My 100: One-Paragraph Story Hooks Fourteen and Fifteen

My 100 is a challenge by the good folks at BYUtv's The New Creatives, and my response is to write 100 one-paragraph story hooks in 60 days, taking only Sunday off. #TNCmy100

Fourteen:
Sun streamed down through the branches of the trees. Sam kept pounding, little puffs of dust exploding from the treads of his shoes as he climbed the trail. He risked a look back. Nothing there that he could see. He didn't slow. The trail flattened out right here, and he could make good time if he kept his pace steady. Maybe he'd outdistance the thing. Maybe it would give up. Fifty yards on the trail slanted sideways a few more degrees, and the right edge fell away, dropping steeply four hundred feet to a rocky floor below. Probably, if he had his binocs, he would see some of Zac's blood staining those rocks. Sam didn't. He also didn't believe Zac fell. Not on his own. If he had to run this trail a thousand times until whatever pushed him tried it again, he would.

Fifteen:
Gwen's camera was supposed to be pointed at Maryanne's pastry-cutter, filming her slicing long, fluted shortbread strips to roll into cones, but for just one second, it wasn't. And in that second, Harriet forgot to close the freezer door when she got out her ice-cream filling. It almost looked as if she had left it open on purpose, but that wasn't possible, was it? Not Harriet. Strict policy forbade Gwen from saying anything about it to Maryanne, but her ice cream was still in there, hardening, and it wouldn't do that with the door open. "I'm going to swing around," Gwen said, "and shoot this scene from the other side, behind you." Maryanne just nodded, having a million things to do to get the pastries done in the allotted time. And when Gwen took up position behind Maryanne's shoulder, she leaned over and accidentally bumped the freezer shut. No one saw. But Gwen pointed her camera at Harriet a lot more often from then on.

Eighty-five more to go.

~Cristof

P.S. If you're tracking posts and don't see where eleven through thirteen are, they're the character studies I did for Rachelle, Kessa, and Grace.