Creative Writing Showdown Vol 1

Needing a creative outlet, I’m turning to the Dope here to see if people are up to a continuing challenge. This is a writing contest that’s semi-timed and then judged.

THE RULES ARE SIMPLE:

  1. Only the first ten posts count and will be voted on.
  2. You can only enter into the contest once.
  3. The length of your story/poem/prose/ASCII design/whatever has to be contained with the maximum length of a single post.
  4. Stick to the theme.
  5. You can vote for as many posts as you want except your own.
  6. The winner is the person whose post gets 25 votes first. That person starts a new thread and gets to pick the theme.

THE THEME:
Since we’re creeping up on the shortest day of the year (at least for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere), the theme is Unhelpful Sunshine.