Flash Fiction

[Auriga]

I'm not sure if there's already a post like this on the forum, but I'll make one now anyway. Post your flash fiction pieces here. I'll get it started.


Flash Fiction #1

She began the way she always had for as long as he could remember.

“Why do you do this to yourself?” she asked.

He started to speak, but stopped himself short. He felt the same words coming that he had always spoken in response to her question. How could he ever answer any differently?

“I don’t know”, he began. “Maybe I’ve gone crazy, maybe I’ve tipped over the edge and I can’t see my way through the dark. Maybe it’s all of these reasons, or maybe it’s because I’m a hopeless romantic and I think if I try hard enough, and keep pushing long enough, eventually I’ll get a different response.”

A pathetic smirk formed on the her lips, familiar and distant. “It can’t work, Marcus.” she said.

He stood up from the aseptic steel stool and motioned it towards the desk.

“I love you,” he said.

She looked at him with her sympathetic eyes trying to quell the raging storm. “How can you not?” she whispered. “You created me.”

[YesNo]

Nice eerie ending, Auriga!

There was a style of minimalist fiction that I once heard about where you were restricted to only 55 words, no more no less, title excluded. I don't know if people still write that or not.

At first I thought 55 words wasn't much, but then the brief poems I occasionally write, like doodles from my mind, are usually less than 55 words. And most of the jokes I like I suspect can be written in less than 55 words.

I guess flash fiction can be longer. Is there a maximum word length?

[Auriga]

I don't think so. I've never been a fan of word restrictions. Flash Fiction, in my eyes, is basically a short piece of fiction which is just one scene and contains all the necessary information for creating a sense of completion.

[YesNo]

"I wish I had a heavenly body, but I'm a big, fat black hole. I suck the goodness from the Boston Creme universe."

"Jane! What are you talking about? Fat? You're 5 feet 6, 110 pounds, gorgeous. You hate donuts."

"I'm writing a poem, Brian. Don't bug me."

"Again?"

"A girl's got to have poetry. Besides, you don't want me to flunk this class, do you?"

"What are they making you write about this time?"

"It has to be about stars or something heavenly or whatever and also about love."

In silence we decide what's true.
I wonder and you wonder, too.
Through distances we're ever bound...

"Brian, I'm curious. Am I your only sunshine? Or do you get any light from some two-bit binary that brightens your night after I go to bed?"

"Baby, you're the only one. Just look around you. There's no one else in sight."

"Like I said, she comes out when I can't see her."

"There's no one else but you. And, well, how about me. Am I your only one?"

"Brian, get real. I'm 110 pounds. I'm hot. I've got comets whistling after me and who knows what I'm likely to pick up while circling the galaxy. I've got old planets who spin on my smiles. And then there's Mars."

"So, it's true about Mars?"

"Stop being so jealous. It doesn't matter anymore and nothing can be done about it now anyway. That thing with Mars ended long ago."

The silence warned you to refrain
From seeking what might cause you pain,
From finding what should stay well hid
About the things a lover did.

"Brian, I'm just kidding. Can't you take a joke? I'm busy. You're my only Earth, the only one. Let me finish this stupid thing."