I’ve been doing a few writing prompts recently. This is for a couple of reasons – first, because they challenge me to stretch my writing brain. I’ve been writing about Ambeth for a long time and it’s nice to visit other worlds once in a while (although I’ll always love Ambeth). Second, because I’ve been inspired – whether it’s Sue’s photographs, Rachael’s Blog Battles or Sacha’s Writespirations, there have been ideas-a-plenty floating around the blogosphere these past few weeks.

So this post is in response to Sacha’s latest Writespiration, where we were instructed to pick up the closest book or magazine to hand, turn to page 77 and pick the tenth, thirty-third and last words on the page, plus the longest word, then work them into a 100-word piece of flash fiction.

My closest book to hand happened to be The Monsters Of Templeton by Lauren Groff (and if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it), and my words were human, on, have and whispering. Sacha thought they’d work quite well with Silver and Black, which is my NaNo novel for next month, but when I started writing a different story emerged and here it is:

His mask glittered, curving papier mache making him appear more than human. She knew she looked the same, laughing as they wandered hand in hand, heels clicking on the cobbles, past whispering lamplit canals and down narrow passageways, crumbling plaster puffing into dust as they passed.

‘We have to go back.’ He checked his watch, anachronistic under the satin cuff.

She stopped, laughter leaving her. ‘Time won’t wait, will it?’

‘It never does. We have only so long before it catches up with us again.’

He twisted the dial and she felt time stretching elastic, the world turning to grey.

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And that’s my hundred words. If you’d like to read more Writespirations, or add one of your own, visit Sacha’s blog and be inspired!