“I love you.”
Shit. Where had that come from?
—
Tale for Trifecta
Tag Archives: prompt
Friday Fictioneers – Starting Over
I woke to the worst disaster in history.
My heart jolted as my eyes opened to the inside of a tent.
“I think she’s awake,” said someone just outside. Dad? He poked his head in, smiling. “You awake? It’s almost one.”
“You dragged me camping?”
“A storm hit early this morning. You wouldn’t wake up, so we had to carry you. The cyclone destroyed half the coast; we had to move inland.”
“Where are we?”
“Come out and see.”
I poked my head outside. Fields all around; there was a horse behind a rabbit proof fence.
“Great.”
–
Flash fiction for Friday Fictioneers.
Trifecta – Gas
The bomb went off in the square. Children and mothers scrambled around in the fog, looking for each other.
Slowly, the toxic air began to invade their lungs.
Mass murder in the Vatican.
—
Image prompt taken from Trifecta.
Trifecta – Trapped
All she could hear was the dull thud of stone behind her and the dirt as she rolled it under her shoes absently, so faint it could’ve been her heart beating.
She huffed.
The hunger came and went. It was day two down here. It was about time she got rescued, wasn’t it? She looked down at her left foot, the one that wasn’t moving. The one that remained painfully still, the one revealed from her shoe, caked in dry blood.
She couldn’t climb out of here. Hell, she couldn’t even walk out of here. When she heard echoed voices yesterday, she had screamed for help. She was beginning to think she would die down here.
She looked down at her bloodied foot. It would hurt to stand up on it again. It would bleed. Even if she favoured the other foot, it was going to kill. She squeezed her eyes shut, imagining that blood oozing out again, picturing the pain. She didn’t want to, she didn’t want to, she didn’t want to!
She opened them.
That was no good. She could think about it.
She couldn’t do it. No.
Then what? That gentle thud came back to her again. It was starting to irritate her. “Go away!” she shouted to whatever animal was doing it. She was beyond rescue. Which was why she had to rescue herself.
“Okay,” she said, breathing in again. She could do this; she had to.
Dragging herself along to the cave wall, she pushed up to stand with her right leg. Her left soon joined in.
“Aah!” she cried, feeling the burning of her blood. She rested against the wall, squeezing her eyes against the thought, instead following the course of the cave in her mind, following Jonathan in her mind. Where had he gone? Had he found help?
Soon the darkness of her mind closed in on her imagination self, and her eyes popped open. No, that wouldn’t happen… it couldn’t.
There was a crash. “Anna!”
–
Prompt taken from Trifecta (and inspired by my last flash fiction).
Trifecta – Hack
His joints strained under the pickaxe hacking at stone. ”I’m tired of safety… I have to move… I’ll be dead too.”
Alan stopped him. “I love you because you’re different. Don’t do this.”
—
Prompt taken from this weekend’s Trifecta.
Friday Fictioneers – Winding
The day was dawning. Dawn was heading up at high speed, racing for the top of the tower.
The double doors at the top crashed open with a clatter. Looking around briefly, she saw the clouds turning the whole world grey. Soon the sun would light them golden, the lightbulb inside the building a cheap imitation of it.
She ran around the barrier, searching. Finally she found a last set of stairs, smaller and narrower than the large flight behind her. The cold of the white side rails rippled in her hands.
She climbed to the top. He was ready.
—
Flash fiction for Friday Fictioneers.
Trifecta – Stay with Me
He was my knight in shining armour; I was his damsel in distress. I was glad that he saved me… but I was never really in love with him; I was in love with the idea of him.
A knight. Noble.
Or maybe not. Knights take what they want. He took it from me. He raped women in noble conquests and battles.
He was no knight in shining armour; I was his victim as much as his indebted. I had to juggle my doubts with my admiration.
In the end, it just wasn’t worth it. I took his sword from the main room, wandered through the dark.
He was asleep, snoring quietly. I straddled his body, lifting the sword up.
I plunged it down. He convulsed, struggling like a bull under me. I had to grip my thighs to him to remain upright, but he was strong, even strong enough to throw me off.
Blood seeped through his shirt, creeping down. Soon my legs were soaked. Sticky, disgusting, I tensed my throat, as if I might gag from what I was doing.
I closed my eyes, narrowing my legs tighter. Soon it would all be over.
His body slowed down, soon only rocking me. He wasn’t the only one who takes what he wants. But unlike him, I’d have to flee into a forest.
I wasn’t a knight.
–
A fairytale prompt using the word for this week’s Trifecta.
Trifecta – All About Me
It was a bull in both directions; in one hand, I had this constant, cureless rage. In the other, I had him, always after my blood.
I huffed, exhausted. I’m tired of running.
–
Prompt from Trifecta. Simple one this week.
Daily Post: Dystopian Writing Challenge
From the Daily Post , inspired by this source.
–
She stared out the barred window with a sigh. With her hand over her pink triangle, she watched the wind blow through the green, tear-shaped leaves. It was strange how the architects of this building could manage to make this hospital look so modern, yet so restricting.
This wasn’t an old fashion; it seemed hate was the new black. Or it had been, since Hitler took over the world. She took little consolation in the fact that the world’s population was down since the war that changed everything; in fact, it was a burden.
She just wanted somebody to love. Why did it matter so much that it was a woman that she would love? Even without Hitler, the world remained in the hands of the Nazi party. And most people, people like her, were too afraid to rebel. He’d killed everyone who rebelled.
She was just determined sick, stuck in this institute, and hidden from the world.
She rubbed her knee, imagining someone else there. Anyone else, someone to help comfort her through these bittersweet times.
No one was coming to rescue her. No one.
“Come on…” said the nurse at her side, forcing her to her feet slowly.
“What?” she replied, reacting slower than her body, already standing up.
“We’re rounding everybody up to go outside…” the nurse said.
She smiled. That nature, that freedom that she’d dreamed of just moments before… it was coming. Was there a hero out there after all?
As she squeezed out the front door, and unusual pressure enveloped her hand. She looked down at it, to see her other dream come true. Looking up to the person holding it, she smiled back at the face that greeted her.
“We can do it, just me and you,” said Val. She squeezed her hand. “I’ve always loved you.”
She almost melted, but remained firm on her feet even while her chest fluttered like warm caramel. “Me and you,” she said.
They weren’t free. As they reached the front garden, the staff chained the arms and legs of every woman there together, as they sorted everyone into lines. Val and Zoe stood beside each other.
We’re not leaving, she thought. Till death… She never thought it was possible… But now that she knew how Val felt, after all these years, she couldn’t go.
Not now, not ever. Not even if it meant…
A line of gunmen lined up against them. Heavily uniform, red armbands on each left arm, rifles casually at their sides.
Something must have happened. The world wasn’t willing to keep them alive anymore. Just a bunch of old dykes, no one cared about them.
She wondered if these same gunmen had been on duty all days, killing sick people like her. She imagined all the gay men in the hospital, the ones she’d met and talked to each day. Bullets splatting their blood, heads knocked back, brains flying.
It was a disgusting thought. She squeezed Val’s hand tighter.
She squeezed back. “Don’t worry, Zoe. I love you.”
And that was enough to distract her. No more did she think about bloody bodies. Now all that was on her mind was all the things she never got to do with Val. All the kisses, all the touches, all the rest of it…
And in her mind, she smiled back again, telling Val she loved her. Zoe was only too aware she didn’t, had never gotten a chance to fall in love with Val, but if she had, it would’ve been enough.
She could’ve been happy, just with that. Instead spending her last days mourning for the life she lost long ago; the one she never even had. Turns out it was up to her, all along. She wished she’d known that before.
The gunmen raised their double-barrels onto their shoulders, ready to fire.
She took a deep breath, counting along to herself. 3… 2… 1…
A jolt of black wracked her. She began to fall.
Trifecta – All He Wanted
The woods were there, and that’s all he wanted.
A sense of umbrage pricked him, then left. He had shouted with panic; right now, the blanket was wrapped around the rifle.
Relief came.
—
Prompt taken from Trifecta.
