Tag: Daily Prompt

Totally Not Sleight-of-Hand

He kept looking at me with those golden brown eyes of his, just watching me with such intensity and intrigue. His eyebrow kept going up and down in a pattern as if he’s trying to give me some kind of signal. Even though I’m looking straight at his, my mind is off wandering someplace else, stuck on his previous attempt on trying to wow me with his “special talent.”

I looked back down on the small, round table in front of us, glancing at the deck of card spread out across the surface. Out of the entire fifty-two deck, only one card is face-up: the queen of hearts. I shuffled that deck at least four times, each time using a different method, I thought to myself. He even turned away while I picked the card, and shuffled it. There has to be some kind of strange prank going on, but I can’t figure it out.

“Well, missy,” Eric began with a cocky tone, “you figured out how I did that?”

I kept my eyes glued to the card just for a moment longer before letting out a sigh, shaking my head, and putting on a small smile, “I don’t know how the hell you did it. But yes, that’s my card.”

Eric laughed, probably at me finally letting down my wall of stubbornness. Ever since I was a kid, I never really believed in the whole idea of magic and magicians. As I grew older, I saw a bunch of different tricks being debunked before my eyes, thus only furthering my disbelief. However, all of those times in the past, I was never the participant in a person’s display of “magic.” In this case, being asked out on a date by a so-called magician was the perfect chance to experience it with my own eyes.

Watching him do his tricked spurred up a small interest in seeing what else he could do. I lean back in my seat, a shoulder propped on the back to keep me balanced. “Alright, Mister Magician Man. What else can you do to convince me that magic is real and not just a bunch of sleight of hand stuff?”

Still cocky, Eric chuckled and leaned forward on the table, eyeing me as if I challenged him, “Oh, I have a lot more I can show you. But, I’ll convince you using one of my favorite talents.”

“And what would that be?”

“I can get your wallet without leaving my seat.”

How could that even be possible, I questioned in my head. My wallet is all the way inside my jean pocket, and we’re sitting on opposite ends of the table.

Subconsciously, I slid my hand into my pocket just to make sure my wallet was where it should be. And it was. Pressed against my thigh in my jeans. I gave Eric a smug-ass smile and said, “Try me.”

Eric readied himself by sitting up in his seat and adjusting the small black tie around the collar of his shirt. Informing me that this next trick would require my help, he took off his dark blue blazer and placed it on top of the table.

He gave me a few instructions as he began the trick, “What I want you to do is think about your wallet. When you have a clear image of it in your mind, I want you to reach into one of my jacket sleeves and feel around for something.”

“That’s it? Seems simple enough.”

There’s no way he could possibly convince me that magic exists. He’s just toying with me to make me look stupid.

Looking directly at Eric, just to make sure he doesn’t try to slip under the table, I put a clear visual in my head about my wallet; it’s a plain, light blue open wallet with a small chain attached around one of the flaps. Without telling him what it looks like, I followed his instructions and reached into one of the sleeves of his blazer and felt around.

At first, all I could feel was the sleek, silk lining of the heavy jacket, cool to the touch no matter how long he had it on. As I went further up the sleeve I started to feel a collection of tiny metal links forming a chain. I froze.

No, this is just a trick. He made me think about my wallet beforehand. My mind is just playing with me, making me think that I actually feel it in the sleeve. I shook my head and continued. With my free hand, I put it over my pocket just to make sure my wallet was still there.

But there was no bulge. Nothing was pressing against my thigh.

— Follow Luka on Facebook and Twitter for more content and a look into Luka’s life!

— via Daily Prompt: Sleeve

Display of Honor

The crowd standing below me are all yelling and chanting in a frenzy, just waiting for the final verdict to be given. It has been quite some time since the last public display of force, so I can understand why they’re all so anxious to see what kind of verdict they’re expecting. However, based on the way the crowd are acting, I can tell they want everything to end violently.

“Bash his filthy skull into the pavement!”

“Don’t give him a chance to try and defend himself; he knows he did wrong!”

“Show the splatter on the mallet afterwards!”

I’ve come to appreciate the bloodlust emanating from the townspeople. But their desire is little to none when compared to my own. Ready to let this come to an end, I carefully pushed myself up from my throne and stepped up to the end of the balcony, “My fellow Tavarian people. It is time.”

The excitement of the crowd skyrocketed when they heard my voice call out to them. In almost perfect unison they all turned back towards the castle wall and gazed upward at me, cheering and applauding at my entrance. They start begging for me to give the final verdict as their anticipation is nearing its peak. Although I already knew how today’s display will end, I wanted to tease them just a bit longer.

“Before I give my verdict,” I started, “I understand the Warden would like to make sure everybody is on the same page.” Slowly raising my hand, I point towards the ironclad figure standing on the wooden stage in the center of the courtyard. Next to him is a man, bound by his wrists and ankles, thrown to his knees, and his head hanging off the edge of a stone display. “Warden, would you please.”

Placing his gauntleted fist across his chest, the Warden gave a slight bow before speaking, “Thank you, your Highness.” In a proud display of honor, the Warden then banged on his chest, the chest-plate ringing loudly across the yard, as he roared, “For Tavaria!”

The crowd let out a roar of their own, repeating over and over “For the honor of Tavaria, for the pride of Tavarian might!”

“Tavarian might is absolute. Tavarian honor submits to none,” I whispered under my breath. I felt the blazing energy from the crowd resting in my chest, but I had to keep myself under control; a queen does have their own honor to uphold at times.

The Warden couldn’t help but laugh with glee at the people, feeling joyous at the strong display from the people of Tavaria. However, he knew that this gathering wasn’t to boast, but to punish. He raised his hand and said, “At ease, all. Let us proceed with today’s event.”

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Screwdriver

“Tell me, Mr. Hudson. What goes on in that thick skull of yours? You seem to the be type of person who lets their mind wander about all day and night. Or, perhaps you just do that to help you forget the worries and stressful nature of your daily life.”

Ezekial kept up his casual, back and forth pacing in the darkened room. Even with just a single, low-hanging light bulb in the center of the room, he could catch the glimmering of the various tools scattered along the ground. He picked up a small hammer, eyeing the light layer of rust on the top of the claw – the part that helps take out nails, “This could be useful. I should go through all my options first.”

Without looking behind him, Ezekial lobbed the rusty hammer over his shoulder. Before hearing the sound of crashing metal, the screaming of a man came from behind him. Ezekial’s skin hardened full of goosebumps as the man continued screaming for a bit longer; sobs and pleading started replacing the scream.

“Why are you doing this to me? What have I ever done to you?”

Ezekial came to a sudden halt, “‘What have I ever done to you?’ You really don’t know why I brought you here? Are you that fucking dense?”

With his face buried in his hands, Ezekial took a moment to to breath, about to let out a scream of his own, but the only thing that came out was a loud, exhausted sigh. Part of him couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of this man’s mouth. It just made him more angry, wanting to put all of this behind him. However, Ezekial didn’t want to just finish his current job; he wanted to relish and enjoy the sight a bit longer before bringing it all to an end. He looked down in front of him and saw a broken screwdriver, the head of it gone, leaving a razor-edge point in place.

Ezekial juggled the screwdriver in his hand as he turned to face the man. Placed under the light bulb in the center of the room sat a wounded man, chained and bound by his wrists, ankles and chest. Gashes and bruises mark the marked the man’s entire body, blood tricked down and formed a small pool around his feet. Chunks of his grey hair are gone, like somebody has been dragging him by the scalp.

The man could barely keep his head up to look at Ezekial. His strength reserves were near its end, and he wanted to try and use whatever he had left to try and survive the torture he was expecting to happen.

Seeing the injured man put a strange gurgling sensation in the center of Ezekial’s stomach. It was a very familiar sensation he’s come to recognize after years and years of giving into his hobby. He’s managed to see a bunch of the people who he’s had conflict with in the past and managed to find closure. Today was no different.

He crept up to Nathan, the man bound to the chair. With his free hand, Ezekial grabbed him by a clump of his hair and forced him to look up. Seeing Nathan’s bulky neck, the broken screwdriver pressed against his windpipe, just moments away from piercing straight through it with enough force.

“Nathan Hudson. Born in September of 1972. Graduated top of his class in high school and got a full scholarship to Uni of Nevada. You had it all.”

“How do you know all of this about me…?”

Ezekial’s face was covered in a frown full of hate, “I have my sources. But don’t fret. You won’t be missed.”

— Follow Luka on Facebook and Twitter for more content and a look into Luka’s life!

— via Daily Prompt: Fret

Coroner’s Opinion

“What do you think happened here, Boss?”

“To be honest, I’m not entirely sure myself. I’ve never seen anything like this before. And on top of that, the evidence found at the crime scene isn’t even giving us some kind of clue as to what could do harm like this.”

“Edged weapons could easily do cuts and slashes like this though.”

“These kind of slashes are too clean–there’s no way somebody could have tore through skin and bone so easily. Besides, the cut isn’t the only thing I’m worried about.”

“You’re talking about the strange, green liquid around the edge of where the limb was cut?”

“Yeah. It would be easy enough to say that it’s just splash splatter from something breaking, but the fact that it’s around the injury, it makes me wonder if the edged weapon was laced with something. I mean, look at it: it’s fucking glowing on a cold corpse. There’s no way this is something naturally occurring.”

“We’ll just have to wait until the fluid samples come back then, Boss.”

“In my twenty years of working as a coroner, I’ve seen countless kinds of cases where somebody was slashed to death. All of them were easily identifiable based on the depth of the stab wound and the puncture site itself. But to see an entire limb cut clean off and see a strange ring around it, I honestly can’t figure this out. I almost want to say that whatever did it isn’t even human.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“What I mean is, we may not be dealing with a murder, but a hunter-prey thing.”

 

— Follow Luka on Facebook and Twitter for more content and a look into Luka’s life!

— via Daily Prompt: Luminescent

Playing with the Dead

May the passed rest in peace. Thy has no right to disturb those from their eternal slumber. Restless souls will rise up and roam through the gates of purgatory and seek vengeance on who desecrated their resting place.  

One’s intentions may be pure and without malicious intent. However, that would make one look like a fool in the eyes of the dead. 

“Conjuring up spirits isn’t something we shouldn’t even be thinking about!”

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The Miracle of Machine

The advance in both technology and medical science has lead to the breakthrough and discoveries of the modern era. Diseases either have cures or have been completely wiped off of the face of the Earth. Advancement in technology has allowed more societies to develop at a rapid pace, allowing more of the global population to stay connected. Human lives have become much more easier, less stressful, and living in comfort is almost a birthright in the current norms. 

Advancements have even allowed humans to take the next step in the evolutionary process: the merge of man and machine. Although that new evolutionary step is still in the preliminary stages there isn’t a shortage of those who want to bear witness to the birth of what humans will eventually become. 

Although they still have the slender and smooth look like before they have a newfound weight to them, almost like somebody tied a small cube of lightweight metal around my ankles. When I push off the weight drags me down without effort, my feet creating small craters in the marble flooring.

“As expected.”

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Awaiting Enemy

It’s always calm before the storm, silent before the approaching danger. The best way to deal with an arriving enemy is to find tranquility and patience.

Even if the enemy is annoying, a calm mind will always achieve victory.

Sightless, I patiently await for my enemy to approach. Preparing myself, I open the palm of my hand and let it rest on my lap.

My enemy is here…

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Human & Machine

“Don’t you think you have enough technology in your room? Your room looks like it’s out of some kind of techno future story.”

“What makes you think that?”

I look over to the nearest pile of metal and grab the first thing that I see spearing out of it. I can’t even tell what it is at first glance; it just looks like some kind of flat piece of cheap metal with a few wires dangling out from the bottom of it. I shake it around in my hand to see if it activates when shaken, but it doesn’t react, “Like this. What the hell is this? It looks like nothing but unnecessary trash.”

Jacob glances back at me for a moment before he focuses back at his computer monitor, “That’s not trash. That’s the scraps pile for my synchro.”

“All you do is talk about that ‘synchro’ surgery you got months ago,” I say as I kick electronics out of the way. His floors have been blocked by wiring for so long that I completely forgot that he had peach colored tiling. “Just because you’re part mechanical now, that doesn’t excuse you from having a messy room. You need to clear out some of this stuff, now!”

Jacob throws his head back and lets out a long, drawn out sigh. Ever since he got those new lung implants, every time he lets out a breath, a white vapor spews out. The sigh let out a thick cloud, barely making his face visible for a few seconds until it dissipated.

“If you’re going to use that new venting system you have, please do it by a window, okay? It could confuse the fire alarms and I don’t want that happening.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll try to keep it to a minimum.”

“Thank you.”

Pausing whatever he was doing at his computer desk, Jacob scoots back and gets up turning around to start clearing the piles around his room. His bare chest is exposed, metal plates and all. As he’s moving around, I start to lose focus, thinking that the sound of clanging metal is coming from him instead of the junk he’s piling to throw away.

“Hey, Jacob?”

“Yeah, Mom?”

“Your new implants… they don’t hurt, right?”

“No, not really. My chest feels a bit colder during the winter season because of all the metal in me, but that’s about it. Why?”

I slowly shake my head to reassure him, “It’s nothing. Just wanted to make sure you’re okay. What did the doctors call your implants again?”

“Synchros. They’re mechanical replacements for organs that run on the electric activity from my brain instead of needing blood. As long as my brain is fine, my metal lungs keep going. Pretty much makes me immune to lung cancer if I ever decided to start smoking.”

“Please don’t.”

 

— Daily Prompt: Synchronize

Burned Down to the Ground

Another crime to try and find an answer to, this one involving a house being burnt to the ground. The first assumption is that it was due to natural causes. However, if we left it at that, things could become worse if it turns out this was done intentionally.

That’s where I come in. I’m assigned to the most mysterious of crimes and incidents, trying to figure out what caused it, who did it, and why. Along side with my partner, I plunge head first into a crime scene to figure out the true motives.

But nothing could have prepared me for what we were about to find…

I sure as hell didn’t want to think about it either. But we had a job to do, so we didn’t have a choice to stop there.

“Rich, back up.”

“Why?”

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Winged Friend

Ever imagined what it would be like to have your very own talking bird a a pet? Having a nice little talking buddy with you in a room?

Now, what if instead of a bird, it was a Harpy that was roughly the size of a teenager and instead of talking, needed you for a favor? But hey, a Harpy is a kind of bird.

“Wait, are you sure that this is a good idea?”

“It’s the best idea I can think of right now. Obviously, if I was in a better situation, I wouldn’t be asking you do this for me.”

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Sun and Moon

There’s a young girl who shines of gold who brings warm smiles to the faces of those who greet her. Time after time, she has no qualms about smiling for them.

One night, a sudden stranger approaches her and for some reason, she finds herself unable to smile for them. 

But why?

When the young woman extended her hand to help the person up, she froze up when she saw their appearance.

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