Happy Friday Fictioneers. Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for leading and hosting the group. This week’s photo was provided by J. Hardy Carroll. Thank you.
Friday Fictioneers is a writing group, challenged to write a 100-word story based on a photo. My 99-word story follows.
(99 words)
Broken
Deviant delinquents and abandoned outcasts walk the path to the Farley Home for Boys. They arrive in a room no bigger than a doorway for processing. A narrow table. One chair for staff. They stand. Their words are few, for they are trapped within themselves, buried or beyond reach.
Stripped bare, they swim in a vast vat of liquids filled with chemicals. On cold, blood-spattered tile, they are pricked and prodded with needles. After a period of isolation, they join the broken.
They etch their names outside on the walls of brick, visible scars of the hurt drowned inside.
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For more stories from the Fictioneers, click here.
AmyReeseWrites 
Dark and hopeless and very well done.
Hope you have a great weekend ahead, Amy!
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It is quite hopeless, isn’t it? Thanks so much, Carrie. It means a lot me. Have a great weekend yourself!
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I’d love to learn more about this Farley Home for Boys. Sounds like it could be the setting for a fascinating novel. Well written!
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Thanks. I’m glad it spiked your interest. Thanks for the nice compliment.
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A truly bleak tale.
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I agree. Thanks for reading.
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Well written, Amy. Even though I don’t know anything about any of them, I feel sorry for all of their souls!
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Thank you, Tom. I have created quite a bleak situation. I hope there’s a light for them somewhere.
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I am heart broken by your words. So vivid. Wow Amy.
Love it
Tracey
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Thanks for the wonderful compliment, Tracey. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
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Oooo! Well done Amy! 🙂
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Thank you, Courtney!
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Breaks my heart too. “rapped within themselves, buried or beyond reach” is such a powerful line. No future for them. So sad.
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Thanks, Gah. I appreciate your comments. I’d like to think there’s hope somehow.
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Feels like the apocalypse just happened, a few unlucky sots survived, and when they came to, this is what they awoke to.
Swimming in chemicals… that evokes quite an image. Reminds me of that weirdo (and also horrible) Scarlett Johannsen movie where she lures men into an inky black pool that melts out their innards. I’d rather watch your version of that.
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Thanks, Trent. I think this is one of more dark pieces. It’s worse when these things happen to young people, even if they went down the wrong path in life. It makes it worse actually. I’ve never seen that movie I don’t think. That sounds pretty ghastly. Chemicals could be horrific too. I appreciate the compliment that mine wins! 🙂
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I am very jealous of this presentation of yours…very deep and well done!
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Thanks, Mihran. You’re so thoughtful.
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Wow. Very painful, very dark. Very well-written.
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Thanks so much, Jan! I appreciate it.
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Very dark and miserable – I love it! 😉
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Thanks, Dianne. I’m glad you enjoyed my miserable story. It is sad.
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Dark, depressing with a hint of danger. You did it well!
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There definitely could be danger. Thanks so much!
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Very dark and filled with desperation. Great piece!
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I couldn’t find any humor in this one. Glad you liked it. Thank you, Ali.
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Good Lord, Amy! That’s some horrendous processing! Love everything about this! Very strong imagery. That building definitely evokes unsettling feelings – like it definitely could have housed tortured souls… love your take on it! xo
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What a terrible way to begin, right? They must think they’ve entered a torture chamber. Unsettling is a great way to describe this photo prompt. I totally agree. Thanks so much for your feedback and your lovely comments, Kelly. xox
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My pleasure as always, you know that. xoxo
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And eerie look into the what once was.
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Thank you, Frank. I hope these days are gone.
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So creepy and just what the picture suggests!
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Thanks, Barbara. Glad you liked it. Thanks again for the share. 🙂
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Wow! So powerful and full of amazing imagery. I love this.
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Thanks so much for the lovely comments, Claire. It means a lot to me.
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just wondering what happens when they reach adulthood? where will they go?
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That is an excellent question, Plaridel. Let’s hope on to productive lives and not prison.
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Oh my gosh! This is tragic, so sad. But wow what a place, so creepy and dark. Great piece, I hope at least some of the boys get out in day?
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Thanks so much, Laurie. I hope their future is brighter. There’s always hope.
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Makes one want to know what brought them to this place and WHAT is this place? Good intrigue, Amy.
Lily
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I think it’s not a very good place, Lily! It’s bad, bad. Thanks so much for your comments.
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For processing…right away we are taken to a dark place. Good verbage!
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Thank you, Dawn. This processing is downright dreary.
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😉
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What a ghastly process for the poor wayward boys who have to enter this ‘home’. You’ve captured the bleak, hopeless atmosphere superbly, Amy. Well told.
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Thanks, Margaret. It’s not much of a home, is it? Thanks for the kind words.
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I feel I’m taken back to when outcasts could be used to experiment… did you know that in Sweden they tested the effect of sugar on teeth on mental patients… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipeholm_experiments Your place sounds something like that to me…
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That sounds horrible, Bjorn. No one deserves that kind of inhumane treatment. This place could be like one of those places.
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Dear Amy,
Well written but, oh, so dark and disturbing.
Shaldom,
Rochelle
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Thank you, Rochelle. Yeah, I can go there.
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The quest for people has been success.
Nice work, Amy. Lots of darkness, yes, but also something to think about.
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Thanks, Kent. Glad it got you thinking.
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Grim but good 🙂
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Thank you!
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Tragic story but well written. You manage to conjure a bleak and hopeless scenario with few words. Nicely done. Seems this pic inspired many of us to the dark – myself included 🙂
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I agree. The darkness has definitely come out this week with this prompt. Thanks for the nice comments and for stopping by!
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Pleasure. All the best in your journey through the Dark Side 🙂
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A bath and inoculations are one thing. What worries the heck out of me are the “blood-spattered floors. It sounds like some kind of horrendous, torturous sect that’s gathered them in with a promise of sanctuary then beats the heck out of them to make them completely submissive. Well done, Amy. —- Suzanne
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I agree it doesn’t conjure very pleasant images. I think anything could go in this place, Suzanne, like the things you describe. Thanks for much for your thoughtful comments. Glad you liked my story.
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And we wonder why there is so much trouble and danger in the world. Thought provoking
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Thank you, Mike. There’s no shortage of danger in the world it seems. Thanks for reading and taking time to comment.
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