This is the fourth time I’ve entered one of the NYCMidnight writing competitions, and the first time I’ve placed in the top writers of my group and so advanced to the next round (I placed 11th out of the top 15 in a group of 63 writers).

For each round, you are given prompts which must be included and a word limit of 100 words. My prompts for the first round were:

Genre: Suspense and/or Thriller

Action: Screaming

Word: Aerial

And here’s my story!

Glimpse

A silhouette flitting out of the hanger door. Beth shook her head; it couldn’t be who she thought. He was long-gone from her life. No longer her responsibility, her penance.

Pre-flight checks complete, ready for the aerial display. Why, then, this nagging feeling she’d missed something? It balanced on the edge of her mind until her debut was announced, when it disappeared like a glimpse of someone once familiar in the rear-view mirror.

The crowd roared. First with glee, then, as it became clear that the Typhoon’s dive wasn’t part of the performance, the excited cheers became screams of fear.

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Let me know what you think!