Genre Scribes: Friday Fiction Writing Challenge #22 — Ladder

Welcome to Week 22 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: Ladder

I wasn’t going to post to the challenge this week as I’ve been ill—yip, the flu got me. For the better part of this week, my brain has resembled sausage. And just the thought of trying to string a coherent sentence together hurts.

But, for some reason here I am. I’m not entirely sure what has spurred me on but mental sludge will not deter me. For today, at least.

This week, I decided to play around with another “meet cute” (the meet cute: how the hero/heroine meets their romantic interest in a story).

Here’s my response to the prompt:

The pair of tactical boots Jack had chased up six flights of stairs disappeared through the rooftop door. 

Jack’s breath sawed hard as he took the stairs two at a time to catch up with the boots’ owner. He really needed to up his cardio.

At the door, he readied his Sig and slipped out into the darkness. He clung to the shadows, surveying the rooftop as he went. There was no sign of the runner. Not that he’d be able to spot them with them being dressed in tactical black.

Did that shadow just move?

He stilled, waiting to see if his mind was messing with him again. There. Movement.

The runner broke cover and sped across the gravel top, no longer caring about stealth, and leapt to the next building.

Jack clenched his jaw and ran toward the edge of the building. Somewhere between his feet leaving the ground and him falling through the air, he realized he’d made a huge fucking mistake.

Shit.

Milliseconds stretched out for what felt like an eternity. Until his chest slammed into the ledge around the roof. Jake clawed at the inner edge of the ledge until he gained purchase.

The runner stopped and turned. Now that they weren’t running, Jack could see that he’d been chasing a woman.

The woman approached and stuck out her hand for him.

Jack stared at her hand, unsure if he could trust her.

“Unless you’ve got a ladder handy, I’m your only help bud.”

Thanks for reading and have an amazing weekend!

HOW IT WORKS

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

RULES

1. Complete the challenge on your blog before 1700 UTC of the following Friday.
2. 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.
3. Your text must be fiction (preferably one you publish in (or plan to).
4. No real-life stories.
5. 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.