ROUND 1 Theme
"LABYRINTH"
LABYRINTH — You can use this as loosely or directly as you'd like. A labyrinth of self-reflexive examination? A literal maze? Adventures in the Minotaur's Labyrinth? Recovering babies from evil Muppets led by David Bowie? Somehow explore the concept of a LABYRINTH however you see fit, as long as it is identifiable.
Enjoy these drabbles written during Round 1 of the
March 2014 DRABBLED Tournament
March 2014 DRABBLED Tournament
round 1
match 1
DRABBLE A - WINNER
"AN ABANDONED CORN MAZE & OUTER SPACE" The fair left last week, fading from the town's memory like a deranged neon hitchhiker in the rearview. A while back we drank a bit of gin and navigated through the corn maze. We stopped and you started talking about outer space while I thought about trying to kiss you. That seemed more interesting than outer space or corn mazes at the time. Things were good for a few days until he said he loved you again. Someone will cut down the maze eventually. Something will probably be paved over our happy gin soaked ghosts. Hopefully it's a Taco Bell. by C. Card |
DRABBLE B
"KLUBBO" All I wanted to do was throw out my milk-crate coffee table. Only a month away from turning thirty-one, I figured it’s about time I moved away from the function over form mentality that I've developed through years of borderline poverty. My newly acquired employment at the local food-fryer has ensured a level of financial security that demanded I find a more attractive empty beer can and junk-mail display table. After all, I’m single now. Nothing says untamed sexual energy like new furniture. This in mind, I set foot inside the Emeryville Ikea. That was seven days ago. Send help. by Constable Butternut |
ROUND 1
MATCH 2
DRABBLE A
"MINOTAUR" He ran through the darkness for hours before finding the first message. Red letters smeared crazily across the labyrinth walls. LET ME OUT. The last testament of some former captive, no doubt. The man kept running. He had no idea how many corners he'd turned when the beast finally found him. It all ended in seconds, a violent melee of ripped flesh and shattered bone. The beast dipped its talons into the mess it had created and reached up to the wall. It dragged the tip of one bloody claw across the black bricks of the labyrinth. LET ME OUT. by Bangin on a Trashcan |
DRABBLE B - WINNER
"SEEING & BELIEVING" Frank was born into this world much the same way we fall asleep. He owned around eight cell-phones making him the Hermes of his dark domain. A phone call was his compass. I ate today—no need to bring me anything. I brought him nothing. He still ate. We never saw the same thing. For what was and what is, is not and was not to Frank. Frank cannot imagine things. “Frank, do you dream?” I noticed a smile. He felt it. Yes. “What do you dream about?” …being outside... Being. Outside. A dream was not wishful thinking to him. by Praji Noskes |
ROUND 1
MATCH 3
DRABBLE A
"SAME AS IT NEVER WAS" This entry finds me embracing my supernatural predicament to be paradise. Now, everything’s new. I faintly recall falling from the wall, nearly grasping freedom. I likely landed headfirst, mortally thwacking my skull. Awaiting death, the Sorcerer’s curse awakened me to an unpopulated land that disorients by morphing its topography every “morning.” I‘ve lost sense of time, actually. I scribble wherever I find scraps, but describing this curious purgatory proves ineffable. I’m writing myself out of a corner and into oblivion. But my pencil’s dulling. Unstoppable transformations assure my paradise never dulls, each day a different dream. Nightmare. Where was I? by Illustrated Man |
DRABBLE B - WINNER
"AFFAIR" David was excited to go to a Boris Rosen party. Boris was a total success. Becky said people got lost in his books. But arriving, David only had one question for the host: “Where’s your bathroom?” Boris pointed. David went, turned left, another left, a right, another right, another hall, left again, then stopped. He was lost. He could hear the party, could hear Becky talking to Boris. An hour later, he pissed on the carpet and continued searching. He heard Becky leave, a distant sound, as the party ended, and David continued, left, right, right again, left again, alone. by Mr. Medusa |
ROUND 1
MATCH 4
DRABBLE A - WINNER
"WISTAR" Since the needle, everything changed. The maze is rank with the pungent scent of industrial sanitizer. It's in the cedar chips beneath my paws and the wooden blocks around me. The white fur that used to clothe me is gone. Now the smell has soaked into my naked skin. They don't want us to smell the cheese. They want us to remember the way. Right, left, straight, right, left. They've been giving her the needle as well, the other one. But not the same needle. She leaves claw marks as a guide. I scratch the left wall and head right. by MTMyers |
DRABBLE B
"BEDTIME STORY" “Tell me again about the giant that tried to eat you!” The giant slept, so I ventured into his lair. I slipped while advancing on a wounded mosquito and landed in a large bowl, sides so slippery there seemed no escape. The giant rumbled. The sky darkened. A labyrinth of limp, long, wet, branches crushed upon me. I lost sight. Suddenly, I was floating toward the giant’s gaping mouth. A yellow eye fixed directly on me. Then came a deafening... SHRIEK! I thumped upon the floor and scurried away never looking back. I will never forget that sound. I can't. by Brobdingnagian |
ROUND 1
MATCH 5
DRABBLE A - WINNER
"THE CEREAL KILLER" "HELLLLLLLP! I've been stuck in this cereal-box-maze for days!" David put his pen on the Little Man and he tried to jump out of the way. David didn't know the little man needed help. He couldn't have known. David stabbed his pen through the Little Man and the Little Man died. David threw out the cereal box and went to bed. David awoke, shocked. That was a was a weird dream he thought as he headed to the kitchen for breakfast. He finished his cereal, stabbed another Little Man and threw out another box. David awoke, shocked...and so on. by Bland Bananarama |
DRABBLE B
"CONSTRUCTION" “Reporting live from Knossos, this is Euphemios with ςδετ at sunset.” “...and we're out. Nice job.” "Holy fuckin’ Hades, did you guys see that? He barely got outta there. Aeschylus, did you get all that?” “I think so, you were talking pretty fast at the end, I should be able to chip in the rest later.” “Good, I’ma need that tomorrow. Send it to Crete. Wait til they hear this, Daedalus must be half dead. I can’t believe he finished the thing.” “Good Zeus, it’s incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it. Do you think it’ll hold?” “Two pieces says no.” by Eddie Slydes |
ROUND 1
MATCH 6
DRABBLE A - WINNER
"ENIGMAN" I was eight. My sister, ten. We were on vacation with our father in Florida. Our parents recently divorced. At a putt-putt golf course, my sister and I bickered incessantly. Dad lost it. He heaved his club and it splashed into the mini pond. Pure rage. He peeled out of the parking lot. People stared. My sister and I sat together. Abandoned on a bench. Will he ever come back? He did. Two hours later we climbed into his car. He said nothing. Neither did we. Back to the hotel. Back home. We've never spoken of it. He never will. by An Owl Hoo Says What |
DRABBLE B
"AL DENTE & THE NINE CIRCLES OF HELL" Chewed up and swallowed, I slid down with the muck into darkness. It was warm. Coming to a fork, I was forced down the tunnel where the wind didn't blow. Plunged into a vile, bubbling sea of slush, I swam, skin burning. Everything weighed me down, but I moved on. Heavy. Heavier. A river caught me and took me fast, gurgling and gasping, through a labyrinth of tunnels; through burning, stinking gases. I cursed my god! Then my end came. I free fell into a frigid sea with the rest of the waste; at the bottom; disappeared down the drain. by Quentin Dan Marino |
ROUND 1
MATCH 7
DRABBLE A - WINNER
"UNTITLED" Samantha had never been to an orgy before and now that she had finally made it, she had to use the bathroom. The man in the spandex suit mumbled, "Down the hall, take a left, then a right." Or maybe it was, "Down the hall, to the right, make a left." Samantha started to feel uneasy as she started down the hall and opened the first door to the right. "Oh, I'm sorry!" She exclaimed to the man dressed as a cat. She opened the door to the left and murmured, "Hi mom." This was the last orgy Samantha attended. by Katelin |
DRABBLE B
Player disqualified. |
ROUND 1
MATCH 8
DRABBLE A - WINNER
"BE SHREWD, DANNY" Jack, you beast! I cackled, spewing fractal-laughter at Nicholson’s pristine, over-the-top performance. The university theatre sparkled. My fellow film students kindly ignored my current condition. Take him to the fucking Labyrinth, Danny! I howled, realizing I’d never before digested Kubrick’s masterpiece and psilocybin simultaneously. The icy maze devoured me. I assumed the fetal position on the floor in front of my seat. Hypothermia setting in, I was damn near done for. Run, Danny! Run! Be shrewd, Danny! Be shrewd! I rooted passionately for the goddamn kid while on my back, my life flickering before my eyes. Danny: 1 Jack: 0 by Laszlo Pentagram |
DRABBLE B
"HIM" I resist, keeping my eyes closed to the entanglement of our limbs and souls while deep velvety tones swarm upon my lids. My chest rises and falls beneath his weight, gently pressing into me. The warmth of his breath whispers through my veins and blood rises up in rosy blooms against the peach creams of my cheeks. A labyrinth of nerves connects his voice—his touch—to the place in between, where life and love begin, where they end, eternally. Trembling, I lose myself in the maze of his eyes and I know I will never find my way out. by Zorro Pochahontas |