Friday Fictioneers: Elemental Inspiration

Posted on by Louise Bunting

This is my entry for this week’s Friday Fictioneers Challenge run by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. This week’s picture prompt was provided by Douglas M. MacIlroy. The challenge is to write a story within 100 words.

Photo Prompt - © Douglas M. MacIlroy
Photo Prompt – © Douglas M. MacIlroy

Elemental Inspiration

People travelled miles to see the sculptures, lauding her imagination. Cass simply smiled and accepted their praise, shrugging when asked the source of her inspiration. They wouldn’t believe the truth, anyway.

The creatures were everywhere.

Some curled amidst tree roots, slow and lazy. Others danced lithely on the breeze or flitted among flames. Her favourites were those that leapt through the waves, sleek and deadly. She watched them from the cliff’s edge as she pretended to gaze at the ocean – no one ever reacted well to tales of creatures visible only to her.

The doctor’s pills remained in the cabinet, untouched.

Word Count: 100

Click the little blue frog to see other entries or to add your own.

FIC

76 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers: Elemental Inspiration”

  2. Hey I’ve had to fit a story to a line before. Careful you my created the monster on page that well follow you around too. Great idea add even better read.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I’ll often have the vague idea for a story in my head and a single line that I then have to build everything else around! I’m glad you enjoyed it. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      2. Thank you very much for the nomination but I’m going to be turning my blog into an award-free one. I never seem to manage to fit award posts in to my schedule!

        Liked by 1 person

  3. This is an excellent story! It truly shows what it might be like for those people with mental illnesses that refuse to take their medicine. I like the tension build up before getting to the plot twist!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Thank you, PJ. I’m glad you enjoyed it. 🙂 Though, you never know, the doctors might be wrong – the creatures could just be invisible to the rest of us…

      Liked by 2 people

      1. LOL! That could be true. I was thinking anyway that if it were mental illness then the monsters would more than likely be terrifying to her. So I think she has a very vivid imagination. 😀

        Liked by 1 person

    1. There are so many things in the world that scientists don’t yet know about or understand – its possible that she just has the ability to tune her senses to a different level of existence. 🙂 Thanks for visiting.

      Liked by 1 person

  12. Some things are best kept secret! No one can think ill of her and she not only enjoys the fact that only she can see them, but reaps the benefits as well. Wonderful story.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Until the last line I was thinking maybe she was like Detective Burkhardt from “Grimm”, but now I’m left wondering. Is she seeing things because she’s ill and needs the tablets, or is she really seeing things and everyone else thinks she’s crazy and should be taking the tablets? She lives in a magical world in any case.
    Great story as always!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Couldn’t scroll past your comment…love hearing about another Grimmster! I personally think the Grimms could have done better for themselves if they used their gift like Cass has.

      Liked by 2 people

    2. I’ve never watched Grimm – which is quite strange because its exactly the type of programme I generally love! I’ll have to see if I can find it on Netflix or Amazon. 🙂
      I’m quite happy for the story to be interpreted either way (I like to add a bit of ambiguity every now and then) though I’m more drawn to the second option, myself.
      Thanks for visiting and I’m very glad you enjoyed it. 🙂

      Like

      1. I was thinking that it would be your sort of programme. I originally watched the first two series on Amazon and recently, since I joined Netflix, I watched the third on there. So choose your platform and get watching 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  17. If her psychosis isn’t a danger to herself or others, perhaps her pills should stay in the cupboard. I’ve seen schizophrenics’ harmless delusions knocked out of them by anti-psychotic medication, only to have them replaced with paranoid delusions accompanied by violence.
    Well written.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I agree with you completely. I have a close friend with schizophrenia and his medication sometimes does him more harm than good. I’m glad you enjoyed the story. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  20. I love it! Such a great way to get inspiration. And I wouldn’t use the pills either – she just sees the world differently. Why suppress that? Great story.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. The twist ending was great! Well done!!!

    There is a fine line between creative genius and insanity. She seems to be living on that line…good for her atristic process, and good for those who enjoy her work, but perhaps not good for her physical and mental health.

    Liked by 1 person

  24. Oooh, nice mystery; is she truly seeing the unseen or is she an unmedicated hallucinator. I love this sort of story – two interpretations.
    Well written, particularly the creatures ‘flitting, curling, dancing’ – nice, very visual.
    KT

    Liked by 1 person

  27. I think it’s cool that Cass made sculptures of the things she saw that no one else could. Sometimes I wonder if those wind-altering drugs really help people anyway.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I wonder the same thing. Modern society has a very narrow concept of ‘normality’ and anything that deviates from it is labelled as ‘wrong’ and medicated to ‘correct’. Thanks for visiting. 🙂

      Like

  29. Great story. I think many interpretations of what we see can be valid. If she isn’t frightened by her visions, why shouldn’t she have them, as long as she can still live a good life independent of others. I really like how you describe her art and what she sees. Maybe being too normal sometimes puts people at a disadvantage, too.

    Liked by 1 person

  31. No wonder her sculptures are realistic Great twist at the end. A bit scary that she’s lost touch with reality. I guess the medication would make her like everyone else, not special anymore, so she’s resisting it. Well done, Louise. 🙂 — Suzanne

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