TotW 241 - A Stillness of Mind!

[m_1512]

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A Stillness of Mind!



5 Keywords:
Morning
Serenity
Breath
Mist
Calm

Rules

• 5 keywords that have to be used in the story. IN ANY WAY, BUT WORDS MUST BE SPELLED EXACTLY AS ABOVE (please place these words in bold so they can easily be seen by the moderators).
• Word limitation of minimum 200 but maximum 500 words INCLUDING all titles, footnotes or any other part deemed part of the submission, in a spoiler.
• Minimum 3 submissions to start the competition.
• If you are a contestant you are honour bound to not read other contestants' writings until you have submitted yours.
• Please note that all rules including word count and key words will be strictly enforced. Rule breakers will be disqualified from the vote.
• When using the keywords you may change nouns into plurals and the tenses of verbs only.
• Contestants are not allowed to do direct advertisement of their stories or asking for votes.
  Please vote for my story in ToTW.
  Please vote for your favourite story. (allowed)

Awards

Each winning story will receive 1 point, if you compete in the other Writers' Study competitions this point will be combined with the ones you have won already won.

6 points - bronze medal


12 points - silver medal


24 points - golden medal

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

"In...Like Flyn.....For your Entertainment"........

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Preface/Set Up

Currently there is a creative writing course underway at TWC University. The Course is being chaired by FrostySOTF Our initial assignment proved quite challenging so I thought I would share it with you. This story was literally one in which you did'nt know what was to be written until you saw it on the page. The work was titled... The Mysterious Call (Brian Klems)

Your phone rings in the middle of the night. An indiscernible voice speaks: “There is a car waiting for you outside your house. Get inside. You don’t want to ignore this.” Your spouse rolls over, eyes squinting, and says, “Everything okay?”

What happens next?

“Everything okay?”

I grabbed a handful of Buttcheek and squeezed hard, Leaned in, and frenched deep imbued with a toxic level level of morning breath.
"Not really, but I got this one. You owe me big for your continued, undisturbed slumber. "
"I promise I'll pound you twice as hard in the morning". With that my partner of twelve years rolled back over and fell back to sleep.

Feet scuffling around to connect with my Bunny slippers, found traction, and I slowly rose to shuffle to the bathroom for a semi reinuvigerating 3am pee. Even though a guy, I mostly pee sitting down cuz well it's more effeminate, ladylike, and tends not to spray pee-mist every where like most stand up peers do. Now don't get me wrong, once I leave the house, it's all business, drill seargeant style, but at home I prefer to just be myself. So yeah...I'm the girl in the relationship, and as per the relationship manual, I'm dwarfed in size by my mate. Yeah... you don't have to worry bout me. I may be pettite in size but I make up for it with one hell of a Napoleonic complex. Very few people ever get the chance to with me...{smiles sweetly}.

Head pounding, filled with "Brainsuck" I stare into the mirror to see if some sembalance of understanding about this thing could be had. Nope..well. it! I'll just wing it.
Shuffulling out the bedroom door I grab Brian's tee shirt and throw it over me to serve as a night shirt. Yeah I ain't wearing undies either. Wake a {a female dog} up at 3am and you get what you get.


Bunny slippers and night shirt clad, I stumble down the front walk and tumble into back seat of the jet black, mid 1980's Sedan de Ville. Peering into the darkened interior I clear my throat and ask... Could I have some water please? Almost instantly a plastic bottle of Avain shoots out of the darkness, and smacks me in the nose. "Thanks" and then the twist of a plastic cap is followed by the gurgling sound of 20oz, of 'breakfast on the run" beating a trail to my gullet.

"Ummm...can I ask what this is all...."

"Just sit there and shut up" come the instructions hurled at me from the front passengers seat.

"Yes Sir, thank you" With trained instinct I grabbed the light blanket that was neatly folded on the seat next to me and settled back into slumber, coaxed into Mopheus' arms by the rough scrapping sounds made by the air conditioning vents facing the back seat.


~~~~~~~~~~~
cut sceane
~~~~~~~~~~~

The phone rings and Brian's hand claws through the darkness to quell it's ominous serenade.


"Hellloo???"

"It's Richardson Sir. The security team is following at a safe distance,what do you want us to do?"

"When they stop, set up a perimeter, and only move in on her signal. Remember...Only, at her signal.

"Oh ...and Richardson...."If one hair on her head comes to harm... You will hear your entire family screaming in agony at you from the depths of hell."

I'll see you at the office, and we'll do lunch as usual after you wrap this up. I made meatloaf, knowing your affinity for it.

"nite"

"Good night Sir"......{sound bites for for the dial tone, then the phone being replaced into the reciever"}
Having understood the menace in his employer's calm, serenity laden endorsement, Richardson proceeded with the task at hand.

~~~~~~~~~~~
cut sceane
~~~~~~~~~~~

[Lortano]

273 words. Let battle commence

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A Stillness of Mind

The mist was thick that day, the day my students performed their final test. They began early in the morning, sitting cross legged in meditation, their eyes closed and breathing shallow. My criteria for passing varied, though I doubted many would pass. Don't get me wrong, they were all very good students, but I only could accept the best as my true apprentices. I walked around them, their forms in the mist made them look like a garden of giant flowers. My eyes too were closed, as I sensed for any sign of imbalance, any sign of stress, frustration, anger or hate. Half of them failed within moments, their emotions betrayed them. A slight grimace, a slightly clenched fist, it was all too easy to read.

At last I came to the back of the garden and felt nothing. That was what scared me the most, because there was a student sitting in front of me, yet I felt nothing from him. He was a perfect pool of serenity, his mind perfectly balanced. I could scarce believe it. I'd trained some prized assassins, the shadowy weapons of war, but nothing could compare to this. I believed that he would be able to remain calm while severing a man's head, such was the lack of emotion. Smiling, I placed a hand on his shoulder and his breath quickened ever so slightly. Perhaps it was excitement from being chosen. Perhaps it was him suppressing a desire to react with a knife in the heart. Either way, I knew that he was going to be the best killer I had ever trained.

[FrostySOTF]

Trying to meet the 500 word maximum, currently have it narrowed down to 771

[FrostySOTF]

Here it is, draft number 7! I feel bad having to cut out so many supporting details and colorful language but the limit had to be met, including the title it is exactly 500 words long

And as to the grim setting I blame watching some SCP/Creepypasta stuff last night

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Silent Jack

On a chilly morning in Philadelphia I was outside Byberry Mental Hospital, standing in the cold. I let out a long breath, watching it mist up in front of me before pulling at my collar and walking inside. Instantly I was perturbed by how calm the place was -- usually you’re assaulted by a cacaphony of noises; it’s rather annoying. I immediately checked the cameras. That sight changed my life. Bodies were everywhere, covered in gore. Nobody noticed this?! Then it hit me..nobody was left to notice. I steeled myself. I had a duty to protect these people, a duty I had failed. I would avenge them. Something inside of me had been awoken, but I found out later how fragile my resolve truly was.

The only noise around was a tinny, static-y sound, like a television. Deciding to start there I looked at the cameras but most were covered in...something. Needing a weapon, I grabbed a crutch from by the door and made my way down the halls, heading ever closer to the sound. A distinct smell was in the air, more acute than the previous gore; it reminded me of burning meat. Oh god. I hesitantly peeked into the room from which the sound came, and staring into space was a patient that filled me with dread. Silent Jack. He was utterly insane and lethal; none who have heard his voice have lived to speak of it. I was instantly sure that he had done all this. He was looking right at me! Wait..it was as if he were looking through me? He sat cradling his arm. Warily I circled the television, noticing it was playing an older movie, Serenity, something about a cruise ship. I remember watching it years ago. When I looked back up Jack was looking right at me! It felt as if he could see into my soul. It was then that I noticed where the smell was coming from..he was burning his arm with a cigarette, and there were numerous stubs lying around, his left arm pockmarked with burns. I couldn’t help vomiting everywhere as I turned. My fears compounded then. As I wiped my face off, Jack calmly turned off the television and spoke.

“What a mess, would you like a handkerchief?”

He sounded just like a proper english gentleman, dapper and refined. Every hair on my body jolted upright at the sound of that voice. I slowly dragged my gaze to meet his, what I saw there made me feel like a tiny speck in the monstrous thing that is the universe. They were metaphorical black holes, the eyes of a predator, a great white that had chanced upon a baby seal.

“Oh, um.. no thank you. What happened here?” I asked nervously.

“Oh..” he started, “I got bored, and it’s a good thing you showed up.”

“Wh..why is that?” I said, scrambling away and holding my crutch up.

“I was getting bored again.”

[Darkan]

Here's my entry for this week. 418 words. I hope you'll enjoy it. Now it's time to read the others...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Arrows whizzed past as Othmar charged up the hill. He was surrounded by his brothers, all of them screaming at the top of their lungs. With each step the enemy lines were closer, though none were yet visible, as a strange mist had covered the battlefield since early morning. A few men, running in front of Othmar, fell to the ground and he had to jump over their bodies, trying not to run out of breath as he did so. War axe in hand, Othmar and his brethren soon clashed against the enemy lines.

Slashing left and right, he could see nothing, hear nothing, his only purpose being in striking down whoever was in front of him. In quick succession, one man fell, then a second and then a third. A slight feeling of pain in his left arm made Othmar stop for an instant, but only briefly, as soon he was upon another enemy. Again, another fell before him, and then another, and it seemed to go on forever, though time had lost meaning and nothing truly existed aside from the man in front, a man who had to fall.

Another instant of pain made Othmar fall to his knees and he could clearly see the feathers of an arrow sticking out of his muscle. No time to take it out, he stopped an incoming blow to the head with his shield and hacked furiously at the legs in front of him. Blood gushed out, covering his face, but Othmar rose again, as another enemy fell, and he continued to press the attack.

Two men facing him now, but Othmar could only see a spear and an axe. Evade the thrusting spear, shield against the incoming axe, hack at two hands holding the spear. As they fell, cut away, leaving only bloody stumps, so did the spear. Bash with the shield, prepare the next attack with the war axe. The sound of cracked face bone assured Othmar it was time to move on to the next target. Turning furiously around, Othmar’s eyes could not spot another. Many were on the ground, most of them dead, some dying, only a handful actually able to hold a weapon, but none posed any threat. It seemed the day had been won.

- The warriors performed admirably, Jarl Voggen, a calm voice spoke. It worked incredibly well, much better than we had hoped, giving them serenity of mind but uproar of body.
- Indeed, Seiðr Master, the Jarl spoke in a hoarse voice.