Daily Short Stories from The Penned Sleuth

Missing Signals Repairing a radio is a lot harder when it feels like your fingers are going to fall off from the cold. My team and I are stationed in the arctic tundra, an expedition of biology more than an expedition of geographical discovery. Today we were taking samples outside and letting them react with the polar winds. I stayed indoors, happily, working on the radio we used to contact the outside world. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

Empty Boulevard Mr Underwood The three of them were young and ignorant. Unfortunately, one of them was my daughter, the rest being her unruly friends. In the end, I am not surprised she decided to ignore my warnings and go down that road in that part of town to enter that boulevard. It was my bad parenting that led her astray, more than the influence of the kids that she made friends with. Still, I am losing myself once again, even after all these years when you started pestering me with your letters and visits. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

The Journey V Two years passed and our lives changed. A year ago, the developers of Dream released a statement saying only one account ever made it to the end of their story. It belonged to me and my roommate. We had done what nobody else could do. The one who was behind us on the mark didn’t even reach the Ruins arc which became so heavy for us. Since my account was the one that owned the game, I received an email from the developers saying they wanted to meet us. I made contact with my roommate, telling him the news. He flew from Florida to New York where I lived, the developers flying there was well from their country. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

The Journey IV My roommate and I decided to save the next stage of our journey for the weekend. If we entered the ancient chamber to find more to the story, we wanted to give it our full attention and avoid any late nights if we could. That meant us hanging around the village and not progressing really. However, that was something we enjoyed despite our anticipation for what was to come. Trust me when I say our workdays felt like they would never end. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

Another Realm for Writers: The Wonder of Text Adventures - Writing Today There are many avenues a writer can take in their career. Most hope to become novel writers, selling bestsellers that line the shelves in major book retailers. Some become bloggers, others become journalists, product reviewers. Writers can take to other industries, such as writing scripts for movies and tv series, or, as I will be talking about in this blog post, video games. Let’s get into it! https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/blog/another-realm-for-writers-the-wonder-of-text-adventures

The Journey III No matter what I tried I could not convince my roommate to stop playing the game. It soon became a left-behind piece of code that nobody could crack, but week after week, every day I would go to sleep while he sat in front of the screen exploring deeper and deeper into the world which we found fun long ago, but not anymore. It was almost sickening to see him in such a state. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

My roommate and I returned to the screen not too long after what we read. “Who do you suppose the corpse…well…belongs to?” he asked me. “I’m guessing it's the wife of the first one we found,” I answered. “Let’s just search it and get out of here. We have the map.” “Yeah…hurry up.” https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

The Journey Part 1 Our decisions were never final on the journey. We would go left, but if the path grew difficult, we turned back and went right. The sad thing was whenever we finally made it to a secure crossroads, we would end up falling back because no choice we made seemed to stick in our heads. “Have you tried going into the house and searching the attic?” he asked me. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

2021 has been an interesting year for writers. Whether you call it order or chaos, it has had its ups and downs that made it something unique and challenging. One of the greatest challenges, however, is the challenge to overcome procrastination and get as much writing done as possible. It’s a challenge every year, but with these new circumstances we all find ourselves in, did you sink or swim? Let’s talk about it! https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/blog/writing-and-procrastination-writing-goals-for-2022

Stolen Time “We need to move now!” She yelled over the noise of the machinery. “Run through this door and leave them behind!” “I can’t!” I yelled back. I held onto my child’s hand as I heard the cruel scoff behind me. When I turned back to look, I saw her for a brief second as the door closed, the locking mechanism clanked into place. My daughter held my hand firmly for a moment, but soon I felt nothing in my hand. When I looked down, she was gone and there was silence. I was alone now, alone on a floor of an old hotel. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

The True King The ground beneath the knight gave way and he was indifferent about falling with it. He descended, allowing the stones beneath him to become his resting ground as they crumbled and smashed against the rocks within the mountain. He descended to a death he hoped he would receive all those years ago. Despite the long and tremendous fall the stone and rock beneath him held strong enough to cushion most of his fall until he fell no more. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

The Cold Prince The knight climbed to his feet once more, his armour feeling heavier than ever. The thoughts of his past family was a greater burden, but one that he had learned to ignore. He knew full well that resting would only weaken him, but his body longed for a reprieve. The knight collected his will and used it to push him onwards. He would rest once the Shattered Kingdom was no more. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

The Disgraced Guards Sebastian, now free of the Warlock's spells and nightmares, proceeded through the Warlock's den and up a cleaner set of stairs than he expected. As a knight, he was stronger than most, but the Warlock proved to be far more taxing than expected. His mind was still damaged, if not tormented as it once was. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

Rising with Broken Steps The knight was not faltering on his journey for a moment. All around him were signs of disaster caused by the Prince’s greed, but he would not let the horror sway him in his quest. The mangled bodies were fetid; despite the long age past they would not become bones, rotten reminders of the evil warlocks cursed magic. It was disheartening to see the size of some of the corpses, but to the knight, it was fuel to his fire. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

Into the Shattered Kingdom A young knight stood atop a small hall on looking the Shattered Kingdom. It stood before him, a mountain of worlds in frozen collision. Truly it was the horror that all kings feared in this slowly dying world, but luckily, it looked to be the only one to have such a fate. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

Breaking the Rules Richard slammed against the door. It shook on the hinges, but wouldn’t give way. “Rose, please, we’re family,” Richard spoke through the door. “You cannot spend your whole life trapped in that room.” “Not one so small,” Rose muttered painfully. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

Disappearance Part 1 I work in the library of a quaint town a few miles North of the English sea. The town is well looked after, with overgrowing plants and trees, delightful smiles and a well-organized economy. Yes, there may not be so many people here, but we have more than the other towns adjacent to ours. We have a famous farmer’s market once a week that keeps our town’s name on the map, although barely. The town’s name is Conroy. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

And There Were Three The world had reached the limit in its patience. Fifteen years before today, a cold snap hit the world harder than any natural disaster. Major lifestyle choices had to be taken, but the change was so sudden that large countries not used to such cold weather suffered greatly. Pain and suffering became a daily ritual for them, but only the rich survived in their heated homes and with better clothing. Ten years ago, it became survival of the fittest. It was chaos and no amount of government speeches could save us, especially since the power cuts began. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

Death at Sea I just wanted a simple vacation. It wasn’t often that I got off work, so I wanted to take full advantage of the time that I had. It so happened that I set up something special for this vacation; a cruise among tropical islands. Plenty of sun and refreshing smoothies. It was the vacation that my old body longed for, but of course, somebody had to ruin it with that tired question. “Hey, aren’t you Death?” https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/

A World of Your Making The city was a place of beginnings for everyone. No matter where you were born, you inevitably had to go to the city and find work. There was plenty of it as well, but you had to make a world for yourself, nobody else would. You would have to find a home and if you couldn’t, you would have a few other options. I was in this position upon moving to the great city, having just passed an interview for a job I was to start working on Monday. Of course, I would need to find a place to stay and with such limited money, I knew I couldn’t pay for it. https://www.thepennedsleuth.com/