Welcome to Steemit Story Chain #9

Good evening to all you good folk out there in Steemit land. It is time for another Steemit Story Chain contest where I invite you creative people to come and show off your creative skills by developing my story in your own unique way. The contest is sponsored by the incredible Whaleshares project and if you're entry is the winning one you will earn yourself a nice 100 Whaleshares.

I would like to say an amazing thank you to everyone who took part in the last story chain. We had some extremely well written parts this time and judging the winning part was no easy task. I would like to thank @tinajordan, @redsfallin, @yardley-elbert, @thatindianlady, @sostrin, @chron and @littlejibblet for their fantastic efforts.

As I previously mentioned the quality of writing in last week's competition was of a very high standard indeed. After a long determination session with my co-judge @nikflossus, in which we whittled the top three entries down to @redsfallin, @tinajordan and @thatindianlady, we eventually agreed that this week there will be two winners who share the 100 Whaleshares. It was just impossible to decide on one winner alone.

@thatindianlady and @tinajordan

It has to be said @thatindianlady's contribution was very original and disturbing in one part, a great use of imagination and creativity also flourished in your writing and you attempted to give the characters more depth. In relation to @tinajordan's part @nikflossus notes that your writing is clearly competent and you continue to impress. I thought that your story development was very interesting and the introduction of Lady Crutchfield took the plot to new heights. Me and @nikflossus also wish to stress that the part written by @redsfallin was very imaginative and you took @tinajordan's theme and made it very vivid, a great addition to the story chain.

The winners have won 50 Whaleshares each. 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 entries can be found here - https://steemit.com/story/@freedomexists/happy-halloween-steemit-story-chain-8-where-you-write-the-story-and-100-whaleshares-for-the-winner.

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Now on to this week's new story chain - Abandoned. As normal if you would like to take part in the contest please ensure you upvote and resteem this post. Below I have written the first part of the story, then it's all up to you guys to use the comment box and develop the story in whatever way you want to. Try and be as creative and original as you can, and have fun with it. We're only looking for a short paragraph or two at the most. Please don't forget to number your part of the story.

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 incredibly talented writer @nikflossus will be helping me to decide which one of your entries deserves 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.

So without any further hesitation here is part one of Abandoned.

I don't know what made me change my mind about walking home that evening, but I was just not in the mood to immerse myself with all those other intensely annoying passengers on the bus. I couldn't deal with them. I needed some fresh air anyway and this was the perfect opportunity to grab some, after what had been an almighty shit day at work. The walk did me some good. I soon noticed how my mood changed to a more relaxed state as I absorbed the beauty of being outside on a mild Autumn evening. I turned the corner and everything changed. An old car had come to an abrupt stop in the road. The doors were wide open. There appeared to be no one in it, yet the engine continued to run. What had happened? Where was the driver? As I got closer I could see the trunk was open. Someone was in it. A young but very disorientated woman looked up, she could barely talk but she managed to say, 'Hurry, they'll be back soon'.