A Story A Day Challenge 2024 – It’s a Monday

With a grunt, Sam slapped at the blaring sound until he managed to find his alarm and silenced it.

It was a good way to start the day on the right foot, assuming Sam could figure out which foot was his right.

He slowly pushed himself onto his elbows and winced at the pounding inside his head. Movement next to him caught his attention and he made the mistake of looking over too fast and hissed in agony.

“Hey, baby.”

What’s her name? “Julie.”

“Jennie. Seriously? We’ve been together for twelve weeks!”

Oops. It’s going to be a long day.

A Story a Day Challenge 2024 – Not According to Plan

Things couldn’t be more perfect if he’d planned them. All he had to do was figure out how to get out of his current problem and everything would be fine.

The only problem was vaults didn’t open from the inside.

“The more you pace the more oxygen you use and the faster we’ll die,” his receptionist reminded him.

He paused to think things over. She was calmer than he was, yet she sounded close to breaking. “It holds seventy-two hours of air in case of a long weekend. We’ll be fine.”

“You should’ve hired someone to rob your own bank.”

A Story A Day Challenge 2024 – Going to Leave a Mark

“Dude, will you relax? Trust me,” Frank tried to reassure his friend, but it wasn’t working.

“Trust you? Trust you? The last time you said that I got tazed in the nuts by a midget stripper. What is wrong with you? What’s wrong with me for hanging out with you?”

Luke paced back and forth, trying to figure out a way not to murder his lifelong friend.

“It’s not like it was planned or anything—” Frank shut up at Luke’s glare.

“Bro, I’m going to kill you.”

“But your mom’s so hot—”

“Start running.”

“It was only once!”

A Story A Day Challenge 2024 – Crossed Wires

“Seriously, is she worth it?” Alan asked Matt as she hefted a half dozen bags of groceries.

“Dude, trust me. She is.” It was all Matt would say about his new girlfriend, even after Alan spent the day helping him shop to set up their party.

Matt and his new girlfriend had an announcement to make, even as a casual friend Alan couldn’t refuse. He just wanted to know more.

When they entered the apartment, Alan followed Matt into the kitchen where the mystery girlfriend waited.

“Holy… Sam?” Alan couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Alan? What are you… Don’t tell mom!”

A Story A Day Challenge 2024 – Gotta be Quicker Than That

“Why, you little sh—” Jane paused at seeing what the demon child she was babysitting had in his hand. “Don’t you dare. Come on, Thomas, give it to me.”

She slowly reached out for the crystal candy dish Thomas’ mother loved and would take Jane approximately 40 years of babysitting to pay off.

Not how she envisioned her life at sixteen years old.

She took a slow step forward, then another. She’d seen this work in movies with criminals or people ready to jump.

But they never had the gleeful smile Thomas did as he dropped the dish.

“Motherfu—”

A Story A Day Challenge 2024 – Lost in Words

“Things could be worse.”

That was always his mom’s motto. No matter what was happening in the world around them or to them she always focused on things could be worse.

It was something he understood, using and living it himself. It helped him appreciate what he had and how good things could be.

Then there were those that wanted it to be strictly about them no matter how small the issue was.

It was a delicate line, and one that needed to be tread carefully.

While he watched his friend grieve he wondered how could anyone tread carefully here?

A Story A Day Challenge 2024 – A Touch

The rain drizzle was slowing down and the sun was trying to break through the shallow cloud cover.

Sharon smiled at the sky. Days like this were what made it all worth while.

A snore came from next to her and she tried not to laugh. Leave it to her boyfriend to fall asleep just before a moment like this. He was a great guy, but he had lousy timing.

Still, she was willing to put up with him.

She laid back down on the blanket and snuggled into his side. At her touch he quieted and nestled against her.

A Story A Day Challenge 2024 – Mistakes Were Made

“Do you think it’ll work?”

Dan glanced over his shoulder at his wife. “Good question.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

He stepped back and eyed his handiwork. He followed the instructions, more or less. All they had to do was add batteries and see if the mobile worked.

“Crossing my fingers,” his wife said as she put the batteries in the compartment and switched it on.

At first nothing happened, then smoke started to leak out from the motor.

Switching it off, Dan shrugged. “Well, we did buy it second hand.”

“You just had to fiddle with it, didn’t you?”

A Story A Day Challenge 2024 – The Treasure Part 7

“HOLD!” Stu spoke the simple word, but the force behind it was commanding and full of unimagined power and Jake and the boss halted in mid step.

Not even a hair on their heads moved in the breeze coming in from across the valley.

Stu looked at his hand, and the object was gone. It infused into him on its own and he knew the process even if not what to call it.

The object was his ancestors, their consciousnesses and strengths placed inside it to be reunited, reborn through him.

This world was now his to command and rule.

The End?

A Story A Day Challenge 2024 – The Treasure Part 6

“That fool! It should be mine! I’m the one that claimed it!”

The boss’ thought came to Stu as easily as if the man had spoken them. He hadn’t told them what they were digging for, and if he had it wouldn’t have mattered.

He was the one to find it by design. It was part of him, part of his heritage, his family rite.

Even with his understanding, it was still hard to understand how something so… alien was his by rite, but it did explain why he never knew his parents. Why no record of him ever existed.

To be continued…