Flash Friday Fiction TWOFER: The American Dream

Whetting Interrupted, 1894. Public domain painting by Jose Ferraz de Almeida Junior.
Whetting Interrupted, 1894. Public domain painting by Jose Ferraz de Almeida Junior.

The American Dream – 207 words

“You can find a better life here,” they’d said. “Work hard and you can achieve anything you set your mind to,” they’d promised.

He’d tried.

But he’d never overcome their prejudices. Not really. He’d always been an outsider and always would be, his accent, his clothing, his food preferences betraying him at every turn.

She’d never cared. She hadn’t seen him as an immigrant. She’s seen a friend, and then, later, a lover.

He’d told her time and again it wouldn’t work, that they couldn’t last. That her father would kill them if he ever found out.

“Times are changing,” she’d argued. “You’ll see. I love you. You love me. That’s all we need, right?”

He’d held her close, saying nothing. There was nothing to say. He knew it would come to this. He’d always known.

He stood, facing down the shotgun, black eyes meeting blue across the barrel.

A scream echoed. He heard her feet running, her desperate cries for her father to stop.

But he knew that look in his adversary’s eyes. It was now or never. Everything boiled down to this moment.

He saw her pull on her father’s arm, saw the man hesitate.

At that moment, he picked up the axe. And swung.

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Yup. I wrote TWO stories for this week’s Flash Friday Fiction competition. Don’t know that either one will resonate with the judges, but I had fun anyway. What do you think?

Flash Friday Fiction: My Name is Rodrigo de Goya

Whetting Interrupted, 1894. Public domain painting by Jose Ferraz de Almeida Junior.
Whetting Interrupted, 1894. Public domain painting by Jose Ferraz de Almeida Junior.

My Name is Rodrigo de Goya – 209 words

You had it coming.

All those years. All those years of abuse and torment, of hatred and subjugation.

You blamed it on ma. On how sick she was. You claimed the burden of worry overrode your good heart.

Bastardo.

The only heart you have is a cancerous one, a cancer worse than anything ma ever suffered, God rest her soul.

Here we stand now. Face to face. Man to man. Or man to Overlord.

For it’s your misfortune that you never explored that cave down the river. I did. Every chance I got, every possibility of escape led me there.

You rotter. I’d only come back to wait, to bide my time, to bring the apocalypse, the end of the world down on your miserable head. And everyone else’s. Everyone who’d seen me, black eyes and frightened face, and never said a word, never lifted a hand.

Today is Judgment Day.

They’ll be lifting those hands today, in supplication, begging for release from the alien plague I command at will.

For the aliens took me in once I discovered the portal to their world. They adored me, festooned me with praise and titles.

I am the Overlord, ruler of the planet Vithrax.

You killed my mother. Prepare to die.

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Bwah ha ha! Today I took a slightly different approach to my Flash Friday story of 200 (+/-10) words. After joking with friends that the stories that win aren’t usually the humorous ones (like I like to write), but are the dark ones that include abused children, people with horrible illnesses, and/or the end of the world, I vowed to write a story that incorporated all three.

Luckily for me, the prompt lent itself well to that, especially since we had to center our story around the theme of “aspiration”.

The only thing I forgot was a dead kitten.

Anyway, let me know what you think. And yes, The Princess Bride IS my favorite movie of all time.