Preptober Prompts Day 3 – 2020
Today’s prompt is a flash fiction prompt from R.A. Oke.
What would push your protagonist to become an antagonist? Write that scenario.
This would be too easy to answer for Leafman, so I’m going to go with Elk for this one.
“With King Julen back again, we’ve decided we’re sending Leafman and Saria back to Earth.”
Elk blinked at his father in disbelief. They’d just come back, and already Lorcan was shipping them off again? Maybe Leafman was right and they simply didn’t want them around. Elk’s chair screeched across the floor as he leapt to his feet.
“No. They’re staying put. You already sent them away once.”
Lorcan’s expression hardened. “The decision has been made. They will be safer on Earth.”
“And what about Sarabrina? Twilight? Me? I’m starting to think you just don’t want to deal with children.”
Lorcan rose so fast Elk struggled not to step backward. “You know nothing.”
“You’re right. I do. Because I haven’t seen you in ten years!”
Valda stood, hands folded in front of her, and frowned at both Elk and Lorcan. “Gentlemen. You’re behaving like children.”
Elk and Lorcan stood glaring at each other, locked in a battle of wills, before Elk shook his head. Lorcan wasn’t worth the effort. Elk turned on his heel and walked out, boots clicking on the stone floor. These awful boots. He couldn’t believe he’d ever thought they were cool. Had ever thought maybe he belonged here. Behind that kind, caring facade, Lorcan was just as self-absorbed as King Julen was said to be.
Elk climbed the stairs to his room and slammed the door shut behind him. The boots were the first thing to come off, then he traded his Hylian garb for the cuffed jeans, t-shirt, and plaid button-down he’d arrived in. As he tied on his green Converse, he took a deep breath. This was who he was. Not that stuffy prince he’d been playing make-believe as.
Although…
What if he could have the best of both worlds? Keep the place he’d grown up, but also defend his siblings without Lorcan’s ignorant interference?
What if he wasn’t a prince?
What if he was a king?
A smile spread across Elk’s lips. Yes. He could send Lorcan to Earth instead of his siblings. Make him understand what they’d gone through. He certainly wouldn’t miss another lost decade with his children; he’d already chosen that once.
Elk skipped down to Leafman’s door and knocked.
So, the golden boy can go dark. How about your MC? What would push them over the edge?
Tom glanced listlessly out of the window. All hope of her return was gone.
A slight noise caught his attention, and he saw a car drive up and someone, stumblingly, get out of it. Just as he turned away the sunlight flashed off hair that seemed made of fire. It was her. He ran to meet her, leaping an entire flight of stairs, his speed composed of all the fear and love he held for her. Just before he reached her, Adira looked up.
The look she gave him stopped Tom in his tracks.
“Adira,” he whispered. “What…”
She turned her face away, angry defiance in the set of her jaw. “They convinced me.”
Tom reeled back. To be thus betrayed, by his fiancee, was a shock that temporarily paralysed him. Convinced her? *Convinced* her? But how? She was the strong one, she was the one who had taught him the truth. How then could she walk away and abandon all she held dear? “How?”
“I… I thought you’d betrayed me. I was told so.”
“So you rejected the truth?” His voice rose. “You threw away what really matters and went with their lies? Because of me?”
“I thought you’d done the same thing! They convinced me that everyone had. You, Emily, Mum, everyone. Dad said so.”
His anger abated suddenly. “Your Dad… was there?”
“He was interrogating me,” she shot back. “Now move aside.”
“Adira…” he whispered pleadingly. Longing for her to return, the real her, and not this hard, defiant construct that denied all she held dear.
“I’m going in.” And she turned and left him standing there, empty and desolate.
~
So what would make Adira turn dark is only a fraction more pressure than turns her truly and strongly light, in the midst of persecutions. This bit of a scene is similar to what will really happen, her returning from prison because of her beliefs, except it’s where she’s doubting him but they work it out pretty quickly, that both were lied to. This experience, in reality, absolutely cements her determination to follow God and the teachings of the Bible, but it could almost as easily turn her away if they’d pushed her a bit more, especially her dad’s betrayal in agreeing to interrogate his own daughter.
I know my writing is really stilted in this – mainly because I don’t like writing Adira-gone-dark :)
Ooh, this is super interesting! Thanks for sharing!
This is late, but here is my flash fiction piece. It is the same character from the same WIP.
I walked into the room and stopped short. It was darkened to only a faint white glow coming from the opposite end. The thing is… it had never been like this before. And this state means only one thing.
A cyborg has been put to sleep.
The eternal sleep, as we call it, since almost no one wakes up from it once they have been put into it. It is too dangerous. But it is legal enough because it doesn’t kill anyone.
It might as well be murder when they can never live again.
I crept forward, dreading seeing who it could be. It was probably someone I knew. I could turn around and not see, but I have to know. I need to know.
When I reached the area, my whole body turned numb. There were two cases. Cryogenic pods, as they were called. From my distance I could see one was young girl and the other was a middle-aged man. The weak light highlighted her pink hair and his white hair…
“No.”
I rushed over to the closest one. I pressed my hands against it, looking down at a familiar face. A too familiar one. If I could cry, I would have broken down into sobs.
It was Blossom. My girl.
I gazed down at her beautiful face, so still and cold, while my body wanted to break apart from emotions I couldn’t properly express. Finally, I torn myself away and dragged my feet toward the other pod.
My grief was to double its pain.
I lightly touched the glass as I peered down at the face. I didn’t need to look so closely. I already knew he was my father when I saw his hair. When I saw hers too.
No one has such pure white hair like he does. No one has bright pink hair like she does. I only looked so closely cause I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that the two people I loved the most were gone. Asleep forever.
I collapsed to the floor, my heart like pieces of a shattered mirror. “Why? Why them?” I whispered, digging my nails into my flesh. I was numb. My nerves decided to leave me so the only pain I felt was from my grief.
I didn’t know how long I was there, lying between their coffins. The questions I thought over and over suddenly came back with answers. I knew why they were made to go asleep. And I knew who were responsible. I also knew I wasn’t strong enough. To defeat them, to destroy them, to avenge my loss.
But, unlike last time, I won’t let that stop me. I will not be a position again when I am too weak, too useless, too helpless. No. I won’t.
I must save those are left in my life. Without anyone, I would be nothing. Nothing wasn’t an option back then and it isn’t now. It will never be.
I will make myself strong enough.
(Excuse any mistakes in this piece. I wrote it on the spot and I didn’t edit it.)
Awww, that’s so sad! D:
Yes… I’m so cruel XD. Luckily, the reality isn’t as bad as that… only just.