Calling all creative writers! This is a column run by Nathaniel Lee to inspire readers to write. The column includes writing prompts, pieces by the coordinators, and occasional submissions from readers.
This month: Short stories from Casey Leigh and Nathaniel Lee.
Below are a set of prompts for different styles of writing beyond journalism. The idea is that you can create some kind of creative writing piece inspired by one of the prompts, but it doesn't have to be. You can submit any piece of writing you would like to share! All submissions should be school-appropriate. You can also suggest prompts to be featured in the next issue.
Here are some prompts to kinda get you started. They can be used for anything, though some specify poetry or short stories.
1. Write about a character who finds Valentine’s Day sickly sweet.
2. Write a story about a proposal.
3. Write a story from the perspective of Cupid on Valentine’s Day.
4. It seemed like the perfect Valentine’s gift…at the time.
5. You find a note in your pocket that says, “from your Secret Admirer,” though you have no idea who put it there.
If you have any prompt ideas in mind that you haven't seen on here yet or would like to see someone else respond to, drop them in the Google Form below and they will be listed in the next issue!
“Who are you?” I asked.
“I’m Avery’s sister, Carmen,” the woman said. I walked out of the fireplace and took in my surroundings. I seemed to be in an apartment, but the fireplace was strange.
“It’s never used for fire,” Carmen said, seeming to read my mind. “Doesn’t even connect to the ceiling.”
“Auntie,” Lil said, “we should get going.”
“Yep, we have about four hours,” Carmen said.
“It shouldn’t take that long, right?” I asked.
Carmen laughed, then realized I wasn’t joking. “What, is this your first time or something?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why did Avery send you?”
“I’m the only one she had, I guess.” I shrugged. Lil stood on her tiptoes and whispered something in Carmen’s ear. Her eyes flicked to my waist and widened.
“Fine. Tracking a vampire can take time, especially in New York. Even at night, there’s lots of people. I’m 100% sure there’s an active vampire in the city. We can’t just go around stabbing people with stakes. We have to make sure it’s the vampire, and then lure them somewhere private. Then we can stab them.”
“Do we have a way to tell where the vampire is?” I asked. Carmen grabbed a rectangular device from her waist. It was about the size of a phone, just slightly thicker.
“This is Buffy,” she said. “We just insert vials that contain vampire remnants and it scans the area for the DNA. I routinely scan all of my remnants every night, and a couple of nights ago, I got a blip on the monitor. Valasadad showed up again.”
“Valasadad?” Lil exclaimed.
“Yep, but tonight we’re gonna take him. Who knows? This kid might even get his first vampire.” Carmen slapped me on the back and I stumbled forward a couple of feet.
“Aren’t we gonna plan?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” Lil asked.
“Like, Lil and I distract him and then Carmen stabs him.”
Carmen chuckled. “We plan, we go there, all hell breaks loose. Planning doesn’t work with vampires. They’re too unpredictable in a fight. Improvisation is our best friend. If you see a chance, take it.”
“When should we go?” I asked.
“Now,” Carmen said. “I had to skip a date for this, so let’s make it worthwhile.” We walked down to the street and walked down Broadway. Carmen held Buffy out in front of her, and a red dot got closer as we walked. As we came to the corner of Broadway and 96th street, the dot started moving faster. I looked down 96th and saw someone in all black running.
“There!” I said. We ran after the person. We crossed over three roads, and then entered Central Park. We chased him through the trees, and moved Southwest. He ran out into traffic at the other side of the park and crossed to the center of the Columbus Circle. I stopped, but Carmen and Lil ran into traffic, dodging cars. I swore under my breath and followed. I miraculously managed to make it to the center without getting hit.
Carmen knocked the person to the ground and pulled out a silver knife. The person’s hood fell back, revealing a man with long black hair in a ponytail. He had pale skin and looked like he’d had plastic surgery. Cars stopped and people ran over. Someone grabbed me, but I twisted away from them. Two police officers ran up and grabbed Carmen.
“No!” she yelled. Two more officers came up and grabbed me and Lil. Carmen tossed the officers aside and plunged the knife into the man’s shoulder. He shrieked in pain and ran off, knife still in his shoulder. One of the officers handcuffed Carmen and pulled her over to a police car. Cold, metal handcuffs clasped onto my wrists and I was pulled over to a different car. Lil was shoved in after me. After a couple of minutes of talking, the officers got in and drove to the police station.
“So,” a detective said in the interrogation room, “Who was the man?”
I decided to play dumb. “What man?”
“The man at Columbus Circle. The one the woman stabbed.”
“What woman?”
The detective rubbed his eyes, “Okay, you’re going to be difficult.” A man walked in. He connected me to a lie detector machine and left.
“What is your name?” the detective asked.
“Jaiden,” I replied.
“Where do you live?”
“Kinda creepy.”
“Answer the question.”
“I live in London. Can’t you tell from my accent?”
“Why are you in New York?”
“Work.”
“What is your work?”
I whispered, “Top secret.”
“Not anymore,” he said.
“Always. Let it suffice that I’m saving lives, probably including yours.”
“Fine then, keep your secrets. How did you travel here?”
“Magic?” I said.
“Is that a question or are you not sure?”
“Is that a question or are you not sure?”
“Impossible child. A knife and wooden stake was taken from you when you arrived here.”
“Yeah, could I get those back? I’m kinda attached.”
“No, you can’t. Why do you have them?”
“Work stuff. Would you prefer I carried them in a suitcase?”
“Enough with the sarcasm!” he screamed.
“Here, let me ask a question,” I said. “What is your name?”
“Doesn’t work that way.” Officers came in and removed me from the lie detector. They took me to a cell and locked me inside. Carmen walked past and saw me. She winked.
“Jai?” a voice said. I looked in the cell next to mine and saw Lil. She was sitting on the floor.
“Lil!” I said. She stood and came over to the bars.
“This is kinda terrible, isn’t it?”
I laughed. “Yeah, but at least we’re not alone. Carmen’s with us.”
“Not really, though,” she said.
“But I’m here. That makes everything better, right?” I joked. She laughed.
As we spoke, I noticed the temperature slowly rising. It was noticeably hotter, and sweat dripped down my face. The guards also felt the heat.
“Can you turn the temperature down?” one said to another.
“Why don’t you?” the other one countered. I noticed that the back wall of my cell seemed to be changing color. I went over and touched it, burning my fingers. I backed away and a few moments later, the wall exploded toward me. I was pelted by pieces of the wall but wasn’t harmed. A woman walked through the dust and smiled at me.
“How are you doing, darling?”
“Alright, everyone. This next room is said to be where Lord McDougan was assassinated.” The tour guide led a group of people into the bedroom which had a large bed, a dresser, and a desk. Tapestries hung on the wall, depicting brave fights between large beasts and a man.
Personally, I thought this whole thing was kinda boring. If it was up to me, I wouldn’t even be here. However, Ava wanted to come, so here I was.
“Ryan,” Ava said, “Could you please stand still for a picture?” I turned begrudgingly toward her and smiled. She wore jeans that she’d decorated with colored pens and her favorite Imagine Dragons shirt. Her long, strawberry-blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail and had pink highlights. Her sparkling green eyes were filled with laughter, and her mouth twitched into a grin when she saw my meager attempt to smile.
“C’mon dork, smile!” I gave in and smiled, focusing on her face, and thinking of the moment, a little over a month ago, when I’d proposed. After she took the picture, she lowered her camera and walked over to me, embracing me and giving me a quick kiss. Then, we turned our attention back to the tour guide.
“Lord McDougan was killed on June 14, 1340, when he was seventy-five. His entire estate belonged to his son, but then it was discovered that his son had hired the assassin. After a long trial, the son was executed, and the lordship went to McDougan’s great-grandson, Silas Edison. He passed it to his son, and him to his son, and him to his son. That man, McDougan's fourth great-grandson, was named Percival Edison.
“He did not marry, and specifically stated that the entire estate would belong to the town. They have kept it in this condition for centuries. Though, it is said that Lord McDougan’s ghost still roams these halls, filled with rage at the fact that the castle did not stay in the family.”
The group was silent, a collective chill moving amongst them.
“Let’s move to the kitchen. The oven there is large enough to contain an adult man, though we don’t think it was used for that.” The group shuffled after the tour guide. Ava walked slower, and I stayed with her. After the group was out of sight, she walked over to the bed, going under the rope barrier and taking multiple pictures of it. Then, she moved to the tapestries, taking pictures of the entire thing, then more focused pictures of the details.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
She turned to me, “I’m working on a book that takes place in a castle like this, and I figured actually walking through one would be better than research.”
“Is that why you wanted to do this?”
“Yeah.”
I shook my head and smiled, “C’mon, we should probably catch up to the group.” She stepped under the rope and we walked down the hall. As we walked, the temperature began to drop, and we began to shiver. I offered Ava my jacket, but she refused, saying she was fine. After about ten minutes of walking, I realized something was wrong.
“We’ve been walking way longer than possible,” Ava said, “There’s no way a hallway this long could be contained in the castle.”
“You’re finally catching on,” a voice said from behind us. We turned around and Ava screamed. I admit it, I screamed too. An elderly man was standing in the middle of the hallway.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“You should have stayed with the group,” the man said. He wore a completely white outfit. Pants, shirt, jacket, shoes, even his hair and beard were white. His skin was wrinkled and pale. He raised a gnarled hand toward us and dust started falling from the ceiling. Ava pulled me backward as the ceiling collapsed, spilling stones and dust into the hall. I stood there in shock for a few moments, then Ava was pulling on my arm.
“Run!” she said. I watched as the old man ran over the rubble, moving with much more agility and speed than someone of his age would normally have. I ran after Ava and we continued down the long, straight hallway. Abruptly, the hall ended. I looked around and saw that it continued but straight up.
“What the crap is wrong with this place?” Ava asked. She walked over to the wall and jumped, grabbing onto one of the unlit torches that lined the wall. She pulled herself up and then jumped to the next one. I followed her, and when we were about six torches up the vertical hallway, the man came into view. All of a sudden, the torches disappeared and we fell. I braced to hit the ground in a few seconds, but it didn’t happen. I opened my eyes and saw that there was no floor in sight. A scream escaped my mouth as I kept falling.
I saw Ava above me trying to grab onto the wall, but it was smooth and had no handholds. She looked down at me, and terror flashed across her face. I looked down and saw that the ground was approaching. I smashed into the ground and it shattered, and my vision fractured, then repaired. I was still falling, but the castle had disappeared. I looked around and for a brief second and saw myself falling, hundreds of me, the line stretching into the distance. Then it all compacted into one and I opened my eyes, laying on the ground. Ava was next to me.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I don’t know, but I hope it’s over,” Ava replied.
“It’s not,” the man said as he walked up to us. I stood and tried to push him away, but my hands went through him.
“Who are you?” Ava asked.
“When I was alive, I was known as Lord McDougan.”
“You should be very dead. Are you a ghost?”
“In a way,” McDougan said. “I’ve remained here, and my soul is tied to this world. I cannot move on until my debt is paid.”
“What debt?” I asked.
“I’ve given up on the debt!” McDougan screamed. “The only thing that remains is ending those who take pleasure in my pain! The groups come through every day, forever taunting me, telling the tale of my sorrow. So I make them pay.”
“You make people disappear?” Ava asked.
“Indeed, and you’re the next ones.” He reached out to grab Ava. I moved towards her, but she stayed still.
“How come we’ve never heard of people disappearing?” Ava asked. McDougan froze.
“No one remembers them,” he said.
“Then how does that make people pay? No one remembers them, so there’s no point. You’re doing nothing.” McDougan pulled back, then smiled.
“You don’t understand,” McDougan said. He flew forward and flew through Ava, and she collapsed. Then, he turned towards me and did the same thing. I fell to the ground, feeling like my mind was on fire. Darkness invaded my vision as I blacked out.
-----
“I hope everyone had an educational time,” The tour guide said after the tour was over. Everyone left, but the young couple remained, their eyes blank.
“Excuse me?” the tour guide said. “Are you okay?” Without replying, the pair turned towards him.
“McDougan sends his regards,” they said as one. They jumped forward and grabbed his arms, dragging him down the hall. As his screams faded, laughter could be heard. Dry laughing, sounding from across thousands of years.
