MftS: Within Shadows

Posted on by Louise Bunting

Here’s this week’s entry into Monday’s Finish the Story flash fiction challenge, run by Barbara W. Beacham. This challenge gives you a picture prompt and the first line and asks that you finish the story in 100-150 words. The given line is in italics.

Photo Prompt: © 2015 Barbara W. Beacham
Photo Prompt: © 2015 Barbara W. Beacham

Within Shadows

Not knowing what to expect, he made his way into the dark of the forest, fingers clenched on the hilt of the ancient dagger as he picked a careful route. His eyes strained, peering into the shadows that crouched beneath the trees. Each branch that scraped against skin made him flinch; every rustle of movement caused his heart to race. They could be anywhere: watching, waiting. Ready to strike.

So many people – friends, family – had already died, their faces twisted into agonised rictuses. Those who still remained huddled within the dubious safety of their homes, too scared to venture outside. This was their only hope. He was their only hope.

He wasn’t a coward but…

How could he fight an enemy he couldn’t even see?

Word Count: 110

Some of you may have noticed that my presence on the blog has reduced recently. This is mainly because I’ve decided to join in with NaNoWriMo this year and have been spending a lot of time planning the novel I’m intending to write – tentatively titled ‘The Age of the Dragonlords’. Because of this I’ll be blogging less and less over the next few weeks and during November I’ll be on the blog with only the occasional update or photography post. I’ll miss visiting everyone’s posts (I love you all!) but hopefully I’ll be back in December and not too engrossed in editing…

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To read other entries or to submit your own, click the little blue frog.

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40 thoughts on “MftS: Within Shadows”

    1. I hope you do. It’ll be nice to see a friendly face. 🙂 I haven’t interacted with the community yet – I really ought to head on over there!
      I’ve been thinking about joining NaNo for quite some time now – though I wasn’t sure which book I was going to be working on for a while. I have several different ideas that I’ve jotted down over the years. I’m hoping it will really give me the boost to get a first draft of something actually written. I’ve always had a tendency to edit a lot as I go. I can spend ages working on a single paragraph! NaNo doesn’t allow for that. 😀

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      1. I heard from – you know who, that you have been working on a few stories – I am so glad to hear you will get a draft done. I have not written any drafts yet except for parts of my memoir. I was going to try to write and finish a draft on the thriller “Pushing Up Daisies”. I started two chapters and left them. I had a look at NaNo after your post, I heard about them but I never thought of pushing myself that much before. We’ll see. I am away for a week in November, but that’s no excuse, I should try to write anyway and finish a draft. Well, Good-luck to you and it would be really nice to have you comment on my drafts – 😀

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    1. Thanks, Sabina. 🙂 Hopefully I’ll be on with a few photography posts – probably Wordless Wednesdays – and I’m thinking of doing a weekly ‘snippit’ from the draft I’ll be working on.

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  5. Hi Louise, I’m participating in NaNoWriMo too! So glad to know that you are participating too! This is my first time, and frankly speaking, I’ve no idea where to begin and I’ve never written any story more than 150 words…LOL! But I believe you can definitely do it! All the best! See you there! 🙂

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    1. I’ve never joined in with NaNo either, though I’ve toyed with the idea before. I’m trying to get as much of planned as possible before November so I know where I’m going with it. I don’t want to be trying to work out the plot when I should be writing the scenes! Good luck! 🙂

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    1. I’m glad you liked it. 🙂 Thanks for the best wishes. I’ve been wanting to work on a full length novel for a while now (I have so many ideas languishing on my computer!) and NaNoWriMo offers a perfect opportunity to do so.

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  7. Very creepy! An invisible enemy is not to be taken lightly.
    Good luck with NaNo-thingy. I’ve never been brave enough to take part. I’d never get it finished!

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    1. An invisible enemy must be the worst type! I’m glad you enjoyed the story. 🙂 I’m a little worried about completing my draft during NaNo as well! I’ve never been a particularly quick writer but I’m hoping this will give me the impetus I need to just keep going. Usually I’m stopping to edit every few words!

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      1. Maybe this sort of thing would work for me. I spent half an hour writing 500 words for a fellow blogger yesterday and didn’t edit anything until I’d finished. I just kept hammering away 🙂

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  9. I thought I’d commented on this, but apparently not. I really like the central concept of an enemy you can’t see- which is always more terrifying than one you can.
    I also nominated you for the One Lovely Blog and Blogger Recognition Awards. I admit that I don’t really understand how those work, so if for some reason I’ve screwed up here and you’re not eligible or don’t want it, that’s entirely my bad, but just take it as a sign of how much I love your blog.

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    1. I’m glad you enjoyed it, J.A. 🙂 An invisible enemy must be a terrifying opponent! Thank you very much for the award nominations. I’m really happy that you like visiting my blog. Unfortunately I don’t actually accept awards – I never seem to find the time for the posts!

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  12. This story is excellent Louise and immediately it reminded me of the war that we are fighting currently in our world, the war of terrorism. I have heard that the enemy is most often unseen and unheard like your story describes. Gosh, I will miss you posting your lovely stories in November but I will be cheering you on as you write your book in November! I know what you mean about editing as you go and it is hard for me to not do that when I write my stories (which is why I don’t do well on timed writings! LOL)

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    1. Thank you, PJ. I’m glad you liked it. 🙂 Sorry for the delay in replying. It was my birthday on Saturday and I didn’t get a chance to even look at my blog all weekend!
      I’m dreadful for editing as I go. It can take me hours to write a 150 /175 word story as I keep going over it again and again!

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      1. LOL! Happy belated birthday! I hope you had a wonderful one. I am not quite as bad about editing as you are. Hopefully, you can write your book during NaNoWriMo and not worry about editing it as you go.

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  14. I enjoyed your story Louise! And, I am sorry to hear that you are taking a hiatus from writing from blog challenges, and I certainly understand that it if I was writing a book I would want to focus on that too. Thank you for Louise for participating in the Mondays Finish the Story challenge. I appreciate your contribution. Be well… ^..^

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    1. Thanks, Barbara. 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed the story. Hopefully I’ll be back to the challenge in December but I really need to get a novel written! All my free time these days is spent writing flash fiction! Thanks for visiting.

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    1. Thank you, Suzanne. 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed the read. I’m really looking forward to finally getting stuck into my writing novel.

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