See below for the entries. Vote for your favourite at the bottom!
ENTRY 1
Title: The River
Word Count: 150
‘You need to be brave. I’m only showing you this because I trust you.’ My sister Amanda
said, helping me down the steep riverbank.
I nodded, feeling important. Amanda never confided in me. This had to be something big.
He was wrapped in a brown coat, so at first I thought he was a log, until I saw his hair. It floated
eerily, cluttered with river debris. I reached out to turn him over – he was within arm’s length, and I
couldn’t see his face.
‘Don’t touch!’ Amanda hissed. ‘You can’t tell anyone, Kelsey. We’ll get in trouble.’
I pulled my hand away quickly.
‘But we didn’t do it!’
‘Promise me you won’t tell, okay? Or I will never tell you a secret again.’
I felt sick as I watched the body bobbing gently in the shallow water. Amanda’s hand was gripping
mine, her nails digging into my skin.
‘Okay.’
ENTRY 2
Title: A Miss Marple Moment
Word Count: 146
I scrutinised the room we had broken into. Every door and window had been locked on the inside. A body still warm to the touch lay in a pool of blood. How the hell…? The chimney? No! Not even Santa could have scaled it with that fire blazing!
I sighed, cursing crime writers whose elderly female detectives possessed a mysterious ability to see clues everywhere. Why was real life never like that?
Dead matches and soot littered the floor in front of the fireplace. Whoever had lit this fire had been very messy. I sniffed. Kerosene! I dashed out of the room and upstairs to the roof. I returned triumphant, having disarmed and collared a knife-wielding, sooty-faced villain reeking of kero, blood on his hands and the last of the matches in his pocket.
From crime to culprit in ten minutes – what a Miss Marple moment!
ENTRY 3
Title: School’s In
Word Count: 144
Claire knew she was going to have to be quick but the market place was the best place to test her skills in speed, soft touch and the lost art of distraction.
Gary would also be watching and she wanted to impress him, as she needed the work. Claire picked out her mark, a middle aged tourist, with a bulky wallet in his jacket pocket. Pretending to be distracted and looking at clothes, Claire walked directly into the path of her mark.
“Sorry, mister”
“Out of my way, little girl.” The man attempted to shove his way past Claire.
“Come on, don’t be like that.”
With stealth, speed and a delicate touch, Claire slipped her hand into the beige jacket and three fingers pulled on the wallet.
Walking off in the other direction, Claire always enjoyed taking money off the rude and obnoxious ones.
ENTRY 4
Title: Desire
Word Count: 140
Her voice was intoxicating, her vowels would drip in your ear like honey on fresh warm bread. That was always their downfall, few could resist her beauty but none could resist her voice. Once entranced she could take her time in having her way with them. First inducing pleasure then inflicting pain. The locals not wanting to fall prey to her lustful desires, would tell tales of this beautiful creature wherever they went. As long as the victims kept coming one after the other to see this fabled beauty for themselves, the locals felt safe to go about their daily lives. Every local grew up being told not to go near her. Visitors weren’t afforded the same luxury and with their desires always ending in death, the word never spread outside of this village what happened after her first touch.
VOTE HERE! Winners announced at our Readings session at Irish Murphy’s on Wed 27th August (7pm start) as well as on FB, Twitter and via email.
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