Category: Four Elements Prompts

Guy Could See Where This Was Going

  1. Character – French circus performer
  2. Setting – dead end
  3. Object – infant
  4. Situation – truth or dare

Guy could see where this was going.

He cut to the left, pedaling frantically and veering around stacks of boxes in the narrow alleyway. At least they might conceal him. As he guided the unicycle past an old metal drum full of some loathsome fluid, he saw that concealment would be his only salvation. Dead end.

He became still as a statue, balancing flawlessly as only a lifetime of this sort of thing can teach one to do, as his pursuers thundered by on the main street.

He heard a squeal of brakes, and a door opening. He hoped the babe in the basket atop his head would stay asleep. The car chasing him had been small, but it held many clowns.

It is not good to have so many secrets, Guy thought. Always, in the future, I will say, “Truth.”

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“Please, Jesus, Let Me Sleep!”

  1. by jenCharacter – 17 year old Jesus freak
  2. Setting – pool hall
  3. Object – chess pieces
  4. Situation – insomnia

“Please, Jesus, let me sleep!” the boy yelled. Hans had seen his type before. The WWJD t-shirt, the close-cropped hair, the earnest expression. A church youth group was in town for a field trip and the poor sod was overwhelmed.

He dropped to his knees on the pool table, scattering the few balls that remained.

“Oh lord, I am tired! Why do you torment me so?” he cried.

The old men in the corner looked surly and Hans knew they were on the verge of throwing their chess pieces at the boy. As amusing as that might be, Hans had a job to do, and that job was keeping the peace at Pappy’s Pool Palace.

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Morton’s Eyesight

  1. Character – pedophile
  2. Setting – hotel under the face on Mars
  3. Object – blood splatter
  4. Situation – swarming insects

Morton’s eyesight was getting dim for some time before he realized there was anything wrong. He felt safe in his suit, foolishly, and just kept trudging along through the locust swarm. But Martian locusts have razor-sharp wing sheaths and one of these had sliced the airhose. One then clipped his arm, cutting suit and skin, and spilling Morton’s blood on the red planet.

These hikes were supposed to be safe. Those kids left the hotel with no more protection than him, their darling little suits making their movements all the more endearing.

But after tailing them for only ten minutes, he’d lost them.

Morton slumped to his knees, and then keeled over onto his back. His face looked remarkably like the satellite images on the hotel stationery.

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Looking Down At The Pile Of Sawdust

  1. by jenCharacter – split-personality juggler
  2. Setting – prison
  3. Object – pile of sawdust
  4. Situation – pregnancy

Looking down at the pile of sawdust, Simone laughed. What sort of fools would build a prison with wooden bars? She hoisted herself into the window and shimmied down to the ground outside.

It was all just a big misunderstanding, of course. No one had told her it was illegal to juggle piglets within city limits. But ignorance of the law is no excuse. She’d been found guilty and sent to prison for two years. Normally Simone was a law abiding citizen. She would never dream of escaping. But she’d be damned it she’d let her baby be born in prison.

Dr Jacoby had warned her, “One of your personalities is male, so you should always use protection when you masturbate.” But the warden hadn’t listened, and Simon had been so lonely…

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Ursula Carefully Examined

  1. Character – “Bounty” hunter
  2. Setting – vestibule of the time travel agency
  3. Object – compact
  4. Situation – the llama escaped!

Ursula carefully examined the image in her compact. She switched it to conventional mode, and checked her reflection. She looked hot.

Six Einsteins were quarreling with the receptionist, insisting that it doesn’t work like this. A separate window had been opened for the retrograde travelers, staffed by an agent who was fluent in Backwards.

You’ve made quite a mess this time, Llama, but your scheme to escape through time will be your own undoing.

This was a job for the Quicker-Picker-Upper.

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Signs Point To Yes

  1. by jenCharacter – Dick Clark’s evil dopplegänger
  2. Setting – Pere-Lachaise
  3. Object – Magic 8 Ball
  4. Situation – group sex

Signs point to yes.

“Excellent,” breathed Click Dark. “Excellent.” He tried to cackle, but it didn’t work. He carefully rested the Magic 8 Ball on Morrison’s tombstone and stepped back. The crowds were always thin this time of day in the fall, but he’d need to work quickly.

His blow gun made short work of the gendarme, and Dark was able to begin drawing the arcane symbols necessary for tonight’s ritual.

A group of Australian tourists was the first to fall into his trap. They quickly disrobed and began their gyrations. Dark started the video camera and smiled, feeling his own arousal. A lone French student and three Germans completed the group.

Dark watched the steam rise from the twelve nude bodies, and completed his calculations. The blond boy. He would be first. Dark stepped out of his trench coat and joined the group.

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“There You Are”

  1. Character – tooth fairy
  2. Setting – gazebo
  3. Object – bagpipes
  4. Situation – suicidal tendencies

“There you are. Why’d you run off?”

“I can’t go on. You don’t understand.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I have a bottle of nightshade. Go away.”

“You can’t mean to –”

“Go! You sellout! What do you know?”

Lucky bit back his reply. The cereal contract made some of the traditionalists, like Toothy, look down on him. Sharp words would only worsen this situation.

“Maybe you just need a vacation. A couple of us could stand in for you for a bit.”

“Just go away. Leave my dignity.” The Tooth Fairy stood dramatically in the gazebo. But Lucky knew she was serious.

While they’d argued, a dozed kilted men had lined up in the park and were now filling their bagpipes.

Toothy eyed her bottle. “No more teeth.”

The pipers began Amazing Grace.

Great, thought Lucky, that’ll help.

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I’m Going To Kill My Agent

  1. by jenCharacter – supermodel
  2. Setting – the world’s most inappropriate McDonald’s
  3. Object – phone number
  4. Situation – dropped contact

I’m going to kill my agent, thought Wifty, as she struggled valiantly to look thrilled. Wifty knew she had to make good on her contract so she wouldn’t get a bad rep with the industry. But, c’mon! If there was a less appropriate place for a McDonald’s, she’d like to know about it. Right in the middle of Victoria’s Secret? She was sure some geek had a fetish about girls in thongs and push-up bras scarfing french fries. Ugh! The smell of the fryers was drowning out the perfumed lacy underthings.

The stage manager tweaked Wifty’s nipples to perk them up, slid a bra strap off one shoulder, and handed her a Shamrock Shake. Then she was on the runway again, photogs leering and flashbulbs flaring. At the end of the runway she winked seductively and lost her contact.

Backstage she grabbed her cellphone and started dialing. Contract be damned.

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As His Rage Subsided

  1. Character – the Grim Reaper
  2. Setting – pool hall
  3. Object – bull whip
  4. Situation – last date

As his rage subsided and the flashing red haze cleared from his vision, Tony saw Carmen.

She was sprawled across one of the tables, seeming to study the 8-ball with unblinking eyes. A braided leather cord was cinched tight around her throat, its length trailing over the side of the table to the stout handle Tony grasped.

He could remember a fight, his stupid jealousy. Carmen wasn’t moving.

A dark figure drifted in through a solid wall. He was cloaked and carried a scythe. He drifted over to Carmen, and a translucent copy of her took his hand and sat up.

“It’s like I tried to explain,” she said as she stroked the Reaper’s cheek, “I’m going with somebody else now.”

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“I Knew I Should Have”

  1. by jenCharacter – Typhoid Stanley
  2. Setting – the caves of Neptune
  3. Object – scissors
  4. Situation – lost

“I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque,” muttered Stanley.

He peered through the windshield at the luminous blue-green walls surrounding the hoppercraft.

Mary sighed heavily. He knew what she was thinking. Another Typhoid family vacation ruined.

“I’ll ask where we are,” he said, and stepped outside. He stretched his tentacles and floobled over to the information kiosk.

“The Caves of Neptune Welcome You,” he translated the sign.

Stanley sighed and floobled back to the hopper.

“We’re lost,” he said. “That’s the last time we let Junior play with the scissors and the map.”