Free Write | The Ghosts Of Lord Byron’s Past Regrets

Hello!

So, a couple of weeks ago I was scrolling through Twitter and I don’t really follow a lot of writing accounts, although I have days were I want to go on a follow spree but I have to stop myself in my thoughts because I hardly saw this in the chaos of my timeline! The one account I do follow is called Magic Realism Bot. When I first started reading the various prompts, I realized there are a lot of fantasy and sci-fi but mid-2019, they started asking for other subject suggestions and I think that was my main reason why I haven’t unfollowed in the last few months or so!

After we left for my nephew’s party on the 13th, I fell asleep and when I got up I saw this writing prompt and was immediately inspired to write, but I chose to wait it out a bit to collect my mind because honestly I was fully awake when I saw it. Before I start telling you my story, I want to mention that I haven’t written anything since Christmas so I hope you can forgive me for the many, many mistakes you’ll probably see below. I also hope you enjoy it as well!

And now, here is the prompt:

“You wake up and realize you have turned into Lord Byron.”

Setting is Greece in 1824, Byron is very sick and slowly dying; he’s laying in a makeshift bed in his army’s camp alone. He is hallucinating after the bloodletting operations went unsuccessful for the second time. 

“Where–where am I?”

“I should be with my mates.. on the grassy lands and making plans to attack our enemies.”

The hero, poet, soldier, womanizer is under strict orders to stay in his tent by his doctors. He thought the need to pray at first his illness appeared but he feared that God wouldn’t listen to his selfish cries. As sweat continued to pull down across his face and pain in his stomach became too much to ignore as time went on, he was without a clock or any of his exclusive pleasures to hide away from the shame inside. The longer the blood sat in his body, the more poison would spread and race to his heart. It would be its final resting place to infect and then he would be at peace, or at least he hoped he would.

Before this was to happen, he stirred in his bed covered in the now soaked blankets to keep warm, and closed his eyes reluctantly and fell into a deep sleep. He had hoped it wouldn’t be his last.

Suddenly the faint sounds of children giggling around him. A little girl playing with a long red ribbon, she’s running away from him with a smile across her face. “Wait, come back Augusta! I need you!” he shouted in his empty room. He never opened his eyes, hoping the girl would return if she knew he was asleep, instead the space became quiet again.

Bryon shifted in his bed again, this time turning on his left side, away from the slightly open flap of the tent and away from the curious eyes that would sometimes pear inside to see the non-flamboyant man withering in hell. Unbeknownst himself, he lifted his left arm to make room for the rest of his body and splitting the fresh stitches in the corner of his elbow. He was already experiencing strong pains, one more to add to the endless lists didn’t bother him.

“Oh yes, my Lord.” a seductive voice of an unknown woman appeared in the opposite corner. She was alone with him, enjoying each other’s company very much. A smirk emerged on his face in front of the vivid mirror in front of them. George saw himself in a glance and saw himself kissing a brunette maiden. He liked every hue as long as he was in control, that’s all he asked in their time together. This woman was different though. He knew she was adventurous but nothing could prepare him for the game she wanted to play.

“How about we take this off? Hmm?” He quietly spoke into her ear, and the slight nod reassured he could do anything he wanted with her.

She stood from the chair of the desk and furiously pulled his hands to her back but he continued the kissing on her neck. His fingers worked the way down the tight corset in her middle section of her body. After unlacing the last string away from the rough exterior, he tossed it to the floor. Now she was able to undress by herself now and this meant his hands could explore and wander around her body freely. Once every last garment was off, she turned attention back to him, but something was wrong.

A minute ago, the man was young and incredibly healthy. Now she stood in front of him in disgust. He looked as though they had just finished having sex as he was sweaty but the major difference was he looked miserable. He tried his best to keep standing but a sharp pain his stomach only grew worse and he couldn’t control his rage like she was the cause of it.

She wasn’t though.

The memory of having slept with Mary Shelley stayed playing over and over in his thoughts even after their little affair ended several years before. He remembered every feature, as she was quite the beauty back then as was he at the time too. He knew she was the woman in front of him. He looked down at his weakling body and thought of their ghost stories they read at the Villa Diodati in Switzerland. Could she picture him as her monster? Is this how she created him? Using the body of an worthless man like him right now?

As he tried to approach her one last time, the image of her naked body and the gold rimmed mirror on the wall behind her began fading away. The more steps he made, the quicker the reverie collapsed on itself. Colors of Mary ran through each other and created another landscape. This time the memories were harder to ignore because now he was in a field. He tried to focus on the ground and wondered if he was standing in the middle of a battlefield. The only thing that tore away from this notion was the piercing cry of a child. George squat down but this time not from the lingering pain he suffered.

The child was still screaming, but he had trouble concertating on the source behind it. And then, he yelled out, “Ada!” hoping that if it was in fact Ada in trouble, she would cry out for him again.

“Papa!” Ada returned the signal. The picture of his little girl flourished inside of him. He ran towards the direction she appeared to be in; all the while even more memories and of course overwhelming regrets sat inside his heart. He knew he had to save her. He tried to run faster but he would run out of breath and was forced to stop in his tracks. Ada never stopped shouting for him, nor did he in trying to catch up to her.

After running for a couple minutes, he saw a small child with lightly brown curls and dressed in the simplest dress. The ribbon in his first vision was attached to her hair in a beautiful bow and as he walked towards her, he soon realized this was not what it seemed at all.

He knew she was going to vanish like Mary had in the last flash of torture, this time he wouldn’t let it happen without speaking to her one last time.

“Ada!” Byron debating to walk closer to her, worrying that it would speed up the dreamscape again. “Come here sweetheart. Come over to me please.” He reached his arms out to her but she didn’t budge.

“Why didn’t you love me, Papa?” She spoke to him, never breaking eye contact with him. He was trapped in her gaze and it wasn’t like the moment he had Mary, as that was  pure pleasure to him. This was a burden he longed to forget when he was alone.

“I do love you, my darling daughter.” Byron said to her as he fell to his knees. “You are mine. You always will be…” The pain in his body raptured inside and it was greater than any pain he experienced before. He just couldn’t tell if it was his heart braking or the infection finally hitting its destination, either way he knew his heart was dying.

“I love you Papa!” Ada said with a small wave and then suddenly the look on her face turned to black and Byron snapped out of his dreams. He grunted as he shot up in his bed and tried to turn away to the large bottle of bourbon and spilled out of the bed and landed hard on the dead grass underneath him.

He knew this was the end but he was angry at himself and the memories.

He never got to tell his daughter how much he loved her too. Even though he was obsessed with his booze, war and women. Nothing could take away the love he felt for his sweet daughter. Tears flew down his cheeks along with the sweat that never stopped when he fell down. He was in pain, emotionally, mentally, and physically. He hoped to live to write to Ada about how much she meant to him truly but it wasn’t to be.

George growled into the Earth, and spoke out loud for the last time. “…I love you…”

 What do you think of this story? 

Writing Prompt: One Touch

Howdy!

I’m back with another post, hopefully this one will be on the lighter side of things compared to last week’s story! I found the prompt on Pinterest again, but what drew me to it was it reminded me of a song that I really love, and it’s called “Touch” by Natasha Bedingfield. I am obsessed with this song and when I saw this prompt, I was like “yes!” Apparently I have wanted to do this for a while and didn’t even know about it until now.

Since the prompt has two people, I think I’m going to try to write two people’s point of view on this post. I’ve never done this before, so please don’t judge me for my mistakes. Now here is the prompt for today, I hope you all enjoy it!

Coffee and papers flew into a mess as the two strangers collided on their hurried paths, unaware their destinies were now intertwined.

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Jack

I cannot believe I am so late. I’m never late getting to work. Jack thought to himself while he stood in line at the coffee spot, just two blocks away from his apartment. He looked ragged, his face was a mess and his suit was wrinkled since he forgot to iron them after removing them from the dryer this morning. He knew his chance of impressing his bosses was lost now, but yet let out a big sigh while seven others stood in front of him waiting to order their coffee and breakfast pastries.

He had only been in the city for about three months, and was surprised by how fast he was able to find a job for himself in such short amount of time. He tried to send his resume everywhere he could think of, but it was a big city and figured it would very difficult to find a job when everyone else was looking for work as much as he was, so when he came home from job hunting to find an opening for a position at a place he applied was the shock of a lifetime. However, he hadn’t been there for a week, and he’s managed to fuck it all up.

After waiting in line for close to seven long minutes, it was finally Jack’s turn to order and as let out another big sign and started talking to the cashier in front of him, the door rang somewhat quietly as a person came into the place, but Jack wouldn’t hear it, he was such in a rush that he managed to block out any outside noises around him. He was just there to get a strong cup of joe and figure out a story to explain why he was late to his bosses. Coffee sat on the counter, steaming out of the lid as Jack got out his money to pay for it. The girl tore off his receipt and attempted to give him back his change, but he quickly turned away from her and headed for the door.

Stacy

Stacy was a free spirit, ray of sunshine kind of girl. She’s always been this way, but lately life hasn’t been treating her very nicely. When she first moved to the city, she thought it would bring her closer to her boyfriend Travis, since he was always working and couldn’t come home to her as much as they both seemed to wanted, but then one day after coming home from doing her errands she caught her boyfriend in bed with another girl. She was shattered. She was in denial with her family and friends when they tried to tell her how much of a player he was, but like most girls, she thought he cared enough about her that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. She risked everything for him and here he was, screwing away her hopes and dreams.

For the past two months she’s been trying to rebuild her life as a single woman. She tried her best to push her feelings back, but if you ever got up to her face-to-face, you’d be able to see the many layers of blush over her cheeks as she desperately tried to mask the steady stream of tears that fell from her eyes every night. She hoped and prayed that her fake smile will divert people’s worrisome thoughts about her love life, but unfortunately, it didn’t.

All wasn’t lost for Stacy though, as she had a great circle of friends to try to lend a hand or a shoulder to cry on; one of those friends recently got her a job at a coffee shop uptown. She knew how much Stacy loved meeting people, she has the perfectly personality to handle various attitudes. Stacy felt grateful for the opportunity, because she definitely needed a job since her ex-boyfriend was the source of her income. Today, she was about to start to learn the ins and outs of what it takes to make coffee and bake breakfast pastries, so she dressed in her favorite outfit: white T-shirt with a matching tulle-like skirt, she also wore a denim jacket on top in case she needed to cover up her upper arms and a pair of white flip-flops. She wasn’t known to wear anything practical, so until she was given a uniform she wasn’t going to change her dressing habits.

She finally made it to the shop, fairly early then she was expected to be there, as she wasn’t supposed to show up until noon to train under the manager, but she wanted to make sure to appear to be a responsible worker. When she entered the front door, it dinged from above and everybody on the other side of the counter looked at her with delight, she gave them a light smile as she let the door close behind her. A part of her felt weird to be standing in the corner of the doorway, but she wasn’t a customer nor a real employer yet so she stood next to the coat hangers, by a table of an elderly couple who smiled and nodded at her. The line to order was dwindling down after the morning rush and she vowed after the male in the half-washed suit left the counter that she’d make her move to the cashier about starting shadowing the manager. Since she knew she had some time to kill, she grabbed herself the local paper and started reading it, but as soon as she began reading the first big story, the man twisted on his toes in a hurry without taking his money, and didn’t see Stacy coming right at him and suddenly she regretted to wear all white on her first day.

What do you think happened to these two characters? All theories are welcomed!

Writing Prompt: We Could Have Been Happy

Howdy!

We’re in February now and like everybody knows, it’s a month dedicated to love, so in my way of showing a bit of love on here is to write some romantic stories. Honestly, I got the idea to do this after I finished with my Christmas prompts. I just enjoyed coming up with those cute and funny little stories that I thought, “why don’t I continue this for the next holiday?” so here we are! The only issue is that I’m not sure if I’m going to skip the last week of the month or not. I am considering it because it would help me get ready for my plans for March.

All of the prompts were found on Pinterest. I’d even change my mind about a couple of them at the last minute because I didn’t think there was enough variety between them. I didn’t want to be too cheesy or sexual, so hopefully these will be a good medium for everybody! They are ALL free write stories–so if you see a mistake, try your best to ignore it! I’d also like to say that I have tried my best to keep them happy, but as you’ll see it hasn’t happened… Anyways, the first prompts goes like this.

At one point of time, we could have been happy.

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We moved too fast, at least that’s what she told me as she packed her stuff that she had recently shoved into my itty-bitty closet. I stood at the base of the bed we just made love in the night before. I was so confused. Why would she have sex with me if she knew she was going to break up with me the next day?

We were only dating three months, she fell just as quickly as I did. I mean, you couldn’t blame me for doing it either. She was the most beautiful woman I’ve seen in a long time. And the fact that I spend a good chuck of my time in a room full of gorgeous women everyday, because of my job as a casting director, she could knock every single one of them out of the ball park. She was tall, brunette, and had the silkiest skin on the planet. She was a goddess and she knew it too.

I watch her pace back and forth attempting to explain her reasoning for breaking us up. She can’t look up at me, but I want her to so bad. I just want to see it on her face, if she’s really done with me, her eyes will say it before her mouth comes out with it. She walks to the closet and removes her clothes on the hangars, and throws them into her suitcase. I try my best to calm her down to meet her gaze, but she will not let me, she keeps pushing me away. I start to wonder to myself, what have I done? I couldn’t think of anything, but that doesn’t mean anything. I know how women are, they like to gossip to one another, so if there was a rumor going around about me and some girl I was casting in an upcoming film, she’d probably know about it before I do.

At one point of time, we could have been happy. Now instead I am standing in the doorway of my apartment feeling distraught. She’s gone. She was here for an hour never giving me a direct answer for her actions, and never told me goodbye. So, I’m here and I have no idea what to do next.

So, what do you think of this little free write, heartbreaking story?

#FWF – Time Keepers

It’s finally Friday people! My Friday’s been leading into a bit of a mystery at the moment. Because I was supposed to have plans, but I don’t think those plans are still intact. You know you always hear, “no expectations, no worries” I think those four words have finally settled into my mind and soul. As excited as I felt of the news, I also kept a big portion of myself in check and knew something will happen. Anyways, Kellie put up a Free Write Friday for this week and I love these prompts, but my original idea was for the main character to be a mermaid, kind of like at the beginning of The Little Mermaid. As I kept reading on though, it seemed like that idea wouldn’t match it exactly so this was plan B. Enjoy!

You find yourself in the lower level of an old ship. A calendar on the wall says  1682. There is a small window, and the view is nothing but open sea and a setting sun. There is a staircase and you can see daylight at the top…

***************************************

I don’t remember much. I remember the smell of freshly mowed grass, kids playing in the street, and my bike breaking apart as I ran right into the incoming car. A second later, I ended up here. At first, I thought I was dead and this was heaven, but I remember my mama telling me as a child that heaven was up above the clouds, they surrounded the angels and they traveled by them as the newbies wouldn’t know how to fly yet. When I opened my eyes and rolled to my left side, I saw the wood flooring and smelled the decay of this strange place I had been transferred to. I push myself up to sit and realize that was a terrible idea as my head began spinning. It was somewhat dark but I could make out the shapes of tables and old lamp shades on the tops of them. I could hear faint sounds of seagulls outside. When my head finally started spinning on me I used the wall to guide myself on my feet again. As I was getting up, I could hear sounds of cracking behind as the wall was apart broken of the pressure I was giving it just leaning up on it. I loosened the pressure a bit and when I got up straight, the ground below caved in and there I went down to the lowest part of whatever I was in.

If I didn’t have any pain before, I definitely had it now. It wasn’t as bad as I had imagined falling through a flooring before, but I dreaded the impact if it ever happened again. The room I was now in, was dark and scary. This time when I went to stand up, I was very careful of both the walls and flooring. The room was huge and full of dust. My sinuses were not impressed by the collection of dust around the place. Since I didn’t have a flashlight on hand, I walked slowly and blindly forward to see what this place was and if there was a way out of it altogether. I took seven steps forward and stumped my big toe on something large on the floor. “Ow! What the hell was that?” I asked out loud. Like anybody could hear me, but weirdly enough I felt like I was being watched. Before going forward, I decided to look down at what I had run my toe into and found a box that clearly said “TNT” on it. I knew it didn’t mean the TV channel and wanted to run the hell of there, but I didn’t even have a clue of where I was though!  I walked a more behind me, staying away from the boxes. As I looked to my left I see this strange and torn slightly paper up on the wall. There was enough light from above where I fell that I could read what it said, it was from the year 1628. I was stunned but interested to wonder why this place that I concluded that it was a ship was on land and not in the bottom of the ocean. The cracks of the wooden walls gave away the beautiful view of the beach, ocean, and sunset on the horizon.

“That was dated a year after we set sail, in case we were out longer than planned.” a voice said behind her, a young man stood behind her in his old and torn clothes. “Don’t be frightened. My name is Calix Baudin. I am not going to hurt you.” He said as he came closer to me. I was too shocked to move from my place. “How can you be here? Is this really heaven?” I said to gripping the wall behind me as he continued to walk closer before stopping just an inch away from each other. I could smell him, a faint scent of cologne and salt water from the ocean. “No, this is not heaven. You are a transporter that is, if you’re wondering how you got here..” Calix said back to her. “What is your name?” Calix said as he raised her left hand and looked at the tiny cuts on her fingers and arms. Some were from the accident, but others weren’t. “My name is Kara.” She said, completely memorized in his piercing green eyes. “Nice to meet you.” He said and kissed her hand and all of her scars were healed instantly from the kiss. “What was that? What did you do?” Kara said to him and had to resist kissing his handsome lips. As he talked to her, it was difficult to focus on the words he was saying, “I have the power to heal physical scars. It seems like you have internal scars that I’m sad I cannot heal. Don’t worry you’re not dying.” I snapped back into reality–or part of it–to hear him say that. “Can you sense everything about me too?” Kara got a little defense at the only guy who has ever taken an interest in her. “Not everything, but most.” His curly blonde locks were another distraction he had about him. “So where are we again? And how do you know that “I’m a transporter?” Kara said and moved out of the corner he had put her in.

“The story starts with our Captain getting greedy while we were at sea. He wanted to rule the small town that we were slowly approaching. I had always known about my powers since I was a young boy, living in Paris. I could feel the way my parents felt about their marriage, my friends Scotty and Gregory’s love for each other but not only did they have to keep it a secret from the outside world but I also had to keep it a secret, and when I knew our ship was going to crash into shore and I tried to our Captain and the men on board I was sent here to live as a prisoner because of practicing witchcraft.” Calix said as he heart began to break into a million pieces in front of her.  She felt bad for this poor soul. “So how did you survive?” Kara said, trying to hold back her tears. “I kept thinking of my love back home. Ashlee was my one and only. She knew about my powers because she had something similar to her and before I left her, she put a hex on me to make sure if anything bad had happened to me. That I would live as everybody else would die of either old age or sickness. However, I didn’t know about that until she died and I couldn’t feel her ever-loving presence anymore.” He walked over the other side of the ship and leaned up against it and the whole thing groaned of his body weight hit the wall. Kara was nervous again that the floor was break again or worse the whole thing fell on top of them. “Why am I here then?” Kara said to distract herself of her thoughts. “I think you are one of her descendants.” He said in a happy tone. She thought back to her family line and couldn’t think of anybody with any powers. “I don’t think I had anybody in my family with that name.” Kara said but she didn’t want to say it out loud as it might break his heart. “If you’re not a descendant, then how did you know I was here?” They looked at each other, puzzled at why they were brought together.

 

Writing Prompt: Alexina Meets Evander

I’ve been thinking about different things and I keep having little “fairy tale” visions in my mind. So I’m going with this for today. This might have a few sections later on if I continue to develop thoughts and story lines about these two characters and era. I hope you think this interesting and hope you enjoy it!

fairytalemadness | Tumblr

Night and day are united as one, the sun no longer shines outside the clouds as the plague continues to spread throughout the kingdom.
The village outside the palace is dreadfully infected with the disease and all of the staff are not allowed to leave the palace for any reason in case someone were to pass it along to any of us trapped inside.
We are slowly running out of food and since the sickness still affects everybody outside of the castle, we may be resulting in asking for help from other kingdoms.
Father hasn’t written any letters so far asking for more help with the care of our people and we need more food to feed them and ourselves, but my mother has and father wasn’t too thrilled about the fact that a woman wrote to the other kingdoms for their help.
Within a month, the plague still lingers on and we have officially run out of food here in the castle and three different kingdoms deliver their best men, doctors, priests, and food by the dozen for everybody in the kingdom as they said they can’t turn down a lady’s letter.
Father wasn’t pleased that they had brought it up, but inside he did feel grateful.
Since all of these extra people were coming into the palace, my sister and I helped the servants with dressing each room with blankets, towels, and fresh clothes for them.
“How many people do you think will be here with us?” Sloane said, as she was helping me fix one of the beds.
“Mother said probably close to forty people. That is, if the plague doesn’t affect them on their journey here.” I said back to her.
“Alexina, Sloane. They’re here.” Mother came in with three of her ladies in waiting, and two other servants who took over making the rest of the beds.
We grab the sides of our big skirts and follow them down the long hallway to the stairs, we looked down to find close to thirty people in the great room.
All of them kneeling down in front of father, and they stayed there to show their respect for mother, Sloane, and I.
We walked down the stairs and I looked at all of these people, I was expecting more than this, but I felt sad too as that meant the weather took some of their lives.
“Welcome to our home. I know you’ve come a long way and I thank you and my people will also thank you as well. We are in need of your help and we will greatly help you if you need it. Meet my queen, Freya and our daughters Alexina and Sloane.” My father said to all of our visitors, one of the male knights that still kneeled in front of us, had olive skin and dark hair with brown eyes.
He looked distanced but more alive than the rest that kneeled before me.
He didn’t look away from my father’s glaze and I actually wished he would so I could see his whole face and make him feel welcomed here.
“My trustee Nils will show you all to your rooms and then if you will go out to the village and began seeing my people. There will be a safe house for those who leave to do so, as I’m afraid I will not have my wife, daughters, staff and myself infected by the disease outside. Now, good day.” Father said as he concluded his speech.
The young man turned his face down towards the red and gold rug on the floor.
He seemed like a quiet soul, but he seemed kind of adventurous as well.
As father and the leaders of each kingdom walked away to catch up on old times, mother and her ladies in waiting walked towards the servants that came with all of the knights, to help them with whatever they needed, my mother wasn’t like any ordinary queen; she believed in helping any way she saw fit.
Sloane followed suit as I stood along up against the stairs looking straight at the mystery man that got my attention before my father started talking, he finally saw me and gave me a slight smile.
No teeth, but that was enough for now.
The commander got his knights attention by stomping his cane on the floor three times and they all stood up from the ground and turned away to walk up the stairs.
I got out of their way, but just enough that each of them nodded at me and kissed my hand.
When the man grabbed my hand, sparks glowed in his eyes, still looked distant but he was definitely interested now.
“What is your name?” I said in a firm voice but my voice cracked mid-sentence and I felt embarrassed of myself.
“My name is Evander, your majesty. Please to meet you.” He said as he leaned down to kiss my hand and then he gave me another small smile before walking away to the next man came walking behind him.
I kept quiet with him and the rest, they didn’t seem interesting enough for me.