Playtime at Myrtle Stone

Art Contest winning photo by @nubellorona.

“You bore me. Checkmate, I win again,” Lance boasted.
Coffee gasped. “Well I didn’t see that one coming,” she replied, starring intensely at the gold and platinum chess board.

“Obviously you have not learned anything about the game in the past two years. I can have you replaced you know…,” Lance continued to lecture.

Coffee didn’t want to make direct eye contact with Master Lance for fear of further agitating him.

She bowed her head and replied, “I promise to get better.”

“You make rookie moves. You must never allow your king to be blocked in a corner by my queen and a pawn. You have no way to escape. You will never escape. You are dismissed,” Lance snarled and pushed his pale white hand at Coffee, beckoning her to leave.

Coffee stood and turned towards the entrance door of the gigantic play room filled with every game and toy imaginable. She quickly glanced back at Master Lance. He looked sadder than usual and his skin had gotten much fairer since the first time they met. Walking at a brisk pace, Coffee continued to count the steps from the game room to her living quarters at Myrtle Stone.

“Nine hundred and forty-eight, nine hundred and forty-nine, nine hundred and fifty steps,” in ten minutes she counted, as she entered. The door locked automatically and made the dreaded clicking sound she had come accustomed to hearing since she was twelve years old. Coffee walked over to a brown stucco wall to look out of her imaginary window. She thought about what Master Lance had said, “You will never escape,” and wondered if he was talking about the chess game or how much longer she had to live here tucked away in the basement that appeared to be the size of a football stadium.

Coffee had only seen the outside of the castle-themed mansion once when peeping out from a loosened blindfold that was placed over her eyes on the day she was captured. She wanted to remember every detailed description and the location of Myrtle Stone in case she was able to escape and inform the police. Coffee had memorized her statement and repeated it every day:

“The stones on the mansion are rustic brown, beige and grey. It has a Gothic old age exterior and looked similar to the pictures of European castles seen in history books. At least two windows with black wrought iron dividing twelve windowpanes on each window are visible. I saw a small arch-shaped vent in between the windows and the brown pointed metal roof on the round side of the mansion. A steeple chase grey stoned wall face the front of the stoned paved driveway. A black and white pole light and two lower lights are shining on the landscape in front. I could not make out the image in the window, but saw flashes of red with lights on in the inside. I was driven in a black limousine car with a boy who was also blindfolded and tied up. An old man with gray colored hair who wore a black uniform grabbed me from behind when I was waiting on my school bus. I….”.

Coffee was startled by the intercom. Charles’s deep voice filled the room saying, “outside playtime Ms. Coffee at 7:20 pm this evening. Horseback riding”. “Thank you Mr. Charles. I will take a nap and set my alarm for seven o’clock”.

Charles was Lance’s caretaker and was the only other person that Coffee had seen at the mansion other than four more children who were also assigned various games to play with Lance. The children were only allowed to play with Lance and not with each other. Charles had shared with Coffee that Lance had a medical disorder that prevented him from going out in the sun during the day. All of the outside games were played at night in a huge backyard surrounded by a twenty-four feet stoned wall at Myrtle Stone.

Coffee drifted off to sleep thinking about her parents. “Mom and dad, I am not dead. Why won’t you find me? I am here, she cried in her sleep. Please find me.

The stones on the mansion are rustic brown, beige and grey. It has a Gothic old age exterior and looked similar to the pictures of European castles seen in history books. At least two windows with black wrought iron dividing twelve windowpanes on each window are visible. I saw a small arch-shaped vent in between the windows and the brown pointed metal roof on the round side of the mansion. A steeple chase grey stoned wall face the front of the stoned paved driveway. A black and white pole light and two lower lights are shining on the landscape in front. I could not …..”

“Coffee wake up. Wake up,” Lance yelled. Mom and dad called from Myrtle Beach and told me to remind you to put some Aloe Vera gel on your sunburn and not to go horseback riding or walking outside in the sun until it clears up. Well I guess you are stuck inside with me little sister. How about a game of chess with the Chess Master?”

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I hope you have enjoyed this original story that I created using the art prompt produced by @nubellorona in the Art Prompt Writing Contest #13 created and sponsored by @thewritersblock.

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Created in PhotoFunia