January 30, 2013

thirsty { - FICTION - }



Who could that be at this hour?

Kyle’s head jerked and his eyes opened widely. His tingly legs were bent yet sprawled out on the floor. Cotton was jammed into his mouth. 

He heard it again and looked toward the knocking coming from the monstrous wooden door.  

Who could that be—

Kyle tugged at the corners of his mouth. 

Wait—

There wasn’t cotton in his mouth, he was just incredibly thirsty.

Where the fuck am I?

Kyle’s eyes darted around the dark room till they found a dim white streak of light crossing over the mouth of a bottle. With his hands pawing the moist wood floor, Kyle dragged himself toward the empty bottle which once held whiskey. He lifted the black labeled bottle and not a drop came from its mouth to satiate his own.

When the knocking occurred again, he dropped the bottle in his lap and looked at his surroundings more closely: cheap metal chairs in a semi-circle, a large desk heading the chairs with push pins crucifying paper onto a bulletin board hanging behind it, a deep wastebasket by the closed door which had someone standing on the other side trying to get in.

Kyle immediately knew where he was, but not why he was there—in the room in which he taught Ethical Theories. Yes, some might say he had a relationship with the bottle, but he wasn’t one to jeopardize his job like that. 

He slammed his eyes shut for a moment. 

When he opened them, a student stood before him. Jessica. Her sheer blouse draped open, the button and zipper on her jeans undone, her long dark hair clearly disrupted from its pristine norm. She wore the most devilish smirk he’d ever seen.

He slammed his eyes shut again. When he opened them, she was gone, but the knocking persevered. 

 “Open up Mr. Kemp,” Jessica whispered through the door.


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Today's piece is a result of a couple different prompts: two from the folks at the Yeah Write Speakeasy who've asked us to use the first sentence- "Who could that be at this hour?" -along with referencing an image of a bulletin board with push pins... and two from the folks at Trifecta who've asked us to use the third definition of the word Mouth and keep the piece between 33 and 333 words.

 

32 comments:

  1. What a tightly constructed story, packed with meaning and subtlety. Loved it!

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  2. I always laugh when you put the big "Fiction" at the top, hope you know! Mr. Kemp has his hands full, me thinks. And it's not looking good. Love your stories!

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  3. Oh dear - poor Mr. Kemp! This is wonderfully written and was a lot of fun to read. I really love your descriptions, like "monstrous wooden door" and "hands pawing the moist wood floor" - great story!

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  4. Intriguing! I'd love to know what's going on and how he got there.

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  5. Sounds like his theories weren't so ethical. Nice work with the cotton mouth and the blackout.

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  6. Ethical Theories? hahaha The professor from hell!

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  7. At first I thought he woke up in a room where AA meetings were held. But then...Ethical Theories! Oh, the irony!

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  8. So many questions, but it looks like Mr. Kemp isn't going to be able to get any answers in time. Oh dear...

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  9. Oh, dear... methinks someone isn't getting tenure...

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  10. I think mr. ethical studies is going to need to find a new line of work very soon...

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  11. What I like is the last line, "Open up, Mr Kemp" - she says it as a whisper, but for some reason when I read it I pictured her saying it in a sing-song voice to me, kind of like, "Oh Mr Ke-EMP! Open Uuuuup!!", completely suggestively, as though the visions he had of her seconds earlier were actually real memories of what had gone on before he blacked out. Cool story.

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  12. Two prompts - one story. Now that's what I call thrifty. :) And both fit the bill nicely - well done.

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  13. oh dear . . . methinks he is in some trouble. Wonder if it is deserved? More to the story?

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  14. you have my head swimming...very entertaining timing when the world screams ethics as we get sucked deeper into the vortex of 'unlikely'

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  15. An interesting take & liked the light treatment:-)

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