Okay, here's my entry. Titled "Bracelets."

Leah jumped down from the tree, an orange in hand. Her flats thudded into the dusty road.

“See, it’s not so hard!” she said, cheerfully peeling the ripe fruit. “You try!”

I laughed nervously. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

“C’mon, it’s not like you’re gonna fall or anything! And anyway, it’s only like a six foot drop.” She pulled off an orange section and bit into it.

“That’s… kind of a big drop.” Even if Leah and I hung out every day after school, she had never seen my bracelets. My long sleeves concealed them. I wasn’t about to cast aside my veneer of normalness now.

Leah flipped her red hair off her shoulder, her own bracelets flashing. Of course, hers were purely ornamental, bright pink and in full view. Real sorcerers kept our iron wristbands hidden, out of shame, but they were quite the fashion trend outside our community. If you had no magic to suppress, it didn’t matter if everyone saw.

She was saying something. “Sorry, what?” I asked.

“I said, are you gonna do it or what? I have to be home in half an hour.”

“Okay, fine.” I’d have to do it. My sleeves would conceal my bracelets anyway, like always.

The climb wasn’t too hard– just a scramble up the lower branches and a stretch to a nearby orange. I hopped down, grateful that my secret hadn’t been revealed. “Okay, you’re right. That wasn’t so bad. So can we– wait, what are you looking at?” I followed Leah’s gaze in a line.

Directly down to my exposed bracelets.

“Are those… iron?” she breathed. My throat grew dry, and my hands flew to my wrists.

“What? No!” I yelped, pulling at the ends of my sleeves. “I mean, they’re fake! I can’t afford real iron!” I laughed desperately, hiding my hands behind my back.

“Yes, they are,” Leah said, confidently, shortly. My heart sank. She knew what I was. “You have iron bracelets. You’re a witch.”

I took a step back at her accusatory tone. “I promise you, it’s not what you think. Just water control. Nothing dangerous.” I couldn’t believe it. Just like me to be so careless. Now I’d lost the only friend I’d ever have.

Leah shook her head. “No. Just… look here.” She began scratching at the surface of her own bracelet. I stood and watched, mesmerized. Finally, she finished her job and displayed the band.

Beneath the layer of pink paint lay a glint of metal. Real metal.

“You too?” I looked into her eyes and saw something new there.

Leah gave me a smile. “Plant growth. Yeah, me too.”

A Touch Of Magic

"No! I said, no! I will not join you, not to be hurt and harrased again!" 

My fingers automatically relocate to my scarred wrist, at the word hurt. It happens all the time. 

"Oh really…what if I…forced you to, then?"

At the last words, Lillie's eyes turn dark and stormy. 

I struggle to get out of her grip. Suddenly, I feel a certain power wash over me. 

I look Lillie in the eye. 

"How 'bout no?" 

Lillie laughs mercilessly. 

"Then I'll kill you off. Just like all my lovely victims…" 

Suddenly, a dagger appears in my hands, glowing an eerie blue. I slice through the ropes effortlessly and the dagger turns into throwing knives, carved with a rune. I hurtle the knives, one after the other, pinning her by the shirt to the wall of the warehouse. 

A pleading look comes in Lillie's eyes. 

"Please, Luna, I never did anything to hurt you.." 

I toss back my head and laugh. 

"That's Moonshadow, to you. You hurt me…remember that night? The scars? Huh? Huh?" 

Lillie suddenly breaks free of the throwing knives and pulls out a dagger, pinning me to the wall. I summon some axes, and toss them at Lillie, who in turn is forced to dodge and duck them, leaving me enough time to pull out the dagger. I summon some chains, but vines snatch them and toss them away. I summon some obsidian knives, and they glow blue and start to fight with the vines. The vines are now cut- and I deliver the fatal blow, and toss three throwing knives- two at her shoulders and one at her neck. She manages to summon a last vine and throw the one at her neck away, but she's bound by her shoulders to the wall. 

I smirk.  

A sticky silk rope materializes itself in my hands, and I bind her hands tight to the wall of the warehouse. 

"I have magic..magic you dream of, and it never comes. When did I get it? I got it for being a survivor. For helping others." 

Lillie throws a last glare my way, and I smirk. 

"We'll see how you last through the night. The weather forecasters said it would be snowy…and it will be, if I'm not mistaken. And you know me, I'm never mistaken." 

With that, I effortlessly pick the lock of the door- something you pick up from living at the streets for a while- and push it open, then slam it behind her. A sticky silk chain appears in my waiting hands, and I bind the door closed with it. 

Freedom.

And its waiting for me. 

~~~#~~~

For some info- this is the ending scene draft of my book. So, for the summary, it's where Luna Moonshadow joins the Shadow Group, only to be abused and hurt/harrased by the leader, Lillie Greens, and then Luna leaves, but helps people. She's summoned to the temple, where the gods grant her magical powers, she can make anything appear, and then she keeps it a secret. Lillie hunts her down in an old warehouse, and they have a little showdown of powers. Then Lillie reveals she managed to steal greenery powers from the gods and yeah. 

Hope you liked it- it was a bit short.  

When is judging?

So sorry everyone! I'll post results as soon as soon as I can tomorrow! Thank you all for your patience <3

Hey there everyone! So sorry that I’m a little late with the judging! Everyone did such an /amazing/ job and this was impossibly hard to judge.

Honorable Mentions: (in no particular order)

Moonshine – I loved how much emotion you were able to fit into such a small piece! You also did such an awesome job tying this one back to your previous entry and how they fit together perfectly. The uncertainty of what happens next is very suspenseful.

Lazerbat – Even though your piece had more of a serious vibe, the ending still made me laugh; it didn’t go in the direction I expected at all! Sora is such a wonderful character and your take on magik was very unique. Thank you for sharing it with us!

Nightskiies – The dynamic between your two characters was very interesting, and I loved that even though they were different species they still helped each other. The last bit at the end with the wedding was lovely 🙂 

Fourth Place:

Rainbow Riot – This story was so wonderful to read! The fact that Karl so obviously admires/has a crush on Alex and doesn’t know how to deal with the fact that Alex is magic is very interesting to read. Karl’s internal conflict feels very realistic and I can’t stop thinking about poor Alex still standing in the rain.

Third Place:

Strawberri – I thought the writing here was great! I love the little worldbuilding details you slipped in there, like the country of California part. I think that the storytelling here implies a lot of other characters and events that add to the mysteriousness of the story. The open ended ending was awesome.

Second Place:

Summer – I loved this piece! The contemporary take on classic magic is super cool, and the bracelets and secrets had me on edge the whole time. The ending was pleasantly surprising and I think that the writing was done extremely well. Wonderful job!

FIRST PLACE:

Sky NightStar – The fact that this was an excerpt from your book really showed the amount of worldbuilding and character development that took place before the warehouse fight. I read the background first and I thought that it seems like a very cool idea for a book, but it also made sense on it’s own, without the synopsis. The differences and similarities between these two girls are super cool to witness, and I thought the fighting scene was done wonderfully. 

~~

SNS, you are the next judge! Thank ALL of you for contributing your awesome stories and let me just repeat that judging was VERY, VERY hard.

Sorry this took so long.

the new prompt is music and the due date is 2 weeks from now. Sound good? 

I am a musician, so I can’t wait to do one of my other favorite things and write about it!

I step up to the keys, only meaning to mess around to waste my time. Our upright piano is old and rickety, and usually out of tune. Some of the keys are especially worn down, a fact I never noticed until now. Maybe if I played them in a specific order I’d get a song. 

Two weeks later

*BANG* My arms slam onto the ivory keys. I don’t want to try anymore. I’ve played the worn keys all day long for weeks, in every order I thought possible. It always sounds good and then somewhere along the way there’s a note that’s just wrong.

Two more weeks later

I’ve done it. One more day and I would have quit forever. I persevered, and I’ve figured out the mystery of the worn keys on our ancient piano. ‘Prehistoric’ my mother has always joked. We received the piano many years ago. Well, technically I wasn’t alive. It was given to my mother when she was only my age, 13. Nobody knew where it came from except my great grandmother, who died just last year. I can’t ask my mom if she got any clues, she would just well up with tears and sob again. I guess I’ll never know the origin, but at least I know the song. I play it over and over, and it brings me back to the days of saloons, sheriffs and tumbleweeds. I end up playing it anytime a piano is within sight, which happens to be frequently. Everyone credits me on my playing, and I just smile, nod and thank them. 

One week later

The city has put in pianos downtown for the people to enjoy outdoors, and so downtown has become my favorite place to go, to see and play the colorful pianos, painted by high school students. My favorite one looks like clouds will lift me straight up into the night sky. One day I’m playing my song when a young woman comes walking by. She’s wearing a suit, with ‘History Archives and Musem’ embroidered onto it. She notices my music, stops, and stares. 

“Where did you learn this song?”

She seems like the kind of person who you tell these things to, so I told her the whole story, from my mother receiving the piano, to just a few weeks ago, not even two. Her face is amazed, and the rest of her is too. I think her arm is twitching, so I ask her if she’s alright.

”Quite alright, quite alright!”

Huh. I’ve never seen anyone’s arm twitch. I ask her if there’s a reason why she’s so excited. She tells me that she found a story, along with handwritten sheet music, in the archives for the Old West. She asks if I’d like to look at it, and of course I accept. 

In the archive she shows me the story, which is about a piano from old west days, on which only one song was played, every day, all day, for years. It was played so much that the keys wore down. There was a drawing. The piano has the exact same marks on the side, which I hadn’t acknowledged until now.

“Your piano could be an important historical artifact!”

I ask her why.

”There was a very famous saloon piano player, her name was Molly, but we don’t know anything other than that. Now we may! Your piano was hers.”

Two years later

I love spending my days in the living history museum, playing as Molly. It’s better that playing the song for myself, and I get to play it on Molly’s very own piano as well! I’ll spend my days here forever if I can, or at least until another musical mystery comes along.

——

So that’s my story! Not true, but I wish it were. We do, though, have pianos downtown painted by students, and my favorite has clouds on it. Thank you for reading!