Checking in

Holy crap am I behind! And I'm sorry for that. But life has come together as of late to create sort of a perfect storm of a creativity blocking nature. As in, I've got nothing. No time, no inclination, no ideas, no nothing basically. But for my amazing handful of dedicated readers, I promise I'll be back soon and your dedication will be rewarded!

Post-Journey

So. I know this story is a wee bit different than my previous ones have been. And there are several reasons for that. The first of which is that this whole write a story a week for a year thing is a bit more intense than I thought it would be so I asked dearest Sh to give me an assignment this week (so the first sentence is of his provision, the rest is mine). The second of which is that I had to keep the story under 500 words, also per the assignment. The third of which is that because the starting sentence was so lyrical, I really wanted to just take the opportunity to play with words. I didn’t start off with a character sketch of any kind. I didn’t start off with any kind of situation or plot ideas. I just started playing with really rich language and decided to see where it took me.

Where it took me was not only to this place of dramatic and lovely language, but also an exploration of balance. As the light shifted to shadow, so the he needed a she. As his adoration of her blossomed so did her detestation of him. As the fear typically brings fear, so did that fear transcend into dancing. And so on and so forth. I’m not entirely sure if it worked all the way through, but it was actually a really fun exercise to just let the words come and see where they took me.

What did you think?

Journey

But because the quality of the light had changed from yellowish to gray, he could not. He could not encapsulate the feeling in the room. He could not step back from her or, more exactly, from the reflection of her. The light shifted to shadow and took the breath out of the whispers that had just been sent across the room in an effort to bend her ear and her heart towards him once more. The shadow skittered across the ceiling chasing the last bits of illumination out the window that had been purposefully propped open to give the sun an exit. The shadow that had at first stunned into silence now wrapped around the limbs and trunks in an embrace. Giving safety, allowing investigation. Gray fingers enticed her towards him, lured her towards his presence. His singular presence in the room full of aimlessness. Aimless wandering in the dark, aimless giggling at the chance brushes of hips and fingers. But he had not moved since the shadow had displaced the light. His gaze had focused on where he had left her, on where he had aimed his whispers. His intentions were rooted in the colors that had splashed through the crystals nestled in the nook at the base of her throat. Those colors had crept into her eyes as she smiled. That smile that had disappeared when she’d seen him across the room. But now, now she was wending her way toward him, deliberately choosing steps that would take her away from the others now waltzing across the wooden floor, in the dark. He could feel her approach and renewed his commitment to stillness. The one point of stillness in the whirl of movement. The movement that stirred the air across his neck and her wrists. The air they were now sharing. Sharing in a moment of anticipation. His eyes had adjusted to the dim and focused on the line from her cheekbones down her jaw. She caught a glimpse of the sheen across his teeth as his lips pulled into a grin. He was starting to draw comfort from her shadow being when the loud crack of her palm across his face ushered the light back in with great haste. Opening his eyes after a breath and a moment to re-grow accustomed, he found that he could.