The Writetober Weekend Digest / Issue 1

Hi everyone! Happy Weekend. Here are a couple Writetober exclusive weekend poems/stories, some preview lines for upcoming poems, and upcoming story previews.

Preview Lines 

"We get it on our doorstep and on our phones" - From the Advent of Writetober 2022 collection of poems, set to premiere on December 8, 2022 at 12:00 am. 

"Let us wallow in what could have been. We let our guard down" - From the Advent of Writetober 2022 collection of poems, set to premiere on December 6, 2022 at 12:00 am. 

"Walking down a dead-end street, empty and departed houses, lights off" From the Advent of Writetober 2022 collection of poems, set to premiere on December 6, 2022 at 12:00 am. 

Upcoming Story Previews

Ordinary Day

Ordinary Day is an upcoming fantasy/horror story and the successor to 2021's unreleased horror story Yukisana's Lost Legend.

The plot follows the protagonist Yukisana, who lives alone and is essentially, stuck in a loop. Over, and over again.

Yukisana lives the same day over and over again - September 27, 2014.


Our story begins when Yukisana wakes up at 8:21 am. Not a minute later, or a minute sooner. She watches a feel-good comedy. She does basic chores, then at 10am head out to her local bakery.

After grabbing a croissant and coffee, she took out her computer and do some work.

She leaves soon after, and go to Walmart to buy some much needed groceries for the house. Nothing off, strange, exciting or weird happens. Just the same, boring, tiring, day.

It's just the same ordinary day, truly.

Everyday truly feels the same for our dear character. If she does a single thing wrong, everything restarts. She has to do these things. But can Yukisana break this cursed loop? Can she finally make it to see a different day, and break the system?

Divine Ashes

I eagerly picked up the telephone, expecting a call from my newlywed cousin, Autumn. Instead, a low, seemingly melancholy voice murmurs, “2 hours…” In a confused tone, I said, “Who is this? Are you Autumn? Hello?” Instead of an answer, I received a sudden “click!” 

Though concerned, I continued on with my daily shift, now carrying confusion as a notch of negativity in my belt. I finished up my shift. Later that evening, I received a call on my home telephone. The ID read “Autumn - Cousin.” Once again, I repeat my earlier routine, picking up the telephone, waiting to be connected to my cousin. Instead, the same low voice answers, annoyingly grunting…

“To-DAY!” The low voice said… That was the last thing I fully remember, as everything went blurry, and next thing I knew it, I fell to the floor, seeing stars, and hearing distant murmurs.. After that, I passed out. I woke up tired, and confused, in an emergency room with a nurse and my sister/roommate, Val. The nurse, Maria, quickly rushed over to me, saying “Oh! You’re awake… I have some questions for you,” ending the sentence with a grin. 

She began to stare at me, asking me “Tsuki, may I ask, what were the last things you remember before you passed out?” I recalled the event quite hazily, telling her everything BUT the phone call... She asked how I passed out.. I didn’t want to answer, but she kept asking. I zoned out, attempting to picture the perfect excuse in my mind. Finally, I anxiously told her about the phone call. She confusingly stares at me, confirming that what I saw wasn’t a figment of my imagination. She flipped through her clipboard, quickly saying, “This has happened before.” She shared the other cases with me, and in the middle of an explanation suddenly says “..My time with you is up now, I have to go.” She said in a hurry, rushing out of the room. 

Looking through the door window, I see a shady black figure, hearing the same low voice that tainted my evening hours before. It quickly shapeshifted into nurse Maria once again, walking out carrying her clipboard.. Nurse Maria quickly ran out the hospital, stating her reason as a family emergency. The next day, I woke up, and turned on the news. The news reporter stared straight back at me. “I’m very heartbroken to announce this, but our dear nurse Maria Ramirez has passed on. She was 29, leaving behind her loving cat Hayley..” In fear, I turned off the TV, running to tell Val. “V-Val?” Sprinting to the kitchen, I see a note, not in Val’s typical handwriting, reading “I’ll be back.”

The Reaper's Night

Every weekend in October, I visited my mother, until I couldn’t..

It was a regular October night. I rose from my evening nap, the time being 5:34pm.. The calendar, which sat next to my alarm, had today circled.. What was today? I cried confusedly.. Finally, a lightbulb of thought appeared above my head. IT WAS THE DAY I WAS SUPPOSED TO HELP MY MOTHER WITH CHORES! My mother was always an interesting figure. She was 64, and lived with my younger brother, who was 13. Every week for the past five years, I would help her with chores like raking, and washing dishes. 

As usual, I headed out to her house on the other side of town. The heart of the town was oddly empty.. I put the oddity to the back of my mind, letting the wind run through my thoughts. 

Soon after, I arrived at my dear Mother’s house. My brother was.. nowhere to be found. His usual messes ceased to exist and his presence was ghostly, as if he was never here.

“Maybe they’re both out at the town market.” I thought to myself, walking over to the dishes.. The sink was full of dishes. As usual, I began to wash them, scrubbing them, deriving them of any previous dirt. 

As I continuously scrubbed the dirty plates, the sun went down. Soon after, the temperature dropped, and as the cold wind hit my bare fingers, I continued to worry about my family. 

Once I finished the dishes, I called my mother, hearing her nurturing voice on her voicemail. “Hi, it’s Erina. Please leave a voicemail and I’ll call you back soon!” 

Would she ever call me back soon? The anxiety was keeping me on edge.. I called my brother’s cellphone, getting the same result. Straight to voicemail. After some time of repeatedly calling the pair, I went to my dear mom’s backyard.

In her backyard, the salty, refreshing autumn air hit my nose. It felt like getting medicine after battling a cold for days. I sat down in the burgundy leaves, not a care in the world, watching the stars.

A few minutes after my stargazing session, I went inside to grab a rake. In the distance, I heard a knock on the door. Before opening it, I asked the unknown individual “Who is it?” The individual responded in a voice almost identical to my childhood friend. I looked through the peephole, noticing… It was my childhood friend! I opened the door. “Oh, hi Tessa, what brings you here? Come in.”

Writetober Exclusives

Sirens

A police car’s siren

Possible crying

An escape?

Maybe a stranger just

Trying to save a young one

From a danger?

Possibly from a fire?

The young one could be

Quite the crier

Early Sunsets / Autumn

In the autumn, at 5:30, and it’s dark

4:30, and we see a spark of daylight

3:30, and it’s golden hour

City lights turn on and it’s time to go home

Party’s over, can’t stay out to roam

Hues of orange, brown, red, yellow leaves

Race the sun before nightfall

Early sunsets give me the blues.

No more kids playing ball on their front lawns,

They’ve all gone inside, like the sun.

Adults all inside reading the latest news

And I know, early sunsets give them the blues, too.

written by Zoe