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 153: He looked pleased and she wondered if useful skills got him gold stars.
He looked pleased and she wondered if useful skills got him gold stars. She also wondered if someone would come up with a job or two she could do to make up for all the attention the Emperor’s agents were giving her. ‘Car repair alone should cost something,’ Penelope thought.
She somehow doubted Stevens would be giving her a bill for repairing her break line and putting a magical shield on it.
‘Probably put it on my ‘you owe the Emperor’ tab,’ she thought. ‘Along with the blown up car with whatever damage it caused the street and buildings, not to mention the giant plant removal from the bank.’
The thought of owing a debt to the Emperor that only skills she may or may not have or want to use made her uncomfortable. She hoped they figured out who was set on attacking her before the bill grew too immense.
“Try it again,” Stevens said, interrupting her thoughts of Imperial Debts. Penelope nodded and once again moved to the car. She knew Hank was still in the pit below. Even knowing the runners on which the car was parked were steady and stable, it felt strange to know there was a man standing underneath her vehicle.
She closed the car door and sat. There was a warmth to the vehicle but it was much less than before. ‘More like someone was sitting in the seat before me and just got up rather than the car trying to roast me alive.’
“It’s warm but not hot,” she told them through the window.
Steven’s nodded. “Stay there a moment. Hank, come on up.”
There was a metal clanging again and Hank emerged from the depths of the pit below her car. Penelope found herself oddly relieved to see him.
Stevens turned back to her. “Start the engine and see if it gets warmer.”
Again Penelope nodded. She inserted the key in the ignition and turned it. The engine turned over and while there was a slight burst of heat as the engine started it faded back. “Still not hot,” she told them.
“Turn it off then,” Stevens said. Penelope complied and turned off the car. She got out of the vehicle and he held out his hand for her keys. “We’ll have to bring it around.”
“Oh,” she said, handing the keys over. She stepped away from the vehicle. ‘At least I won’t have to run the heater in the winter,’ Penelope thought as Michalson led her away from the mechanics shop and back to the bland corridor they walked through to reach it. ‘Not sure how well that will do in the summer though.’
She expected she would have to run the air conditioner more. ‘Or at least always have the window cracked.’
The exit from the hidden repair shop involved fewer identity checks although she was certain all the cameras were still recording. ‘I guess if you have to prove who you are to et in, they know who you are leaving.’
They left the corridor behind and were in the hidden part of the parking garage where they left Michaelson’s replacement vehicle.
“They will meet us near the exit with your car,” Michaelson told her. Penelope nodded. Part of her was disappointed she wouldn’t be able to drive through the secret wall entrance, but she decided it was a disappointment she could live with.
Michelson drove them through the hidden door and into the main part of the garage.
Ten til Midnight 