Day 22: The Fireplace

They had gone to bed that night with full bellies and pans of hot water slid under the sheets should the bed be too cold for them. It had been decades since anyone had slept in the house, but with the rooms still in tact, the beds still made and wood still in the fireplaces, it seemed a safe enough space to make camp for the night.

The house warmed up quickly, and the pillows, although covered in dust and half eaten by moths, were surprisingly comfortable. The fur bedspreads were so soft that each of them, within minutes of curling up beneath the covers, had fallen into a deep slumber.

But then, without knowing why, Jordan found himself awake, no longer lying in bed but standing upright, half way down the stairs. He must have been sleep-walking, as he felt too awake to be still dreaming. Walking the rest of the way to the bottom of the staircase he noticed a light coming from the drawing room. Slowly, he edged towards it, a chill down his spine telling him to be careful. 

“Hello?” He asked. 

No reply.

Continuing forward, he stepped into the room to find the fire lit, engulfing the room in shades of orange and yellow. It was strange, because he was sure he had put the same fire out only a few hours ago. Yet, here it was, crackling will the full force of a fire that had only just started to burn. 

Feeling too awake to go back to bed, he decided to sit nearby and read a while. At least until the fire died down enough for him to return upstairs. 

But then there was a splash, followed by a scream. There was a lake outside, he remembered spotting it when he jumped the fence. Rushing out the door he ran and ran until he saw a familiar cloak discarded by the shore.

He didn’t think, only let his body guide him as he dove in after her. Swimming as fast as he could into the icy black waters below. 

She wasn’t hard to find, the only thing in the water the moonlight was drawn towards. It hit against her skin and made her face all the paler as she sank further and further down








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Real Talk !! Friends, today was exhausting. I feel so overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I have to do in the next month. It's 20,000 words of essays and I don't have a single clue what to do for any of them. I wish I could tell you I spent yesterday furiously working away, but I just didn't have the drive o do Anything.

I ended up just kind of sitting the whole day. I didn't watch anything, or write, or read, or go on social media, I just....did nothing.

It really sucked, and left me really uninspired on what to post for today. However, I thought NOT posting would make me feel even worse about what was already a wasted day.

This scene had been playing in my head for a while, and it exists in the plan for Secret Project 2, however, I'm still not a hundred percent sure how to finish the scene. I have two choices, but since I spent the majority of the day doing nothing I decided to spend twenty minutes just writing the scene and seeing how it plays out.

Truthfully, I kind of like it, even if without context it doesn't make much sense.

This was Day 22 of my NaNoWriMo project where I am writing a new short story every day in November! Originally all of these were posted to instagram, but the 300 word limit was a little confining so I've come here to post everything I've written and a little bit more!