June Writing Challenge!
Join us in our #JuneChallenge! Write a short story beginning with the first line of The Maze Runner by James Dashner in celebration of our first author Q&A with him on June 23rd. You will have exactly one week to submit your short story. GOOD LUCK!
Prompt
In 250 words or fewer, write a short story beginning with the line, “He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale dusty air.” Your story does NOT have to be about The Maze Runner, let your imagination create a whole new story beginning with this line.
CLICK HERE to visit my contest entry page. Or, just read below:
ASHES TO ASHES
He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale dusty air. This of course, was unusual. In his previous lives they had all but started with a BANG, literally. Then bursts of colors, marked liked prisms danced with happy chirps and lackadaisical beats. He always woke to beauty. This was not beauty.
This was definitely the opposite of beauty.
Rank Fischer knew he was different. All his lives, he never quite fit with the in-crowd, nor with the stoners or geeks. He was gray, as if he stood in a low-setting sun and he was tall and thin as a wisp of hair. Which, speaking of, was charcoal and could never be tamed so he always looked like he just woke up from either a horrific nightmare or had a wild night with multiple women. Of course the latter could not be true because he was never in one place long enough to meet any wild women; or tame, for that matter. He was constantly moving, always unsettled amidst the beauty of the world.
He stood now in a scorched and decimated land, where tall grasses and bushes had once reached for the sky and were now reduced to ash and soot. Burnt fragments of once well-loved cars and buildings now blown to bits littered the ground. The damage was all around, as far as he could see. He noted as he stood in this place, void of beauty, that it looked a lot like him.Thanks to fellow Figment writer, Dendrofilous, for the great cover art!