Trifecta: Week Twenty-Two

So far, most of our Trifextra weekend challenges have asked you to respond to the prompt in exactly 33 words. This weekend, we allowed you the full quota of 333. However, instead of giving you a one-word prompt as we do in the weekday challenge, we gave you three words, stipulating the order in which they were to be used. If it was meant to trip you up, we failed miserably, as we had yet another batch of outstanding stories and poems.

In first place this week was Trudging Through Fog's beautifully told story, Belfry. Some of the imagery in Christine's short piece is stunning:

There are times when everything is perfectly clear, and other times when everything is dark. 

In the between times I hide up in the belfry, among the dust and carcasses of minutes gone by. Every hour a cacophony of bells shakes another layer of time down from the rafters. 

I like to watch the people in the churchyard below, wafting through the garden like soap bubbles, glittering and ephemeral. 

In the bell tower, the seconds twitch on the floor, disorderly as insects scrabbling for shelter. I crush them, one by one, under my shoe, until they too are dust.

In second place, is The Future of Hope's harrowing piece, Meth or Death. Chrystalyn's description of one man's struggle against a debilitating drug addiction, while not an easy read, was powerful and moving. Third place goes to The Hobbler. Her 33-word story, What Noise? left a few of her readers with itchy ears. It was our first entry this week and therefore the first one I read, but it stuck with me all weekend. As usual, there were many other great entries and thanks to everyone who linked up.

This week we're back to just one word but it's the third definition we're looking for and we're asking that you  use it exactly as it appears below.

As always, we wish you well.

scan·dal noun \ˈskan-dəl\

1   a: discredit brought upon religion by unseemly conduct in a religious person

     b: conduct that causes or encourages a lapse of faith or of religious obedience in another

2:   loss of or damage to reputation caused by actual or apparent violation of morality or propriety : disgrace

3   a: a circumstance or action that offends propriety or established moral conceptions or disgraces those associated with it

     b : a person whose conduct offends propriety or morality <a scandal to the profession>

Please remember:

• Your response must be between 33 and 333 words.
• You must use the 3rd definition of the given word in your post.
• The word itself needs to be included in your response.
• You may not use a variation of the word; it needs to be exactly as stated above. 
• Your post must include a link back to Trifecta.
• Please submit your post's permalink, not the main page of your blog. For example: http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/2012/03/trifextra-week-eight.html not www.trifectawritingchallenge.com.

Good luck and we'll see you back on Friday.