Mysterious Man

Prompt: "Sometimes at dusk we would see him come out from the hidden interior of his island. For years we had no idea who he was or what he did until..." 
FINISH THE STORY
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The man who lived on the island was a quiet man. He rarely came into town and when he did he would buy strange things. Everyone had always assumed he wasn't married and had no children because we only ever sawa him. Yet when he came into town, he would go straight for the women's isle for the tampons.

He looked like he was middle-aged, maybe 45. His hair was already starting to turn grey at the roots and he was always dressed in wool cardigans and beige khakis. We never knew his real name so we all called him The Mysterious Man, for he was nothing if not mysterious.

Sometimes at dusk we would see him come out from the hidden interior of his island. He would stand at the boarder of trees, staring out at the water. Looking at him from our homes he was like a sort of Urban Legend; the way the light from the falling sun was just enough for us to be able to see him. Since nobody saw much of him, the older kids had convinced the children that he wasn't really there. That he was a ghost and would take them away in the middle of the night. If only we'd known how true that story actually was.

The morning of December 10, 1986, everyone was awakened by the screams coming from the Samson house. They all rushed into their boots and outdoor coats as the screams continued. Running in through the open front door they pushed and shoved each other to the top of the stairs.

Kneeling on the soft, grey carpet by his daughter's bed was Mr. Samson and Lucy Samson was nowhere to be found. The whole town searched from top to bottom, by both the townspeople and police. They never found her; she was missing for months.

People were starting to give up hope. It had been six months since that day and not a single clue had been found. Many of the people in the town had, had suspicions about The Mysterious Man but he seemed to act as if this lose had effected him as well. He even paid his condolenses to the Samson's, who were still holding on to the last bit of hope they had.

On June 15, 1987, a little boy was playing close to the coast when he thought he saw someone running through the trees on The Mysterious Man's island. He described them as being no taller than himself and quite thin. The boy also mentioned that he thought it had been Lucy; with the way this small person ran and their long brown hair flowing behind them.

At hearing that their daughter could be somewhere on the island, the Samsons insisted that the police investigate into who the man really was. As it turned out, this mysterious man had been the suspect of another child abduction four years prior. It was almost the same case. A twelve year old girl had gone missing on his block and he been the prime suspect. Unfortunatly when the police had investigated, nothing had turned up.

When brought before a judge the next day, a warrent was granted, although rather hestitantly. What the authorites found on that island shook the small town to its very core.

The trees that cluttered the island blocked any light from making it's way to the ground, making it impossible for any new plants to grow. This was reflected in The Mysterious Man's house. All of the shades were drawn making all of the rooms dark, except for the small amount of scattered candles throughout the bungalow.

Searching the house with the man close behind the police came across a locked door near the rear of the house. Breaking down the door a squeal was heard in the right corner of the closet sized room. Turning on a flashlight to see in the pitch blackness, one of the officers shoved The Mysterious Man against the wall and put him in handcuffs.

Inside the room, huddled against the far wall was Lucy Samson. Her clothes were slightly ripped and her hair was a mess. One the floor was a pillow and a single blanket. Moments after they'd opened the door a crash sounded in the next room and a teenage girl ran out of the kitchen. She was wearing a plain green apron and a blue dress with her brown hair pulled back into a ponytail.

Later they confirmed that the sixteen year old was Samantha Wilson, the young girl The Mysterious Man had kidnapped four years before.

Months later The Mysterious Man got a life sentence, and both Lucy and Samantha were doing well in counciling and they'd both been re-united with their families, although it was harder for Samantha.

The man who lived on the island was a quiet man; only now everyone knew the reason.

Under the Stars

Prompt: Tell a story set in the glowworm caves of New Zealand.
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It was dark. They didn't have any lights so they felt along the walls of the cave; inching forwards on reluctant feet. There were two of them. Two boys. They clutched each others hand, determined not to get lost in the darkness.

"Zach, why are there no lights?" One of them asked, his right hand slowly feeling along the rock wall. Every now and them his skinny hand would hit a sharp rock and pull away, surprised.

"Just wait a little longer." The other boy replied, giving the skinny boy's hand a reassuring squeeze. "I know how you're afraid of the dark but this will be worth it. Trust me, Justin" Zach continued. They continued to make their way deeper into the cave. "It'll give you something to remember me by when you go n your trip" Just as Zach spoke small blue lights flickered on on the ceiling of the cave. They shone so bright and their numbers were so great that they lit up the whole cave. It stretched back at least another 20 feet and the two boys could see that inches away from their feet, the rocky hard ground gave way to water.

"Justin, here is my secret cave" Zach said, looking to his right. Justin stood stock-still. His hand fell rom the wall to rest at his side as he gazed up at the ceiling.

"Oh my god" was all Justin said. Outside the sun was falling from the sky and the moon's blue light illuminated the woods outside. Cautiously Justin removed his shoes and walked into the shallow water. With his back to Zach he allowed himself to tear up.

"Hey, you alright? I'm not going to regret showing you this, am I?" Zach asked, trying to lighten the suddenly tense mood. He knew that he didn't share much with the smaller kid but his brother was being shipped off to boarding school at the end of the summer.

"Thank you" Justin managed through sniffs and bear hugged Zach, who smiled. "I'm going to miss you while I'm away."

"I will too" Zach replied, returning the hug. To lift the mood, Zach moved away from his brother and back towards the opening. "Let's go for a swim." And with that he was stripped down to his Superman boxers. Pushing his black hair out of his eyes he ran past his brother and swan dived into the middle of the cave. "Coming?" He asked, popping to the surface. Justin nodded, stripped down to his Batman boxers and canon-balled right next to his brother.

I need ideas!

Hey everyone!

I need some ideas for more St. Paul's Adventures shorts. Comment on that page or message me on Tumblr.
Please :)
My tumblr is: livebetter-smilebrighter.tumblr.com

- Emma

Detached

Prompt:  First person point of view. Floating in space. Over a red planet. Timing is running out.
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Space is vast; there's no doubt about that. But it's also beautiful, full of bright stars in a near-ending darkness. Very few people really know what space looks like, about all of the wonders it holds. I am floating in front of one right now.

"Oliver, you seein' this?" Liam voiced over the mic. His voice came across staticy and at certain places it broke up. Liam is the ship's driver. He makes sure that she stays on track so he rarely comes out of the bridge; practically lives there.

"Yeah. Isn't it beautiful? I respond, not moving an inch from where I float. I'm Destiny's mechanic, i make sure she's still running. There had been a problem with the hyper-drive so I'd gone out to see what was wrong. When I saw the gorgeous red planet behind me I'd gotten a little distracted.

"It is red" he said. I could tell he wasn't as entranced by the planet. "Ollie?" I didn't respond. "Oliver! The hyper-drive?"  It was just so red.

From where I was I could tell that the red color it had was actually clouds. They swirled across the planet's surface, almost like dancing. I was so captured that I didn't notice when it started getting closer.

"OLIVER!" Liam screamed in my ear and snapped me out of my trance. I looked back at the ship and saw that the cord attaching me to Destiny had been cut and I was being pulled towards the planet by it's gravitational pull.

"LIAM!" I yelled back, my voice cracking with fear. I knew that if I entered the atmosphere of this planet I would burn up, unless I ran out of air first.

"Hold on, I've gottcha" he said calmly. The beauty of this planet; the red color and the dancing clouds, melted away and was replaced with horror. I looked down at the oxygen meter and saw I only had a minute of air left in the tank.

"Hurry! I've only got a minute of air left!" I was panicking. Frantically looking anywhere but the planet. It looked so haunting now, so dangerous. With the violent swirling red clouds coming nearer and nearer. Then there was the heat; I was getting close to its atmosphere. "It's so hot. Liam!" I turned my back so I was facing away from the planet. I couldn't watch the thing that was once beautiful in my eyes turn ugly.

"I've got ya. You'll be fine." His voice was cracking up more than it had been before and I shut my eyes. The heat was starting to burn me; I could feel my skin blistering. I began breathing slower, trying to save oxygen. I could feel myself falling unconscious as I relaxed, letting my body float through empty space. "I've got you Ollie." I heard Liam say as two mechanical hands wrapped around my body and brought me safely away from the red planet.

Invisibility Ring

Sun pours through the grey curtains that hung in front of my bedroom window. A small sliver of yellow light made it's way to my bed and onto my face, causing me to open my eyes. I blink and look around my room and then at my window. It's the middle of summer in Newfoundland and the sun was shining bright. The sky, I saw was a light shade of blue and as far as I could tell, there were no clouds. I prop myself up on my hands and blink a few times, attempting to wake myself up.

Finally feeling awake enough to try getting ready, I place my feet on the comfort of the fluffy white rug on my floor and stand. My room hadn't changed much from when I'd rearranged the furniture at Christmas. My bed sits against one of the two outside walls, the only window to it's left. In front of my bed is my dresser and closet and to the right is the door to my bedroom.

Feeling more aware of my surroundings I make my way across the room towards my dresser; looking at the floor the whole time, not wanting to get blinded again by the sun. Finally looking up I did a double-take. My mirror is perched on-top of my dresser, usually I can see my whole face perfectly, but now there is empty space. Grasping the mirror with both hands I bring it close to my face, but I still see nothing. Still in shock, I place it back on the dresser and head to the bathroom. Maybe it's just my mirror that's warped.

Flipping on the light by the bathroom door I walk in and face the mirror. Nothing. I look down at myself and then back at the mirror. I'm shocked when I see that I can see myself. I'm still wearing my pajamas; a pair of flannel pants hang loosely from my waist along with a navy blue tank top. My typical sleeping attire.

I quickly take a shower, surprisingly easy, and get ready for school. I stop when I'm face to face with my closet. What do I wear? Will everyone only see the clothes and freak out? I decide that it's better to check and see. Putting on a pair of sweatpants and t-shirt I look in the mirror. Not completely shocked but still a little surprised that you still could not see the clothes I had just put on. Almost as if I had some sort of cloak around me

"Willow!" I hear my mom say from the kitchen downstairs. Then I remembered, I have school today, its Monday and I have a test!

“Coming!” I yell back. I look back in the mirror, forgetting that I won’t see anything, then I remember that nobody can see me so it doesn’t matter how bad I look. Sighing, I run down the stairs and into the kitchen. I see my mom standing by the sink and my lunch sitting on the counter. “I’m running late mom. See you after school” I say and run out of the house carrying my brown paper bag; I know, so cliché but whatever. 

Arriving at school I go to my locker and open it. Wait, I have my test first period so I don’t need my books, plus I can definitely scare a few people with a floating pencil. Smiling, I walk to my first period class; History, Canadian History to be exact. One of my favorite subjects. Walking through the classroom door I see an empty seat right in the middle of the class, I take it. Laying my book bag down on the ground I look around to see students already looking confused at my book bag. I guess it just appeared when I took it off my back. The plan was already working. Next I took out a pencil; I knew nobody would be able to see it, since I was holding it and all. 

I watched everyone take their seats, some a little weary about sitting next to the mysteriously appearing book bag. Then the teacher walked in and passed around the tests. I guess she figured someone had put their book bag there to save their seat because she placed a test on my desk. I smile again; this was going to be fun.

Looking at the test I could see that it covered World War II, a subject we had just finished learning about. This would be no problem. As I fill in the answers I notice the teacher coming around to my seat. This is the moment I put the plan into full action. When the teacher arrives at my seat I start answering the long answer questions. I figured that since I was holding the pencil, no one could see it, so it would seem strange that words were somehow showing up on the page. 

I was right. As soon as my teacher walked past my desk she came to a stop and looked at my test. I kept answering the questions, looking up once to see if she was still there. She was. All of the color had gone out of her face but it seemed like she couldn't look away. When I looked back at my paper that's when I noticed the ring on my right hand. It was old and looked like it had gone to hell and back. I remember finding it in a box in the attic last night and then going to bed. That gave me a thought. 

When I finished the test I went straight for the bathroom and locked myself into a stall. Looking at the ring I took it off. Glancing down at myself, I sighed, I was still there. But the real question was, was I still invisible? Opening the stall door I look across from myself and into the mirror. There I was, standing in my sweatpants and t-shirt with my hair in a very very messy bun. It was the ring. I had an invisibility ring! This would definitely make school more fun.

Bad People, Good Things

Some people say that you are either good or bad; that you can’t be anything else. Those people don’t believe in gray areas, they don’t like what they can’t understand or fit into a box or under a label. But others believe that people can do both good and bad things. That one person can be a shade of gray that consists of good actions/intentions as well as bad actions/intentions. Before yesterday I was the former. I only thought that I could be bad; that all changed April 3rd 1999. My friends and I had been planning a bank robbery for a couple of months and we had planned it all out.

We all needed the money for different reasons. Rick needed money for this huge bill that, if gone unpaid, the bank would take his house and everything with it. Joel needed tagged along because he was behind on his child support. Me, Aaron, I needed the money because my baby girl was about to be brought into the world and I couldn’t afford to get her anything; not even the basics like diapers. We all needed money and had certain skills that would help pull off a successful heist. Rick could handle a gun no problem so he was in charge of the hostages; Joel was an expert at lock-picking so he could get into the safe deposit boxes without a doubt; and me, you’d be looking at the bagger. Any money Joel brought out I would put in big duffel bags and put them in the truck.

To us it seemed like a flawless plan. We waited until the sky was dark and the bank employees were starting to pack up for the night; this way there would be no customers and just the employees, limiting the number of hostages to handle. Night also provided us with a cover; we were able to wear all black so it was hard to spot us, even with the street lights. We didn’t think of getting a getaway driver because it seemed to full-proof.

Rick waited until he was sure there were only a handful of people left inside and then went in as quietly as possible. He acted like a customer, begging them to help him. When they agreed, he pulled the gun on them, not giving them enough time to hit the silent alarm. I saw him nod for us to enter and I followed Joel inside the bank.

It was a pretty small bank but we knew there was a lot of money in the vault and safety boxes. I followed Rick around behind the counter and started emptying the drawers, being careful not to get the dye-pack or set off the alarm. After about five minutes I heard Rick yelling his head off at one of the hostages. I left the bag on the counter and walked up to him.

“It’s all your fault! This whole thing is your fault you son of a bitch! You think you can take my house! Hmmm? Everything I’ve worked for?” He was yelling. I looked at the bank of the room where Joel had disappeared to but there was no sign of him.

“I’m sorry sir. I don’t know what you’re talking about” The man said simply. Clearly having a raving gunman in front of him didn’t bother him, but it bothered me.

“Stop lying to me!” Rick screamed and aimed the gun right at the man’s head, that’s when I stepped in front of him. His face was red from screaming as I could see tears forming in his eyes.

“Rick, calm down” I stated gently. However, right after I said it I regretted it. You see, you never tell Rick to calm down; it just gets him more riled up.

“Calm down?” He asked rather calmly but I knew what was coming. I pushed the gun quickly to the let just as he pulled the trigger. The sound shot out loudly. It seemed to have stunned Rick a little so I took the opportunity to grab the gun from his hand and flick it across the room away from everyone. That’s when I heard a noise behind me and turned around. Joel had come out from the back and now had the gun in his hands. He looked at the group of us. Rick with his face still beet red and breathing heavily; Me with a worried looked; and the four bank employees, including the man, who just looked plain scared.

“I think it’s time we left” Was all he said. I nodded and grabbed the bag from behind the counter but not before I “accidentally” hit the silent alarm. Walking out I nodded to the man who smiled back and mouthed “thank you”. Smiling, I climbed back into the truck and we drove away.

You see, I could have let Rick shoot that man. A man who probably had nothing to do with his current situation but I could have let him shoot him; knowing that he would regret it and it would haunt him for the rest of his life. But I didn’t. I saved that man’s life when I could have simply looked the other way; something I honestly think Joel would have let happen considering his speedy entrance into the room.

Yes, I may have robbed that bank but when an innocent life was in danger I tried to save it, and I succeed. So, if you’re one of those people who think that you can only be good or bad, I just want you to think about what happened to me. People can be whatever they want to be; good, bad or a shade of gray.

The Play Writer

It was 1594 London, England. It was the opening night of William Shakespeare's newest masterpiece, A Midsummer Night's Dream. From what I gathered about rumors around London was that it definitely was a comedy and that there were fairies included somewhere within it. From what my father's friends have said the writing will surely make us laugh. With this in mind I hold this play, along with any future plays written by Shakespeare to be top notch.

I have gone with my father to many of his plays and enjoyed them so I'm rather excited to get to meet him in person this time around. One of my passions is playwriting, I try to learn from his scripts to improve my ability to write comedies and tragedies. I'm mostly interested in tragedies; making people feel all of the feelings associated with a horrible and maybe try to find a way to bridge the two; to make a tragedy that is also a comedy. So far though, I have had no luck.

The play opened today and I was starting to get nervous. Not just because I was meeting SHAKESPEARE but because of the way everyone always treats me. Everyone always assumes I'm a prostitute, I guess because there aren't a lot of women in that side of the city and the few that are, well are prostitutes. I try not to judge people and their way of life but when so many people assume it about me after denying it numerous times, it gets a little annoying and offensive.

Plays in London usually happen during the evenings but this play was special, or at least that's what Shakespeare had claimed. Therefore had demanded that it be performed at night. When the only lighting is by lanterns hanging from the walls and around the stage. The way the lights shone across the theater set the mood very nicely, creating a warm and comfortable environment. All of his plays sold out and 100% of the people came; there were never any empty seats or seats that had not been sold, or so my father has told me. This night was incredibly full.

Me and my father had the luxury of sitting on one of the many balconies that surrounded the stage; we sat directly in the middle of the stage so we could see everything that happened. My father, if you don't know, owns the theater at which all of Shakespeare's plays are performed, that's how we get amazing seats.

When the plays started it was pretty dark out. The stars shone in the night sky as the actors performed their lines; they were a fabulous job. Although I always did find it strange that men were playing the women roles and not women; and it was hard to picture a beautiful women character in his place, as I often tried to do in order to get the full effect of the plot of the play.

When the play was finished I stood and clapped like everyone else in the theater; the play had been marvelous. Now I was getting anxious about meeting William Shakespeare. My palms were sweating as I walked next to my father through the crowd, trying desperately not to get lost. All the way to the back of the stage I heard men whistling and yelling at me; of course I ignored them and kept on walking.

By the time we reached backstage most of audience had left and the theater was filled with silence. I had never been here when everyone was gone, it was somehow peaceful but a little unnerving at the same time. I looked forwards when my father called my name. Then I saw him; William Shakespeare.

I walked up to him, trying to keep my composure, and shook his hand. We exchanged niceties and got to chatting about the play and playwriting in general. I remember asking him about the process he used when writing the different genres; comedy, tragedy, and historical. He answered each one of my questions about writing and descriptive writing and character development.

When it was time for me to leave I stood from the chair I had been sitting in and we said out goodbyes but not before he said that he would like to read one of my scripts. I stood there, at The Theater, standing in front of William Shakespeare who had just asked me if he could read my work. I, of course, said yes, shook his hand and left with my father.

Meeting William Shakespeare that night and listening to his advice on, well, everything to do with writing, gave me new inspiration to try again at writing a combination of comedy and tragedy.