Short Story Writing Prompts

Four characters are stuck in an elevator together. How long are they there for? What do they do for entertainment?

Short Character introduction

• Alkiya (she/her): A priestess with the power to peer into other worlds that she exists in. She’s a huge fan of romance and is a bit distraught over her and Norwood’s fate in other worlds.
• Norwood (he/him): A northern duke who excels at wind magic. Strict and goal oriented, he is often interrupted at work by Alkiya mostly to his annoyance. But he does somewhat look forward to seeing her every day.
• Matilda (she/her): A young girl from a small town. Her hobbies include bug catching, climbing trees and flower picking. Often found talking to “imaginary friends” that she insists aren’t imaginary.
• Gunther (he/they): Matilda’s older brother and a tailor in training. Almost ten years older than Matilda, he keeps a close eye on his sister to make sure that she doesn’t get into too much trouble.

One moment, Alkiya and Norwood were on their way back to his office. The next, the two of them found that after they had walked through the door, this certainly was in no way his office.

Instead, the two found themselves in a small rectangular room. It was dimly lit, but not by the sconces made of dragon fire that the two were so used to. The lights seemed to buzz as it flickered a few times.

Norwood turned for the door that most certainly was behind them, but the thick wooden doors had been replaced with an already automatically closing set of metal sliding doors.

“Huh,” Alkiya looked around, stepping to the side to look at the myriad of embossed symbols that seemed to light up whenever she pressed one of them in.

Norwood let out a long sigh.

“Do you even know what you’re doing? Why are they all lighting up?”

Alkiya only stopped once she had made almost every single row line up, looking to Norwood with those innocent eyes that usually got her a slight scolding.

“Aw, come on, Noir. They’re just little buttons. I’ve seen a lot of these through my visions.” Alkiya grinned. “What’s the worst that could happen—”

As Alkiya said that, the room seemed to jolt into motion, sending them upward. Norwood reached out his hand, but Alkiya already had grabbed onto the side railings of the room. A light above the doors flickered, changing from one symbol to another but neither was familiar with it. The one thing they did seem to understand at least were the arrows that pointed in the direction that the room seemed to be moving in.

“Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.” Alkiya straightened out her priestly robes and fixed her hair. “But it’s probably fine. The dragon gods would never forsake their priestess!”

“May the dragon gods have mercy,” Norwood seemed to mutter under his breath.

The room continued to move upwards. It seemed like they had been going for at least a few minutes now and the initial wonder of the small moving room was beginning to lose its effect. Norwood was now leaning on the back wall, free of the railing, while Alkiya was trying to decipher the symbols with any language she might have seen while peering into another world.

And then the room suddenly came to a halt. Alkiya let out a short woah before Norwood managed to reach out a hand to stop her from toppling backwards. There was a small ding before the doors whirred open. Norwood placed his hand over the hilt of his sword, but loosened his grip once he saw a small girl hop into the room, causing it to jostle up and down ever so slightly.

“Matilda, didn’t I tell you not to do that when you get into an elevator?” a man behind her said as he picked her up in his arms. She seemed so small, or maybe it was the man who seemed quite tall in comparison.

“But the elevator took so long.” Matilda seemed to pout before turning her attention towards the other two passengers in the elevator. It took her all of five seconds before her eyes started to sparkle with excitement. “Wow! Is that a real sword? That’s so cool! The fluffy collared cape looks really fun; Gunther can you make me something like that?”

Gunther tried to hold her in place to no avail, eventually setting her down so that she could fawn over Alkiya’s purple locks and the overlapping folds and fabrics with embroidered symbols of the dragon gods that Alkiya donned.

“Sorry about her.” Gunther scratched the back of her head. “She doesn’t quite know when to stop asking questions.”

The doors began to close once more. But instead of moving immediately, it seemed to wait for a moment. Then, with the same sudden jolt, the room began to move upwards again.

Norwood seemed to look at Gunther for a moment, blinking a few times. They didn’t seem to be using any translation magic — or at least none that he could sense — yet they were able to communicate effortlessly.

“That’s quite alright. I have quite the idle babbler too.” Norwood eventually replied. “Perhaps a strange question, but do you happen to know where this room is taking us?”

“Room?” Gunther raised a brow. Were they supposed to be in-character for an event or something? “Well, the elevator is supposed to be heading up… But given how almost the floors are lit up, I take it that we’ll be on this ride for a bit.”

While Norwood asked more questions that made Gunther wonder if there was a convention or an event going on, Matilda was solely focused on listening to Alkiya’s story about the dragons that were embroidered onto the hem of her skirt.

“…and that’s how the dragons gifted us magic.” Alkiya ended her story with a satisfied smile on her lips.

“Wooooow!” Matilda smiled up at her. But her smile soon turned into a questioning head tilt. “But… what’s a dragon priestess doing in an elevator?”

“Well, we didn’t exactly mean to end up here.” Alkiya admitted with a small laugh. “We were, in fact, quite stuck by ourselves in this tiny room until you two came along. But now I’m not sure where it’s going to take us next.”

Matilda looked up at the numbers and then over at the elevator buttons.

“Up, probably!” Matilda said after a few moments. “But I guess that means that you’ll head back to that place with magic… Oh, before you go, I have some questions I’d like to ask you! Umm… hold on, let me think.”

Matilda said as she crossed her arms in contemplation. Should she ask if it’s possible to conjure magic? Oh, or maybe if witches fly on brooms where she’s from? Actually, if people could use magic for daily life, would there even be a difference between a normal person and a witch?

Alkiya glanced up from the girl and her myriad of thoughts to the two men who were still chatting away. She let out a small sigh and smiled. It seemed like both of them had conversation partners at least for the relatively long ride in the elevator, no matter how long it ends up being. But she didn’t hate the change in pace.