Welcome to the final week of the Spring Writing Challenge!
It’s the final week! This has been such a fun challenge. You’ve all done so well with your stories. There are so many interesting and unique ways you have taken the prompt. It’s now time for the final week, so let’s do this one last time! We can’t wait to see what you come up with.
So, without further ado, here’s your final prompt!
Week Six Prompt – The Character Prompt
Write a story about a character that experiences a rebirth
Wait…what’s a character prompt?
A character prompt is a prompt that’s about a specific character. It doesn’t matter where your story takes place or what’s said. What matters is that your story must be about a character who experiences a rebirth.
Before you start writing, we have some important rules for you to follow.
Writing Rules
1. Please keep the content of the stories you post to a PG rating. Please avoid real curse words. Violence/fighting should be limited and purposeful. Please do not include any spice.
2. Your story must be 1,000 words or less, and must contain the prompt to be counted for the challenge. You’re not required to post it in order to “win” the challenge, but if you want it to count for your team, your story must be posted by Sunday at 11:59 PM ET, and you must include your team name.
Remember to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and post your story as an “answer” to this question, not a “comment”. 🙂 You’re all doing such a great job! I’m so proud of all the stories you’ve posted.
Happy Writing!
We’re so glad that you participated Juli! 🙂
Tears in the Rain
Lucas Helm, Team A
Althea walked across the rainy field, her boots sending droplets flying into the air every time she took a step. She had no idea why she had come back here, there was so much hurt, so much pain in this single empty field. She looked around, her mind painting the picture of better days, days when the cobblestone pillars that were scattered about were more than ruins, but were homes. She remembered the days when she would walk through this field with Mariah, hearing about all the things she had seen in her travels, all the people she had helped to bring to the light. How Althea had wished she too could come on those incredible journeys.
However, there was a cost to them, one seemingly never discussed in Mariah’s stories. That cost lay before Althea even now. She couldn’t help but blame herself for what had happened here all those years ago, for Mariah had trained her well. However, a strong soldier is a prime target for the enemy.
Althea leaned up against one of the pillars, the rain still cascading down upon her. She tried to block out the horrid memories, the burning village, the death, the destruction. She had watched her home burn, and couldn’t do anything to stop it. What was worse, was that Mariah took her place.
“I should’ve fought, I should’ve been the one to die fighting for my home, not her! It just isn’t fair!” Althea screamed into the rain.
No one heard. No one troubled themselves with these ruins, they didn’t mean anything to them. All those who cared had died with the village, all but one. Tears streamed down Althea’s face, but they were impossible to see in the rain.
“Isn’t it strange how one can be grieving so much, yet people still fail to see it?” a voice said.
Althea gasped and slunk behind the pillar, a cloaked figure paced along what once was the main street, the same street where Mariah had…
Althea dared not remember.
“Why would you come back?” the figure turned to the pillar Althea hid behind.
She didn’t respond.
The figure circled the pillar until it was just a few feet away, face to face with Althea, “Why did you come back?” it repeated.
“I just… Don’t deserve anything besides this suffering.”
“You don’t? Why is that?”
“Because I let my mentor, the one who meant everything to me, die in my place, and I didn’t even lift a finger.”
“You know the old stories of the Christian faith do you not?”
“Yes… It was the most important part of my learning to Mariah.”
“Then you will know that Jesus did something similar and far greater. Dying for a people who did not love him, nor did anything to deserve it. Yet, as for why he died, he said it best himself, on his last night with his disciples before his death. ‘Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends,’ he said. He loved his people, his broken people, including you, so much that he died for them. Mariah did the same for you. She cared for you deeply, and would be terribly hurt to see you grieving over the gift she gave you.”
“It isn’t about the gift, it is about the cost!”
“You trusted Mariah did you not?”
“Yes…”
“And she trusted the Lord didn’t she?”
“Yes.”
“Then by that logic, you should trust the Lord, that somehow this is part of his plan.”
“That… Seems a bit of a stretch.”
“Is it though? Besides, Mariah would not want you to grieve for her. You can be sad that she is no longer with you, but do not grieve for her. She is with the savior she loved so much now.”
“I… I can’t let this go.”
“Then show me what she taught you,” the figure pulled out a blade from their cloak, a noble piece that seemed to bounce what little light flowed through the rain drops in every direction.
Althea looked at her own pitiful dagger, a piece Mariah had taught her how to forge. She pulled it out. The figure rushed in, Althea deflecting his attacks rapidly.
“Form two!” the figure yelled. Althea switched to a battle stance, going onto the offensive, mainly favoring jabs and upward slices from an outstretched position. While the figure evaded all of these attacks, he seemed pleased with the results.
“Rest!” he yelled, drawing back. Althea did the same, sweat mixing with the raindrops and her tears.
“Form four, then two again,” the figure declared. This process repeated itself over and over again, until finally, Althea jabbed at the figure and twisted her blade in an unexpected way as to catch the figure’s sword and throw it far from his grasp. He stepped back, “So now you must make your choice. To take my life, or to let me go.”
“I do not crave violence, only peace,” Althea declared.
“Then Mariah taught you well. Kneel, young one.”
Althea dropped to one knee, the hooded figure picking up their sword, and tapping each of Althea’s shoulders with the flat of the blade, “You are no longer a student, no longer one in training. Once, you were Althea, a student of Mariah. Now you shall be known as Sage, for the Lord has granted you wisdom. Do not waste this gift, but instead, use it to train up another as Mariah did for you. Never forget that your wisdom comes not from other people, nor yourself, nor even Mariah, but from God.
The rain fell harder and the hooded figure slipped away. Althea, the grieving student, was gone. What remained was Sage, a beloved child of God. Once again, Sage cried, but this time only tears of joy and forgiveness mingled with the rain drops.
When the new prompt arrive, my first thought is, Oh no! What am I going to write to make that work? But the Holy Spirit ALWAYS shows up and I get an idea every time. It amazes me. Thanks for a thought provoking six weeks.