Crunch: The Symphony At Night
Writing Exercise #30
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Easing back into it, this prompt offered by
.If you have ideas for Prompts, Crunches, Sprints, Relays, Stretches, Fables, or other writing exercises in the future, please leave them in the comments! If you would like to write your own take for this exercise, please comment with a link so that I can see what you wrote and support your work, maybe even share your version with my subscribers. Please let me know if you have any thoughts, comments, or constructive criticisms as well!
Enjoy!
Crunch: I thought it would be quiet in the woods
He didn’t know the plan. I knew, but he didn’t. He didn’t need to. All he knew was we were going to a campsite. It was midnight, or near midnight as you can tell without the sun or moon or even stars to guide. It was a cloudy night, suffocating dark. The only light the lantern—he got to hold the lamp. Gave him a job, let him focus on something, stopped his mind from wandering.
Only problem was, it let my mind wander, while we stepped carefully through the mountainous evergreens. I thought about my revenge—over and over, playing it in my head. How he would know, he would finally know, that I’d found him, that I knew what he’d done. And that it was by my hand he would meet his judgement. It was me.
As we got closer to the campsite, my heartbeat pounded in my ears. The crickets chirped noisily, owls and other birds seemed to be screaming go back, go back. He didn’t know to listen. And I knew they weren’t howling at me. The symphony of the forest crescendoed as we climbed the forest mountain.
Eventually we came to the campsite.
The creatures of the night exploded with noise, noise, noise—I could barely hear my own voice as I screamed the speech I’d rehearsed in my head the whole hike to this spot.
A single shot rang out.
The forest went silent.
Fitting, I thought. The only sound the rest of the night were shovelfuls of dirt. First to clear, then to cover.
(261 words, don’t @ me)
Talk to me!
Your feedback helps to improve my writing. I would really appreciate a comment on your thoughts on this writing exercise. Consider telling me your thoughts about:
When was the last time you went camping?
Have you ever seen “There Will Be Blood”?
When you need to get back in touch with nature, where do you go?
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy! Come back next week for another writing exercise!
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Thank you and God bless!
Holy crap, that escalated quickly.
I went camping two weeks ago and am going on another camping trip on Thursday.
I have watched "There Will Be Blood" but I think I'm due to watch it again because I don't remember exactly what happens.
I like going to Sedona, there's something about the red rocks and the ponderosa pines that's just awe inspiring.
I haven't seen There Will Be Blood.... perhaps I should?
Also, ooof. I don't think the second guy is coming back. (he said, obviously). This had a very Poe vibe to it: well done!
The last time I went camping was on a church youth trip (this was before I was Catholic) and we had nice cabins with indoor lights and an indoor pool and all. The last time I went *rugged* camping was sometime in 1996. We lived in Dallas and belonged to a church that was part of the same independent denomination I grew up in (long story). What I remember about that trip was it stormed on the way there, we slept in ACTUAL TENTS, the girls had their own pup tent and it fell over during the night on accident, raccoons ate the chili that the adults had brought, and the next day we all went to a nearby lake and rode around on pedal boats. It was fun!