Hello friends! I’m so excited Writer In Motion’s back!
If you’re new to my blog, Writer In Motion is a fun project to show a writer’s revision process. Every season, participating writers draft a flash fiction piece based on a photo prompt. In the following weeks, they’ll revise their drafts with the help of critique partners and/or professional editors and blog about their process along the way. It’s a fantastic way to build community, learn new skills, and hone existing ones while also helping other writers. If you’re curious to know more, check out the official Writer In Motion website!
One of my favorite things about the prompt is the different ways it inspires people’s creativity. Like seasons past, this summer’s prompt is absolutely stunning! Although I had only planned to cheer on writers this season, as soon as I saw the picture, a story came to mind that begged to be written. This has never happened before! So I had to sit down and get the words out before they ran away. The lines poured out in a sort of rhythm, and the way they appeared on the page took on a life of their own and somehow morphed into something akin to…poetry??
It wasn’t what I’d planned, but I love how this draft turned out and hope you do too!
Home
(502 words)
They took you from me that day.
You said your goodbyes but the tears in your eyes told me it was never your choice to leave. Your face against the car window, desperately calling out my name, seared into my brain like a map leaving a trail for me to follow.
I left home that night.
When all was dark and quiet and no one suspected a thing, I left behind what was ours to bring you back again. But where do I start? Where do I go? All I had was that memory of you in my head leading me along like an unraveled string.
I took to the roads.
Miles and miles of shiny black asphalt teeming with cars going far too fast for this old boy, and I must admit it frightened me plenty. But I didn’t go back. I braved the seas and carried on, hugging the fragile yellow line that marked the shoulder of safety.
Until I saw the turn.
Something deep in my gut twisted sideways, and I knew without a doubt that’s where they’d taken you. The woods are dense with evil, but for you I’d go, so I veered from the lights and headed into the darkness wondering if I’d make it out alive again.
I was right.
They found me straight away no matter how carefully I stepped, for beasts under moonlight sense fear like prey. I am old and weary, but my resolve trumped their strength and prevailed through their gnashing teeth and claws, though they left me barely standing.
I crawled.
I crawled through the mud and the muck and the uprooted trees to the stream I could hear bubbling nearby like salvation. I drank from its bank to relieve my parching throat but there’s no relief for the gash in my side gushing blood, hot as lava. I thought it was the end of me.
Then I saw the light.
The light everyone talks about when the time comes after a long life well lived, do you know it? It was coming for me from behind the trees atop the knoll like a beacon of hope, but I fought it like mad because I wasn’t yet ready. Not until I found you first.
I listened for your voice.
It was your voice that came from that light, a lulling ebb and flow that sang to me like a lullaby I recognized from all those years ago. I followed your song to the top of that hill as my last ounce of strength gave out and I fell limp at your glowing door.
I heard you running.
Heavens, it’s really you behind the door, crying in disbelief, the tears pouring down your face like a rushing waterfall. You wrap your arms around my filthy matted fur and whisper words of love that mend every wound on my tired broken body.
Then you tuck me in like the end of a string,
Making our reel whole again.
And with you, I’m home.
Thank you so much for reading and please come join me in cheering on other Writers In Motion! 
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