Beginnings

Below are assorted ways of creating impactful beginnings I wrote for Monday Night Scribbles. Please enjoy 😄

1. Surprise

She delicately placed his finger on the button of the display panel.

The star exploded.

🌟

He dragged himself through the door and some leaves blew in with him. Tired and cold, he turned the corner into the kitchen, quiet in winter’s afternoon gloom. Suddenly lips where locking his. Powerful hands grabbed at him roughly, a tongue searched down his throat. He melted into ecstasy.

❤️‍🔥

2. Contrast

Twinkling through the jungle, dozens of eyes peered back. Teeth, fangs, claws, scales. My bunny slippers were simply not designed for this! Ooze soaking into them, I felt around in my pocket for the delta key. Pocket lint collected about my trembling, sweaty fingers, occluding sense of touch. A mosquito buzzed onto my ear. Fear stabbed my heart. Its stinger pierced my skin. Delta key delta key delta key-GOT IT!! I slapped my ear, splattering that vicious insect. Two beasts leapt from the darkness, saliva spraying. I pressed the button. I fell through time again, landing face-first on a warm, furry belly.

🐇

The ground shook, the buildings swayed, the people stumbled. In her fluffy pink cloud she floated above the turmoil, watching her playthings with detached amusement. 

‘More.’

The screaming began with the toppling buildings. A smile, thin and vile, pulled her lips across her green leathery face.

‘More.’

The earth was rent apart and the air vibrated to violence, the quake drowning out all other sounds.

’Satisfactory.’

She rolled over and nibbled another of those delicious dew cakes her mummy always baked for her.

🍰

3. Targeted

Dusk submerged the farm in glory, that heavenly time between bright sun and brisk evening. Peace of evening not yet arrived, crickets not yet aroused but cicadas finished for the day. He lay back on his favourite chair, imagining the rotating planet, the crescent of red along the globe, his place within that crescent. The aromas of the farm, wheat, cows… All spoke of home.

He sighed deeply and merged with eternity.

🌅

The enormous, glowing, slitted eyes pierced his soul, what little there was of it. He could see what the beast was seeing and he wasn’t impressed, either. A puny male thing, as relevant to this scaled monster as a gnat was to him. Fight, flight or freeze were all irrelevant. Merely minuscule elements in his tiny, feeble mind. His sword and shield dropped. He knew they were irrelevant, too. 

’Nicely done, ‘gnat’, you survived your first test’, the dragon hissed.

The warrior sat on the ground amongst the skeletons and rusty weapons. No panic. Not even tears. And nothing could encompass his shame.

🐉

4. Mystery

A shard of a key lay half-obscured in the dust, the jagged edges opposing the worn teeth. Fancy that laying here. He hadn’t ever planned on coming in, but passing that sad front door every day for the past three years finally scratched at him. The windows of the house like desperate eyes imploring him. Dank and stuffy inside. Dust sprinkled back to the mouldy carpet as he picked the key up. A loud thump came from the upper floor.

🗝

Her whiskers twitched in the moonlight, her ears pricked. That man is here again! His footsteps light for a human but very noisy for her. The clatter of his rosaries drummed out the rasp of his cloak and pants. That cross is as worthless as his imprecations! She waited for his footsteps to sound from the clearing under the great oak, then she snuck up behind him, silently. She snuffled the back of his neck.

🐆

5. Direct

‘You’re a failure. You possess no talent. We have no hope for you. You may submit, if you wish.’

The lone figure in the palace arena crumpled, tears fell to the marble floor. It heaved a sob and clasped itself.

‘On your knees or be removed.’

The impassive voice indicated care neither way.

The figure fell to its knees.

‘From this moment forward, you have no right of person and no recourse of appeal. You are chattel and you exist only at Her Majesty’s pleasure. You live according to her wishes, you die according to her wishes. Terms have been contracted. Welcome to Imperium.’

🤖