Tag Archives: teenage fiction

a to z challenge

Y for Yearning for the end of The Command

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“You need to join The One Minuters now,” The Voice spoke into Beth’s ears.

“You both catch up, I need to go out for a while,” Beth told Keith and Quincy.

“Yoghurt – mango flavoured, X-Men comics and Ben-Ten stickers, I know you are going out to get those for me, right?,” Keith counted the things Beth had promised to get for him a few weeks ago.

“Yes, of course! And the comics were not in the list!” Beth pretended to be normal though she was very worried.

Yet again, all the One Minuters assembled.

“You see, Tim seems nervous now so I would need you to visit his memory a little while ago. Just let him decide to take a walk on the beach after passing through the X-amine frame so that he doesn’t hear that the lock was lodged in his duodenum,” A Minute assigned the task to Holly knowing that a worried Tim could be an ideal host for The Command.

“Yesterday, I managed to scatter the particles of that key in the geostationary orbit, should I do the same with the lock? But how do I get it out of his system, won’t he bleed?” Beth asked A Minute.

“Young woman, we can’t have the lock and the key in the same orbit. You might have to go farther in space and scattering the lock into a thousand pieces means there would require a lot of energy. It’s risky. We need another idea!” A Minute looked at the others.

“Yeah, I’ve got one. Dev, could you convert that lock into the tiniest possible water drop and then transform it into water vapour? It’s already noon and quite hot, we can light a fire below the drop and take no chances! What do you say?” Evelyn was glad that she could do more than just making people fall asleep. 

“Yes, I can do that. But how to get that lock out from Tim’s body?”

“You know, I can gaze at the X mark made on him strongly enough so as to extract it but pulling it out would mean cuts and blood, we don’t have a surgeon amongst us,” Beth was worried about Tim.

“You humans think too much. Leave it to me, I’ll heal Tim. Now hurry up with this brilliant plan before Tim feels the pressure to, you know, do the thing you do in the mornings to remove unnecessary things from your digestive system. We don’t want to reach that stage!” A Minute tried to be funny to make the One Minuters feel at ease.

“Yuck!” they all uttered in unison after which A Minute stretched a second long enough for the team to complete the task while Evelyn ensured that Tim stayed deep asleep.

Yearning to put an end to The Command, the team gave its hundred percent: Beth gazed at the X mark on Tim’s skin, the lock popped out making a deep cut on his body, Dev focussed and transformed it into the tiniest possible droplet, then raised it high in the air, Holly had ignited a piece of wood to serve as torch that she held right under the droplet before it fell and in to time it transformed into water vapour and disappeared in the air!

“Yes, we did it! We did it!” the One Minuters started jumping and hugging with joy until they realised that Tim must be bleeding.

“You did it guys!” Tim joined them without any blood or injury mark on his body and they all looked at A Minute!

“Young humans, don’t look surprised! What is that saying that you all have? A stitch in time saves nine! What do you think the Time is doing in that proverb! And by the way, it was originally – ’A stitch by time made everything fine’. Long story, I’ll tell you some other day!” A Minute started laughing and so did everyone else.

The story ends… for now! Did you notice that I managed to start each sentence (paragraph in case of long conversations) of this chapter of the story with the letter Y (I have managed to do the same from the B letter post)! This is my 25th post for this year’s A to Z Challenge (#atozchallenge). Head to my previous posts to read the entire story.
Read all my posts for the challenge in the A to Z links below:
A ➡ B ➡ C ➡ D ➡ E ➡ F ➡ G ➡ H ➡ I ➡ J ➡ K ➡ L ➡ M ➡ N ➡ O ➡ P ➡ Q ➡ R ➡ S ➡ T ➡ U ➡ V ➡ W ➡ X ➡Y ➡ Z

Thank you for reading and encouraging me to write better and often!

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a to z challenge

V for Valour is not always enough

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Vibrations resulting from The Command’s presence at the farmhouse were getting stronger but before the neighbours could notice anything, Evelyn used her superpower – She started singing to make everyone fall asleep. 

Vicious evil power, The Command, had taken the form of a large box-shaped bubble and was floating right above Keith who was deep asleep thanks to Evelyn; it clearly intended to trap Keith and carry him away.

Various attempts by Dev to make the bubble change its shape or size failed and after every attempt, Holly got into his head, travelled a few minutes into his past and made him try something else; this way, no time was practically wasted. 

Viewing everything closely and waiting for the bubble to get small so that he could swallow it, Tim noticed Quincy’s shadow, the current host for The Command, on the wall and got an idea. 

“Voice, The Voice, are you around?” he cried. 

Vigilant, as always, The Voice confirmed his presence and asked how he could help. 

“Virtually everything has been tried here but nothing is working because the shadow is still here. What if, while A Minute is time travelling with Quincy to all her happy memories, she picks the ones in which there is barely any light to cast her shadow? You know like at nights when she sang lullabies to Keith with the lights off or some other happy time when a shadow was not possible. Can you convey this message to A Minute? Maybe we can defeat The Command when the shadow disappears from here!”

“Very brilliant idea, on my way,” The Voice was heard exclaiming after which they couldn’t hear him as he possibly left to find A Minute. 

Valiant One Minuters continued trying in vain and suddenly the box-shaped bubble opened its lid and started lifting Keith to lock him inside; it had grown stronger as it sensed them being worried and weak. 

The story continues tomorrow in the next post. Did you notice that I managed to start each sentence (paragraph in case of long conversations) of this chapter of the story with the letter V (I have managed to do the same from the B letter post)! This is my 22nd post for this year’s A to Z Challenge (#atozchallenge). Head to my previous posts to read the entire story.
Read all my posts for the challenge in the A to Z links below:
A ➡ B ➡ C ➡ D ➡ E ➡ F ➡ G ➡ H ➡ I ➡ J ➡ K ➡ L ➡ M ➡ N ➡ O ➡ P ➡ Q ➡ R ➡ S ➡ T ➡ U ➡ V ➡ W ➡ X ➡Y ➡ Z

a to z challenge

U for Unsafe at home

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Underestimating anyone, especially an enemy, is never a good idea. 

Untrustworthy and evil, The Command had fooled the One Minuters into leaving Keith unsafe at home

Unexpectedly though, Quincy’s tears had flown onto the playground making a smiley face symbol as a cue. 

Until that moment, Beth had believed that keeping Keith happy at all times was the best way to save him as The Command fed on anxiety, fear and sorrow; but after seeing the smiley symbol she realised that her assumption was wrong. 

“Utter mistake! We got it all wrong! As of now, Quincy is the host for The Command and it feeds on her fear and sorrow. It is not Keith who we need to keep happy all the time, it should be Quincy. If she is happy, content and relaxed, The Command just cannot survive, or at least it could become weak. But how do you make a mom feel happy when her kid’s life is in danger and an evil power is using her to do the worst?” Beth sounded confident, yet scared. 

“Understood! I have an idea. Let’s trick The Command then. All of you go to the farmhouse and try to keep The Command and Quincy’s shadow away from Keith. Meanwhile, I will try to take Quincy back in time, to each of her happy moments. I won’t give her a break to think about all this and be upset even for a second. As of now, The Command is busy trying to use only the shadow and it won’t notice that Quincy is missing. If Quincy is happy for long, The Command will not be able to feed off her sorrow, let alone her shadow!” A Minute dropped everyone at the farmhouse and headed back to Quincy in a millisecond. 

The story continues tomorrow in the next post. Did you notice that I managed to start each sentence (paragraph in case of long conversations) of this chapter of the story with the letter U (I have managed to do the same from the B letter post)! This is my 21st post for this year’s A to Z Challenge (#atozchallenge). Head to my previous posts to read the entire story.
Read all my posts for the challenge in the A to Z links below:
A ➡ B ➡ C ➡ D ➡ E ➡ F ➡ G ➡ H ➡ I ➡ J ➡ K ➡ L ➡ M ➡ N ➡ O ➡ P ➡ Q ➡ R ➡ S ➡ T ➡ U ➡ V ➡ W ➡ X ➡Y ➡ Z

a to z challenge

Q for Quincy’s disappearance and questions galore

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Quitting was not an option anymore for the One Minuters as after the damage caused to the stadium, The Command had destroyed an under-construction flyover, a supermarket and a local bus stop. 

Questions regarding The Command were finally answered and the One Minuters were told that the evil power was like a parasite that fed on anxiety, fear and sorrow; it had never killed anyone though.

Qualifying perfectly as a host to it was little Keith, not just because it was easy to make a child believe in certain things but also because of the history.

“Quelle histoire?” Evelyn popped the question in French as she had been preparing for her upcoming foreign language certification. 

Quicksand engulfing her would not have worried Beth as much as hearing The Voice say, “Well, you see, The Command had been using Keith’s mom Quincy as a host since she was seven years old!” 

Quietness can often be more disturbing than noise; everyone gave her space as a shocked Beth quietly tried to make sense of it all.

Questions, a lot of them, had to be answered by her ex-husband and Keith’s father Rohit – Did Quincy disappear because of The Command? Did Rohit know about the superpowers and the looming danger? Did he part ways with Beth to keep Grace away from all of this?

Quincy was always a mystery as Rohit never shared much about her except that she left them after Keith’s first birthday.

Quite maturely, while Beth was lost in her thoughts, the younger One Minuters were marking the places destroyed by The Command on a map and that’s when they noticed that the route created by those places led to the farmhouse mentioned by Beth – the one where Keith stayed. 

Thanking my AtoZ writing group of women who helped me sail through the Q post today – Afshan, Deepa, Ranjana, Jayashree, Renu, Hema and Aparna 😇

The story continues tomorrow in the next post. Did you notice that I managed to start each sentence of this chapter of the story with the letter Q (I have managed to do the same from the B letter post)! This is my 17th post for this year’s A to Z Challenge (#atozchallenge). Head to my previous posts to read the entire story.
Read all my posts for the challenge in the A to Z links below:
A ➡ B ➡ C ➡ D ➡ E ➡ F ➡ G ➡ H ➡ I ➡ J ➡ K ➡ L ➡ M ➡ N ➡ O ➡ P ➡ Q ➡ R ➡ S ➡ T ➡ U ➡ V ➡ W ➡ X ➡ Y ➡ Z

a to z challenge

K for Knock of The Voice

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Keen to understand what that transparent elongated bubble like thing was, Beth looked at others and noticed that Evelyn was sweating profusely, Holly and Dev were holding hands and Tim was having an anxiety attack.

Kids their age should be busy partying or studying, but instead, they had to defeat an unknown force that they were clearly not prepared to fight against; Beth realised why she, almost double their age, was part of this – they needed guidance, direction and motivation.

“Keep faith, we will figure out something together. I know I am new to all this and I still don’t know what I am capable of, but I am with you all through,” Beth, a mother herself, couldn’t let those youngsters feel helpless and alone.

Kindness was Beth’s best quality, something that people often took advantage of, but she realised that she should help out these youngsters and keep her fears about her daughter’s safety to herself.

Kia, Beth’s new car parked just outside her house suddenly moved, as if someone very strong pushed it, and since everyone was still keeping an eye on the window, they all noticed it.

“Know this Beth, The Voice has arrived and it can talk to us all at the same time,” Dev informed her.

Knocking the door, The Voice was finally heard two minutes later which felt like eternity to everyone in the room.

“Knocking, well, that’s new,” Beth taunted The Voice, “So I understand that sound travels much slower than light, but six years to arrive, doesn’t that sound too slow?”

“Keith is not exactly your son, right Beth?” everyone suddenly looked shocked as The Voice spoke at once, right into each person’s ears.

“Keith is my ex-husband’s son, he’s like my son, why do you mention him?” Beth trembled, she had been thinking about Grace all this while but how did Keith fit the scene?

The story continues tomorrow in the next post. Did you notice that I managed to start each sentence of this chapter of the story with K (I have managed to do the same from B to J posts)! This is my 11th post for this year’s A to Z Challenge (#atozchallenge). Head to my previous posts to read the entire story.

I’ll be posting daily except Sundays all through the month. Stay tuned. Read all my posts for the challenge in the A to Z links below:
A ➡ B ➡ C ➡ D ➡ E ➡ F ➡ G ➡ H ➡ I ➡ J ➡ K ➡ L ➡ M ➡ N ➡ O ➡ P ➡ Q ➡ R ➡ S ➡ T ➡ U ➡ V ➡ W ➡ X ➡ Y ➡ Z

a to z challenge

F for Fifty Nine Seconds

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Frightened to the core, Beth slowly removed her hands from her ears; the turbulence didn’t shake her but the unknown voice that only she could hear made her panic.

“Focus Beth and listen to me, this is not the time to panic, you can save this plane in exactly fifty nine seconds,” the commanding voice instructed her.

“Fine, tell me what to do,” Beth had no idea how these words came out of her mouth as her co-passengers glanced at her and then ignored her as they were panicking too.

“Focus on the tip of the airplane wings that you can see from the window, just start counting till fifty nine as you try to lift the tilted wings with your gaze, blink if you want but don’t look elsewhere or you’ll have to start again. Focus on making the plane parallel to the ground,” there was a strange convincing power in that voice.

Fear gripped her as she could hear that invisible person or thing speaking right into her ears, but she thought that there was no harm in trying as all she had to do was gaze, and so she did.

Figuring out what that voice was and what was happening to her was crucial, but then she had to be alive for that and so she decided to pay attention to the voice; she could get the answers later.

Fifty nine seconds later, suddenly, the plane was stable with no turbulence whatsoever and people were relaxed, all but one person.

“Fabulous, so maybe I did it, now tell me what I want to know,” Beth didn’t care that she probably saved all the passengers and the crew, all she wanted was answers.

“Fasten your seatbelts dear passengers, we will land shortly, and we apologize for the turbulence,” the pilot announced after a few minutes.

Flight attendants, fellow passengers, cranky kids… Beth could hear all voices but the one she wanted to.

Frustrated, she headed home and tried finding that voice but in vain until she finally dozed off muttering, “Please talk to me, I am going crazy.”

———-
The story continues tomorrow in the next post. Did you notice that I managed to start each sentence of this part of the story with F, the letter of the day (I have managed to do the same from B to D posts)! This is my sixth post for this year’s A to Z Challenge (#atozchallenge). Head to my previous posts to read the entire story.

I’ll be posting daily except Sundays all through the month. Stay tuned. Read all my posts for the challenge in the A to Z links below:


A ➡ B ➡ C ➡ D ➡ E ➡ F ➡ G ➡ H ➡ I ➡ J ➡ K ➡ L ➡ M ➡ N ➡ O ➡ P ➡ Q ➡ R ➡ S ➡ T ➡ U ➡ V ➡ W ➡ X ➡ Y ➡ Z