Category Archives: Flash Friday Fiction

Mea Culpa – 160 words

He’d been promised glory and honor, a place in history as a defender of the true faith. What he got was mind-numbing boredom. An impregnable castle and months of nothing but marching and stewing and raging at the enemy.

So he’d impregnated something else. Not on purpose, of course. The market maidens had been a welcomed distraction for lonely nights and lonely knights. How could he have known Marisa’s father was a sorcerer, a practicer of dark magic?

He’d done the noble thing. He’d asked her to marry him. But that had not been enough to appease Ahmad.

Eight hundred years into the future, Ahmad had thrown him.

The women in the marketplace still cast surreptitious glances at him, appreciation for his face evident in their eyes.

He never noticed. He only had eyes for the castle. Besieged by remorse, by loss, by the sense of what might have been.

“Forgive me, Marisa, for I have sinned,” he whispered. Daily.

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Here is another Flash Friday entry that I hadn’t posted during the time in which my website was down. We had to somehow include a marriage proposal within our 150 (+/-10) word story; how do you think I did?

We All Have Our Roles To Play -158 words

This is my punishment, she said, for sleeping with the French maid. I have to wear this costume and stand here for eight hours. God, I had no idea how much high heels hurt! I’m rather digging the stockings, though; I always did think I had nice calves.

The gas mask is to show how noxious my behavior was. Whatever. I can’t think of anything more toxic than our non-relationship itself.

The rope is in case I feel like ending it all, she said, a smirk playing across her lips. I don’t think I’ll need it, though: the sheer embarrassment might be enough to cause my death. Maybe I should just bash my head against those rocks.

I’m not even doing this because I love her. I don’t. I never have. But her daddy pays the bills. Her daddy hires the help. Her daddy is in love with me. And he’s promised me a Swedish nanny next time.

This was actually for LAST week’s Flash Friday Fiction contest, but my website was down at the time and I couldn’t post it.  I had to drum up a 150 (+/-10) word story based on this photo prompt. Oh, and I had to include a death. I opted for humor over tragedy; what do you think of my result? 

Live Long and Prosper – 157 words

“Did you get a load of the legs on her?”

“Yeah, quite the beauties. All six of them. And those eyes…”

“I know. Prettiest purple I’ve ever seen. Too bad there were three of them. Too distracting for me.”

“Didn’t seem to stop that captain guy. What was his name?”

“Kirk. I think he’d hit on anything from any species.”

“And that tall one with the pointy ears. What was up with him and that Prime Directive he kept talking about?”

“He told me I was highly illogical.”

“You ARE highly illogical. Who else would press all those buttons, just to see what they would do?”

“Are you kidding me? After seeing that Scotty guy–what did he call it?–’beam that alien up’?”

“You should be thanking him for that–that’s what got us back down here safely.”

“Should we tell the president?”

“Nah, he’s got enough on his hands still trying to convince everyone Roswell wasn’t real.”

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I went for the silly today. Sci-fi isn’t my strong suit, and all I could think of when told to incorporate an alien was Star Trek. Good enough for me!

Want to write your own tale about this photo? Launch yourself on over to Flash Friday Fiction and give it a go. Warp speed ahead!

Oh Captain, My Captain (159 words)

It was naive to have thought they’d never get caught, he realized now. Sailing the seas for so many moons, seizing booty without consequence, believing nothing could take them down.

They’d gotten careless. Displayed themselves a little more brazenly.  Laughed at the notion that some day the end would come, that some day they’d be challenged.

He’d always imagined death would come at the hands of the enemy. But it hadn’t. No, it’d come from a careless caress, one he’d thought hidden.

The crew mutinied, led by the first mate, the captain’s right hand. “Ain’t right,” he’d sniggered. “Men ain’t s’pposed to love one another that way.”

They’d thrust a dagger through his captain’s heart, cleaving them both in two. They hadn’t killed him, though. No, they’d left him to a fate much worse than that: a lifetime on this island, with only his beloved’s coat for company.

He bowed his head. “It was worth it, Cap’n,” he whispered.

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Oh, how I love Fridays – especially when the prompt lends itself (at least in my mind) to the inclusion of romance. Within the 150 (+/-10) word limit, we also had to include something about arrogance. Let me know what you think of my story, and please head over to Flash Friday Fiction to read and comment on the other entries, or perhaps enter a tale of your own!

By the way, it’s been one year since I started writing flash fiction, and boy, has it ever been fun! So here’s to me on my flashversary – may there be many more to come. And hopefully I’ll finish a few real novels along the way.