This page will house random challenges I have undertaken. These are typically set by writer groups on Facebook or other social media as challenges to hone writing skills.
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER
Photo prompt events give writers a unique opportunity to showcase their skill by saying a great deal with a limited number of words.
CHALLENGE: Write a horror story based on this photo, without exceeding 325 words.
- Use hashtag: #photoprompthorror
- Include word count
- Story title does not affect total word count
- Post as a comment under this graphic
- This event ends Friday, February 1st.
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Jim frowned but took the card, nonetheless. He couldn’t remember how he got here, or even, where ‘here’ was. The hotel surroundings felt familiar yet odd but then he’d been in so many hotels on his travels they all blurred into each other and looked the same. The girl was reciting a memorable yet boringly rehearsed script wishing him a lovely stay and telling him his room number. Her face felt familiar yet vague, almost grey. Hadn’t he been talking to someone like that in the bar earlier? Maybe a previous encounter on a night out. Placing here facial features was proving as difficult as placing his whereabouts.
Taking the key, he made his way to the room. Still feeling off-sorts he headed for a shower before bed. As the water hit his skin, he felt a tingling sensation around his successive limb joints. Attempting to ignore the sensation which was now, stinging, he continued to freshen up until he could bear the pain no more. His head swimming, his limb pains now so intense they almost felt as if they were turning progressively numb as he exited into the room and lay down.
On the bed, the numbing of his limbs progressively worsened, almost beyond use. Only now, with more holistic focus did he feel the increased pressure across his chest, almost squeezing away his life. As the pain intensified the room began to spin and fade. Voices which had been muted were coming into focus. A crescendo of pain flooded through bringing him out of his drug-addled stupor towards full consciousness. Just in time to see his left arm lifted away to be placed with his other limbs on the operating theatre table adjacent to the one he was pinned to. With the voices now almost fully in focus, he heard “The Rohypnol is wearing off. Give him another dose, there’s a good girl. I’ll get the boxes for his other organs.”
324 words
© Trevor Flanagan
Trevor Flanagan - Writer/Author 