Flash Prompt #13 - November 2017

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Welcome to Flash Prompt #13!

November is upon us, and with it arrives everyones second favorite insane month-long writing event - NaNoWriMo:eager:

There's a thriving NaNoWriMo community on DA, so if you haven't done so already, make sure to check out the NaNoWriMo-Group's NaNoWriMo 2017 - Final Countdown journal.

Looking to commiserate with some writers who understand your pain? Visit the official dA chat group at #NaNoWriMo (apparently dA chat is behaving once again), or join us in the FFM Discord channel for general shenanigans, and word wars (we have a word sprint bot now, it'll be great!).

If you are one of those foolish brave souls attempting NaNo this year, we wish you good luck. If you aren't participating, well, then you have no excuse not to participate in Flash Prompts!* 

Happy Writing!

*In truth NaNo participants have no excuse either, because our deadline is at the end of December. Truly there is no escape.



 INSTRUCTIONS

 Bullet; Red Your story must be between 55-1000 words in length.
 Bullet; Red Include all the challenge elements, and make sure that you mention which Flash Prompt # you've used in your artist comment.
 Bullet; Red There's no time limit for submissions, but to be part of the regular feature your story should be in by the December 31st.
 Bullet; Red To submit your entry, paste a link to your Flash Prompt story in the comments below
 Bullet; Red Then add your story to the Flash Prompts gallery folder in FlashFictionMonth so that it may be read by one and all!



FLASH PROMPT #13


Bullet; Purple ELEMENT ONE - Correspondence
For the purposes of this challenge your story should have no less than three epistolary entries woven into the narrative.

Bullet; Purple ELEMENT TWO - Subterfuge
- suggested by ShadowedAcolyte 
But not everything is as it seems. Each [insert epistolary type here] is actually a coded spy letter in which the first word of every sentence spells out the actual message. This message should also serve to shed new light on the surrounding text.

Bullet; Purple ELEMENT THREE - Suspense
And last but not least, your story should have an ambiguous ending, because in this humble Hydra's opinion a little mystery is always good for the soul.


ENTRIES


ChangesI took one last look in my bedroom mirror. Fresh pressed polo? Check. Deep blue jeans? Check. New suede converse? Check. I stepped closer to better inspect my coiffed hair and, pleased with the results, I grabbed my backpack and headed outside. It was the first day of my senior year of high school and I knew this one would be different. I felt dread, though I couldn’t trace it and tried to shake off the feeling.
I watched the bus pull up and its doors swing open. I briefly greeted the driver and headed straight to the back. Already several students were piled inside and my favorite seat was taken by him. I hesitated, but only briefly and picked the seat right in front of him. The bus began to move.
His deep ebony eyes lingered in my memory and I tried to hold back the flood of thoughts threatening to overwhelm me. Fearing radical impulse, I attempted to abate the feelings by writing a letter.
Jabril,
I know you sit in my favorite seat on purpose. See, I’ve been sitting t
  Flash Prompts 2017 13th: A Diary on Spying ShadowsI ripped the most recent paper out of the diary and threw it into the wind. A familiar crow took it flew away with it. I decided it was better to run away until I would have my next target. This has become far too serious now.
January 25th, 3012
Dear diary, I am going to write this down. Sophia, someone I trusted but who was, in fact, an enemy all along, has gone beyond my soul passage. I don't know what to do. Know that I'm still alive, just cursed very deep. The Shadow Virus keeps spreading, I can feel the dark tingling on my face. Shadow are taking over as I write, it's frightening. Virus is spreading, it's getting harder to write in grammar... It's awful, so awful... Spreading deep into my core, it's taking over and tearing away what makes me who I am, it's tearing away my grammar... Further as it goes, it's getting scarier and darker all the time. We cannot stop it. Must run, run before it takes yo




REMINDERS


Still not sure what Flash Prompts entails? Take a look at our handy FAQ section to find out more, or send a note to FlashFictionMonth and we'll be happy to answer your questions.

Late to the party? There's no such thing, our prompts are timeless. So even if you're only writing a story months after the Flash Prompt was first uploaded, we'd still love to see what you've produced!

We're always in search of new ideas. If you have a great Flash Prompts challenge idea, post a comment in the Suggestion Box and let us know what it is! Community input is always welcome.