butterflies in his stomach

It took us a while to find out where the sound had come from, but when we got there we saw all three cases tumbled to the floor, glass everywhere. And what Charles so aptly calls That Damned Idiot Mastiff Hound was just sitting there, unharmed, licking his lips, crumbs of rare butterfly wing clinging to the edge of his mouth. So that is where grandfather's legacy went.

Wednesday's Prompt: Saying, Quote, or Cliche

Wednesday's prompt is a saying, quote, or cliche, grabbed from the internet as randomly as possible.

Your quote, due by 6 pm Wednesday, is at last a cliched phrase: "butterflies in his stomach."

Where have we seen the butler story before?

Unsung, he keeps always to the shadows, opening every door for you, greeting your guests, nodding his head solemnly at your atrocious comments, blending in with the stark black-and-white decor of your house, as modern and decorative as all your furniture.

Unappreciated, he starts to think he is more ghost than man, and perhaps if your guests and relatives were ghosts as well, they would notice him.

Unnoticed, he slips poison into every last dish.

Where Have We Seen the Butler Story Before?

I don't get it. It wasn't a problem when we hired the nanny, or that cleaning lady -- what's her name? -- or the groundskeeper. But Antoine opens the door for them just once and now your family goes apeshit ballistic?

Monday's Prompt: Stolen From the Headlines!

Write about the selected headline by 6 pm Monday. Do not quote or rephrase it.

Your headline for Monday is: Where Have We Seen the Butler Story Before?

Liminal

Mrs. Preston always looks so happy in the moment before she is absolved of her sins, and the priest wonders why. He decides that she must look forward to her reconciliation with God.

In fact it is the only time in Mrs. Preston's life that she is not looking forward to anything - suspended between sin and absolution, she exists in a world without penalty or offense, a world without expectations.

Friday's Prompt: Liminal

Friday's prompt is a word, defined and grabbed as randomly as possible. Write about the experience of the word without using it in the story, trying to capture the meaning or essence.

Today's word is liminal, defined here - 1. At an intermediate state. 2. At the threshold of consciousness.

Post your story by 6 pm Saturday. Have a good weekend!

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

"None of it means a thing," he said, tossing back another glass of scotch, "it's empty and void and meaningless, like passing rains, or the crops that rise and fall and spring up again."

"But they don't know that," she said, quietly, "they sing our names and make likenesses and fill their poor heads up with such nonsense..."

"Then I'll give them fire and you'll see, it'll burn a hole right through their chests and their heads and the very world they stand on," rejoined Prometheus, pushing back his mop of hair and sitting fully upright, "and they will doubt everything."

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

He spends months building the wardrobe, adjusting his accent and his vocabulary, practicing his expressions in the mirror as grainy hand-held video clips play in the background.

At first he fears discovery, but no one recognizes the obscure dead musician whose persona he has adopted. Everyone loves his style, his hair, his coat - they smile at him in the streets, and he smiles back, knowing he is no fake, but an avatar.

Wednesday's Prompt: Saying, Quote, or Cliche

Wednesday's prompt is a saying, quote, or cliche, grabbed from the internet as randomly as possible.

Your quote, due by 6 pm Wednesday, is the charmingly ironic: "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." (Oscar Wilde)

Digging Up A Piece of Hollywood History

A childhood star emerges from obscurity with a scheme to blackmail the celebrity with whom he'd had an underage affair. He digs through his old lover's past, learning he was far from the only secret hidden there. After they arrest him on suspicion, sitting in his cell, the clues coalesce in his mind -- and suddenly, he realizes the stone-cold bitch who did it, and that she had just been waiting for a fool to pin it on.

Monday's Prompt: Stolen From the Headlines!

Write about the selected headline by 6 pm Monday. Do not quote or rephrase it.

Your headline for today is: "Digging Up A Piece of Hollywood History."

Edacious

A jeep blindsided him out of nowhere, in the middle of morning traffic. And from the moment I laid eyes on the hideous knot of wreckage that took my husband from me, it was like a curtain had been pulled away. Now everywhere I looked, death lurked, greedily, hungrily, just waiting to lunge at the oblivious living world.

Edacious

"Today, I'm really going to pay," she tells me as she takes her chai.

"Sorry," she says as she hands me back the empty mug, "I lost track of the time and plowed through it."

She buys her chai every day, so I put up with it - but I still won't let her post fliers for her speed-reading classes on our walls.

Edacious - Based on a True Story

Yes, the hunger may be intense, overwhelming, all-consuming, endless, ceaseless, mindless. But you still shouldn't tell your almost-entirely-male team "God, I could totally shove FOUR DONUTS in my mouth right now" to express how hungry you are unless you want to hear an intense discussion on the subject of your mouth's capacity for the rest of the day.

So I learned.

Friday's Prompt: Edacious

Friday's prompt is a word, defined and grabbed as randomly as possible. Write about the experience of the word without using it in the story, trying to capture the meaning or essence.

Today's word is edacious, defined here - devouring, voracious.

Post your story by 6 pm Friday.

"To know the road ahead, ask those coming back."

The man set a silver coin on the counter, one imprinted with the king's seal - no provincial money, this.

But when the barmaid took his order, he gave it in a language I had never heard. My heart sank - it seemed I would never learn news of the city.

"To know the road ahead, ask those coming back."

I hadn't talked to Lisa since she'd slapped me and called me a whore two years ago - radiation sickness, my family said, she'll be better soon, but I knew she'd always hated me. Now I sat listening to the doctor give me some delusional bullshit about how the diagnosis was alarming but I had a really great chance of survival if we got started on the treatment right away. Fingers nearly in fists, I called the one person I knew would be honest to me now.

"To know the road ahead, ask those coming back."

As I was walking in one direction, and she coming from the same, I paused to ask what was behind her.
"The world is round," she said. "It's behind you, too."

"To know the road ahead, ask those coming back"

I met my self on the street, coming the other way. I looked more haggard and lost than last time, and I knew it wasn't long now. Knew, too, that my clone could remember what had yet to happen -- and I felt my tongue catch with terror in my throat at the instant I should have asked.