Prompt Me, Prompt Me - 3. Week 3: Aug 25 to Aug 31

Week 3

8/25/2019

Prompt: loud

The music thrummed through the building, even in the rooms that were set up to allow people to rest and relax. To talk without having to shout over the music of the club. It was a dull pulse, but still loud within them, the bar that was situated on the second floor getting a good chunk of it.

Bo was amused while Markus muttered about new DJ’s who couldn’t control their bass and volume enough to not make his glasses shake. Markus just shot his lover a look before shoving the glasses back into place and putting the holding lock on so that they didn’t slide out. “I’m going to bitch at the owner,” he stated, purple stained lips pulling into a frown.

Bo just smiled and brought his glass of whiskey up to his lips, letting the smooth liquor run over his tongue. “It is a tad loud. Don’t they get informational packets on how loud they can be?” he asked.

Markus grunted as he moved to the next rack of glasses, putting the locking gates up. “Yeah. They do. I don’t think this one read them though so we’re going to have to lodge a complaint about this guy,” he said. He dug out the work phone he carried around in his apron pocket and pulled up his texting service, sending a complaint to the boss that was in for the night. With that done, he dropped it back into his apron pocket and moved to wash glasses.

“Quiet night,” Bo mused, eyeing the half-filled room, Markus humming.

“It’s a Wednesday before finals week. Most of our clientele are at home, studying. Preparing for finals. Finishing off projects and all that,” Markus replied.

“Just be glad you’re finished with that shite,” Bo replied, toasting his lover. Markus rolled his eyes.

“Oh yes. Now I get to do two more years for my Masters,” he drawled. “At least I moved up in the ranks here since slime ball got fired.”

“Ah, that reminds me,” Bo said, smirking at the other. Markus raised an eyebrow. “Marius Lee, also known as Mr. SlimeBall, has officially been charged and convicted of Lola’s murder, the drug racketeering and stalking,” he said.

Markus huffed out a laugh. “Good for him. Now maybe he’ll finally stay the fuck away. I think the last time he came by your house you were about ready to just shoot his dick off,” he said, shaking his head.

Bo shrugged with a smug smirk. “He caught a glimpse of you after a shower. Call me protective, but when someone stalks my partner, I tend to have some issues with that,” he replied. Markus rolled his eyes. Drying his hands, he let the glasses sit for the moment. The music went from nearly being able to hear every word of the song and shaking the glasses free from the shelves down to a dull roar, like it was supposed to be.

“Finally,” Markus groaned, rubbing at his ears and pulling the earbuds from his ears. Most of the people that worked there had specialized buds that canceled out certain things, allowing them to hear their customers. It made it interesting since they had to point their ear at their customers, but they worked.

He dropped one of them into one pocket and rubbed at the ear before replacing his other one. “Can you give me some soda? I think I’m done for the night,” Bo drawled, putting his empty cup down before him.

Markus just smirked, muttered curses about loud music and idiot DJ’s, and served up a cola to his lover.

8/26/2019

Prompt: hole

“Wow,” the young boy breathed, standing next to his brother as the other boy dropped a large rock down it. They waited but didn’t hear it hit bottom. “How far down is it?” he asked, looking at his brother.

The teen shrugged. “No one is sure,” he said, rocking on his feet. “I’m thinkin’ pretty deep. It’s an old mining vent,” he continued. “Grandpa and great-grandpa used to work the mines. They tell all sorta stories about finding animals that used ta fall down the vents since they had ta be so big. There are some that aren’t covered cause when they were being covered, they couldn’t find ‘em all.” He looked at his brother, the younger male wide eyed as he stared down it.

“You think they ever found a body because someone fell down it?” he asked.

The older male shrugged. “Once. Some kid got kidnapped and then shoved down one. Said that he was taken by a pedo,” he said. “They found him the next morning. Never found out who did it either.”

“Wow,” the younger male said, continuing to stare down the hole before looking up at his brother. “Who was the kid?” he asked.

The older brother rocked on his feet. “Grandpa’s baby brother,” he said.

The younger stared, mouth open. “Just like dad’s middle brother,” he breathed, the elder shrugging but nodding. “Our family seems to have a lot of issues like this.”

The elder shrugged again. “We’re not exactly liked around here. Too much Native American in us for us to be liked by a white bread town,” he said, walking around towards where a rock sat. The top was red and looked out of place seeing as it had been obviously placed on the flat rock that it sat upon. Picking it up, he weighed it and thought about the stories that his grandfather told him when his baby brother had been born.

Walking up behind the younger of them, he hefted the rock up as his brother started to turn. In a split second, the entire exchange changed. The smaller boy twisted out of the way of the descending rock, throwing the older boy off balance just enough for his brother to twist around him and push his back.

Standing over the hole, he listened to the older boys screams before they came to an abrupt halt. Standing straight, he brushed off his pants and pulled out his phone. He called his grandfather first. “You were right. Older brothers are idiots,” he said, getting a soft chuckle.

“Your father said the same thing when it was time for his sacrifice. I’ll call the police in worry that you haven’t returned from the area,” the man promised.

“Thanks, grandpa,” the little boy chirped, hanging up and sitting under some shade. He pulled out a bottle of water from their bags and sipped at it, waiting for the police to find him. He would have to put those acting skills to good use.

8/27/2019

Prompt: cockroach

It was scuttling around just outside of his hiding space, clicking and hissing. Slumping down and hoping that the mud and dust on his skin and clothes would be enough to discourage the fucker from hanging around.

Once upon a time the world worried about global warming and trying to fix the ozone layer. Once upon a time, a group of scientists had some politicians push through laws to change the way they treated the environment. First in America, and then later through the world. Once upon a time everyone loved it!

Crops grew twice as big with half of the water and soil control. Animals were happier and more plentiful for the world around. People were living longer because everything was so much better than they had been in a long time!

The cockroaches were small and squishy.

But what they didn’t remember is that at one time such bugs were as big as a normal man because the air around them was so rich in things that encouraged big everything. And humans didn’t really mutate as fast as bugs.

A normal human could grow up to about eight feet tall now. There were a few that were growing up to around ten feet or so, but the bugs…especially cockroaches outpaced them in such a way that they had to build giant steel walls and domes to keep them out. The first enclosed city had been built when people had started to find larger than normal cockroaches and other bugs that were attacking humans.

From there, those that could, moved into the cities while others created protected homes that were steel and cement in small areas. He had been heading to one to deliver letters from the main city to a smaller city that was going to join them soon. Once the homes had been built.

Luckily the cities had been built to be expanded after the areas had been cleared out. The city that he lived in was settled in the middle of what used to be known as Ohio, the small settlement that was joining his city near the border of the original state borders.

But here he was, a days’ walk away from the border, his car hidden away in a specialized house while he looked for old books or things that could be used in the cities. A cockroach hunting him down. He didn’t want to deal with fighting the damn bug.

He hated having to clean himself from the guts and inside of the giant creatures. It always took forever to get off, and a person still stank for a good day after. Listening to the bug shuffle off, he blew out his breath silently, eyes falling shut and relaxing against his wall.

Who had known fixing the damn world had been such a bad idea.

8/28/2019

Prompt: there’s someone in the house

Sitting up in bed, Tristian frowned as his cat lifted her head, murring softly in question. “There’s someone in the house,” he hummed, stroking a hand down her back. He knew that the person was probably someone he knew otherwise the alarm would have gone off if it had been cut from power that wasn’t an electrical issue. Sliding out of his bed, he padded out into the kitchen, finding his neighbor sitting at his counter, playing with a cup while the electric kettle heated water.

Sighing, he turned off the kettle, noting the instant coffee in front of Lee, and started a pot of coffee. “Again man?” he asked, shaking his head. “This chick is insane.”

“I’ve changed the lock on my door,” Lee admitted, shifting to stand up straight. “I just don’t want to deal with her pounding on the door in about an hour when she can’t get in.”

“You’re lucky that most of the apartments are being refurnished. If Mrs. Kertus was still living on this floor, she would have hit her with her cane,” Tristian said, shaking his head but smiling at his friend. “So, what’s going on?”

“I decided not to drink tonight and got to thinking,” Lee admitted, watching the coffee perk. “Thinking about how she does the shit she does. And thinking that she can just come back, expecting me to swallow it and let her continue on.” He sighed as Tristian dumped some sugar into his cup and then dumped two single serve creamers in Oreo flavor.

Tristian poured coffee for them and sat on one of his bar stools. “What else did you do? If you’re here, you probably did more than change some locks.”

Lee groaned and drank some of his coffee. “I packed her shit. I’m going to stick it in a weekly storage place, get it out of the way, and drop the keys off at her work. I stuck a suitcase with her work clothes and shit like that outside of the door. I’m just waiting for the place I’m using to open up,” he admitted.

Tristian gave his friend a look. “And you broke into my place to make coffee and hide from her huh?” he asked.

Lee smirked and sipped his coffee as the sound of pounding came down the hall followed by screeching. Tristian groaned and padded into his room, finding his cat giving him a glare before stalking out to get all the attention from his friend. He was going to call the cops and get her to shut up and then take his friend to the storage unit.

His truck would hold her shit. He didn’t particularly care if it was threatening to rain either.

8/29/2019

Prompt: Miniature

Staring at the small figurine, he moved his jewelers magnifying glass around so that he could get a better look at it. It was a simplistic model, a miniature, but still gorgeously set up to be built.

He smiled and carefully placed it on the padded stand that he could move around as he needed to. Once it was settled back against the paint stained cotton, he carefully chose his first color, the base for the rest of the paint, and dipped a thinly tipped brush in it.

The paint went over the miniature face with ease, spreading out with a little wiggling of the brush before finding the right lines and in a single, light layer. Setting that piece to the side on another piece of cotton that covered a board with rolls of batting to create a well to hold them, he turned to the next piece.

By the time that he was done with the base coat, he was ready for a cup of hot chocolate, a light snack, and a bit of stretching. Sighing, he stood and stretched his arms up over his head with a low groan. Picking up his travel mug, he padded up the stairs to the kitchen from his basement workspace. His roommate raised an eyebrow before he turned back to making a sandwich.

He pulled down a puck of Mexican hot chocolate and cut off two of the sections, dropping them into a pot. By the time he had added the milk and heated the concoction to the right temperature, his roommate had finished making his sandwich and had made one for him, leaving with his plate to his own office.

Smiling, he poured his hot chocolate, the scent of cinnamon and cocoa mingling in the air, before grabbing his plate and heading down to his miniature. He wondered if he could get most of the base colors done before he started to assemble it.

8/30/2019

Prompt: Ridicule

They had laughed and taunted him through their high school years. But now, they were coming back for a ten-year reunion. In the ten years since they had graduated, he had gotten his master’s degree in business with a specialization in small business, wrote ten books, and sold his first book nearly five years before.

Since that first book, he had reworked the seven books that were a part of a series, rewriting books eight and nine and putting them out as stand-alones in the same world.

Ryland shoved his hands into his pockets as he stood, staring out of the window of his rather nice house.

He had moved from Los Angeles the day that he had graduated, heading to Las Vegas for college. He had a shitty little apartment with a fellow business student and started working as a floor waiter for a casino. By the time that he graduated from college, he had an agent for his books and was rewriting that first book to make it even better and working as a floor manager for the waiters. It had paid good money and staying in that shitty little apartment had allowed him to build quite the nest egg.

When he graduated from college, he had been contacted by one of those who had ridiculed his writing when they had learned that he wrote. A short horror story had been bought and published in a small anthology series and it had gotten good reviews. They learned that he had kept selling stories and had asked who he had sucked the dick of to get sold.

He had simply ignored them as he had in high school and continued to work hard on his books. And now, he owned a lovely house on a hill with views to die for. He was a world-renowned writer and he was bringing out more books every year.

Ryland snorted and turned away from his window. “This will be interesting.” His pit huffed at him before groaning under his scratching hand, leaning into it with a wiggle of his tail. “I hope that you don’t mind staying with Ally. Can’t take you with me on this trip unfortunately big boy.” The pit just groaned and gave him puppy eyes. He snorted and patted his head, heading into his bedroom to pack up for the week-long trip.

He was going to enjoy seeing where his fellow classmates had ended up in life. Most especially Aaron.

8/31/2019

Prompt: Butterfly

She was such a pretty little thing. Soft and fluttery like a butterfly and colored just like one to. Just like the Malabar Banded Peacock butterfly. With pretty green hair that faded from a dark green down to a lighter one, and eyes a rich black shade, she was all delicate sweeping locks and gentle touches.

He wanted her. Desperately.

Adding another picture of her, he smiled softly as he adjusted the pinned specimen of the Malabar Banded Peacock. He had gotten lucky that the local butterfly farm allowed them to collect the dead or dying butterflies for a small price and that he had found the butterfly fully intact. It fit his little one so very well and he wanted to show her it eventually.

Smiling as he adjusted the picture of her, he looked to his other little butterfly. His little Western Tiger Swallowtail. Her hair was a natural custard blond color. He would know, seeing as he had watched her every hair appointment. Her eyes were a dark brown, almost black. And she was even more delicate than the one he was watching currently.

But he had already caught her. She stared at him with dull eyes, making him sigh and brush her hair out of her face. She had lost so much of the prettiness that had drawn him that he worried that he had waited too long. “Ah, nothing I can do but be smart next time,” he mused. He smiled and patted her cheeks. “Don’t worry. You’ll be quite the pretty little butterfly pinned in a box for me,” he cooed.

She didn’t even twitch and continued to stare at him with blank eyes. Standing straight, he left the room to prepare to pin his pretty little swallowtail.