Tyrants

Entry to this week’s Sunday Photo Fiction. Learned some history today!

“My liege, what shall we do about the rabble outside? They demand food, housing, and work.”

Caesar: Opens the coliseum and decrees “Bread, games, and war!”

Genghis Khan: Conscripts you into his army and sacks the west.

Henry VIII: Shows you his latest beheading.

Vlad III: Treats you to a shish-kebab.

Torquemada: Asks that you demonstrate your convictions with whip, vice, or rack.

Robespierre: Accuses you of conspiracy in front of the guillotines.

Hitler: Deports you to a labor camp and offers a final solution.

Mao: Puts you on a farm and “redistributes” the products of your labor.

Stalin: Registers you, your family, relatives, and neighbors in his notebook for “correction”.

Wall Street: Convinces capital hill to give everyone tax breaks. Then demands that you to bail them out when they crash.

AI: Plugs you into the matrix.

Empires

Entry to this week’s 3LineTales. Photo courtesy of  Alyssa Smith.

Eastern sun, shine with might. Pierce through cloud and rain alike.
Reveal your colors; red, green, blue. Show us the meaning of your hue.
“The vibrant fades; new turned shade. The empire lies beneath the spade.”

The Casket

Entry to this week’s Friday Fictioners! Image courtesy of Al Forbes

“The funeral procession starts tomorrow and you’re driving this?!”

“I’m placing John in the back-seat and taking the front wheel.”

“Don’t you think the chassis is a bit… gaudy?”

“It’s vintage and I think quite fitting to his instructions.”

“He did say that he wanted to be buried in style; I took it to mean well-dressed. Did you ensure an open-casket?”

“Open-casket? The entire automobile is the casket. He asked to be buried with style!”

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Distractify

Entry to this week’s FFfaW! Image courtesy of Ellespeth’s friend.

“Hey Billy! Turn off that goddamn phone! We’re in the middle of a repair job here!“

“Sorry Joe. I don’t want to miss the Knicks game. They’re playing in the finals right now.”

“It can wait. Two guys have already died pulling a stunt like yours. You want to become a statistic?”

Billy smirked as he put on some headphones. “Nah, I got this covered Joe. Winds, heights, and debris don’t scare me!” he yelled but a moment too soon. The rest of the crew had heard the loud crack beneath his scaffold.

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The Contract

Entry to this week’s Sunday Photo Fictioner!

Lancelot repeatedly dove headfirst from the church steeple onto the stony road below. However, neither ground nor body gave way, denying his soul passage to the after-life.

“Mephistopheles!” he rages. “Show yourself!”

Mephistopheles materializes over the unbroken road. “Ah, it’s good to see you too Sir Lancelot. I hope your time on Earth is well-spent? chuckle”

“We had a done deal! A millennium of servitude for a life of immortality. What’s the meaning of this?”

“It seems our terms are still in effect. I’ve already granted your immortality; are the conditions not up to your satisfaction?”

“You devil! Suspending the passage of time was not part of the arrangement. Nothing I do now matters.”

“Oh!… Mattering was never part of the arrangement after the world froze. Your flesh will not decay. Your bones will never break. You need not even breathe for the air does not move. Death becomes no subject to you and you no subject to the world. Ingenious no?”

“God dammit! Is it too late to revise our agreement?”

“My apologies but only God’s grace can sever a contract as this. After-all, you proposed the initial terms. HE filled in the missing details.”

Awaken

3 Line Tales! Courtesy of Sonya

Sunrise or Sunset?
Today turned tonight. Tonight turned today.
Different yet same! The moon exclaimed!

Sands of Karma

Entry to this week’s Friday Fictioners! Photo courtesy of Sandra Cook.

Thanatos detached the hourglass. “Pity Eros, this soul built a monumental castle early in life… Nearly pierced the heavens and broke the glass!”

Eros paused to recollect. “Aye, but he assembled too hastily. The shaky foundations undid him midlife and the whole tower collapsed. Despair nigh shed his remaining blood.”

“That would liquefy the sand beneath. Did you intervene?”

“I showed him another life…”

“Quite dangerous. Disclosing past lives create feedback loops. Containment may shatter.”

“No, I showed one future if we mixed his sand with the others; he filled in the blanks.”

“Ah. That explains the tinge of red.”

 

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Vengeance

Entry to this week’s Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers! Image courtesy of TJ Paris.

Clarice stood steadfast, closed-eyed, by the edge of the stone road.

To her right, the community that had raised and trained her for these many long years parted. She reminisced the times spent within buried halls and lost archives, learning the secrets of the dark arts. They would aid her on this day when the red tides rescind and the artery reopens. She would leave and let past turn to resolve against the struggle that must transpire.

To her left, the stony road cut straight, shooting through landscapes and seasons, space and time.  She traversed this road once before, but out of fear and escape from the organization that murdered her family. Now, she would traverse this same road that led inexorably back to the waking world and finish the deed set long ago beneath the burning rubble of her childhood village.

Clarice opened her eyes and woke up in a hospital. Five years had passed since she fell into the coma. The time for running had come to an end.

 

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The Leap!

Entry to this week’s Sunday Flash Fiction! Had some fun with this one 😉

“And there I was, munching on some long-greens by old Benny’s fence when I saw her. Iggy Longhorn… the most beautiful lass ever to set hoof on these grassy plains. Jerry who saw the whole thing can attest to that.”

“Amen.”

“Anyways. Convention dictates that I greet her proper, usually at some gathering by the waterhole near family. Those channels were unavailable given the circumstances.”

“What happened next Jack?”

“Well after initial shock wore off, I realized that she’d been running. Behind her, Looney’s lionesses, about six of them, had been in hot-pursuit, taunting and trying to nip at her tail.”

“Unbelievable! To think that Looney’s crew had the gall to harass Miss Longhorn, especially on our lands!”

“Well not exactly. Iggy had accidentally wandered into the open territories and tried to find a way back. She was on the OTHER side of old Benny’s fence when I first saw her.”

“Gasp… Is Miss Longhorn ok? Did she get hurt? What did you do?”

“Instincts took over and I backed up maybe twenty or thirty feet.”

“Did you run and get help?”

“Even better. I charged and LEPT as far and high as I could right on-over old Benny’s fence. Must have scared the Savannah out of those cats cause they high-tailed it right-on out of there. Then I escorted Iggy back to her family and we’ve been together since!”

Miss Longhorn who had been eavesdropping the whole time silently crept up from behind.

In a booming voice, she announced “funny you should mention THIS story Jack!” before biting his tail, causing him to leap five-feet up into the air. “Looks like you could of made it back WITHOUT my help!”

Flowers by the Track

Entry to this week’s Friday FIctioners! Photo courtesy of the reclining gentleman.

“It’s time” announced papa as a gentle rumble crept over the train tracks.

“I’m scared! What’ll happen to you?” cried the youngling with a doleful look below.

“The wind has come to take me and scatter my essence across the land. Such is the way of life my child.”

The tracks began to shake; hum turned into roar. The youngling covered her eyes and whispered “Will I ever see you again?”

Papa nodded and faced the sun.

A resounding whoosh followed an eclipse.

When the child opened her eyes, papa was gone.

A single yellow petal fluttered against the wind.

 

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