Read The Rules First.

Your Word Prompt is: Sacrifice

******Fiction Written by Robert T Gasperson © 7/23/2007******

The alarm clock was blinking when Peter rolled over to look at it. 12:00 - 12:00 - 12:00. Obviously the power had gone out in the middle of the night. There was nothing he could do about it though. If he was late for work, he was late for work.

He reached his arm out from under the covers and pulled the drawer open. He reached in and clumsily searched for his cell phone. He knew that he had put it in there the night before, but in his cloudy state, it was more difficult to find. His fingers finally found the little nub that held the antenna. He picked up the phone, flipped it open and tried to focus on the small LCD screen. 9:03 AM it said in its silent way.

“Oh crap!” Peter jumped a good foot off the bed. It was almost like he had some kind of energy field that pushed his entire body up parallel to the bed. Then he landed on his feet at the side of the bed. He ran around the room like a chicken with its head chopped off and vinegar poured in the wound. He skipped his shower, and some of the normal hygiene chores. He worked in a lab by himself. There was no one there who would care about his smelly breath or armpits. He grabbed a chilled frappachino out of the fridge and his computer and ran out the door.

It didn’t take him very long to get to the lab. He only lived two miles from work. He parked his car in one of the two remaining spaces at the far end of the parking lot. He got out of the car, threw the strap of his computer case over his head and ran for the front door, pressing the lock button on the keyless remote one his keychain setting the alarm on his car.

He got to the door of the building and pulled as hard as he could. Nothing. It wouldn’t budge. He was late, and he was told when he took the job that if he was ever late, he would be locked out of the building and corrective measures would be taken. He was not told what those measures would be but this organization was known for the ruthlessness.

He walked back out to the parking lot shuffling his feet, knowing that there was a good chance of him loosing his job. If they didn’t fire him, they would probably demote him. There was no chance that he would get paid for the day.

Peter stopped. There was a noise building behind him. It sounded like a generator building up, some kind of power source growing in strength. Peter turned around in time to see a laser shoot out from the little eye above the locked door. Within a fraction of a second, the laser burned through the flesh of his left arm. At first he didn’t feel anything, just a release of weight on his left side. Then the pain hit. He knew what they had done to him. He looked down to see his arm laying on the pavement. They had cut off his left arm. He had sacrificed his arm for being 10 minutes late to work.

There was a loud clunk as the front doors of the building unlocked. They didn’t fire him. They punished him and are now expecting him to do his work with one arm.

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If you enjoy this kind of writing exercise, check out my book: Robert’s Word-A-Day Book. I also have a book to help you come up with names for your characters called: Random Character Names for Your Novel.

Also, did you know that you can get paid by reviewing this short piece of fiction? scroll down and click the button that says: Get paid to review my post.

Finally, Please come back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to see the new Word or phrase to write about. If you are so inclined, there is a signup box in the sidebar of the main page of this blog. This will allow you to get all of my new blog posts as I write them sent directly to your email inbox.

Read The Rules First.

Your Word Prompt is: Finish

I want to take a moment to plug my sponsor, Mr Beer. Without my sponsors, I would not be able to keep this blog updated, let alone pay for it. Take a moment to check out Mr Beer. What is it? Well, it is your Complete home brewing kit. That’s right. Imagine being able to make your own brew. We’re not talking that mass produced stuff that gets pasturized and loses all its flavor. You get to make a beer that not only has great taste, but is fresher than anything you can buy at the store. You get to make the mash, watch the yeast turn all that sugar into alchohol and then you get to strain it into your own bottles. You could share it with friends or save it all for yourself. Check it out at least. Brewing your own beer should be something everyone should try at least once in their lifetime.

This sponsor was provided by Payperpost.com. Sign up with them and get paid to do what you love, blogging. Now on with the Fiction.

******Fiction Written by Robert T Gasperson © 7/20/2007******

He could not believe this was it. This was the end. He was finished. He had been on a plane many times before and had always felt pretty safe. Even this time, ge got onto the plane and smiled at the pilot. He felt that this man would get him to his destination in one piece. Little did he know that one of the wings were going to collapse and send the plane into a dead spin.

His seatbelt was fastened so he was being held in his seat while everything else was flying around. He did his share of ducking though. He witnessed a woman about 3 seat up and to the left of where he was sitting get pummeled by a suitcase. There were cell phones and Ipods and handheld gaming systems flying everywhere. People’s pens, pencils, newspapers, magazines and even a copy of Stephen King’s, “The Stand: The complete Unabridged Version” flew across the plane with the centripetal force.

He even saw a child trying to pull himself out of the bathroom at the front of the plane. He was able to get a few steps before the force of the spinning caught him and threw him against the seats. His back twisted in an unnatural way. Then his feet sprang upward sending him through a series of back flips knocking other people in the head tip he landed against a wall with a thud. The pressure kept him there, his cheek pressed against the window, a sad empty stare in his eyes.

There was nothing that Kyle could do. He felt powerless. He was unable to do anything to stop this impending doom. His ears popped as the plane continued to descend at an alarming rate, and all he could think of was the new powers that he possessed. He had just found them, not even four hours before he got onto the plane. Now he was going to die, taking his new found talents with him.

He thought that he was going to be able to help people. He was going to be able to heal them. He was going to be a miracle worker. Now if he hits the ground and dies, all the people he could have saved would be lost. Millions of people would be effected in unimaginable ways.

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If you enjoy this kind of writing exercise, check out my book: Robert’s Word-A-Day Book. I also have a book to help you come up with names for your characters called: Random Character Names for Your Novel.

Also, did you know that you can get paid by reviewing this short piece of fiction? scroll down and click the button that says: Get paid to review my post.

Finally, Please come back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to see the new Word or phrase to write about. If you are so inclined, there is a signup box in the sidebar of the main page of this blog. This will allow you to get all of my new blog posts as I write them sent directly to your email inbox.

Read The Rules First.

Your Word Prompt is: Investing

Before we ge to the Fiction, I want to say a few words about my sponsor. Without them I would not be able to keep this blog online and updated.

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This sponsor was provided by Payperpost.com. Sign up with them and get paid to do what you love, blogging. Now on with the Fiction

******Fiction Written by Robert T Gasperson © 7/13/2007******

Rick had seen so many other people do it. They just simply walk up to the table, set down their bets and wait for the ball to stop. Some would win and other would loose. He knew that he could not lose. He had learned a secret that would cause him to win every time. It didn’t matter what they rolled her would win.

Rick sat sown on one of the barstools that were around the table for those gamblers who were known to sit there for hours. Rick was not planning to sit there for very long. All he wanted to do was be able to pay for their dinner that night. He had a big night planned and knew that her could not pull off that night with just the money he had in his pocket.

He watched the table-man spin the little wheel, then slide the little white ball in the groove on the lip of the wheel. The ball spun around the wheel for several rotations before it fell into the wheel. It hit a few of the spines between the numbers and jumped around a few times before it settled on a number.

“22 Red” the table-man said loudly for everyone to hear. Several of the people in around the table sucked their teeth as they realized that they lost. A young woman at the end of the table screamed when she realized that she had won. Rick smiled. He had not played yet, but knew that the likelihood of winning on red this time was slightly higher. He placed a $5 chip on the red square.

He looked around. He was the only one playing this round. Everyone was waiting to see what would happen next. He didn’t understand why. He thought maybe someone was waiting for a series of only one color being called. He closed his eyes and looked up towards the heavens. He heard the ball fly around the wheel and make the familiar sound of ceramic bouncing on the wooden wheel.

“Black” said the table-man. Rick smiled as he opened his eyes. He took his winnings and placed it all on red along with the rest of the chips in his pocket. The total was several hundred dollars. There was no way that he could loose now. The creepy old psychic that he met the night before had said that he would win. He took a deep breath as he looked at all the skeptical eyes that were watching him. He smiled and waited for the spin.

“Red” he heard the words but really could not believe it. He now had $1200 dollars to spend on his wife that night. He now had to stop. But could he be lucky one more time? The psychic did say something about thrice winning. He had seen all the old movies where someone had that kind of prophecy and then it turned out to be something other than what they thought it would be.

Rick walked away from the table with his winnings. He figured that his third winning would be with his wife later that night.

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If you enjoy this kind of writing exercise, check out my book: Robert’s Word-A-Day Book. I also have a book to help you come up with names for your characters called: Random Character Names for Your Novel.

Also, did you know that you can get paid by reviewing this short piece of fiction? scroll down and click the button that says: Get paid to review my post.

Finally, Please come back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to see the new Word or phrase to write about. If you are so inclined, there is a signup box in the sidebar of the main page of this blog. This will allow you to get all of my new blog posts as I write them sent directly to your email inbox.

Read The Rules First.

Your Word Prompt is: Fool

******Fiction Written by Robert T Gasperson © 7/18/2007******

It was only a marble. He didn’t think much of it. He found it one day when he was walking from his front door to the garage. It was on the edge of the sidewalk nearly buried beneath the overgrown grass. It was only a small piece of glass that contained a swirl of powder of some sort.

He picked it up anyway. He kept envisioning himself getting shot by the marble when he ran over it with the lawnmower. All he had to do was get that little sphere sucked up in the updraft from the blades then sent flying towards his femur.

Trevor didn’t spend a lot of time looking at the little glass marble. It was just a plain marble anyway. He wondered briefly how a marble made its way to his yard seeing he didn’t have any children. He didn’t even have friends with children. Yet, there it was in his yard.

He made his way to the bus stop and watched the bus actually pull up as he arrived. He stepped up into the doorway and smiled politely at the driver. She smirked back not really returning his smile. She held this ‘I hate my job’ attitude which was the same everyday when he got on.

There was only one seat left in the center of the bus next to this young lady who was deep into a thick paperback novel. She didn’t even look up when he sat down. He was used to this kind of reaction. People were only on the bus to get where they were going. They didn’t really want to socialize.

He had not been sitting more than five minutes when he felt a burning against his outer thigh. He hissed with pain as he thrust his hand into his pocket and pulled out the glass marble that was now glowing. His jaw dropped as he looked at it sitting in his hand. It didn’t even occur to him that it was not burning his hand like it had been burning his leg.

After a moment he realized that the woman with the paperback was now staring at him. No, not at him, at the marble. “Hand that to me.” She said with a soft sultry voice. He thought of those women who advertise the 900 numbers on late night television. Being transfixed by her eyes, he didn’t question the demand. He handed over the glowing, glass marble.

Soon as the marble hit her hand, the soft yellow glow that surrounded the marble traveled through her hand and up her arm and all over her body. She sucked in a deep breath as though she was sucking in the energy the marble was sharing with her.

Then she exploded with power.

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If you enjoy this kind of writing exercise, check out my book: Robert’s Word-A-Day Book. I also have a book to help you come up with names for your characters called: Random Character Names for Your Novel.

Also, did you know that you can get paid by reviewing this short piece of fiction? scroll down and click the button that says: Get paid to review my post.

Finally, Please come back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to see the new Word or phrase to write about. If you are so inclined, there is a signup box in the sidebar of the main page of this blog. This will allow you to get all of my new blog posts as I write them sent directly to your email inbox.

Read The Rules First.

Your Word Prompt is: Vital

******Fiction Written by Robert T Gasperson © 7/16/2007******

Ralph hung on the side of the cliff. He had no clue as to how he got himself into this predicament. All he was trying to do was waking to his girlfriend’s house. Now he was dangling from a rock face, not to mention a giant beast moving his direction intent on either making him fall or eating him for a midnight snack.

The creature got closer to the edge of the cliff. It looked over allowing Ralph to get a better look at what he was up against. The thing has giant red eyes and fangs that jutted nearly a foot out of its gaping mouth. There was what seemed to be fur, but in the low light the fur almost looked like a horrible muddy paste. Ralph hoped that muddy paste was not what he thought it was. Thought of other victims this creature may have eaten earlier in the night kept crossing his mind.

The rocks in the wall were holding him for now and he was just out of reach of the creature who was just about to eat him. He felt like he was in between a rock and a hard place, or in this case, an impending doom and a tumble to his untimely demise. This was not really how he wanted to go out. If anything, he was hoping to get married and have a couple of kids before some creature decided to devour him.

The only way that he could think of to get himself out of this situation was to either climb up and fight his way past this creature or start climbing down and hope that he could find a ledge or the bottom of this chasm before his arms and legs gave out on him.

The only way he could think of to get past the beast at the top of the cliff was to use the knife that happened to be in his pocket. He thought he might be able to slice at the beast and at least scare it away long enough for him to pull himself of this shear face. If he could stab it and cause some kind of damage, maybe the wound would be enough to kill it. He could only hope.

The only problem was that his pocket knife was in his pocket and it was taking every ounce of strength he had to keep himself up. He looked around trying to ignore the growls of the beast and tried to find a better foothold. If he could just find a way to wedge his leg somehow to hold the majority of his weight he just might be able let go of one hand to dig in his pockets.

To his right he saw a flat surface with hardly a notch to latch onto, but on his left there was a large gash in the wall. It was almost like the wall had experienced an earthquake of some kind. There was a large chunk missing from the opposite side of the crack. Ralph turned his ankle to where he was able to hold his body with just the strength of his legs. He let go with his right hand and reached down into his pocket.

His jeans were tight from the stretching he was having to do to keep himself up. When he wrapped his hand around the pocket knife he found that he could not get his fist out of his pocket. This forced him to pull his hand back out a bit and try to pull the knife out with just a couple of fingers.

The knife was still tight but it was sliding up and out of his pocket. He thought he had it when his fingers slipped free just as the knife tumbled free and clattered down the side of wall. Ralph cursed the air and he grabbed on again to the handgrip that he had just let go of. There was only one thing left to do. He started the unsure climb down.

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If you enjoy this kind of writing exercise, check out my book: Robert’s Word-A-Day Book. I also have a book to help you come up with names for your characters called: Random Character Names for Your Novel.

Also, did you know that you can get paid by reviewing this short piece of fiction? scroll down and click the button that says: Get paid to review my post.

Finally, Please come back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to see the new Word or phrase to write about. If you are so inclined, there is a signup box in the sidebar of the main page of this blog. This will allow you to get all of my new blog posts as I write them sent directly to your email inbox.

Read The Rules First.

Your Word Prompt is: Minimum Wage

Before I let you check out what I have written for today’s word prompt, I want to take a moment to talk about my sponsor, ibackup.com. Ibackup.com provides a unique Online Storage service. Their software allows you to see a mapped drive or folder on your computer. In other words, you can drag and drop your files that you want to backup into the mapped folder and it automatically goes to the server at ibackup.com. This allows you to instantly backup anything that you may be working on from photographs to movies to family history or anything else you can think of.

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This sponsor was provided by Payperpost.com. Sign up with them and get paid to do what you love, blogging. Now on with the Fiction.

******Fiction Written by Robert T Gasperson © 7/11/2007******

Jessica struggled against the strong hands of the massive brute. All she was doing was walking home from her friend’s house. She didn’t believe that these kinds of things actually happened. She thought the movies were the only place where people were grabbed by ugly, smelly men in the middle of the night. Here she was though, a strong, giant man held her around the waist with one arm and the another giant hand pressed strongly over her mouth.

Her screams were muffled as she tried relentlessly to get some passerby to hear her. It was nearly 3 in the morning. Everyone who was anyone was either asleep or in the middle of their third shift at work. She kicked Her legs as hard as she could but his grip on her kept getting stronger the more she struggled. At one point she thought she was going to pass out.

It was not long before she was shifted in this mans arms then tossed violently into a black van. Her head slamed into the sliding door as the rest of her body spun and twisted into the van. The Man who smelled like cigarette smoke and toilet water followed her into the van. She caught a glimpse as she tried to regain proper focus. The man seemed to take up the entire doorway. The light from a nearby streetlamp only shone through on either side of his head. It kind of reminded her of that scene in the movie Betelgeuse in the waiting room where there was a giant man with a shrunken head.

The creepy looking man closed the sliding van door behind him and sat on the floor. “We’re good to go.” He said to the driver while still glaring at Jessica.

“Where are you taking me?” Jessica screamed the words in a scratchy, fear filled tone. “Let me Go!”

The man just smiled. Then in his deep heavy voice, he said, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere.” His grin just got larger and larger. It was almost like he had found his favorite dessert and was about to take the first bite.

“I don’t understand why you are doing this. I am of no use to anybody.” She tried to sit up. She rubbed the back of her head with her free hand. It was throbbing from the recent impact.

“You are of interest to someone. He is paying me to make sure you get to him. Although he didn’t say whether he needed you in one piece.” The man turned his head until a joint in his neck popped. “So you better cooperate if you know what’s good for you.”

“They paid you to grab me? What kind of money could you possibly be making to make you want to grab innocent young women?

He chuckled a bit, “They only pay me minimum wage. I do this kind of work so I can hold, smell and fondle pretty women.”

Jessica’s eyes got big as she realized the amount of trouble she was in.

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If you enjoy this kind of writing exercise, check out my book: Robert’s Word-A-Day Book. I also have a book to help you come up with names for your characters called: Random Character Names for Your Novel.

Also, did you know that you can get paid by reviewing this short piece of fiction? scroll down and click the button that says: Get paid to review my post.

Finally, Please come back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to see the new Word or phrase to write about. If you are so inclined, there is a signup box in the sidebar of the main page of this blog. This will allow you to get all of my new blog posts as I write them sent directly to your email inbox.

Read The Rules First.

Your Word Prompt is: Powerful

******Fiction Written by Robert T Gasperson © 7/09/2007******

Sometimes I wonder what it takes to be powerful. I mean there are plenty of people out there who are considered powerful. They have the money. They have the people groveling at their feet and taking care of their every need. There are people who have the power to have others executed, or actually do the killing themselves. I wonder if they really have power.

There are people who actually have the ability to save lives. They are able to take a sharp blade, open someone up and fix whatever is wrong inside of them. There are others who can look deep within someone and find issues that are lying as a root beneath a giant tree of other problems. Are these people powerful? Sometimes I wonder.

I think most people are a slave to what they consider power. They know what they are doing but literally it is all that they know. They do it because they know that they can. The man that takes pleasure in killing another man is actually a slave to the desire or power to be able to make a life and death decision. That decision is permanent. It is something that cannot be reversed, thus making the killer feel like a god (poor soul).

I was walking through the park the other day and saw a couple having a picnic lunch. There was the mother and the father, a girl about 5 and a baby that had to be only months old. Then there was the mutt, the family pet. It was a perfect family out for a weekend excursion, making the best of their time together.

I sat on the bench across the playground from this family. I could not help but wonder, ‘who actually has the power in this family’. The Father believe that he has the power because he makes the money and the major decisions for the family. He is the protector and the provider. Then I thought, he is actually a slave to his job so he can have those privileges to take care of his family.

Then there is the mother. She may be staying home with the family, but all she has to do is ask is a light ‘I Love You’ tone of voice ‘can I have this’, or ‘would you do this for me?’ She can normally get just about anything that she wants if only she ask her loving husband who lives to make her happy.

The five year old is looking for her parents’ approval on everything. She wants to know that they love her and that they support everything that she is trying to do. She also knows that all she has to do is throw a tantrum and her parents will take them home. She feels that she has her parents wrapped around their little finger.

The mutt, on the other hand, I believe has almost all the power. His owners feed him, bathe him, give him a place to sleep, play with him, take him on walks, and he doesn’t even have to work to earn his share.

If it wasn’t for the baby, the mutt would probably have all the power in the house. The fact of the matter is that the whole household actually revolves around the baby. They feed him, they clothe him, they give him his own room and if the dog got jealous of the baby and tried to bite or move in on the baby, the owners would promptly kick him out of the house.

So there you are. Babies are the most powerful people on the planet. Hmm. Go figure.

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If you enjoy this kind of writing exercise, check out my book: Robert’s Word-A-Day Book. I also have a book to help you come up with names for your characters called: Random Character Names for Your Novel.

Also, did you know that you can get paid by reviewing this short piece of fiction? scroll down and click the button that says: Get paid to review my post.

Finally, Please come back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to see the new Word or phrase to write about. If you are so inclined, there is a signup box in the sidebar of the main page of this blog. This will allow you to get all of my new blog posts as I write them sent directly to your email inbox.