Tag: Flash fiction

Tower of Follies – Flash Fiction

“So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm”, proclaimed the Queens herald.

But they all knew the truth. They would come to harm whether they did their duty or not. The only difference lay in how quickly the harm would come. The Queen cared not for their life. She didn’t give a thought to her subjects coming to harm. 

The only things she cared about was her wealth prospering, her power growing, her legacy and legend spreading, her monuments to rise and compete with the ancient marvels of the world. Hers would be the biggest temple, the highest tower, the grandest tomb.

Little did she suspect, hers would be the most spectacular assassination. Thought out and plotted by the greatest minds of the country. Impaled by the sacrificial bull. Crushed by falling marble. Interred in the fallen tower of follies. 

© RedCat

Written for tonight’s Prosery: Doing our duty at dVerse. The prompt where we write prose inspired by a given line from a poem and not exceeding the word count of 144.

Tonight’s line is from William Blake’s poem ‘The Chimney Sweeper:’ In Songs of Innocence (1789)

So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm

Image credits:

First image: Palais idéal, Hauterives, France from Wikimedia Commons.
Second image: Photo by Hisham Zayadnh on Unsplash

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Daily Haibun, August 15th – More Words

The last two years I’ve gotten the hang of writing flash fiction. Short short stories in no more then say 100 words. It has helped me let go of my propensity for long rambling sentences. It has made me realise which words really are essential for telling a story. But it hasn’t taught me how to write longer prose stories.

Today I’ve been struggling with the first writing exercise for my writing classes. Finding that my first few drafts is way too short. And right now I’m at a loss for how to make it longer without filling it with unnecessary rambling.

Hopefully I can find a way tomorrow.

Change of season winds

Like thoughts without directions

Going everywhere

© RedCat

Read other Haibun’s written for the monthly dVerse prompt by me here.

Read other Daily Haibun’s here.

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The Little Robot – Flash Fiction

PHOTO PROMPT© Ted Strutz

It was a kind little robot. Designed to keep lonely people company. One of them tinkered with its head and gave it wanderlust. Just to see how far a little robot without locomotion could go. 

Quite far as it turns out. Being small and cute. Kind and polite. It got humans to take it all over the world. Eventually one of the things it hadn’t done was take a road trip through America. So off it went. 

It got as far as Philly before an uncaring human stripped it for it’s parts and left the rest lying on the roadside. 

© RedCat

Photo by Brendan Steeves on Unsplash

For some reason all I could see was the remains of a robot head. And I immediately started thinking about “Iron Woman” or perhaps better known as hitchBOT. The little robot that hitchhiked all over, but met its end when it tried to hitchhike through the US.

Written for this week’s Friday Fictioneers. Click on the frog above to read more stories or post one of your own.

Hitchbot Goes to the Fair
Michael Barker, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Utter Tohubohu – Flash Fiction, MLMM Wordle 252

Like water caresses the streambed rocks, the mention of his crimes in the newspapers caressed his black heart. Carefully he clipped them all out to save in his well filled scrapbook. He got a kick out of knowing his artful displays had left the police in utter tohubohu. He’d left them no clues to follow.

He took pride in his time consuming careful preparations. Ruminating over every angle. Never acting impetus due to desire or need. Just as his master had taught him.

So he was extremely surprised when the continued news reporting and the media nicknaming him the Hieronymus Bosch killer, made him itch to complete a new art piece soon.

© RedCat

I might have read too many crime novels lately.

Click here to read other stories by me.

Written for Wordle #252 at Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie. 

Water
Mention
Newspaper
Clip
Impetuous
Tohubohu– a state of chaos, confusion
Extreme
Ruminate
Caress
Angle
Kick
Surprise

Images:

First – The Last Judgment 

Second – Fall of the Damned

Both by Hieronymus Bosch via WikiMedia Commons

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Spirit of Ice – Flash Fiction

PHOTO PROMPT© Jennifer Pendergast

I awoke in the night. Drawn by a strange song. It bubbled and splashed. Groaned and cracked. I found myself walking towards the fjord. Cold snow under bare feet made me realise I was in thrall. Stuck in a walking dream. Led by some evil Fay. My body felt sleep heavy. My mind treacle slow.

I managed to throw myself into a snowdrift. The cold woke me fully. Just feets from the water’s edge.

I’m my mind I heard a rumbling laugh. “I’ll get you yet, lass. There’s still time before the spring thaw. Your blood will make me stronger.”

© RedCat

Written for this week’s Friday Fictioneers. Click on the frog to read and participate.

Click here to read other stories by me.

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Train Ride – Flash Fiction

PHOTO PROMPT © J Hardy Carroll

The train rattles and shakes. Waking me from my slumber. Outside the window an abandoned industrial site flashes by. Then it’s all trees again. I look at my wristwatch. Shouldn’t we be passing hamlets by now? Outliers to the great city.

I get up to stretch my legs. Maybe a coffee in the restaurant cart will clear the cobwebs in my mind.

I realize all the compartments are empty. Where is everyone? The train wasn’t empty when leaving the last station.

No passengers. No conductor. No one at all. Just me on a train going deeper into the dark woods.

© RedCat

Derek Story on Unsplash.

Written for this week’s Friday Fictioneers.

Click here to read other stories by me.

Click the frog to participate or read more stories inspired by this image.

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Chestnut Trees – Flash Fiction

PHOTO PROMPT © Brenda Cox

” – It’s nothing to worry about, just a little wind. “

Little did he know it was a storm sent by vindictive spirits. Upset by the way he’d ignored the law of the land.

He’d come back from studying abroad, saying we needed to do things like modern folks did. Taming nature to our ends, not relying on her blessings. So he dammed the rivers and chopped down the woods to make workhouses spewing smoke day and night. When the wise ones cautioned him, he called them silly old soothsayers.

In the morning. Not one of his prized chestnut trees still stood.

© RedCat

Georg Eiermann on Unsplash

Written for this week’s Friday Fictioneers.

Click here to participate or read more stories.

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