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Writer’s Choice Story Prompt

4 years ago
Post Digit’s prompt entries in reply to this message.

Writer’s Choice Story Prompt

4 years ago
Deep in the pits of Hell human souls screamed in pain, fires ruled the landscape, and Satan lounged on his throne. And yet in the middle of all of the chaos a bureaucrat followed orders. A skull flew around the area, observing the operations and making notes on his clipboard. Finishing the final notation on his page, the skull flipped to the next page and read his assignment. He was to conduct a survey on the tortured souls in order to determine how effective their punishment was. Performing a quick scan on the different punishments nearby, the skull flew down to a man forced to piece together ransom notes from magazine clippings until his fingers bled and went raw.

In a friendly tone the skull said, “Hello there human. I am Harper, an employee and loyal servant to Lord Satan himself. I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?” The man barely spared Harper a glance and just let out a grunt. “Fantastic!” Harper exclaimed, “Now on a scale of 1-10, how effective at making you regret your sinful life would you say this punishment is?” The man let out another grunt and shrugged his shoulders. The skull’s mouth twisted into a shape of discontent. “Unacceptable. I will have to take note of this.” Harper jotted down notes and flew off back into the air. He glanced around once more and flew down to a man sinking in a lake. He had cinder blocks attached to his feet, and was unable to die from his drowning.

In a slightly more impatient tone Harper asked, “On a scale of 1-10, how effective at making you regret your sinful life would you say this punishment is?” The man looked up at Harper, fear and hatred burning in his eyes, and let out a terrified scream. The skull frowned and circled an 8 on the survey paper. The man was clearly terrified, but his hatred clearly showed that he blamed Satan for this punishment, not himself. This punishment was more effective than the first, but still not a perfect 10. The tortured needed to repent and realize that they were absolutely horrible people who deserve to be punished.

For the next hour or so, Harper flew around Hell, interviewing humans and collecting their responses on his survey. The people he talked to included (but weren’t limited to): a woman forced to give constant unprepared public speeches, a man taking drugs but he experienced no pleasure (only the negative side effects), and a man forced to kill his dog over and over again. Each person had varied responses to their torture, with some feeling zero remorse, and others accepting their mistakes and repenting for them. The former were the failed tortured, while the latter were what every soul needed. If they were to repent, they might get a second chance at life, a chance to make different choices. After collecting and documenting his report, Harper flew back to his boss, a full skeleton named Vince. Vince saw Harper and smiled taking the report from him. The skeleton began to read the report and his smile slowly morphed into a frown. Just as Harper had, Vince realized that there were major problems with the way that punishments were being assigned. This was an important issue, worthy of the attention of Satan himself.

After the travel to Satan’s castle, Vince knocked on the large wooden door. It swung open, and a gargoyle held out its hand, greeting them inside. They tentatively moved forward, nervous as they had never met with Satan himself before. They travelled down a long hallway, finally arriving at an archway leading into the throne room.

Vince walked forward and knelt on the ground. “Lord Satan, we request your presence. We have travelled here to speak with you about an important matter regarding the system of torture and punishment.

“Rise,” a deep voice rumbled. Vince and Harper looked up and were met with the large red face of Satan. His black horns wrapped around his head and large bat wings extended from his back. “What is this issue you have come to speak with me about?”

Harper floated forward, “My lord, there is a problem with the punishment assignment system. I have conducted surveys and discovered a hole. People aren’t feeling guilty anymore. They are not repenting for the sins in their Earth life.

As he listened to Harper’s analysis, Satan frowned deeply and began to stand up. “You are correct little skull. This is a major issue. I will leave immediately and work to counteract the problem.” And with those words, Satan’s wings unfurled and he launched through a hole in the castle ceiling.

Vince turned around to Harper. “Congratulations on being so proficient in your work. Without your detailed notes and descriptions, the punishment problem would never have been able to be addressed in the way it was,” he gushed.

Harper smiled, and a blush somehow lit up his bone face. “Thank you Vince,” he said, “I’m just doing my job, and I would expect that everybody else has the same quality and value of work as mine. I am but one employee in a sea of many.”

And with those final words, Harper and Vince nodded at each other and walked (floated) in their separate directions. Later that night, Harper received a letter. He opened it and (figuratively) jumped for joy. Thanks to his outstanding work today, Harper was to be promoted to Satan’s personal assistant and secretary! Today had been a day Harper would never forget.

Writer’s Choice Story Prompt

4 years ago
Wait, why is Satan wanting people to repent and get a second chance at life?

As usual the writing is pretty decent, but all of these suffer a little in the plot department, probably because they're rushed for the prompts. Now that you and DeadKin have proven you can write and do it regularly I look forward to your first storygame attempts, assuming you can motivate yourselves without Digit's whip cracking.

Writer’s Choice Story Prompt

4 years ago

“The vampiric gene, isolated in 2021, has shown to increase strength, intelligence, stamina, and longevity. However, there was but one side effect that was disappointing to a degree: severe sunlight reaction. Overall, physical side effects were sharpening of the teeth, eye-like pupils, and for only advanced cases webbed wings.” A short woman explained, while slowly spinning a hologram of DNA.

A large class of three hundred, eighth grade students, wrote down her every word and sketched a replica of the rotating hologram. Everyone’s handwriting was perfect, and their drawings were spotlessly identical.

“Pst, Lucius, you forgot your name again,” whispered Eerie.

You look down at your paper and realize that she is right. Quickly you write your name.

“Thanks, Eerie. Miss Lilth would have had my head if I forgot again.”

“Lucius. Eerie. Would you mind repeating what our lovely guide just said,” Miss Lilth sternly said with no room to argue.

You both stand in silence as blood rushes to your face and ears turning them bright red.

“That’s what I thought. Now both of you be quiet or you will be in detention for the next week. Do you understand me.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Both of you squeak out.

“Please continue.”
“As I was saying, over the years after inserting the gene into all humans, something began to happen. Some within the population would begin to lose their minds. It was only a few here and there but then it increased at an alarming rate. Once their minds were gone, other mutations took effect. Their skin would crack and fill with a dark ink color. Their muscle mass would increase from two to three times what is considered normal and lastly, their bone density would double. Nearly twenty percent of the known world falls in this category. Keep in…”

“Is this why we have metal slides covering our doors and windows,” Interrupted one of the students.

“Well, yes they are. They will stop any of the violent attacks from these mindless animals.”

“Are they the cause of the break ends and murders,” The students mutter among themselves.

“They could be, but criminals are still around and could be causing this too.” The guide tries to calm down the students.

“I heard a herd of them are moving towards us, killing everyone they see,” Shouted a student towards the back.

“What, no, where did you hear this,” The guide and Miss Lilth respond shocked.

“My parents were talking about this last night, they said the news was showing the path of the herd,” Yelled the student over all the voices. This was followed by; I did too, my parents were talking about this as well.

By now all the students were excited and talking frantically back and forth shouting questions.

A loud piercing whistle screeched around the room. Everyone quieted down as they grabbed their ears and shrank down.

An intense silence follows as all the students including you and Eerie stand up and stare at Miss Lilth.

“Okay class it seems that due to your rude behavior, the field trip is cut short. Everyone head to the bus without uttering another word.” Lilth coldly ordered.

Quickly the class files out and boards the bus in absolute silence. You and Eerie sit together and watch as Miss Lilth taps the driver and the bus leaves. Miss Lilth turns around and makes eye contact with every student showing her disappointment. When she looks at you, you meet her gaze without blinking. A couple moments go on until she changes her glare to Eerie. You feel Eerie squirm a little beside you and shrink back. You hold her hand by your side and it seems to help her sit up a bit taller.

“I can’t believe we got stuck on this bus with her,” Eerie whispers quietly to you.

“I know, we had a fifty-fifty shot. Whatever though, it is only for an hour.”

Half an hour goes by with a steady hum. Little bumps on the road as the bus slightly jolts. Eerie’s head is sitting on your shoulder and you lightly move your thumb over her hand over and over.

“Oh shit,” You hear the bus driver holler.

Suddenly the bus swerves and tosses you against Eerie as her head snaps against the window. The bus tilts to the side as something large hits near the front. A second impact rocks the bus and knocks the bus on the side with a loud screech of metal on the road as it slides to a stop.

There is a quiet couple of minutes as you hear others breathing, crying, or whimpering. You push yourself up on one arm and see Eerie lying on the broken window. Blood is pooling around her and her breathing is shallow. You squat next to next to Eerie and slowly turn her on her side. You gasp as you see hundreds of broken shards of glass stabbed in her back. A blood curdling scream sounds outside the bus. Everyone goes quiet in fear. You can hear footsteps outside the bus when a large pounding begins. Slowly all the students watch as the middle of the bus begins to buckle with each pound. A crack appears and through it you see a large arm push its way inside the bus. It is long, too long and too big. You have never seen something this big before. Then they were gone just like that but just as fast there were two then three then four. Mere seconds pass as the bus is ripped in two and before you stand hundreds of the largest humanoids you have ever seen.

Writer’s Choice Story Prompt

4 years ago
Nice that you did something different with zombies. (Okay I know you call them vampires but they came across more like zombies).

I want to pick the world building apart just a little though. Are they really taking these kids out on a field trip at night in a world that contains a billion and a half "vampires", and right into their path when they travel in what are apparently easily trackable herds?

Appreciate that both you and C6 actually did these though, you're both so much better than that disgusting failure @Serpent, and Ficsean has just straight up fallen off the planet and died.

Writer’s Choice Story Prompt

4 years ago

Well technically, everyone is a “vampire” now but some are rabid. I have no reason behind the being in the path thing since it was 900 words. Yeah sorry about vampires or zombies, I like apocalyptic monsters.

Writer’s Choice Story Prompt

4 years ago

Your creatures remind me a bit of the concept behind the creatures from that novel, I Am Legend. They were also vampires that had some sane members (those made from living humans) and some that were not so sane (those made from reanimated corpses). Anyway I really liked your story.

Writer’s Choice Story Prompt

4 years ago
I really liked this. Cool concept, but it felt unfinished at the end.

Writer’s Choice Story Prompt

4 years ago

It was suppose to be open ended. I mean what could a handful of eighth grade vamps do against hundreds of rapid ones?

Writer’s Choice Story Prompt

4 years ago
True. Maybe it felt incomplete because there were a few run on sentences at the end. Idk.

Writer’s Choice Story Prompt

4 years ago

That is very much possible. I am not great with building sentences and stuff. Yours seems well made though by the way. I actually like the flaming skull staff.

Writer’s Choice Story Prompt

4 years ago
Thanks! :)