The Hall Monitor

Bobby walked the halls with his chest puffed out for everyone to see. He could still smell the peculiar mixture of turpentine and his mother's tears he'd used to clean his badge the night before. She'd insisted she had never been prouder.

But Bobby wanted his new title to mean something more than parental recognition. He craved the sort of popularity the richer kids came by naturally. He hungered to be accepted at any lunch table and invited to all the birthdays.

It only took one day to realize he had the power to issue pink slips and nothing more.

The Daily Theme from Figment for Jan. 23, 2012

Create a character who has suddenly and unexpectedly attained some sort of power (in the wider perception of the world the level of authority may be small or great, but for this person, the change dramatic). Write about the moment in which your character truly understands the full extent of his or her new found power for the first time.

Carl

The windows to Carl's apartment were always closed. Summer heat and cancer-causing insulation made the one-bedroom flat in the still unseemly section of Brooklyn stink of rot and turpentine.

Carl sometimes paced about with a listless gait. He was married to the apartment, having been outside it only once or twice in his entire memory. There was nothing worth exploring that hadn't been explored years before. The bulk of his time was spent gazing out the window.

But as far as New York City house cats went, Carl had it better than most thanks to the corpse in the bedroom.