Today’s writing prompt might make you a bit uncomfortable but will allow you to be creative and explore the concept in your writing that not everything or everyone is always as it, or they, seem. Keep reading to see the full writing prompt and my completed version of it.
Today’s Writing Prompt: A Cordial Hitman
Today, write a scene in which a hitman (or hitwoman) acts cordially or politely to someone right before they… do their job, I guess you could say. Write from the perspective of the person who accidentally witnesses the hitman at work.
Completed Version of Today’s Writing Prompt
Like Any Other Wednesday, by K.E. Creighton
It was like any other Wednesday. I ordered my empanadas at the pop-up vendor stall on the south side of the courtyard near the fountain, trying not to get heat stroke. And hopefully, avoid food poisoning.
As I turned to leave the stall, a woman in a polyester black tracksuit came running by and bumped my elbow, knocking my bag of newly acquired greasy goodness onto the ground. Then, in one fell swoop, she picked up the bag, smiled, apologized, and jogged to the fountain, where she stretched her legs and arms as if she were an amateur ballet dancer. It seemed as if she was just a jogger out for a run, taking a stretch break.
The woman was at the fountain for a few minutes at least, but I didn’t really notice her again until she left the courtyard because there was a juggler playing the harmonica making a lot of noise near the main archway, and he was hard to ignore.
After the second bite of my empanada, I casually glanced away from the entertainer and caught a glimpse of the woman in the tracksuit in motion again in my periphery. I saw her run into, or charge into, a man in a blue blazer, almost as if she were a wayward bull this time.
At first, I thought the man she ran into was bending over to catch his breath as the woman bolted from the scene, simply vanishing. But then I saw him lift his hand from his abdomen, covered in blood before he slouched to the ground and never stood up again. He was pronounced dead a few seconds after emergency personnel arrived.
[All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton and Creighton’s Compositions LLC. The above work is a piece of fiction. All names and locations referred to are the product of the author’s imagination and are used entirely for fictional purposes. Any similarities to real-life persons or places are purely coincidental.]
Notes on Completing this Writing Prompt
This writing prompt made me think of a notable Stephen King quote after I completed it: “Bad writing is more than a matter of shit syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do― to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street.”
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