This is the final group! Just a reminder:
So far 8 stories have been voted on. Here are the rules for the last time:
- For 48 hours, you can vote which one of the five stories below you like the best.
- Afterwards, the three winning stories will be voted on!
- The winner of the final poll will be the first Writing Event Winner! The Judge’s picks will also be announced at that time!
…Well, Better than the Alternative won last round!
Before voting, please read all 5 of the stories below. They are anonymous to try to remove any bias voters may have for their friends.
Numb Little Bug by Em Beihold
She fell down but didn’t feel a thing due to the medication she was on. She got up and brushed off herself. Unaware that she was hurt due to her pill dosage. She has not communicated with her friends in weeks. They’ve fallen out of contact and cannot be reached. She’s been driving through Los Angeles, but realizing the world is very big. She feels like a bubble floating about to pop. And she feels she’s about to break like a twig. She wants to know if you feel the same way she’s feeling right now. She says to her therapist, “Do you ever get a little bit tired of life, like you’re not really happy but you don’t want to die. Like you’re hanging on a thread but you got to survive”. Her therapist then says, “Cause, you got to survive?”. ” Like, your body’s in the room but you’re not really there. Like, you have empathy inside but you don’t really care. Like, your fresh out of love, but it’s been in the air. Am I past repair?”, she continued to say. Her therapist asks her to tell her more. And she goes on to say, “A little bit tired of trying to care when I don’t. A little bit tired of quick repairs to cope. I’m tired of sinking. There’s water in my boat. I’m barely breathing. I’m trying to stay afloat. But I got these quick repairs to cope. Guess I’m just broken and broke”. She then leaves her therapy session. She got prescribed pills with a name she could not pronounce. The dose that she was told to take was an insane amount. She just wants to see if this prescription can make her happy. She gets home and tells herself, “Do you ever get a little bit tired of life, like you’re not really happy but you don’t want to die. Like you’re hanging on a thread but you got to survive”. “Cause you got to survive.” , she tells herself that she takes one of the pills. She then proceeded to walk into her living room and watch some TV. She felt like her body was in the room but she wasn’t really there. She had empathy for the people in the movie that she was watching, but at the same time she didn’t really care. She felt she was fresh out of love, but it’s been all around her in the air. She gets up and looks out her window and says, “Am I past repair? A little bit tired of trying to care when I don’t. A little bit tired of quick repairs to cope. I’m tired of sinking. There’s water in my boat. I’m barely breathing. I’m trying to stay afloat. But I got these quick repairs to cope”. Tears start running down her cheeks as she still looks out the window. She says, do you ever get a little bit tired of life. Like, you’re not really happy but you don’t want to die. Like, a numb little bug that’s got to survive”. “Cause you got to survive.” , she says in a quiet weary voice watching the sunset over the city.
Six Pills by Rosendale
I slowly opened my eyes, then closed them. Everything seemed distant, like a dream. The damp earth beneath felt cool against my skin, and the canopy of trees above filtered the sunlight. I tried to prop my elbows beneath me, but I couldn’t. I just lay there, blinked, and took in the scent of pine, a sharp contrast of the metallic taste lingering on my tongue. My old memories, new memories…oh I really don’t know. They flickered in and out like candle flames in my mind, like parts of my life I could barely remember anymore. I try to reach out, but remember I can’t. Light flashed oddly around me, like a unique ballroom dance. The world around me blurs, the colors swirling around in a kaleidoscope of chaos. My head started feeling quite dazed and my vision went out.
In the woods, I met a man that carried a staff whose face bore the weathered lines of countless seasons. His sunken eyes met mine with a warm, gentle smile, one couldn’t resist but grin back. We both sat down, in the middle of a forest clearing in the silence of the woods. That was when he had startled me. He said, “I can see it in your eyes. You’ve been hurt a couple times. I’ve got the perfect antidote to cure a heart of stone.” His words lingered in the air, as if it reached an understanding far beyond me or my soul. My eyes focused on him, for that was when he brought out a big, blue bottle, containing tiny red pills.
I murmured, “tiny red pills in a big blue bottle?” I cautiously took the bottle and could feel the tiny pills rattling within.
“Said this stuff can do wonders, take you to nirvana, make you a better man,” he continued with a tinge of mystery lurking behind his smile. There was a shift in his demeanor, one that I now know I missed.
I should’ve known something was amiss when I saw his smile turn to a grin.
But then, right after he got up, he turned and said, “One to numb the hurt, two to ease the pain, three to clear your mind, forget all the hate. Take as I advised, not more than prescribed. Several weeks ahead, you’ll be fine again.” He flashed a quick grin and skipped into the great expanse of the forest — the great unknown.
I sat there, confused.
So I went home, my heart confused, still not knowing what just to do. I popped the cap and took a dose. After all, what could I lose? Suddenly the world blurred into colors and shapes. I soared through the clouds, boundless. It was like a sensation unlike any other. A magic broom. A carpet ride! Just then, I felt myself tumbling back to the Earth.
I slowly opened my eyes, blinking away the haze and darkness just to find myself laying in bed. Oh what I would give to feel that again. With trembling hands, I tried to repeat the words he said, grasping at the delicate threads of memory. “One to numb the hurt, two to ease the pain. Three to clear my mind, forget all my hate.” What did he say next? I forgot all the rest. Well, several weeks ahead, I’ll be fine again.
It had quickly evolved into, “One to numb the hurt, two to ease the pain. Three to clear my mind, forget all my hate. Five could never hurt, just to calm my nerves several weeks ahead, I’ll be fine again.” In those weeks, everything was fine. More than fine in fact. It was all wonders and awe, but it filled me with a desperation — one that I could not fulfill.
A couple weeks had passed and whispers of evil filled my head. I needed to get a refill, but I wish I had the strength back then. Oh the tiny red pills. How they turned my life upside-down.
I couldn’t find the man. I knocked on his door. Neighbors say no one lived there before, but that can’t be true. I saw him. He gave me his address. No. no. NO.
All my days blur in a haze, I didn’t feel alive anymore.
What’s the point?
Everyone’s left.
No friends.
No family,
One pill left.
“One to stop the chills, two to ease the pain. Three to wash my guilt, forget all my shame. Five could never hurt, Sox couldn’t be worse. Seven days it’s been, here we go again.”
I slowly trekked back into that same clearing and took the last pill.
Struck By Lightening by Sara Kays and Cavetown
I feel like everything has gone wrong these past few days: my dog died, my best friend started ignoring me, and my girlfriend is out of town. Its storming right now and a real quick way out would be getting struck by lightning right?
I step out onto my lawn and feel the rain splatter onto my face. “Good bye world.” I feel my phone buzz in my back pocket. I ignore it. It buzzes again, and again, and again. Eventually I check my phone and see ten unread messages from Emily, my best friend, “Are you ok? Answer me! Wyn? Wynnie? WYNIFRED? Wyn answer me. Wyn. Please? Wyn, Im sorry. Please?” I decide to reply with a simple, “im fine.” I lay my phone down on the grass next to me and lay down. My long brown hair now soaked by the thunderstorm above my head. I hear my phone go off again, this time its Emily calling me. Im hesitant hanging up. I answer her call and hear her soft soothing voice on the other side of the line. “Listen to me Wyn. Its storming out maybe you should come inside. And tell me why you dont wanna be alive. If you don’t respond ill put my shoes on and lay down on the pavement next to you. If we get struck at least we’ll make the news. What a way to go out, the two kids who were laying down, and got struck by lightning in front of your house” I glance up and see emily’s warm brown eyes staring down at me as she offers her hand to me.
Lightening by tiger lili
do you remember when we got caught in that storm last August?
you had wanted to get out of town
to go somewhere,
nowhere,
anywhere at all
and of course I followed
I could never keep myself from following you
you told me that we might get lost
and I told you that I didn’t care
would I really be lost if I was with you?
you were always my horizon
always moving forward, always halfway somewhere
always out of reach
we had driven for hours before the storm began,
the sky growing grey,
the rain pattering down,
the air buzzing with energy
you pulled the car off to the side of the road
and I urged you to keep driving,
I told I didn’t want to get caught in the storm
I was already caught in you
you bolted out of the car
and I raced to catch up with you,
chasing after you like I always did
a flash of light crackled through the sky,
a deep rumble shaking the ground beneath us
something in you shifted in that moment,
and I don’t know if it ever shifted back
you climbed up onto the roof of the car
howling with delight as the thunder roared overhead
and I begged you to get down,
to get back to safety
you just looked at me with a stupid grin and laughed,
as if you thought the lightning couldn’t touch you
as if you were daring the heavens to strike you down
you seemed almost invincible to the storm,
almost divine in the way you lit up with electricity
I had wondered if I reached out to touch you,
if you would disappear into a burst of sparks at my fingertips
a light flashed behind you
and your eyes met mine
something igniting between us
as the storm seemed to freeze around us,
you gave me a promise
that you would die for me
I don’t know why, but I had believed you
I knew you really meant it
in return I promised you that we would live forever
and in that moment,
it seemed entirely possible
do you remember?
Megalovania from Undertale
Sweat dripped down my forehead. My fists balled up, ready to fight. My breathing is the only thing I heard. I look around, and I see nothing but void. Suddenly, something appeared. I don’t know what, but it looks like a blob, morphing into many creatures at once. A lion, a wasp, a bear, all sorts of creatures. Before I know it, I’m charging at it, unsure of what would happen.
I woke up.
My room is covered in darkness. My clock reads 3 AM. The moon shines a little light on my face, which I can see in the mirror. It’s red and sweaty. I lie down on my bed, looking up at my ceiling. What was that dream? Before I know it, I’m asleep again.
I was back in the same void as before, minus the monster. However, I have a feeling it’ll come back. Music floats through the void now, echoing off of nothing. That’s new. My heart pounds as the shapeshifter returns. I charge again, but this time I make contact. It screams and rears back, before retaliating. It missed. I hit it again, and it went for another blow. This time, a shark mouth it formed took a chunk out of my arm, but I felt nothing. After another hit, it made a sound similar to a cry. It fell to the floor, its shape disintegrating. It looked at me one last time before I was back on my bed again.
Do I feel bad? I’m not sure. All that I know is that I won.
Please read all the above stories before you vote! Remember to pick based on the contents of the story instead of the song it is inspired by.
- Numb Little Bug
- Six Pills
- Struck By Lightening (by Sara Kays)
- Lightening (by tiger lili)
- Megalovania
