Today’s prompt word is lovely!1
“Goodnight, darling,” I whispered as I tucked her in to bed. “Keep an eye out; the tooth fairy will come tonight and leave you some money!”
“Mommy…,” the little voice whispered back, “I’m afwaid.”
“What are you afraid of, honey?” I patted the blanket as I knelt down by the bed. “You’ve lost teeth before.”
“Ith thcary.” She held her blanket up to her face to leave only her beautiful brown eyes visible, so wide and full of insecurity about the world. How could I deny those eyes?
“It’s not scary, I promise. We already put your tooth under your pillow, so now we just have to fall asleep. The tooth fairy only comes when we’re asleep, remember? That’s when she can leave the money.” I smiled, trying to project confidence. “It’s easy as pie, and tomorrow when we go out to get groceries, we’ll get some candy, just like we planned.”
“Sthe’s thcary,” she said softly as she turned her head to try and glance at the window.
I hurriedly blocked her view with my hand and turned her chin back towards me. “Shhh… don’t worry. It’s going to be okay.” Sneaking my own peek towards the window, I saw two shimmering golden specks growing steadily larger. “The lovely tooth fairy isn’t scary.” A ripple cascaded down my spine as I lied, my empty words falling on deaf ears. “How much money do you think you’re going to get this time?”
“Mommy, I don’t want to,” she whimpered. “Can I thleep with you?”
The amber pools, so full of hate, egged me on from the darkness. “Not tonight, honey. You need to stay in your own bed.” I tucked her in a little tighter, in the hopes that tonight would pass without too much violence. “We need to give her a… a gift,” I said, smiling wanly. The light from the hallway glinted off the impossibly long, needle-sharp fangs in the corner of my vision. “Then we’re all done until you lose another tooth!”
“I don’t want to looth a tooth,” she said, frowning under the blanket.
A chill crept over my skin. The windows never held the faerie for long. “Go to sleep,” I said firmly. “It’s time.” I kissed her forehead, then stood up and carefully closed the door behind me as I left, ensuring that it firmly clicked shut.
Blockading the door with a chair, I closed my eyes tightly to try and block out the fae cries that reverberated through my bones.
T̴͈̠͚̈̀͝E̶̢̐̇̀̾Ë̵͚́̈T̴̛̫̟͔̔͒̒Ĥ̷̘̜̉͜
The prompts are selected on a rotating basis by my friends in Discord! The rules are simple:
- It can be any word, idea, or concept
- Keep it interesting within the 2000-character limit that Discord imposes on a single message
- Keep the editing to an absolute minimum
You should give it a try too – they’re fantastic opportunities to practice storytelling in a small window of time. What can you come up with for lovely? ↩︎