@iansohn
a clap of thunder erupted. @iansohn swerved in his car at the sound, convinced his sneeze ignited the thundering rumble. he had to keep focused. he had to keep driving. the border would be closing too soon, and this was his escape from home before the state quarantined an entire population.
@iansohn hadn’t been affected by the virus, yet. for whatever reason, he had crossed the border for a reason not important enough to recall now, for the most important thing for him was making it past the imaginary line of containment.
his window was down. the cool rain drops breaking on his skin reminded him of how real this moment was. a blast of wind punched through the window, and @iansohn’s sunglasses flew out across the interstate.
His final footprint that he was here when it all happened.
@_itsmagic
@_itsmagic can throw one hell of a party. he did just that last saturday.
his strobe light was set to “pants off”; the champagne was chilling next to the frozen dinners in his freezer. everything was perfect. he stood at his door, welcoming each guest into what would be the last, best party they ever would attend.
come the party’s end, the champagne bottles clanked together like a child who found his way in to the pots and pans. the tiger was finally out of the pool, and @_itsmagic knew it was that moment in the early hours of the morning where dreams would become the new backdrop for any of his adventures.
as he made his way towards his bedroom, @_itsmagic shuffled through the plastic cups, streamers, and deflated palm trees. grinning, he thought “this was the last, best party I could have thrown.” his hand grasped the doorknob to his bedroom, and as he pushed the door open the euphoric high of the party suddenly ended.
his bed was missing.
the sun came too soon. @_itsmagic awoke from the sectional in his living room - an investment made with just this situation in mind.
he entered Bed&Bath with the stride of a man undefeated. that is, until he reached for his wallet (the brown leather one with a 10% off coupon in the slip) and realized that at some point, between the strobe light and champagne, his pants had came off.
@jocelyn_lai
the dragon had been defeated. @jocelyn_lai stood over it’s lifeless body. her chest rapidly gasping for the breath her opponent would never taste again.
“@jocelyn_lai!”
the crowd’s chant grew louder with each wave of @jocelyn_lai’s sword in the bright sun. she had conquered more than the beast that day. she could barely hear her thoughts through the screams; but in the moment she knew she had nothing to worry about.
and then she felt it. the cold stream of life carving a path through the arena’s dust. her eyes closed in desperation. something was not right.
her toe had been cut in the battle. @jocelyn_lai’s eyes fixated on the precious ruby escaping her temple. it was still bleeding.
@tokyohanna
The clock ticked. That ominous sound, that wretched click that could wake a man from his deepest slumber. @tokyohanna was alone. Nothing in the room but her thoughts and the clock. Both ticking time away.
She could not remember how she arrived in the damp, dark room. Her mind seemed to be split between what could have just happened and what may happen in the next moments. The clock ticked. @tokyohanna wondered where this room was.
“Am I in jail?”
“How did they catch me?”
Before she could mouth the next question to herself, she heard footsteps. The door creaked open, but no light entered.
“What is this place?”
@tokyohanna heard a crash on the floor; a plate filled with food laid near the edge of her cell and freedom.
A meal had finally arrived.
@weemairin
Pebbles had passed.
The sky was a darker shade of blue today. Mind you, this was not a blue you may see knitted into children’s clothing, but the blue imagined to be in the depths of the sea.
When the phone rang, @weemairin knew something in her universe had shifted. She could see the sky from her kitchen window. Christy uttered the unbearable news into the mouthpiece, as if reading a headline from the morning paper. The words flew through @weemairin’s ears and into her head, piercing every memory she owned of her time with Pebbles.
@weemairin could barely stand; her body supported by the granite counter top now glistening with salty tears. Her stomach was in knots. Heavy knots. She knew that her stomach would untie itself eventually, as she has felt this feeling before.
Pebbles, the goldfish, had passed.
@jeffgraham
“American Airlines Flight 628 baggage claim area is now number 7”
“Fuck”, he thought with all exasperation he had left after being served cold french fries at the Denver Airport Chili’s. @jeffgraham was no stranger to the baggage claim area; he could map the entire wing faster than most can spell their own name. He knew where baggage claim 7 was. It was far. Very far from everything @jeffgraham needed.
Baggage claim 7 was the middle carousel. To the east was 6, with her extra turnabout and access to the exit. And to the west was 8, his bellowing belly spitting out Tumi at a rate that left @jeffgraham thinking it was the work of Zeus behind the wall.
But there he now stood. His shoulders slumped in near defeat. @jeffgraham’s tired eyes focused on the small red alert light — like a lighthouse announcing the coast line was near — that would clearly announce he may soon be home.
@Steffan1
It was 5:00AM. @Steffan1 was still on the edge of his bed. He had barely shifted since he positioned himself there six hours earlier. His toes digging into the deep carpet threads hoping it would swallow him like a ray of sunshine in the Amazon.
“How could this happen?”
The moment the announcement was made, @Steffan was preoccupied with his fourth novel - actually, a single thought of his fourth novel - the title. One he broke away from the screen, he processed the news one syllable at a time. It shattered his soul like a chapel’s cracked stained glass; the words destroying more than one could observe from the outside.
“What did I do to deserve this?”
His worst dream had suddenly become a living nightmare at 9:01PM the night before - the NBA had cancelled the first two weeks of the regular season.
“Why can’t they just figure this out?”
