The Luxury of Choice.

Daily Prompt: What a Twist!

Tell us a story — fiction or non-fiction — with a twist we can’t see coming.

 

Dressed in a red lehenga, Naina is  sitting in her room;  her heart pounding. and her mind lost in the mirage of her future prospects. With every passing second, her restlessness achieves a higher level. Beads of sweat roll on her forehead while she impatiently awaits for someone to acquaint her with the state of affairs outside her room  . She gazes at her reflection in the mirror, the crimson of her cheeks and the dark kohl laden eyes have given a heavenly radiance to her face. She scrutinizes the jewelry, playfully runs a finger along the vibrant bangles and finally smiles at the vivacity of her own appearance. Naina, the spitting image of an Indian bride. Now she wonders if she ever had the luxury of choice, because in the world that she inhabits, the precipice at which she stands is deemed to be the natural course of action. She knows that this point onward, her life will undergo a complete transformation.  Aware that this day unfolds a new chapter in her life, that soon her life as she knows it, will shrink itself to an element of retrospect.

She turns around at the sound of the opening door and in front of her eyes is a man occupied with assessing her from head to toe. This man will play an instrumental role in her life, because he is going to initiate her traverse into womanhood. The grin on his face is that of a victor, because he has outbid every man outside this room and quoted the highest sum on her virginity. That, even though she has donned the appearance of a bride, but her future does not spell the sanctitude of marriage but the abominable world of prostitution. As the man walks in her direction, a sense of eeriness pipes in and she again wonders about the luxury of choice. But then, when you are born in a brothel, then the word choice is non-existent in your life. The man pushes her onto the bed and an epiphany strikes that this moment is the point of inflection in her life, that henceforth she will be scarred for life.

Here are the other and hopefully lighter takes of the Prompt Challenge

1. A twist. | Crossroads
2. DP : What A Twist | Experimental Fiction
3. Phoneography Weekly: Drift and Fall | We Live In A Flat
4. Spill the (Coffee) Beans | Mara Eastern’s Personal Blog
5. You’d never have guessed it but… | Life & Times
6. Surprise stretch | Books, Music, Photography & Movies : my best friends
7. What a Twist! – The Angry Dwarf | Geek Ergo Sum
8. The caveman’s bedtime story | Phelio a Random Post a Day
9. a surprising twist | wannabepoet
10. It does | contrailsonmyheart
11. Daily Prompt: What a Twist! | Under the Monkey Tree
12. Darth Vader | Bright Moments Catcher
13. Daily Prompt: An excerpt with a twist | M. L. Trefry
14. Andy Devlin and the ramp. | thoughtsofrkh
15. Daily post: A twist | helen meikle’s scribblefest
16. Daily Prompt – A Twist from a 10 Year Old | The Mercenary Researcher
17. A shot at the ranch | MC’s Whispers
18. Spoiler Alert! | Conversations
19. Daily Prompt: What a Twist! The Boston Nanny Trial – True Story | SERENDIPITY
20. The Defeat Of Eddie Fishbones (short fiction) | The Jittery Goat
21. An Unexpected Reunion | The Silver Leaf Journal
22. Daily Prompt: What a Twist! | Stevie’s Words
23. Lurking | The Ambitious Drifter
24. alisha’s call | just another outlet
25. Daily Prompt..What do you do? | heysugarsugar
26. London surprises Paris | Mareship
27. Stolen Bread | Mind of a Mouse
28. Horror in the alleyway | Blog of the imaginator
29. Idiots twist | Hope* the happy hugger
30. A Piece – Court Case – Part 1 | In Harmony
31. We’d never have guessed! | Sue’s Trifles
32. Bioshock Infinite- I know you’ve already Heard it’s good, but… | Lord Aoshi’s Latest Finds
33. Surprise! | Haiku By Ku
34. Daily Prompt: What a Twist! >>> The Check List | From Ground to Home
35. Surprise | Flowers and Breezes
36. A Tale of a Portrait | Inception
37. So I hit the brakes, but the car didn’t stop. | SueAnn Porter
38. Daily Prompt: What a Twist! | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
39. Good-bye | Raivenne-lations
40. World Domination at the Pinewood Derby | A Stone’s Throw
41. Daily Prompt: With a Twist! | My Atheist Blog
42. The Blue Heron | Kate Murray
43. Daily Prompt: What a Twist? « Mama Bear Musings
44. Getting It Right | My Experiments with Words
45. Daily Prompt – twist – Suspicious minds | storyofmylife1993
46. Handful of Stars #poetry #photography | Moondustwriter’s Blog
47. Sprint for the Stars | Brianne Writes
48. The campaign chief | Life is great
49. Daily Prompt: What a Twist! | unknowinglee
50. Proof That Sass is Directly Proportional to Age | NobsLyfe
51. ESCAPE | hastywords
52. The Twist | The Nameless One
53. Once upon a time « RPMAS
54. My Dead Wife | Just Visiting This Planet
55. A Brush with Interpol | What a Twist! | The Journey of My Feet
56. Didn’t see that coming … | Girlie Groove
57. A Noir/Horror Short Story in screenplay form. | ExLibrisMachina
58. Subject 6 – The Awakening – By: NCBEK | Incessant Ramblings
59. Daily Prompt: What A Twist – The Ritual | IF I ONLY HAD A TIME MACHINE
60. Poem I wrote during my teenage years | Senayda’s Spot
61. A Piece – Conversation – Part 2 | In Harmony
62. The Summer Rain | Curiosity
63. WP20 : What a Twist | My Amphitheater
64. Daily Prompt – It was me or him. Someone had to go. | Reinvention of Mama
65. A Piece – Confrontation – Part 3 | In Harmony
66. Daily Prompt: What a Twist (Love Bound) | Winding Road
67. Hide and Seek – Daily Prompt: What a Twist and Weekly Photo Challenge: Unusual POV | Babsje Heron
68. Always and Forever, He Said Before He Disappeared | Molly Greye
69. Life’s Tragedy | A mom’s blog
70. the UNCATEGORISED | DAILY PROMPT : Jeremy | the TRASH BASH
71. Daily Prompt: Around the Bend | One Starving Activist
72. Daily Prompt: What A Twist! | Saying Everything
73. Quick Fiction: “So, you’re telling me you’re not having an affair with another man?” | Write Now!
74. Later, Dear | Eikons
75. green pea surprise! | Her Broken Nibs
76. A Beautiful, Intimidating Twist | Sogna Grandezza
77. Love Birds | Eikons
78. Via Lactea | vicbriggs’s Blog
79. ☑ second chances ☒ | The RunningFather Blog
80. A Piece – Cover of a Magazine – Part 4 | In Harmony
81. Daily Prompt: What a Twist! | To Breathe is to Write
82. Serial Story: Going Fishing | Lady J’s Library – The Desk of Julia Dina Blackowicz
83. Suicide no. 9: The Lottery | derekalanwilkinson
84. A Short Story & Friend-Makin’ Monday | Aislynn’s World
85. The Intruder: A Twisted Short Story | Chronic Nonsense
86. Something’s Missing | The Good Life
87. On Neighborly Physics | Wiley’s Wisdom
88. A Little Twist | One Dream Too Many
89. what the– | the book of alice
90. Daily Prompt: What A Twist! | Random Thoughts Of A Mad Music Fan
91. What if the end was near? | Okay, what if ?
92. between layers of | y
93. We are Eighty | I AM STILL LOOKING UP
94. Pretender una sociedad sana con una base corrompida | El Panfleto
95. Footsteps In The Dark | Along Life’s Road
96. Child of the Shadows | Legends of Lorata
97. You’ve Just Crossed Over… | Your Smile is Priceless
98. Backward Twisting Kahani | મન ની વાત
99. A twisted sense of humour? | The Rider
100. Daily Prompt – What a Twist | Jessica Brown NZ