Two Short Stories by William Box

Easy

I was happy once. I could think. I could feel. But that was before the voices started.

"You can do it. You can kill him."

I'm scared. I'm scared because I know I can. Killing someone is easy if you can't feel anything but pain. I know because I have done it. I have never learned to ride a bike or drive a car, but I can kill like I can take a picture. Just point. Click.

Meant to Be

The late morning sun shone through the bedroom window. The stripes of the semi-open blinds made it look like they were wearing jailbird pajamas. They had just woken up and she was running her hand through his hair. They were smiling and laughing. They were making stupid jokes that only someone who really loved you would laugh at.

With his arm across her swollen belly, he felt the baby kick. They smiled at each other with a twinkle never before seen between two human beings. They had something between them that dissolved almost every problem. His smile and that sparkle that told her they would be together forever was the last thing she ever saw as her husband walked in and shot them.

Come out of the woodwork!

Sorry for the slow-goings around here at Underpants, but we're thisclose to adding a new one to our family, which means more Diaper Changing than Underpants Publishing!

We wanted to drop a line and let you know that we're still open, we're still reading, and we still want your writing! Share your stories for the two prompts we've already posted, but also feel free to suggest your own prompts. Leave them as a comment on this post, or email them to us at Underpants Publishing.

Prompts can be your own 10 Random Words, a first sentence, a last sentence, a general idea, a photo, a work of art - the sky's the limit! We're eager to stretch our imaginations and build a writing community, and the only way we can do that is to have everyone participate. Can't wait to hear from you all!

Kicking Things Off

Welcome to Underpants Publishing! This has been an idea for so long, it should have changed its own underpants by now... but we're kicking things off and couldn't be more excited.

Eventually, we want to share book and media reviews, profiles on authors - both our favorites and up-and-comers, and information about the publishing industry. But for now, we want to focus on the most important part: the writing!

We have some features in mind, especially a variety of writing prompts to get our (and hopefully your) brains churning. We want to start off with our Friday Feature: 10 Random Words. This is one of the most fun writing prompts we've tried. We pick a book, any book, flip through the pages, and point at words with our eyes closed. Those 10 random words have to be used in a story, any kind of story, in any order.

We're going to post the 10 Random Words every Friday so readers can check out the word selection and work on their stories over the weekend. There is no "deadline" exactly, but we'd love to read some of your great stories to perk up our Monday! You'll leave your pieces in the comments, and so will we. We'd like to get some repeat writers and eventually spotlight and interview you guys.