The Winners of the 17th Challenge Are... (Without Banners)
1st Place - dryler
Wounds that Heal
It always starts with the heart. The distant, rhythmic thump echoes in the darkness of death. Every beat is a step closer to consciousness, and the gasping breath to fill neglected lungs that marks the transition, the line between dead and alive.
This time is no different.
One part is variable though. This time there’s the sharp pull of freshly healed flesh that used to be a bullet hole, other times it’s the lungs that burn from being too full or too empty, sometimes it’s the nerves, still screaming from the harsh jolt of electricity.
“You didn’t even try to avoid it!” Gwen screams when I open my eyes.
“I’m fine. I’m always fine.”
She gives me a hard look, before her hand slams down onto the bloody hole in my shirt. Shit, I just bought this shirt.
I flinch as sharp, hot pain twists through the invisible wound.
“If I didn’t love you, I’d hate you,” she states harshly, tears just starting to well around the base of her bottom lashes. She hits me again, but it doesn’t hurt so much this time.
“I know,” I mutter, pulling her down against my chest.
When she speaks again, it’s a barely there whisper breathed into my shirt. “What if you don’t come back?”
Picking up her hand, I place it over my heart, pressing it down firmly under my own hand.
“I’ll always come back to you.”
2nd Place - weeping_angel91
Speak Now, or Forever Hold Your Peace…
Speak now, or forever hold your peace…
That line is quite ironic really…
I can’t even think about it without feeling the pain. My heart aches so badly that I just want to tear it from my body. I never told her exactly how much she meant to me. And now she’ll never know. I suppose I could tell her, but it would just ruin everything. I need her to keep a grip on reality. And if that means marrying him… then so be it. He’ll keep her grounded. He’ll love her. He’ll be her shoulder to cry on.
But…
I can do all that too.
Before we met, I was slowly picking up the pieces of a broken heart. She was the band-aid sticking all the fragments together. I remember when I was a kid; I fell over and cut my knee. My mom told me that pulling the plaster off would be quick and painless. She lied. There’s no pain like it. At the time, I didn’t know what hurt more; cutting my knee in the first place or ripping it off. That’s what it felt like when she said those two words. I do. It was quick, but far from painless. That plaster she’d used to mend my broken heart had been torn off. I’ve died hundreds of agonizing deaths, but none could compare to the way I felt in that moment.
And when we danced?
Talk about kicking a man while he’s down…
3rd Place - emsiej
Saved
As she came to she sat bolt upright, wincing at the large bump forming on her head, shivering with the cold, her breath creating a fog infront of her face.
She saw him on the floor, and moving to his side pressed her hand flat against cold skin, hoping, waiting.
Suddenly she felt the thump, thump, thump, his eyes opened, immediately training themselves on her face, sparkling and blue in contrast to the pitch black sky, his hand pulling her down to him, her chest pressed tightly to his, and in that moment she knew she had already been saved.
3rd Place - talkingtothesky
The Sleeping Dead
She dreams that her heart has actually been torn out of her chest and wired into the centre of the machine that is Torchwood. It’s put on show in the centre of the Hub for all to poke and laugh and ogle at. Poor Gwen Cooper’s bleeding heart, they laugh and she wants to scream but can’t, not without a heart. Instead she stares down at the gaping, jagged hole in her chest and feels nothing at all. She must be dead.
When she wakes, Jack is there. He’s curled himself carefully around her as he sleeps, holding her. Slowly, fearfully, she looks down at her chest again. To her relief, there is no bloody jagged chasm where her life should be. She breathes deeply; glad to feel the steady pulse thrumming through her veins. Then she snuggles against Jack’s chest. And feels no pulse there at all.
~~~~~
Congratulations, and I hope you join us for our next challenge.
Wounds that Heal
It always starts with the heart. The distant, rhythmic thump echoes in the darkness of death. Every beat is a step closer to consciousness, and the gasping breath to fill neglected lungs that marks the transition, the line between dead and alive.
This time is no different.
One part is variable though. This time there’s the sharp pull of freshly healed flesh that used to be a bullet hole, other times it’s the lungs that burn from being too full or too empty, sometimes it’s the nerves, still screaming from the harsh jolt of electricity.
“You didn’t even try to avoid it!” Gwen screams when I open my eyes.
“I’m fine. I’m always fine.”
She gives me a hard look, before her hand slams down onto the bloody hole in my shirt. Shit, I just bought this shirt.
I flinch as sharp, hot pain twists through the invisible wound.
“If I didn’t love you, I’d hate you,” she states harshly, tears just starting to well around the base of her bottom lashes. She hits me again, but it doesn’t hurt so much this time.
“I know,” I mutter, pulling her down against my chest.
When she speaks again, it’s a barely there whisper breathed into my shirt. “What if you don’t come back?”
Picking up her hand, I place it over my heart, pressing it down firmly under my own hand.
“I’ll always come back to you.”
2nd Place - weeping_angel91
Speak Now, or Forever Hold Your Peace…
Speak now, or forever hold your peace…
That line is quite ironic really…
I can’t even think about it without feeling the pain. My heart aches so badly that I just want to tear it from my body. I never told her exactly how much she meant to me. And now she’ll never know. I suppose I could tell her, but it would just ruin everything. I need her to keep a grip on reality. And if that means marrying him… then so be it. He’ll keep her grounded. He’ll love her. He’ll be her shoulder to cry on.
But…
I can do all that too.
Before we met, I was slowly picking up the pieces of a broken heart. She was the band-aid sticking all the fragments together. I remember when I was a kid; I fell over and cut my knee. My mom told me that pulling the plaster off would be quick and painless. She lied. There’s no pain like it. At the time, I didn’t know what hurt more; cutting my knee in the first place or ripping it off. That’s what it felt like when she said those two words. I do. It was quick, but far from painless. That plaster she’d used to mend my broken heart had been torn off. I’ve died hundreds of agonizing deaths, but none could compare to the way I felt in that moment.
And when we danced?
Talk about kicking a man while he’s down…
3rd Place - emsiej
Saved
As she came to she sat bolt upright, wincing at the large bump forming on her head, shivering with the cold, her breath creating a fog infront of her face.
She saw him on the floor, and moving to his side pressed her hand flat against cold skin, hoping, waiting.
Suddenly she felt the thump, thump, thump, his eyes opened, immediately training themselves on her face, sparkling and blue in contrast to the pitch black sky, his hand pulling her down to him, her chest pressed tightly to his, and in that moment she knew she had already been saved.
3rd Place - talkingtothesky
The Sleeping Dead
She dreams that her heart has actually been torn out of her chest and wired into the centre of the machine that is Torchwood. It’s put on show in the centre of the Hub for all to poke and laugh and ogle at. Poor Gwen Cooper’s bleeding heart, they laugh and she wants to scream but can’t, not without a heart. Instead she stares down at the gaping, jagged hole in her chest and feels nothing at all. She must be dead.
When she wakes, Jack is there. He’s curled himself carefully around her as he sleeps, holding her. Slowly, fearfully, she looks down at her chest again. To her relief, there is no bloody jagged chasm where her life should be. She breathes deeply; glad to feel the steady pulse thrumming through her veins. Then she snuggles against Jack’s chest. And feels no pulse there at all.
~~~~~
Congratulations, and I hope you join us for our next challenge.