Last week’s challenge: “Down The TV Tropes Rabbit Hole.”
This week’s challenge is short and simple — though perhaps not easy.
I want you to come up with the final sentence of a story.
One sentence. The last line.
Shorter is better than longer. No more than, say, 50 words, please.
Drop the line right in the comment section below.
By next Friday I’ll pick five that I really like and hand out some Digital Swag.
Then we’ll take those five and use them in the next challenge.
Y’dig? Y’dug? Y’DO IT.
Russ Appelt says:
You could have told me he was my son before I killed him.
July 6, 2013 — 3:01 PM
Jessica Hawke says:
I really like this one and would love to read the story that came before.
July 7, 2013 — 11:39 AM
mtdecker says:
Like she said, it’s not what you say: it’s what you do.
July 6, 2013 — 4:39 PM
Shelly Tennyson Taylor says:
Elvis, the baby elephant at my side nudged the bag of peanuts sitting beside my margarita, he was ready for his treat too, who would have guessed ten days ago, the person I trusted most would end up with four legs and weighing upwards of five-hundred pounds.
July 6, 2013 — 5:01 PM
Jay says:
Watching the crows out the window, the trickster smiled– “That,” he said, “Is why they call it a murder; somebody always dies in the end.”
July 6, 2013 — 5:17 PM
carol pulitzer says:
He was very Right Bank; I was totally Left Bank; and never the Seine shall meet.
July 6, 2013 — 5:24 PM
Paul Baughman says:
groan!
July 6, 2013 — 11:26 PM
Donna Hutt Stapfer Bell says:
He’d said he wouldn’t be back. He was. He said he had no friends. He’d lied. He said he was at his best alone Nope. You know, that was the most fun I’d ever had with such a liar. Wonder what will happen when he tells me he’s broke. I’m expecting everything from cheeseburgers from heaven to dancing boys in the mail.
July 6, 2013 — 6:38 PM
rainoftoads says:
If my luck holds, I’ll be long dead by the time she returns.
July 6, 2013 — 6:50 PM
Emily says:
The two glanced back at the rising pillars of smoke and shared a secretive smile, knowing this was their last look at the Hell they were leaving behind.
July 6, 2013 — 7:07 PM
Jessica Hawke says:
And with a final Our Father for good measure – Thy will most certainly be done – Sister Mary McClane pulled both triggers on the sawed-off and prayed for the best.
July 6, 2013 — 7:22 PM
Gina M. says:
Awesome.
July 7, 2013 — 11:40 AM
Maria Nieto says:
One of my faves!
July 7, 2013 — 12:19 PM
Rhonda says:
Loved this!
July 7, 2013 — 6:16 PM
curiouskermit says:
love it! now I have to know what she was firing at. zombies? choir boys?
July 8, 2013 — 12:01 AM
Brian says:
Very cool, but what about dropping the “on the sawed-off”? I think that would open it up to some interesting interpretations.
July 10, 2013 — 2:47 PM
Robyn Alezanders says:
For the children……for cockroaches everywhere…….
July 6, 2013 — 11:27 PM
Philip Wardlow says:
Chester sat down on the front porch steps of his house, beer in hand, looking up at the night sky and wondered what tomorrow might bring.
July 7, 2013 — 12:30 AM
Lani Gerbi says:
And then, being mindful not to spill my tea, I eased into the tartan embrace of Endolyn Muirden’s least offensive armchair, and settled back to watch him die.
July 7, 2013 — 12:46 AM
Gina M. says:
Good stuff!
July 7, 2013 — 11:41 AM
Maria Nieto says:
Love this!
July 7, 2013 — 12:18 PM
gabidaniels says:
Love this!
July 7, 2013 — 1:56 PM
Russ Appelt says:
Withdrawing a gold watch from his vest pocket he twisted the face counterclockwise, restoring time to its intended pace.
July 7, 2013 — 2:04 AM
Jessica Hawke says:
I want to read this one!
July 7, 2013 — 11:37 AM
Brian says:
Awesome, I love how open it is: a writer could go literal or symbolic with this.
July 10, 2013 — 2:50 PM
kaikiriyama says:
He cast one last glance over his shoulder at the man who had him beaten, bloodied and chained up, and he swore that he would have his revenge.
July 7, 2013 — 3:12 AM
Willis Foley says:
Alister looks at the corpse of man who blew his brains out with a shotgun and mutters to himself that next he should just hang himself.
July 7, 2013 — 4:50 AM
missalimcd says:
Her hand shook over the button, the nanites finally making their way to her brain, and with one last burst of free will she slammed down on it.
July 7, 2013 — 8:10 AM
Jennifer Blakeslee Peterson says:
Looking back at the past five years, Meredith managed to do everything wrong. However, by following her heart and not the crowd, she did everything right. Authentic learning through countless failures were the path to today’s unlikely triumph.
July 7, 2013 — 9:24 AM
rattify says:
Well, /that/ sucked.
July 7, 2013 — 11:44 AM
jreinmiller says:
Only then did Tom realize, it was all that damn Armadillo’s fault.
July 7, 2013 — 12:15 PM
Rhonda says:
He had, he thought with a touch of remorse as he picked up the phone on his desk, a little boy’s life to destroy.
July 7, 2013 — 6:11 PM
Rhonda says:
Perhaps Their Rising would not be so easy as They had originally thought.
July 7, 2013 — 6:12 PM
Rhonda says:
Tomorrow my bandages come off. Tomorrow, I will see.
July 7, 2013 — 6:16 PM
dwsnovak says:
It wasn’t just the shell casings that plummeted to the ground. It was all the lies, the deceptions. It was everything that I had thought was real. It was my world that was crashing around me. And all I could do was pull the trigger and let it all go.
July 7, 2013 — 6:39 PM
aileen says:
She walked away carrying nothing but the realisation that her godmother had been right, nobody lives happily ever after, not even in fairy-tales.
July 7, 2013 — 6:56 PM
Russ Appelt says:
“Keep your fucking money,” she said, “It aint worth an ounce of regret.”
July 7, 2013 — 8:13 PM
Aaron says:
As he watched her pull the trigger, the oddest thought occurred to him, “Did I feed the fish?”
July 7, 2013 — 8:56 PM
Zak says:
This is great!
July 8, 2013 — 5:33 PM
curiouskermit says:
love it!
July 8, 2013 — 11:20 PM
Jill says:
He looked down, shaking, at the stump where his arm had once been.
July 7, 2013 — 9:14 PM
Josh Loomis says:
“Since silver is, say, twenty bucks an ounce,” he said, putting the bullet on the table and his gun in plain view, “let’s just call that my buy-in, and you deal me in before that lovely lady at the bar has to fetch a mop and bucket.”
July 7, 2013 — 10:06 PM
sayitsultry says:
Standing again in front of the altar, she realized it had all been for naught. All the screaming, all the running, all the bodies and gore. She might have avoided it all if she had just given up at the start. So she said the only words that fit the moment: “I do.”
July 7, 2013 — 10:31 PM
Laura W. says:
Two days ago, I had everything to hide; now I only need to hide the body.
July 7, 2013 — 10:48 PM
curiouskermit says:
Rick carefully washed the mud from his hands; he was no hero, but he knew that the next time the monkey came, he would be ready.
July 8, 2013 — 12:12 AM
awkwardtreed says:
Because the Devil rolls his own cigarettes.
July 8, 2013 — 4:42 AM
jdsfiction says:
Thumbs up, man. I dig it.
July 8, 2013 — 5:05 PM
Jessica says:
Almost reverently, he handed over the sword saying, “Put this to better use than I did.”
July 8, 2013 — 5:55 AM
Travis Hickey says:
“Like I told you, kid” said Bill, closing the door on a cargo hold full of gibbering Centaurans, “I don’t do this for the money.”
July 8, 2013 — 8:41 AM
Beau Hall says:
The monster in the Ed Gein mask got up and pulled the knife out of his skull while frankenstein-walking his way out of the dining room to resume his purpose in life; killing those goddamn lusty teenagers.
July 8, 2013 — 9:39 AM
Abby says:
Eventually, the zombie body would rot away, and she would have peace.
July 8, 2013 — 9:51 AM
Jeff Hemenway says:
But he’d never been that good at dancing; he hoped he’d be better at genocide.
July 8, 2013 — 1:58 PM
Daphne says:
Courtney smoothed the wrinkles from her dress, the same blue silk one Josie had wanted to be buried in, and settled in to wait, content with her chosen company, the old, battered copy of _The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_ she’d pocketed right before triggering the explosion.
July 8, 2013 — 3:28 PM
David Paterson says:
He paused and shut his eyes, a deep breath expanded his lungs that allowed a calm to saturate his being, his eyes re-opened and he strode out into the light.
July 8, 2013 — 3:46 PM
Vic says:
I smiled as she held the knife against my throat, we both knew it was useless but we both knew she had to try.
July 8, 2013 — 6:06 PM
Brian says:
NIce.
July 10, 2013 — 2:54 PM
jennyritz says:
“Well,” he smirks as he guides me toward the exit, “I couldn’t very well let you ruin me, now could I?”
July 8, 2013 — 6:42 PM
Carey B says:
She glanced at the fabric-covered mirror and shivered as someone walked on her grave.
July 8, 2013 — 8:49 PM
Chris says:
“It was funnier yesterday,” she thought, and turned her eyes to the empty train tracks, wishing she had a cigarette as she played with the bruise on her knee and relished its dull, refreshing ache.
July 8, 2013 — 10:02 PM
Brian says:
I like it.
July 10, 2013 — 2:56 PM
scott says:
Dude!.. Check this out!
July 8, 2013 — 10:25 PM
Benjamin J. Kirby says:
Beat, peeling apartment door unlatches, creaks open, same is it always has. Hat to the counter, same place. Tin plate atop the old dresser, sets his keys, wallet, sunglasses, phone there, same as always. Custom .44 on the nightstand, same as ever. He lays down in the bed, alone.
July 8, 2013 — 10:28 PM
Jon says:
“Can you do me a favor? Next time you’re spying on someone, make sure you’re not looking at their reflection, ok?” He ducked just in time to dodge her incoming palm.
July 8, 2013 — 10:33 PM
Rashel says:
It was, after all, the end of the world, so Michael London faced it head on with a grim smirk,with Shy right beside him.
July 9, 2013 — 1:34 AM
RTAllwin says:
Had I only known earlier what coffee does to zombies, I wouldn’t be all alone now.
July 9, 2013 — 4:47 AM
K.C. Wise says:
She looked left at the fire and right toward the sea, sank to her knees and began her morning prayers.
July 9, 2013 — 11:53 AM