I woke up at three this morning and had a hard time falling back asleep. Instead I stared at the ceiling and thought of how to untangle a plot twist i accidentally got my characters stuck in yesterday before i stopped working for the day. Somehow i sorted part of it out in my head as I slept, but it ended up altering a different part of the story i thought i was done with writing. Frustrating, but it will make it better in the end. So now that those notes are sorted, lets jump into the morning prompt shall we?
I started off with an idea in my head. I was going to have our photographer come across something in the field. But he resolutely decided that he wasn’t going to. Now I think I will have his camera capture evidence his eyes didn’t register. which I kind of like more if i am honest. And the timer dinged before i got to the actual bad stuff happening. i do like this story though. I think it will definitely be a murder mystery.
Thursday, April 21st: A fat caterpillar inched his way across the old picnic table.
A fat caterpillar inched his way across the old picnic table. The wood was spongy from the damp, the waterproof coating on the wood long since defeated by the elements. In places moss grew in puffs of green almost too vibrant against the dark wood tucked into the shadow of the twisted oak tree.
From his position at the gate, the place looked idyllic. It was isolated and quiet. ‘Nature reclaiming the works of man,’ he thought as he looked around. The house beyond was a wreck of its former self. The gable looked mostly in tact but two of the walls holding it up lost their fight with gravity and collapsed into the ground causing the back end of the single room structure to fall, the eaves of the roof resting on the ground on that side while the other side remained oddly upright.
Ivy wound through it all and the only thing his straining ears could detect were the soft drone of bees in the field beyond. There was a fence, but he doubted there was anyone around to mind him hopping it. ‘Besides, I’m only taking pictures,’ he thought to himself.
He climbed the split rail fence and when no one gave a cry of alarm, he threw his leg over and entered the field. Reminding himself to look out for old wells and hidden pit falls, he got out his camera and began taking his photographs. He took close ups, showing the little hairs on the fat green caterpillar, the blob of moss and rotten wood simply contrasting green and brown blurs. He took wide shots showing the ruined property in its entirety. As he moved he wondered what this place had been. There were other picnic tables in the trees, and the gabled structure looked too small to have actually been a house.
As the light began to fade, he decided that stumbling around was a bad idea so he climbed the fence and got back into his car. There was no cry of alarm and Ian wa satisfied with his photos. He drove back towards the city feeling good about his outing. It was only a couple of hours away from the city center but the woods and quiet field seemed like a world away from the heavily populated city center.
He was not city bred and it took him the better part of two years to grow accustomed to the noises. When his friend mentioned the site as a possible place for photographing nature, he took the opportunity to go and was glad he did. The fresh air cleared his lungs and let his mind settle. He knew that change was coming, it was impossible not to see that. He just hadn’t figured out what he wanted to do about it. Being away from the city, even for just a little while helped him clear his head and reminded him that sometimes the world just went right on, even if you didn’t prepare for it. ‘I wonder why Justin wasn’t there though,’ Ian thought as he pulled into the parking garage near his apartment building. Ian planned to join him, in fact Ian was delayed leaving and assumed Justin would have gotten there before him.
Ten til Midnight 