One morning Henry awoke to find a particularly odd message scrawled on his ceiling in lipstick.

“Dear Henry,” it began, “congratulations! You have found a way to travel between parallel universes… If you find a way to stop, please let the rest of us know.”

“Signed, the Henry who puts his keys in the right front pocket, the Henry who chose the red overcoat instead of the rust orange, and the Henry who did not marry Anne.”

“Oh.” Said the Henry who put his keys on the table by the door, had done with the nice gray cloak, and had also very definitely not married Anne.

Suddenly the past few weeks made much more sense…

These snippits are copyright Martha McMahon Bechtel and may not be reproduced or distributed without express permission. All rights reserved.

Technotari Tags: Fiction, Fantasy

1. In theory it should have hit her when she actually left, but she found herself staring at the suitcase, half packed with memories, and facing the full brunt of her decision.

2. Night rolls in, a stark line of shadow where the world shade blocks the sun.

3. “Have you ever noticed how nothing ever turns out how you expect?”

“Well yeah, but that’s life, right?”

“No, no it’s not.” Henry gave Evan a long look. “When I said nothing, I meant it literally. I can’t think of a single thing you’ve done that’s turned out the way you intended it to.”

“But it’s worked out in the end.”

“That’s not the point, no matter how bad your luck something should have gone right.” Henry frowned, “There’s something not right about you, but damned if I can figure it out.”

4. Another day gone, another shift ended, and all she can think about is how she’s going to make it to the pawnshop in time to get back her grandmother’s bracelet.

5. There’s something about losing your dreams that makes you stubborn– broken, empty, but full of fire against a world that’s turned from environment to antagonist. So she won’t die, not yet, not here, because then the planet wins. Seven generations of traveler blood won’t be denied the stars for long…

These story prompts are released into the wild per Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License, so sayth their author Martha McMahon Bechtel.

Technotari Tags: Writing Prompts