Tiny Fiction

They led the dethroned king to the prison through the jeering crowd. The same people, he thought, who just days ago would have cheered if he had passed by. Awaiting his execution, he thought over the folly of embracing his cousin, and how long his son could survive out there.

#vss365 #vss

burnish the hands
over the flickering flame
— memory of an eternal youth.

“Mummy, do you know any hamster recipes?”

“Nooo!”

“Well, what shall we do about Tommy, then?”

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction

Paul watched his son hack at the pineapple he had bought himself with a serrated bread knife and smiled to himself. “He still needs me,” he thought.

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction

She fell. And as she fell, Gaia thought of her sun, and the warmth of his light when it bathed her. And the crests on her seas beguiled by her moon as she flew around her. But the void seemed endless, and she was falling.

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction

The girl burst in, stumbled, her arms flailed as she fell headlong through the doorway of the restaurant. Barbara, waiting, got up, sidled behind a leaving couple, and left. She hadn't noticed the young woman sitting behind, keenly watching her.

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #nanofiction

Promises were made on the beach under the stars that night. She faithfully remembered hers, he had mostly forgotten by dawn. Thirty years later, he was on his third marriage, and she was still with him—as his secretary.

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction

Ben had started seeing this interior designer, and every time they had sex, she criticised his wallpaper.

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction

The makers in stasis, the ship adrift, the great robot lay dormant. Somewhere in the ship's systems, an echo of his last thought lingered, “They'll wake when ready. My work is done.”

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction

When Canada malfunctioned, funerary signs appeared.

On weekends, she always stayed up late to hear the loose step creak before falling asleep. But that night, there was also a heavier tread and a smothered giggle.

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction

Sylvie found his passion for his subject quite engaging. But then he raised his fingers and did the quotation marks thing, and her heart sank, because he was one of them. She never took his calls again, and after a few months, he stopped ringing.

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #nanofiction

‘Best bring laxatives’, the brochure advised.

A busy clock often makes mistakes.

#sixwordstory #vss #vss365

Bill jumped over the gates and climbed in through the window. Coiled like a serpent, Siri was there with an apple in her hand.

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction #flashfiction

Winter's snare
— the wind unbound,
and the trees suffer.

Watching the snowfall, Kobayashi thought there weren’t enough children in the village. And he didn’t have the words, and yet...

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction #flashfiction

After his illness, their father died peacefully in his sleep. “They'll move the body,” Tanya heard her sister say, and something broke inside her.

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction #flashfiction

After they'd done it, she grabbed her cigarettes and told him to get out. But he just smirked at her and said, “I used protection.”

She slumped back down and groaned, “Oh God! It didn't work, again.”

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction #flashfiction

“You chose my pink eyes and green hair, didn't you, Mummy?” her son asked, flicking through his genomic profile. Ella, staring out the window, mumbled and nodded.

“And you chose me to be an empath,” the boy said, but his voice hardly registered. She felt so numb inside.

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction

His boy, Jake, was proud of the scar he'd given him. And in the end, he was thankful the boy didn't remember his brother.

“Tell Fitzgerald, Hemingway is not coming.”

#sixwordstory

“Michael's coming around,” she said to her teddy as she laid him gently in the suitcase. And as she closed the lid, she whispered, “I hope you understand.”

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction #flashfiction

He told his son about the divorce. The boy pumped his fist in the air and whooped, “Yes! Two bedrooms!”

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction

The green man went when the amber lady came. But when she left and the red man came, everything stopped.

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction

Jason left his dinner money at home that day. "Let them," he thought. "But I am not handing over the money."

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction

The great robot kept the ship operational for centuries, watching over its makers in stasis. One day it felt tired, so he lay itself down and switched off.

[Pronoun shift 😉]

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction

The great robot kept the ship operational for centuries, watching over its makers in stasis. One day he felt tired, so he lay himself down and switched off.

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction

Saw my daughter today. She was with her stepdad. Her hand in his, she skipped along as they walked in the opposite direction. She was wearing that panda top I gave her for Christmas.

#vss365 #vss #flashfiction #tinytale #microfiction #nanofiction