First Campaigner Challenge

Hey all! Time for the First Campaigner Challenge! Or would it be, the Fourth First Campaigner Challenge? Anyway, I’m posting about a day early so I can get in on the fun.

Rachhas given us a good one this time:

  

    Write a short story/flash fiction story in 200 words or less, excluding the title. It can be in any format, including a poem. Begin the story with the words, “Shadows crept across the wall”. These five words will be included in the word count.

    If you want to give yourself an added challenge (optional), do one or more of these:

        end the story with the words: "everything faded." (also included in the word count)

        include the word "orange" in the story

        write in the same genre you normally write

        make your story 200 words exactly!

Cool, right? So I spit on my mental hands and here’s my entry. Dystopian, of course:

Shadows crept across the wall. The sun hung over the trees, fat and orange. I used to love this time of day, the way every sunset was different from the one before it. Some pink, some gray. Some so rich it looked like you could scoop the color out of the air.

It’s a lie, you know, to say you don’t appreciate anything until it’s gone. I appreciated each one. I just never thought this was how it would be taken from me. That each sunset would bring screams from the people who didn’t make it inside. That I could never see one again because it meant the monsters were awake and hunting us.

My daughter asked where her mom was. I’m a coward, I didn’t answer. I told her there was no time, she had to get in the storm cellar. “Time for bed!” I told her. She frowned and it made my heart weep. She looks just like Amara.

I ushered her inside, stealing one last glance at the sun dipping behind the trees. Then my daughter screamed and I didn’t know why. It was beautiful.

It landed next to me, blood stinking on its breath.

Everything faded.

SHAZAM!

Like it? It's number 74, so vote for it if you do.