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Hi and welcome to our newest word prompt! Remember that you can interpret the prompt as literally or as figuratively as you like, provided that there is a clear connection between your entry and the prompt given. Make sure to read the rest of the guidelines below for more info!
WORD PROMPT:
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WINNER:
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It has been a long day, but something tells me that it will be an even longer night. The one person I had 'known' now looks like a stranger to me. I know he has been keeping secrets. I know it is wrong to pry- he hates it when I do- but I have pushed him so far now that there is no going back. For better or worse, the truth will be out today.
The atmosphere is grim as he drags me along, my wrist held firmly in his unwavering grip. He is angry. It is he who has been there for me the last few days when I found myself alone and vulnerable. He is the one who has always told me that no matter how different I was from the others, it wouldn't matter. He is something quite different from me, yet human all the same.
He seems not to care that it is pouring and the winds are howling. There isn't a single noise on the streets. Not even a hushed whisper. The only sounds are those of the raindrops battering the cold cobblestones. It does not bother me, but I know that the weather will affect him. Then why? It is as quiet and mournful as a graveyard, if not more. It's not like I would know. I have never been to one.
"Where are you taking me?" I hiss.
"A place I should have taken you to long ago."
He should have taken me to the cemetery? What was he talking about?
"You wanted answers, didn't you? Have fun."
He wasn't even looking at me as he spoke. I look up to see what has caught his attention. Dressed in black and tears streaming down their faces stand people whom I can't recognize, but know. A word comes to my mind unbidden- family. I wonder why none notice me. Their attention is on something else. I move forward with a speed I didn't know I possesed only to come to a dead halt. The world seems to be spinning, yet it matters not. Lying there in eternal sleep, in the dark six cornered coffin, is a face I know too well. At that moment, it hits me like a thunderbolt- those people were here for the girl's funeral. They are here for my funeral.
I looked down at the faces of my family and friends, taking them in. Several weeks had gone by since I last saw them. They were going to laugh when I told them my adventures, slap my back and shake their heads, telling me I always came up with the wildest tales.
I located my brother, the one with a blue suit in a sea of black, and called his name. He did not react. Maybe I was too far away. I weaved through the crowd to get to him and tried again, this time from a smaller distance.
A feeling that something was wrong struck me. Where were we, anyway? Everyone was dressed in black, with somber expressions. A few of my friends had tear trails on their cheeks. What was going on?
I tapped the closest person's shoulder in hope of getting an answer, almost falling in shock when my fingers went right through. Something was very wrong.
That's when I spotted it. The open casket with my body inside. Everything from the freckles, to the hair, and even the birthmark on my left cheek was the same. If I didn't know better, I would have thought that was me. But it could not be, as I was standing right here.
I scanned the area and my gaze landed on the man that brought me here.
"You!" I stormed through the crowd, walking right through the people as if they were ghosts, until I was right in front of the man.
"You! You did this to me!" I said, poking my finger into his chest. "I told you to bring me back, to bring me home!"
"Oh, but I did. This is your home, your family." he smiled coldly
"Then why am I like this?"
"Simple, you're dead. Have been for a while. There is nothing you or anyone else could do to fix that. That is what you get for following strangers with sweet promises. Say hi to Ammit from me." the man took a step back and winked before disappearing in a flash of blue.
A growl from behind me caught my attention. I turned around and gulped. The scariest monster I had ever seen was looming behind me.
I was gone the moment I was born, the moment he touched me. It was in my blood to live a short life that ended in flames, ripping veins and pools of crimson red blood set alight by the raven tears that I shed. I'm unfazed. The argentine coffin with the nebulous room inside was for me – "Finally" I think before shifting my gaze to the crowd filled with faces crying in search of my family.
My brother who's always painfully bright and giddy is unnaturally unsmiling on his chair and my mother retains her often neutral look. The hall is full of bad looking absolute strangers who, from the looks of it, really didn't want to be there and thought my funeral a waste of their dear time - I don't blame them, I mean, I wouldn't have wanted to be there even if it was my own funeral. Which it was. Problem is, you can't take offence when you're dead.
It was set in stone from day one. My only question though: why did it take so long? My mother had prepared since my birth for this moment and year after year she was let down by the man we call – or rather, the believers of the false-God call – death. You could tell how relieved she was yet annoyed by my whimpering brother; he always was the lighthearted fledgling. I nerve to even call him an angel. However I can't. Although, I do get the joy of him envying me when he's older.
A man in black robes closes the casket and sets a flaming rose atop it, setting only the top half in flames that immediately turn a bloody scarlet that rise high enough to lick the boards of the ceiling. Absolutely stellar! I thought. The flames started to die out and before long, only a fuchsia effervescence remains and I know what comes next so I give my mother a quick glance and she nods at me smiling for the first time since the funeral began then all the lights go off.
