, “I just need five more minutes.” Ah, five more minutes to think, and then five more minutes to write. Shoot! I need to crack this door open and tell her I need another five minutes. But as soon as I do, she’s probably gonna say, “your full of shit.” As to which I’ll respond back immaturely, “In five mins I won’t be!” To which she’ll scold me for the rest of the day. Is it worth telling the truth now that technically I should be getting off the toilet? Damn, it’s not a big deal right one small fib I could’ve never known the extent of it. I guess some things are better leee… Just then the bathroom door is thrown open with phenomenal strength, and a furious, green, she-hulk towers over me, “Joseph! what the hell are you doing? You said you’d be 5 mins, that was 10 mins ago. And what the hell, that smells horrible, what are you eating gawd!” Then it hits me, I can be an honest man on this toilet, answer truthfully, and finish out my prompt, in one fell swoop. So I tap tap tap away. Look up at my wife and say, “It’s not fear I smell, it’s future.” Speechless, and confused, she storms off. Knowing I crushed my Daily Prompt and my wife’s trust, I flush the toilet. Was it worth it, or was it all futile? Only the future knows.

“Hmmm, if you think I’m guilty, if your mind is made up, I challenge you to ask yourself. When did you make your mind up about my innocence? At what point exactly? I want you to pinpoint the moment when you heard enough, the moment you were pushed beyond any reasonable doubt that I was guilty. Or was it in fact when you walked in this room and saw me looking upset, as some kind of falsely perceived admission of guilt? Or maybe it was my rather aggressive tone that actually started building your case. Surely, it wasn’t the color of my skin, I’m confident each and every one of you understand the biases, prejudice’s, and cultural conditioning that allows innocent people like me to be found in such predicaments as these based solely on the color of my skin. If your wrong about me having committed this heinous crime, ask yourself will you be able to sleep at night. Go ahead and ask yourself, ‘self, will I sleep comfortably knowing I wrongfully convicted an innocent person to this lengthy sentence?’ If your answer is yes, people make mistakes, well then me and justice never stood a chance, and you have wasted all of our time, and exponentially much more of mine. I want you to know I maintain my innocence one hundred percent. I did not steal that $50 bill out of mommies purse. Brothers and sisters, as your youngest sibling, are you really willing to drive a wedge this deep between us? Or are you willing to consider other alternatives to recovering mommies money. She said you all get to decide my fate, or we are to recover her money, did she not? So I say family, let us come together with our finances and put this misunderstanding to rest. I will be in my room while you make up your minds.” Knock. Knock. Knock. “Hey Paul, open up.” My oldest brother waited patiently as I cracked the door open slightly. Then he said very calmly, “Guilty bro. And for the record, I was for you, but they were like nah he did it, so we agreed you doing all of our chores for the next 6 months.”

Tic toc, tic toc No one’s exempt from a problem to solve

Tic toc, tic toc One year to study fervently

Tic toc, tic toc Two minutes til pencils on desk, work urgently!

Tic Toc, Tic toc Three questions left, best guess on the rest

Tic toc, tic toc Four minutes left in the room to reflect and regret

Tic toc, Tic toc Five days to wait for the results you’ll detest

Tic toc, tic toc Six people cheated, how will they fare?

Tic toc, Tic toc Seven exceptional students have not a care

Tic toc, tic toc Eight days to study again if I failed

Tic toc, tic toc Nine colleges decide heaven or hell

Tic toc, tic toc Ten parents stress like it’s heaven or hell

Tic Toc, tic toc Eleven pass, the rest of em fail

Tic toc, tic toc Twelve minutes you have to figure out if, wether more students passed, than students exist.

I hear Simon say, “Get up!” As abruptly as the dawn comes and goes in the morning.

Although I was furious, begrudgingly, I got up anyway. Uncertain, and hurt, I begin to state my displeasure with his aggressive tone. As my courage brings my mouth ajar, Simon says, “Pack your bags, and wipe this place down, I mean everything.” Whatever I was about to say to Simon, I completely forgot, I just stood there in utter shock. With each tear that fell, a new question arose. Like how could he just switch up on me like this, how did I not see this enormous red flag, how could anyone treat someone they were intimate with like this… how can I call for help? Sitting there peacefully across his squeaky guest bedroom floor was my savior, my phone. I only needed a prayer to reach it. While finishing the last room in his 2 bedroom apartment, I make my way towards my phone. And as I’m walking across the hall just two or three steps away from my phone, I hear Simon say, “get your bags put them in the hallway, and walk outside to the curb.” Confused, and still unable to do much else then sob, I grab my bags put them in his hallway, and proceed to the curb of a very busy Main St. No phone, no courage, no will to fight this abusive monster, I just wait for what seems to be the last of his commands. Standing at the breezy curbside, with wind in my hair, and people looking at my pale distraught face in horror. Then I heard, Simon say “Now go stand in the middle of the street.” Then an elderly man stands beside me, takes a gaze at me, and says, “aw, young lady, it’s going to be ok, I promise, do you need a ride home?”. Finally finding my lungs I shout, “YES! Please! Yes! Anywhere but here.” To which Simon says, “She’ll be on the next Taxi pulling up, thank you for your concern Old Man.” I see the taxi, my escape from this monster, is now finally in sight, and I blurt out, “I really can’t stand you!” Simon replies swiftly, “then why are you still listening to me?”

Thinking about my pet peeves None of them are mine Faults of mine exalted Were then imprisoned by my shame My pets and I are bound together ball and chain

I wake up for a nightmare Until the moon comes up

Then I dream of wondrous things Only kids like me think up

Alarm clock roars, my whole body feels it Angry people claw back my sheets

Then push, pull and shove I fall out on my feet

Filling up my book bag so heavy I can’t shrug Sitting on a bus where I can’t buckle up

The bullies make a fool of me In front her, whom I do love

Can’t botch my recital, music’s in my blood Anxiety exhausted, still homework must be done

My nightmare starts in the morning It ends when I grow up….

This horrible night was almost over, sitting at the edge of my bed, I exhale deeply in relief. My dry mouth, painful cheeks, and miserable back teeth were indications of my misery, and yet something hurt worse still. So naturally, I got up and slouched over to the bathroom to get some water.

Tossing my sweat drenched shirt on the dark bathroom floor, I leaned heavily on the pedestal sink wanting some physical support. The unbelievably vivid nightmare I just experienced had really drained me.

I sleepily slap the hot water faucet on, and jolt back as it burns my tongue. I eagerly search for the light switch now, feeling dumb I just burned my tongue, and switch it on.

As soon as I made eye contact with myself, I leaped backwards onto the floor. As panic was starting to set in, I screamed “ahhh,” but all I heard was a deep sounding “uughhh”. As I grab the sink to pull myself up I notice the skin on my hand is peeling, and a bluish grey color.

Standing there, looking deep into the mirror, the realization of what I had become set in. My whole life was an utter nightmare. That moment of clarity was like someone lifting a hundred dead bodies off my chest, and then placing them on my shoulders. The detached jaw, droopy eyes, peeling skin, bent knees, and razor sharp teeth was a version of me I could accept. But the fire in my eyes were gone, my passion for being undead to the fullest, has eroded away.

Unable to bear looking at this lame version of me anymore, I rip out the lights and shrug back to bed. When I crawl back into bed my wife says, “ugghgh”. I say “ugghghh,” aggressively back, reassuring her I’d fix it later.

The storm door creaked open slowly, the faint squeal was only audible for those of us in the basement. The humidifier drowned out much of the noise by this mysterious intruder. I lay ever watchful on this cold basement floor, useless, to alarm my beloved Toymaster Jake or Jake’s Toymaster’s, Mom and Dad.

As this stealthy figure moved closer towards me, their flashlight danced back and forth, up and down, around the crowded unkept room I called home.

The dark figure wearing all black finally spotted the steps leading to upstairs. As he slowly walked towards the door to go upstairs, the night light revealed something shiny in his waistband. If anything happened to my Toymaster or his Toymaster’s I wouldn’t know what to do.

The sheer carelessness by which he navigated this cold slippery tile floor was most revealing. My mission & purpose in life was finally here. To fulfill my duty as the super hero, action figure, guardian angel I was purchased to be! And every plastic vessel in my muscular physique was in absolute agreement.

At a distance of about 6 sneakers from the bottom step I lay in wait for the intruder, who is almost right on top of me, about to take their last step. So as I lay completely still, I quickly continue to lay there. And boom, the invader steps right on top of me. While I slide across the floor, I watch the intruder as they fall face first. Trying to brace their fall, the soft gloves slide right from under them, and they’re forehead digs right into the metal edge of the bottom step.

As I lay in disbelief not knowing if that fall was going to be enough to keep this evil down, the lifelessness was reassuring. The only thing moving now, was the pool of blood flowing down the tile cracks toward me.

When my Toymaster’s Dad turned on the light, with bat in hand, there I lay covered in blood. He looked down at the intruder, also covered in blood, and he abruptly sat down on the stairs as he slowly let out a “whaaaatt the fuuuuuuu.”

“Breaking News folks, Doctor and Scientist Noah Herodias, has discovered an invisible cell that only exists in humans.

He’s coined his discovery the God Cell, and essentially the cell operates as one organism, but simultaneously exists in each and every human. And it is this cell that gives humans the ability to believe and have faith.

So essentially, to make this really simple for our viewers watching from home. Religion exists because of this cell, and according to Dr. Herodias with some beta-blockers you can remove religion from the face of the earth, we’re everyone to take this yet to be developed drug.

But not everyone is as excited by the most important scientific breakthrough in history. Many of the most religious countries are in upheaval all around the world. There’s reports of rioting, looting, and murder. Wait, what is this…more breaking news folks, the Pope has just resigned. Oh, wait and the Taliban have disbanded. My goodness, what a day, The President of the United States of America has ordered that the government will operate free of any religious mention, ritual, or practice concerning a ‘God’.

I’m Lisa and this WBATV on Channel 7 signing off. We’ll be bringing you more to the min updates as this story continues. “

I grabbed the remote and turned off the TV. Kneeling before my sofa, I close my eyes and prayed out loud, “God if your out there, this isn’t looking good. And God if I’m praying to myself, I pray you would give me the strength to answer my own prayers.”

Leaving room for errors always seems wise, until there are mistakes sleeping on every sofa in your house.

Eating up the food, leaving crumbs for the mouse Giving not a thought to how much you may shout Giving not a care to how much you may pout Dispensing all the filth little bodies can dish out Two roads can be taken, an afterthought now

I shall have kids Or I shall have couch