This week’s 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups  prompt was to write an article based off the title “There’s a real buzz about this place.” But since I misread the prompt and wrote a story first, here’s a story AND an article. Enjoy!

The One From the News (A Story)

Gabe stood waiting, fourteenth in line out of fifteen and youngest by far. The sun flashed; the insects droned; the sweat dripped.

“Step forward,” the guard said. The door opened and a buzzing whirl swelled from within. Gabe complied, thirteenth now, and not much older.

“You the one from the news, little lady?” the man behind him asked. His arms were black with ink, scarred and corded with muscle.

“I’m a man.”

“Sure thing, darlin’.” The man laughed soft and deep. “Better hope you look it once they cut that pretty hair… It’s the last cut you’ll ever get.”

There’s a Real Buzz About This Place (An Article)

BOSTON – Thirty eight students were hospitalized Monday after the group suffered inexplicable bites and stings during a tour of the Common. School officials say no insects were spotted in the area.

“The kids just sort of scattered, screaming,” Elizabeth Berry, a substitute teacher at Boston Latin Academy, said. “But the adults were all fine. Very unnerving.”

Doctors at BMC attribute the event to a kind of shared hallucination, though at least three children had to be treated for severe anaphylaxis.

“The imagination can be a very powerful thing,” one man said at the scene. He refused to give his name. 

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Follow the link up above to read the other responses and submit one of your own. Comments and criticism more than welcome! (That goes for the rest of my fiction, too).