Tag: fiction

Sirens

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Anna had lived there forever
In the house with the light blue door
She offered every new neighbour a hand
but they always wanted more

The Sinclair twins would use her pool
Leaving puddles and towels sprawled
Anna asked them to clean up
But they left when their mother called

Mr Dickson borrowed her power tools
Anna asked for them when they spoke
He eventually replaced them with his own
and pretended he didn’t know how they broke

Ms Lincoln borrowed ingredients
Sugar, flour, peanut butter
but when Anna fell and cried out for help
Ms Lincoln silently closed her shutters

Mrs Kathy took hours of Anna’s time
Complaining about misconduct
But whenever Anna tried to talk in turn
Kathy told her it was rude to interrupt

When the newspapers filled with warnings
Anna told all about her shelter
It had enough room and food for all
As expected of their thankless helper

At midnight the sirens blared
They feared they’d be dead before the dawn
But Anna bid them welcome to her basement
And they waited in the dark for the power to turn on

It was perhaps an hour later
Still waiting for their host to provide
That someone found the door locked
and barred from the outside

Anna carried the key upstairs
and turned off the recording of sirens
perhaps she’d let them out
When she’d had enough peace and silence

Based on an earlier two sentence story

Empty

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I was hungry. I hadn’t eaten all day, but I knew I had a bag of corn chips saved for myself. I saw it when I put the shopping away, I saw it when I got out the ingredients for dinner, and it was still there when I put them away. With dinner finally in the slow cooker, I grabbed the bag to reward myself, only to find it empty.

Someone in my family not only put it away empty, they put the damned bag clip back on.

Those chips were the only treat I bought for myself. My spouse and children have multiple snacks, but for some reason my food goes first. None of them ever own up to it. My spouse tells me to get over it.

Of course, I have to let it go for now. There’s no time to buy more food, as we’re leaving on holiday early in the morning. My evening is going to be nothing but reminding them to pack, until I give up and pack for them. After all, we’re going to a cabin hours from anywhere, and they won’t be able to just go and grab something they need.

It’s midnight now, and I am the only one awake. The packing list is almost checked off, with only one item remaining.

“medications”

Unscrewing the caps, I empty the bottles into the bin. I’ll show them how much an empty container can hurt.

Generation

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Most parents jumped at the chance to give their children an advantage.

The government offered free IVF to couples in exchange for the right to run gene experiments prior to implantation. This led to incredible new abilities, the most common being genius-level intellect. Some went beyond expectations, gaining telepathy or telekinesis.

But playing God has a cost, and no one paid more dearly than the parents of the first baby who did not need to sleep.

Memory Lane

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On Halloween I walked alone
Silent and bad-tempered
I was no longer a child
And nothing was as I remembered

Wandering past dark homes,
Having found the evening plain
I found the last road with lights still on
And drifted down Memory Lane

The first home was mine,
Before my parents downsized
The cookies taste like they used to
Before my parents died.

The next home was my best friend’s
Inseparable in in our youth
She gives me a slice of birthday cake
She was 12 when they moved

The third home was my teacher’s
I had decided he deserved a trick
I help him clean away the paint
His sin was merely being strict

I do not knock at the last, bright home
With towers and slides on display
It’s the house I once wished to live in
But it does not fit who I am today

On Halloween I walk alone
I watch the children with glee
it is not as I remember
but it is not only for me

Anatomy

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There are miracles hidden within some of us that we may never know about. But some do make that discovery.

An average man stares at the empty portion of their brain scan, having never known anything was wrong. He will be told about the ability of a child’s brain to rewire after damage, and recall an accident as a child.

A woman holds her child, whose DNA proves is her sister’s. She is an only child. She will research chimerism and learn that she had a twin, now a part of her, that produced her child’s genes.

Today the winner of the genetic lottery is Trevor, who has just found out that he has situs inversus, or mirrored organs. Most importantly, this means that his heart is on the opposite side. This is, however, terrible news for the vampire hunter who has just lodged a wooden stake through the wrong side.

The Figure

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It took months to tell the doctor about the shadowy creature that stalks around my room at night. I was terrified that I’d gone crazy.

I’d lie in bed, paralysed and conscious as it meandered around my room. It was hard to tell exactly what it did: the light around it blurred, as though pulled into the darkness of its silhouette.

When my doctor explained sleep paralysis, I felt relieved. It was common, she said, to see shadowy figures and feel a sense of dread. She also prescribed something to help and I filled the prescription happily.

Last night I woke, paralysed but unable to see any figures in my room. The medication had worked!

I will never take it again.

I could not see the figure, so I could not see what turned the pages of my book, or stirred the water in my glass, or brushed the hair out of my unblinking eyes.

Hospitality

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He came to town one day
stepping out from the mist
A man without a job or name
From a home that did not exist

Offering to make a deal,
To bargain for his supper.
But after every meal,
Our town grew little smaller

Anna made an offer first:
Tired of the farm and dirt,
Of hot days and endless thirst,
Anna wished to no longer work.

She gave him only scraps,
food too old to eat
and when she stood, she collapsed
to find she had no feet

Andrew made the second try
He wished for endless wealth
everything else would follow:
love, security and health

He offered a meal he’d burned
Never being much of a chef
So all the wealth he earned
Was insurance from his family’s death

I offered the final meal
Before anyone else could proffer
And only made my deal
So no one else would suffer

To the man I served a simple dish
Of vegetables, bread and game
But good enough for a single wish:
To wish he’d never came.

Baby Shower game idea

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You’ll need: plain newborn onesies, fabric markers, and prizes

The game: guests draw designs on the onesies, with prizes for funniest, best design, etc.

The best part is that in those early days of late nights, when you’re changing your baby for the fifth time, you’ll see a fun design that reminds you of a loved one!

Agatha stared at the empty change table where her baby had just been lying. Frowning, her finger traced the charred lines of the demonic sigil now burned into the mattress. It was reversed of course, transferred from the back of the onesie she had just dressed little Lucy in. She’d only looked at the front as she grabbed it from the pile:

       Property of _______

She thought it had been a boring design. She should have known to check the back. It was a basic rule: anything can be a contract, provided it’s signed. It’s your responsibility to inspect the entire document.

The needle hidden under the zipper was a cheap move, but it had drawn enough blood to stain the onesie, sealing the contract.

Agatha sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, avoiding the wart. She shouldn’t have invited demons to her baby shower, but she’d gone overboard on her gift registry and wanted to pad the numbers. After all, it had been the first firstborn child she’d successfully bargained for.

The next time she traded witchcraft for a baby, she’d just ask for gift cards.

Reminders

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The sun is shining brightly outside
And your friends call you to play
But you must are safe inside
So inside you will stay

Friends tell you to leave your room
That they have a great surprise
But you turn up the volume
So the music covers their lies

They chide that you are better now
And well enough to join their games
But you still feel the scars
A reminder of the schoolhouse flames

They visit on the same day each year
Identical to the friends you once knew
Tomorrow they will disappear
Your childhood friends who never grew

Two Sentence Stories (part 22)

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She was determined to achieve her goal: a post every day of October, starting today. The calendar beside her, yet to be consulted, showed the date to be 2/10/24.

She complained loudly about how dodgy it was for police to look into people windows to look for phone use at red lights, then listened for the sound of guilty shuffling in the backseat. As she pulled through the now green light, she tried to think of another way to stall the man she’d just noticed hiding in the backseat.

After being separated for over a year , Anne readily agreed to her shocked husband’s request to test the paternity of the baby she held.

After all, they wouldn’t be comparing her DNA.