Writing Prompt

Blood bubbles through my skin, cascading waterfalls at the sudden prick. The tiny needle laying inches away, hiding its devious intention. The pain of the prick soon faded, numbness overtaking in favor. They were all over, ensuring the scars run along my feeble hands. I've been over this, days, weeks.

Thread, knot, weave, sew, stitch, cut. Thread, knot, weave, sew, stitch, cut. Thread, knot, weave...

Eat with my feet

That’s impossible

By my hands don’t work

My nerves are damaged

So I first need to learn how to bend

And become flexible

Why not

I can do it

Life isn’t over...

**Chapter 1 — The River’s Ledger**

****

I woke to the sound of water screaming.

Not voices—metal. The feeder pipe over my pallet shrieked as pressure dove, a knife-thin whistle that cut through my good ear. The bad one filled with ocean and throbbed. Boots hit concrete. A pail went over. Someone coughed up a slice of black lung and swore at the taste of last winter.

Name’s Ash Mercer. Twenty-t...

Sun beat down in the clump of trees somewhere.

Oaks weathered with age had Ralph cooling there.

Squirrels skittered through the branches frantic.

Sun stretched out as the moon stood romantic.

Hands ecrued calloused as he huddled hushed

In the hut he hewed from limbs as door shushed....

“Now turn to the left, hip out,” Haley said.

“Query: how many degrees which quadrant verso—“

“Stop Lem stop. You’re missing the point. You’re learning how to pass as a human girl. Remember what we talked about. You have to be confident but not pushy. Attractive, independent, and friendly. You need to do makeup and clothes that compliment your figure….”

Haley’s voice trailed off. The dressing ...

“A nail gun is my preference” said Dova as she led me around the room “in fact, no matter what circumstance you are in, a nail gun will never fail you, especially if you know how to aim it.

“a nail gun it is.” I shrugged, not entirely sure why. Maybe I should have picked something more traditional, when it came down to life or death, but I had learned to trust Dova. And after my staff was destroye...

He sat in the brush with a gaping wound, pecked into him by one of the birds.

Nothing had been the same since the birds had turned on his town. They were trained as killers and they’d gone straight to his heart. He had nothing on him aside from the clothes he was wearing when he fled in his car.

He controlled his breathing so as not to make noise and draw attention to himself, and he held his c...

The slab of ice was taller than me, and I swallowed nervously before selecting my tools.

The camera in the corner of the cold room had its red light blinking away steadily, and I knew that the whole world was watching me.

When I’d woken up here hours before, I had tried pleading with my captors, even trying to use the chisel to break my way out. However, my kidnapper was smart, and turned the li...

My infatuation with the jungle must of started with Tarzan then

I watched endless hours of the scene with Jane way back when

I always had a mind that twisted like those vines in the tree wood

I developed a skill with ropes and chains learning what I could

As I grew up and finished high school I was working in a rope store

Helping the owners twist and knot their business I like that’s for sure ...

One chilly night during their travels, with no inn around, Huo Linghun made a fire to keep them warm. Starting a fire was an important survival skill that he had learned long ago and it was very useful in all his travels.

It was not something Xiao Xin had ever had the chance to learn. Today it was Huo Linghun's turn to ask a question. "When you were in the crater," he began, "how did you stay wa...