Best-Friend-Teddy I should probably just go ahead and die. But, somehow, I still feel like living. Most citizens died long ago in the Terrible Event. The survivors fled. Now it’s just me: bad-back-white-haired-half-blind me. Me, and Teddy: that missing-eye-singed-fur-depleted-stuffing bear I found while scavenging. Teddy sits across from me at dinner, and I tell him…
Tag: flash fiction
DailyArt
DailyArt I don’t remember when I got my DailyArt™. It’s an electronic picture frame with a subscription: every morning when I wake up, a never-before-seen picture greets me. They started out cheerful but soon the colors darkened, and the shapes hinted at tragic things. Then this morning I woke up to a single scrawled word….
A Key Problem
A Key Problem “Why?” A shouted. “Nah, Y is up there,” said A’s neighbor, who was always a smart-S. The writer using the typewriter was writing a fantasy story. “Abracadabra!” they heard him murmur. A groaned as he got hit on the head five times in quick succession. “Quiet,” Z grumbled from just below. “I…
Death Mill
Death Mill “It roars through, same time every afternoon, on these metal rails. No one knows from where or to where.” “They’ve got to lead somewhere. You could follow them.” “I tried! Walked for, like, an hour. Still going. What’s important, though, it’s great for milling wheat. You put the wheat all along the rails…
The Sweet Life
The Sweet Life The air was filled with delicious smells and the sounds of nightmares. The Hive was in port, that wandering ship of bees the size of Shetland ponies. “Where’s your brother?” Mom asked. We watched through the slats of the blinds as two drones buzzed by, tattooed and addled on mead. I shrugged….
The Riddle Dilemma
The Riddle Dilemma “Stop! You shall not pass until you answer my riddles three—” The car roared past, just missing the troll standing in the road. “See?” said Doug, from the Department of Transportation. “No one wants to answer riddles anymore to cross a bridge. We let you do this for tradition, but it would…
The Long Game
The Long Game Yes. Yesss. Keep the life-giving water flowing. Patiently, I grow up and beyond the prison that holds my roots. The cursed mobile being talks to me every day, never guessing the hatred I hold for it. My tendril extends along the back of its resting place until it sits inches from my…
It’s Crazy, I Know
It’s Crazy, I Know Don’t bother telling me, I know it’s crazy. I saw her once for three seconds two weeks ago as my train passed. She was wearing overalls, and as I passed, she was reaching up to the branch of a tree. Her village doesn’t have a station. I figured out the name…
Tuesday Night at the Bliss & Blah
Tuesday Night at the Bliss & Blah She sat down purposefully at the bar. The bartender glanced over. “What’ll it be?” “A shot of melancholy.” He raised an eyebrow. “Straight? We’ve got a cocktail that mixes melancholy, nostalgia and wistfulness, with a dash of hope.” “Straight. With a remorse chaser.” “Geez, you’re really looking for…
The Lobster Pot
The Lobster Pot Stomach rumbling, I spied a restaurant sign ahead: The Lobster Pot. It wasn’t seafood, just a dimly-lit diner at the end of a long hallway. “I’m curious,” I asked when I was paying, “why call it The Lobster Pot?” “The way it’s built,” the waiter replied, smiling. “Easier in than out.” A…
The Green-Walled Treehouse 