To have your challenge entry recorded, please write your piece as a reply to this thread . As a central theme of Consistency is the existence of time — ensuring that you are writing on a timely and daily basis — the theme of this month’s prompts will also be about time.
Today's prompt: [Ephemeral]
Definition: lasting a very short time; short-lived.
╰┈➤ Write a piece inspired by this meaning.
Word Count: Minimum 100 words, no maximum
The wind was blowing in the dark of the night, with me trying to sniff out the truth from Eliza.
I shifted closer to her, like that was going to help. “Seriously though, are you okay?”
She tilted her head, her legs kicking the salty air at the edge. “Why would you think I’m not?”
That made me pause. Why would I? The moon was shining, she was wearing her favorite melon perfume in her favorite hoodie. With the taste of our previous laughter still on our lips, this should be the best night ever.
But I knew better.
“Come on,” I nudged her with my elbow. “What’s up?”
“Nothing is up, Marge.” She sighed, resting her back on the rooftop with her arms spread out. “Come on. It’s not like I was bawling out seconds ago.”
I followed suite, laying down. Stars were spinning above me, with the bright colorful lights of the city trying to reach them. I knotted my hands on my chest. “Well, if you did that I’d definitely know something was wrong.”
“Exactly. So what’s with all the fuss?”
“I just…” I turned to her, grabbing one of her hands. Calloused and firm, but warm. I closed my eyes at the familiar feeling, then said quietly, “At least like, tell me what’re you thinking?”
I didn’t get an answer then.
That…was fine. Maybe she wasn’t really thinking much at all (that was a possibility) and maybe I was overthinking (that was definitely a possibility). Besides, I could spend hours like this. Under the stars, in our favorite spot on the rooftop and her hand in mine.
I just…
Something swelled in my heart, pressing against the walls of my chest. Holding her hand tighter, I tried to push it down. Unsuccessfully anyways, because then a thought rises in my head and refuses to go.
I just want her to be safe and happy.
“I…” I flinched when Liz broke the silence. “Well, we get to spend the whole middle school and high school together, and now the whole time in college! Well, a bit of time in college but…” When I opened my eyes, I saw hers staring back at me warmly. She grinned. “It’ll be fun!”
I blinked, then made a smile of my own. “Yeah, it will be. Too bad we weren’t able to be roommates together though…”
“Still…we’re leaving our old lives and taking a big step.”
We giggled, then she was back at staring at the stars with a faraway look on her face. Like she was up there with them—or she wished so, when she smiled and said, “Any last doubts?”
It had the same funny tone I’d expect from Liz, but under that was a tiny hint of uncertainty. “None. You?” I raised an eyebrow at her.
She must’ve felt my stare, because then she met my eyes again. Even though she was still smiling…were her eyes a little glossy, or was it just me? “I just…” She sighed. “I don’t know…”
“Tell me? Please?”
She shifted. “I just…I don’t want this thing between us to be short-lived, y’know?”
“What do you mean? We’ll go to the same university—“
But we don’t have the same classes. We don’t have the same rooms.
Oh.
When I looked at her, as in really looked at her, she was a woman who was just told her spouse died in the sea. “I—I don’t want to drift apart from you. I don’t want another person in my life to be consumed by her work—“
I couldn’t stop myself when I cupped her cheek in my hand and brushed a stray tear away with my thumb. “It’s okay…we won’t drift apart, don’t worry.”
“How—“ Her voice cracked, so she took a deep breath and tried again. “How would you even know that..?”
I pulled her closer to press our foreheads together. “Sure, our hobbies might’ve brought us together but…everything we planted together, our trust, our boundaries, and our promises? We made that. And no one and nothing could ever take that away. Okay?”
She sniffed, wrapping an arm around my waist. “Okay…”
I pulled back a little to see her face, and smiled. “I promise.”
Leaning in slowly, I whispered it against her lips.
I promise.
WC: 717 What I listened to while writing this: Porter Robinson - Divinity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si81bIoZRJQ&ab_channel=PorterRobinsonVEVO Pegboard Nerds: Emoji: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9TDJK-1L4E&ab_channel=PegboardNerds (It's still 9:17 pm for me so I hope I'm not late ;-;)
The sky is adorned in a palette of gray, the clouds ever changing overhead as time slowly trickles by, the wind billowing over the hills. You smile at the world like it couldn’t have been a happier place and I smile back because you make me believe it is.
“There,” you say, tying the last ribbon on the string of our bright red kite.
“It’s brilliant,” I grin. "You try it out first”
“Heh, you’re the one who designed it.” You pushed the kite into my hands. “I insist!”
I raise an eyebrow
“Alright,” I say, “But keep up if you can!”
I bolt down the hill; the kite rising from the earth with you close on my heels. After so long we’re here, the whole world around us when for so long we were trapped behind screens. I’m glad you came back to visit me and I hope it never ends because it feels so warm to have a friend by your side and it feels so good to be loved.
Suddenly, my feet slip as I stumble over a rock. I hear you shout my name, but it’s too late and I’m falling… falling.
Shivering, I pull my blanket closer. The room is silent and still and I stare at the ceiling where the first rays of the morning sun are dancing. Dreams are always so short-lived. A sigh escapes my mouth.
I miss you.
★☆ word count - 174 ☆★
cw (??) - de@th
She's only sixteen. Her kind live to the hundreds, and yet, she's only sixteen.
I stand still, my mind blank and refusing to think and my body unable to move. There, a few feet in front of me, she lay limp on the cold floor. Her eyes blink slowly.
Wynn looms over her and in his hands sit the very thing I swore to protect her from: death.
"V-Vaella..." My whimpering alert Wynn to my presence. The heavy sword falls from his grasp as he staggers backward. I advance on him.
"She's only sixteen!" I pick up the sword from the ground. "How could you do this?"
He mutters an apology, that he was out of his state and he mistook her for an enemy, but her life was the price for his mistake. I point the blade at his neck.
"Ilehs, I-"
I didn't wait for him to finish. I swing the blade in reckless fury, screaming.
She's too young...
Her kind do not live ephemeral lives, and yet, she died too young.
→untitled alien wip
Brooklyn was never a person who could make relationships last. Whether it is a romantic or a platonic one they always fall apart after two or three months. It was never the other that caused the problems, there was just something wrong with her. Not to say she wasn't a friendly or kind person, far from it. However, she always gets nervous that her friendships will end, and then it just becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. It was honestly pretty pathetic how nervous she got talking to them after a while, for most people it would become more comfortable after a while, but no she just had to be different. For her when a relationship starts it's easy and comfortable. "It's not like they can hurt me by leaving. I barely even know them." She would always say with confidence.
Eventually though those relationships become important to her, and she cares about their opinion of her. She gets those annoying little voices in the back of her head, "You'd just annoy them if you talk to them now." And other dumb stuff like that. No matter how hard she tries to ignore them she always lets them get to her eventually. Then she stops talking to them as much and it leads to them drifting apart. Like clockwork she had just gotten another friend, and as surely as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west she had stopped talking to them as often due to fear of them hating her for being so clingy. She knows these fears are unfounded and just lead to the same outcome as she fears and tries to avoid. Knowing is half the battle, but although the war is winnable this battle is certainly not. Brooklyn mourned losing this friendship so soon, but she had already given up hope, and when that's gone all is lost. She has been so distant and it went on for over a month without any reason that they could see. They spoke about it together and they agreed that she hasn't been being that good of a friend. They said they were willing to give another chance though, and when Brook heard that it was like a miracle. It of course may not turn out well, but with their words there is a chance. She'll try her very best to be a better friend. Only time will tell if she is able to make a change and keep it, or if all of her friendships will stay only ephemeral. {Word count is 424}
Arccy the Shroomie here :wave: The night was buzzing with cheery music and the excited chatter of people who hadn’t bothered to see each other in ages yet now pretended as if they were the closest of friends. Seraphine scoffed at them whenever she passed by but otherwise paid them no mind. They weren’t even worthy of being a crossing through in her head, something she reminded herself of as she wandered through the dancing couples, offering the occasional person a stifled smile.
Plenty of young men and women around her age approached her, either to ask her to dance or to otherwise insinuate that they should, but Seraphine declined each and every invitation with only the bare minimum of respect she could muster, leaving her alone to wander throughout the night in search of some way to kill the time until she could eventually make her escape.
She was about to slip away when a strong hand gripped her arm, pulling her away from freedom and instead towards a group of middle aged women. Her mother’s friends.
“Darling, Sera! I couldn’t help but notice you didn’t dance with anyone tonight…” her mother pouted as she shook her head. “Not feeling well?”
Seraphina sighed at her mother’s poor attempts to care, an act put up exclusively to uphold appearances in front of her friends. And that was all it was. Seraphina crossed her arms over her chest, turning away from the group only for her eyes to find a far more intriguing specimen in the crowd. A young man around her own age, but much to her surprise she had never seen him before. A welcome bit of intrigue to spice up the boring evening.
Without another word to the group she parted from them, walking in a steady line towards the young man who seemed entirely lost among the group of nobles. Seraphina took his searching hand into hers, an action which caused him to turn around abruptly and their eyes met.