"I don't think she wanted to part from you. Anyone could see how much you both loved each other."
"I still love her, but I knew she had forgotten who I was then and there once the clock started chiming. When I heard the music, I knew it was over between us."
#hbp120
*cont. from #hbp65
1/2
“It’s dead, Jim.”
“‘Course it is. RTFM. ‘Expires at midnight.’”
“It didn’t last night.”
“Were you awake last midnight?”
“No, but it was alive when I got up.”
“RTFM. ‘Revives at dawn.’”
Lyn poked it. “How can it revive if all of its blood is outsi—.”
“R.T.F.M. Wake me at dawn.”
#hbp65
Fairy food delivery
Cinderella knew the magical gift her godmother gave her would expire at midnight, so, not to be wasteful or ungrateful, she stuffed it all in her mouth & swallowed it whole… As a result, her appetite grew happily ever after.
#hbp #hbp65
(Disclaimer: godmother’s magic was vegan)
#FireWriters35 #hbp65
The refrain of, "It Expires at Midnight," keeps playing on repeat. Yet she only sits and soaks in the peace.
#writingprompt #imageprompt #fantasy
The Spirit hovered over the child, pity in its eyes. The child's life would expire at midnight.
It tried to reach the man who could save the child, as it once had with old Scrooge, but this man had a black heart and a terrible spray tan.
As the clock chimed 12, the Spirit greeted the child.
#hbp65
@halfbakedprompts.bsky.social #hbp65 We met at a bar in Lake Placid. At a cream corn wrestling (one of my favorite things), because that was where the boys were. I was working that weekend in -35 degrees and between shivers and hypothermia, I knew the night would expire at midnight.
"Have you seen the tiny footnote in your head?"
"What footnote?"
"When you're in the shower, or in a rush somewhere, or, oh God, just about to catch a bit of sleep, and a story idea occurs to you. You think, I'll remember that!"
"So?"
"There's a footnote at the bottom: Expires at midnight."
#hbp65
#hbp65 #vss365 #resolution
He was cursing the Old Year, yelling at the rain and raging at the storm...
medium.com/@funnyfrogge...
"What do you mean our love expires at midnight?" The sorrow in his eyes belied the stoic look on his face. "Wait—"
She turned away to surreptitiously hide her tears.
"I've found my one true love. My mother made sure that love would end as if we never met when she placed the curse on me."
#hbp65
#hbp65
Gabe stared flabbergasted at the expiration date of the milk. Expires at midnight? That was oddly specific. He checked the cheese. Expires at midnight. Then the eggs. Expires at midnight. He checked the time: 11:59 PM. He chuckled.
Gabe's heart sank as he heard approaching behind him.
Chimes fade
in a low hum
until silence remains
Empty forms of townsfolk
littered across the festival grounds
their souls now bound
to wander
Drifting ghosts
colorless, formless
voids of dull, clouded light
sharing a broken curse
None believed
the witch had power
ignored the fateful hour
#hbp65
I sat alone with the ticket. The train pulled away and through blurred eyes I could just make out the declaration, below the destination — Expires at midnight. The station clock ticked over, it was a new day. So that was the decision I’d made. If inaction is a decision. I took a moment to tear the ticket in half before leaving the station, determined to go home and not keep running.
Thank you for such wonderful prompts! #hbp65
You think a prompt will drive me to write and your deadline will lead to an end. But your chant of ‘it expires at midnight’ is the beginning of the story not its finale.
#hbp65 #vss365 #vssdaily #prompt
Another year on it's way out
Expires at midnight
So much uncertainty
Hope this new year is
Kind to us all
Here's to you kid
Here's to what's to come
We got this
I mean hell.. gotta believe
In something
#hbp65
I found the seeds at the back of the flower shop. No brand, no logo, just a plain white envelope with a handwritten label: "Prince. Tall, dark and handsome. Expires at midnight."
I took them home to see what grew.
#hbp65 #writingcommunity #microfiction #amwriting #writesky
#hbp65 #fiction #horror (light) #prompt
A note. A love lost. A Clocktower frozen in time. Rose has until midnight to uncover the truth—and make an impossible choice.
Read my new flash fiction, In the Shadow of Time, here:
mrericmontgomery.com/post/2024-12...
Cinderella screeched.
"Oi, what's this then?" Her fae godmother appeared.
"T-they're a-all d-d-d-"
"Dead, hen, they're dead."
Cinderella nodded, eyes wide.
The fae godmother picked her nose.
"How?" The girl asked.
"I told you it all expires at midnight, 'n' you agreed."
Cinderella whimpered.
#hbp65
Try the prawns’ she’d said, ‘try the prawns.’
Now he lay on the floor of the of the toilet,
Collapsed in paroxysms of technicolor yawns.
The tastiest snack anyone could desire,
But if only he’d known,
At midnight they expire. #hbp65
The fuses had all been set by the disgruntled ex-churchgoer. The explosives primed. Everything ready. The countdown had started for all three churches in the town. He looked back over his shoulder at the skyline one last time.
'There'll only be ex-spires at midnight,' he thought.
#hbp65 #writers
Darling, did you put enough money in the parking meter?"
"Yes, four hours."
"Are you sure that is enough?"
"We are only out for a meal."
"Yes, but is it long enough?"
"I hope so, it expires at midnight."
Sandra nods in appreciation.
"Well done, so do I."
She goes on tiptoes and they kiss.
#hbp65
"What are you doing?" she asked
He paused in the middle of chugging milk just long enough to say, "Help me finish all this milk. It expires at midnight!"
"You know that's not how expiration dates work, right?"
"Look, just help me! I can't stand waste."
#hbp65
Jin pondered at the thought that Cosmo was like a father figure to him. He hated to admit Cosmo was involved more in his life than his actual father was. Sure, he had demons but Jin felt he loved him like a son. Jin entered the store to get Cosmo something before the day expires at midnight. #hbp65
Leanan and I shook hands. Then a tiny sprite appeared between us.
"Terms and conditions apply, of course. Sufficient soulpower not included. Void where prohibited by various religions. Expires at midnight." He passed me a clipboard with several pages. "Bog standard, really. Sign here, yeah?" #hbp65
"What expires at midnight?"
He didn't answer. He didn't need to. He simply smiled.
#hbp65
Photo: An expired coin-operated parking meter. Source: Hyle Chu, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
Prose/dialogue: "Expires at midnight. " #hbp65
