Tag Archives: twist

WILLIAM MITCHELL: Pompeii

Adventure, Submissions, , , ,

Another body; it never gets easier.

She was young, her face, clothes, once vibrant, now a mere plaster-filled void, an ash-entombed statue, agonies frozen that disastrous day, centuries ago.

Her belongings emerge; linguists decode the ancient markings:

“Timex” – “Nike” – “iPhone”

And occasionally, rarely, paper fragments survive:

“Pompeii Tourist Guide: 2026”.

William Mitchell lives in East Sussex in the South of England. He is an award-winning author, having had early success with various Horror and Science Fiction publications before winning the Writers of the Future contest in 2012. His first novel, CREATIONS, came out in 2014 with John Hunt Publishing.

JS O’KEEFE: Geography

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

They told me the vizsla puppy I got for Christmas is a breed originating from a particular region. After spending the entire morning perusing the globe in vain, I called the Center For Allowed Information.

“Don’t let that bother you,” they said. “Maps are being redrawn almost continuously these days.”

J.S. O’Keefe has published over three hundred short stories and poems in print and online literary magazines. See more at his website: szjohnny.net.

PHIL BAYLES: Love Bite

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

My friends mock me for constantly checking my reflection.

But they don’t know about the woman who gave me a hickey two nights ago. That my skin prickles in the sun, or that I cut myself while I was flossing this morning.

They don’t see that my reflection is fading.

Phil W. Bayles has lived in Paris and London, where he’s written everything from movie reviews to mattress adverts. These days he lives in Derbyshire with his wife, his daughter and his cat. His words have been published at 50 Word Stories and Twisted Ink.

ELLEN TOWNSEND: Mycology Reveal

Amusing, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , ,

We’re in woodland with backpacks, introductions.

Glowing couples hold hands; our foraging instructor munches leaves. I nibble. He discusses elderflowers whilst sitting amidst daisies; we picnic on sourdough and dandelions.

“Wild mushroom pasta,” he says. “Folklore believes these fungi help people read minds.”

The couples devour bowlfuls, then leave separately.

Ellen Townsend is an art teacher and writer. Her work has appeared in Friday Flash Fiction and Paragraph Planet and has been broadcast on BBC Radio.

PAUL T: Mother’s Day 2049

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

The train left the station.

Maya stood alone, holding a letter she would never send. Snow slowly covered her nearly-empty battery pack. She watched her footprints disappear. For the first time she felt calm and steady. She didn’t need to say goodbye. She didn’t want to. She wasn’t programmed to.

Paul T. is a rising sophomore at Suffield Academy in Connecticut. Originally from Thailand, Paul enjoys literature and exploring foreign languages.

RITA RIEBEL MITCHELL: Fate Takes a Turn

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

What if I hadn’t moved to this city and rented the apartment, right next to hers?

What if our paths hadn’t crossed at the bus stop, the coffee shop, the market?

What if she had let me love her and she had loved me back?

Would she still be alive?

Rita Riebel Mitchell writes in the Pinelands of South Jersey where she lives amongst the trees with her husband. Her work appears in HAD, Flash Fiction Magazine, Versification, and more. Find her at ritariebelmitchell.com/friday-micro/.

MIKE KEYSER: Shelf Life

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

After decades of research, rewrites, and rejections, sleepless nights, and crippling self-doubt, my novel releases tomorrow.

As doors unlock, signing pen in hand… a gamma-ray burst—life on Earth, gone.

Behind now-wide-open doors, through which no human will pass, rests my book: The Universe Hates Me.

Mike Keyser hails from Wisconsin, where past and future share a beer. A seeker of alien abduction—and receiver of none—he feeds his off-world appetite through speculative fiction.

ED WALKER: Word of Unbinding

Adventure, Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

The author made up a word for something, say a six-legged spider with two arms, or whatever. Just gibberish. Eventually the story was translated into Italian, and thanks to a typo, it only needed to be pronounced in the European style aloud to unbind the universe. The universe is waiting.

After decades of nattering on about moving abroad, Ed Walker finally retired and is currently living in Catalunya, Spain. His work can be found in fiftywordstories, The Arcanist, Blink-Ink and elsewhere.

PHIL W BAYLES: This Time Machine Kills Fascists

Adventure, Submissions, , , , ,

That woman’s strangely dressed for 1889, the time traveller thinks.

She pulls out a glass rectangle and wordlessly hands it over. He stares, horrified, at an unfamiliar future.

Once he’s returned to whenever he came from, she sits and waits for the next assassin.

Somewhere nearby, a baby boy wails.

Phil W. Bayles has lived in Paris and London, where he’s written everything from movie reviews to mattress adverts. These days he lives in Derbyshire with his wife, his daughter and his cat. He writes very silly stories about very serious ideas, with the occasional poem to mix things up.

VERA PODELL: The Labyrinth

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

A red thread is on the ground. You’re surrounded by the walls. Somewhere in this labyrinth there’s a monster hiding.
Suddenly there’s a sound – a step.
It’s just behind the angle.
You come out first.
That’s a young man with a shield in his hand.
He sees you – he screams.

Vera Podell is a Russian-born writer and photo artist. She writes in three languages which are English, Russian and German. Vera tends to experiment a lot with her writing style, primarily focusing on the themes of memory and how to forms our identity.