Writing Prompt
Writings
Writings
STORY STARTER
“It had been a long time coming, but now I felt I could truly call myself the slayer of monsters.”
Write a story that concludes with this line.
Writings
The serpent wrapped itself around my wrist like a piece of clothing, curling up and up to my shoulder. With my free arm I grabbed my broken, fallen sword and stabbed at the beast, but its skin was too tough to break under the pressure of a cracked weapon. My arm wasn’t, though, and it snapped with the pressure.
I fell to my knees and looked wildly for a weapon. The cave was damp, my eyes were teary from the stench of sulphur, and the darkness made it hard to see. My arm was broken though; it was injured either way …
I slammed my arm with the snake around it on the stone floor. I felt the shock of it, and a faint, numbing pain, and the serpent gently uncoiled itself from my skin before it latched on again. I slammed it again, and again until I felt it moving no longer and I saw irs fanged mouth hang open, wide, immobile.
My arm was no longer an arm. I let the snake fall from the battered flesh onto the ground. It had been a long time coming, but now I felt I could truly call myself the slayer of monsters.
Rain drops pelted the back of her black hoodie, she’d not been prepared. Of course, her grandma had told her before she’d left for school. But that was nearly half a day ago. Rain wasn’t her weakness, school was.
Each and every day was hell. A little rain would not make that much of a difference. Soggy cloths over the continued bully if she’d taken the bus. Of course as she watched it cruse past she could see both her favorite people.
Penny Thistle and Maggy Rich , both watching her sulk through the rain. “Why did they care so much?” She grumbled to herself, fixing the hood so it didn’t let the cool rain explode across her forehead.
She wasn’t like those girls, formed and followed closely by all the boys. Her hair wasn’t long and beautiful flowing down her back. Well it had been before she’d pissed off her older brother and he’d shaved it partially in her sleep.
She’d been one of them till that happened. One of the bullies, now she’d become an outsider.
A low growl made her break from her thoughts, her heart starting to beat a mile a minute as she came face to face with a giant black thing. It’s face was a white plate mask that looked stone or ceramic. Two very large white tusks reaching to the sky on either side of the mask. A wild boar looking monster the size of a full bus. It’s red tongue shot out the masks center muzzle and clipped her right shoulder deeply cutting past cloths into flesh.
A gasp as she was quickly tossed away by the force of the blow. Rolling to a stop at the streets edge. None of the cars skirted to a halt, a few pedestrians down the street looked her way. But just kept on moving.
Pain ripping across her shoulder as she tried to stand up. Her vision starting to blur as the cars lights got brighter for a split second. The beast hung over her with its tongue licking at her horrified face. Then a spray of warmth covered her body, as she lost consciousness.
A fan cutting the air like the sound of a clipper woke her up with a startle. Quickly she glanced around the barely light living room. Day old Chinese white containers littered the coffee table, a few empty beer bottles, some of alcohol she’d never seen before still half full.
Some blonde haired woman tucked neatly in on the old couch with a old looking blanket. Shuffling to her right made her look toward a small single kitchen. Wincing as she stood up, her whole right shoulder wrapped in some sort of cloth bandage. The whole hoddie arm and shirt beneath gone from the bandage edge to her fingers. Her caramel skin tone reflecting flashes from the still on tv.
“Sorry I didn’t get there fast enough. It nearly finished the job” A female voice whispered as dirty blonde haired girl in a long pink night shirt came from the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn. “I figured you’d be hungry after that near death experience… all we had was popcorn..”
The girl shrugged her shoulders and nodded toward a hallway she hadn’t even noticed. Taking the hint she followed after her. The house was clearly not kept well, this girl didn’t seem to mind it much though.
“I’m Kasey… this is my moms trailer. Sorry she’s not much of a cleaner these days” The girl held out her hand as they entered a small bedroom off to the right halfway down the long hallway.
“I’m Jaylin…” Her voice was low.
For a few more minutes nobody said anything. Kasey sat down on her bed that was just a mattress and box spring on the floor. While Jaylin just took in the well kept room.
A small dresser, an old warped white vanity with a fairly new looking mirror. Her bed covered in stuffed animals, even though she could tell the girl was older then herself. So many questions raced through her mind, but as she opened her mouth nothing came out.
“If you wanna just chill out for a bit I understand…. It’s a lot. Minus my whole life crap as well.” She gave her a forced smile and patted the bed beside her. “ After near death sleep over?” Kasey giggled a bit to herself but it didn’t make Jaylin any less anxious.
“Did you see the monster?” She questioned in a low voice, her words barely above a whisper. She could hardly speak, lip quivering even after the words came out.
“Are you sure you want to bark up that tree right now?” Kasey gave her a questioning glacé and sighed long and exaggerated. “So you don’t want to wait then?”
Instead of words she just shook her head no. Which made Kasey turn on the bed towards her, nearly knocking over the fresh bag of popcorn. Which smelled delightful even though the house smelled of mildew and must.
“We call them devours…. They are low level demons. They eat normie souls. “ She took a second before she gave a weak smile. “Once you’ve been cut by one…. You turn into one”
When the words left her mouth Jaylin crumbled to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. Kasey sighed again and stood up. Closing the gap between them and rubbing her back.
“Not everyone becomes a monster…. Those of us who fight them and protect the normies. We all have a little monster inside us” Kasey tried to sound hopeful. “I’ll take you to Master Ken tomorrow. Maybe he will be able to help you transition like us. For now rest.”
Kasey gripped her around the waist and tossed her without exerting any effort. She landed on the bed and continued to sob. After a while the sobbing was replaced with low snores, then Kasey followed suit.
Riding in a junky rusted out old ford truck hadn’t been the highlight of the next day. Yet when they showed up at a little kid’s dojo for karate. Jaylin felt hopeless, this clearly wasn’t happening.
Master Ken was a retired cop/ dojo instructor. He stood towering over the girls, muscles toned enough that most people knew he ment business. Yet when he spoke it was soft slow and comforting.
“She’s been tagged” Kasey blurted out as they stepped into the small office in the back of the dojo.
“So why bring her here?” His left eyebrow flexed at her question.
“Stop acting like you didn’t find me in the gutter near death. I saved her. So save her” Kasey huffed, tossing her hands up in mock defeat.
“She’ll have to go into the pit. You think she can survive?” Ken looked Jaylin up and down for a second, shaking his head in disappointment. “I don’t think she’s strong enough..”
“If she’s not. I’ll finish her myself…” Kasey gave her a quick smile before Ken sighed.
“Fine. Get her tied up.” He grumbled tossing his hands in the air.
Tied up meant just that. She was bound hands behind her back tightly, then her eyes covered with a dark cloth. She’d only seen the pit for a second before darkness, fear gripped at her causing her mouth to dry up completely.
“Be weary of the devour you see.” Kens words drifted away as she felt her body being slowly dropped into the abyss by a pulley that squeaked till her face found the dirt.
It felt like hours before anything changed. Air started to blow on the back of her neck, making the hairs stand up. A harsh roar scaring the pee out of her as it echoed up the pit. She could hear foot falls starting circle around her.
“I can hear you” She hissed. “This is a sick joke. What kind of crap is this!”
Fear hung on her body like a shroud, the footfalls didn’t stop. Still whatever it was circled back and fourth around her.
“This isn’t a joke mortal. You’ve been tagged to be devoured!” A gruff proud voice called out from the dark as the footsteps stopped. “I’m here to convert your soul.”
“Convert my soul?” She questioned, rolling to her right side a bit, trying to release her wrists from the bindings. “If I can get free I can fight” Her own thoughts were more brave then her body. Because she didn’t move or tussle with the bindings.
“You can’t fight this. You don’t possess the will.” The voice chuckled a bit. “Just lay there and accept your fate girl”
“Jaylin! You can do this!” Kasey’s words called through the darkness.
“I’ll kill you” She hissed, starting to fight against the ropes. Feeling them starting to cut into her wrist.
“Your welcome to try princess “ The proud voice called, letting a yawn escape him. “You have twenty four hours before you become one of us. I’d hurry it up”.
The laughter faded away as she felt a large paw against her back. The weight of it just hanging above her wrists caused excruciating pain and discomfort across her wrists and arms.
“I can end you at any point. You might want to start fighting “ The voice spoke again gruffly.
The paw pushed hard against her back and right before she felt a snap of her wrist or arms. The rope broke. In full panic she rolled to the left, quickly hoping to her feet and pulling off the blindfold. Blood started to run from the cuts the rope made into her wrists, but she could see nothing except a small circle of light from above.
Until the beast mask caught the light. A fearsome set of red eyes hung behind the white ceramic lions muzzle. A smile on its face as it’s white ceramic paws met the light beam next. Claws hung died in a blood red color, fear had already started to swell up within her. This monster would either be her death, or her salvation.
“Are you done already?” The lion demon questioned, going back to circling her.
She watched its claws dragging in the blackness. Then she struck, without warning she leapt at the beast. Her fist connecting to the solid mask. Pain erupted across her fist as it made contact, the lion burst out in laughter. Shaking it’s huge head back and fourth, sitting back and looking at her.
“Your fiesty princess “ He continued to bellow open laughter. “I like that about you. But it won’t be enough “
Before the lion could move, she’d run again. Feet making no noise on the blackness of the eternal plains. Jumping ito the air, she kicked out her leg. Harder then she’d ever done in those boring classes as a child. Sending it straight into the center of the lions mask. A crack echoed around the masks center and it started to fall away.
Until in front of her stood an exact replica of herself. The full mask of the lion crumpled on the floor.
“You have earned my power, use it wisely princess. Not all who do this are good” Without a word she was swept upward with a crazy force. Landing outside the pit in a coughing fit. Pain hanging on every surface of her body, blood leaking from a few surfaces.
“You did well kid” Ken’s voice called from behind her.
Kasey ran up to her side and started to look over her wounds. Like she’d somehow gotten a degree in medicine.
“It had been a long time coming, but now I felt I can truely call myself the slayer of monsters” Jaylin collapsed on the hard wooden floor.
Two years ago, I watched my family be murdered for no reason. Mistaken identity. I looked at their corpses and threw my old life behind.
I found the best gunfighter in the country. Sobered him up. Paid him generously to teach me.
I was a rich girl with prospects of marriage and raising a family. I had never touched a gun. I believed that people were fundamentally good.
All of this had to change.
It was hard. But I kept the image of my family in my head at all times.
And now here I stand, facing my enemy.
The town clock strikes noon.
We reach for our guns. The bullet went right between his eyes.
It had been a long time coming, but now I felt I could truly call myself a slayer of monsters.
Riverboat Junction was always a special place. For generations before colonization, the Wyandot fished for bony sweet fish in its rivulets. After Reconstruction, families of the enslaved settled on the rich soil and planted fruit trees. At the turn of the century their land was stolen and flooded for irrigation for the large commercial agriculture. Then after a little creative rebranding the methane gassy pond was christened Lake Happiness. as recreational and the country’s first waterpark opened three years later. The early days of Riverboat Junction were a dream. Inspired by Huck Finn, the park was white pickets, bandstands, and marching bands. Cotton candy and water flume rides, the water park was a local family favorite. Soon butter popcorn and picnics didn’t cut it. The water park was expanded and modernized. Death-defying rollercoasters, gaming halls, and a Hall of History complete with an animatronic Lady Bird Johnson, the water park grew more and more popular. Until people started dying. Mysteriously Alice Fae Miller drowned in Lake Happiness. A few attendees fell to their deaths from the Scorpion’s Tail. Then there was that viral urban legend about a brain eating virus in the lake water. Between the rumors and competition from newer theme parks, Riverboat Junction was shuttered. That’s when the land came alive. Lights, camera, Action, the van doors opened and slammed shut. The crew of Ghost Breakers hauled their audiovisual gear in front of the rusted chain fence. “Guys check the lithium batteries on the EVP equipment. I do not I repeat I do not want a repeat of the shitshow at the Staedtler Mansion. This is the most haunted amusement park in America. I want real life Paranormal Activity not just bumps in the night. I mean it Stevie,” Dex Pilgrim, host and creator of Ghost Breakers, said, “I bartered my soul to get access to this crummy dump. I want results.” “Dexy, bra, I got this. Trust me if the expert doesn’t deliver I have a backup plan,” Producer Steve Jericho said. “Where is this expert anyway?” “Well he was right here. Check the backseat.” The expert was already gone. He was walking past the concession stands towards the hellmouth aka Lake Happiness. With each step the lights flickered and blazed. The Ferris wheel slowly whirled. Somewhere a popcorn maker cranked. The sounds of a little girl’s laughter mingled with music from a deleric carousel. “Mr. Snickers! Where are you?” "It had been a long time coming, but now I felt I could truly call myself the slayer of monsters,” the expert shouted back in response. “But you can call me Candyman.”
'Well done Julie, you absolute superstar. You've saved that little boy.' Mitzi gushes whilst sloshing red wine into my obnoxiously large fish bowl glass. 'Well - it wasn't just me. It was a collaborative effort you know? When multidisciplinary teams communicate right. It works well. It's how it should be." "Too right my darling. You've got all these teams - police, social workers, doctors, teachers. They've got to share information haven't they? That's what we've noticed with Charlie's school. None of them bloody communicate.' ' You can insist on a conference meeting about his plan though Mitz' ' Done that. Bloody seventy million times it seems. If it's not someone quitting the job, there's some other excuse. We had a real nice lady come along, made all these great promises, listened to us. Wrote it all down. We thought, finally we're getting somewhere! Next thing we hear she's quit the job! Something about a stress induced stomach ulcer. And then the whole tiresome cycle starts all over a bloody gain!' 'I'm sorry Mitz. If you want me to have a word I will.' 'Oh my gawd!!! Listen to me harping on when tonight should be all about you birthday girl. I'm so sorry!! Let me get the pasta, it should be done now!' She slinks out and I hear the clip clop of her stilletoes on the parquet floor. I hear some exclamations about the pasta boiling over. I feel so sleepy and yet my ears are ringing. I allow the cushions behind me to hold my full weight, I sink in...and my eyes softly rest on the navy feature wall directly in front on me, the flickering candles on the shelves, the black and white photos of Mitzi's perfect three kids. Oh man, infertility aches. I try and block it out but there it is. I take deep gulp of wine and characteristically, it sloshes down my front and I now i have smelly, sticky red wine boobs. I feel rage and then I start laughing. And then I start crying. Mitzi backs into the room with her tray, pushing the door open with her hip, oblivious it seems. 'So, you know that Christmas tree pasta dad always used to cook us on Christmas Eve? I found it! I've got three types of cheese too.' 'I'm sorry Mitz, I'm a bit of a mess.' ' Oh no! Are you ok? Are you thinking about the case?' 'I'm thinking, I'm thinking that he is just one kid. And I'm thinking of all the sleepless nights, all the sacrifices, all the battling I had to do just get that bastard in the dock Mitzi and what for? One boy. Scarred for the rest of his life. Being passed from pillar to post now. Probably. Foster family to foster family. I can't remember the last night Mitch and I had sex. I can't remember the last time I didn't have nightmares. I can't remember the last time I didn't close my eyes and see something fucking awful.' 'You're tired babe. Youre just very tired. It's a wonderful thing you did. You inspire me so much.' She's forcibly scooped me out of my seat and put her arms around me. And I sob. "But it's not enough. Knowing that they are out there and I'm having a lovely time with you here. It's wrong. It feels wrong. How can I enjoy anything now? I can't get those photos out my head sis. The burn marks.' I weep onto her shoulder. She strokes my hair. ' You enjoy tonight. Tomorrow we go to the spa. You bloody well make sure you're on tip top form girl. Because Monday morning. You've got to get back on that horse and tell Satan not today. These bastards aren't going to get away with it.' 'Don't you get it? I can't afford a weekend. They are out there right now! Getting away with it. Beating their kids, lying, manipulating, isolating....there is not Friday. There is not Monday. There is just fucking now. We've got to save them all now!!' It had been a long time coming, but now I felt I could truly call myself a slayer of monsters.
i whispered words that i didn’t mean and scraped the walls of my heart’s lining
with tears that burned like acid beauty is pain, and it’s never placid
i balanced my heart on the tip of a pin it was unstable, god it had been
a long time coming but now i felt i could truly call myself
the slayer of monsters
It had been a long time coming, but now I felt I could truly call myself the slayer of monster. For years and years I had to tolerate the monster that betrayed my innocence. Not knowing how to deal with it I suffered for years. So many tears and outburst of anger, so many times taking my anger out others who didn’t deserve this unknown out of nowhere wrath of mine. This monster could not be tamed but only tolerated. This monster had stolen my childhood, but now just recently after waiting 38 years , this monsters darkness has come to the light, and now everyone I ever confided in and who didn’t believe my trauma can now see who this monster really is, I’ve waited patiently for 38 years for this light to shine, this light of truth is the only way to slay a monster so evil. From age of five until eleven this monster tortured me and destroyed my innocence and throughout the years of putting on a painful smile in order hide my feelings of guilt and to not expose the truth about this monster, the monster revealed himself. Now and only now do the people see the monster that I had to tolerate since the age of five up until the age of forty three, like I said I tolerated this monster for 38 years. The ones who never believed me now see my reality, my truth and my trauma. After 38 years of toleration I have truly slayed that evil disgusting monster with the help of being patient and with the ultimate help of my most best friend and ally Karma. This journey has been a painful and most confusing one but I continue to stay strong and to keep reaching for my dreams. My dreams are beautiful and someday my dreams will be my reality.
I writhed under his grip. His breath smelled of whiskey and cigarettes, and spittle was dripping from his open mouth onto my forehead. I tried desperately to scream for help, but with his hands around my neck, all that managed to escape was a whimper.
“Now you’re really done for, kid”, he growled. “The numbers. Now.”
I was starting to black out. The ceiling was vignetted with black edges closing in concentrically like the Looney Tunes title card. I made one final, desperate attempt to reach out for something I could strike him with, but my flailing hands found nothing.
And then, I saw it.
Judith’s smile. Shopping for groceries with my Mom. Winning first place in the creative writing competition. That time I almost drowned. My first kiss; the first time I made love. All this and more, shown to me in rapid succession like images from a flip book.
I didn’t want to die, but in this I had no choice. I could feel my last breath escaping me, the light closing in, when all of a sudden—
“Eric? Can you hear me?”
I sputtered and coughed, and the room slowly came to. I was no longer pinned to the ground by my attacker in that back alley - now I was in a dark green room of some kind, lying in a bed with a girl in a baseball cap leaned over beside me.
“Who- where- what happened?” I exclaimed.
“Look, we don’t have much time. You need to tell me what the numbers are.”
Numbers? What nu– oh, that’s right.
“Now lady, I don’t know who you are, but I’ll tell you the same thing I’ve told the other guy: I don’t. Know. What. They. Are. And by the way, who even are you anyway?”
“That’s not important. What’s important is what’s in that brain of yours, and we’re going to get what we need out of it one way or another.”
With that, the girl grabbed my arm and wrapped some sort of corded strap around it, which she then hooked up to a device on the wall. She flipped a switch, and the next thing I knew, I felt a violent electric shock shoot through my body.
“AGH!!” I shouted, miserably. As if this day couldn’t get any worse.
“That’s the lowest setting. I’m going to give you five seconds to give me those numbers, or I’m cranking this up to the max.”
I gritted my teeth. “Fuck you,” I managed, “and fuck your stupid electric torture kink.”
“…aaand one. You asked for this.”
The pain hit me so hard that I passed out immediately. For a moment, I was floating, and then I crash-landed down on a bunch of cardboard boxes.
“Not your day today, is it laddie?” A bearded man in a bowler hat called out. “The numbers. Would you be so kind as to share them with us?”
I think I was starting to get the gist of things.
“What is it with you people? Why can’t I die? And why do you keep asking me about these god damn numbers?”
“We’re not going to stop until you give us what he want,” he said, approaching menacingly. In his right hand was a baton, which he tapped against his left hand in a steady, rhythmic fashion.
I picked myself up and started to run. Turning the corner, I was met with a large fence - too tall to climb over. There was no way out. I turned back and saw the man rounding the corner. My heart was pounding out of my chest. I couldn’t do this again. The agony of two deaths had already been more than I could take.
Looking frantically around, I spotted something metal and shiny lying on the ground. Before I could think, I immediately picked it up.
It was a hunting knife.
“Ooh, I see that the playing field has been leveled, has it now laddie?” The man in the bowler hat teased.
“I may not be stronger than you, but I’ve got nothing left to lose!” I retorted.
All of a sudden, the man started running towards me, and I instinctively stepped aside. His baton smashed against the fence with full force, sending a rippling vibration through the chain-link structure that would have been devastating had it landed its target. I took a swipe at him with my blade but I missed. Unfazed, the man swung his baton at me again and it connected with my right arm, the pain of which almost made me drop the knife to the ground. Mustering up all of my strength, I charged forward, blade in hand, and stabbed upward with all my might.
The silence was deafening. And then, the sound of gurgling, followed by drops of blood on the ground. The man fell to his knees, then toppled over, dead. I twisted the knife out of his neck, the remaining gash resembling something from a Cronenberg movie. I let out a primal yell at his corpse.
The next thing I knew, the area around me faded into darkness. I fell backwards into a void and ended back in that hospital bed.
“My, my, quite a resilient one we have here, don’t we?” The girl with the baseball cap remarked.
“What the fuck?” I exclaimed. Had it all been a hallucination? No, the sensation of killing that man had been too real. Before I had time to catch my breath, she spoke.
“Well, it looks like the electric shocks aren’t enough to eke this information out of you, so we’re going to have to try some… alternative methods.”
The girl turned around to retrieve something from the table. In that, I saw my opportunity and grabbed the electric cord connected to the wall and wrapped it around her neck. She was stronger than I expected and thrashed around violently, but I wasn’t about to let go. I tugged the two ends of the cord as tightly as I could until she no longer gasped for breath, upon which she slumped to the ground, unmoving.
I knew what was about to happen next.
I blacked out and woke up with the drunk man’s hands once again wrapped around my neck.
“The numbers… give them to me…”
With all my might, I grasped his fingers and tugged at them so I could speak.
“O-Kay… let me… go… and they’re - they’re yours…”
At first he cocked his head to the side in doubt, but after a moment of deliberation he finally released his grip. I wheezed, rubbing my neck and trying to get a second wind.
“Numbers. Now. Or you die.”
I stood up, leveling myself with him.
“See, I couldn’t give you the numbers just now because, like I told you, I don’t know what they are. But what I do know is WHERE they are. They’re written on my fingers. Didn’t you notice? Here, look.”
He stepped closer to me as I held my hands up to his face. Then, without warning, I shoved my thumbs into his eye sockets, gouging them with all my might.
“AGGHH!!” He screamed, falling backwards onto the floor in pain. “YOU’RE A DEAD MAN NOW, ERIC HOLTZ!”
Taking advantage of his blindness. I scanned the room for something - anything - I could use as a weapon. In a flash, I saw it - the beer bottle he had been drinking from before he ambushed and strangled me.
I picked the bottle up off the table, smashed it, then lunged for the man.
“YOU WANT YOUR NUMBERS? WELL, I’VE GOT YOUR GOD DAMN NUMBERS!”
I stabbed him in the throat, chest, and stomach repeatedly, counting out loud for each time the bottle came down and pierced flesh.
“ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!”
I stopped when I got to forty-seven, exhausted. By then, the air stank of whiskey, cigarettes, and blood. I let go of the bottle, upon which it landed on the floor, shattering.
I was finally free.
It had been a long time coming, but now I felt I could truly call myself the slayer of monsters.
Blood dripped down my head as the creature pinned me against a tree and let out roar in my face and showed me it’s row upon rows of teeth. I could fell it’s warm breath upon me. The smell was horrible. The monster stopped and let me go, and I fell to the ground. My sword was right in front of the monster and a dagger was attached to my belt. I wrapped my hands around the dagger and stood up. It took all my strength to move, I was so weak after fighting the king of monsters. I slowly walked towards the crimson red creature and then I sped up my walk into a run. My body aches as I did it, but I pressed onwards. I jumped up and stabbed the monster in its back as it let out a roar so loud that anyone could hear it. The monster moved its body, trying to shake me off, but my grip was strong on the dagger. I was tired, but I wasn’t going to give up. The monster’s hands stretched to his red, furry back and grabbed onto me. It pulled my grip from the dagger and squeezed its hands around my body, crushing me.
I had come this far, I couldn’t stop now, I had to complete this mission. I wiggled and squirmed until I was free. I don’t even know how that worked but it did. My sword was right behind me, as I sprinted forwards to grab it, as I did so, the monster tried to reach for me once again, but it missed. I grabbed my sword and the monster came sprinting towards me, but stopped when he was just two feet away. For he had been stabbed with my sword. The creature froze and I retracted my sword from its body, back to me and moved out of the way as it started to fall Forwards. It had been a long time of this, fighting, slaying monsters and I had finally killed the king of them all.
I could now rest myself. It had been a long time coming, but now I felt I could truly call myself the slayer of monsters.
Since I was a child I knew something was terribly wrong with me, whether that be some unusual mental thing, or a physical change in my brain. People were different from me, or maybe, I was the different one? I felt odd and out of place for a little girl who was supposed to be just like everyone else. Whether my outlandish style and way of life caused that, or followed it, didn’t matter, as either way, no one seemed to want to speak to me. My life seemed like a loop of bad decisions and spending my time alone. There’s no big surprise that I lacked happiness, and maybe if my family cared enough, I’d be diagnosed with depression and some other terrible mental illnesses that would explain how my life had gone to shit it even began. But who needs an explanation to something I’ll suffer with either way, so I repressed those violent and depressing thoughts, knowing they were only aimed at me anyways. TV and books were quick to promise me a happy ending with people that actually care about me but that seemed to be false hope and empty stories. I’d sit in my room instead, music running through my ears, drowning out the monsters that my harsh thoughts created. Until I met her. My sun, my light. She didn’t seem bugged by the way I looked or the way I presented myself, and as she got to know me, she realized I wasn’t as bad as people treated me. She was something to look forward to and though I resisted getting to know her, out of fear of losing her too, she refused to leave me alone. I had sleepovers, and picnics, and stupid talk about school and families. And soon enough I couldn’t imagine my life without her. And as much as I loved her, her eyes, her touch, her smile, I could never tell her. I could never risk losing the one person who really cared. So she told me. She told me how she loved the oddities about me, the way my brain was different from hers, the way my smile, though rare, lit up her world when she saw it. She told me how she yearned for my arms around her after a hard day, or how she thought she couldn’t live without me. Now that I’m older, now that I found out what I wanted to do with my life and I did it, and she never left my side. Now that I’m married to her, and now that we’ve adopted Lillie, our daughter, as well as Pumpkin the cat, I feel my life to be fulfilled. Now that she wakes up at my side every morning, that smile I love so much brightening my life, I’m happy. Those monsters created by the harsh thoughts of my youthful depression have left, and I’m satisfied with my life. With my gorgeous, brilliant wife. I’m finally happy, me, my sun, and the life we’ve created for ourselves. It had been a long time coming, but now I felt I could call myself the slayer of monsters.
Similar writing prompts
STORY STARTER
Write a story where the written word, in any form, is outlawed.
Rather than focusing on why text is outlawed, try to build a story that highlights one aspect of this world. Think about how often we see words written down, and how the world would look without them.
STORY STARTER
Write a story about a world where humans evolved to become nocturnal.
Consider how this biological change would affect the human appearance and living habits.