I received a book of writing prompts a couple years ago where you have to use certain words in your writing. I wrote this prompt back in 2018, I hope you enjoy.
Use the following words: Demon, bystander, escaped, parakeet, destiny, hammer, singing, ash, cathedral, heels.
Ash covered the ruins like a thick, suffocating blanket. Dark clouds covered the sky, blocking out the light of the sun so the land laid in a red, musky haze. Soot drifted in the air like falling snow. A stirring wind brought chills to my bones. I walked up the the steps of the cathedral, my heels dipped with the blood of the ruins. Monsters had raged through this once proud city and I had been a worthless bystander, watching from the cliffside. I arrived too late to save my hometown. Not a soul escaped the monsters’ wrath.
The light breeze tickled the holes of the cathedral ruins, singing in low mourning for the destruction of the innocent. I stopped right before the cathedral doors. Sweet memories of my childhood playing in my head like an old jukebox. I attended Church every Sunday before the monsters’ invasion. My sister had been a part of the choir and it was here that we nursed that blue parakeet back to health. Yet, my childhood was now over. Those sweet memories would never return.
I shouldered my hammer, a big clunky thing that was stained by the smashed skulls of monsters. The King of the Monsters would be inside this cathedral. A monstrous demon of wrath and destruction, defiling the House of God with its presence. I may have walked my own path for many years, but Lord willing, this demon will meet its fate at the end of my hammer. I reached for the doors and took a deep breath to fan the flames of my anger. Mother Mary, let this be my destiny.
nikki diekemper 