Prompt Me, Prompt Me - 1. Week 1: 8/11 to 8/17

Day 1: 8/11

Prompt: 3 nouns - confidence, City, Liberty

Staring at himself in the mirror, Mark brushed his hair to the side. He smirked at his reflection. He had moved to the farthest city that he could when he had turned eighteen and had not regretted his decision since arriving. He had done a few jobs through his college life so far; lived in the dorms for the last two years, living in an efficiency during the summer months, and saving up. He was in his third year, had just turned twenty-one, was living in dorm apartments and was dating.

“Moving to Liberty was a good move,” Mark told his reflection, getting a wink back before he smirked and walked from the bathroom that he shared with his three roommates into his bedroom. Closing the door behind him, he walked the short distance to his closet, digging around in it. He pulled out a pair of pumpkin orange jeans that had ghosts and hissing cats embroidered onto it and a giant black sweater that had pumpkins dancing around the bottom and end of the sleeves.

Getting dressed was a quick and easy process, and Mark topped it off with a pair of comfortable ankle boots before he worked some hair gel through his hair. Dressed for the night, he tucked his wallet into his back pocket, attached his wallet leash to a belt loop and grabbed his keys, leaving his room to collect his friends and roommates.

“Come on you guys! I want food before we hit the party!” he called, Brian groaning as he came out of his bedroom, shoving his wallet into his own pocket, keys shoved into another pocket.

“Why are we going to this frat thing?” he asked, shoving his glasses up his face. “And don’t ask me about the contacts and where they are. I’m out until next week.” Mark held up his hands with a smile as Kyle walked out with Lee of their bedroom.

“Because this is my boyfriend’s first year as head of the frat? And he has three more years of head while he gets the rest of his degree levels?” Mark replied, smirking.

Lee rolled black eyes before pulling his silky black hair into a ponytail messily and just so very him. “Come along. You know that he’s wanting to support his man. Just like I support you,” he said, sending Kyle a teasing smile. Kyle snickered.

“Calm down, Brian. You might see that that one guy you have a hard on for,” Kyle drawled. Brian shuddered and gagged.

“Now I need a pre-party game drink for that comment.” He smacked Kyle’s arm before making sure that they all had what they needed, including the dozens of cookies that Mark and Brian had made in the last couple of days for the pre-party get together with the frat.

They arrived at the frat house ten minutes later, the pledges helping haul the cookies into the house with cheers before they went back to doing the last-minute prep work for the party.

Mark was swept up by a large male in a kiss, getting a beaming smile as Lex smirked and lead them into the dining room where the frat and their close friends were already hanging out. “Hey there, love,” the man greeted, getting a smile from Mark.

“Thanks. Looks good so far,” Mark said, batting at Leon’s hair, getting the man to pout at him. “How are the pledges doing?” he asked.

“Good enough to get move past base level,” Leon stated, handing over plates to Mark, Kyle, and Lee, seeing that Brian had walked off to the alcohol station and was mixing up a light coke and rum. “If you’ll excuse me,” he drawled, heading towards the other male.

Mark looked around before looking at his empty plate. Lex raised an eyebrow. “Why is it every person that I know or come in contact is somehow gay, pan or some form of LGBTQ plus?” he asked, much to his boyfriend’s amusement.

Day 2: 8/13/19

Prompt: Mist

It was kind of damp against the skin. Lingering in the air like fog, making it hard to see very far past their position. Alendra crossed her arms under her chest and stared at the gates. They were close to finding the bodies of those who had been removed from their graves. They knew that putting them back into their graves would mean that they would be free from the estate.

But currently, the rain was a fine mist that fell over the ghost town, and even into their city.

She sighed, tilting her head back, closing her eyes and hugging herself. “I hate this,” she said to the sky, unable to stop herself. “I hate that they were hurt and that they are trapped. But we never did anything to them, so why are we stuck?” she whined.

“Because we stepped on the land and their curse went live. Juliana did say that they didn’t want the innocents to be caught, but we had enough people for this to happen,” Kyle said as he walked up to her. He was under a very large umbrella and stood next to her, making her shiver at the fact that her skin was wet in the wind without the shield of the mist.

“Yeah,” she sighed, shaking her head. “Did we get the tarps up?” she asked, turning to the camp. Kyle nodded.

“Yep. I’m glad that Richard is such a paranoid bastard and brought all those cans of food,” Alendra sighed. Her head tipped up to stare at the underside of the umbrella, watching the way the way the misting rain slid down the umbrella. “It’s helped make all of our food stretch the way it has. How long have we been here?”

Kyle wrinkled his nose. “Nearly two weeks now. Richard is already typing up the information that we’ve found and is doing interviews. He wanted to talk to you about this last week.”

“I’ll send him my video diaries. I know that we’ve all been keeping them,” Alendra said, smiling at her friend. “Come on. Let’s head back to the campsite. I want a warm fire and some damn polish dogs. Maybe some of those chips that I brought for our last day here and the party we were going to throw for a job well done.” She turned over to her friend and smiled. “I also want to find a quiet spot to cuddle with my girl in a two-person tent.”

Richard gagged. “For a man so open to whatever makes you happy, I do not want to know what you and Maria get up to. No. Seriously. Don’t tell me,” he said. “I’ve spent so much damn time with you lot that I can’t see you in any kind of fashion beyond siblings. Much less sexual.”

Alendra cackled as she walked with her friend to the camp, finding that indeed the tarps had been draped in such a way as to protect the camp fire from the mist, the chairs surrounding the fire. She sat next to her lover and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Hi there.”

“Feelin’ better?” Maria asked. Alendra smiled and looked at her circle of friends.

“Yeah. Okay, we havin’ these polish dogs or what?” she asked. Kyle laughed and held up the bag of polish dogs while Richard held up the buns and two-pronged forks.

Day 3: 8/13/2019

Prompt: Does she know about the baby?

“So.” Lex looked at his ex-girlfriend and the woman who kept trying to pass off her child as his. Never mind that with a little research and digging, a person could learn the truth. “Does he know about our baby?” she asked, smirking.

“Oh, you mean the baby that is actually the baby of a scam artist who is now sitting in federal prison?” Lex smirked as Rose walked around the back of her chair with glasses of lemonade in hand, placing them down. He handed her one and took his own as he sat next to Lex, crossing his legs. Her scowl was rather epic all things considered and made him snicker. “Yeah. He told me. I even paid the fifty-five-dollar fee, and the nearly four hundred dollar printing fee for the court transcripts,” he drawled. “We have all of that information now so that anyone who comes after you for that kind of bull will be handed copies of it.”

Lex smirked. “Your lawyer should be receiving the files that I told him about sometime today. Along with the fact that you hid the money that you are paid by the baby daddy,” he said, crossing his legs. Rose smiled sweetly.

“You really should have done your research,” Rose said. “I’m a researcher by nature. And Lex isn’t one to hide the fact that you’re a woman who just wants to fuck with his life.”

The woman hissed. Lex snorted. “Hey, you were the one who sent the lawyer after me with no information on what happened between us. Ain’t my fault that you thought that this would be a good idea,” he drawled.

She snarled and stood, slamming out of the house, making the windows rattle. Rose sipped his drink and looked at them. “We really should get those sills fixed. The rattling is getting annoying.”

Lex hummed and nodded. “I’ll call my people. See if they have time in the next month,” he promised, eyeing the half full cup of lemonade. “When did she drink that?”

“No idea but I do hope that she doesn’t have gastric issues,” Rose drawled. “I used some orange juice in the lemonade this time.” Lex looked down at his lover, remembered that the woman had issues with drinking or eating anything orange. Like someone with lactose intolerance, she would be stuck in a bathroom, cursing her life for a long while.

“I can’t seem to find it in myself to give a fuck,” he finally said, getting a smile from Rose.

Day 4: 8/14/2019

Prompt: Anxiety, Castle, Ghost

“I hate you,” Mara hissed, clinging to her boyfriend. They were on vacation, going across the United States visiting ‘haunted’ places. Sometimes taking pictures for their work and various articles that they were being paid for. They had found a kind of a mini-castle house that had been long ago abandoned, the history of the place filled with normal everyday death. But there was a myth that it was used for rituals and sacrifices, making Alexander want to visit it.

Now that they were at the house, she was feeling worried. The trees were huge and overgrown, leaving very little light to filter through the leaves. Alexander had a large flashlight in his hand, Mara holding a longer one with a headlamp. They were walking up to the front door.

Alexander snorted and rolled his eyes. “Calm down, would you?” he teased, shaking his head. He reached out and twisted the doorknob, finding that it was easy to open, pushing the door open. “Come on. Those old myths are a bunch of bullshit,” he said. “The only place we’ve seen that is legit haunted was the Winchester House.”

“And you got pushed down the side stairs for your insults, to,” Mara snorted, following him into the house. She carefully shut the door, finding that the locks that would lock the door closed was nothing more than a hook that would sit over a D-Ring. “They didn’t think much of locks, did they?” she asked.

“Not really,” Alexander hummed, shoving black hair out of his face as he swung the flashlight around with a frown. “Looks kind of boring,” he admitted, heading to the left.

Wandering after him, Mara shook her head with a groan. “I do not want to be here.”

Alexander shined his flashlight around what looked like a greeting room with a frown. “I know. You’ve told me this nearly five times now. I just want to get some pictures for work. You know that they want us to hit this place,” he said, holding up the bag with his camera. “Come on. It’ll be fast and easy. I just need you to hold the lights for me,” he continued.

Mara groaned but put her down flashlight on a table next to the door, allowing the light to shine onto a covered piece of furniture. “Fine, whatever,” she sighed, taking the small light. It would be connected to his camera and flash whenever he needed it to, and all she needed to do was point it in the right directions. “A Mastery in the Arts with a focus on Photography and I’m fucking helping you take pictures of a spooky fucking place. I’m going to need to take a hit sooo hard when we get to the hotel,” she warned.

Alexander smirked and winked at her as he set up his camera. “Look, just a few pics per room. I might just do a series of them on high speed and get a bunch in a single batch,” he said, adjusting his camera.

Mara wrinkled her nose and dug around in one deep pocket, pulling out a set of colored glasses. Sliding them on, she watched as he pointed the camera to one wall, standing in the middle with him, pointing the light. She very carefully moved in the ten seconds that the camera shuttered, shifting the light over the wall.

He did the same thing with the rest of the room. In all it took them about a minute to get the pictures. Standing, they pressed together as Alexander flipped through the pictures, making sure that they were taken correctly. They both stared at a picture.

Next to the cold fireplace, cobwebs showing through, was a person wearing a long, simple dress, staring at them. She was scowling at them, as if insulted by the fact that they had invaded her house.

Flipping between the pictures on either side of the picture, it was as if she was there and then she was gone within the single frame. “Nope.” Mara shook her head, shoved the light into Alexander’s hands and stalked out. “Not fucking around with ghosts. Fuck this shit. I’m going to get high and eat so much Taco Bell,” she called, grabbing her flashlight on the way out of the living room.

Alexander looked at his camera again before deciding that she was right. He grabbed his own camera and ran after her, cursing his luck. His bosses would just have to suck it up and send an actual crew out for pictures if they wanted pictures that badly.

Day 5: 8/15/2019

Prompt: Low

“That’s low.” Karla looked over at her best friend before turning back to the computer screen. “He’s calling you a bitch and a prude? Really?” Mary hissed, shaking her head.

Karla sighed. “At least he learned his lesson from when Julie spread around that he had a tiny dick,” she said, rubbing at her face. “I still can’t believe this shit though. I’m not a virgin,” she whined. “I’ve fucked my ex-boyfriend. Several times.”

“And it was good from what you told me,” Mary said.

Karla sighed. “I should have kept our sex toys,” she muttered. “But this is low. I didn’t want his diseased ass so he’s calling me a prudish, scared virgin? Is he hoping that doing this will make me let him fuck me or something?” she asked, resting her arm on her chairs arm. “What is this? High school? I thought we ditched that bullshit in freshmen year of college.”

Mary groaned and shook her head, sitting back in her own chair, pulling one leg up. She rested her chin on her knee, staring at her friend. “Do you think we can get him for slander?” she asked. “You’re pre-law right?”

Karla hummed. “If I can prove it. Yeah. I’ve already downloaded the videos and got the screenshots with me scrolling along with the still screenshots,” she said. “Considering that it is fucking with my reputation from what I’ve seen, which I need for my future as a lawyer, I think I might have a good case against him. The bullshit that he’s spreading around can fall under libel laws. But I’m not sure. I’ll have to talk with my mentor when she has some time,” she said.

Picking up her phone, Karla flipped through her messages and found the thread between her and her mentor, shooting off a message with as much of the information in compact form as she could. She added a request to talk to her face to face. Putting her phone down, she turned to her friend.

“So that’s why you wanted to use the bot to record that thread and anything from him and anything that has your name or his,” Mary said, rocking in her chair. “I’m glad that my final project could help though. And that it seems to be working.”

“There’s a reason why I had you put all of your information down and wrote out how the bot works,” Karla said, looking to her desktop. Mary hummed. “Thanks again though. I’m just hoping that I’ll be able to force him to retract his statement in all sorts of forms,” she said.

“Still a low dick move.”

Karla huffed. “Yep. And he’s going to get fucked by this,” he drawled, Mary humming.

“I need mudslides,” she finally said, standing up and leaving her computer to do whatever it needed to do with the bot.

Day 6: 8/16/2019

Prompt: island, wolf, fishing boat

Staring the wolf down, Marius cursed his now ex-lover to the pits of hell. And if he could do it himself, he would enjoy it. The fucker had left him on an island with a bunch of wolves, a single house, and a boat that he had been fixing for the last week to get the fuck off the island. “I will fuck his shit up,” he muttered as the wolf huffed at him, flopping onto it’s back.

Marius rolled his eyes and reached out to bury his fingers into thick fur. The first week, while chopping down a tree to use to fix a few things inside of the boat, which was more of a houseboat than anything, the wolf had found him. Then had stolen his lunch. Finding the wolf, he found that the large male was bringing food to a female who was youngish and hurt. Gaining his trust had taken a lot of fresh fish, but he had been able to help get her paw fixed.

She had returned to their pack, but he had followed him back to the house and refused to leave. He often slept on the porch in front of his bedroom, but sometimes the large gray wolf would come in and steal most of the bed much to Marius’ amusement.

“I’m just lucky that the fucker forgot that I worked on boats for a good fifty years,” he drawled. “When I tell Kendra what he did to me, she’s going to shove him into a sarcophagus and shove him into a crypt for fifty years,” he snorted. His ears twitched at the sounds of birds, picking up his bow. Narrowing his eyes, he spotted the large bird, finding that it was one of the large turkeys that his ex-boyfriend had let loose on the island. There were parrots and other birds that helped to feed the wolves along with a few types of natural small deer like creatures.

He hated deer meat, no matter what kind, and thus had so far stuck to birds and whatever he could fish for. He had thought about using a tank to keep some of the fish in but had decided not to do that. It would have meant work for him since some of the fish needed certain foods to survive, thus he had decided to hunt for what he needed, keeping a good chunk of the meat and letting his wolf friend have the rest of the meat.

It worked for them.

Taking down their dinner, he stood, gathered the bird along with the other one that he had caught earlier and hiked back to the house. “Just another couple of days and then I’m fucking up out of here,” he drawled. “The idiot should know better than to drop a fae off on an island full of nature.”

The wolf huffed at him in agreement, padding silently beside him. It took Marius about ten minutes to clean and prep half of the bird for his own dinner, with enough for leftovers the next day. The other half of the bird and the innards that were good went to the wolf, who happily ate it down before leaving to hunt for a bit more food. Shaking his head, Marius cleaned up the porch and his counter while the bird cooked, mentally planning everything that he would do to his ex.

The damn vampire was going to regret everything he did.

Day 7: 8/17/2019

Prompt: Tower

The tower was…tall. Lean instead of wide but reached for the sky more than other towers. She raised an eyebrow as she stared at the glass and metal monstrosity that she had been called to. Adjusting her hold on her bags, Karla walked into the building, hiking up the stairs to the third floor.

“Tell me that the damn elevator has been fixed,” she groused to Marius. The fae smirked and shook his head.

“We’ll have to send the body down the backway,” he said, shifting on his feet. She noted that he was looking a little more sexual than normal, wearing a pair of green jeans that hugged every inch of his legs and hips, an over-shirt buttoned up instead of his normal polos and khakis. “Get called in?” she asked.

“I was celebrating being home from the island with a few friends that you don’t like,” he explained. “Luckily we were on the way to the bar instead of there, so I haven’t had anything to drink yet.”

Karla sniffed, eyebrow raising. “Nice red with dinner?” she asked. Marius nodded with a smirk. “Just the one and I’m guessing a few hours ago with good food.” She sighed and looked to the apartment where there were two large officers were standing on either side. A small table with booties and gloves waiting for them. There were also small brown bags for the used booties and gloves next to them, a brown box with two bags in there. “Nasty?”

Marius groaned but nodded. “Yes. It’s looking like it’s him,” he said, walking over to the table. They pulled on booties, Karla ignoring the offered gloves to pull on a pair of her thicker black colored gloves.

“I’m going to hate this, aren’t I?” she asked, handing one of the cameras that she carried over.

“So very much,” Marius said, holding out a specialized mask that would filter out the scents that were just tickling her notes. Sighing, she pulled it on, being careful of her hair and stepped inside. Staring at the body that was artfully posed on a bed that sat in the middle of the studio apartment, the rest of the furniture pushed against the wall, she sighed. “Welp. Yep. That would be the asshole we’re after,” he said, shaking her head.

“Thus why I was called in,” Marius said, crossing his arms. “We do know that this guy is a paid killer. He likes killing, but he likes being paid for it more. But no one can find the fucker. He uses so many ways of contacting his people that it’s hard to just follow the trail. Last guy he used a trained pigeon to send messages to them. The pigeon trainer would then take the mini-SD cards that were put into the container and send it to an empty house. From there, it would be passed on to other people before it disappeared. He’s good.”

“And you looked for the pigeon and whoever put the thing on right?” Karla asked as she started to take pictures of the body.

Marius hummed as he started to take pictures of the rest of the studio apartment. “It was just a messaging service. It came from four different messenger services. The one that we found it came from would receive a box with the padded envelopes with money in the box and a list of places that it was to go through to get to the pigeon,” he said. “He won’t do that for a good six years.”

Karla groaned and shook her head before putting in her earbud with microphone, hooking it up to her recorder while her assistants walked in, one of them holding a clipboard. “Our victim today is a young girl of no older than twenty years of age. Do we have an ID?” she asked Marius. He nodded and moved to a still open evidence bag.

“Maria Smith. Age twenty. I’ve already had her name called in to do a history check,” he told her.

“Victim is Maria Smith, age twenty. Weight by sight is estimated at…” Karla started, keeping up her commentary while her assistant took hand notes. Marius took his own notes of the apartment, going over it carefully with the other assistant and collecting evidence.

He was not looking forward to telling another set of parents that their child had been killed. And probably because someone had been told ‘no’.