Tuesday Tales 28!
Challenge #28
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:
@JenD_Author
Aspiring Paranormal-Suspense author. She plays with ghosts and monsters, and likes it.
& Host of #fridaypictureshow flashfiction challenge
Our judge is challenging us this week with a awesome sauce word!
Secret Word:
Cupidity
noun. Eager or excessive desire, especially to possess something; greed; avarice.
Picture:
Picture curtesy of the Pictureshow host!
ON WITH THE TALES!
Go ahead and check out the archive of all the tuesdaytales or escort you to your tuesdaytales needs HERE
Like this:
Posted in: Tuesday Tales
Aaron Beyer (@AGBeyer)
February 14, 2012
I fell into the trap like a fool. Years of marriage made me think vampirism really was sexier than anything else. I laughed and quipped that “ohh yeah, I would take a bite from a vampire any day. As long as he turned me into one too! I don’t want to be some bloody sacrifice.” I didn’t realize how eager I was. When his blonde curls and stupid fanged grin invited me home, I tossed myself upon cupidity’s arrow. Now that we’re in the forest, and the ritual is complete, I feel neither thorns nor sorrow. I only feel cheated.
100 words
@agbeyer
Aaron Beyer (@AGBeyer)
February 14, 2012
Ah hah! That’s what I get for being so hasty. I meant cupid’s to be cupidity’s.
glitterlady
February 14, 2012
fixed
Aaron Beyer
February 15, 2012
Thank you for the fix! Woohoo!
Cindyluewho
February 14, 2012
Never in his wildest dreams did John think it would go this far. “I’m never
gonna get outta’ this one,” He said in a thick-southern-drawl. “I’m gonna
give her the damn roses anyway!” He threw the roses and turned to run.
“You going somewhere?” The cupidity in her voice made john turn around.
Up high in the scarlet waning of the setting sun shimmered the women, and
never a more fearsome site could he not desert.
“Gonna haveta’ go now.” He replied. “Yep, it just can’t be you…”
“Let ye not forget.”
“You don’t mean…”
“Down you shall go!”
100 words
@Cindyluewho2
Cindyluewho
February 14, 2012
If you see what I have done, please save your LOL’s until after judging. Don’t ruin it for the others!
~
Cindyluewho
February 15, 2012
TuesdayTales has officially been trolled and rick rolled… Please read vertically.
Never xx xxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx xxx xxxx xxxxx xx xxxxx xx xxxx xxx. “xxx never
gonna xxx xxxxxx xxxx xxx,” xx xxxx xx x xxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxx. “xxx gonna
give xxx xxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxxx!” xx xxxxx xxx xxxxx xxx xxxxxx xx run.
“You xxxxx xxxxxxxxx?” xxx xxxxxxxx xx xxx xxxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx around.
Up xxxx xx xxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx xx xxx xxxxxxx xxx xxxxxxxxx xxx xxxxx, and
never x xxxx xxxxxxxx xxxx xxxxx xx xxx xxxx xxxxxx xx xxxxx desert.
“Gonna xxxxxx’ xx xxx.” xx xxxxxxx. “xxx, xx xxxx xxxxx xx you…”
“Let xx xxx xxxxxx.”
“You xxxxx xxxx…”
“Down xxx xxxxx xx!”
Ginny (@GLOverbay)
February 14, 2012
“I think you might be going overboard,” Aaron told me as we scattered the roses around the blanket just so. “I feel kinda … weird doing this.”
“It’s all about karma, my friend,” I said, stepping back to look at our creation. “You’re helping me, so something good will come your way.”
I clapped him on the shoulder, nearly knocking him off balance.
“Hey, Jess might even notice you this week.” Aaron rolled his eyes.
“This is just a sad display of cupidity, dude.”
“I’m not stupid!”
“Cupidity. Not stupidity,” he said. Glancing at me, he amended. “Well, maybe …”
100 words
@GLOverbay
JonathonVolkmer
February 14, 2012
Lust is a strange thing. Feeding and festering, simple passions can break all bonds of base desire to become something else, something alien. One never knows what will move a man to cupidity.
Princes, too, are strange. In stories, they are handsome, wealthy, and relentless.
Love, they call it, at first sight.
Hair as black as ebony offers a place to hide from night’s dreaming torments.
Lips as red as blood warm the loins with thoughts of slaughtered foemen.
Skin as white as snow, flawless complexion of a dead girl, offers something no living woman can.
Surrender.
Freedom.
“Bring her.”
100 words
@JonathonVolkmer
Corgzilla
February 14, 2012
He looked down at his prize. Of all the pretty things he had collected over the millennia, this was been the most elusive. His personal unicorn. He had finally captured her.
Rapscallion rubbed his hands together with cupidity, eyes devouring the form elegantly posed upon the bed of roses. The greatest works of art are those that may only be seen once, so fleeting in their beauty. For the moment, everything was perfect.
Of course, morning would eventually come, and with it the foolish humans and their police tape. They would ruin his canvas and call it a crime scene.
@ModernBard1024
100 words
Nancy P.
Sam Webb
February 14, 2012
Sarah’s plan to give Dan the perfect Valentine’s Day was put into action when he left for work. With a cupidity rarely seen, Sarah tore around town buying supplies to create her vision. By late afternoon Sarah was enjoying her doting husband’s gift of luxurious handcrafted bubble bath and lotion. She sighed and thought of the evening’s pleasures.
Dan arrived home to find his bride lying on their bed amid carefully flung roses. He checked to make sure she was dead before disposing of the incriminating bath products and calling the police. He had never liked her over wrought plans.
100 words
@sammyjwebb
Nellie
February 14, 2012
Fred rubbed her face, staring down at the feet lying amongst the roses. This wasn’t good. She rubbed her face and walked in a circle outside the roses around the body of the witch. They had a legal need for me this time.
All of the coven stared as I knelt down.
“She had a cupidity for power. She had been warned before we kicked her out. That is not our way.”
Fred used a pencil to move some locks of hair away from her neck, exposing the marks on her neck. “I don’t think it was what she expected.”
100 words
@solimond
Daniel Swensen
February 14, 2012
No one escapes the agency.
I’d known when I signed up. When I met her. When I believed that we could defy them, that love conquered all.
Check the scope.
She kneels to pick up the bouquet I’ve left. A lovely trap. Her final moment. A tiny happiness. More than I’ll ever have.
Chamber the round.
She’ll never know it was me. That’s one small mercy. She wouldn’t understand I’m doing this to save her from them. From my fate.
She finds the notes. Smells the roses. Smiles.
Breathe in. Release. Squeeze, don’t pull.
I’m sorry.
The roses fall.
99 words / @surlymuse
Daniel Swensen
February 14, 2012
And I forget to use the prompt phrase like a total idiot. Good work, me! Thumbs up!
Oh well. It was fun to write anyway.
Daniel Swensen
February 14, 2012
(Revision without embarrassing exclusion of prompt phrase)
No one escapes the agency.
I’d known when I I met her. When I believed that we could defy them, that love conquered all. Cupidity for a normal life had eclipsed judgment.
Check the scope.
She kneels to pick up the bouquet I’ve left. Her final moment. A tiny happiness. More than I’ll ever have.
Chamber the round.
She won’t it was me. One small mercy. She wouldn’t understand I’m doing this to save her from them. From my fate.
She finds the note. Smells the roses. Smiles.
Breathe in. Release. Squeeze, don’t pull.
I’m sorry.
The roses fall.
99 words / @surlymuse
Charles W Jones (@ChuckWesJ)
February 14, 2012
My cupidity for her is humongous. I follow her everywhere. I love her. I need to be close to her, but not too close, I cannot handle the germs. Today, Valentine’s Day, I decided I will allow myself succumb to her germs. She wears a layered sheer dress. I follow her into the park. NO, it cannot be. She is not true to me as I am to her. She sits with a man. It angers me. I smash in her head with a rock, the bouquet of roses fall around her feet as the crimson flows from her skull.
@ChuckWesJ
100 Words
Sheilagh Lee
February 14, 2012
She lay dead in the grass. An ethereal beauty surrounded by roses, the only light the moon illuminating the scene. His cupidity had killed her too but in this way he could possess them forever in his mind’s eye. He wondered if the next one would be more willing? He would find his next victim tonight it was Valentine’s Day, there were a lot of women available to add to his collection. There were more dresses for them to wear in his closet, in every colour of the rainbow. Which color should she wear tonight? Purple for hearts of course.
100 words
@SweetSheil
Wakefield Mahon
February 14, 2012
Three sisters were born under wicked stars, their parents passing when they were but small, leaving only a blue cloak, a red dress and a yellow jacket.
Blue was a lightweight in every way. She trusted her sister, who took her heavy cloak in exchange for a flower. A strong wind stole Blue away in her stupidity.
Weighted by the cloak, Red could not run, the wolves feasted because of Red’s cupidity.
Yellow perceived what her sisters had done. Sensing the folly within, she took her own life rather than burden the world, so she lost her life to lucidity.
100 words
@WakefieldMahon
Rafe
February 14, 2012
“I hate you. I’ll never get that song out of my head now.” I dragged Lisa’s corpse through the underbrush, ivy attempting to wrap around her ankles and hamper our progress.
Gabe was useless, walking ahead, twirling his shovel like a drum majorette. “How could I possibly resist?”
“Impulse control isn’t your long suit. Exhibit A, the fact that we’re trying to get rid of your ex’s body.”
Gabe wasn’t listening, he was humming Queensrÿche again and singing under his breath.
“Vines twining just for you, in violent cupidity…..”
#94
@etcet
David A Ludwig
February 14, 2012
I am a man of many faults. I’ll be the first to tell you so. My virtues are few; and, if you ask me, morals are best kept to fables. Many have called me monster, but there I must disagree. I take my sins and through their embrace create glorious art.
Even the blackest heart is capable of love. Cupidity at least. I desired her, but she would not have me. To my heart’s desire I sent a dozen roses. Unsuspecting she took their scent, and the toxin did its work. Forever more she is a part of my garden.
100 words
@DavidALudwig
glitterlady
February 14, 2012
creepily beautiful
Rebecca Clare Smith
February 14, 2012
Scarlet. It was her favourite colour. Wrapped now around her feet in clinging cupidity, I don’t suppose she noticed.
Thorns cut her soles like the kisses of a thousand past lovers. I smiled and watched her, the rose tint of her tender cheeks full: Heaven’s smile.
I wouldn’t touch her – only long from afar as she lay naked, bathed in the sunlight that kissed her skin. Gooseflesh ruffled her composure as if she knew I was watching and followed my thoughts…
Were these languorous stretches in the roses my own obsession or her enchantments? I was drunk on her. Bewitched.
100 words.
@jocastalizzbeth
My first in a while. Apologies for the absence.
Greg Nance
February 14, 2012
Wash Thy Pierced Heart In Death
The morning air kissed her pale ankles as she glided through the open veil of the quietly singing forest. Beautiful, as she whisked through the ivy, the color of passion set her apart from the greenery, leaving in awe even the creatures in her wake.
Though bound to another by a golden band, her cupidity for him could not be contained. On this day of Love, she waited in their secret spot among the willows. So deep in her heart as Cupid’s arrow had pierced, the poison coursing through her veins restrained not. He would find her… not in time.
100 Words – @acenance
charitygirlblog
February 14, 2012
Bodies twisting, hot and slick, in a tangle of red silk. Panting, pounding.
Someone coughed.
Looking up, Sir Gervase Montague-Hortley froze. The etiquette for conversing with one’s puritan mother-in-law when buried between the fleshy thighs of the Duchess of Mulgrew eluded him.
“Whore!”
“Agnes,” Sir Gervase said, politely. Beneath him, the Duchess sighed.
“You’ve got an heir.” Agnes stood in the doorway, a bundle clutched to her shoulder.
“And my wife?”
“Dead. Don’t pretend you care.” Her eyes glittered. “She named him Cupidity. A reminder of your sins.”
He smiled thinly. “I’ll call him Charles. The King will like that.”
100 words, @charitygirlblog
Cathy Sheridan
February 14, 2012
IN THE GARDEN
By C.S. Sheridan
“Pretty flowers.” The boy knows he shouldn’t touch.
“Not too close, son.” The man pulls the boy gently back.
“Is she sleeping?”
“Kind of.”
“Why won’t she wake up?”
“She can’t.”
“Why not?”
“People don’t wake up from this kind of sleep.”
“It’s special sleep?”
“Yes.”
“How’d she get special sleep?”
“Cupidity for someone who’s not me.”
“Cupid is on some of the Valentines I got today.”
The man takes the boy by the hand. “Let’s go home and you can show me.”
“Is mama staying here forever?”
“I hope so.”
89 words
@css7756
Greg Nance
February 15, 2012
BTW. I am always open to criticism, evaluation or critique. I don’t have ill feelings toward anyone bettering my work/style.
Cindyluewho
February 15, 2012
The morning air kissed her pale ankles as she glided through the open veil of the quietly singing forest.
I have some issues with the imagery here… but, it is expressive and technically correct.
Beautiful, as she whisked through the ivy, the color of passion set her apart from the greenery, leaving in awe even the creatures in her wake.
This is a choppy run-on sentence. Maybe try something like:
She walked through the ivy, an image of beauty, leaving only the color of passion to set her apart from the greenery. Every creature was left enchanted in her wake.
Though bound to another by a golden band, her cupidity for him could not be contained.
I can’t tell if she is bound to someone and interested in another or expressing cupidity for the same man that she is bound to? Also, try to avoid welding sentences together with commas. Maybe:
She was bound to a love by his golden band. Yet, her cupidity for another man could not be contained.
On this day of Love, she waited in their secret spot among the willows.
Again we see a welded sentence. These are okay every once in a while. But don’t use them for every sentence.
It was their day of love. She waited in their secret spot among the willows.
So deep in her heart as Cupid’s arrow had pierced, the poison coursing through her veins restrained not. He would find her… not in time.
I would try to break these thoughts up into separate sentences. Something like:
So deep in her heart had Cupid’s arrow pierced. The poison now coursing through her veins would not be restrained. He would find her… but not in time.
Put it all together and chop it down to a hundred words:
The morning dew kissed her bear ankles as she glided through the open veil. She walked through the ivy, an image of beauty, leaving only the color of passion to set her apart from the forest greenery.
She was bound to a love by his golden band. Yet, her cupidity for another man could not be contained. It was their day of love. She waited in their secret spot among the willows. So deep in her heart had Cupid’s arrow pierced. The poison now coursing through her veins would not be restrained.
He would find her… but not in time.
> But the ending still seems a bit off…
Kelly
February 15, 2012
She ran from the cabin. Her bare feet slapped the dirt path, screaming for her to stop. But she couldn’t. She had to keep running away from *that*.
She clutched her basket of goodies in her hand, and looked back toward the cabin. Her crimson hood flew off of her head, and she scrambled to put it back in place.
The sound approached louder– large paws on ground. Cupidity drove the thing on. Fear drove her.
She stumbled on a rock and fell. Her basket full of goodies spilled on the ground. The wolf in Grandma’s nightcap licked his lips.
100 words
@ohthatmomagain