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 239: Her closet was open and her clothing was destroyed.
Her closet was open and her clothing was destroyed. It looked like someone took a pair of scissors to the garments. Sophie swallowed hard. She turned away from the bedroom and with a great deal of trepidation she walked into her sewing room. For a moment the destruction looked worse. Then she realized that It wasn’t all destroyed.
It was an unholy mess but instead of torn fabric it seemed the vandal had been content with simply tipping things over to make a mess. It wasn’t destroyed, just tipped out and everywhere. Sophie took a deep breath and inhaled minty freshness. She frowned and looked towards the bathroom. Even with the light off she could see toothpaste had been squirted all over the mirror and she saw her mouthwash bottle open and on it’s side, only a little fluid remaining in the mostly full bottle.
As she walked through the apartment the officer was her silent shadow. Janine was less silent and let out bursts of expletives as she saw the damage. They returned to the living room.
“I certainly didn’t leave it like this,” Sophie said. She still felt a little lost and shocked, but she also felt herself getting angry. Someone had come into her home and destroyed her things. As Sophie tamped down her anger she listened to the officer. They would look for fingerprints. She would need to come down to give exclusionary prints. She was asked who else had been in her apartment recently.
“Just Janine,” Sophie said. “I meet Kevin downstairs for work,” Sophie glanced back towards her bedroom. She would need to call in to work and tell them she wasn’t going to be coming in today. She wasn’t entirely certain she had any clothes to wear.
‘And I know I’d be no good in the office.’
Sophie stepped out of her apartment. People with cameras arrived. She had renter’s insurance and wondered if this was covered. It was something to find out later. Right now she could only stand by and let other people take care of things.
She was grateful that Janine stayed with her. Time clicked by and finally they wrapped things up. She was told she could go back into her apartment and sort things out. They had all that they needed. She could begin to put her world back together again.
“And if you could come down to the station for those exclusionary prints we would appreciate it,” the man in charge said. He seemed to be a different man than the one who was in charge before. Sophie was certain names were given at some point but couldn’t recall them. Nothing was really staying in her head. As the officer left, she saw Kevin in the hall. He was dressed for the gym but was morning fresh and not yet sweaty.
“Gym’s closed,” he told her as he walked over. “But I’m guessing that’s not a priority.”
Ten til Midnight 