Tag Archives: flash fiction

October 9, 2013

The World is my Stage – Friday Fictioneers

The World is my Stage

“1 billion hits by midnight or New York City is gone!” screamed the title of the live Internet feed. Seven hours left: 540,000,000 hits needed. The CIA considered them a credible threat and now the whole world watched, breath held.

Jason sat in front of the nuclear weapon mock-up, webcam capturing everything except his own screen. Members were reporting from all over the country. Everything was almost ready, and then the real strike, the hammer blow of vengeance, would fall.

The first rule of sleight of hand, Jason thought. Keep the audience focused anywhere but where the real action is.

46 Comments | tags: bomb, crime, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Internet, nuclear weapon, sleight of hand, terrorism, video | posted in Friday Fictioneers

October 6, 2013

The Delights of the Cage – Alastair’s Photo Fiction

By David Stewart

http://alastairsphotofiction.wordpress.com/2013/10/06/photo-fiction-october-6th-2013

The Delights of the Cage

“If only,” Col said, and sighed as only a pigeon can. “Look how strong those bars are.”

“They could hold off anything,” Umbi murmured. “Cats, rats, even dogs.”

“And they’re indoors, and they’re allowed to be,” Dae said. “I once flew into a Walmart and I had people whacking at me with brooms for an hour before I got out.”

“Food all day long, just sitting there, ready to eat,” Col said.

“Warm in the winter, cool in the summer,” Dae moaned.

“I hear they even get a bell to play with, or a mirror.”

“What’s a mirror?”

“It’s like a magic window. It has another bird inside that can’t get out. I hear they’re very entertaining.”

“Shoo! Get away from here!” The three pigeons scattered and took flight, just in time to avoid the kick the pet shop owner had aimed at them.

“If only we could live in a cage,” Umbi said as they flew away, in search of something to eat. “That would be the life.”

9 Comments | tags: Alastair's Photo Fiction, fiction, flash fiction, imagination, pets, pigeon, quirky | posted in Light

October 2, 2013

Enough to Go Around – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

I admit: I found this prompt pretty hard, although it doesn’t help that I’ve been pretty tired for the last few days. I vacillated between dark and humour and ended up with dark humour.

Enough to Go Around

“I never saw the harm, you know?” Dean said. His seventh beer was leaking into his words. “Girls fighting over you—that’s good, right?”

The same old story.

“I was dating Amy then,” he said. “You remember Amy? The wrestler?”

“I remember.”

“It was after a tournament and her friend starts flirting with me. Awesome! Then Amy finds us, grabs my arm. Her friend grabs my other arm. I say, ‘Ladies, there’s enough of me to go around.’” He starts crying.

“Come on, let’s get you home.” I ease his coat over his cold, prosthetic arms and lead him outside.

44 Comments | tags: dark humor, dismemberment, fiction, fighting, flash fiction, flirting, Friday Fictioneers, girls, prosthetics, woman | posted in Friday Fictioneers

September 25, 2013

They Say – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

Well, it’s Friday Fictioneers time again. First of all, my apologies for not being able to read very many stories last week. I was out in the mountains for most of the week and even though I had a smart phone, it is very difficult to read a lot on it as well as write meaningful comments. I will do better this week.

Teenager, blue hat:

“They say the house’s invisible; only the doors are visible.”

Teenager, smoking:

“I heard it’s haunted.”

Teenager, red hair:

“My brother’s friend knew a guy who said the red one leads to Hell.”

Blue hat:

“I heard if you say ‘bloody skull’ in front of the white one at midnight, a witch appears.”

Red hair:

“They say they glow on Halloween.”

Smoking:

“They oughta know.”

Old man, long scar, approaches:

“I got caught in the white door when I was young. There really is a witch there.”

All three:

“Shut up, old man. You’re such a liar!”

38 Comments | tags: fantasy, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, ghosts, Halloween, haunted, hearsay, rumor | posted in Friday Fictioneers

September 18, 2013

Jumping to Conclusions – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

This week is a major holiday in Korea called Chuseok, which is like Thanksgiving. I am on the road now and writing this from a hotel room. Luckily, it had a computer, or I would have to write it on my phone.

The elderly man stood in the doorway of the shop, facing a mannequin in a white dress.

“I know you don’t talk much,” he said, “but I’ve seen you here, day after day as I pass by and I wanted to tell you that I really like you. Would you have dinner with me sometime?”

I felt pity for him. The poor, senile man had fallen in love with a mannequin. Should I say anything?

At that moment, a middle-aged woman stepped from behind the mannequin, blushing furiously.

The man beamed. “There you go. You don’t need to be shy.”

48 Comments | tags: Chuseok, confession, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, love, Mannequin, old man | posted in Friday Fictioneers

September 13, 2013

Apathy – Haibun Challenge

By David Stewart

I don’t often do these, but I thought I’d try this week’s Haibun Challenge.

Apathy

So many terrible images slide across the screen. One cannot take in a steady diet of earthquakes, massacres, epidemics, famines. I am overexposed. My brain becomes numb and even that little voice that shouts that such numbness is bad—even it eventually falls silent.

I pass them on the street, holding out their hands for help, but my quick strides sweep me by. I have enough stress and pain and uncertainty in my own life without opening it up to more. One day, when my life is all together, when there is room for the pain of others to replace the troubles that now buzz around in my head.

Now I have cancer. My Facebook status announcing the earth-shattering news has a smattering of sympathetic one-liners (no likes of course) . . . and that’s it? Doesn’t anyone care?

souls like bumping boats

seek the free open waters

until storms threaten

25 Comments | tags: apathy, cancer, charity, Facebook, fiction, flash fiction, haibun, haiku | posted in Dusk

September 11, 2013

Gotterdammerung – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

Gotterdammerung

We couldn’t face New York City sober, so out came the last of the whiskey and we danced a frenzied, forgetful dance on the deck of the last fishing boat in the Atlantic.

Around 6am, the boat entered the Narrows, the AI effortlessly navigating the spidery, rust corpse of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Belle crawled to the railing and peered ahead into the darkness. “There’s hope, right? Deep down in the subway system. People could survive.”

I nodded, took another drink.

The sun rose and Belle suddenly laughed and pointed. “She’s still there, torch held high. There’s still hope after all.”

50 Comments | tags: apocalypse, boat, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Götterdämmerung, New York City, post apocalyptic, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge | posted in Friday Fictioneers

September 4, 2013

Knick-Knack Paddy Whack – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

Knick-Knack Paddy Whack

Gut-twist, I call it—that hard, acidy stomach punch that comes when I smell the bright-red odor and see the crimson flowers blooming all over the walls and floor.

I do clean-up. Paddy lets all the red out and I collect it up in a bag, along with Miss Gone-Far-Away (it’s always Miss).

Paddy laughs at my knick-knacks, calls me a baby. But he lets me do it ‘cuz Miss Gone-Far-Away don’t need them anymore. So I take a coin, a charm, maybe a watch.

Sorry, I whisper to them every night. Sorry you met Paddy. I just do clean-up.

(Find this confusing? Want an explanation? Click here.)

49 Comments | tags: creepy, crime, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, knick-knack, mass murder, murder, souvenir | posted in Friday Fictioneers

September 1, 2013

Phaeton Day

By David Stewart

This is a story for Alastair’s Photo Fiction challenge. It takes place in a virtual reality world, similar to the one in my story, The Horse Bridge.

Phaeton Day

I woke up in my virtual world of Lex to find a .80 caliber Helios “Sunkiller” rifle propped next to my bed. That meant only one thing: Phaeton Day.

Outside, neighbors were clustered together, looking up at the sun, each holding their rifle. The sun was already quivering around, dancing to and fro. Suddenly, it streaked across the whole arc of the sky from east to west. Shadows skewed crazily.

A few people took shots at it, but most waited. The world moderators had outlawed flying for the day and everyone moved slowly, suddenly ungainly at having to stay on the ground.

The day wore on and as the sun sunk closer to the earth, it began to get hotter. More people were firing now, trying to puncture the sun and unlock their Sunkiller achievement.

By mid-afternoon, everything was broiling. The sun was on high difficulty: it kept dancing everywhere, impossible to hit.

I had one bullet left when the sun zoomed overhead. I felt the intense blast of heat and fired upwards. There was a splash of flames and the disk of the sun fell onto my house.

“Congratulations!” a voice said out of nowhere. “Umm, sorry.”

14 Comments | tags: achievement, Alastair's Photo Fiction, fiction, flash fiction, mythology, Phaeton, photograph, rifle, science fiction, virtual reality | posted in Light

August 28, 2013

If I Were a Poor Man – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

If I Were a Poor Man

“If I were a poor man, my dear,” he said, “I would come here and imagine buying you these jewels. I would get a second job, just to buy one diamond for your beautiful, swan-like neck.”

She looked at him quizzically. “But you’re not a poor man. You just bought this mall.”

“But I want you to know that I would. Would it mean more to you if I did get a job? If I worked hard to buy you some token of my love?”

“That’s dumb. Let’s just buy some now.”

He sighed. “Fine. Pick out what you’d like.”