The Great Pain Robbery

The Great Pain Robbery

“Let’s go through it again. Make sure we do it properly this time. Pierre?”

“Wait outside, when Henri passes me the stuff, ride for the den.”

“Good.  Don’t forget your bike this time. Jacques?”

“I go in and ask for whatever’s furthest away from the counter and highest up.”

“Right. But wait until their back is turned to give the signal. Henri?”

“I grab the stuff and run out to Pierre.”

“Just try not to get bread this time.”

“That wasn’t my fault!”

“Says the boy holding the baguette!”

“What did you expect Mastermind? You took us to the Boulangerie!”

100 words

@nickjohns999

Sorry about the title. I'm a sucker for puns!

This story was written for Angela Goff's Visual Dare Challenge 'Conference'

Hide in Plain Sight

© Jean L Hays

Hide in Plain Sight

The man screamed and jerked as the cattle prods jabbed into him until he lay still.

The cloaked, hooded figures enveloped him like hungry crows, before grabbing his feet and dragging him into their black windowed van.

I leaned against my door jamb on shaking legs and watched another of my friends heading for repentance camp.

The Inquisitors were getting better at finding our sacred artefacts. I had told him simple concealment was no longer enough.

A shadow fell across my window. I froze, my hand seeking seemingly innocent contact with stained glass Air, Earth, Fire and Water.

I prayed.

100 words

@nickjohns999

This story was written for Rochelle Wisoff-Fields' Friday Fictioneers Challenge

 

All My Sins Remembered

 

All My Sins Remembered

I could not see her body, just a head in a hatch.

It hung there, in the gloom, like some desiccated trophy, exquisitely positioned by a capricious witch, to serve as a warning to others.

What had she been before her terrible fate had overtaken her?

I made a surreptitious study of the evidence whilst pretending to browse.

Where were the traces of her innocent girlhood that many women show in their aging faces? Nothing but faint salty stains, memories of long dried tear tracks, betrayed her past.

Had thankless children etched those lines around her rheumy eyes?

Had the absent husband been ushered into an early grave by the stodgy food that dulled her own pasty complexion? Or had he left her, run away to sea or driven into the arms of a voluptuous vixen by her relentless, disapproving frown?

She regarded me, unblinking in the eye straining half light of the kiosk.

I would not buy anything I knew, even as I continued my listless survey of her yellowed stock.

What sin she had committed to have been consigned to this half life existence?

The atmosphere smothered me like a musty pillow and I fled for the door. Even the bright ding of the bell at the door was diminished, swallowed by the hungry shadows.

I gasped like a drowning man as I burst into the daylight, leaving the woman wallowing in her monochrome misery.

240 words

@nickjohns999

This story was written for LitReactor's December Flash Fiction Smackdown

Be Careful What You Wish For...

 

Be Careful What You Wish For...

“Hey Shirley!”

“What?”

“The guy next to me; he just whispered something disgusting in my ear.”

“Well, Tracey you’ve got yourself to blame for that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“This is all your fault!”

“How’s that?”

“Celebrating your birthday yesterday, that weird guy in the harem pants offered us three wishes.”

“I’m kinda vague after the tequila slammers.”

“Well, you jumped right in and took them all.”

“What did I say?”

“You said ‘I want men falling all over me’.”

“Yea?”

“Then ‘lets all get legless’.”

“And finally ‘I want to get ahead’ – nice going Tracey!.”

100 words

@nickjohns999

This story was written for Angela Goff's Visual Dare 'The Kiss'

Minority Report

Minority Report

“Hello Boss? I’m at Laurel Avenue.”

“Status? Pretty much under control, Only the roof...just damping down left.”

“Occupants? They’re fine. Staying with Grandma tonight.”

“Yes, no problems for the crew.”

“So why?... Well, it’s the cause... for the report... it’s just... a witness... kid from next door... swears it was sparks from a sleigh...”

“Boss???”

 

55 words

@nickjohns999

This story was written for Lisa McCourt-Hollar's 55 word challenge 39