I ran the concept of the assignment through my mind again, “Write a Thriller“. I had a history with this genre, horror movies were more frequently watched than cartoons when I was a little girl.
As I learned how to read and use the library, I went directly to the “scary stories” section. The subjects that intrigued me the most revolved around terror of a psychological nature, making it no surprise that I developed a love for The Twilight Zone series.
However, the intrigue of my childhood started to haunt my maturing unconscious. During my teenage years I became plagued with dreams of an apocalyptic nature. Images of destruction and death caused me to wake up in a panic. In one dream I can recall vividly, the earth stopped spinning. The sun just remained where it was in the sky. The whole world panicked, even in my dream I could feel the terror of the masses.
I got up from my desk, pondering whether or not to watch a horror movie to help brew inspiration. I thought better of it, in my adulthood scary movies could truly terrify me, and the previously mentioned theme of dreams always followed. Instead I sat on the porch with a cup of tea and enjoyed the rest of the daylight.
Another week went by and I was still just thinking about my writing assignment. My sleep was suffering, as my probing for an idea set my terrifying dreams into motion, but I couldn’t pull a solid story from the jumble of images that I could recall upon awakening.
Instead of blankly staring at my computer, I decided to head into work to get some extra hours. It was around 5 p.m. when I left, the September sun caused me to pull my visor down as I drove to the office.
I lost track of time working on a piece highlighting local heroes. My stomach rumbling was my cue to head home for dinner.
As I walked to my car, half distracted by the cell phone in my hand; I noticed a frightening trend on my Twitter feed. One particular tweet caught my eye, “It is still dark here! Why hasn’t the sun come up!?” A strange feeling came over me, I looked up at the September sun, still shining down as it was when I left my home. The clock on my cell phone read 9 p.m. My thriller had written itself.