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, Connor Upshaw, 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. This month the prompt theme is Summer.
1. It just hit 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and your air conditioning unit just broke.
2. Write a story about a family summer vacation to Europe that does not go according to plan.
3. Write a story about characters going on a summer road trip.
4. Write about a character who thinks they have a sun allergy, but doesn't actually.
5. Write a story that includes the phrase “I’m free!”
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 I'll try to get them in the next issue! I sometimes don't see the response until after the issue is published, so I'm sorry if it takes a couple months.
Lil and I snuck out a side door and ran down the road. Angry howls came from behind us, and the house burst into flames. Tears leaked from Lil’s eyes as we turned down a side road.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“We need to get to the Dark Realm. If we can destroy their source of power, they’ll be destroyed.”
“How do we get there?”
“Big Ben.”
After several minutes of running, we came to Big Ben. She picked the lock, then we went inside. Moments after we barred the door, an enormous thud shook the ground. Dust fell from the ceiling.
“Up,” Lil said.
“Wonderful,” I muttered. We ran up hundreds of stairs as fast as possible. At the end, I was breathing heavily.
“Now, we need to open the portal.” Lil hadn’t even broken a sweat. “Do your thing.”
“My thing?”
“Yeah, your magic spirit thing.”
“I can’t do it on command!”
“Well, you need to, because we’ve got company.” Three vampires ran up the stairs.
“Good to see you again,” the middle one said.
“Valasadad.” Lil spat out the name like it was a bitter-tasting food.
“Is Noah coming too?”
“No, his father punished him for failing again.” Valasadad stepped forward. “So we came to finish the job.”
“Open it!” Lil charged forward and engaged all three vampires, moving faster than I ever could.
“Quincey, I don’t know if you can hear me, but now would be a great time to—”
“I know, I know.” A portal opened in front of me, a gaping black hole.
“Go!” Lil shoved me through.
In a word, the Dark Realm was hideous.
Gnarled trees dotted the landscape, fog filled the area, and the only sign of civilization was a raised stone platform, on which stood a pedestal.
We walked up to it. A black orb floated a few inches above the pedestal
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
“Probably storming through a different way.”
“Indeed. I wanted to save you two for myself.” We turned around and saw Dracula.
He looked like, well, Dracula. Exactly how you would expect.
“Dracula,” Lil said.
“Emperor Dracula.”
“Count Dracula,” I corrected.
“No! Emperor! No matter. You can’t destroy the Orb of Darkness without killing yourself. And killing you is my job!” He lunged forward and sunk his teeth into Lil’s neck. She dropped to the ground and he turned on me, blood glistening on his fangs.
“ENOUGH OF THIS!” Quincey’s voice screamed, so loud they heard it. Both Juliet and Miron shot at Dracula and stabbed him.
Flames, screaming, then nothing. I was sitting on the floor. Juliet and Miron were both gone.
“Thanks for one last shot,” Quincey said. I felt him disappear as well.
“I can do it,” Lil said. She held her stake in one hand, standing by the black orb that floated above the pedestal.
“No!” I jumped up and grabbed her. She abruptly kissed me, then shoved me away. I looked up and the last thing I saw of her was her smile.
-----
London is in pieces. Big Ben collapsed as I ran down. The shockwave from the collapse broke many more buildings. I’m alive, but Lil isn’t. We'll rebuild, but the pain will never be forgotten. Avery didn't die, and I found her sorting through the remnants of her house.
"She made her choice," Avery said.
"Aren't you sad?" I asked.
"Of course! We talked about it before you went to New York though, and she told me that if she ever went to the Dark Realm, she'd destroy it. You're too new to everything to sacrifice yourself for this cause."
"But—"
"No. She made her choice. Now, it's up to us to continue her dream."
"What was her dream?"
"This." Avery handed me a stack of papers. I brushed some ash off and read the top.
The World of Dreams: Sweet Dreams.
"A book?" I asked.
"Her book."
Lil's book.
Her legacy.
I dream of a light in the darkness, a will-o’-the-wisp of bioluminescence. It shimmers and beckons me to swim to it. I am deep within the ocean depths: the pressure crushes against my back, and I hear the steady roar of the pitch-black sea. I reach a webbed hand towards the light’s ethereal beauty. “Child of the sea,” it rumbles, a voice as old and wise as the tallest mountains. “Come forward. Claim my boon.” A glazed smile on my face, I continue to swim toward the little star in the dark. It pulls me like a magnet and I will it so, my mind trapped in reverence for the strange orb. I’m close now. The light is blinding but soft and welcoming, filling my vision with its icy blue. As I reach to touch it, I feel fingers wrap around my kicking leg. I struggle, thrash and twist, fight to free myself from its steely grip. Then I feel another on my arm, pulling me down into the depths. The light shrinks further away as the abyss drags me down. Despair wells in my throat and I cry, but water fills my mouth and drowns my screams. The darkness turns to midnight, and I open my eyes to look upon my bedroom.
The room is in disarray, clothes and paper strewn everywhere like a hundred pieces of garbage. The bed is drenched in sweat, and a bottle of soda is spilled across my bedside table. I have only a moment to think of this mess before my legs carry me toward the door. I must find the light as soon as possible. My mind has latched onto that idea, unable to waver. I speed past the living room and the kitchen, past the picture of me and my family. I stop suddenly, my heart racing fast. My family. My whole body shaking, I grasp the picture in my hands. “Mommy, it looks like it goes on forever and ever and ever!” My eyes well with tears. My children, all grown and gone. Maybe they found the light, too. Maybe I can see them again.
With a fresh wave of resolve, I march down the ten flights of stairs through my dusty old apartment building. All the lights are off, with the only illumination being the ghostly white of the full harvest moon. The lunar radiance shines through the large, dusty windows that reside at the base of every flight of stairs. Some of my neighbors walk beside me, silent and resolute. I spare little thought to my fellow pilgrims, for they are nothing but faint echoes on my path to the light. I breathlessly stumble down the final few stairs. The car park resides to the left of my building. Out the door and ascending another flight of stairs, I march through the car park to my blue Chevrolet and turn the keys in the ignition. I emerge into a midnight city, towering monuments drenched in a thick fog. There are other people on the road and on the streets, behind and in front of me. We’re all going the same direction, to the same destination. I sense their determination, and it empowers me.
The traffic-heavy drive is fifty minutes through silent San Francisco, the usually bustling city now quiet of all but the rolling of cars and the steady marching of feet. Our path leads outside the city as well, along the coastline. My eyes are drawn to the water, searching for the luminous glow. It is so foggy that it is hard to see much of anything, but I know that this won’t keep me from my goal. Thousands walk along either side of the road, a sea of bobbing heads all turned towards the ocean. All of them, looking for salvation. The glow promises us everything we have lost, everything we have ever wanted. There is no resisting that call.
I screech to a sudden halt as the tide of people on my left walks directly into the road. Their faces ranging from excited to wrought with grief, they march across the path and towards the ocean. Marshall’s Beach. I feel the pull as well, and I hear it in my mind. “Abigail,” it whispers in my husband’s voice, “I forgive you. It wasn’t your fault.” My eyes grow wet with tears as I step out of the car, legs trembling. Looking back, I see an endless line of headlights, each with car doors opening as people realize that they’ve made it. Shambling forward, I push myself to the beach ridge and squint against the sudden piercing light. It is past the waves: the little star awaits us with its comforting blue glow, radiant as a god. “Welcome, Children of the Sea. Come forth, broken ones. Let me fix you.”
There are many of my fellow pilgrims on the sand, each one beaming with excitement. When faced before a benevolent god, there can be no fear, no pain. The light will take it all away. As I begin the descent to the beach, three figures appear in the light. They are my family, waving to me, smiling and laughing. My husband, our two little kids… just how it used to be. They want me to join them up there, in the light. I’m running across the beach now, shoving people out of the way in my desperation.
I am only a few yards away when a woman yells from the top of the rocks. “It’s trying to trick you! Don’t give in!” A few faces turn to look at her, including my own. Her face, illuminated by the iridescent glow, is taut with desperation. The glaze leaves my eyes for only a moment, and I realize how wrong this is. I can be happy again without dwelling on the past. The joy of raising a family may be gone, but I’ve started to carve a life for myself in this city I’ve always loved. I can’t let some monster strip away everything I’ve worked for. I must escape. I am stronger than this! Running back the way I came, I push towards my car, ba- “Confused, led astray from the light, sinking in the darkness”- ck to the light. I walk to my family. They beckon me. There is distant yelling, but I ignore it. Bigger and better things await in the light.
My family is walking towards the light. Hands outstretched, I follow them, tears of joy welling in my eyes. My vision is completely filled with the spectral glow now, the dark silhouettes of my loved ones barely visible. They wave to me, and then they open a door. It shuts behind them with a horrible thud. Needles of icy terror pierce through my veins, and I run forward, barreling through waves of silent shamblers. “I won’t let you go again!” I scream, seizing the doorknob and yanking it open. What I see in the doorway is not my family at all, but an unfamiliar world. “Deep beneath the ocean surface lies a cerulean city, built of ancient coral bones. It is under the darkness, beyond the light, within the maw: the city lost to time.”
The door slams shut in my face just as the glassy sheen leaves my mind. The light betrays us like the false god it is, winking out in an instant and leaving us with nothing but realization. There are thousands of us, faces painted in terrified shock as far as the eye can see. We’re not in the “cerulean city,” and we’re certainly not on Marshall Beach anymore. Every surface is a wet crimson texture, covered in a strange viscous substance. Rows upon rows of ten-story, jagged white pillars jut out between the masses of people like towering stalagmites. We’re in a mouth, and it is closing. The light of the moon at night is fading, giving way to a far more malevolent midnight. “Your eternal fate awaits, children of the sea.” I close my eyes as the last light fades away, as the hands pull me down, for the last time, into the dark abyss.
Aaron led me through the streets. Several times we had to duck into alcoves as tendrils of shadow slithered past, looking like evil earthworms.
Finally, we reached a beat-up truck. He got into the driver's seat and I walked around to the passenger seat. I stopped in my tracks.
The entire side of the truck was soaked in red.
I carefully opened the door and slipped inside, face pale. My helmet retracted into my suit and I breathed in the leather smell of the truck. He started the vehicle and drove off.
“Is that paint or—”
“It’s blood.”
“How did it—”
“Long story.” He stared straight ahead, jaw clenched. I noticed a bruise on the side of his face, and a line of blood trickled from his ear, down his jaw to his chin.
“What happened?”
“When? When I fell, or when you still treated me like a friend every day at school?”
“I didn’t know who you were!”
He laughed mirthlessly. “You honestly expect me to believe that? You have a high-tech suit, but no x-ray vision?”
“You’re a superhero, but you don’t have powers?” I countered.
He opened his mouth but then closed it.
“What is that thing?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I saw it and followed it to where I found you. I’ve gotta say, I wasn’t expecting you to be my villain nemesis.”
“How do you think I felt when I found your body?”
“It wasn’t my body. It’s a mannequin I made. I hired a professional sculptor, and he made a perfect replica of me. I barely survived the fall, and left the mannequin there. You did the work of putting it back in normal clothes, for me. Thanks for that much, I guess.
“Wouldn’t the coroner have noticed?”
“He would’ve, but I snuck into his house last night and explained to him. He was willing to fake it and make sure no one found out, and then I left.”
“You snuck into his house?” I asked.
“Yeah, it wasn't that hard. Picked the window lock and disabled his alarm.”
“You say that so casually. ‘Oh yeah, I just broke into this guy’s house.’ It’s not normal.”
“As if you’re normal.” We drove in silence.
Then it shattered.
Out of nowhere, tendrils of shadow wrapped around the truck and tossed it into the air. I admit I screamed, but Aaron probably screamed louder. I unbuckled my seatbelt and smashed a window. I wasn’t able to unbuckle his seatbelt, so I just tore it in half. I shoved him out the shattered window, then jumped after him.
Deja vu.
It seemed like only yesterday we were in this position.
Falling.
Oh wait, it was only yesterday.
My suit to him.
It didn’t seem like it had only been a day.
Falling.
Time sure can fly.
Falling.
Screaming.
Bracing.
Time.
Tick.
Tock.
Fly.
Falling
Falling
Falling
I smashed into something.
It wasn’t who I thought.
I thought it was Aaron.
It was the Shadow.
He threw me aside, and I was knocked unconscious.
-----
I woke up in a hospital bed. My suit was sitting in a chair near me, and I could tell it was night outside.
All of a sudden, my suit stood on its own.
“I didn’t know how to get this off, so I’ve just left it on for a week. I did figure out how to use the bathroom with it, luckily.” Aaron’s voice emitted from the suit.
“Have you been waiting here?” I asked, my voice scratchy from no use.
“Nah, I only stop by at night. During the day I’m in hiding.”
“The Shadow?”
“Still out there.” Silence for a moment. “Thank you, by the way.”
“For what, getting knocked out?”
“No, for saving my life. You gave me your suit, and I didn’t die when I landed. It also helped me carry you to the hospital. Might wanna leave now that you’re awake. You’ll have to pay a fortune if they see you’re alive.” He helped me out the window. Once we were outside, I took my suit back. Then everything went wrong again.
The Shadow came out of nowhere and slapped me aside. I jumped up and ran at him. Several people came out of the hospital.
I launched myself into the air and punched The Shadow, knocking him off his shadow tower.
“Give me your suit!” Aaron yelled. I sent it to him. There was an explosion, and then Aaron and The Shadow were both gone.
-----
A couple of months later, everyone had pretty much forgotten The Shadow, and Aaron. But no one had forgotten me. Quite a few people had seen me fighting The Shadow, and then I sent my suit to Aaron. They saw me. They didn’t remember me as the villain I was, but as the hero I became.
Luca’s family adopted me. I ended up telling him about how I didn’t have a family, he told his parents, and a few weeks later, I was adopted. His mom is teaching me Spanish, and every day I feel more and more like a member of the family.
The last big change in my life happened at school. Turns out, one of Aaron’s friends who was in the group works at the hospital, and she saw the whole thing. The next day at school she confronted me about it. We started hanging out, and long story short, we’re dating now.
I’ll never forget Aaron’s sacrifice.
He was the final piece.
The final piece to giving me a home.
Home.
