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A Story byMichael A. Arnzen, Gary Blankenship, Mike Brendan, AK Drees,

Brian J. Harrold, Dale Herring & Terrie Leigh Relf

You're bound. Times Square plays on a TV. "What's your resolution," a man holding a knife asks, "for the afterlife?"

One knot is weak. His wrist breaks with a twist. The knife is mine. 10... 9... "I resolve to let others scout ahead." 8... 7... "A broken wrist is nothing, my friend. Try having your soul chewed on by

nude foul smelling demons. " 6... I land a cut on his good arm. "Why would a Squire of Roland fear death? The

demons are your problem..." The blood only makes him cackle. Time halts and I hear the crowd on TV echo the countdown, "Six... Six... Six..." This is what he wants. I realize the only way to win this is to forgive and walk away. But I keep the

knife. 5...

http://tweet.authorbee.com/stories/689?seg=3589

8/13/2019 The Resolution: an AuthorBee Story

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His outrage is immediate eyes popping wide, freaked with blood. The cords of his neck strain with pulsing veins.

I meet his eyes, notice one is made of glass, take a deep breath, scream...how the bloody shards glisten. Little glass beads roll around on the floor some granules, some marbles all covered with blood caramel.

I stare hypnotized as the crowd's glistening eyes slowly turn toward us. "The answers are all inside you...here's the knife." Time slows to a crawl. Almost inaudible and in slow motion the crowd chants

"f our". Determined to find answers, I move the knife toward my chest. But the blade is

etched with something faint. It says... Wield this blade wisely, as it will sever the cords to your past, thus determining your future.

The TV set has become a silent beacon as the crowd pushes closer to the screen.

They are waiting... Again. I thrust the blade into my heart and see my future my past scattered

bloody in a hundred glistening reflections.

"The Resolution," a collaborative @AuthorBee story by:

Michael A. Arnzen ( @MikeArnzen )

Mike Brendan ( @MikeBrendan )

Dale Herring ( @Horror_Nerd )

Terrie Leigh Relf ( @tlrelf )

Gary Blankenship ( @garydawg )

Brian J. Harrold ( @BrianJHarrold )

Amy K Drees ( @profdrees )

With extra thanks to @AuthorBee , @StephenTBradley , @BrianJHarrold, Steph Ellis ( @el_stevie ) and Matt Duvall ( @therealduv ).

See this story in its original format on AuthorBee at:

http://tweet.authorbee.com/stories/689?seg=3589

http://twitter.com/MikeArnzenhttp://twitter.com/MikeBrendanhttp://twitter.com/Horror_Nerdhttp://twitter.com/tlrelfhttp://twitter.com/garydawghttp://twitter.com/BrianJHarroldhttp://twitter.com/profdreeshttp://twitter.com/AuthorBeehttp://twitter.com/StephenTBradleyhttp://twitter.com/StephenTBradleyhttp://twitter.com/BrianJHarroldhttp://twitter.com/el_steviehttp://twitter.com/therealduvhttp://twitter.com/therealduvhttp://twitter.com/el_steviehttp://twitter.com/BrianJHarroldhttp://twitter.com/StephenTBradleyhttp://twitter.com/AuthorBeehttp://twitter.com/profdreeshttp://twitter.com/BrianJHarroldhttp://twitter.com/garydawghttp://twitter.com/tlrelfhttp://twitter.com/Horror_Nerdhttp://twitter.com/MikeBrendanhttp://twitter.com/MikeArnzen

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About "The Resolution":

How did seven author's do this?

The process was simple. This story was composed using AuthorBee http://authorbee.com a cutting edge, twitter driven storytelling web

application, which allows people to use tweet length posts to spin a tale together, turning the plot in any direction they choose and remixing posts

along the way. The story itself was part of a fun writing contest sponsored by Authorbee and horror author Michael A. Arnzen (gorelets.com) via the

"Instigation Playground": http://tweet.authorbee.com/channel/Instigation

This story started with the opening sentence, offered online as an Instigation "prompt" for a New Year's Eve writing contestand authors "replied" to it using tweets and AuthorBee functions to build a narrative that went in many different directions. Michael Arnzen selected the "best storyline" from the contributed tweets using AuthorBee's "remix" functionality, and both Arnzen and AuthorBee awarded selected participants with prizes. For more inspiration, see Michael Arnzen's book Instigation:

Creative Prompts on the Dark Side . Learn more at: http://gorelets.com/

Follow @AuthorBee on twitter and then visit http://tweet.authorbee.com/ to find out just how easy it is to tell stories along with your twitter followers

and friends, in a fun and artful way.

http://twitter.com/AuthorBeehttp://twitter.com/AuthorBeehttp://twitter.com/AuthorBeehttp://twitter.com/AuthorBeehttp://twitter.com/AuthorBeehttp://gorelets.com/http://authorbee.com/