Once again, I very much enjoyed the daily Flash Fiction Challenge, set
by Writers Victoria here in Melbourne. It runs each April and is open to
everyone, with the very simple rule to compose a short story in no more
than thirty words, using the featured word of the day, one submission
per day. The rest is up to interpretation. The story can be inspired by
the daily prompt, it does not necessarily have to feature it. There were
a lot of great entries again this year, and everyone contributing on
Twitter seems to have bucked the trend for that website and been
genuinely encouraging and supportive of each other, which is really
quite lovely. You can check out Writers Victoria and all the daily
winners here:
https://writersvictoria.org.au/flash-fiction-2021
Strangely,
although no less enjoyable, I found this years’ challenge a lot harder
than 2020. Perhaps lockdown brain atrophy has finally taken hold, since
as of writing I am still working from home; and although Melbourne has
been Covid free for a while, we’re still a ways off being back to
normal. But somehow I managed to write thirty one stories in thirty days
(I wrote two on 5 April for the prompt ‘Hands’, submitting only the
second one).
It was however, very exciting to win the daily challenge on 24 April for the story ‘Letter’.
So
collected here in once place, thirty one tales of intrigue, paranoia
and violence, designed to drive the reader quite mad. Do you dare turn
the page on these lunatic ravings? Where weird and unspeakable terrors
sit across the page from you - physically touchable, yet mentally
unreachable. Where cosmic real estate, Martian haute cuisine and Hell’s
admin assistant wait in line to liquefy your mind. Where city officials
live in fear of sea beasts, where the dread book Necronomicon taunts you
from your ‘must read’ pile, where primates fight with tooth and blade.
I
invite you, friend, until our paths cross again in this dimension or
the next, to open this portal to madness and discover the truths that
lie within….
CREASE
1 April 2021
Several hours passed before I realised we followed a crease in the map, instead of the road. By which time we’d crossed into Bigfoot turf… without a tourist visa
DEVELOP
2 April 2021
Mind Control takes time to develop, you know? Whether it’s heartless assassination, government destabilization or making you a cup of tea, you gotta finesse that brain. They gotta WANT it.
SEGMENTATION
3 April 2021
Armageddon was bureaucratic. Earth was found to be the legal property of cosmic real estate centipedes from beyond Jupiter. They subdivided and sold the segments for crass, but lucrative profit
BLOSSOM
4 April 2021
She melded with their tech. Vital signs went horizon flat. But answers flowed and consciousness blossomed. Corporeal existence exposed as a lie. She was a ghost in their machine.
HANDS
5 April 2021
In his final moments he recalled the hands of his newborn son. Those same hands, now wrapped tight around his throat, squeezing the last breath from his lungs.
HANDS
5 April 2021
There are twenty-seven bones in the human hand. If I have to break all twenty-seven to see to it you never use a Rubik’s Cube again, believe me, I will.
ILLUMINATE
6 April 2021
Pro tip: Immortal Night Spider nests are badly illuminated, so bring a torch. It’s dark and they don’t like it when you step on their egg sacks
CRUMPLE
7 April 2021
His breath plumed in the cold morning air. Jamming freezing hands into pockets, he discovered a note, crumpled and age indeterminate. In a hyperactive scrawl it read, simply, ‘you’re next’
RENEW
8 April 2021
The lair was filthy, unkempt and the pentagram on the floor had been drawn without a ruler. The final indignity was this joker’s failure to renew his Necromancy License.
OPEN
9 April 2021
As a lifestyle, cannibalism has an image problem. So I think it’s important we are clear and open with our food. Sir, I am going to fricassee your eyeballs.
POP
10 April 2021
Knuckles broken, hands bloodied, he remembered how his ears popped as he descended from high ground. Unable to determine if the root of his pain was air pressure or guilt.
ELABORATE
11 April 2021
It turns out, it was all an elaborate lie. How could we know he was not the rightful King of Spain? Other than the fact he could not speak Spanish…
UNRAVEL
12 April 2021
Across the room, the cat rotated in three full circles, before settling on my favourite jumper. Unravelling the sleeves with his claws, feigning innocence, he was untouchable. That smug bastard
MANIFEST
13 April 2021
Thank you for contacting Pandemonium Head Office. We will endeavour to respond, via demonic manifestation or email, within 5 business days. Your bargain with Satan is important to us
SCRUNCH
14 April 2021
He found it underneath the bookcase, among the dustmotes. A scrunched up page from the dread book Necronomicon (abridged). An incantation to raise the dead and locate missing car keys.
CONSCIOUSNESS
15 April 2021
The creature rose awkwardly, blinking into consciousness. Headed for the door upon lumpen gait.
“He really built a Frankenstein,” I said.
The creature offered a wry smile
“Frankenstein’s monster, actually”
BURST
16 April 2021
That’s the thing everybody always gets wrong about Pyrokinesis. I don’t burst into FLAME, I burst into THOUGHT. To put it simply, I can’t catch on fire… but you can.
LEARN
17 April 2021
As an intergalactic food critic, the most valuable lessons I learned were invariably accompanied by casualties. For example, if Martian food is labelled ‘hot’, that means it will vaporise you.
EXPLORE
18 April 2021
With every possibility explored, it appeared silver bullets were the only cure for my Lycanthropy. But then I bought this new shampoo and that seemed to work quite well too.
REVEAL
19 April 2021
The Mayor’s GPS revealed his location and we found him, partially digested and somewhat liquefied, in the gullet of a giant squid. The sea beast choked on his mayoral robes.
ORIGAMI
20 April 2021
He folded countless paper cranes, like the conflicted protagonist in a John Woo movie. But his work was crude and imprecise, and this innate lack of aptitude derailed his ambition.
EXPAND
21 April 2021
Industry expansion was unprecedented, with Warlocks on every street corner. But many of our Demons were summoned on a casual basis, without sick pay or overtime. We had to unionize.
EMERGE
22 April 2021
Pod People aren’t so bad. Sure, they want to subjugate the Earth. But when you see one emerge from its husk, looking just like you, the resemblance is quite flattering
UNFURL
23 April 2021
“So, the scorpion climbed onto my pack, unfurling its stinger”
“Unfurling? Ooh là là! Was it a fancy scorpion?”
“Well, how should I describe it?”
“It chucked its stinger up”
LETTER
24 April 2021
Dear Heathrow Airport,
R.e. Penalty Notice
I did not believe I required a flyover permit, on account of the fact I was a bat at the time.
Yours sincerely
Dracula
UNWRAP
25 April 2021
He found the box on the stoop. Embossed with gold, perfumed, exquisitely packaged. He tentatively unwrapped it. There was no note, but instead a single, clean, human eyeball. Tendons attached.
DISPLAY
26 April 2021
“Retail’s for suckers,” apparently. So now we’re stuck with a display model time machine, region locked to 3.7 billion years ago. And I still haven’t seen any freakin’ dinosaurs.
BETRAY
27 April 2021
It’s my job to account for all the expenses, see. In court they called it a ‘betrayal’, but on my balance sheet it was down as fiscally motivated allegiance fluidity
BECOME
28 April
It became increasingly apparent that growing giant, competition vegetables was not for the faint of heart. If he wanted to win Best Cauliflower he’d have to break Reverend Hoskins’ shins.
DISCOVER
29 April 2021
It was with mild surprise I discovered a portal to the Eldritch Dimension in my shed. But the associated costs of mollifying an Elder God’s bloodlust, destroyed my household budget.
UNFOLD
30 April 2021
He watched events unfold on the news. The club president implicated in a chimpanzee fighting ring. Each belligerent primate equipped with a tiny switchblade, rotten attitude and lucrative earning potential.
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