The rules are simple.

Use this image as a prompt to create a post and reference back here. You can come back and share by posting your link in the comment section below. That’s it! Can’t wait to view your posts…

I choose to go with a short creative writing piece and I pulled my title from the last stanza of The Eagles song “Hotel California” (released February 1977). My piece is called “You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave!”

You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave!

She didn’t need to open her eyes to it was there. Silently she cursed herself for falling asleep in a room with only one way in and out. Slowly she cracked her eyes open hoping they would adjust quickly to the darkness. She could see its hulking frame slowly clawing its way through the doorway at the far end of the room. Little by little she began to inch her way to the wall hoping she could feel her way around the exterior of the room to avoid the creature. Its dull sense of smell and poor night vision would work in her favour. She just had to be careful not to trigger its keen sense of hearing.

The image of those strong jaws instantly clamping down around the object closet to any noise it hears, a speed uncanny for a creature of its size, remains burnt in her memory.

Slowly, so slowly, she inches toward the now open doorway. The shape of the creature is now lost in the darkness of the blackened room. She strains to listen. Its breath is so close that the mist from its exhalation coats her skin. Unable to control her fear and unable to freeze she bolts in sheer terror for the light of the open doorway, a doorway she will never breach.

By Shari Marshall – 2020