This might just be me, but the dad looks a bit like Ewan McGregor.

The irony only makes it better. Honestly though, I'm considering being a teacher, and if that was me speaking then I'd be laughing more than upset that I got interrupted.

I just got off of work and I was notified of this. Thank you for writing this, I love it!

Artificer Alchemist who believes/knows that the weave is in everything

A person found a way to have their wish granted, only thing is those don't normally go well. After wishing that they would have everything they dreamed of, they regretted the nightmares that they began to have afterwards, especially when they were what became reality.

I unlock the door, but as I should have known by the state of the key, the door did not open. Not only did it not open, when I tried to get my key back out of the door it snapped in the lock.

"Ha! That makes sense. Okay, I figured it wasn't going to be that great based on the price, but this is a bit bad."

I went back to my car and pulled out my screwdriver. Walking back to the door I managed to wedge the screwdriver into the lock just behind the piece of broken key.

"If I'm right, the key is technically still holding the little pins in the right place, so if I-". click The door finally unlocked. After putting my shoulder to the door it also opened.

I looked inside with a sense of pride that quickly faded. "Oh my-" I looked at the living room in horror. There were stains, rough patches, most of a couch, and a tipped over box of tangled cords and wires. I didn't dare to look in the kitchen.

I take a deep breath and nearly choke on the smell, it smelled of stale pork skins and sweaty socks, not to mention I could smell the dishes in the sink from here.

I take a deep breath...once I got back outside, then I went back in to find my room.

Two days later

I smile happily as I look upon what, admittedly, is still a trashy apartment, but it is much better. I've taken out the trash, I've cleaned the sink of it's dishes, I even spent two hours yesterday untangling the cords in that box...which thankfully means the tv works properly again.

There is however, one minor issue. Whenever I try to sleep, I hear...the others. They're always doing something around midnight, but I can never tell what they're doing. I'm aware that I have two roommates, but I haven't seen them yet.

I've never heard them leave their rooms or the apartment, I have however heard them in the kitchen late in the night. They're always whispering to each other about something. I swear I've heard my name mentioned at least twice.

The reason I know they're here though, is because my things randomly go missing. Not only that but I keep finding their dishes in the sink and my food missing from the fridge. That ends tonight.

I wait by my door, my hand sweating as I tight fist the door knob, ready to open it with dramatic substance.

I wait, and I keep waiting, and by 1:30am, I'm mad. But the anger immediately subsides as I hear it. The dishes in the dishwasher moved!

I open the door as swiftly as I can only to see the dark empty apartment hallway, the kitchen at the end of said hallway to the right. I couldn't even be mad, it was dark, there was clearly nobody there, and it's all too possible that the dishes moved on their own.

So, with equal amounts of fear of the unknown and sad that I wasted the last hour and a half standing by my door, I walked into the kitchen.

I flipped the light switch and look around the kitchen. I didn't even notice it at first, but it was so unnatural that it actually made me jump. The dishes in the sink, they were all clean and in the dryer rack. Beside the sink was a small note written on with red ink. It read, "Hey, we are aware that you've been fixing up the apartment, we decided to stop taking advantage of you."

I looked at the note for a while, the message was strange, but what bothered me more was if that was them washing the dishes, how did I miss them? I decided it was late, nothing is wrong, and judging by the note things might actually improve. Before going to bed I grabbed a pencil and wrote, "Thank you" on the note.

I had so mucht trouble sleeping that night though, waking up several times for no apparent reason, my attention always being drawn back to my closet. But by morning it all made sense as the note had more writing on it, this time it said, "You look freaking ugly when you sleep dude."

The price of a peppermint.

A child gets creative with a box.

Thank you!

The survivor hid in the bunker as the trucks ran across the road. The loud noises of erratic yelling and the occasional gun shot keeping any and all sane people in their basements.

As for the survivor, she hid in the bunker she built. Despite what everyone said, she constructed this concrete safe house herself. Even after all of the comments, the crazy names people started calling her, she didn't stop.

"You'll see, and when everything comes crashing down I'll be the one who's still standing!" She'd always say this with a smile as they scoffed and demanded she stop.

But here she is, 4 months into the fall of society, still alive, but feeling some remorse about how she acted before.

"Those people weren't wrong to think this was crazy, but...they also weren't right to treat me that way" she said to herself.

"But still, after all the comments, the lost friends, and especially the hard work and money I put into this, I think it's worth it. I mean look, I'm still alive... talking to myself, but alive."

The survivor laughed at herself quietly as she spoke to herself. It was strange, after all that time those comments became almost her fuel. People doubting her became some sort of reason to keep going, but what now?

It's like that metaphor about life. The one about getting to the other side of the tunnel. Only thing is, what do you do when you actually get to the other side?

It's not like survival was a problem. Those crazy people who just want to pillage can only last so long on the food they scavenge. Not to mention that those people that actually fire back at the raiders.

It really can't be long before those raiders decide that the risk of dying isn't worth it. Then they'll turn to farming and more peaceful matters. Maybe then people can trust each other enough to get along amd work together.

The survivor walked through the concrete hall over to the garden room. The crops are doing amazing, and it seems that those raiders (or anyone else really) still haven't figured out that the solar panels on the roof of the house actually put out their power down here.

Beans, tomatoes, and potatoes. Not the widest variety but certainly some food that is easy and good. Being underground also has it's advantages in water collection. Survival here is almost too easy.

Too easy...

The survivor then goes over to her sleeping room and begins to write in her journal

Several days have passed. The cold is unreal. Of all the cold Decembers that all of this had to happen it just had to be this one!

Oh well, I still have two more books left before I run out. I really underestimated how bored people get when they have nothing to do but make sure some plants are still alive (which takes all of 20 minutes) and make sure they eat and drink enough.

I'd kill for a movie or something! A comedy show would be insane right now. But of course, nothing here but the books from my house...and technically the library. Can't really return those anymore I guess.

The journal goes on listing all of the modern comforts that the survivor missed. The things ranged from fruit punch and chocolate to being able to just go outside because you wanted to.

A few nights later.

Heavy gunfire rings through the night, waking up anyone and everyone around. The survivor immediately grabs her pistol and hides by the entrance to her bunker.

The gunfire stops pretty quickly. There weren't any sounds of trucks or cars screeching out in the streets. Did somebody actually win? Are the raiders gone?

She steeled her nervous mind and decided that of there was no more gunfire through the night, she'd take her first step outside in months. She can't pass up the chance that someone survived, that someone survived.

She went to the entrance the next morning. Not a sound was heard after the initial fight. So like she told herself, she was going to check, just to make sure.

As she opened the hatch, the grass that had grown over it ripped apart. The light blinded her, the smell of the grass and flowers pleasantly bombarded her nose, and the sound of birds chirping had never been so dearly welcomed.

She looked around in amazement as she looked at what her yard had turned into. Her fence had been knocked over, which was lame, but more noticeable than that was that there were flowers everywhere.

She smiled brightly at the flowers, there were bees buzzing gently from flower to flower, birds chirping in the branches of the tree in her backyard. It was beautiful, after the crushing loneliness of being in the bunker, she could hardly believe what she was seeing.

She spent another minute gazing at the flowers before being startled by the sound of footsteps. The survivor quickly turned and aimed her pistol at the source of the sound only to be even more surprised as she saw an older man, a woman and what appeared to be a young child very heavily wrapped in a blanket in the woman's arms.

The survivor lowered her gun as she stared at the group. "Who are you three?"

The man and the woman looked at each other before speaking. The woman nodded and looked at the survivor, "We're just a few survivors from some raider attacks. None of us really know each other, but after a fight broke out last night we decided to look around and see who else might be out here."

The survivor blinked and processed what the woman had said. "So, there was a fight last night, and you decided to go out and look for other survivors? If that's true, then why the old man? Why the baby? This hardly seems like a search group of proper makeup."

The man stepped up as the woman turned her head away at the questions, "We're all that left."

The survivor looked at the three. They can't be raiders, no way an old dude and a baby were ever gonna be raiders. But is this really all that's left? How many people died last night?

The survivor took a deep breath. Well, if they aren't raiders, and they're telling the truth, then what should I do? I guess I should help them. Is there really another choice?

The survivor looked at the three people, "Do y'all like potatoes?"

They all surround me, these strange creatures that look like grizzly bear sized koalas.

They probably resurrected the wrong person, or at least thought that humans had strange customs as I proceeded to pass out in front of all of them.

Several of the creatures run over to make sure I didn't just die on the spot. After checking my pulse, they carry my body to a secluded location.

I wake up a few hours later, my body aches horribly for some reason. I look around, everything seems normal. My memories are all fuzzy though, like really fuzzy.

I hear someone walking towards me so I turn around and see some 7 and a half foot koala walking up to me. My eyes widen as I back away from it, falling off of the table I had been laying on.

I hit the ground and the air in my lungs all leaves as I get winded. The koala thing runs up to me, somehow I swore it just said "Ope".

The koala runs up to me and kneels down on its hind legs like a person would, "Human? Are you okay?"

I don't speak, I just stare at the thing as it asks me if I'm alright. The koala stays kneeling beside me as it stares at me for a second, long enough that I notice it's not wearing any clothes.

The koala then bends over and picks me up without warning and plops me back on the table.

I shake with fear, not knowing that it was about to pick me up and that it did so that easily.

I wrap my arms around myself tightly as the thing starts pulling out some very familiar medical equipment. It takes out a blood pressure measuring tool.

I look at it and scooch away from it, jeeping my eyes on the equipment.

The koala clears its throat by making a horrible grunting noise before speaking, " Human, give me your arm so I can ensure you're healthy."

I gulp, finally gathering the courage to speak, "What are you?!"

The thing stares at me blankly, "I am a koala, can't you tell?"

I become confused, I see that it looks like a koala, but there's no way it's actually a koala.

"So, what happened? I was dead wasn't I? Why does everything look the same as when there were more humans here? What in the world happened to koalas?"

The giant koala smiles and puts a hand on my shoulder, "All will explained in time, first we need to make sure that you're healthy before we show you around."

My eyes widen, "Show me around?"

The koala grabs my arm to take my blood pressure, "Of course, you're the first human we were able to wake up, so get ready to be... examined more."

"What?"

"Examined, like this test here, but with more needles and stuff."

I go to run, ripping my arm away from the machine, but I was caught immediately by the giant creature's hand. He grabbed me and smiled, "No no no, we have too much planned for you to be running off now."

Sorry, I know this doesn't have much to do with your story there, but your post reminded me of it. I met my new dentist two weeks ago, he said I looked like an English teacher. As a creative writing major, this was a nice compliment.

You wanted a pet when you were a kid, so after accidentally running over a kid who's last wish is to pet a puppy, you feel obligated to fulfill it. The only problem is, you've never actually seen a dog before let alone a puppy, and the weight of this task is starting to grip you by the balls as this kid's death looms closer.

I think a story about a hacker following someone across every device would be interesting.

What is the best thing about someone who is shy?

My thoughts were racing as I tipped the pure alcohol bottle towards the petri dish. Personally I was disgusted by the bacteria on it.

It was green, spotty, moist, and worst of all was it came from my face! I couldn't be more disgusted with myself and I knew that I would never see my body the same again, but that wasn't important right now.

What did matter was of this was going to work. The ritual itself is meant to restore a person's youth.

I'll admit that I am by no means old but my 20's are almost behind me, and I'm not ready to decline in all manners of health just yet!

My biggest concern wasn't really if this would work, but rather what might happen if it did.

Would it be as harmless as the bacteria has only been alive for a few days and therefore the sacrifice would only make me a few days younger?

My fear gripped me tight as I imagined the worse possiblity that if it does work and the bacteria on that tray included skin pieces that are as old as I am then I'd become a defenseless baby again!

Then again that is impossible. No part of the human body exposed to the outer layers is truly as old as the human body itself. With all of the skin we shed I'd actually be surprised if there was any living human tissue in that dish.

But wait! What if the ritual sees the age more than the form of the sacrifice?! The bacteria is only days old! It'll think I'm sacrificing babies!

In that moment I put the petri dish down, setting the alcohol aside. "I can't do it...I just can't."

I stared at the bacteria. It disgusted me greatly, but the risks were just too great. "Honestly, I've probably aged more in the last five minutes than I have in the past month. This can't be worth it."

I grab the dish and blow out the candles, sighing before calmly walking upstairs.

I toss the petri dish in the trash and walk towards the sink. "Really, I bet I'd at least feel a few years younger if I jogged three times a week. You know what? I actually think I'd like that!"

I smile to myself before squirting the hand sanitizer on my hands and rubbing them thoroughly.

I laugh, the joy of the idea of being healthy is as easy as taking a pleasure walk through the park was already making me feel younger!

My laughter soon ended as I noticed my skin start to feel more supple, smoother. I watched as my skin got plump and then skinny again as my hands steadily became smaller and less developed.

I gasped, "The ritual! Oh no! The sanitizer!!! Nooo!!! I was right!"

Before long all that remained was a pile of clothes on the floor and an underdeveloped embryo too small to even be noticed by the human eye.

This is actually some really great feedback! Thank you so much! I'll make sure to try and remember when I'm doing the next one!

I really do appreciate the feedback, I very much hope to improve with practice.

Hey thanks! I appreciate that you're trying to help me. Honestly I need more support, I tend to be way too hard on myself despite just starting out. I really do appreciate your help.

Hey thanks for the criticism, I really do appreciate it. This was my first time writing a prompt like this, I wasn't sure what to do and by the end of it I couldn't be bothered to write something completely different. Thanks for taking your time to help me!

I know that it's way more than 500 words, but it felt right. I hope y'all enjoy it.

I remember when I was still 16, I was almost out of highschool with only one more year left. I had the most amazing plan to get rich and retire before I was 40. How incredible it would have been, but like God tried to tell me, I should have held onto my plans loosely.

You see I had only a month and half of school left. At that time we were being prepped for something called an ACT test. Don't ask me what it stood for because I didn't care enough to even try to remember it even back then.The point was that the ACT test was my ticket into college.

Without a good score on that test I was never going to afford my degree. But like I said, I made plans, and I should have held onto them with a loose grip. Like I said there was only a month and half of school left, and I had maybe 3 weeks before I took the ACT test, but over the news a fire had spread that a strange disease was rapidly spreading.

I was shocked that over the intercom was an announcement that school was going to be closed for am entire month. There were so many people (students of course) who were absolutely overjoyed about no school for a full month, I however was...and still am to dome degree, more realistic than they were. I understood that no school for a month sounded fun, but I also knew that something that serious was dangerous, and that it would greatly affect everyone's lives.

Now I'm not gonna bore you with all the details of what happened during the lockdown, but I will tell you that my plans to go to college were nearly shattered. God did want me to go to college, but it wasn't the way I was hoping for. I did end up taking the test again, I unfortunately made the lowest passing score that allowed me to get into college.

My plan had been to work a job through the summer, finish my last year of highschool, work that summer again, and then have a part-time job while in college while having all of my expenses paid for by the test score I was hoping to make.

Instead, I didn't work a job either of those summers nor my first year of college. My father helped me pay for the first year of college and I had no real income. I did of course get what I wanted and avoided being in debt, but being in that low place of not being able to afford anything showed me something.

I learned that it was okay to depend on other people. It's okay to trust someone with what matters to you. But something I really learned was that God has a plan for me, and He has one for you too.

I understand that God may not be everyone's favorite person for one reason or another, and I'm sure there are some valid reasons out there, but I want you to have faith. Faith in God is what kept me going, He kept me alive when I couldn't handle the weight of this world.

My plans to retire before I was 40 wasn't His plan, and I had to learn to let that go, because He had a much better idea. His plan was that I was going to move into a place of my own, and when I did, I was going to meet the most beautiful woman I've ever met.

That woman loved God more than herself, more than anything, more than me even, and that was perfect. Her love for God would overflow into the lives of all those around her, and so much so that it would even lead to you.

Sophia, I know you didn't get the chance to know your mother well, and I know that I was never the father you needed, not by myself, but don't let that change anything. Don't let your heart be hardened by your scars.

You have a daughter of your own now, and she is the happiest little girl I've ever seen. I know you'll do such amazing things Sophia, and I know that you will be the mother that child deserves. You have your mother's heart, so I pray you always turn to God with your worries. And remember, hold your plans loosely, God always has something better in mind.

I know that by the time you get here it will probably be too late, but I want you know that I love you so much. And I don't want you to blame yourself for moving as far away as you did, I completely understand.

I'm asking the doctor to give this to you shortly after you arrive. Remember that your husband is trying his best, and that your daughter will prove challenging at times, but especially that I believe in you, I always have. I love you Sophia, and I always will. -Dad