Only Roses

   First person:   As I arrived at the restaurant, I saw him sitting at our table; the boy that asked me out for my first date. I could immediately feel my heart in my throat, every fiber in my body vibrating to its rhythm. When he approached me with his wide smile and arms wide open. I donned an awkward smile and waved nonchalantly. My head started to feel lightheaded and my knees were weak at the joint, it felt as if I could fall or trip at any given moment. Fear started to creep into my mind, I thought if I was presentable for this occasion and I started to lightly sweat and repeatedly twiddle my fingers, at the end of it all. I felt warm. Third person:           During the date Allison felt unsure of the night. “Is he a good guy?” she thought, but those thoughts were forcibly pushed aside as she sat down at the table with him. During the first couple minutes she felt as if she was about to puke due to the nervousness. The man took notice and t...

            My buddies and I are on a simple foot patrol in the city of Fallujah in Iraq. Everything is utter chaos with constant gunfire, explosions, and worst of all is the complete paranoia of it all. We have no idea where the next shot could come from, be it in the next house over, a sniper half a block away, or a machine gunner perched in an alleyway just waiting for us. As we’re going compound through compound there is a sudden and violent explosion and, in my daze, I hear my squad lead shouting something about contacts on a roof with a green awning, then every single man in our platoon started to shoot their guns at the building, completely defacing the entire structure. We hear someone shout man down and I look to my best friend, Webley, and he is completely unrecognizable. His skin is scorched black, his face is not even there, and there’s not much left of him anyway save for some muscle holding him together           I wak...

            “About damn time that you decide to join us, Cutter!”            Cutter tiredly looks to the left of the room and sees his partner, Officer Hale. Cutter says in response, “morning Hale. My bad but central took their sweet time getting my keys and sending the elevator down. Say where’s Langston?”            “Langston is out on COVID that which means she won’t be getting back till the 19th. It’ll just be the two of us until then.” Hale replies.           Cutter pinches the bridge of his nose and states, “Dang, that’ll make things slightly harder, but luckily we only have to do change out on level 13 and 2 today. So, are we going to 2 or 13 first?”            Hale gets up off his chair and points two fingers upwards, indicating to Cutter that they’ll be working on the 2nd floor first. As Hale and Cutter arrive at the laundry, they noti...

“This can’t be happening; this really can’t be happening!” Jan screams internally.   Jan looks at his phone to see that the month is June and that the temperature should be rising but it’s only declining. Jan, a historian of Scandinavian culture immediately recognizes one of the signs of the end of the world, Ragnarök, happening right before his eyes. As he came to this realization, he calls his ex-wife in a panic induced state to warn anyone and everyone of the coming catastrophe. “Come on Ingrid, pick up!” he shouts to himself. Suddenly Ingrid answers the phone, “What do you want Jan?” “Listen to me Ingrid, the myths are true! Ragnarök is happening, winter never cut into summer before!”  Ingrid cuts off Jan, “Jan, this is the effect of global weather changing. It’s normal! This is why you lost your job, believing in fairy tales and obsessed with myths. You’re crazy Jan.” Ingrid suddenly hangs up on Jan as he slowly lets his phone drop down to his side while he l...

     Rosa is kneeling in front of the living room walls, she sighs while pinning her bleach dyed dreads back away from her face. The dull box cutter will suffice as she begins sawing the edges of the carpet that lay snug next to the baseboard of her walls.   This carpet is old , she thinks trying to convince herself that it must be removed, with that she starts to tear it up from the floor. The carpet is old, and it should have been replaced years ago but she could never bring herself to do it. She is slightly sentimental to the stained carpet that involves most of her adult life. For Rosa, she saw it for much more than what it is. She saw it as an inspiration, where she would often find creativity because of the endless nights staring at the ground. Rosa begins to realize how much of her life revolved around this carpet, she spent most of her waking hours standing or sitting on it. There’s not much carpet does for people, but her carpet added personality to her home...

  Child’s Perspective I look over at the alarm clock it’s too early in the morning and I don’t want to get out of my bed. We woke up early yesterday for church so I deserve to sleep in a bit. Hannah being annoying as ever is rolling around in her bed trying to talk to me. “Shut up I yell” and decide at this point it is better to just leave the room and see what mom is up too with grandma and grandpa. Of course she is crying again, with grandma and grandpa huddled around here praying. I don’t want to deal with it, it’s too early for that too. So I walk back to the room and explain to Hannah not to bother mom because she is crying yet again.  Two minute later mom barges into the room “pack your bags, dad was in an accident.” But my dad is invincible so he’ll be fine.  Adult’s Perspective I remember waking up early in the morning, well early for being thirteen, the little neon red numbers on the digital alarm clock read 8:03am. It’s funny that I can remember ...

Short sentence:        Amber sat in front of his grave.   Long sentence:       Amber, who just rolled out of bed only minutes ago, feeling again that emptiness inside of her like every other day since the incident, sat down on the cold wet grass only for this morning’s dew to soak straight through the grey sweat pants she stills wears that belonged to him; sitting right in front of his grave, she couldn’t help but feel guilty for not being able to afford to have his name carved in the bleak headstone- or maybe it was because it would make the fact that he was no longer alive be even more real for her.

     The water has been running hot for the past hour and Willow can’t contain her tears, as they burn like acid rolling down her checks. She sits on the floor of the shower wearing nothing but her favorite grey sweatpants, which she didn’t even have the motivation to take off. She tugged at the drawstrings around her waist, trying to distract her mind with anything but him, Trevor. He is all she can think about. Today he had replaced his routine good morning text with a inconsiderate breakup text. Now he won’t respond to the several messages she had sent asking him why. Maybe this is all a dream; how could he do this to her? She moved to a different state following him to a nearby college. She left her entire life back at home to make sure their relationship wouldn’t suffer the distance. Now her efforts were for nothing; there is no point anymore.   Her roommate, Ashlyn, calls for her from behind the bathroom door, “Hey, is everything okay?” Willow’s voice is ...

  Horror premises: Fisherman goes on a fishing trip alone to cope with a divorce, along the way he encounters a Lovecraftian horror that plays against his weakened mental state. A couple is going through a rough patch in life when they visit a Catholic marriage counselor, he in turn discovers a malignant force that is attached to the couple and is feeding off of their negative emotions A teenager escapes from an abusive and controlling household, after his escape he takes shelter in an abandoned home where he is eventually trapped with a demonic entity Horror  premise #2             A woman’s body is splayed out on the hardwood floor and underneath her is a large pool of blood. George slowly walks up to the body, keeping a keen eye on his surroundings for whatever has committed this act of brutality. George kneels down next to the body and he notices that Rigor Mortis has already set in and that her skin is ice cold t...

    The dogs bark at the back door begging to be let inside. I call to my wife from the kitchen asking if she can let them in since I was busy preparing dinner and chopping up the vegetables. It has been snowing all day so when she lets the dogs in there paws are soaking wet and they begin to slide around on the hard wooden floors. Marley, my little energetic poodle slide right into me as I’m cutting the vegetables. I dint realize what had happened until blood covered the knife and my vegetables were turning red. The sight of blood makes me feel lightheaded, the sounds around me become distant. I don’t recall my wife’s voice any longer but I see her mouth moving as if she was speaking frantically. I walk backwards continuing to stare at the blood that is now gushing out from the tip of my finger. I’m stoped when I reach the counter behind me. My wife grabs paper towels and wraps my finger up in it but with in seconds the sheet is drench in blood. My head begins to spin ev...

  Part one: re-write a generic description .  I stare at myself in the mirror, my shaggy blonde hair covers my eyes before I slick it back with hair gel. The bathroom is steamy because I forgot to turn on the fan as I showered. I quickly get dressed in my dark blue dress suit that is a little loose around the waist but nothing a nice belt can’t fix. I continue to look at myself in the mirror again “I am John Smith” I speak confidently looking at myself. What a simple name, but I suppose it works for the weird character they want me to portray. I head out the door before I’m late for work. Once I arrive on set I get out of my car and I have someone else park it for me.  “Hey Robert!” My director calls out to me “ready for the big shoot today John smith” he winks as he says my character names.  “Ready as all always be” I get into character ready to preform. John Smith my character begins the scene walking down the streets. I’m told that John has a slight limpe...

       Amy and I pull up to the nearest parking spot at the gas station, at this point the sun has set and the sky is dark. I check the clock as I’m stepping out of my vehicle and notice it's nearing 8pm.        “I wish we would have came out here earlier. I don’t like going into gas station late, its so sketchy” Amy groans stepping out of my car simultaneously as me.           “Stop begin so dramatic” I laugh “Let’s go get some snacks then dip.” I grab her hand and drag her behind me. The gas station is empty beside the store clerk who sits behind the registers reading the paper. He doesn’t look up as he greet us coming through the doors. Amy and I walk to the chips aisle, she grabs two bags of Doritos and I grab the cheese dip for them. “Did you want something to drink?” I ask walking over to the fridges.   “I mean if you are offering” she laughs and grabs herself a Monster.  “Guess we aren’t going t...