DreamLab Industries...A Short Story

 Weekly Writing Prompt

It's that time again, time to submit a short story. Thanks to the gals, Nicole, Tena, Carrie, and Leanne for hosting the weekly writing prompts. They're a lot of fun. If you'd like to participate, here are the rules:

1) There will be one photo, and five words - both of those elements must be a feature in the brief story you create.

2) There is also a 500 word maximum.

3) You have until the next Wednesday to create your post.

4) When you have finished your post, go to the link: HERE and post your story.

5) We were going to tell you to not take this too seriously, but reconsidered it because we know full well that asking writers to write something means that they will take it seriously. So, take it seriously, but don't fret/panic/pass out/hyperventilate/lose sleep/run in fear over it.

The five randomly-chosen words for this prompt are:

Engineer

Muscle

Spider

Race

Machine

Here's my story. Hope you like it!

DreamLab Industries

 
 "Okay, just sit back into the chair and relax," Chad the lab technician said. He knew Sarah was nervous, and who could blame her, considering what happened the first time she came to DreamLab Industries? Sarah smiled at the cute engineer, but her eyes...they portrayed the true fear she felt.

"But what if it happens again? What if..." Chad cut her off with the tilt of his head. "Sarah," he said without a hint of condescension. "I know you're worried, but we've talked about what happened last time and, trust me," Chad said turning from his role as technician to focus solely on his customer. "Trust me, what happened last time will not happen again." Sarah took a deep breath, nodded, and sat back into the large comfortable chair.

As the soft hum of the machine filled the small white room, every muscle in Sarah's body seemed to tense immediately. The sensors attached to Sarah's body registered her reaction and Chad read the results on his computer display. "Come on, Sarah," Chad whispered to himself. "You're so close..." Then, just as quickly as Sarah's first readings displayed, they changed and the two people in the room knew this time would be different. "There we go," Chad said through a smile. "Good girl."

Sarah closed her eyes as visions began to race to her mind. A myriad of beautiful landscapes with accompanying sounds and tastes and smells overwhelmed the young college student, each vision connected to each other by a gossamer of light as delicate as a thread from the web of a spider. Sarah searched for the perfect picture, the perfect spot to help cure her of of the terrifying nightmares that plagued her for the past five years, something DreamLab Industries said they could cure.

Finally, it arrived and Sarah knew the moment the scene flashed before her that this was indeed the place, a place for her, a place to stop the pain. The sound of the waterfall brought life to the warm humid air and sweet pollen of the fauna filled Sarah's lungs as she inhaled. This, Sarah thought to herself...this is finally what I need.

Word Count: 359