‘The Prompt Project’ will be posts that are essentially a way for me to exercise my creative muscles, without all the pressure that comes of writing my WIP for example.

I post what I write on the spot, I don’t impose a word limit or time it, just go with whatever my brain spits out for as long it keeps up the momentum. I’ll literally see prompt, write and then post the results.

Here’s Prompt project number 2, this ones a Pinterest find and a dialouge style prompt:

“You know this guy?”

“Know him? I’ve killed him four times in the last week. Of course I bloody well know him.”

Here we go:

Reaping What you Sow

Nisha took a moment to enjoy the sunset, admiring the purple, blue and gold hues on the horizon. Ben ruined the glorious vision by walking towards her, intersecting her sightline; the R insignia proudly emblazoned above his right breast shining brilliantly in the light against his black jumper. They had trained together and now they were forced to work in partnership for their first year as full-fledged reapers. For Nisha, it was just a job, it meant money, food and shelter at the academy but for Ben it was his life’s calling, a sacred duty. They were probably paired as some kind of sick joke by their instructors, having both pissed them off in their own way.

 

“We have ten people on our docket tonight Nisha, we need to get moving.” Nisha resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Ben’s accent grated on her more than anything else, he was from one of the old family lines and spoke in their high, clipped, choked manner. He had lately taken to preaching to her about work ethic but as she’d been sanctioned for breaking his nose twice now, she could do nothing except glare at something in the distance until he was done talking. What could this boy, whose family is so old money that an entire branch of the Academia of Arts lineage belonged to them, know about work ethic? Oh, yes, he had been ‘in training’ for this his entire life but what did that really mean? A private tutor, personal trainer and a ‘wellbeing’ coach to ensure he stayed balanced and not ‘stretched too thin’. Nisha had come second overall in the rankings during training and despite Ben working out and studying to a point that almost killed him; she had scored only two points less than him.

“Yeah, yeah, forgive me for enjoying the view for a minute, not all of us grew up on a clifftop mansion overlooking the ocean.” Ben didn’t bother to conceal his eye roll.

“Please save me from another gutter rat tale and cast the locating beacon for our first mark. God’s you’d think this was the first time you’d seen the ocean.” Nisha was mortified to feel her face colour at this remark but Ben at least had the decency to look ashamed. “I’m sorry.” He said, pinching the bridge of his nose pensively. “Of course you haven’t. I should have known better.”

“You bet your arse you should have known better, after all, Ben Bishop, I am here on the Bishopsscholarship fund and I know that file gets passed around the whole damn family table.” She ignored the tight knot of shame in her stomach, preferring to yell. Ben was pinching his nose again.

“Can we not do this tonight? Do you not get tired of arguing all the time?”

Nisha blew out an angry breath and threw her hands up in a dramatic gesture. “Sure, fine, just take a second to think before you speak spook boy.”

“Just cast the damn beacon.” Nisha tried to hide her smirk, she’d finally driven him to cursing, even if it was a baby one, it was the first time she’d managed to push him that far. He huffed at her impatiently as she routed through her pockets before locating a small, oblong shaped wooden object that had been carved with the symbols needed for the beacon. Feeling the thrill of anticipation that came before using the powers, she ran her thumb gently over the spiral on its centre and gently spoke the simple command she’d programmed to activate it.

“Go.” A pulsing blue light emanated from the point her thumb touched, forming a small glowing blue ball that hung in the air for a moment before drifting away, picking up speed as it went.

“Of all the commands you could have chosen to programme that thing, you chose ‘go’.” Ben said, drawing in the air with his hands the complicated symbol to conjure the scythes for the job.

“What is yours then?” She retorted, taking the glowing blue handle of her weapon from him as it began to solidify into wood. “Probably some b.s. Spectral language name?” It was his turn to blush. “Do you not see the irony in using a dead language in order to locate a person marked for death?”

They both halted mid bicker then, as the fact the blue orb had not moved more than a few feet from them and was instead hovering the tree line behind them finally caught their attention.

“Hunters?” She whispered.

“Could be? I’ve never heard of the hunters coming this far North though?” A rebel organisation had begun hunting reapers, killing more and more each month this past year. One of the ways they tracked and trapped reapers was by intercepting the beacons. Ben began tracing a different symbol on the handle of his scythe and Nisha followed suit, although tradition dictated that they primarily used the scythes, it wasn’t the only tool to get the job done, nor was it the most practical in a fight.

Ben had already began stalking towards the tree line before Nisha gestured for him to stop, then she placed a hand on his shoulder to turn him to her and started tracing a symbol across his gestured. His eyes widened as he followed her gestures, probably better versed in the language of these arts than she was, he could interpret what she was casting as she did so. From the point at which Nisha had written, the black of his top slowly faded out of the visible spectrum, until nothing of his was left except a slight haze in the air; she then repeated the casting on herself too.

“That’s a talent you’ve kept to yourself.” He whispered.

“Not the time, Ben, I’ll explain later. Just take the lead, I’ll cast a connecting rope so that we know where the other is.”

He started to stalk forward again once he felt the pull of the rope between them, giving commands silently as they had been taught to by jerking the tether in various directions. No longer needed to be cautious as long as they were quiet, they approach the trees swiftly, both checking the ground for trip wires or other, more mystical, traps. Nisha wasn’t as worried about the crowd as she was about what could be hiding amongst the dense branches above them. People always think you’ll never look up. Sure enough, a dark shape loomed above, wedged in between two particularly thick branches quite low down. It was just one man and he obviously wasn’t a good climber. Nisha grabbed the tether and span it a circle once, the gestured meant that she’d seen one assailant, then she jerked it up to indicate he should look up. She felt Ben use the tether to pull himself closer to her, leaning in so close to her ear his breath tickled her neck he whispered.

“One guy, not exactly an ambush?”

“I have a plan but I’ll need to sever the connection. Just stay here.” Without waiting for him to agree, she cut the tether and headed swiftly for the other side of the tree. She could tell by the direction of his face that this guy was searching the clearing and the half circle line of trees either side of him, trying to figure out where they had gone. Nisha scaled the tree easily, using its rough bark as feet and hand holds. Silently she crept out onto the branch adjacent to the dark figure, opting for the simply but inelegant tactic of shoving him out of the tree to land at Ben’s feet. He reacted instantly by pinning the figures hands behind his back and binding them.

“Nicely done. Simple but effective.” He said, as he heard Nisha jump down to land beside them. Her smirk was revealed as she removed the cast on herself, before removing it on Ben to reveal his thoroughly un-amused expression.

“Did you just say something nice to me?” He ignored her and moved to flip their captive over instead. Nisha gasped. “Leerac?” The boy looked at her reproachfully through a face full of mud.

“You know this guy?”

“Know him? I’ve killed him four times in the last week. Of course I bloody well know him.”

“What?”

“Reaped him actually, if you want to get technical but it just won’t seem to take.”

Nisha looked from Ben’s thunderous expression, to the reproachful face on the ground below. Well, shit, she was in trouble now.

**************************************

Yeah, so that concludes prompt number 2.

Sat down to this and this is what I ended up with, I think it could possibly be worthy of turning into a longer story but I’m not sure. Had loads of fun doing this though!

I don’t do these as often because they take a little longer but stay you’ll hopefully start to see more of these cropping up over the coming months. Here’s a link to the previous one, if you’re interested: “Chipped edges”- The Prompt Project

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