PostsChallengesPortalsAuthorsBooks
Sign Up
Log In
Posts
Challenges
Portals
Authors
Books
beta
Sign Up
Search
Challenge Ended
Pen to the Paper 6
That's right! It's back! Sit down and write without a plan. Any genre. Any type. And don't forget: have fun.
Ended February 21, 2021 • 14 Entries • Created by CalebPinnow
Random
Popular
Newest
Challenge
Pen to the Paper 6
That's right! It's back! Sit down and write without a plan. Any genre. Any type. And don't forget: have fun.
Cover image for post Which Way To Go, by Danceinsilence
Profile avatar image for Danceinsilence
Danceinsilence
118 reads

Which Way To Go

I have nothing specific in mind so I wonder, should I write a mystery or horror? Perhaps fantasy?

But I have done all these things before, but ... what if I mix them together? Something like this.

Teeka looked the body over carefully, or what was left of the body, completely drained of blood. But there weren’t any slash or cut marks on the body, no bullet holes, and it seemed apparent, according to the crime scene layout, there had been no signs of a struggle,

Who, or what could have done this?

Then Teeka remembered a childhood fantasy her mother would tell her about, The Inhaliators from the planet Xygrom, which is 25,000 light years from Earth. On the night of every Valentine Day, they would travel from world to world, billions of them, and inhale the blood into their bodies which kept them alive and full where they never hungered for a full year before they would repeat the process. In order to survive, they had to inhale eight pints or more of blood. The interesting, yet freaky part was; they only had to be within three feet to breathe in their life supply, so Teeka also knew there would be no discernible fingerprints to be found.

Teeka always thought it to be a scary story but not true, that is, until now. Because of this, she knew she wouldn’t be able to arrest whichever Inhaliator did this as they were long gone by now.

Teeka hated moments like this; to know the killer and how it was done but unable to catch and arrest the Inhaliator until next year.

But would it be the same one?

Would that even matter?

She would turn in her findings to the Chief who may find the explanation unbelievable but since her and Devin are married he would believe her,

Looking to the heavens she mumbled, “I’ll be waiting for you next year.”

17
8
23
Challenge
Pen to the Paper 6
That's right! It's back! Sit down and write without a plan. Any genre. Any type. And don't forget: have fun.
Profile avatar image for Luthien
Luthien
86 reads

okay

i'm not okay right now.

i try to be.

i pretend to be.

i'm only okay when i'm with her.

when i'm alone i feel like dying.

i should have tried harder to be normal

to not be gay.

i hate myself for being this way.

i hate myself for giving in to something i should change.

i might never be okay

again.

16
3
3
Challenge
Pen to the Paper 6
That's right! It's back! Sit down and write without a plan. Any genre. Any type. And don't forget: have fun.
Profile avatar image for GLD
GLD
93 reads

Never Saw It Coming

Just a sunny day

With a strong wind blowing

No rainy day,

Not even in my heart

And my thoughts are of you

A girl and a boy

Never saw it coming;

Here you are

Just some stranger you got to meet

Not even in person

Just some stranger you got to meet

And put up with from now on

And she’s gonna be there for you

Always be loyal

And he’s gonna be the one

To bring more light into your world

I guess you never saw it coming

That this girl was to come rest

In your nest

I guess you never saw it coming

That this boy was to take your heart

And do it with haste

There’s a whole future open

Waiting for you

But don’t jump in head-first

Right now

Cause neither of you want to get hurt

Yes,

I guess you never saw it coming

Not coming your way,

Not your way at all...

14
5
4
Challenge
Pen to the Paper 6
That's right! It's back! Sit down and write without a plan. Any genre. Any type. And don't forget: have fun.
Profile avatar image for EDylan
EDylan
82 reads

Winter

Winters garden of barren trees

stare back at me

as I wonder

if the world really is

as cold as it seems?

Finding cruelty

in the sunrise

as it counts down

the hours I grieve

watching the ice melt

in such comforting tones

as the mourning awakes

a piece of me lets go

12
4
3
Challenge
Pen to the Paper 6
That's right! It's back! Sit down and write without a plan. Any genre. Any type. And don't forget: have fun.
Profile avatar image for thisisit
thisisit
57 reads

‘Than It Did About Him’: A Tribute

We all seek to be absolved.

When I ripped open my college career with my canine teeth, I was looking for it to dance in front of me like a monkey. Instead, I found myself in a hospital yet again. The color of blood, I was told, is never beautiful: it is just red.

Tumblr is where some people my age got famous. It's all I ever wanted. I wrote about a girl named Dolores for a while, got a few likes. It didn't matter that my hundred followers were mostly porn pages, and that my words were being bounced off of robots. So goes the internet: we fall into the black void, knowing we won't be heard, but hoping beyond hope that someone hears us and clicks on what prompts a notification.

Michelle K grabbed me. She had a Tumblr page, the only one of the hundreds I followed that I remember now. She wrote short poems that exploded in angst in so few words as to insult the black rainbow vocabulary of depressed writers everywhere, but in the best possible way. She knew it, and she wrote the truth.

Her words are the mouth moving in the mirror, saying each syllable of pain in exactly the right way.

Her poems are hard candy you savor, light on fresh snow, what becomes a tattoo that completes the missing part of you.

My memories of Michelle K start in college, the happiest time of my life. Her poems, to me, still bleed red. But when I read them now, I smile, because I know where we all came from is not where we are going.

xx

And it has been

one hell

of a year.

I have worn

the seasons

under my sleeves,

on my thighs,

running down my cheeks.

This is what

surviving

looks like, my dear.

― Michelle K., It Has Been One Hell of a Year

"Perhaps the fact that I chased a boy who ripped me to shreds says a lot more about me than it did about him."

Michelle K.

"Some women are lost in the fire. Some women are built from it."

Michelle K., Some

“Nostalgia is a dirty liar that insists things were better than they seemed.”

Michelle K.

8
2
2
Challenge
Pen to the Paper 6
That's right! It's back! Sit down and write without a plan. Any genre. Any type. And don't forget: have fun.
Profile avatar image for CalebPinnow
CalebPinnow
100 reads

Pen to the Paper 6

"You look beautiful today."

"So do you," I said, not realizing that Maya had called me beautiful rather than handsome.

"What do you have planned for tonight?"

"Well, it's the second Sunday of the month, so I plan to announce the sixth Pen to the Paper."

"I meant with me, dummy!" Maya said teasingly.

"Nothing."

Maya looked down at her feet. "Oh."

I continued to drive until we arrived at the school I make my announcements in. I exited the vehicle and opened the back door, pulling out a bouquet of flowers. "You think I had no plans for you?"

Maya's face brightened. "Those are beautiful! But… I'm allergic. "

"You're joking…"

"Nope. Thanks for the thought though."

"Dang. These were expensive. On the bright side, I'll never have to buy you something that costs a hundred bucks, but will die in a week. 'Hey, babe, here are some flowers that are gonna die in a week. It's a symbol of our loOoOove.'"

"What's next?" Maya asked after laughing at my cheesy joke.

"Well, follow me."

We walked into the school, and I led her to my office. "This is where we had our first kiss."

"Ooo."

"One more stop," I said, leading her to the auditorium. "And this is where we had our second."

The lights in the auditorium were dim, and there was a blanket with a basket in the center of the stage.

"I thought it would be cool to have a short picnic prior to making the announcement."

Maya was speechless, so I grabbed her by the hand and led her to the blanket. We sat down, and I pulled out a container of cookies, two sandwiches, sloppily wrapped in the manifestation of the Devil himself that is plastic wrap, and a container of potato salad. "I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I make some pretty darn good PB 'n' J's."

"Oh, no," Maya said.

"'Oh, no'?"

"I'm allergic."

I started laughing. "Good one! Had me in the first half, not gonna lie."

"I'm not joking. I guess I'll just have some cookies and tater salad," she said.

"Well, I can't make chocolate chip cookies like Ma can, so I made peanut butter cookies," I replied.

"Sorry," she said.

"Not your fault. I should have asked… and I should have had Ma make the cookies… But I have a back up! Down for tacos?"

"What is it with you and tacos…"

"Brad asks me the same thing at work every time I see him. Let's go get some tacos!"

Maya smiled and shook her head. I shot up and pulled her to her feet.

⇔

A couple hours later, I walked back onto the same stage.

"Evening, ladies and gent's. Ope, forgot to clear the stage… anyone want peanut butter cookies?" I asked, walking over to the container and taking one out for myself. Someone in the front row raised his hand.

"Alright," I said, taking a bite, "ma'e sure you sha'e. Man. These are the best I've made… ANYWAYS. You guys know why I'm here. It's here! It's back! Pen to the Paper 6 is out! If anyone wants, I have two peanut butter jelly sammiches up here, and some tater salad. I gotta finish my girlfriend's burrito," I said, sitting onto the blanket.

7
2
2
Challenge
Pen to the Paper 6
That's right! It's back! Sit down and write without a plan. Any genre. Any type. And don't forget: have fun.
Pauli187
44 reads

While your bright eyes

stared at my every word

i studied your every detail

i know you better than he ever can

but you only know the ink of mine

and one day

you will read the last page of this book

close it and set it aside

when we both returned to our worlds

but the difference is

you are my world

but please

look at me

cause we knew it from the start

but we feel the worth in every pain

and while we were driving down the road

i used to call my home

you told me there's a place

where we will meet again

and when you turned your back

i heard you whispering

you will always be my world

and i opened my teary eyes

turned around and thought

this was my favorite dream of all

Oh please remind me of it

Every single night

7
4
2
Challenge
Pen to the Paper 6
That's right! It's back! Sit down and write without a plan. Any genre. Any type. And don't forget: have fun.
crazyquiller
61 reads

I hate summer

“….shower water. Isn’t that disgusting?”

“I’m sorry?” I shook my head.” What did you say?”

“THE OCEAN WATER IS USED AS SHOWER WATER. ISN’T THAT DISGUSTING!?” She shouted

“Yeah” I laughed nervously “Crazy huh? We never know how things work”

“I paid money to be on this cruise and I DESERVE exclusive treatment. Just give me my ocean water already.”

“A glass of wine in a beer jar” I handed her the drink, sprinkled some salt and added a sliced pineapple.

“That’ll do, Jerry” she put her sunglasses on and sashayed away.

I hate summer

“BARTENDER!? HELLOOOOO I HAVE BEEN CALLING YOU FOR LIKE FOREVER”

I sighed and moved on the next customer “What can I getcha?”

“Listen” she mimed whispered and then giggled “I think I killed someone”

“SCORE!” sunglass lady screamed while watching the playoffs

“What?”

“I-think-I-killed-someone” she mimed whispered again and started laughing “I didn’t know what I was doing and I just did it”

There’s no fucking way she did that.

“There’s no fucking way you did that.”

She grinned wider “I did. And what’s more, the bodies are in my room. Also, since you don’t report me.” She pointed at the glass in my hands “That’s what I killed them with. And it has all your fingerprints on it”

I looked down. The glass was in my hands. I had started wiping it down with a washcloth noticing the wine stains which I now realize is blood.

I shakily place it on the table quietly. My mind starts racing.

“ALL I need from you, is a shovel”

I look up “A shovel. That’s it?”

“YEP. Just a shovel. And I won’t tell a soul noooooo” she giggled again

“We are at sea. This is a cruise. Where are you going to fucking dig? Through the ship!?” I raged. Sunglass lady was looking at me. I took a deep breath and switched to another glass to wipe down. She looked away.

“Why does it matter? Just give me the shovel and its byeeeeee”

I didn’t like this. I didn’t like her.

I hung my apron behind me and left the bar. She started to follow me and I led her below deck. The shovel was there around the corner. Maybe I could hit her hard enough and run up to the deck captain. Maybe I could negotiate- no that wouldn’t work.

“Here you go” I picked it up and handed it to her. She grabbed it from my hands and left. I followed her from behind as she stamped her way up to her room. She looked around suspiciously, then opened her door. I peeked through the keyhole.

There were no bodies inside. I looked at what she was looking at.

Looking at the upturned goldfish in the bowl.

Thank god I released a sigh. Thank god she wasn’t a lunatic I looked at the short bloody knife in my back pocket. It’s starting to stink below deck I thought going back down. I hate summer.

7
2
2
Challenge
Pen to the Paper 6
That's right! It's back! Sit down and write without a plan. Any genre. Any type. And don't forget: have fun.
Profile avatar image for blobfish
blobfish
52 reads

clock

Tomorrow morning, he was going to get rid of that clock. Who needed an actual clock on their wall anyways? That’s what digital clocks are for. So that you don’t have to listen to that insufferable ticking the whole night while you’re trying to fall asleep.

He turned over for the millionth time and fumbled his sheets in exasperation. He had spent an hour running embarassing scenarios from his past through his head, and now he had a stupid song stuck on repeat.

That’s when he realized the clock wasn’t ticking anymore.

Not that he was complaining, but the clock wasn’t that old. At least, not old enough to have broken already.

He sat up.

The clock wasn’t there.

He didn’t hear a crash, so it couldn’t have fallen. He slowly got up and walked to the wall, running his hand over it.

So it really was missing. He wasn’t sure what to think. This was creepy.

The room was chilly all of a sudden. Was that window open already? The tiredness must have been messing with his head. He was too disoriented to try to figure out where the clock had gone. Maybe it would be back in the morning.

He slipped back under the covers, and when he looked back up, the door was gone.

He was sure he was dreaming now. He shut his eyes, because this wasn’t real and he didn’t want to waste his time in their creepy world anymore.

He opened his eyes after a while of laying there. He had to be awake, he had never had a dream this real.

The room was gone. He was suspended in darkness, only him and his bed.

His eyes shut quickly again, and thoughts went swirling in his head. The confusion was too much. He didn’t like how real this felt.

When he worked up the nerve to open his eyes again, everything was back to normal. The room was all there, complete with the annoying ticking clock. He had never been more thankful for that clock.

He sighed into his pillow. He had just wasted another few hours and he had to be up soon.

Wait.

A few hours?

That wasn’t right. That had only felt like a few minutes. The clock couldn’t be right.

He sat up and held his head in his hands.

The moment was endless.

He slowly lifted his head up and let himself open his eyes one last time.

He was looking at himself, in his bed, floating in a dark void.

“No!” he tried to scream, but his throat was too tight to utter a sound.

He started moving backward, as if a hand was slowly pulling him away. He thrashed and clawed into the nothingness, but the bed with his body soon became a little speck in the distance.

He was gone.

6
2
1
Challenge
Pen to the Paper 6
That's right! It's back! Sit down and write without a plan. Any genre. Any type. And don't forget: have fun.
Profile avatar image for Vins
Vins
52 reads

Nine-Tailed Fox

I feel like the tale of the nine-tailed fox has changed so much over the years . It actually did a whole 360 when it comes to it's personality and how it was seen .

During the Qin Dynasty [ 221 to 206 B.C. ] , the nine-tailed fox was seen as an auspicious symbol . With pretty white , silky fur , it was said to have brought prosperity , love , and marriage to those who met it . One would also meet a nine-tailed fox if they were "benevolent and wise" .

However , since the Song Dynasty [ 960–1279 ] , the same nine-tailed fox was slowly being demonized . From bringing prosperity , to bringing death . It was turned into a symbol which sought to bewitch humans and their souls .

Literally a full 360 . Literally .

The only question I have now is : HOW ?

Why did this dude's story do a full 360 .

Who on earth was that salty to make this dude's story turn a full 360.

Like what were they thinking .

Why did my man the nine-tailed fox get demonized ?

Legit I thought ma dude was cool with all that romance and wealth stuff going .

But no the dude's a demon now .

Aight .

Cool .

Funny part is how my dad told me the nine-tails was a romantic .

But when I asked my mom the first thing she said was ..... " demon foxy ? "

So like , which is the fox actually like ?

I wanna know .

But neither of my parents can give me straight answers so-

Imma just go on a limb and say my dude's 50/50

4
2
1