tickletheory | Entries tagged with prompt: 31

31_days 14 Jan prompt: How will you bear living somewhere you don't know yourself.

873 words

This is...a little awkward. She's never ever been in a club before, but the girls from the dorm (all exchange students) go out regularly especially on Wednesdays. Wednesday was Ladies Night and all free things were a blessing. Student budgets were no joke so it's a temptation that's impossible to refuse. She thought there's no harm in going since they'll go as a group and she can just learn the ropes as the night wore on. This was a new country, new city, new school and no parents. When else would she get the chance?

Expectations and reality sometimes fall on opposite ends of the spectrum. She discovered she wasn't great at this whole dance floor thing. She let her eyes wander, trying to be discreet about observing how people around her danced. It's like people are just jello, swaying and bobbing, arms flailing ever so slightly. The music was very loud but she usually listens to J-pop so none of the beats were familiar. She swung her shoulders left and right and kept her smile in place, but she could feel her facial muscles slowly getting strained.

Tala imagined herself sighing. Her platform sandals were comfortable enough but her knees were cracking. The girls went to the club all the time. They're enjoying it for some reason. How come all she wanted to think of now was sushi night?

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31_days 13 Jan prompt Each night reunites me with the feral tenderness of my own evil.

Him, again. The face of a little boy with cheeks hollow from a disease. Green eyes always stared beyond her, as if she were a ghost that couldn't be seen.

Every day since they moved into this great house, she'd observe him in her dreams. He never muttered a word, only looked right through her. And every time she tried to speak, a sudden wind would push back the words from where they came.

In the morning the servant helped her dress and in the mirror was the same face of the little boy. She was a twin, after all.

I can't seem to let these two old characters go. I've always enjoyed writing Edward and the cross-dressing Viscount, Alex, so I've revived them instead. I'm rewriting some of their history. One day I swear I'll be a able to make an outline of their story.

31_days 11 Jan prompt: my fingers will find yours, tangle & sweeten the air

Alex and their challenger walked ten paces and Edward observed with trepidation. He was bundled warmly under his coat when they've left the house, but on the open field the chilly kiss of dawn seeped through the layers. He'd exhausted his means at multiple attempts to dissuade both his friend and the foreigner to settle their differences in gentlemanly but less fatal ways but neither budged. He tried to reassure himself that nobody he knew had died from a duel, and his friend the viscount couldn't possibly be the first.

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31_days 8 Jan prompt: bodies against rock, beached until burning
Words: 1,008

The push of waves.

She liked this place. The view reminded her of Chinese paintings with tips of mountains that faded into soft gradients. Right now they were on the beach and the sand wasn't as fine as Boracay's, but here was a better view.

The others didn't care about the sun and a tan so they've gone off to play water sports on the sea. She felt too ashamed to say she couldn't afford the overpriced activities. Anyway, she's already a few shades darker. She isn't confident that her skin would be back to normal in a month when she flies back home. Already she regretted not bringing a sun hat.

The guys didn't force her when she said she wasn't joining them. In this weather, she'd rather get a drink. Bella only laughed and said she knew exactly why she's avoiding the sun because her own mom was surely going to scold her for not being as pale as she'd left. Only, Bella herself didn't care about that. The boys just didn't understand.

I'm here and I've paid for this trip. I should get something out of it.

She clutched her camera and wandered off, towards the cliffs and into the caves. The water was shallow until it emptied itself into the sand. She could see the the tiny burrows made by small crabs, perhaps. Here it was cooler. The dark vacuum of the cave was preferable to the painful kiss of the sun. Why did the heat have to be so harsh in April?

"Didn't you say you were getting a shake?"

Her heart skipped, startled. She knew who it was just by his voice.

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Tickle Stories

Entries tagged with prompt: 31_days

[31_days] Beer and strawberries

[31_days] Dreams at dawn

[31_days] Wishful thinking

[31_days] The push of waves

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