The Other List

“You do this one.

Screams and tears don’t bother you, right?

Good, you’ll see plenty tonight.

Quiet! Don’t wake the others.

The Boss don’t dirty his hands on this, just does the nice stuff, image conscious, see?

Hurt them? Hell, yeah, but that’s kinda the point. 

Now for the fun part.

There – the redheaded kid.

He’s gonna suffer alright.

Of course we have to, don’t wimp out!

He’s the reason we’re here.

An object lesson, the Boss calls it.

Yes, I’ve checked twice, like always.

Let’s show the little bastard what it really means to be on Santa’s naughty list!”

 100 words

This story was written for Loren Eaton's Advent Ghosts 2014 Drabble Event

Forbidden Fruit - TINY TALL TALES - The Were-Traveller Drabble Issue

My 100 word story 'Forbidden Fruit' has been published by The Were-Traveller Webzine and is included in their TINY TALL TALES Drabble Issue.

The Were Traveler is an online webzine dedicated to really short fiction.

Website:- http://theweretraveler.wordpress.com/
Twitter:- @TheWere-Traveller

The Long Game

Image Janet Webb

The Long Game

They flew furiously, gloriously, soaring, sailing towards the searing sun; unencumbered by grasping gravity, joining the communion of the wind, sharing its soft whispered secrets.

I saw them and realised I’m not like the others. Kin scoff. Say I’m strange. But I am different for a reason. While eternal empires ebbed and flowed I planned.

It may take a thousand years, but, today’s smooth, stripy yellow stone will be transformed.

With whirling water, searing sun and fierce fickle frost, I will be ground down. First, to sand, then wonderful weightless dust. Finally, carried triumphantly aloft, I will be a wasp.

100 words

@nickjohns999

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

The Tick-Tock Man

Image Sandra Crook

The Tick-Tock Man

“Tick-tock.”

The appointed time had arrived, he’d come for me.

The children’s tales were true.

His huge hands, liver spotted, thinly covered with greying parchment skin, long sharp nails with an unnatural sheen, approached slowly, awfully, precisely like a slow grinding mill-wheel.

“Tick-tock.”

He moved closer; a waft of the slick, sharp scent of machine oil slipped over me.

One glittering raptor eye regarded me.

As I counted my final imperfect minute, seconds stretched like taffy, I knew I’d never mark another faulty hour.

He threaded his finest instrument deep inside me and twisted.

“There, all fixed little clock. Tick-tock”

100 words

@nickjohns999

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

Royal Oak

Image by Indira

Royal Oak

I viewed the man along the smooth ash shaft. My arm muscles twitched as I held tension in the string.

“Come down, face the people’s justice.” Ordered the Captain.

“Would you harm me and face God’s justice?”

“Enough talk, Tyrant. Take him – Now!”

The arrow flew true. He staggered as it buried to the fletching in his chest, pitching forward, like a string cut marionette, before snagging on a broken branch and swinging, showering grass with vermilion raindrops.

“Inform the Lord Protector the prince has been executed; and fell this for firewood – there’ll be no Royal Oaks in this Commonwealth.”

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

A Policeman Calls

Image Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

A Policeman Calls

“Hello?... Ma’am?”

Smuts from the untrimmed lamps drifted upwards like dirty snowflakes, dancing briefly on the yellowed ceiling before falling onto the warped Formica work surface. None of the pots matched, the cups were chipped and faded, except a few old but pristine bone china relics in the glass cupboard - for visitors. The musty clutter in the kitchen had a stale sad smell, like the day before yesterday’s memories. Dated photos, in old but highly polished frames proudly displaying the laughing family, took pride of place beside the collapsed, sagging armchair. The old lady’s body lay next to it.

100 words

@nickjohns999

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