City of IF

[Vishal Muralidharan]

Alright, now I am ready to hold my first competition! You probably know that I have never done this before, so I hope this turns out to be a good one!

Well, what you will have to do is to choose on of the paragraphs below, and write a 'first chapter' based on it. Your chapter will have to have a minimum of 1000 words. What you write in the chapter is entirely up to you, except that it should contain the following paragraphs. Your entries can be posted in this thread!

Things you need to do.

1] Choose one of the following paragraphs.

2] Write a chapter of at least 1000 words.

3] Finish your chapter at a decision point, and tell us what the DP is.

4] Give your chapter a title.

5]Post your chapter in this thread.

Thats all!!!

And now, on with the paragraphs!


Para 1....

Matt had always hated his life. There were so many reasons, but the main reason was he felt that his home had lost the love it once had. His parents constantly fought, but they wouldn't tell him why. "Adult stuff" they would say. Not suitable for 9 year olds. This, added to the fact that his family was very poor, was what made him run away from home, to the Chennai Central Railway Station, where he started polishing shoes to earn money.

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Para 2...

"Tea, Cheap and warm, Filtered tea...." yells Zack as he totters along the streets of his neighborhood, carrying a large container strapped to his back, and plastic cups in his hand. The morning sun shines brightly, lighting up the poorly maintained street and huts on the road side. Zack stands and stares as he watches young girls and boys hurriedly climbing into the school bus, dreaming of the place called 'school'.

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[Sugar Plum F]

Matt had always hated his life. There were so many reasons, but the main reason was he felt that his home had lost the love it once had. His parents constantly fought, but they wouldn't tell him why. "Adult stuff" they would say. Not suitable for 9 year olds. This, added to the fact that his family was very poor, was what made him run away from home, to the Chennai Central Railway Station, where he started polishing shoes to earn money.

Lewis re-read the paragraph he had just typed. It seemed wrong somehow. Maybe he was trying to sum everything up too fast. He tapped his fingers on the edge of the desk and tried to remember how 9 year old boys talked. It didn't seem like that long ago he had been one himself, laughing and playing ball with his buds. Lewis sighed and tried again.

Matt was startled by the sound of a ball making contact with a bat. He looked around for the game but couldn't see anything past the whale of a man sitting in front of him. Matt's mind wandered back to the hot summer days before the apocalypse. Him and Kenny would grab every kid on the street and head down to the old field. They'd play for hours, until the moms started calling from the porches that it was dinner time. Bart's mom would always call first. They always teased him about ruining all the fun.

A growl from the fat man woke Matt from his daydream. He looked down and saw he had gotten black polish all over the man's brown pants. Matt cringed as the man's square hand came baring down toward his f

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!

Lewis jumped as the three loudest knocks in human history came down on his door. He froze in his chair, his eyes shifting to every exit. His eyes calculated the distances to the windows and then shuddered as he thought of the distance down from the windows. He was just beginning to wonder if falling 5 flights would be worth it. However, his calculations were cut short as the door was kicked in.

In the wake of the wreckage stood the beast of a man. Lewis imagined flames coming out of his eyes and the dragon tattoo climbing off his bulging neck, snaking its way toward Lewis. To clear the disturbing image from his brain, Lewis shook his head violently. It wasn't until that moment that the meathead saw him huddled behind the tiny desk in the corner.

The tank of a man's thin lip curled up. “You hiding from me, pee wee? You know I don't like hiders...”

Splinters of wood went flying as the man's bat swept the little coffee table out of his way. Lewis' stomach flipped as his eyes followed the bat's rapid progress towards his face. His eyes almost went cross eyed as the bat came too close. The sudden pain in the back of his head woke him up enough to realize he was being pulled to his feet by his ponytail.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn't bash in all your teeth right now. Come on, pipsqueak, don't you like your smile?”

The bat started to swing back and all of Lewis' instincts started to kick in. The word “WAIT!” burst from his lips as the bat started to move forward.

“Why? You got something good for me this time?” The man lowered the bat but didn't release Lewis' hair.

“I... uh... I..” Lewis stammered, unable to think of a single good reason the meathead shouldn't knock out all his teeth, other than that his smile was one of the only things he actually did like about himself.

“Spit it out, pipsqueak, or you'll be spitting out teeth!”

“You'll get the money, Tony, I swear!” Lewis half choked on the words, knowing that he had no way to keep that promise. He was three months behind on the rent as it was and the last money he'd made was two weeks ago, all of which had gone straight to Tony's boss but that hadn't even covered the interest.

“You better have it by the end of the month, tiny, or I'll break a lot more than your teeth.” Tony released Lewis' hair, watching him slump to the ground.

Lewis breathed out a sigh of relief as Tony headed for the door. However, it caught in his throat causing to him to choke, as Tony paused at the TV. It only took one swift hit from Tony's bat to send the the glass into a million pieces, leaving the TV a hollow shell on the floor.

“That's a little reminder, pee wee. I wouldn't want you to forget.”

Still choking, Lewis couldn't respond. Not that there was a good response to a man twice his weight and six inches taller.


As the coughing subsided, Lewis tried to gather his wits. He didn't have many options now. His primary plan was to stall but that didn't seem to have worked out very well for his belongings... He could try to skip town but he only had five dollars in his pocket and no gas in his car. Do mob bosses keep their eyes out for hitchhikers? Lewis figured he wouldn't get very far either way.

The last money he'd gotten was from writing a short piece for a magazine. Maybe he could do that again. The only problem with that was there was no guarantee they would take it and they usually only took really cheesy sci-fi crap.

What Lewis really wanted to do was finish his semi-autobiographical novel and become a world famous author. It just didn't seem like he would live long enough to do that.


Decision Point:

Should Lewis run like hell and hope the mob doesn't notice hitchhikers?

Write anything to get a few bucks?

Or continue his lifelong dream and hope everything just works out?

[Vishal Muralidharan]

Wow, that's a good one! First Entry!!!!

:D :D