January Prompt Fill

Every month, the Discord and Patreon community get special writing prompts provided.

This month's Discord prompt was: A character steps through a doorway in the woods and instantly knows the world on the other side has been waiting for them. It's inverted, opposite, and completely wild but they've never been anywhere that made more sense.

The doorway shouldn’t be there.

And this was my fill.

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It stands between two cedar trees, an upright rectangle of light humming softly, its edges sketched in shifting neon blues and toxic pinks. The woods around it are dark, the party sprawled out behind Caleb in a scatter of flashlights, laughter, and someone’s Bluetooth speaker wheezing out bass-heavy music.

“Do it,” someone says.

“Bet you won’t,” someone else adds.

Caleb laughs because that’s what you do when you’re seventeen and terrified of being boring. His heart is jackhammering, but his feet move anyway. The doorway smells like ozone and rain and something sharp, like mint or vodka.

The moment he steps through the doorway, the forest snaps out of existence.

He lands on glowing grass that pulses beneath his sneakers, every blade outlined in electric green. The sky above is inky black threaded with blazing constellations that move when he looks at them. Floating islands drift lazily overhead, their undersides dripping waterfalls that fall upward.

A translucent screen snaps into place in front of his face.

WELCOME, CAL-EB-17.CLASS UNASSIGNED. LEVEL: 1.

Caleb stares, eyes wide, a tremble running through his jaw.

Creatures roam the horizon: antlered wolves made of starlight on neon leashes, mushroom-headed merchants arguing in pixelated voices, a dragon-shaped blimp advertising potions in scrolling text. Something electric hums in the air, vibrant and loud, threading through his bones.

This world is very suddenly upside-down and reckless and alive.

The doorway behind him flickers once—then vanishes.

Caleb should be terrified. And he is, certainly, be he’s also thrilled in a way he’s never been before.

The HUD lights up again.

QUEST ACQUIRED: FIND THE CORE

ACCEPT?

YES/NO

Caleb hesitates, wondering if he’s hit his head, if there’s something wrong with the fact he doesn’t care nearly as much as he probably should.

Then he decides that’s a problem for the future.

He presses YES.

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If you end up using this prompt for your own writing, share the link here and use #fullmoonfictionprompt so the whole community can find it! (And consider joining the Discord for more!)