Today’s writing prompt and my response.
Second day of this week’s challenge, and it’s a picture prompt. The story starts here.
‘I’m not from around here,’ she said. ‘I come from a place –‘ she waved her hand vaguely in the air ‘– a long way away.’
‘Does this place have a name? Would I know it?’
‘Once you did. Here, you don’t.’
‘Okay, you’re making even less sense. Don’t recall any memory gaps, and it’s not like I’m ancient.’ He was thirty-five.
Her lips lifted at the corners, as if she shared some in-joke with herself. He regretted letting her in. She might be a crazy. And then she said –
‘When I take you back, you’ll remember. At least, that’s what the Council believe, and we hope they’re right.’ She shook her head, drew in a breath.
She was a crazy.
‘Take me back?’ He sat forward in his chair. The cat squirmed, slept on. ‘Why would I go anywhere with you, a total stranger?’
‘Fair enough question.’ She wriggled her shoulders. ‘When they tasked me with finding you, I drove out of town to get advice. There’s a barn, where they live.’
She smiled. ‘You might find it strange, needing to get advice from a lamb, but that’s what I did.’
She really was a crazy. He squinted at her. ‘You videoing this? Going to make me a laughing stock on TikTok or whatever?’
Her face blanked. ‘Video? TikTok?’ Her confusion appeared real but she was obviously a good actor.
He flicked his wrist. The sense of foreboding he’d had when he let her in hadn’t gone away. It was nothing to do with social media though. Deeper than that, more visceral. He had to hear her out. Then he would decide whether to throw her into the road, or … It was that ‘or’ which had him worried.
‘So,’ he said, stroking the sleeping feline, ‘what did the lamb have to say?’
The story continues here.
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