A Story A Day

Shadow Zone - Part 4 - Pentagrams

2012-01-21T01:52:00.000+05:30

Your ear itches but your hands are tied. There is a raging hangover hammering behind your eyeballs, but you've got bigger problems on your hands. Which are tied. You try to squirm and move your hands but whoever tied the knots knew what they were doing. The gangster is sitting in the middle of the two pentagrams. One where Nancy Negative's dead body lies and the other where you're tied up. This

Shadow Zone - Part 3 - The Gangster's Girl

2012-01-20T00:33:00.001+05:30

The voice that you heard in the shipping container is still ringing in your ear like a catchy song. But there is nothing catchy about it. It's just morbid. Spooky and morbid. After the noise of the gunshot had died down, you fumbled your way out of the jungle of shipping containers. You reached the only place where you knew you'd be able to get your thoughts in some semblance of order and then

Shadow Zone - Part 2 - The Knife and Nancy Negative

2012-01-19T00:14:00.000+05:30

[Read Part 1 here]You run till your heart threatens to burst out of your chest and the sirens are but a fading memory. You're far away from where you wanted to go but you're right where you wanted to be. Away from the scene of crime. The address on the business card in your pocket got left far behind and it doesn't make any sense to go back there. The police would be on that place like flies on

Shadow Zone -- Part 1

2012-01-18T00:16:00.000+05:30

The night in this city is as dirty as it can be and even the constantly falling rain hasn't washed away the filth. You stand on the corner of the street, out of the circle of light from a dying street lamp, and light another cigarette. The motion of flicking the lighter's wheel feels alien to you but touching the flame to the cigarette's tip and then sucking the fire in feels like a kiss

This at 4.43 AM

2012-01-14T05:05:00.000+05:30

Been some time.I've been busy reading A Song of Ice and Fire books. I have no idea why I started those in the middle of November, just when I was struggling with my NaNoWriMo project (which I didn't finish, by the way). So, I am on book 5 right now, A Dance With Dragons. And I've read this one slowly. Because I know that once I finish this, I will also join the legions of fans who are waiting for

Spirituality Is A Bike Ride Away

2011-12-05T23:06:00.001+05:30

"So, where do we go from here?" she asked as she lit two joints and passed one to him. They were sitting on the edge of the mountain. Their feet hanging over, soles staring into the wide chasm beneath them. He took a drag on the joint, held his breath, and said, "Anywhere you want to go." "Will you let me drive?" She gave him that look which he could never say no to. Then she batted her

The Breaking News

2011-12-01T00:03:00.001+05:30

A journalist died in the stampede. His brethren had killed him. Stomped and climbed over him till his bones broke and his lungs collapsed and his blood leaked into the pavement. There was a story to be covered. And the dead didn't need any by-lines. The space ships were finally here. The white-skinned beings climbed down from the ships. Actually, they floated down in their bubbles of pure

NaNoWriMo Update

2011-11-24T00:16:00.000+05:30

Well, I almost fucked up :)I know there is still time left for NaNoWriMo to end but sometimes you know what you know. I've been waiting for this month for almost the whole year and I fucked up. I know I am not going to crack the word count because there are things that require me to move around every weekend any that is the time I've assigned for writing, then there is other time after office and

A Quick Writing Tip

2011-11-17T02:36:00.000+05:30

Alright, I said on twitter that I will post a writing tip here. It's been helping me write for my nanowrimo project. Even though i've been working like a lazeball and chasing a mammoth target by now, but I'm sure this will help you a lot if you can do this right. The trick, is to answer a question.Answer.A.Question.How?Well, remember the time in exams when there were ten minutes left before the

Transitions

2011-11-09T13:57:00.001+05:30

This is about change. There will always be changes. Nothing remains in a state of constant stillness. Even in things that seem still, changes are going on on a molecular level. Everything is falling apart. Even you. And a change is life, through a transition period is always a rocky period. Things fall apart. Things refuse to work. And at times, you've to jerry rig a leaky boat with the stump of

The Futility of Existence

2011-11-08T14:00:00.001+05:30

There is a problem with life. A big problem, it's prone to failure. Anyone can die. Anytime. You might not even know but there might be a biological time bomb inside you, waiting for the right time to go off. The things we take for granted will cease to exist once we cease to exist. What we leave behind might not be enough. All life is like a poem, even when it ends, it's always unfinished. There

Brands.

2011-11-05T21:36:00.001+05:30

Brands are for cattle, said someone poor who was not able to afford brands. Being social animals, humans are geared toward competitive spirit. There are some so called "deviants" who like to think of themselves different from common people and society without realising that they are already in a social group of their own. You can't live in peace without being categorized. That's part one of the

Behavior Modification.

2011-11-04T13:39:00.001+05:30

I've never studied psychology in school or college, but it has always interested me as a science for behavior modification of people. There are subtle things we can do to alter our own behavior or that of the people around us. Many times in life we come across idiots in workplace, family, on the roads, in class rooms, in the virtual world. Such people are assholes, and as long as I am not the

Pig in my pocket

2011-11-03T13:43:00.001+05:30

Pigs are filthy creatures. I read somewhere that a pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes. Which is pretty insane. So what do I do with this pig in my pocket. This little piggy keeps me connected. It allows random strangers who own pigs of their own to disturb me at any fucking time of day or night. I'm addicted to the piggy, so are you. We all are. Soon the pigs will take over, they will drill in our

So while nanowrimo is on...

2011-11-02T13:58:00.001+05:30

It would be counter productive if I updated the blog when I could be writing to take my November project forward, but these blog posts will be short and I'll post them only from my phone. This coming month I'll be talking a lot about me, about the things that bother me, about the things I don't give a fuck about and why I don't and if I should. I used to have a rant blog earlier which google

9. Hearts and Heads

2011-10-31T23:29:00.000+05:30

The dark man walked all day. His feel developed blisters and every step became harder for him. He needed to reach the heart and he needed to do it fast. He thought about the gray places, the pathways between this world and the Other. He would not do it. He was too weak. The fatigue of years took over him and his knees buckled under him. He fell to the ground and turned to his side. The sinking

8. Breaking Bones of The Martyr

2011-10-31T01:24:00.000+05:30

The Nailwidow had Nife in her thrall. They were in a graveyard where grey clouds dotted the sky. Nife was laid down on a grave and Nailwidow sat on the next grave, watching the boy.She smelt competition dripping from his bones. The boy was in pain, but not a word or a sigh escaped his mouth. She twisted and bucked his body in her hands, in her domain, the world of nails. Nails dug into Nife's

7. The Darkman Cometh

2011-10-30T00:42:00.000+05:30

Once the dark man had fed from the watch man's body he stumbled out of the building. Although he was a bit unsteady on his feet, he knew he had to travel. He looked at the watch he had take from the dead man's pocket. Now it glowed a deep red. Pulsing with every beat of a heart that was far far away, waiting for its owner. For him. The dark man found a horse tied around a post in the city. He

6. The Power Of Gold

2011-10-28T22:57:00.001+05:30

Nife thumbed the edge of his black knife till the small cut in his thumb started to bleed. He put the thumb in his mouth and sucked on it. He fiddled with the other knives in his pockets, cutting and nicking his hands several times. But the pain went unnoticed. He wanted to kill again. He had taken the shadowy man's gold and the coins were heavy in his pocket. He wanted to get rid of them. The

5. The Abandoned City

2011-10-23T13:54:00.001+05:30

The city was empty of all living things. Tumbleweed rolled through the streets and shutters of the shops flapped in wind like hands waving goodbye. The structures of the city were getting eaten slowly by rot and there was moss growing on some of the structures. The salty sea winds made everything stink of the sea and the silence was disturbed only by occasional slapping of doors or windows by

4. Beacon

2011-10-17T00:30:00.001+05:30

The Nailwidow prepared for the journey. She collected her herbs and charms in a small bag and put it inside a big bag that she slung over her shoulder. Her staff, made from an ancient tree's branch leaned against a wall of her cave. When she picked the staff, light danced in the runes carved on the wood and it hummed with energy. It stank of death. Nife was packing more knives in his belt and

3. Nife

2011-10-14T14:02:00.001+05:30

Nife was slitting the throat of hooker in an alley behind the Mad Monkey Bar when he got a job offer. "Heard you're a heart specialist." a voice asked from the darkness farther up the alley. Nife wiped his knife on the hooker's shoulder and nodded. "We need to recover a heart in a jar." Nife raised his clean hand and rubbed his index finger on his thumb. The owner of the voice tossed him a small

2. The Nailwidow

2011-10-12T14:02:00.001+05:30

The woman was old as ancient trees. Her fingers were gnarly and her hair hung like shreads of a shroud from her head. A rusty nail hung from a black thread around her neck and she held the nail in her hand as she threw herbs in a fire. Her cave was small and the darkness was only chased by the small fire that burned in the hearth. There was no warmth in the fire, it only intensified the chill

1. The Jar

2011-10-11T13:52:00.001+05:30

"Antiques and Curiosities" The words were written on the shop's front in faded ink and a script that was almost dead. Few people visited the shop these days, except some lost tourist who wanted to take away a slice of old world with him. Inside the shop the old man who owned the shop was lying on the floor and having a heart attack. He clutched his chest and breathed deep breaths,

The Scream

2011-10-10T13:59:00.001+05:30

Janis walked on the road to her home. The setting Sun cast new shadows on the warehouse walls as she walked by. She slowed her pace for a few moments to admire the scenery. It was then that she heard the scream It was an animal sound of anguish and pain. Janis stopped for a beat as the echoes of the scream died away in her mind. It came from somewhere behind her, from one of the warehouses.