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 243: She automatically reached up a hand to smooth her hair even though she pulled it up into a ponytail earlier.
She automatically reached up a hand to smooth her hair even though she pulled it up into a ponytail earlier. Despite spending the last little while cleaning up, she felt woefully underdressed. ‘Probably because I only see them when wearing work clothes.’ Sophie thought. Both Sean and Elizabeth were dressed for the office.
“Hi,” Sophie said. “I suppose you got the message?”
“We did,” Sean said.
“And the police contacted the office,” Elizabeth added. “They wanted to pull some records.”
“On me?” Sophie asked. She wondered if she was going to lose your job over this.
“No actually,” Sean said. He looked uncomfortable standing in the hallway.
“You are welcome to come in,” Sophie said. “But I’ve only just started cleaning up the bedroom.”
“I would like to see how bad it is if that would be okay?” Sean asked.
Sophie nodded and she led Elizabeth and Sean inside. The building manager stayed with Alec and she hoped she wasn’t going to be asked to leave because of all the trouble.
Doom filled scenarios started scrolling through her head. As they went into the living room, Sophie heard Elizabeth gasp.
“Yeah,” Sophie said slowly. “I started in the bedroom to at least see what clothes survived so I haven’t touched anything here.”
Sean let out a low whistle and shook his head. The he frowned. “Clothes?” he asked. Surely the stains can come out.”
“Hopefully, in the ones that weren’t shredded,” Sophie said. She gestured to the pile of unusable cloth she. Elizabeth picked up what had been a green blouse. It had a slash of ketchup across it that looked like blood and the garment was shredded to ribbons.
“I always liked this blouse when you wore it,” Elizabeth said.
“Thanks Sophie replied. “I’ll male another one at some point, probably.” Sophie rubbed a hand over her face. “I haven’t made a list of what needs replacing yet, just sort of…clearing.”
“Right,” Sean said. He cleared his throat. “The police contacted the office and were looking for details on interactions. The fingerprints taken her matched Kristen’s so they at least know who did this…” He waved his hand to encompass the apartment but didn’t seem to have the right words for it. “This,” he repeated.
“But no one knows about the car and the mail box fire?” Sophie asked.
“Mail box fire?” Both Sean and Elizabeth frowned.
“Right I guess they didn’t mention that. Everyone woke up when the mailboxes caught fire and alarms went off. It was while we were downstairs that the apartment was destroyed,” Sophie explained.
“Good god,” Elizabeht said. She shook her head. “I told you it would be problematic.”
“Am I going to be fired because of problems?” Sophie asked, figuring she might as well be direct about it.
Ten til Midnight 