From the tree line, I watched the castle going down in flames. The acrid smell of smoke stung my nose. Screams from those still inside pierced the air.
I felt so horrible. How could I know that spicy food didn’t agree with him? Who knew that dragons could get heartburn?
Kimberly Osgood lives in Miami with her fiancé Ian. She has never ever fed dragons. She can be found on Twitter at @kimberlyosgood
I drizzle honey over yoghurt and imagine that I am Jackson Pollock.
Yesterday’s dessert was a masterpiece, worthy of MoMA, but this looks amateur. I need precision. I need clean lines.
But it’s freezing and my honey has crystallised into thick, sticky globules.
I bet Jackson Pollock could afford heating.
Danny Beusch started writing flash fiction in 2017. Find him on Twitter: @OhDannyBoyShhh.
I look into his unblinking eyes, staring intensely at me.
I shudder with fear, for I know my time is nigh.
He beckons me forth, wiggling a white-gloved finger.
It is time. I can delay no longer.
I must get my picture taken with Santa, or Mom will kill me.
Numbers swirled in his mind, forming equations, axioms, proofs. The logic of the argument led him to certainty, to a ‘Eureka’ moment of perfect, shining clarity. Absolute, mathematically verifiable truth lay before him and now there could be no doubt: chocolate really was the greatest of the ice cream flavours!
Bill lives in Aberdeen, Scotland where his experiments in time travel have created an inescapable temporal loop. Bill lives in Aberdeen, Scotland where his experiments in time travel have created an inescapable temporal loop. Bill lives in Aberdeen, Scotland…
Fifty-word stories? Sounds easy, but HA! Challenge embraced; let the jotting and counting begin.
“Not tonight dear. One… too busy… two, three.”
Cloud of perpetual distraction.
“Sorry, what were you saying? Didn’t catch that. I was—”
“Yeah. I know,” he mumbles. “Counting. Scribbling.”
Relationship ends, but hey! Fifty words!
Judi MacKenzie is a writer who teaches yoga and, sometimes, meticulously counts words. She loves writing screenplays and is a reader for the Austin Film Festival.
It was a problem from day one. I’d never wanted a roommate, but simply couldn’t swing the apartment any other way.
I plumped the pillows and placed them precisely in their preferred positions on the pristine couch.
Then I huddled down in my bean bag and waited for the enemy.
Susan Gale Wickes is from Indiana. She enjoys writing short stories and poetry and has never owned a bean bag.
After paying in cash so there would be no paper trail,
after sneaking it in under his shirt,
after hiding it all weekend in the back of the freezer,
after thawing it in the microwave while she bathed,
he put the dead mouse under her pillow,
and then he waited.
Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and two collections of stories. A celebrated master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in 60 anthologies, received dozens of awards, and been used in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts where, despite severe vision loss, he continues to write every day. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.
The new Authority made changes.
My comrades looked on with wide-eyed but silent alarm.
We had to assert ourselves now, or we were surely lost.
I opened my mouth wide. “WHAAA!!!” I wailed at full volume.
The others joined in.
The new babysitter quickly flicked back to the children’s channel.
Mary Sheehan writes from the occasionally sunny south-east of Ireland.
Molly set the deadline to shed her excess weight – the county picnic.
Dieting was slow, so she ditched a few body parts. Success! Check that scale.
Her pound-shedding continued. At the picnic, Molly was nothing but a pair of sparkly pumps.
The mayor declared, “Best darn shoes in the county!”
Roberta Beach Jacobson is a humorist from Iowa. See more at RobertaJacobson.com.
His feet were useless. Numb. His hands, too.
Madame Lilly had warned against dosing off during these quickie BDSM sessions. But Leland was a stubborn, silly, silly man, and he’d carb loaded earlier.
The knots were taking their toll.
Had such expensive discipline taught him nothing about patience? About himself?
Larry D. Thacker’s poetry can be found in over a hundred publications including Spillway, The Still Journal, American Journal of Poetry, Poetry South, Mad River Review, The Southern Poetry Anthology, Mojave River Review,Town Creek Poetry, and Appalachian Heritage. His books include Mountain Mysteries, and the poetry books, Drifting in Awe, Voice Hunting, Memory Train, and the forthcoming full collections, Feasts of Evasion and Grave Robber Confessional. His MFA in poetry and fiction is earned from West Virginia Wesleyan College. His stories can be found in past issues of The Still Journal, Fried Chicken and Coffee, Dime Show Review, Pikeville Review, Vandalia Journal, and Grotesque Quarterly. His stories have been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net recognitions. Visit his website at larrydthacker.com.