I’m participating in the February 2025 -
Prompt. It was back in March 2024 when I last wrote something for this Substack. I knew I could write something based on the items presented.The requirements were to use the following items and it should be at most 1000 words.
a castle tower or rook
comedy and tragedy masks
an arrow pointing in a south-east direction
a flame
a crescent, perhaps a crescent moon
an airplane
a die with three pips on top, five pips facing downward, one pip on the left
a worried face
a house with one door, two windows, and a chimney
I put the items required in bold.
Enjoy! And let me know in the comments what you think.
It was the trip of a lifetime for Jenny and Mark. A castle in Mark’s birthplace of Ireland was opening to the public for the first time since the 1500s. A special fundraiser to raise money to preserve the castle was taking place with a special party. Mark had talked with Jenny about coming over to contribute. Jenny had agreed since they were both adventurers.
As the airplane descended into Ireland, they were giddy with excitement. After exiting the plane and gathering their luggage, they flagged down a taxi. They had booked a small, quaint hotel in the country. Rays of sunshine shown down on them as their eyes were fixated on the green meadows they passed by on their way to the hotel.
Thirty minutes later, they were checking into their hotel.
“Hi, we’re the Mosberts,” Mark said to the innkeeper.
A young, blue-eyed, brunette woman checked them in.
“Oh, hello,” an older woman said. She came out of the back room.
“Hi,” Jenny said.
“Are you checking in?” she asked.
“Yes,” Mark said.
“We’ll get you checked in. I’m Maria. This is Emmy.”
“It’s nice to meet you both,” Jenny said.
Meanwhile, Maria was trying to help Emmy with the computer. It looked like she was having trouble with it.
“Sorry for it taking so long,” Maria said.
“No problem,” Jenny said.
“This is my daughter and she’s new at this.”
After a few minutes, the check-in was complete. They were escorted by Emmy to their room. She told them if they needed anything to just pick up the phone and it would connect right to the front desk.
The room was ornate. There were antique lamps on each side of the bed. The bedspread was every color of gold you could think of. They unpacked their clothes and put them into the drawers and the closet. In a couple of hours, it would be dinner time. There were brochures in the room showing them the restaurants in the area. Around six o’clock they took a taxi to get dinner.
Once they returned back to the hotel, they ventured to the patio in the back. As they came out the door, they noticed another couple. They were looking up at the night sky. They looked up too. There was a nice crescent moon.
This couple was also in town for the party at the castle. The next few minutes were spent talking with them. They lived fifty miles away. It was decided that they would ride together in their car to the party.
The night was finished off with a cocktail. Everyone went to bed and agreed to meet up in the morning for breakfast. As daybreak broke, the couples ate breakfast on the patio. The party wasn’t until later at night, so they explored the town. Later that afternoon they came back to their respective rooms to get ready for the party.
At seven o’clock, they took off for the party. Both women were wearing stunning dresses. The guys had suits on.
The castle was a good distance from the hotel. As they drove down the road, traffic stopped suddenly. Jenny saw smoke. When they got closer, flames were shooting out the front door, two windows, and the chimney of a house. There was a little girl with a worried face. She may have been one of the occupants.
Having witnessed tragedy, they were ready for a good night at the castle. As they came into the parking lot, there was an arrow pointing in the south-east direction to the main dance hall.
In the front entrance, all participants had to register. This was a special party where everyone was given a comedy mask. This would make things interesting since you wouldn’t be able to see who was who. They were also given a unique number. They didn’t know what the number represented.
As they moved into the dance hall, couples were dancing to vibrant music. There were tables and chairs to relax and have a drink. There was an open bar. They wandered around the area. A table was set up with a green surface. It resembled the green felt like a pool table. People were gathered around the table tossing a die. Staying in the background to observe, each person who rolled paired off with a different partner. The three numbers on the die signified the numbers the couples were given at registration.
Jenny, Mark, Amanda, and Guy showed each other what numbers they had.
They decided to get a drink and sit at one of the tables. People watching was interesting to see what everyone else was wearing. There were so many unique dresses.
A person came over the loud speaker and told everyone to start dancing with their partner. When they called out to go to the table, they would need to roll the die and get a new partner. Music was pumped into the area by a DJ with a turntable. There was one of those silver spheres with the light reflecting off of the wall.
The music stopped and everyone headed to the table. As each couple threw the die, couples paired off and waited for the music to start again.
As luck would have it, Jenny and Mark got paired with Guy and Amanda. They couldn’t believe the coincidence. It’s almost like it was fate. With all the numbers that could have come up and it paired them up. Here they had just met the night before and here they were dancing with each other. Mark was a little leery putting his hand on the back of Amanda. He wasn’t sure how Jenny felt about it. But she was having the same thing happen to her with Guy.
The music stopped and they rolled again. This time, they got different partners. The evening went late into the night. After two a.m., the party wound down and it was time to leave. It was announced that the fundraiser had been successful.
Conclusion
Well, that’s it folks! You might think it would be hard to write 1,000 words. It’s not. I actually had way more words that this and it was very hard to get it down. I could write so much more on this story.
Until next time, happy reading!
-Matt
You did a good job with that Matt. Because I am a mystery and horror fan, I would probably have turned it into something creepier. But, nice.