short stories

Flattery

In a world where having a high number of followers was the ultimate form of flattery, the irony didn’t escape William that being followed down a deserted city street was scaring him shitless. It was more than a feeling; he’d determined that, three blocks back when he circled an intersection all of 360 degrees. That’s when he got a good look at the clown who was following him.

Only one block from home, William was beginning to feel safer. He’d resisted the impulse to turn and look back for a while, but he had his hearing on full alert. There was nothing behind him. With only four doors between him and his apartment, a clown stepped out of an alleyway and stood stiffly before him. It couldn’t be the same clown, was William’s first thought. But of course it could. Damn me for taking the long way home to get away from this guy.

William was surprised when the clown spoke – in a woman’s voice.

“I need your help,” said the clown. She handed him a piece of paper and pushed past him, running awkwardly in her clown shoes back the way William had come.

Author’s note: Until October the 31st, I’m going to try to use this space to create possible beginnings for my 2016 NaNoWriMo project. Feedback is welcome.

Zombieland

Jack reined his horse to a stop at the border and looked past the barbed-wire fence at the grassy plain beyond. The zombies were miles back. Though they staggered haltingly at the best of times, Jack knew they could cover a lot of ground in little time. He’d seen the movies. Didn’t matter how fast the hero ran…

But thinking negatively like that was heading down a dead-end road. Much like the dead-end road he was on now. There was no way the horse would make it through the yards of prickly metal he faced. Jack looked right and left – there wasn’t a border crossing guard to be seen.

He walked a few feet to his left and looked down. Just as he thought. Zombie poo. They’ve been here already, Jack mumbled to himself.

“DAMN YOU, ZOMBIES!” he yelled. “DAMN YOU AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON!”

Jack’s horse snorted.

“Not you, Trigger,” he assured his mighty steed.

He was loathe to leave the beast to its own devices and make a break for it himself. Especially when he knew the zombies didn’t enjoy horse brains very much. The ungrateful monsters.

Jack took one more look left and right and mounted his horse.

“Let’s keep going, Trigger. Surely we’ll find a house somewhere with wire cutters. Even if we have to double back a bit.”

Trigger neighed.

“I know, old buddy. I know,” said Jack.

Author’s note: Until October the 31st, I’m going to use this space to create possible beginnings for my 2016 NaNoWriMo project. Feedback is welcome.

Break

“I want to break through.”

“Don’t you mean you want to break free?”

“Ooooh, there’s an idea.”

“See? You DO need me!”

“I don’t need you. In fact, I’ve fallen in love.”

“Really?”

“Mmhmm. I’ve fallen in love for the first time. This time I know it’s for real.”

“You’ve fallen in love?”

“God knows. And that’s why I’ve got to break through.”

“Free.”

“Right. Free.”

Wings

I feel them as they approach, long before I see them. The dust from the road beneath the lone streetlight swirls around me. Will the angel that comes for me tonight be dark, or of the light?

I look up even though I know it’s useless. When I squint, a halo appears around the bulb above me, in all the colours of the rainbow.

Before long, I pick up the scent. Sulfur. The angel is dark.

He lands some distance away. Finally he steps into the ring of light on the pavement; he saunters toward me. His black wings folded loosely behind him, he wears all white, as though that will absolve him. We both know his clothes will soon be drenched in my blood.

“Hello,” he says with a smile.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” I reply.

I hand him the sword and he studies it for a moment. “Your weapons are getting bigger,” he muses, speaking to me as he looks at the blade.

“The stakes are getting higher. I suppose your rival will be here tomorrow to clean up the mess.”

“You prefer it that way?”

“I think so.”

“He believes he’s mastered the art of protection.”

I nod. “Now he needs to work on his healing.”

“Let’s give him something to work on then.”

I’m aroused at his first slice down my cheek. Tonight will prove to be orgasmic. A little death, indeed.

…says a character to her author

you see me. i know you do. you feel my pain, you know my joy so intensely that you can express it. you understand what i’m going through – you see past the facade.

so why won’t you get me out of this fucking situation? just do it, damn it!

Hike

A two-hour hike had turned into a six-hour-long ordeal. George sat on a rock and thought about where it had gone wrong. Was it possible that the bump on the head from not ducking low enough under the fallen tree made him miss the signpost? The markers along the trail were bright red. Then again, now that he looked around, everything seemed black and white, like he’d stepped into an old television show.

“You have,” said a voice from behind him.

“Rod? Rod Serling?” George asked the stranger.

“No, I’m Rob. Rod was my brother.”

“So, I’m not in the Twilight Zone?”

“Technically, no. This is just the sunset zone. Rod will be along in a minute.”

“Isn’t he dead?”

“Well, yeah. Technically.” Rob stepped closer and ran his hair over George’s scalp. “You really should have that looked at.”

“You’re telling me,” said George with a small laugh.

“Okay, gotta go. Say hi to Rod for me.” With that, Rob ran away down the trail that George had walked up.

To be continued

Stump

“Honey, we’ve been walking for sooo long! I feel like we’re just going around in circles!”

Ralph raised the binoculars to his eyes and peered through them for the umpteenth time. The woods in the distance were dense. They were made up mostly of dark, shadowy pines, but the occasional maple dotted the way. The birds were both abundant and weird. Rather than chirp, they buzzed. One of them had picked up Spot, their old springer spaniel, three days ago, and flown away with him.

“You can see for yourself, we’re following the road, Martha.” He didn’t want to scare her, but he thought a couple of times that he’d seen the same tree twice.

“I think we should set up camp soon,” Martha said, tiredly.

“Sure, okay.”

“Do you think we could build a campfire tonight?”

Ralph sighed. “And where, exactly, are we going to get wood from?”

“We could just chop up a bit of the road,” she suggested with a shrug.

Great, thought Ralph. Then if we are walking around in circles, we’ll come across the hole in the road and Martha’ll go crazy.

“Please?” Martha begged. “It’s been weeks since we had a hot meal.”

“Yeah, okay.” Come morning, while we’re walking I’ll give her the binoculars and just change lanes when she’s not paying attention, he decided. The lanes both to the left and the right seemed endless.

***
Stump is the word of the day on the Daily Post, and our assignment for today on A Story A Day was to paint a vivid setting. How long did it take you to figure out where they are?

Recharge – #SoCS

The close-minded man is mortified when it turns out that the world has two moons. One is the same which the men land on – the other hangs outside his window at night and is made of cheese. He views it at first as a figment of his imagination, but being close-minded, that only last for a few seconds. Then night after night he opens up his window and pulls it down and eats it, only to find it hanging there again the next night, as if it has recharged itself.

The cheese moon has no cycles he realizes after a week. It is always full, and after a month, when he has grown three sizes larger, he sees that it will not go away.

The close-minded man’s mortification eventually turns him to petrification: his unwillingness to believe in the cheese moon transforms him into a petrified chunk of cheese, staring out his window at the cycles of the moon, and a piece of cheese hanging from a string, held by his upstairs neighbour.

socsbadge2016-17

Brought to you by The Daily Post and Stream of Consciousness Saturday, which you can find the prompt for here: https://lindaghill.com/2016/09/09/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-1016/

The Chronicles of Mary, Part 8

Mary was on her third job in as many months, at yet another accounting firm. Unhappy, she would sit at her desk day in and day out, wondering if she’d one day expire doing this very job. Sometimes, she looked out her fifth-storey window and wondered how long it would take to hit the pavement if she jumped.

On one particular Wednesday afternoon, her boss called her into his office. She trudged in and leaned against the door frame, long past attempting to make a good impression.

“Mary,” her boss said, “I’m hungry. Would you mind going into the cafeteria and getting me a sandwich?”

“It’s two o’clock. The cafeteria’s closed,” Mary replied.

“That’s okay. Just go in and make one, then.”

Mary sighed and wandered down to the cafeteria on the first floor. The door was open, so she went into the deserted kitchen and made her boss a sandwich. She trudged back upstairs, dropped it on his desk, and returned to her own.

Five minutes later, her boss came out and stood before her, smiling. “Would you like a job at my country club, making sandwiches?” he offered.

“Yes,” replied Mary.

And so the next day, Mary started her fourth job in three months.

***
I totally missed yesterday’s prompt for A Story A Day. The reason: things are getting more complicated over there. Funny enough, the second-week post mentioned that by now we should know what the best time of day to write is for us – mine happens to be after 11pm. Given that I try to post a new story every day, and wish to be in bed by midnight, it’s a stretch for me to write more than 300 words.
The above is my pathetic attempt at an Ugly Duckling story. It kind of fits the formula… Kind of.

With Kids in the Middle

“Billy! Welcome home! How did you enjoy your birthday weekend with your dad?”

“Hi Mom. It sucked.”

“Hey. Billy just ran upstairs saying your weekend sucked. Did the two of you get into it?”

“You know how it is. He wanted to go fishing, and then he didn’t. Kid can’t make up his mind.”

“Huh. You going to take the twins with you next time?”

“Winnie, you know I don’t have room at my place for all three kids.”

“So why did you buy such a small place?”

“It was all I could afford. The support payments are killing me!”

“Well maybe you shouldn’t have fu… fooled around on me!”

“Mom?”

“Oh, Billy. I didn’t see you there.”

“Can I finish the cake in the fridge?”

“Sure you can, Honey. Dad was just leaving. I’ll come and join you.”

***

Today, we were to write a story all in dialogue as our prompt at a Story A Day. Julie suggested we use the two characters we wrote from the last two days, so that’s what I did. It worked out well.

The previous two posts here on my blog introduce you to the characters in this story. They are “Cake” and “Stones”.