Welcome to the new and improved word sprint writing prompt series – #SwiftFicFriday!
After some feedback and more consideration, I’m updating the rules to give more people a chance to participate! Instead of 30 minutes or just an hour, I’m opening the prompt up to FOUR hours: 8:30PM-12:30AM on the east coast.
Other things to keep in mind:
– Include social media links/handles/anything you want to promote (Twitter, FB, etc) & word count in the comment with your submission.
– Submission must be between 150-300 words.
– All stories are property of the authors.
– Winner will be determined via reader votes over the weekend.
Ready, set, write!
Prompt: Today, we do a theme. Specifically, a quote that’s always resonated with me and I always find myself coming back to.
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do. – Voltaire
Happy writing!
FictionTrials 
Ooo, nice quote. I love it!
Time to Answer
Tires screeched as gravel flew. He had enough time to realize the car careening off the unpaved curve headed right for him. Then the world disappeared.
***
An odd ambient light filled his vision, though he couldn’t tell where it came from. He seemed to be floating, too, despite feeling like he stood on solid ground. Stranger still, the last thing he remembered was working on his flower gardens near the end of his driveway.
“James Christian Rice, it is time to answer for your life.” The deep voice echoed even though James saw no walls, or anything, to bounce the sound around.
He frowned. “What do you mean, answer for my life?”
“All that you have done, all that you left undone, will now be weighed.”
“What?” James no more than got that single word out when he felt himself be paralyze him. A creepy sensation of something rifling around in his head came next.
Memories unbidden came flooding out. High school pranks, his first job, his first girlfriend, the times he went out drinking before he’d turned twenty-one. All of it played out like movies in super-fast forward.
“You have done many wonderful things, James Christian Rice. And left many opportunities for good out there. Why did you not take them?”
James blinked several times, trying to formulate an answer. “I did what I could. I tried to help.”
“But you did not always help when you had a chance. Why?” This time, instead of curiosity, a hint of condemnation colored the words.
James shook his head, unsure what to say.
“You have just one chance. Return to your life to do better or face the final weighing. Choose.”
James’s heart thudded hard. Had he done enough? This being thought otherwise.
“I will return to try again.”
299 words
@dontpanic2011
LikeLiked by 1 person