Halette had seen it so many times in films that she hadn't thought twice when she needed a place to hide. She had rounded the corner at the end of the alley and saw the dumpster sitting there, a once-shining-but-now-rusted beacon of hope, and scrambled toward it. Her nose had briefly registered an unpleasant odor as she approached the metal bin, but she didn't have time to second-guess her decision. She needed a place to hide and there were no other options.
The smell from outside had been a pungent mixture of sun-baked, rotting meat and decomposing vegetable matter. The smell from within was so much worse. She struggled to breathe as little as possible, refusing to breathe through her mouth for fear that she would taste the foul odor, and listened for her pursuers' footsteps. To her dismay, the footsteps approached and then stopped right next to the dumpster.
"Where did she go?" growled one of the men.
"Damned if I know," responded another, his voice slightly muffled. "Hells, this bin reeks! Let's check down the side alley."
Halette spilled out of the bin the moment she felt it was safe and gasped in clean air. She scurried down the alley, backtracking in an attempt to lose the men searching for her, and did her best to ignore the smell that clung to her hair, skin, and clothes.
Thanks go out to @mariannewest for providing these daily prompts. Today's can be found here!
Image sourced from Pixabay.
You are one of the few who used the prompt as given!! well done!
Thanks! :-) It was a tough prompt and I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep the phrase unaltered.
You described the smell so well that I could smell it and taste it...ewww! : )
Haha, sorry!
Very accurate and well written as all your freewrites! I liked the part of tasting the smell :-D
I was sleeping in my cosy and red velvet upholstered coffin, down in the basement of the Old Steemian Home, when Marianne West knocked on the lacquered cover and whispered to me today’s prompt delicacies!
Option 1 Single prompt:
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/weekend-freewrite-2-3-2018-single-prompt-option
Option 2, weekend freewrite in three parts:
https://steemit.com/weekendfreewrite/@mariannewest/weekend-freewrite-2-3-2018-part-1-the-first-sentence
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/weekend-freewrite-2-3-2018-prompt-2-the-interference
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/the-weekend-freewrite-2-3-2018-part-3-the-dramatic-twist
When I think about all the things that can be found i n a dumpster I shudder. My best dumpster memory is of a dishwasher who wasn't afraid to go and retreive a $100.00 tip that was in a newspaper that ended up in the dumpster afer I repotted a sickley plant when I was a waitress.
Well $100 is a big tip!
This is brilliant! I want more! :)
I'll have to see if I can continue it with a future freewrite prompt. :-)