[promptsforthestrugglingauthor]

Writing Prompt #1939

"You call that a family?" My father sneered at the loved ones I had surrounded myself with. "This is your last chance to make the right choice. Come back with me now, and there will be limited consequences. If you don't, you are no child of mine any longer."

[mireille-lisette]

I calmly took a seat on the couch while I let him finish speaking.

'I didn't even invite you today. Is this the only reason you're here? To sneer at the people who actually love me?', I asked.

'No, but-'

'But? There's always a "but", huh. It's my birthday and all these years, you weren't there for me. Not on my birthdays, not on holidays, not when I graduated or hot accepted into college... And now you're telling me I can't be with my chosen family?' I leaned back and had no intention of getting up and coming with him. In the corner of my eye I saw Evan getting up. He looked agitated, like he would throw my father out any moment now.

'Maya, please... You know I was trying to take care of you! You're my only daughter and I want life to be easy for you.' He looked defeated. 'But go on then, if you don't want to come with me, stay here, with these... things. Just know that you will lose me. I give up on you and your "family".' He gritted his teeth. 'I can't believe you. You'd rather spend your time with those illusions than with your real family!' he yelled out, throwing his hands in the air. 'You'll lose me! You'll lose your whole family over this. But if that's what you really want...'

I saw Mary pacing back and forth behind father. 'How long is he gonna stay here? Belittling us as if we aren't in the room with him!'

'Yeah, if you want him gone, Maya, just tell me. I'll gladly get rid of him.' Evan was rubbing his hands together and his face was changing. The angry look turned darker, until his eyes were barely visible. He also seemed to be growing, his shoulders grew wider and he became taller.

'Well? What's it gonna be, Maya? Are you coming with me? Or staying in this hellhole you call a home?' He gestured around the room.

I had to agree, this wasn't the best place to live. But it was all I could get. It was definitely a fixer upper, but I didn't yet have the money to fix anything. Plus, my family here really liked this place and didn't want it to change...

'That's it! He's calling this place a hellhole? Your father is a monster. Get. Him. Out.' Mary stopped pacing and got up to my father. She was right behind him, levitating, with one hand on his shoulder and one around his neck. 'Just give me the signal and I'll take care of him, Maya.' Her eyes grew dark too, just like Evans, with a dim, red glow.

'No, not yet' I told Mary.

'Not yet...', muttered my father. 'If not today, then when?'

'I don't know, I... Just leave. Now.' I was starting to panic. I hated him, but I did not like how close Mary was getting to him.

'I will get him out for you', Evan said. An evil grin was forming on his face.

'No, wait! Don't. He'll leave. Won't you, father?' I stood up and walked towards the door. But he didn't move.

'Are you talking to your imagination again?' He looked around. 'Maya, there's nobody here! Stop this nonsense'

'Mary-' Evan started, but he didn't have to say any more.

Mary grabbed his neck tightly and then let go, leaving bleeding scratches all around his neck. Father looked around, mouth gaping open from shock. 'Who's that?' He turned around but didn't see Mary.

Now Evan came up to him. He grabbed his arm, digging his nails into his skin and he pulled, hard, before letting go. My father lost balance and fell on the floor. Mary got down on top of his chest and held her hands on his neck, stopping him from breathing.

'Maya...' he mouthed the words, but barely any sound came out of him.

'You pissed off my family', I calmly told him. 'I told you to leave, but you didn't listen.' I didn't like seeing him like this, but I understood why Mary and Evan were doing it. 'Mary, let him go. Evan, get him out of here.'

'My pleasure', Evan smiled. He grabbed fathers arm and dragged the screaming man out of our house.

'Time to sing you a birthday song!' Mary looked normal again. No dark, glowing eyes, no angry expression. Just her ghostly pale, happy self. Maybe she was dead, but at least she did celebrate my birthday with me.

[quotemadness]

“I didn’t change; I just see things differently now.”

— Unknown

[mireille-lisette]

Slipping through the cracks

The ground underneath our feet started to shake. No one knew what to do, we all hoped it would stop soon. But the trembling got worse and worse. It didn't take long before the ground started to crack. The cracks were small at first, but quickly spread and opened, so reveal a deep ravein, with no end in sight. People started to run, hide and try to get away. Most succeeded. Some people were trapped between cracks, others almost slipped away. Other people helped them, pulled them up or held onto them to keep them from falling down into the depths of the earth. Suddenly the ground underneath my feet cracked too and before I knew it, the crack had opened into a wide, deep ravein and I was standing right on the edge. I turned around and wanted to run away, but right in that moment, the stone I was standing on chipped away. I felt my foot slip down. I screamed and fell onto the ground, desperately trying to hold on to the ground. But there wasn't much to hold on to. I dug my nails into the earth, but I slipped away, slowly. I screamed again, for help this time. But everyone was having a hard time, everyone was trying to get away from the cracks and get them and their loved ones to safety. No one helped me. I had to help myself. So I tried to firmly hold onto the dirt. The tips of my fingers were completely dug into the ground. My feet were dangling underneath me and I tried to find a place to stand, but there was nothing. I started to try and pull myself up, but everytime I tried, another shock went through the earth, loosening my grip. I tried to dug my fingers into the ground one more time and pull myself up, but this time the ground under my hand cracked and broke off. It fell down into the darkness, taking me with it.

[mireille-lisette]

The sea and it's secrets

The sun had set hours ago and the sky was filled with millions of stars. Below me the wild waters of the sea were splashing against the ship. I loved the sea, the aggression with which it moves and takes anything weaker down, into it's deepest and darkest parts. I always wondered what was down there, below the forceful waves and the glittering of light on water. Sometimes I wished the sea would take me, drown me in it's darkness and show me all it's secrets. I dreamed that one day I would learn about it all, and when there is nothing more to learn, I'd return to the surface and turn into the foam, floating along the waves, splashing against ships and letting myself drift over seas all over the world.

[mireille-lisette]

The witch in the forest

It was the end of a rainy day, the sun had already set and it was getting dark quickly. A woman who was hiking through the woods in the mountains, found a spot to set up her tent for the night. It was a little open spot and the grond was flat. If it weren't raining, she'd have a beautiful view of the starry nightsky. But it was, so she didn't enjoy any view and quickly set up her tent.

It was a cold night and everything was wet, so she had trouble falling asleep. After a while she heard a hissing sound and opened her tent to see what is was. And there, just at the edge of the open spot was a little baby boy. He was completely clean, despite being in a forest on the muddy ground after heavy rain. He looked happy and was playing with a toy. Behind him was a crocodile, preying on the little boy. Before it could get the little boy, the woman got out of her tent, grabbed the boy and got safely inside again. She thought the events were strange and from then on was very alert.

After a while of nothing happening, the woman got drowsy, but then, at that moment, she heard another sound from the same direction. She opened her tent again to see what it was, but it was pitch black and she couldn't see a thing. She grabbed her lantern and shone out, but there was nothing to see.

"Ah, there you are", an evil sounding old woman's voice said. And then suddenly out of the shadows jumped a woman, a witch she was. She loomed over the poor lady in the tent. Her eyes were completely white, but stared right at her. She had wild brown-gray hair and a wicked smile on her face. She missed two teeth. The woman didn't know what to do and was completely frozen. A song started playing, it sounded like a little music box and a voice sang along, but the mouth of the witch did not move. "Don't you cry little guy", the song sounded. It was a nursery song for the baby. Then it clicked. The child was to lure the woman out of her tent, but when she quickly got inside her tent again with the baby, the witch had to come and find her herself.

The woman quickly got inside the tent again and waited for the witch to go, but she didn't go away. She walked around the tent, waiting and waiting for the woman to get out. The woman was trapped. After a while she decided there was no other way to get rid of the witch than to fight. So she got out, jumped at the witch and grabbed her head, trying to break her neck. But it was a difficult fight and she didn't succeed. The song was still playing all around her and the woman slowly loosened her grip on the with and fell asleep to meet her doom.

[mireille-lisette]

The Darkness

I was at a friends place. It was getting late and dark and I was about to go home. My friend started to build a hiding place in his bedroom and I asked what for. "It's to hide from the darkness", he said. I wondered what he meant by that, but I didn't ask. Instead I asked him why he wouldn't just move to a better appartment. He said he couldn't.

The darkness came and he took me in his hiding spot. That was the first time I saw The Darkness and I knew immediately what he meant and why he was hiding. I looked at it only for a brief moment and it was beautiful, but also dangerous. I felt it. It was chilling to the bone, it's presence filled me with fear. I didn't know what was in it, but I felt its malicious nature. All I wanted was for it to pass, and all I could do was to stay hidden and not move. We didn't want it to see us. "Don't move, don't aknowlegde it and it will pass", I told myself over and over again. And after some time it did pass. I went home that night, thinking that was the scariest night of my life.

Little did I know, The Darkness only grew, came more frequent, and stayed longer. And soon it came every night and it stayed the whole night. No one slept anymore. We all had our own hiding spot. Some people we're sceptical and didn't think it was that dangerous. They didn't hide and we didn't see them ever again. Those that did hide, survived, but the light and love and energy was sucked out of them. Fear took over, for The Darkness was stronger and grew more powerful every day.

I remember the distant screams of The Darkness corming again one early night. I hid again from it and as it came, I looked at it. It was beautiful as ever, maybe even more than the first time I saw it. It was like the nightsky, but purple. The stars shone brightly and passed in the same slow pace with The Darkness. Star constellations were drawn and slowly moved along too. There were creatures too, or just the outline of them. They shone just as bright as the stars. I didn't know what they were, but they resembled fish, so I called them space fish. There were also souls, thin and weak, gliding along the sky in The Darkness. But mostly it was just stars and constellations. It looked beautiful, but it felt awful. The fear it filled me with, wrapped itself around my heart. It was beating fast and it felt tight. My body felt heavy and weak, all the hairs in my neck were raised. It felt as if it were calling me to my death. I didn't dare look at it for too long, so I looked around at other people. Most of them sat in fear, covering their eyes and ears, not moving at all. A few didn't fear anything. They laughed at the fearful, but I knew: we wouldn't see them again in the morning. I closed my eyes and prayed, for there was nothing else to do and no one to keep us safe against The Darkness.

[mireille-lisette]

Your writing is so vivid, I love it!

Thank you so much! I'm a little out of practice though, but I hope to start writing more again ❤️

[mireille-lisette]

I ate glass

I lost. There was no one left, nothing left to fight for. They won and there was nothing I could do anymore. I looked around, the building was completely destroyed. The staircase had collapsed, the walls were broken and the windows shattered. All around me was broken glass and dust. It was completely silent, I was alone in this broken place. I slowly sat down on the ground and accepted what had happened. I had lost. "It is what it is", i told myself. And what could I do about it? There was no one left to fight for, no home to go back to. There was nothing left for me to do, but to die. And so I made a deal with myself: if I eat the glass I'll probably die tomorrow. If I survive to see the day... Well that's a problem for later. I took pieces of broken glass from the ground and slowly started eating them. I enjoyed the sound of biting on broken glass, though my heart was still cold and the taste of my blood did nothing for me. Slowly I continued eating and after a while I think I may have fallen asleep. I hoped I had died, I hoped that night would be my last. But early in the morning a ray of sunlight on my face woke me up. It shone through one of the broken windows. I was still alive. I didn't die. I looked around. The place was still destroyed and there was still no man or animal in sight, but the light from the rising sun gave me courage to go on. I got up. If I didn't die from losing a battle like that and eating glass afterwards, then that must mean I still have a chance of winning. "Let's go to the hospital", I said to myself. And I started walking, with a new feeling of hope.

[mireille-lisette]

The string

There's this string, it's undestructable. I tried to cut it, to rip it off of me, but I can't. It's there and I can't get rid of it. I tried ignoring it too, but it pulls on me, sometimes harder than other times. I have gotten better at pretending it isn't there though, but it's just pretend, it never lasts long. It always pulls me back. To him. Again and again. I can't forget him.

[quotemadness]

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been me.”

— Fernando Pessoa

[stay-close]

I still remember the person I once was and I really miss me.

— Michael Faudet

[longliveuslove]

“i know we could never be us again… but if the world was ending, you’d come over, right? because i can’t imagine spending my last night with anyone else.”

— right?

[mireille-lisette]

It's 3 AM and I'm wide awake, for every inch of my soul is busy thinking about you.

[zerogjashte-deactivated20220225]

I hate that i love you

[mireille-lisette]

Loving you hurts. I wish I had never met you.

[mireille-lisette]

Wat is hoop?

Is het goed of is het slecht? Moet ik het omhelzen of juist onderdrukken? Hoop, een woord dat zoveel betekent, een goede toekomst, een beter leven. Houvast in duistere tijden, een belofte dat het beter zal worden.

Maar wat als die belofte vals blijkt? Wat is hoop dan? Een onbereikbaar doel, pijn door de onrealistische verwachtingen. Nog steeds houvast, maar nu aan een doornentak, die diepe wonden veroorzaakt in mijn handen. Bloed stroomt tussen mijn vingers door en druppelt naar beneden. Het doet pijn, het brengt me nergens. Het is een valse belofte voor een toekomst die nooit zal zijn. Maar loslaten? Dat durf ik niet. Want er is nog altijd die hoop, die verdomde hoop, dat alles tóch wel beter zal worden.

[writingdotcoffee]

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”

— Richard Bach