The Fifteen Minute Novel is an attempt to take a single prompt and use the last sentence written each day as a start for the next day. This year I had several prompts circling around a similar story, so I have combined them. However, the story starts the same way each day, with the last line from the day before and a timer set for fifteen minutes. The hope is to end up with a complete, if very rough draft by the end of the year. Some stories are better than others, but I always learn a whole lot about my own writing when I do this so for me it is not only a nice way to work out a story, but it is a tool for helping my writing get better. And so, we continue this story for 2024 with…
Day 225: In her mind she could already see the dress start to take shape.
In her mind she could already see the dress start to take shape. As they moved around the shop, Sophie added all of the notions and additions she would need to make the dress for Janine. She added the fabric for the liner as Janine skipped ahead fascinated by the button display. She didn’t want Janine to know there was more to the dress than just the original fabric.
Finally they were through, the regular list and the extras were taken care of. Not knowing when she would have her car returned, Sophie went a little heavy on her purchases just so she wouldn’t be caught out. They left heavily laden but happy. The drive home they chatted about the store, the weather, the upcoming holidays, anything except Sophie’s car. They added their grocery shopping and Sophie also added a few more pantry staples, just in case.
As a result by the time they made it back to the apartment complex, Sophie was feeling much better in her own skin. While she was certain that at some point nightmares would surface, for the present her bones felt less icy. They hauled their loot back into Sophie’s apartment and before Janine headed to her own apartment, Sophie took her measurements.
After writing them down, Janine left. Sophie settled her groceries, unpacked her sewing and settled herself on the couch with her sketch pad. She shook her head as she started to sketch out her idea for Janine’s dress. She glanced up at her list of things to investigate as possible non-work activities and knew that they would have to wait.
‘Until I have my car back I can’t go to most of them,’ she reminded herself. ‘And even then,’ she thought. She let the thought trail. She knew that she wouldn’t feel too safe going too far afield until whoever had messed with her car was identified and stopped. Sophie looked away from the list and tapped her pencil against the page. The only person she knew with any grudge against her was Kristen, but she hadn’t heard from Kristen in months.
“Maybe something did happen to her after the parking lot incident and she is just now around,” She mused. Once Kristen was taken away, Sophie stopped thinking about her. She didn’t want to know the follow up or what became of Kristen as long as she didn’t have to deal with her. “Perhaps I should,”
Sophie set her sketchpad and pencil to the side and got up to retrieve her laptop. She returned to the couch, opened it and when she pulled up a search engine she pulled Kristen’s name up. There was a long line of items. Most of what Sophie found related to things Kristen did with her wealthy and important family. She was pictured with the family as something was going on that they were involved in.
Sophie scrolled through them quickly, passing by the articles and notations until she found an article from the online version of the local paper. She clicked on the link and read the short article detail the events at the parking lot. The article was short. It stated that Kristen had been taken into custody as a person of interest regarding the fire. The rest of the information detailed the fire.
Sophie looked for a follow up article but there wasn’t one. There was no information she could find in any of the places she knew to look that told her what happened after Kristen was taken in for questioning. “Something had to have happened,” Sophie said.
Ten til Midnight 