Source: Rawpixel LTD/Flickr
The Scottish mage couldn’t bear to tell Joseph that his wife, Bethany, had moved on and married a fast-talking, Grecian Hair Formula-loving, admittedly good looking and virile older man; the younger man was in enough pain as it was.
The mage chuckled grimly as he mentally probed down into the older man’s cellular level and noted the creeping neurotoxins that would soon spread to his internal organs: Such was the price of vanity!
He thought of Bethany, and immediately arrived, through the Shadow World, on the woman’s back steps, sitting next to her as she sipped her first cup of morning coffee; she gagged at the taste and dumped her cup in a scraggly pot of Chrysanthemums gone leggy.
Behind her, inside the house, Andrew and Eloise guffawed as the television clunked and boinged, skidded and crashed, with whatever was airing on the Cartoon Flight Spectaculanza Channel.
The mage turned his attention back to Bethany, for whom he had begun to feel protective, due to Joseph’s absence in her life and his tragic presence in his own half-life, and he scanned her, worried that she might be ill. Probing deeper, he followed to whence he was beckoned, and noted an excitation of cells and a swirling of spirit – no, two spirits – followed by a cascade of giggles.
© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2022)
The challenge? Write a story in 6 sentences, no more & no less, and if you’d like, share your creation or just visit and comment on others’ ideas, with GirlieOnTheEdge, Denise. The prompt is “COFFEE”, and here’s where you join the party: Six Sentence Stories
Valley of the Trolls 
And the mage shows compassion. My confidence does not waver Joseph will be lifted from the shadow world and reunited with all those whom he loves but! at what cost?! Mystery abounds, Liz. Keep it going.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The prompts & length constraints have been great inspirations…
LikeLike
It’s all happening, Liz!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes indeedy!
LikeLike
You really do have a way with cliffhangers!
LikeLike
😹😹Stay tuned!
LikeLike
This Six felt like a superbly executed montage where the camera flows, without a cut, from person to person; it can result to nausea if poorly done. No such issue here!
Are we heading for ….Peaks?
(Grecian hair formula loving…lolol )
LikeLiked by 1 person
She shoots, she scores!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
super job again
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks!
LikeLike
Always moving forward -good installment
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, UP!
LikeLike
Oh, leave us on the brink, why don’t you? 😉 What on earth has the Mage sensed here?
But can he reunite Joseph and Bethany?
LikeLiked by 2 people
He should get by with a little help from his friends…
LikeLike
Damn! (Nicely subtle foreshadowing*)
Very enjoyable installment (while refreshing our Reader-memories of the cast of characters in a manner subtle).
* or would that be ‘Portending’?
LikeLiked by 1 person
*with me, very much “Pretending.”
Yep, after the swing into the past, we’re circling around to the base storyline.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No wonder the chrysanths are looking so straggly. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
At least it’s not Starbuck’s she’s dumping. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
An excellent next installment. Poor Joseph.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Mimi. This nice guy…will he finish last?
LikeLike
Oooh, naughty spirits… Such a cliffhanger… And I really sunk into this one.
LikeLiked by 1 person