It’s time for my weekly Story Starter prompt. Here’s how it works. Every Tuesday morning (my time), I’m going to give you a “teaser” sentence or sentence fragment and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a story (prose or poetry) around that sentence/fragment. It doesn’t have to be the first sentence in your story, and you don’t even have to use it in your post at all if you don’t want to. The purpose of the teaser is simply to spark your imagination and to get your storytelling juices flowing.
This week’s Story Starter teaser is:
With a sudden rush of panic, I realized I had no idea where I was.
If you care to write and post a story built from this teaser, be sure to link back to this post and tag your post with #FSS. I would also encourage you to read and enjoy what your fellow bloggers do with their stories.
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Lost!
By Tessa Dean May 2024
The moon slid behind the clouds, plunging the path Bingo, my dog, and I were following into darkness. With a sudden rush of panic, I realized I had no idea where I was.
Bingo, sensing my unease, began to pull on his leash, leading us astray from the familiar path and deeper into the dense woods. I struggled to restrain him, my eyes desperately scanning the pitch-black surroundings for any familiar landmarks. We traveled this route countless times, yet the shroud of darkness played tricks on my memory.
Bingo suddenly stopped, and I pulled his leash closer to me. I prayed the moon would come back out so I could see where we were. Bingo was sniffing, so I pulled out my phone and opened the flashlight app to see where we were. Shining the light around, I found the path we had been on, but there was no sight of the intersecting path we needed to take to get back out of there and to the road where I had parked the car on the shoulder.
I was trying to decide what to do. We probably walked past the intersecting path in the dark, but I wasn’t sure. I stopped and hoped the clouds would move off the moon, which would give us some light to work with. I had the flashlight, though, so I could use the light to find the path if needed.
Stepping back onto the main path, I shined the flashlight on the path ahead of me and found nothing, so I turned us around and shined the light back the way we had come, looking for the path we needed to be on to get out of there. Slowly, I inched us forward until the path came into view. We turned onto the intersecting path and headed back toward the exit, which would bring us close to where I had parked.
Bingo continued sniffing the area and trying to pull me back into the woods. I tightened my grip on the leash and pulled him steadily toward me and the path back to my car. I almost cheered when the asphalt road was in front of me, and as the moon reappeared, I could see my car off to the side. We had finally made it. I made a mental note not to walk the dog on this path so late at night.
Tessa –
Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses
New Author’s Website – http://www.tessadeanauthor.wordpress.com
Author – Old Writing – http://www.finallyawriter.wordpress.com
About my life – http://www.tessacandoit.wordpress.com
Tessa Dean - Author 