Tuesday Tales 23!
Challenge #23
NEW WINNER BADGE! created by @Charitygirlblog
By entering, every contestant agrees to shamelessly promote and praise the winner on twitter.
For all discussions about this challenge use hash tag #TuesdayTales
Please give a shout out to this week’s Tuesdaytales judge:
@caramichaels
Ruler of #MenageMonday flashfiction challenge
& Four time winner of #tuesdaytales
Secret Word:
Defiant
Picture:
ON WITH THE TALES!
Go ahead and check out the archive of all the tuesdaytales or escort you to your tuesdaytales needs HERE
Advertisement
Like this:
One blogger likes this post.
Posted in: Tuesday Tales
Susi Holliday (@SJIHolliday)
January 10, 2012
“For the last time, Carly… come and get dressed!”
“No!”
“Carly, please… we need to go, the appointment’s at nine and if we don’t leave now we’ll be stuck in traffic…”
“No!”
“Oh for Pete’s Sake, Carly. Right, I’m going without you. Jared? Are you ready?”
No answer. Jeez, we were never going to make it now and we really needed that assessment. I was so worried about Jared. That glassy eyed stare. “Carly, have you seen Jared?”
“No!”
I stomp upstairs just in time to hear a small voice from the laundry cupboard.
“Please let me out, Carly… I’m scared…”
100 words
@SJIHolliday
LupusAnthropos
January 10, 2012
Reminds me of this must-see, classic short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCMlCa4sxNk
Susi Holliday (@SJIHolliday)
January 10, 2012
OMG I am too scared to watch this – the dolls… the kid…
Cara Michaels
January 10, 2012
“When we have kids, what kind of stories will you tell them? Your adventures? Your loves?”
“Don’t be silly.” She stared at me, jaw hanging. “Wait. Kids?”
“I bet we have a temperamental, defiant girl. Just like you.”
“You do?”
I closed the distance between us, watching her throat work as she swallowed hard.
“I can see her. Arms crossed, giving her back to those who try to pin her down.”
“You really see her?” Reluctant hope sparked in her golden eyes.
“Every time I look at you,” I murmured, running my hands over her hair. “I see the future.”
@caramichaels
100 words of #WIP500 goodness
Wakefield Mahon
January 10, 2012
Margot ran into her room and sat on the bed staring at the wall with her arms folded.
“Margot, please don’t be like that,” Luke called from the other room.
“She’s being a petulant child!” Carrie scowled.
Margot turned her head to stick her tongue at Carrie then faced the wall again. “Can’t you just say defiant like a normal person?”
Carrie rolled her eyes. “I am the normal person!”
Margot glared at Carrie. Sitting in her cotton nightgown, damp eyes quavering, Margot looked like a little girl, one that Carrie should take care of.
Everything changed in that moment.
@WakefieldMahon
100 words from #WIP500
Sean (SilentS)
January 10, 2012
June 1st 2002.
That’s the day I realize how defiant love could be. Explosive fights, angry screaming matches, and slamming doors were a common occurrence around our small one bedroom apartment and more than once they were joined by the yells of angry neighbors.
Through all of that I never expected it to end, I never expected I would walk in and find her in bed with him.
You always wonder what you would do in that situation but as I stood there with the gun still shaking in my hand, I knew.
Love is very fucking defiant.
@seadamsky
98 Words
Rafe Brox
January 10, 2012
I looked at the words. They didn’t exactly stare back, defiant, but they did remain inscrutable.
Nobody was going to come help unravel them, so it was up to me. I settled in, crossed my arms, and waited for them to give up their secrets.
I stared into the abyss, and waited for “rot soul” to stare back into me.
Too bad for everyone, later, that it did.
@etcet
70 words (which may or may not end up as #WIP500 goodness)
Miranda kate (@PurpleQueenNL)
January 10, 2012
I don’t care if she screams or hits me some more, I’m not moving! She thought to herself.
Cara sat on her bed, her back to the door. She could hear her mum screaming downstairs at her baby brother. Mum called her defiant, but she was scared. When mum started like this they all ended up with bruises – even dad sometimes.
Then her brother’s screams started and her stomach lurched. She knew she had to go down and save him. She couldn’t bear the thought of her mum lying to the neighbours about how he got another black eye.
Susi Holliday (@SJIHolliday)
January 10, 2012
So many abused kids in these stories… dark! Nice one Miranda – see – you can write short stuff!
Charles W Jones (@ChuckWesJ)
January 10, 2012
The scene looked like something from a horror movie. The room a mess, clothes and toys scattered haphazardly, pages of books ripped from the spine. She sat in the middle of the bed in a defiant pose, arms crossed on her chest, staring at a group of random letters that she smeared on the walls with red finger paint. Her defiance could be felt by all senses, the room swarmed with it. How could such a sweet child become such a demon when she did not get her way?
@ChuckWesJ
89 words
Nellie
January 10, 2012
Beloved Companion
“She’s being a little monster.” The woman seethed.
“Honey, she’s just at that age. Maybe I can talk to her.” He tried to smooth things over.
“No one can talk to that defiant little brat.”
A sigh. “She’s a little girl. Please don’t call her that.” Knock, Knock. “Sera, may I come in?”
“NO! I don’t wanna!”
He cracked it open a little anyway, seeing the little girl sitting on the bed, with arms crossed and crooked pig tails. “Sweetie, I know you missed Mr. Whittle, but you shouldn’t have brought him back.”
A rattling rubbing purr against the legs.
100 words
@solimond
Miranda kate (@PurpleQueenNL)
January 10, 2012
I don’t care if she screams or hits me some more, I’m not moving! She thought to herself.
Cara sat on her bed, her back to the door. She could hear her mum screaming downstairs at her baby brother. Mum called her defiant, but she was scared. When mum started like this they all ended up with bruises – even dad sometimes.
Then her brother’s screams started and her stomach lurched. She knew she had to go down and save him. She couldn’t bear the thought of her mum lying to the neighbours about how he got another black eye.
100 words
@PurpleQueenNL
jendauthor
January 10, 2012
Mommy Dearest
She was more than defiant. She was pure evil. But no one believed me.
My daughter sat, cross-legged on the bed. Her tiny pigtails stuck out haphazardly, disarmingly adorable. The fragile shoulder blades protruded from her back as she gulped in air, sobbing again. I closed my eyes and steeled myself against the sound. I wouldn’t fall victim to her deceptive innocence.
“Please, Mommy. I didn’t mean it.”
Her angelic little voice might fool her father, but not me. I knew the truth. I took another step into the room, reminding myself of all of her insults. She would pay.
100 words
@JenD_Author
Charles W Jones (@ChuckWesJ)
January 10, 2012
uh-oh someone is in trouble
LupusAnthropos
January 10, 2012
If Looks Could Kill
“No!” Tori yelled.
“Victoria Tomlinson, get ready for school this instant!” Her mother yelled back.
“You can’t make me!”
“Listen to your mother!” her father shouted.
Tori stood and stared at them – first her father, then her mother. Her intense gaze drilled into them and they couldn’t believe her resolve.
The explosions were sudden. Massive aneurysms in the necks of the couple showered everywhere and they dropped to the floor
Still only half dressed, as defiant as ever, she scrawled “Not sorry” onto the wall using their blood then sat down on the bed, admiring her handiwork.
97 Words
@LupusAnthropos
LupusAnthropos
January 10, 2012
Forgot to insert my intended title: If Looks Could Kill.
@BethanyLopez2
January 10, 2012
“My Mommy is so mean,” Katie whispered over and over to the empty room. She sat on her bed the position of punishment, too innocent to really know what punishment meant. All she knew was that she wanted to help her Mommy make dinner.
What did ‘defiant’ even mean? The more she thought about it, the more angry and frustrated she became, and since she didn’t know how to express her feelings fully in words, she started to yell…
“I am Cooker Chef Katie!” She wailed as loud as her little lungs would allow, “I’m supposed to help make dinner!
100 words
@BethanyLopez2
JonathonVolkmer
January 10, 2012
“Is she still sulking?”
“Defiant as ever.”
“This four letter word thing has to stop.”
“I know. I hid the dictionary.”
“Should we just let her finish? She’s nearly through S.”
“I know, I’ve been reading the wall. Salt, scab, seal, shad, sial, skag, slab, smog, snot, soul…”
“What did the shrink say?”
“I wish you wouldn’t call her that.”
“Call her what? Shrink? She’s a shrink.”
“Whatever. The ‘shrink’ said the compulsions can probably be controlled with discipline and therapy. Meantime, we’ll want to hold off repainting.”
“And?”
“Well, she’s definitely obsessive.”
“God bless the education system.”
“Amen, sister.”
100 words
@JonathonVolkmer
Ginny (@GLOverbay)
January 10, 2012
“She hasn’t spoken a word,” Camille whispered as we stood in the doorway. The little girl sat facing the wall, arms crossed, looking every bit the spoiled, defiant child she had always been.
“She can sense it,” I replied, stepping into the room and slowly rounding the bed.
Blue eyes looked up at me, no coldness, but blue fire instead. Rejected outfits littered the floor, nothing somber enough for today’s event.
“Sweetie,” I said gently as I leaned forward. “You’ve got to get dressed. We have to go.”
Blonde curls quivered as she shook her head, lips pursing tightly shut.
100 words
@GLOverbay
Toni Wyatt (@Toni1777)
January 10, 2012
“I came as soon as I could,” he said, setting down his briefcase.
“Thank you,” the mother said. “I can’t explain it. One minute she’s the sweetest child, and the next, she’s a defiant, holy terror.”
They looked at the ceiling as the pounding of running footsteps sounded above them.
“I’ll go up and talk to her.” She moved as if to follow. “Alone if you don’t mind.”
She waited at the bottom of the stairs. A loud crash startled her. The girl appeared at the balcony railing.
“I love my new jump rope, Mommy.”
The woman smiled. “Good girl.”
@Toni1777 100 words
glitterlady
January 10, 2012
What exactly did that guy do to the girl, unscrew her head and put in manners? Mysterious!
Toni Wyatt (@Toni1777)
January 10, 2012
She strangled him with her jump rope. ; )
glitterlady
January 10, 2012
AH HAH! That makes the story that much better, See I was thinking she used the rope like a whip or something but strangling seems better and much more of an accomplishment since the girl is tiny.
Sharon
January 10, 2012
I woke, saw the smeared wall and smacked my fist into my thigh to keep from storming down the hall. But my fist was tiny, pudgy. My thighs, too.
“Beckeeeee!” I shrieked, racing. If she’d done this to me, what about Becky?
Gone. No crib or diapers. No carpet or wallpaper. The cement was rough under my fingers as I stared at the message: No Soul Escapes.
I’d defied her thrice: gotten married, gotten pregnant, gotten away — I’d thought.
Inside the screaming, I recognized that color pink. It was the smell of my daughter’s breath. It was her soul.
100 words
@aftergadget
MLGammella
January 10, 2012
Title: Purity
“I hate pink,” Matilda declared.
“We can paint it, Maddie,” her mom said with desperation.
“No, you can’t.”
Maddie faced her mother while sitting on her pristine white bed in her pristine white bedroom. Her eyes were wide, seemingly innocent, entirely deceptive. Her mother cringed back in fear, no longer defiant.
“Remove it,” the child demanded. “Now!”
Maddie’s mother hurried to the wall and began scrubbing with the hem of her shirt.
“Harder! I still see it!”
The woman scrubbed as hard as she could, even using her hands and wrists, until blood began smearing across the wall.
“Much better.”
@MLGammella
100 Words
jendauthor
January 10, 2012
ooh! That’s dark and lovely!
redshirt6 aka Robby Hilliard
January 10, 2012
“Are so,” Ryan teased, “are so it.”
“Not so,” Julia yelled as she stomped her feet. “Not so it!”
“Okay you two,” their mother intervened, “that’s enough. It’s bedtime.”
“That’s not fair!” Julia said as she crossed her arms in a defiant manner. “He keeps saying I’m it when I’m not.”
“It won’t matter in the morning,” their mother said as she shooed them to their rooms. “By then you will have forgotten all about it.”
—
Julia looked at the words she had written on the wall in big, pink letters.
not so it
“I won’t forget!” she said.
100 Words
redshirt6 aka Robby Hilliard
redshirt6 aka Robby Hilliard
January 10, 2012
I meant 100 words.
Nancy
January 10, 2012
“She’s being a brat!”
Teurin folded his arms, gazing in at the child. Her spine was set, her lower lip jutting at a stubborn angle, and her arms were crossed over… her chest. No doubt who her father was. “Don’t people call that defiant, and in your bra-burning circles, isn’t it a good thing?”
Sophia jabbed her finger at his face. “Shut up. She’s your problem now.”
Tuerin chuckled and approached the little Amazon, leaning on the bed beside her. “Come with me, love? Have some new magic to show you,” he whispered.
His daughter looked at him and smiled.
@ModernBard1024
100 Words
Lisa McCourt Hollar
January 10, 2012
Child’s Play
by Lisa McCourt Hollar
“I’m not really mad at you. I’m just disappointed. Please try to understand.”
Trinity just sat there, her arms folded and her back turned towards me. I was sure her lower lip was pushed out as well. Trinity had always been defiant and I was careful to choose my battles.
I glanced at the wall, where she had smeared the words NOT SORRY, in blood.
“You knew better and now Daniella cannot play with you anymore.”
“I just wanted her to be like us, so she could be my friend forever. I didn’t mean to drink all her blood.”
Word Count: 99
@jezri1
rastrohman
January 10, 2012
She fled from the kitchen to her room, and as he followed, plate in hand, he saw her sitting on the bed with her arms folded.
“Britt, please, you need to eat this. It’s all we have.”
She began to sob, burrowing her head in the blankets.
“Britt, if you don’t eat this, you’ll starve!”
She looked up at him for a moment, defiant, then shouted, “No, I won’t!”
“Please, honey!”
“But I can’t, Daddy! I can’t! They are people!”
“Yes, but it’s all we have. Now eat this or it will spoil and I’ll have to go kill another!”
100 words
@rastrohman
glitterlady
January 10, 2012
OMG! CAnnibALS! Curious, what type of epidemic caused this?
David A Ludwig
January 10, 2012
The stuff dripping down the walls smelled like throw-up and chemicals. It fell from the ceiling in big globs too. Miyu hugged her knees and rocked back and forth in the middle of the bed. She couldn’t look away from the wall where the monsters were writing her notes.
No matter what the monsters wrote—no matter how the pieces of Daddy rotted—Miyu would remain defiant. Even if the monsters’ notes pulled her eyes out of her face, Miyu would stay on the bed. She’d be okay, because it was the bed where Mommy and Daddy used to sleep.
100 words
@DavidALudwig
Sheilagh Lee
January 10, 2012
I was defiant. I wasn’t going to apologise I didn’t feel wrong, no matter what she said. Sent to her room punished for spilling milk when the person who did it didn’t? It was too unfair. I’d written on the wall in nice script that’s what she called it, and just as she loved. So far there was no answer but she break soon.
“I’m sorry. Please stop writing on the wall.” she said.
“That’s all I wanted.”
“Hayley, are you blaming everything on your imaginary friend again?” asked her Mother.
I smiled happily and hid in the shadows again.
100words
@SweetSheil
Siobhan Muir
January 10, 2012
Chris knew she didn’t present much of a threat in her camisole and yoga pants with her disheveled hair frizzing around her head, but she crossed her arms over her chest and stood her ground, defiant.
The Tangos didn’t hide their faces as they herded the women into a dank, cement bunker with tiny arrow-slit windows near the ceiling. One woman whimpered around her gag and Chris gathered her close. She didn’t know much about giving comfort, but she could use her body for protection.
“Pray to God for His deliverance.”
“Pray to God for yours,” she snapped back.
99 #WIP500 words
@SiobhanMuir
samantha12jane
January 10, 2012
Her posture declared her defiance. Back straight, shoulders back, head tilted. She was unaware of the change. She was too immersed in the words on the wall that had been scrawled by a young hand so long ago, words that were immediately covered with a scarred dresser.
She wasn’t sorry. Not for any of it. If she wasn’t so stubborn, she might not be alive today.
She gazed at the window next to the bed. It had been replaced after her final exit, it appeared. And the trees had been cut down.
She laughed humorlessly. They thought she’d be back. And they were right.
@Samantha12Jane
104 words
Kelly
January 10, 2012
Ten year old Carly sat defiant with her arms crossed, staring at the wall. They couldn’t make her….not on her birthday. They would try, but she wouldn’t let them. She was in charge now.
She gently rocked, plotting her escape from the room she’d been kept in way too long.
Daddy was mean, and that “Woman” was evil. Daddy hurt her, and the old hag stabbed her with needles.
When her room door opened, she saw her opportunity.
****
Dr. Grayson saw her sitting on her bed and prayed. “Sarah, it’s time for your medicine, Dear. Happy fiftieth birthday.”
100 words
@ohthatmomagain
c0h0rt157
January 11, 2012
That’s what she always says, “Go to your room!”
What am I suppose to do in here? Be lonely or something?
Lose my mind, and forget and do what I clearly wasn’t going to do.
Well, I am not going to apologize to no dumb cat.
That doesn’t even make sense. Besides, I can’t even spell apologize.
Isn’t that what daddy asks, when I say bad grandma words?
He says, “Spell it.”
So, I haven’t lost my mind, and I can spell.
But, how to make a “Y”? Sure can’t ask mommy.
I don’t care. I am “not sorr” either.
@Computilizer
100 words