Do you need, desire or crave a new challenge? Are you open to sharing your dark side? Then read on.
Do you have a dark side?
Or, think you may have one. Or indeed worry that you might have one. Or, for that matter, worry that you don’t and would like one? If so, join me here each week for dark | side | thursday.
Over a period of 52 weeks, I am writing a story. A dark story that will unfold as the weeks pass. Each Thursday, at 13:00 UTC, I will post a new chapter. Each chapter will be exactly 500 words long, and will be accompanied by a photograph. You can catch up on the story so far by clicking here on dark | side | thursday
Share your dark side?
I invite you to join me either by writing your own dark story, week by week, or, if that is too much, by dropping by, now and then, perhaps when the mood suits you or, perhaps, when it doesn’t, and by sharing a photograph, poem or a suitably dark piece of prose. To cross over to dark | side | thursday create your post, tag it dark side thursday and link to it by clicking on the dark | side | thursday badge below, where you can also find all the contributions so far. Or you can simply share your link in the comments section of my weekly post. And, should the mood take you, you can add the badge to your post.
dark | side | thursday | five
The door closed behind him.
The dark corridor stretching out ahead.
That damned box. The box that wanted him to press the button, slide his fingers inside, release the key, release it. That box now waited behind that door. Release, waited behind that door.
He could not think of that now.
He knew if he did, he would be lost. Again.
He walked on down the hall.
He felt the pain. In his arm. It hurt, as it always did. And the corridor narrowed. The ceiling, the walls, the floor, dark, shifting, coalescing. And the pain. Oh, that searing pain.
Dark, so dark. His chest tightened. Air, he needed air. He felt the walls closing tight around him. How could that be?
The sound of stone, stone slowly scraping over stone. The dull heavy thud. No light. No light. No light. Only dark remained.
His lips had touched hers. She kissed him back, wanting him, hungry for release. She felt his need, his fingers.
Then. Darkness. Again. Blue eyes twisted. Gone. Empty.
She could not breathe.
The pain twisting, growing inside her. His lips cold. She pulled away. The light gone again. The emptiness remained, engulfing.
He shivered as his eyes blinked open. He was not in the corridor. The air damp, musty. He could hear water flowing nearby. Flowing swiftly, darkly.
Light began to filter through the crooked, leafless, blackened branches of a tree. He struggled to remember where he had been, where he was.
The corridor. He had walked through the door, entered the dark corridor.
Which now appeared to be formed from the bark of a forest of ancient black trees.
He struggled to sit, the pain in his arm intensified, his breathing ragged. He sat with his back pressed hard against the rough bark, not caring about the scrapes he would suffer from later. Reaching into his pocket, he grasped the seductive slick metal of the flask. Unscrewing the cap, he pressed it to his lips and felt the harsh liquid burn down his throat.
She had pulled away. Could not face those empty, not blue, eyes for now. The pain in her belly gnawing and churning inside her. He had turned away from her. His eyes averted for now.
She walked, slowly at first, then began to run.
He did not follow. He had turned, those empty eyes watching as she ran.
She had tripped. Fallen. Her hands reaching out.
That was when she had seen the steps. Rough stone steps, descending in front of her. Cold and damp. The emptiness inside her churned again as she looked down the steps into the shifting darkness below.
The harsh jolt of the shot revived him a little.
He turned his head. The pain in his arm screaming and raging.
He bit hard into his lip, rose unsteadily to his feet.
At that moment, he saw them. Ahead of him, through the trees. Rough stone steps rising into the darkness.
Then, oh Hid. Then, he heard her.
The portal to dark | side | thursday opened on the twenty first day of may in the year twenty hundred and fifteen and will remain open for fifty two weeks.
five | fiftytwo
andy townend 
Oh good grief Andy – will he have a heart attack before we find out what the key opens?! Is she going down the steps and he’s going up!? Ok, you know I’m hooked, let’s get to next week – this is great Andy.
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Here is this week’s: http://musingsofafrequentflyingscientist.com/2015/06/19/secret-dark-side-thursday/
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Wow, love this one Desley, it seemed to be heading in a different direction, you kept the narrative taught until the deliciously dark denouement, thanks for joining dark side thursday again!
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Love that alliteration there Andy 🙂
Thank you so much for your kind comments, it really means a lot to me!
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My pleasure!
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Thank you Desley, I am enjoying this so much so it means a lot that you enjoy it (and contribute!!) six is already drafted and the plotting is driving me nuts! 😉
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Hmmn, it must be challenging to map it to be 52 weeks exactly. Yep, am definitely enjoying it and contributing as well 😉
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And making brilliant contributions. As for my story, I do have an outline plot and a place to go with it, at the moment its a kind of combination of setting the scene and a little free writing on the way and I am using the Scrivener app to help me keep it all under control 😉
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Groovy – I knew you’d have a plan 😉
I did check out Scrivener, I think I will get it when I have time to sit and pay some attention to it.
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I have a plan, of course plans can change and often do…
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I dont know if writing could be “cinematic” like we say about photography, but this one is… I could picture very clearly this like a movie scene… pretty intense…
I’ll join the Dark Side Thursday too this week… awesome stuff, Andy… “the emptiness remained, engulfing…” …
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Thank you very much Alex! That is much appreciated because I was trying to describe the feelings not just the scene, I look forward to your contribution!
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Hope this is good enough and dark enough…
https://nelkumi.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/gray
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What a great contribution, a moody dripping jungle, I love it, thank you for taking part!
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Illusion and mystery…….wonderful stuff, you have us intrigued and dying to see the next instalment. Would love to take part though I couldn’t guarantee to be as disciplined as your good self, Andy. I will give it a go when I’ve had a think about it!
Regards, John.
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Thank you John! Really appreciate that you like my latest venture, any contribution from you would be most welcome at any time and no need for discipline 😉
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Alex, this is a perfect contribution to dark side thursday, thank you!
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Heavens above, good grief, this is torture, Andy!! It gets more and more exciting every week. Have you heard that as days become shorter, Thursday is actually tomorrow? So write fast!
Chapeau.
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Thank you so much Lucile! The next is already written 😉 now working on the following and the longer term plot..so much fun!!
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Cannot wait!
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Here is my contribution to The Dark Side:)
Thanks Andy for inspiring me to write something different!
https://myredpage.wordpress.com/2015/06/21/black-dream/
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A prefect conclusion, thank you of joining dark side thursday !
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🙂
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