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 116: The woman smiled and nodded, her face clearing of confusion.
The woman smiled and nodded, her face clearing of confusion. “Of course,” she said. She nodded as though finally understanding. “Dreams still murky then?”
“Very,” Penelope replied.
“Well I wouldn’t worry about it, some people are just late bloomers. There are worse things. Some people start getting small abilities early on and have no idea what to do about them.”
“Small abilities?” Penelope asked.
“Oh well take our neighbors. He had to be sent somewhere safe early as his abilities developed and no doubt the child will as well, just for damage control.”
“Oh,” Penelope said. “I don’t think my abilities would be like that. I certainly didn’t have to be sent out of town when small.”
“No of course not,” the woman assured her. “And with nothing unaccounted for happening to you early and your dreams still murky now no doubt you will have small controllable abilities. Nothing to worry about.”
“Right,” Penelope said. “That’s a relief.”
“Yes,” her neighbor said. “I suppose it would be.”
There was an odd note in her voice but the woman shook her head as though dispelling a thought. “Well can’t spend all night here. Things to do.”
“Of course,” Penelope said. The woman gathered her things and went inside. Penelope did the same. As she bolted the door behind her, Penlope let her confusion show. She took her tray upstairs to the kitchen turning over the conversation. The woman sounded surprised that Penelope’s car stopped working on it’s own. ‘Almost like she expected something else.’
She set the tray down on the counter and put the extra food away before she began washing out her glass and the plate. ‘She also seemed interested in my abilities and almost disappointed they hadn’t come in yet.”
Penelope shrugged. ‘It could be normal curiosity,’ she told herself. But somehow it didn’t feel like that. Penelope set her clean glass in the dishrack and dried her hands. As she turned she saw her notebook out on the counter. Many of her questions were complex and interrelated.
“I could ask about the neighbor. It might be a little easier.” Penelope nodded and left the kitchen. She returned to the library and picked up the book that she hoped would help her answer some of her questions. It required little more than the incantation and the focus of her own will and magic. It was a lot like how shew searched for the book itself actually, but it required a single question as a focus as well as something called a seeing stone which according to the description and picture in the book wasn’t exactly a stone.
‘It’s glass.’ She realized. She read through the description and decided that perhaps looking to see if a stone was present in the house might be good. Recalling the cabinets in the first floor lounge area, Penelope went downstairs, taking the book with her so she could compare anything she found to the photo.
She opened doors and peered onto shelves. There were mysterious wooden boxes carved with what looked like runes. There were glasses of varying sizes and materials. Thee were a lot of things she assumed were used for various spells. It took her a full hour and a half to find but eventually, Penelope found something that matched the picture in the book.
Ten til Midnight 