Appear before me, O Light of the Universe. Appear, so that I may disappear.
Talents they would have in future – an unerring instinct to find your core shame. Like a stiletto, rammed hilt-deep, not caring for casualties along the way. We will be moths, pinned to their board, incapable, inept.
Form is merely an illusion. We are already dead. There are no atoms inside us frantically spinning. There is only the void. It is most honest to just dissolve.
Notes:
These stories were written in the order 3,1,2. I chose words by opening books at random and picking the first word. The books I used were: The Writer Laid Bare by Lee Kofman (talent), Infinite Splendour by Sofie Laguna (form) and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (appear).
For story 1 (which appears in second place here), I changed the pronoun from she to they and rewrote it in future tense.
For story 2, I changed the pronoun and killed off the character
For story 3, I cut out all adverbs/descriptors.
Sumitra (she/her) writes to avoid doing the laundry. Choose Your Own Adventure Books take her to her happy place (except if it’s a dead end, then she’ll throw the book against the wall, take a deep breath of chocolate then start again). She works in mental health and really loves it. Tweetings: @pleomorphic2