#awritingcorner

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Squid

Silver dived, crashing through the lake spreading ripples like wild fire. 'Aren't you coming' Alicia gingerly slipped off her shoes

'it sounds deep' she muttered. She swept back her onyx black hair, stark against her cold white eyes.

'hehe yeah really deep, you're super close just follow my voice'. Silver began to swim further out, giving a loud thud against the surface with each stroke. Alicia lay her robe to one side.

'I don't like this, something feels off'

'stop worrying, there's no way the centaurs could have tracked us this far and besides I already did a magi-sweep of the local area, nothing dangerous or magic.'

'But this place feels old, untouched, a magi-sweep can't detect magic it doesn't understand'

'Well I-' Silver began as she turned to face Alicia, tiny spores drifted upward, soon there were thousands, illuminating the valley a warm green.

'What business have you here humans?' a voice boomed from nowhere in particular, in one fluid motion the creature emerged, a deep brown, tentacles spread. Silver pivoted and immediately jolted towards the shore, she tried to turn her back but those eyes were hypnotic.

'What is it'? Alicia barked

'Something massive with tentacles!'

'A Squid? But that's impossible, none have been seen for thousands of years.'

'Some things may have reasons not to be seen' the squid boomed. 'Now what has brought so far from your homes small ones?'.

'magic is dying in the lands of men' Alicia began.

'And you hope to rekindle it.'

'If I could, we fear something may be draining the magic from this world' 'Yes' the squid called, 'I've felt it too'.

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Puzzles

Puzzles, I've always been fascinated by them, maybe it was just the hormones release from completing them that evolution had kindly laid on my lap that set me on that path or maybe that's just a cynical over simplification. Either way I ended up chasing after the idea of puzzles, at first I thought that maths was the answer. Maths is in essence the most effective, streamlined approach to solving puzzles and problems. This I do not doubt, maths is pure and beautiful. But the best way isn't always the right way, Maths is an ideal, like any utopia it's thwarted by the perfection it is defined on, even standing on the shoulders of giants we can't reach up indefinitely. The idea of a puzzle is to find the answer, there's always this end goal of completion. But that's not how life works, every person you meet is a puzzle, a mosaic of parts that fell together, that doesn't mean they're there for you to solve, nor that they can solve themselves. Sometimes a puzzle that should not be completed is far more important. 

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Two

From across the room I watched them look from each other to me and then back at one another. The music seemed to trickle away as I studied the pair, the chatter became nothing but background noise. Finally the pair made their walk towards me, black dresses, mechanical smiles, eyes locked on me. My heart filled my ears, the baseline to my senses. I took one more deep breath, could be my last. 'Fuck you' screamed a familiar voice, Kate lept out sending bullets pouring into the pair, startled they snapped their necks to see their attacker, shots continued to ping off the two. The room collapsed into a mad rush to escape. A bullet made contact with the left one's eye with a satisfying clunk, it shuddered but the two continued marching in my direction. I backed away but couldn't break eye contact. An ice cream van smashed through the wall, a jingle faintly playing. 'Did somebody order desert' screamed Jack a shot gun in one hand, a cornetto in the other.

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Even a million years from now, I don't think I could ever grow tired of listening to the rain.

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Drawings

'Will She be back soon?'

I smiled at the little tike and gave her hair a ruffle, I really didn't want to lie to her.

'I'm sure she's missing you a bunch'

'I want to show her my new drawing'

'Why don't you leave it out here on the table for now, it's getting late'

'But Mum I want to show it to Mama myself'

'Emma if you miss your bed time you'll be too tired to go swimming tomorrow'

'OK' she conceded a little panic on her face, she gave my cheek a peck and I returned one. 'Don't forgot Bunny's kiss' she squeaked, I gave the toy a quick smooch and Emma animated Bunny's to me. Emma ran up the stairs on all 4s with a beaming smile, I gave Polly's phone another ring, straight to voice mail. Shit. I looked down at Emma's picture of the happy family under a rainbow, Me, Polly, Emma and Bunny. I felt a trickle softly dance down my cheek.

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Lucy and the Orchard

Here's a piece I found in an old notebook of mine:

Lucy drifted through the display of leaves gently floating down, earthbound. Splashed of red, orange, yellow and Brown dazed in and out of focus. Lucy could have been 4 or 9 or 16 as she walked the orchard paths she'd walked a thousand times before; she was ageless here. The ground was different, these leaves were not those she'd seen in her childhood but the trees stood tall, unmoved beacons. A warmth swept through her, a slight redness crept through her pale cheeks which began to blend around her long ebony locks. She exhaled a long deep breathe as long buried memories poked their head into the light and blossomed. A small smile scaled into place around her well crafted dainty lips.

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Sometimes ideas need time to grow, most of the time I forget where I planted them.

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Waiting never ends, only changes