Congratulations to August's two runners-up: CONTENT by @swirling and THE BOY by @brucerelgin. If you like their stories, do check out their other work on their profile pages.

This chapter is dedicated to our fabulous guest judge, @Zainixo.

And now... enjoy the wonderful contest entries!

CONTENT by @swirling

I woke up on the roof. Before even opening my eyes, I could tell that today I would be feeling especially stuck. Days like this were the low point of my existence.

I willed myself to open my eyes, rolling over onto my back. The light seemed unusually bright today. I tried rubbing my eyes, but the action didn't do anything to bring my vision into focus.

I sat up, moving the blanket off of me. Was the morning light brighter? Or was it just... clearer? Yes, that was it. The light and the air it shone through seemed like they were much clearer than before. Like a fog I had never know was there had been blown away as I slept.

I looked down to my hands, wondering if they had changed as well. Still the same.

The clear light bothered me. It meant something, but I couldn't understand it. I quickly packed up my bedding and left the roof. Maybe I just needed a walk around the grounds to clear my head.

I walked through the hotel, examining everything that I passed. The clear light was inside, too.

I paced through the grounds, sometimes studying the things around me in their new light, sometimes closing my eyes so I didn't have to see at all.

I kept walking, losing track of time. I did however notice a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. A tugging, urging me back the way I came. I turned around to make sense of the feeling, and--

The hotel was gone. It was there, but in the distance. Was this light playing a trick on me? I took a few steps back towards the hotel. The tugging lessened, but I was sure I had never walked over this grass before. I was off of the hotel's property.

I stood still for half a second before crumple to the ground. I was still the same, translucent being, but outside of the hotel. Could I go any where?

• • •

The sun set, casting its colors into sky. I had watched a thousand sunsets, but this was the first I actually saw. The colors fell onto my skin, in the same spot I had fallen to hours before. I was content in this moment.

THE BOY by @brucerelgin

Clara stops at the edge of the grass and looks down. She has never been able to take the next step, into the road and away from the hotel. But tonight she knows she can. She can reach out with a toe and actually set it down on the pavement instead of having her foot go nowhere.

She hasn't tried to leave the hotel grounds for years, hasn't tried to find a way around the trees to see the sunset. But tonight her arms and legs are covered in an itching feeling, almost a burning that pulls her toward boundary, wants to pull her past it.

And though she doesn't understand why or how, she knows that tonight, if she steps past the boundary, into the road, she'll be free. If she leaves tonight, she'll never be bound to the hotel again. It may be a dream, but stepping forward right now will make her free. She leans forward, ready to step, and pulls the air into her nose, down into her lungs. If she takes the step and leaves tonight, she won't have to just watch the breathers anymore; she'll be with them.

She spreads her arms open and takes in another breath as she prepares to step forward, prepares to say goodbye to everything she has known. She pauses at that, at the thought of her things, of all of the clothes she has borrowed from the guests, the secret places she likes to hide and watch them.

She turns to say goodbye to it all.

And as she does, she sees movement at one of the hotel windows. A boy. She stares up at him and knows...he isn't there yet, but he will be soon. There will be a boy at the hotel, one that will see her, will somehow be able to hear her and will talk back. There will be a boy at the hotel, with her.

She looks down at the grass, with her feet only inches from the road, turns, and walks back to the hotel.