Wednesday's Words on a Friday
The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems.
The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.
If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along to read it and add a few encouraging words.
This month the words/prompts are supplied by Messymimi and can be found here
This week's words/prompts are:
1.absent 2.satisfaction 3.combination 4.fun 5.echo 6.exempt
and/or:
1.between a rock and a hard place
2. knuckle down
3. long in the tooth
Here is my story:
There was much concern
over the recent number of absent students at the Meadow Hill College. Situated
high on a bluff, overlooking acres of untouched meadows, it was the elite
choice for the brightest students whose futures lay in science, yet over twenty
of them had emailed in notices from parents asking they be exempt from classes.
An investigation
revealed similar outcomes in other elite colleges around the world and now the
regular police, the Federal Police and Interpol were involved. Interviews with
all families revealed the purchase of a new exciting video game with one of the
youngest boys declaring it to be the perfect combination of satisfaction and
fun.
“We understand the fun
part, but where does the satisfaction come in?” asked Detective Rogers. “Beating
the “invisible” characters to reach the next level,” said Quentin, “they’re in
every level of the game and once you spot one, you can’t advance until you
vanquish it.” “None of the other boys have mentioned this,” said Detective
Rogers. “They are meant to be subliminal,” said Quentin, “and if you can’t blow
them up, you can’t advance. There is a way to do it without knowing, but you
have to stick with the game or it sets up an echo in your brain.”
“An echo?” Detective
Rogers reached for his phone to call his superior. “We need to call in the
Hacker Team,” he said. “Quentin here has uncovered a significant clue, it’s
possible he is also a Hacker and the kid’s only ten!” After discussions with
Quentin and his parents, the boy agreed to allow his laptop and the game to be
taken for investigation and also agreed to knuckle down and get his grades back
up to his usual A+ levels.
All around the world,
similar actions were taking place as soon as Quentin’s statement was heard. It
was vitally important to find out why the subliminal was there and how it was
affecting the students. The inventor of the game also needed to be found so he
could be questioned as to the purpose of the subliminal features.
This is quite a chilling story.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how you turned the prompts into a clever, modern mystery. The idea of a video game causing global absenteeism is both imaginative and suspenseful, and Quentin’s role adds a smart, youthful twist. It’s engaging and keeps the reader wanting to know what happens next.
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