Today’s writing prompt and my response.
FORTUNE SPIDER MONEY – Use these three words!
Suzie had never been so cold in her life. The Fairy Queen had come as promised, in the winter dusk, and magicked Suzie away. Not in a golden coach or some glittering whirlwind which transported them instantly. Not, it was in an old car, where Suzie was pushed into the back seat, told to stay quiet, and the doors locked with their childproof locks. Suzie had comforted herself. It would be okay when they reached the Fairy Queen’s palace. Here, in the dull, daily grownup world, the Fairy Queen had to be in disguise so as not to frighten people.
Suzie’s hopes for the palace, however, lasted the time it took to drive through the gate – at least that was cleverly disguised as part of the stone wall – be hauled from the car onto a snowy driveway, and bundled up the stairs to a dusty, cobwebbed attic crammed with old furniture and no curtains at the window. Told again to be quiet, the door was locked on the outside, with the Fairy Queen muttering about this one not getting away, she would make her money from this one if she couldn’t have the other one.
The other one? Did the Fairy Queen … umm, Suzie began to doubt the woman really was a fairy queen … Did the woman who wasn’t a fairy queen mean Jamie? Of course Jamie must have been here! But he’d escaped, somehow.
Suzie wandered to the window, pressed her face against the cold glass, shivering in the draught blowing through the broken frame. A large spider shared her space. Suzie wasn’t afraid of spiders, and rather liked the thought of some sort of company.
‘Spider,’ Suzie asked, ‘where did Jamie go?’
The spider dropped to the bare boards of the floor. It peered up at Suzie, and waved one of its hairy legs.
‘Fortune favours the bold,’ it said, and disappeared into the gap under the scarred skirting board.
To start the story from the beginning, go here. Last episode tomorrow.
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