...
This is the freewrite challenge. I am using 
Today’s prompt is:
hippo
This is part twenty two of my current freewrite series - I’m calling it RatsNest for now - (posted daily Monday - Saturday).
You can find parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, [nineteen@(https://steemit.com/freewritehouse/@felt.buzz/caducity-a-five-minute-freewrite-gsqpjuwn), twenty, twenty one if you are interested
…
She was woken by screams. She sat upright in the bed, sweat beading on her body, her hand gripping the gun she always kept beside her when she slept. She listened carefully, blocking out the sound of her breathing and the thump-thump-thump of her heart. She could hear nothing.
Nothing unusual anyway.
Outside, in the streets below her apartment, she could hear men laughing and the occasional shout. People returning to their homes before the curfew. Inside there was nothing. She frowned. Had she dreamed of the screams? Normally, she did not dream. Or if she did she never remembered them. She always awoke clear-headed, rested and relaxed.
The woman who currently called herself Annie climbed out of the bed and took a shower, the gun resting on the edge of the sink within reach. As the water washed the sweat from her body she tried to remember what she had been dreaming of. Who had screamed? Was it her?
Or one of the others?
In another life, her first she supposed, her father had taken her to a zoo. In a cage, she had seen a large beast screaming as a zookeeper had attempted to approach it.
"That's a hippo," her father had said.
"Why is it screaming, father?"
Her father had shrugged. "Does it matter?"
...
As usual, I started with the freewrite prompt and used themostdangerouswritingapp.com to write the first five minutes (and then popped it into google docs to check for errors and tidy it up a bit):
…
The NEW @SteemFiction book, has been published! Currently available on Amazon for the Kindle it is now available as a paperback too!
Dead Silence
9 tales of MURDER from some of your favourite STEEM writers!
Check out the trailer for the book!
I have a story in it called The Still Blood-Soaked Path
A YouTube documentary film-maker visits a remote island to investigate the horrific murder of a young woman, and the subsequent suicide of her killer almost thirty years ago. But was the young lover really responsible for the brutal slaying of his girlfriend? And if not who was?
…
I had a comment left on one of my freewrites and I have to say, it made my day!
“Hey I got the book and want to tell you how much I enjoyed your story! Loved the twist at the end… you somehow nearly always manage to produce an unexpected twist... Love the care you take with your characters, intertwining them.” 
Voices In The Darkness is now ALSO available as a paperback!
If you want a taster of what is in the book, the video below shows me reading the first 900 words, or so, of my story, The Tell-Tale Dead
…
Join us at the Freewrite House for fun and games!!! Weekly drawing for SBI memberships and so much more!!
Proud member of two GREAT houses:
@freewritehouse and #PowerHouseCreatives
...
....
…
Do your posts need some more luv? Come and meet 
Resteems, and upvotes for quality posts!
…
Supporting the Steem Family
Join 