Author's Note: These drabbles were/are being written for the Fanfic100 challenge over at Livejournal. In case you're not familiar with Fanfic100, the basic premise is that authors claim a particular fandom--this can be a general fandom (i.e. Star Wars), a character, a pairing, a group of characters, and so on--then they write 100 fics for their fandom, based on a list of 95 prompt words (the other 5 are writer's choice).
Disclaimer: Dustfinger and the Inkheart Trilogy are the property of Cornelia Funke. I am not Cornelia Funke. Sadness.
Prompt #1: Beginnings
Despair had grown tiresome. He had decided to give optimism a try.
So it was, as he shuffled along the crowded sidewalk of a noisy city, that he told himself, "This is a new beginning. Yes, that's what it is. The beginning of a whole new chapter of your life."
He was staring at the cracks in the sidewalk as he trudged onward--a bad habit when they were so crowded. Inevitably, he had bumped into someone.
He looked up--into eyes the color of chocolate, set in a radiant face, framed by hair of ebony. The woman smiled warmly and whispered an apology before stepping past him and continuing on her way.
He stood watching her, for a moment.
It's a new beginning.
Why, then, did it feel more like an ending?