flash fiction...round 1, part 2

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
- Albert Einstein

Shortly after the results of Round 1 were announced and points given out in the NYC Midnight Creative Writing/Flash Fiction Challenge, we were sent our assignments for Round 1: Part 2.

Same idea as before, i.e. under 1,000 words, certain guidelines, etc., and the top 10 point-getters in each heat move on to the official Round 2.

Before you read on, I have to admit that I was very annoyed when I first saw what the genre, location, and object were for my heat.

So I took those feelings of discomfort and annoyance and came up with something, I think, rather interesting. Read on!!

Title: Ashes to Ashes
Synopsis: A girl and an urn venture into a seedy establishment to dupe one greedy, scaly fool into trading his life for another, less scaly one.
Genre: Fantasy
Location: Strip club
Object: Urn

By Melissa C. Navia

The sun had barely broken the horizon, but Kate Patton’s heart was already pounding away. As she hurried down the deserted city sidewalk, she glanced at her watch. She was going to be late for school, she thought, pulling at the straps of her overburdened backpack. Purple on the outside, it protruded at sharp angles, hinting at the contents inside.

Kate stopped abruptly. Across the street stood a building with boarded-up windows and graffiti-streaked walls. “After Hours” it read, minus a few key letters. Yet another seedy establishment, Kate sighed. In her family’s line of work, she had been to many. Abandoned factories, vandalized castles, condemned estates—the more unscrupulous, the better. And a greasy strip club, long since shut down, was right up there. Looking both ways, Kate dashed across the street.

The Pattons were well-known in the underground community. They were Night Watchers, members of an ancient order charged with monitoring and destroying evil beings whose hideouts of choice were dark, creepy, people-less corners.

But ridding the world of them meant dealing with them first. And recent events were forcing Kate to do just that. Her grandfather, the patriarch of the family operation, had gone missing, and every demon, zombie, shape shifter, and fallen fairy knew it. Then her parents were kidnapped, leaving Kate vulnerable, and to fix things, she was resorting to desperate measures and a shady rendezvous.

Once across, Kate wasted no time opening a rusty metal door and disappearing indoors. It was dark, and she strained to see. Tacky leather-lined, termite-infested booths filled the space. Ripped velvet curtains dangled from the ceiling. Oversized light bulbs hung shattered. At the far end stood a stage populated with scratched metal poles that no longer glistened. Kate shuddered but advanced toward a table and the point of her excursion.

“You’re late,” said a man. Kate swung her backpack around and propped it on the table.

“This won’t take long, Vlar,” she replied, her voice shaky. “You tell me what I want, and I’ll give you what I promised.”

Vlar leaned forward and took off his wide-brimmed hat to reveal a swarthy grin. His features looked human enough, and his suit was Armani, but Kate knew better.

“You have the urn?” Kate nodded. “Which one?” he pried.

“First, where are my parents?”

“How do I know you really have it?”

“Because I wouldn’t come all the way here to be late for my chemistry midterm if I didn’t,” she snapped, her voice no longer shaky.

Vlar seemed puzzled but convinced. He put his hat down and licked his lips. His tongue was noticeably green and forked.

“They’re in the cellar of the Green Oaks Hospital, the abandoned mental institution upstate,” he said. “Draco and his sister are holding them there.”

Kate took a deep breath. We’ll worry about the dragon prince later.

Without another word, she unzipped her backpack and unveiled a brilliantly shiny silver urn. A faint line ran down the middle to reveal two chambers etched with elaborate markings. Vlar began to salivate and his features started to change. Any trace of humanity vanished. Behind her, Kate heard repulsive slithering and painful grating noises. In her periphery, she discerned three monstrous anomalies crouching and writhing around the stage. They, too, were entranced.

Seven mythic, magically-endowed urns resided in the world, and of those, Kate’s family owned one. Up until this point, it had proved to be dangerous; now she was hoping it would save her.

“Which is it?” Vlar slurred, his eyes transfixed on the prize.

“The Urn of Nemesis.”

“Who?”

“A goddess.”

“Goddess of what?”

“Look it up,” Kate said slowly, matching Vlar’s heavy breathing with her words.

“Why…are there…two chambers…for ashes?” Vlar asked with wide eyes, already drunk with greed. “For two…souls?”

Kate didn’t answer. She knew not to lie in the urn’s presence. So she quickly proceeded.

“Vlar, whoever possesses the urn must warn the next in line. If you’re unable to comply, I’m not at fault.” Vlar nodded. He was fully transformed; his true nature sat oozing before Kate.

“To rightfully take the urn, you must be clear in thought, pure in intention, and free of excessive pride. Are you?”

Another faint nod…

“Then you may take it.”

Instantly, Vlar lunged, but the urn repelled him. He let out a cry, as his hands froze suspended before him. The urn grew brighter. Vlar screamed in agony. Kate stepped back from the table. Vlar tried the same, but he began to convulse and scream even more. His expensive suit melted away, and the scales beneath it began to burn. Silently, the urn’s two chambers opened. From one, a steady trickle of ash poured into a neat pile on the table. Meanwhile, chairs were knocked over and windows smashed further as Vlar’s companions escaped screaming into the blinding daylight.

When Kate turned back, Vlar was a mass of suspended ash, and within seconds, the second chamber had sucked every last speck of him up, closing as quietly as it had opened.

“Well, I won’t do that again, that’s for sure,” chuckled an older voice. Kate looked up and frowned. There stood her grandfather, on the table, in a Zegna suit, with the same smile he was wearing when the urn had sucked him up one week before.

“You owe me one,” she said dryly, zipping up the urn. “Thanks to you, we have to rescue Mom and Dad from a haunted hospital.”

Grandpa Patton, agile for his age, jumped down from the table and put his arm around Kate. “Forgive my greed. If the gods can be merciful—”

“—and clever enough to have built a device with two chambers, fit for only one soul,” she interjected.

“Then so can you,” he smiled. “Now, off to find your parents.”

Stepping out into the open, the bright, cloudless sky a stark contradiction to the events that had just unfolded, Kate sighed and pulled on her backpack straps.

So much for that chemistry midterm.

flash fiction...first place

If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.
- David Viscott

"Framed" gets 1st place!!

The 1st round results of the NYC Midnight Creative Writing/Flash Fiction Challenge were just announced, and in Heat 14, comprised of 15 writers, I placed 1st, garnering me 25 points going into the 2nd round this weekend.

Check out the standings -

http://www.nycmidnight.com/2008/CWC/1stRound/14.htm

Thanks to everyone who gave me such awesome feedback on the story =)

walk for a cause, walk and remember

The virtue of books is to be readable.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Alex and I will be taking part in Walk and Remember, a 5K walk supporting ovarian cancer research and awareness by raising money for the Lynne Cohen Foundation for Ovarian Cancer Research.

We (Team Vigilant Monkey, of course) have set up a page where you can make a donation to help us reach our $500 goal -

www.firstgiving.com/vigilantmonkey

Donate safe and securely through the site via credit card. The donations are sent directly to the Lynne Cohen Foundation for Ovarian Cancer Research, and Firstgiving will email you a printable record of the transaction.

It's that simple!! And if you check out the right-hand column of this blog, you'll find a widget featuring the real-time status of our donation goal.

A 3 mile walk isn't exactly a 20+ mile adventure race, but it's for a great cause, so I'll gladly do the walk this weekend =)

Plus, we get the 1st round results of the NYC Midnight Creative Writing/Flash Fiction Challenge this week and the 2nd round assignment this weekend. So while I'm walking, I'll be thinking about what to write. Stay tuned...