Writing Prompt – Day 18

My furnace went out a few days ago and this is day 3 with no heat. The current degree in my house is somewhere in the low 60’s and I am currently wearing a coat as I type this out.

I have to wake my kids up in a half hour for them to get ready for school and I’m hoping I got up in time for the house to feel semi-decent for my boys. I turned the space heater on, the oven on, and our gas fireplace is going but doesn’t seem to be kicking off much heat.

So… with that being said, not much to say today other than I can’t flippin wait for our new furnace to be delivered, fingers crossed it’s today or tomorrow. Oh, and, here’s the prompt lol!

You stumble upon a strange house you’ve never seen before on your morning run.

My example :

The chill air bit at Dustin’s nose as he whizzed around the corner. At 7 o’clock in the morning, the sun began to rise like it always did around this time of year. The transition between Winter and Spring almost seemed excruciating at times but it was also beautiful depending on how Dustin looked at it. Today, he chose to see the beauty.

On his way down the road, his legs kept a steady pace while he tried to control his breathing. Morning runs had been his favorite thing for as long as he could remember. The track team he was on since grade school taught him the power daily running could have on the human body – mental clarity, physical fitness, learning endurance and tolerance by running through various weather conditions, and the big one: self-care. When Dustin ran, it was a way of showing himself love and by hitting the pavement first thing in the morning, he always put himself first before anything else. Sprinting through humid conditions, below freezing, scorching hot, high winds, snow, and rain taught him resilience and self-respect. That’s why when it started raining a short five minutes later, he refused to slow down.

The rain started as a slight sprinkle but without any warning it had poured down into a heavy rainfall. Reluctant, Dustin had no choice but to come to a screeching halt, something he wasn’t trained to do. He was trained to never give up, unless it was dire, such as a rain cloud throwing its biggest temper tantrum directly above your head.

Ahhh, great.

Maybe it wasn’t the house that caused him not to see the beauty in the day anymore, maybe it was the God-forsaken rain. It wouldn’t have even bothered Dustin if it hadn’t forced him to briefly seek shelter. He looked left and right, recognizing the pastures laid out before him. He knew there wouldn’t be shelter for at least half a mile and he wasn’t certain how long this rain was going to last. He was baffled there was any rain at all; he had checked the weather before leaving the house and there was no warning of any potential rain. But standing there baffled wasn’t going to protect him from the angry wind blasting rain pellets on his cheeks. He only made it a few steps and looked to the right again, shielding his face from the water bullets stinging his face. There sat a rusty run-down house in plain sight – if it wasn’t downpouring that is – and if Dustin was baffled before, he was certainly disoriented now.

That house – it was impossible. Never had Dustin ever seen the raggedy, depressed house with boarded up windows. He ran the same route every single day. Was it possible he refused to see the house? Only choosing to see the beautiful things? No, no way. He was grabbing at straws now; he was sure of it. Maybe the universe placed that house there in just the nick of time to save Dustin from the rain.

Dustin laughed out loud. His thoughts sounded ridiculous, unlike himself.

The universe, putting thoughts in my head, come on.

He felt himself gravitating toward the house and his thoughts became unfamiliar. Dustin figured he was just desperate to get out of the rain and his thoughts were having a bad day. Some days he was more in control but other days he was cursed with his over-thinking brain taking over entirely. But it was neither of those reasons; it was the house. Of course, he didn’t know it at the time. If he had, he would have never walked on to that rotting porch that wet morning.

And Dustin wouldn’t have disappeared, uncertain if he would ever be seen again.

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Does Dustin make it out of the house? Whose house is it? Possibly, the house was there all along and it was Dustin’s over-thinking mind that was the matter. Maybe there’s a plot twist and his mind was sick… Or maybe it wasn’t Dustin at all, and it really was the house – a sinister, unnatural one at that. So many different possibilities!

Okay pals, so I had finished writing this and my son’s bus didn’t pick him up for school – sub driver I’m assuming – and so I had to drop him off. I decided to stop off at Tim’s and get an iced coffee – I know, silly since my house has no heat, but I’m not a fan of hot coffee although I’m very much a fan of coffee itself! – and I pulled up behind a truck that said “Estate of Mind” on it. Now, I don’t know why this triggered a thought but it did lol. I started thinking, what if I chose a theme or a message with each of my prompts. My writing would be radically different depending on where I’m heading with the prompt. It would be like writing with an actual purpose. Right now, I write to write. Not knowing where the story is taking me. Which is awesome by the way. But at the same time, there’s no theme, no reason for a reader to invest their time reading it, no moral of the story. I could still let the story take me where it wants, but with a goal in mind.

I don’t know, just brainstorming over here. Do you think of a theme or moral of the story when you write? Let me know in the comment section below!

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I’ll see you guys tomorrow! Stay tuned! (;

We have a calling to write & together we will make our dreams come true – one prompt at a time!