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Story by Michael A. Arnzen, Gary Blankenship, Mike Brendan, AK Drees, Brian J. Harrold, Dale Herring & Terrie Leigh Relf
You'rebound.TimesSquareplaysonaTV."What'syourresolution,"aman holdingaknifeasks,"fortheafterlife?" Oneknotisweak. Hiswristbreakswithatwist.Theknifeismine. 10...9..."Iresolvetoletothersscoutahead." 8...7..."Abrokenwristisnothing,myfriend.Tryhavingyoursoulchewedonby nudefoulsmellingdemons." 6...Ilandacutonhisgoodarm."WhywouldaSquireofRolandfeardeath?The demonsareyourproblem..." Thebloodonlymakeshimcackle. TimehaltsandIhearthecrowdonTVechothecountdown,"Six...Six...Six..." Thisiswhathewants. Irealizetheonlywaytowinthisistoforgiveandwalkaway.ButIkeepthe knife.5...

 Hisoutrageisimmediateeyespoppingwide,freakedwithblood.Thecords ofhisneckstrainwithpulsingveins. Imeethiseyes,noticeoneismadeofglass,takeadeepbreath,scream...how thebloodyshardsglisten.Littleglassbeadsrollaroundonthefloorsomegranules, somemarblesallcoveredwithbloodcaramel. Istarehypnotizedasthecrowd'sglisteningeyesslowlyturntowardus. "Theanswersareallinsideyou...here'stheknife." Timeslowstoacrawl.Almostinaudibleandinslowmotionthecrowdchants "four". Determinedtofindanswers,Imovetheknifetowardmychest.Butthebladeis etchedwithsomethingfaint.Itsays... Wieldthisbladewisely,asitwillseverthecordstoyourpast,thus determiningyourfuture. TheTVsethasbecomeasilentbeaconasthecrowdpushesclosertothescreen. Theyarewaiting... Again. Ithrustthebladeintomyheartandseemyfuturemypastscattered bloodyinahundredglisteningreflections. "The Resolution," a collaborative @AuthorBee story by: Michael A. Arnzen (@MikeArnzen) Mike Brendan (@MikeBrendan ) Dale Herring (@Horror_Nerd) Terrie Leigh Relf (@tlrelf) Gary Blankenship (@garydawg) Brian J. Harrold (@BrianJHarrold) Amy K Drees (@profdrees) With extra thanks to @AuthorBee, @StephenTBradley, @BrianJHarrold, Steph Ellis (@el_stevie) and Matt Duvall (@therealduv). See this story in its original format on AuthorBee at: http://tweet.authorbee.com/stories/689?seg=3589

About"TheResolution":
Howdidsevenauthor'sdothis? Theprocesswassimple.ThisstorywascomposedusingAuthorBee http://authorbee.comacuttingedge,twitterdrivenstorytellingweb application,whichallowspeopletousetweetlengthpoststospinatale together,turningtheplotinanydirectiontheychooseandremixingposts alongtheway.Thestoryitselfwaspartofafunwritingcontestsponsored byAuthorbeeandhorrorauthorMichaelA.Arnzen(gorelets.com)viathe "InstigationPlayground":http://tweet.authorbee.com/channel/Instigation This story started with the opening sentence, offered online as an Instigation "prompt" for a New Year's Eve writing contestand authors "replied"toitusingtweetsandAuthorBeefunctionstobuildanarrativethat went in many different directions. Michael Arnzen selected the "best storyline" from the contributed tweets using AuthorBee's "remix" functionality,andbothArnzenandAuthorBeeawardedselectedparticipants with prizes. For more inspiration, see Michael Arnzen's book Instigation: CreativePromptsontheDarkSide.Learnmoreat:http://gorelets.com/ Follow@AuthorBeeontwitterandthenvisithttp://tweet.authorbee.com/ tofindoutjusthoweasyitistotellstoriesalongwithyourtwitterfollowers andfriends,inafunandartfulway.