TFWD | CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP WEEK 1 | DRABBLE
The One That Got Away
A pivot point drabble.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the format of drabbles, they are stories that are exactly 100 words long. If you enjoy this story, I would really appreciate it if you could stay on this page for at least 30 seconds so it will count as a read rather than just a view. Claps, highlights, and comments would be the icing on the cake.
She doesn’t spot him concealed within her home. It’s late and the shadows conspire to shield him from view.
Once inside she hangs up her coat, slips off her shoes, and heads upstairs, each step burdened with fatigue.
He follows, watching through the door she’s left ajar. Biding his time.
After removing her dress she pauses for a moment, absently stroking the slight swell of her abdomen.
Reality strikes.
A baby?
He can’t kill an innocent.
He leaves via the window he entered through. The cool night air quells his bloodlust, and the monster within him slips back into fitful slumbers.
This is my response to the prompts written for Week One of the Creative Writing Workshop at The Fiction Writer’s Den, which can be found here.
After looking through my short stories with obvious pivot points, I realised I tend to leave the moment until later in the story. This gives me plenty of time to build tension and lead readers in one direction before flipping things around. I think this approach works best in my style of writing, but would be interested to see if it works well at other points for other writers.
