Genre Scribes: Friday Fiction Writing Challenge #15 — Hope

Welcome to post #15 of the Friday Fiction Writing Challenge! Here’s a complete list of all the posts so far. Feel free to join in.

This week’s random word is: Hope

Before I sat down to work on the challenge, I toyed around with what hope is. How could I use it in a piece of fiction? To be honest, I stalled for a bit. I was tempted to cheat and have a character called Hope, or name a street Hope Street.

Alas, I thought about a character hoping beyond hope that they’d make it somewhere on time. With that in my head, I sat down and got to work.

Here’s my sprint (basic editing):

Cara pumped her legs as fast as she could, avoiding wheelie bins and dumpsters lining the cobbled lane.
“Turn around and go home.” Dan’s voice repeated in her earpiece.
The university loomed in the distance. “I’m coming. Where’s the bomb squad.”
“Stuck in gridlock …they’re not going to make it in time.”
No way in hell she was going to let him do it alone. She slid to a stop at the end of the lane. Her breath sawing hard, burning her lungs.
Dan let out a stream of air. “I… I’m sorry.”
“Be sorry later. Just wait, okay. I’m almost there.”
A river of vehicles rushed along the street. Dan didn’t have time for her to wait for a lull. Cara vaulted the barrier into traffic. She danced around the slowing vehicles–ignoring the irate drivers honking their horns and swearing at her.
She bolted straight through the university’s ornamental gardens to the side entrance. At the end of the corridor, the basement door was propped open. She gripped the handrails and bounded down the stairs and slowed when she spotted Dan.
Dan bowed his head. “Shit. I told you not to come.” The wire cutters shook in his grip.
Drums with wires and explosive charges ringed the four structural pillars. Cara pulled her tool pouch from her back pocket. “How long do we have?”
“Five seconds from the first wire being cut.”
She squeezed his hand. “We can do it.”
“I hope you’re right.”
They snipped simultaneously.

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend 😀

HOW IT WORKS

Don’t think too hard on the word; just write about it for a maximum of twenty-five minutes or 250 words.
Once you complete your sprint, give it some basic editing.
Be courageous and post your results to your blog.

RULES

Complete the challenge on your blog before 1700 UTC of the following Friday.
Link to the original prompt post and make sure to use the tag Genre Scribes so that we can see all the posts together in WP Reader.
Your text must be fiction (preferably one you publish in (or plan to).
No real-life stories.
The text can be dialogue, an interior monologue, a scene, flash fiction, anything… so long as it’s fiction.

Full information is on the Genre Scribes: Friday Fiction Writing Challenge page.

Author: Susan T. Braithwaite

Royal Navy veteran from Scotland. My journey into writing started with a screenwriting certificate program at UCLA Ext. Since then, I've worked as a freelance content writer, erotica author, proofreader, professional beta reader, and content editor. I'm now working hard on my dream writing career: romantic suspense author. When I'm not writing, I can be found drinking too much coffee, obsessing over yarn, and planning world domination with my husband, jezbraithwaite.blog, and our squirrel army. View all posts by Susan T. Braithwaite