This edition’s creative writing challenge invited students to complete a flash fiction story beginning with a mysterious premise: What if you were paid to transform the city’s darkest alley into a reflection of your own mind? Aiden Watson-Knight took on this imaginative prompt, crafting a compelling piece that explores the impossibilities of such a task.
We’re featuring Aiden’s story below and keeping this prompt open for future submissions. So, if you're inspired to write your own response (under 300 words), submit to the PAH! Spring Edition form!
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When the envelope arrived offering me five thousand dollars to transform the darkest alleyway in the city - the one everyone crossed the street to avoid, where even streetlight seemed afraid to reach - into a reflection of my mind, I accepted before I could visualize what my thoughts looked like in the dark. I quickly realized that people would prefer the dark. What would happen in an alleyway of my mind? Anything and everything. An alleyway is much too small to contain my mind. One could enter and never exit, another could exit without entering. Looking down the alley would be enough to trap you. Exits could lead to more alleyways or to nothing at all. One step could take a year, or lead miles away. Music is playing, but the source is never known; colors are everywhere and nowhere. You know everything by name, but names are never remembered. Perhaps it drives you mad, or you could regain sanity. Some would go in and never leave, chased by unknown things. Some would emerge wealthy and powerful, truly changed. In some places, wonderful things could be revealed, none able to be expressed. In other places, things you would rather forget could show. Occasionally, a warm, welcoming room will appear with memories of friends, family, and fellowship. These rooms, it seems, make it worth the toil of the journey. Every step taken, every breath drawn, or blink made could change it all. What would an alleyway of my mind look like? How should I know, I am simply one of the wanderers who never escaped. The only thing certain is that my mind will change yours, for it has certainly changed mine.