![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F625fc7e9-66d0-48d2-be6d-7434994ce34e_1280x853.jpeg)
The footsteps were moving away, but Shawn wasn’t out of the woods yet. He lay still until he heard the light click off in his parents’ bedroom.
Breathing a sigh of relief, he pulled his book and flashlight from under the covers and picked up where he had left off.
I’m trying something new: a random first line generator. If you’d like to provide a first line, I’ll see what kind of story it suggests. In this case, the first line was, “The footsteps were moving away.”
Good story, Dascha. Truth. I used a flashlight, books under the covers. The books were usually library books. I like to think that I was raised in a library. A library is my go to place. A library card sparked my curiosity about the world, creating a multi genre reader. Reading is learning, but not in an academic pursuit way for me. It’s my escape to another world. I still keep a flashlight on my night table.
Ah, memories of youth. It was usually comics for me. 😂