For those just tuning in, this challenge is about taking a story idea from bare bones idea into a fully fledged story by writing consistently every week day for fifteen minutes. The sentence I end with on one day, is the sentence I start with on the following. Part one was Bob’s story and has nothing whatsoever to do with the story below. Part Two follows a character named Penelope. I have a few basic sentences to act as road marks on her journey. I am loosely calling that an outline. We will see where she ends up by the time the story is done. For now, we start Part two of the 2025 Fifteen Minute Writing Challenge.
Day 13: It reminded her of a fancy version of the one Alvis had at the law office.
It reminded her of a fancy version of the one Alvis had at the law office. The design was geometric for both, the exterior designs done in black and gray while the interior of the cups were a light lavender.
She smiled. ‘Like someone couldn’t resist a splash of color.’
Knowing she couldn’t afford to stay for a full tour, Penelope put her papers down on one of the end tables near the seating area. She looked at the stack and the proximity to the door. “I need to see what the bedrooms look like anyway,” she told herself, picking the stack back up and looking around for the stairs. She found them at the back of the space and crossed the open room to reach them. Penelope climbed the stairs noting that the house smelled of cleaning products and stale air.
‘But since no one has lived here since,’ Penelope paused on the stairs. No one actually told her the last time the house was lived in. She knew her mother lived with her father after they got married and until she died, but didn’t know if she lived here prior. Penelope shook it off figuring that if it mattered she might be able to find out late.
She finished climbing the stairs. The stairs let out into a small open area right beside a large well appointed kitchen. ‘I suppose that makes sense,” Penelope thought. She moved to one of the cupboards. Finding it empty she slipped the paper work inside and closed the door. “If you had guests visiting downstairs and wanted to offer refreshments you could easily take it down.”
The kitchen took up a lot of space and looked as though whoever lived here wanted to be able to cook for a banquets worth of people at all times. There was a small eat in kitchen and then a short corridor she was fairly certain was called a butler’s pantry that led to a formal dining room. There were massive, but empty pantries that looked to Penelope as though she could stock them and survive a siege.
The front of the space was split into two rooms. One was a large living room. The other was a smaller study. It was dominated by a large desk and had shelves of books and a bar built into the back of the room. The books looked tempting, especially as Penelope was wondering abut this magic Alvis believed she had.
‘Because of the blood test.”
Penelope frowned and peeled off the band-aid from her finger. She folded it up and slipped it into her purse. The pin prick had long ago stopped bleeding.
‘Time to read later.’
Penelope found the stairs leading up a floor and found the bedrooms. There were bedframes and when she looked in the closets she found scores of sheets and blankets all vaccu-sealed into little bags to keep them fresh.
‘But no pillows or mattresses.’
She shrugged. It was good to know she would need to pick that up before she could move in. ‘But I have time for that. Penelope jumped as her cell phone began to ring. She reached into her purse and pulled out her phone.
Ten til Midnight 