Literary Lion. Catch me if you can.

 

Thank you to everyone who has responded to Literary Lion so far. The kitty has meowed for another week, and the word is ‘Escape‘.

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You have seven days to craft a story of 400 words or less, inspired by the prompt ‘Escape’. Remember to include the tag ‘Literary Lion’ in your piece and to pingback to this post so we can find your work in the WordPress reader. I encourage you all to try and read each other’s work and leave some feedback, there are some wonderful stories being told each week.

Please do tweet me your stories too, or tag me on instagram and remember the hashtag #literarylion

And so to my ‘escape’ inspired tale…

 

No Way Out.

I thought her breathing techniques were flawed. That calm, velvet hued voice was trying to control my abdomen. I resisted for as long as I could.

The sleek synthetic strands twisted across my wrists, almost beautiful. The threads frayed, cracking into untidy tendrils as they snaked past skin cells, drawing rusty droplets that tainted their clean coils. My blue veins pulsed beneath the grip of the rope, staining the fibres further with every heart-powered throb.

When there’s no way out you either pray or resign yourself. Tonight, defeat. I was futile in the battle, witless in the war, completely hopeless against the takeover.

She edges towards me with her mirrored tray, empty but for one glass cylinder of clear fluid. Her closed fist nears my chest and she unfurls her fingers to reveal the mint and black capsule in the centre of her palm. She pleads with me for cooperation.

I imagine the muscles of her neck convulsing beneath my thumbs, but my hands are hopeless, bound to the white metal bars of the bed. I thrash my legs, but my body is shrouded by drearily patterned polyester.

She leans towards my ear. Whispering. Breathe in for seven, out for eleven, give the parasympathetic nervous system a chance.

The sleek synthetic strands twist across my wrists, almost beautiful.

 

lips

56 thoughts on “Literary Lion. Catch me if you can.

  1. Excellent invoking of fear and loss of control. And that little video is horrifying of course! I love that repeated sentence, it’s beautifully formed. Andy favourite is the “drearily patterned polyester” 🙂

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  2. I liked your story. It was terrifying but it reminded me of my Baba who has scizophrenia getting electric shock treatment in the 60,s. That trapped horrifying feeling of losing one’s self.

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  3. Literally, it’s a spy, right? Pinned and about to be given a truth drug from the clear cylinder, or suppository (?!?). She/He has used his hands to kill before. He/She knows controlled breathing techniques to calm him/herself.

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    1. But awaits the inevitable relaxing of the perceived “baddies” trust/attention to invoke an improbable escape – usually involving ropes, pulleys, smoke screens, sharks and a bit of cheeky-chappy Britishness.

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  4. Or metaphorically, an everyday nightmare about the banality and mundanity of life and the perceived lack of control over the direction our lives are shuffling towards – constrained and numb to affect the course of pain and finality that will inevitably be administered via a multitude of artificial mechanisms.

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  5. I just found you, Laura and I must say, what a fascinating writer you are! Your story has great characterization, description, setting and just enough chilling information to thrill me! Love this! I think I may give your prompt a chance 🙂

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      1. You are most welcome, Laura 🙂 Awesome 😀 I found some time today to work on a story for the prompt… so hopefully I will get something up today 😀

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  6. I’m not at all surprised you’ve been inducted into literary magazines, Laura. I’ve always found your writing to be crisp. I remember a lot of three sentence stories before, it’s nice to read something a little longer from you. My favorite part? The microscopic detail of the skin cells and the slivering of the threads. I’ll post something inspired by your prompt soon. Ish.

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    1. Hello Nathan! It would be really great to have you answer one of the prompts, whenever you find the time or the inspiration takes you is fine. Thank you very much, that’s very kind. I’ve told myself to start making an effort to find the time to write longer blog posts, so it’s lovely to get some positive feedback about them!

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