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^{THE HORSE PHENOMENA WRITING COMPETITION} 

^{MANGO'S CHOICE:}

^{August/September Edition: 2023}

^{Form: SHORT STORY}

^{Theme: TRANSFORMATION}

^{"Anything that involves any kind of transformation: physical, emotional, magical, natural, etc. Someone or something does not end the story in the same state as when the story began."}

^{Word/Line Count: 10,000 Words Maximum}

^{Prize: 1 MONTH UPGRADE and $20mill HPD}

^{(Thanks to Sat for your generous donation!)}

^{Closes: 25th SEPTEMBER}

^{Voting Begins/Closes: 27th SEPTEMBER / 30th SEPTEMBER}

^{Winner Announced: 1st OCTOBER}

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^{Post your story below!} 

^{Any questions, please do not hesitate to message me.}

^{Happy Writing!}

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^{Let's gooooooooooooooooooo}

okay, good news: I have a basic (very basic) glimmer of an idea. So it just needs a few days to grow in the back of my mind...

I'm excited to see it! 

Bump!

I was really good with creative writing in high school. I feel way too dumb in my 30's to write anything worth reading, lol, I look forward to the stories everyone else writes though :) 

Please enter Nyt! I would love to see it, even if you think it's not that great! 

yes! Please enter. 

I'm still planning on it, it's in progress.

Ooh I can't wait, Jaya! I'm in the process of one also, but I won't be eligible to win. Just want to try and encourage people to enter! 

Welp, I keep on meaning to get something written up and then completely forget, so I shall endeavour to remember this week because I like the theme. (:

I may end up extending this into September, due to lack of entries!

UPDATE: I am extending this until the end of September!

Hesitant to post this, since it did not go where I originally intended. But I've been sitting on it, and I don't think it wants to change, so -shrug- 

Stay Away

“Stay away from the water’s edge!” 

I’ve been told that as long as I can remember. 

“But why??” I used to whine. “I want to go swimming! I want to watch the fish, I want to-”

“No.” I was told firmly. 

The other kids didn’t care. They listened to their parents and stayed away. I did, too.

I mean. Mostly.

It seemed so tranquil. Have you seen that movie, Moana? The water calls to her, blah blah…. I swear, that’s how this felt to me. But every time I’d try, my parents or someone from town would notice and stop me. 

The thing is? I never saw anything.

Until I did.

I have this hike that I do most days. See, I know exactly how close I can get before someone comes and stops me. So I’ve been playing it safe for years now. I toe the line, but I don’t want to make the entire town go crazy over this. Not worth it. Well, I was heading home that night. It was slowly growing dark; the sun was already below the horizon. And I saw something move, out of the corner of my eye, near the water.

I stopped dead. I mean, I’ve been doing this exact same hike for years and there’s never been anything! And now, there was-

Was that a horse?

A large black horse was surging out of the lake. And the horse looked ready to be ridden - saddle and bridle and everything. 

“Shit,” I whispered. Our neighbors had horses; someone must have been riding and had fallen off, and the horse bolted. 

I didn’t think; I ran for the horse. I’d better catch her before she bolted again and got herself into trouble. The horse’s head turned, and she looked straight at me.

I swear to everything holy, the horse’s eyes gleamed red, and she reared, bugling triumphantly.

I paused, for half a second.

“ISLA!” I turned, and my mom ran past me. “RUN,” she screamed. 

I tried, but I was frozen. I couldn’t do anything but watch the scene before me play out.

Mom’s arms spread out, protecting me, keeping me from view. The horse, circling her. Mom’s arms dropped to her sides, a blank look on her face. Then she easily mounted, settling into the saddle. The second she gripped the reins, the horse whirled, plunging back into the water. 

A blinding light, and when I could see again there were two of the beasts. One stayed in the water, but the other slowly approached me. Her head bowed, sorrow exuding from her. She met my eye.

Mom was-

The next thing I knew, I was being shaken awake. “Isla, are you okay? What happened?”

The sun was rising, and I was on the ground. 

“Isla, say something. You’re scaring me, girl!” 

I struggled to focus. “Dad. Where’s mom? What-”

He gripped my shoulders, staring into my eyes. “What did you see?” So I told him everything. He took a deep shuddering breath and hugged me tight. “We told you to stay away,” he said roughly. “Why did you try to go catch it?” 

“I thought someone was hurt, I-”

“That’s what they want you to think,” he said.

“Who?? What? Dad, tell me the truth,” I insisted, getting to my feet and brushing myself off.

He glanced over at the lake, pain momentarily clouding his features. “Not this close,” was all he would say.

We went inside, and once I was tucked in with a soft blanket, he sat across from me and began.

“Have you ever heard of the kelpies?” he asked. 

Had I not seen what I did last night, I would never have believed him. It was straight out of a kid’s story book. Large horses, somehow connected to the water. If they enticed someone up on their back for a ride, they disappeared with the rider back into the water. The rider was never seen again, according to legend.

“Last night, your mother-” dad began.

“She saved me?” 

He nodded. “That’s why you have to stay away. We thought maybe the curse had been broken, no one’s been taken for almost a full generation. But now-”

“I’m going to find her,” I said.

“Isla, sweet, you can’t. She’s gone.”

“But gone where? Surely-”

The rest of the town took my dad’s view. Everything was basically on lockdown. Children had to be escorted if they left their homes, even just to play outside. No one was taking any chances.

I hit up the books. I scrounged the internet for any hint of facts, any glimmers of the truth that were out there. Mine seems to be one of the only eyewitness accounts in… well, ever. 

I am going to find her, some day. She saved me; I’m going to return the favor. But I beg of you: stay away from the water’s edge.  

_{Jaya! This is phenomenal!! Thank you so so much for entering!}

_{Here is mine, but please note that I am ineligible for voting.} 

_Ocean

 _{I sat motionless upon the rocky precipice, watching as the evening sun descended lazily behind ominous clouds. An icy gale lashed my wind-burned cheeks as I turned my gaze out over the cerulean expanse and waited, yearning for a glimpse of mottled shadow moving amongst the depths.}

_{I often came here at this time of night. I liked to watch the waves smash against the ridges beneath, its magnificent violence captivating me entirely. This place had become a sanctuary, and the roar of the ocean had proven itself a dependable friend, swallowing my wails of agony as the very world around me was ripped apart. I pressed my calloused toes into a sharp crest of salty rock hoping it would bite, and it did, but today I felt no better.}

_{We’d fought again. It was bad this time, irreparable. Things had been festering for a couple of weeks. We’d been slowly stinging one another with envenomed words until finally, the rot had set in. He’d fled to his office like he always does, and I’d fled here, like I always do.}

_{* * *}

_{It had started with a vibrating cell phone in the other room, a hushed phone call, another late-night work meeting. He had an important job, this was true, but this occurrence sowed a seed of doubt, and my resentment began to nourish the seed to blossom.}

_{“Going in to work again?” I eyed his broad shoulders over the rim of a wine glass. He grunted in response as he fixed his tie in the full-length mirror. The silence stretched out uncomfortably between us until finally, he broke.}

            _{“They found my client, brought him in. Have to get to him before he talks.”}

_{“Client can’t use a phone?”}

_{He turned at this, face twisted in annoyance. “You know that’s not how it works, Rachel.” Rachel. Not Rach. I smirked, and sipped.}

_{“Drinking again?” His eyes wouldn’t meet mine as he shoved his keys and wallet into the deep pockets of his tailored slacks. I clutched at the remote control, pointing it determinedly at the wall-to-wall screen.}

_{“Jesus,” he breathed, running his hands through slicked-back hair before resting them on his hips. “Just don’t be an embarrassment this time.” With that, he slammed the door and left, the echo ringing off the high ceilings, taunting me. I waited until I heard his car thrum to life and accelerate down the winding esplanade before I allowed the sobs to erupt from my throat.}

_{* * *}

_{A glimmer caught my eye, sudden but spectacular, sending a jolt of excitement through my breast. I arose from my outpost under the darkening sky and began the descent into the cavern. Silhouettes danced beneath the waves as I negotiated the jagged rocks upon calloused feet. My toes connected instinctively with the natural stony footholds and my hands followed suit, gripping with certainty in the dusk. Hair clung to my face like oily tendrils, lashed by the tidal spray. The entrance loomed ahead; an obscure hollow nestled behind a finger of towering rock, like a hushed mouth. I could hear them now, their melodic and playful trills punctuating the roaring swell. They had come as they always do, as they always would, when I needed them the most. We nestled together in the darkness, cocooned by the granite walls as their tears mingled with mine. The ocean safeguarded my secrets, as I safeguarded its own.}

_{* * *}

_{I’d always thought our love was as turbulent as the ocean, loud and violent, crashing through with a demand to be heard, and indeed it was, at least for a while. But then she happened, and we found ourselves succumbing to desperation, melding together for a few bittersweet moments before rolling back to opposite ends of the king-sized bed, both eager to wash the guilt from our bodies.}

_{We’d been seeing a therapist. She’d told us that ‘we’re not the people we used to be’ and that, ‘we’re broken and trying desperately to reassemble the pieces, only to find that they no longer fit together.’}

_{“So we just call it a day, then?” He’d shrugged. The words chilled my spine.}

_{“You call it a day when you can both walk away from this knowing you have nothing left to give,” she shrugged back.}

_{“I don’t know what the hell else I’m supposed to do. She barely talks to me.”}

_{“Perhaps you could tell him, Rachel?”}

_{“He still works with her.” I replied sullenly. The therapist raised her eyebrows at this, throwing him a questioning glance.}

_{“Well I can’t just leave, can I?” He threw his hands up, exasperated. I could feel his anger prickle against my skin. “My job pays for the million-bloody-dollar house on the oceanfront that she spends all day sitting, drinking wine in.”}

_{“Then she can leave,” I offered.}

_{“You want me to kick her out of a job for a mistake that we both made?” He slammed a clenched fist on the marble table before us, tepid coffee spilling from matching mugs. His face turned an ugly shade of crimson. “Are you stupid?”}

_{We spent the drive home in a hushed stalemate, neither of us willing to give any ground. Fury radiated from him, threatening to suffocate me until finally, he retreated to his office and I, the cavern.}

_{Our home was enveloped in deafening silence the following morning. The fuse had been lit, and the apprehension was overwhelming as we waited for the blast. I busied myself with tidying our kitchen, a blinding-white peninsula-styled affair. I’d always loved how the morning light streamed in through the bay windows, illuminating the space in an ethereal glow. The blinds were closed today, and it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t opened them in months.}

            _{“You want me to admit it?” His voice startled me. I turned to find him leaning against the doorframe, white-knuckled and his mouth fixed in a hard line. “Fine, I am. We still are, we never stopped. Happy?”}

            _{Actually, yes. I was.}

_{* * *}

_{When they’d first touched my face many months ago, I’d expected their slender fingers to feel as frigid as the ocean from which they were reborn. Instead, their touch was warm and comforting, and they would speak in soothing chirrups as they surrounded me, pulling curiously at my clothes and gazing in reverence at my bare feet. Their heart-shaped mouths were filled with teeth like daggers, and their breasts were covered in luminescent scales. A shard of moonlight pierced the darkness of the cavern, reflected in the arcane orbs of their eyes as they moved with ease between the inky water and the smooth stone embankment.}

_{Suddenly, their trills grew louder. Their gentle touches became violent and urgent. They started pulling at my dress, shredding it to ribbons as they swarmed around me. I began to drown in their shrieks, a white-hot panic thundering inside my brain. I tried to slap them away, but they snatched my arms, pinning them to the freezing rocky bank. Slowly, they dragged me to the water. I writhed under their control, tears running in warm lines down my face. They began to cry too, as they pulled me under. I was engulfed in a whirlwind of shrieking scales until finally, all I could hear was the deep nothingness of the ocean.}

Bump, need more entries!

*screaming at myself to remember to do this Dx*

*disembodied voice* 

remember.........................

*cracks knuckles*

Well I need to write up a backstory for my vampire and her thrall for something... 

Link Tree

Yessssssssss Chao!

BUMP! 

Sad, desperate bump :(