Fiction Frenzy: A Community Collaboration -- Round Seven
Make a submission or vote for your favourite entry to be a part of Steemit's story. + Prizes
If you would like to get involved with this community project, please visit this page for information on how to proceed.
Thank you to everyone that has participated so far. @son-of-satire, @meesterboom, @fisteganos, @sazbird, @spark, @aunt-deb, @cobceo, @riskdebonair, @catulhu, @richq11, @ericvancewalton, @ezzy, @marifa, @dreemit, @smalltalk, @nikflossus, @writingamigo, @surpassinggoogle, @generikat, @countzero, @hexdek16, @jedau, @madlenfox, @skypal and @scaredycatguide.
Previous winners: @meesterboom, @dreemit, @generikat, @sazbird, @skypal, @writingamigo
My apologies for the delay. I have been rather busy with a number of different projects. I have made some minor revisions to the story in order to address some continuity issues, but the direction of the story has remained untouched.
Round Seven
Who would have thought that earning three million dollars could cost me so much. I had gone from rags to riches in scarcely a year, but I'd have given it all back in a heartbeat if it meant regaining all I had lost. Let me tell you how it began.
His name was Arty, he had slid into the train seat beside me, smiling, gold tooth glinting. "Hey, Danny. You wanna get rich?."
What the hell? How did this guy know my name? I froze as Arty's smile turned into a cold leer. Something metallic shoved into my side. "Because you see Danny... I ain't askin'."
Looking back now, there are so many other choices I could have made. But terror paralyzed me for crucial moments of time. It seems ironic that it was the inaction of a coward that put me on this path, when so many things that came after took absolute fearlessness to pull off.
It's hard to reminisce about your shortcomings with the barrel of a pistol rammed between your ribs, and I found my attention returned to the piercing stare that Arty was casting upon me. A painful jab from the barrel helped me in my refocusing effort.
"You're gonna do me a favour, Danny," he drawled with no hint of polite solicitation in his glacial tone.
He held my gaze as he reached inside his jacket and withdrew a manila envelope.
Something squished in the envelope as I took it.
"Ya don't wanna know Danny, you don't want to put your finger on it." Arty smirked at that and quickly stood. "Be seein' ya soon," he said and winked.
As he walked away I stared at the envelope in my hand. I knew that address...
It was Emerson's Biotech lab where I developed the virus. I began to sweat as I tore the corner and peered inside. Emerson always wore the same ring. This was his finger, there was no mistaking that. My heart began to palpitate. I searched the aisle but Arty was long gone.
Emerson was always a sneaky guy, but I never thought that he would get himself into so much trouble. He also said that my identity would be kept secret... Yeah, right.
There was no going back at that point. I had to look deeper into the envelope. After all, what could have been worse than a finger?
..... YOU DECIDE THIS PARAGRAPH. MAKE AN ENTRY IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OR VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE SUBMISSION(S) BELOW......................................................
The winning entry will be selected by number of upvotes, and the author of the chosen paragraph will receive all the liquid rewards from this post. I retain my vote in order to break a potential tiebreaker, but you may vote as many times as you like.
MAXIMUM OF THREE ENTRIES PER PERSON
For organisational purposes, I ask that if you are submitting an entry, reply to the comment which states as such. DO NOT reply to the post itself or the comments section will become too messy and disorganized for others to read through and vote..
Don't forget to vote for your favourite submission(s).
REPLY TO THIS COMMENT WITH YOUR SUBMISSION(S).
Please also remember to vote for your favourite(s).
I anxiously fumbled with the manilla envelope as I looked around to make sure no one was watching me. The finger slid out and fell down the side of the seat. There was no way I was going to carry that around with me! I reached into the envelope and removed a necklace. There was no doubt about it, it was Silvia's. I had seen it many times draped around her buxom body... but what did she have to do with this? What was I supposed to do?
I sighed, defeated by this confusing turn of events, and then a scrap of paper with 6 digits fell from the envelope.
"Emerson, you bastard... what have you got me into?"
I especially like buxom, hee hee. No, this is a perfect next section, not even gonna write me own. Maybe next round ;)
I was wondering if you'd given up...glad you haven't, looks good ;)
I barely touched in terms of revision. I just sorted out the tense problems and a few typos.
Great #corestory piece by the way. I wonder where this thing will go next...
Yeah, it's probably best to wait until there's more for any hardcore revision. Thanks and I know, right? @therealpaul is joining us, I think @fisteganos is waiting to hear from @writingamigo to see if he's going to do the next part.
You should add the animation I shared in the corestory channel to your post. It has a clickable link that will take anyone who wants to get involved directly to the chatroom.
Oh, didn't see that, will do ;)
Unless Amanak exists outside of the Game of Thrones? LOL
Lol. Are you sure it's one of your favourites?
The quote on my profile is from Game of Thrones, but the location is from the universe I created for my novel.
That's Amanak, one of the continents. Khyra is at the top near the huge lake.
I chose it as my location because one of the characters that lives in Khyra is very loosely based on myself.
I agree. There's the usual social media (which I barely use but do have accounts for). I'll have to think on that.
I resteemed this as well ;) I like that these two projects are similar, but the different lengths change things significantly.
Actually, I did see that, just forgot. Okay, done :)
Once the story starts to take shape, we should share it elsewhere, as people who want to get involved would then come and sign up to Steemit to take part.
I'm just not sure where would be the best place(s) to share it..
Also, I've been attempting to guess where you're from...(that's my way of asking) assuming you don't actually live in the fictional realm of one of my all time favorite shows haha!
What show is that?
And what guesses have you come up with so far?
I'll have to check out your novel...can you put the link the first chapter in a comment, or chat? :)
Sure. I'll dig it up shortly as I'm just in the middle of something.
https://steemit.com/story/@son-of-satire/blood-oaths-and-offerings-an-original-novel-part-1-prologue
There it is. Warning.. It's pretty long. There also may be a couple of typos.. I will sort them out come March when the hardfork takes effect.
EDIT: I just reread it and it's actually written so poorly in comparison to the last few chapters. The prologue was the first piece of fiction I ever attempted to write, and seeing how much I have improved since then is actually very inspiring. If I can do so much better after only six chapters, I wonder how well I will be writing after a hundred?
Haha!! I made an assumption, obviously, but actually when I typed that place in google it came up with your game of thrones quote, so I'm guessing google took it from your page!!
Oh and...I'm terrible at remembering names of fictional places. It didn't sound familiar, but most likely other than obvious ones like winterfell there are other towns etc. in the show that I wouldn't know ;)
FTFY. I'm blasting social media with "Join Busy.org" messages and people need to know either websites work with the STEEM database (blockchain).
We're also doing a longer story collab called core story, I just put my part up today ;)
When the story is complete it can be advertised as a steem collaboration rather than a steemit one.
By the way, how did you do that strikethrough on the "it" in "steemit?"
A SHORT STORY COLLABORATION BY THE STEEM~~IT~~ COMMUNITYThanks a lot! This will come in very useful.
You're welcome :)