Let's do the twist

This week I've been working on a short story for a competition.  It's one that requires you to use a given sentence in the middle of it, and that sentence immediately suggested a story to me.

It was the word 'midnight' that did it, and the idea that my character had to get away from wherever he or she was before that magic hour.  The sentence triggered a fully-formed idea, which I then went on to write in one splurge.

Someone having to get away immediately suggested they were in danger.  The obvious thing would have been to have my character running away from danger someone else had put him in.  Then I thought, why not twist it around?  What if my character was the source of danger for another person?  What if he was required to assassinate someone for the greater good of the universe?  But what if killing that person would create an energy hole that could suck my assassin in too?  Unless, of course, he gets away before midnight.

And what could I do with midnight?  It's a time of change, even if that change is an artificially-imposed one by our calendar and time-keeping systems.  What if there was a brief crack in the fabric of time between the old and new days?  A crack that humans couldn't see, but my assassin and his target could operate in.  It's not a new idea, but I thought it could take another outing.  It alłwed me to despatch my villain in a satisfying column of red light, while providing jeopardy for my protagonist too.

So far, so good,  but I wanted to add a twist ending to the story.  As I was researching faerie names I had one of those moments of sheer serendipity.  The first name I turned up was Ankou.  And the meaning of his name?  He's the fairie Grim Reaper.  Absolutely perfect.

So I went back and re-worked the story, making Amkou someone people noticed as 'different', and revealing that difference piece by piece.  Then I revealed that Ankou was the fairie Grim Reaper in the last line of my story.  I'd got the twist ending I wanted.  I've always said that I can't write twist ending stories, but I'm pleased with this one.  It's time to edit it and send it in for the competition.  And I don't even have to pay an entry fee for this one.

Wendy Metcalfe is the author of Panthera : Death Spiral and Panthera : Death Song and the short story collection Otherlives.  Find out more at www.wendymetcalfe.com