Welcome to the Steemit Story Chain

Hello to all you Steemers and Steemians, I hope your Monday is treating you fairly. It's time for another Steemit Story Chain. Yes it's that time where I ask all you creative creatures to stretch that creative muscle and get writing. In a nutshell you need to complete writing the story that I start. There are 100 Whaleshares for the person who writes the most ambitious and original part of the chain.

I would like to say a huge thank you to all those who took part in last week's contest, we had some amazing entries and many of them! So thank you to @geekpowered, @yardley-elbert, @dreamingirwin, @jorlauski, @johnkingwriter, @intuitivejakob, @fishyculture and @sostrin.

It was another week that proved to be very interesting, and we witnessed some great writing. Steemit really is exposing how much talent there is out there in this world. After another long discussion with my co-judge @nikflossus we have now determined the winner.

@johnkingwriter

You wrote a nice take on noir here employing a solid technique. Your entry was closely followed by the contribution from @dreamingirwin who created some good visual description painting the imagery beautifully, and great open ended detail too. We also want to highlight the contribution of @jorlauski who put a lot of effort into his writing. It might have placed higher but it lost its 'punchyness' towards the end. All in all another great week where everything submitted was of a good standard. Well done everyone!

The winner, @johnkingwriter, has won 100 Whaleshares. Please reply with your Bitshares account information and I will send the Whaleshares to your account immediately. Enjoy! If you don't have an account don't worry it's very simple and completely free to set one up here - https://bitshares.openledger.info/?r=akrid-1.

A reminder of the winning entry is featured below.

The place smelled like stale beer and piss.
Great, I’d fit right in.
From a darkened corner, I heard movement, I swung the torch. It was just an old homeless guy nursing a bottle of strong wine.
“You gonna keep that all to yourself?” I asked as I removed it from his nicotine stained fingers. “I’m in need of some more Dutch courage, here.”
The stuff tasted like battery acid mixed with angel’s piss. Not a bad combo and a hell of a kick. I finished it and chucked the bottle back to the now passed out figure sprawled against the pitted plasterboard. It bounced and slithered to a stop between his urine soaked chinos.
Grabbing the torch with my teeth, I pulled my twin Smith & Wesson 45s. Anything coming my way was going to get lead poisoning real quick.
A scurrying sound drew me to the next room, fading as it disappeared down a raised trap door.
I holstered the left gun, burped loudly, drew it again and proceed in a somewhat sideways manner towards the rickety looking downward steps.
The light from the torch bobbed as I struggled to swallow spit. Perhaps I had not thought this through properly.
Halfway down the stairs, the beam steadied and something massive, all eyes and teeth and long, hairy legs moved into its wan light.

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Moving on now to the new story for this week's Steemit Story Chain entitled If Only You Knew. If you want to take part you need to first upvote and resteem this post. I have written the first part of the story below and then, using the comment box, it is down to you guys to develop the story in whatever direction you want to take it in. Be as creative and original as possible. You can even change the genre from one part to the next, it is entirely up to you. A short paragraph or two is all we are after. And remember to number which part of the story you are writing.

This contest is sponsored by Whaleshares and I owe a big thank you to @akrid. There is 100 Whaleshares for the winning entry. If you would like to learn more about Whaleshares and how they can significantly increase your post rewards please visit https://steemit.com/whaleshares/@eirik/guide-on-how-to-use-whaleshares-updated-version where @eirik will gladly explain more to you.

The unquestionably talented writer @nikflossus will be helping me to determine which one of your contributions is worthy of the winning prize. We are looking for:

• A strong sense of imagination
• Creative intelligence
• Originality
• Narrative fluidity (ensuring the story chain links smoothly)
• Use of language, grammar and syntax (we need to understand what you're saying!)

The winner will be announced in a week's time. A new post will be published then announcing the winner along with a new story chain.

Let's now move on to part one of If Only You Knew.

It had been in my basement for three weeks. Lying there, mocking and cursing me every single day of those three weeks. Haunting me. No one knew. No one suspected a thing. I had the perfect cover. I'm an ordinary family man living in an uneventful quiet suburban area, where only car crashes top the news. I stood in my back garden, reassured now that the job was complete. I had buried it deeply. The neighbours were out. No one saw what I buried in the garden. And no one would ever find out. Job done. I threw the shovel down and quietly mused on the hope that normality would now return. My mobile phone rang. I answered. 'Hello Blake, I'm outside your front door. If you don't let me in I will pay a trip to the gas station where your wife works and tell her everything. Let me in and maybe we can work this out'.