The baby was due in 2 weeks. Family and friends came together to celebrate its upcoming birth and organized a huge fun party for mom and dad-to-be. A co-ed, kid-friendly baby shower.

Everyone was happy and, after a couple hours of chatting, fun, guessing and dreaming about baby’s future, it was time to open the gifts.

For every little piece of apparel, all ladies would voice an “Awwwwnnn” in unison. Mom-to-be was trying to understand the usage of some of the baby gadgets. The kids were excited and everyone seemed to speak joyfully at the same time.

Then, in the middle of the noise, her water broke.

This post was also written in response to the 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week#169, with the prompt: then, in the middle of the noise.

I had already created one story for the prompt, in Silence. But Silence was about death so I decided to try again, writing about life.

So there you go, 2 different views for the same prompt… ;o)

The enemy came fiercely in the middle of the night. People got up from their beds to fight for their land and their lives. She grabbed the kids and hid while he went on to the battle. The kids were afraid and crying. The battle was loud, with the rattling of metal hitting each other. With people screaming in anger, in pain, in death. She was also afraid, but trying to keep her composure not to stress the kids even more. She had her gaze searching for him. She saw him and then, in the middle of the noise, silence was made as he felt down, lifeless.

This post was written in response to the 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week#169, with the prompt: then, in the middle of the noise.

The picture I used to illustrate is an edited (color removed except by that one guy) version of  “Detail from William Hole’s painting The Battle of Largs”, circa 1899. The image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. More information about the original picture can be found here.

I do not claim my story to be happening on that specific battle, though. It’s a fictional piece and the image was chosen based only on the looks of it. ;o)