Here is the prompt chosen by last week's winner, @sparklymeg.
You may use the lyrics, or the imagery captured in the clip to inspire your writing.
(For those playing on their phones, the song is Biffy Clyro's Opposite.)
Remember to check the rules.
Have your 100 - 200 words submitted by 12:00am Friday, July 19, US EDST.
We want anything and everything: poetry, prose, fanfic, OF.
JUST GET WRITING!
Leave your entry as a comment - include your word count, and your twitter handle if you have one.
Probably good practice to reference any source material, too.
FYI - entries that exceed (or are under) the word limits will not be considered by the judge.
P.S. If you look to the right, where it says "flashers," you'll see I'm linking the places where people are posting their flash fics - either on fanfiction.net or on blog sites or whatever. If you'd like me to add you over there, just say so, and include the link with your entry today. Shell xo
P.S. If you look to the right, where it says "flashers," you'll see I'm linking the places where people are posting their flash fics - either on fanfiction.net or on blog sites or whatever. If you'd like me to add you over there, just say so, and include the link with your entry today. Shell xo
Word count 197 per Gdocs
ReplyDelete@sandyquill
= = =
“I can’t do this.” The words caught on emotions stuck in her throat.
His expression puzzled, he tugged on her left hand - the one that bore his ring. “I don’t understand. I thought you loved me.” Standing, he cupped her face in his palm, searching her wet eyes for something that explained the pain. “I love you, sweetheart. You know that.”
She nodded, her gaze never leaving his. “I know. But, but, you don’t want to marry me.”
He laughed—a helpless, tortured sound. “I do!” With an encouraging smile, he kissed the diamond he’d put there months before. Her skin smelled like peppermint. “I love you,” he said again.
“But you’re not ready to bring me into your life, honey. I mean, we’ve talked about it—you love me, I know—but I want to be incorporated into your life, not just added on.”
Slowly, understanding dawned and his heart sank within him. He looked at the worksheet the minister had given them—premarital counseling—and blinked. “Is that what I’m doing?” he asked himself aloud.
This time, she reached for him. “Somewhere, there’s someone you’ll want INside you, not just BEside you,” she whispered. “But that someone isn’t me.”
@Shneezles
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 135
--- --- ---
I would sell my soul to the devil if it meant that I could turn back time.
You left for me. Because I was too stubborn. Because I wanted to fly and I thought you were the one weighing me down.
I was wrong. I was so damn wrong. You were my wings. The only thing that held me up.
I would look down at you and see nothing but love shining back.
I sit here alone and try to heal these wounds that have only gotten deeper since you left.
You walked out the door because I made you.
You said you’ll always love me and I made you leave. I cut the ties with the raft that was keeping me afloat.
You didn’t see my confession coming.
And that car didn’t see you.
@chocaholic12345
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 180
It's getting late. I try to lift my head from the soft, yielding pillow. Reaching up, I pull away the strands of blonde hair pasted to my cheek.
My body sticks to his, our skin bonded together from a night of frantic love. I pull back, my flesh tugging as it peels away. I wonder if I've left any cells behind. They're the only thing I have left to give.
My movement wakes him. He opens his sleep-heavy eyelids, dark pupils contracting as he focuses on me.
"You're leaving?" His tone has a wild, desperate edge. My mouth is too full of guilt to respond, so I nod my head sharply. The aroma of his disappointment lingers in the air; I shrug it off, as I pull on my clothes.
"You're breaking my fucking heart." He rolls onto his back, flinging a tan, muscled arm over his eyes. I don't look back as I leave the hotel room. Slamming the door closed, I swallow down the regret, the sadness, the fear.
At least he has a heart left to break.
@everydaybella89
ReplyDeletewords:198
They that say before you die, your life flashes before your eyes. Everything that ever mattered to you sends you off into the great unknown. I had never given much credence to the theory. That simply wasn’t the way that the mind worked.
As the car flipped and crashed into the dark, I was surprised that the world slowed down. It wasn’t everything that I cared for that I saw—just her. Every minute that I had spent with her appeared before me. The moment that I met her walking of the coffee shop, our first kiss in the rain after class, the first time I made her mine and the feeling of her skin under mine—the sighs that fell from her mouth.
So, I guess that my whole life did flash before my eyes.
* * *
I woke to her eyes. They were deep, dark, and tired but I had never seen anything better. Tears where soon falling, and they were the most beautiful that I had ever seen.
It didn’t matter what befell us before or after. She was my life, and I would do everything in my power to keep it that way.
Word count: 200 words, on the nose
ReplyDeleteTwitter handle: @AnnaLund2011
~~~~~~~~~
There was a calm around him that I have never found again.
I leaned, he followed; he turned, I went with.
He gave me strength to go on. Like pure magic.
I'd been fucked sideways more times in six months than ever before in my whole life.
I didn't give up. Because of him.
More than nine thousand hours in the saddle together—yeah, I count them, like a fighter pilot. He kept the secrets I cried into his mane. I still hear a whisper of his voice by his old paddock.
We had many years of calm and happiness.
One day, his cancer was finally too much.
He looked at me, and told me it was time. It took me one day to get a vet, and then I was on the grass, with his head in my lap.
I did not shed a single tear. Not one. Not until he was gone.
Then my heart broke in so many little pieces that I'm still looking for some of them today.
A blessed Algonquin owl's feather tied into his mane, sending him off, and a braid of his forelock, which came home with me.
It’s all I have left.
~~~~~~~~~
With the soft editing touch from Julio. Words are not enough to thank you.
Shell - my flashes are here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9433145/1/Flashfics If you wouldn't mind posting the link in the sidebar, I'd be heaps grateful! <3
ReplyDelete_______________________
@lellabeth
200 words
I dreamt of you in ways that seemed more suited to nightmares.
Your face was twisted, covered in tears and snot and anguish, and your voice was hoarse as you screamed and wailed. I dreamt of you in tortuous loops and cycles that chased me through each fevered sleep. I dreamt of a hurt I couldn’t shake, and when I awoke it was to glass-ridden skin and a stump where my left leg used to be.
My dreams were born from reality - from a car crash caused by a driver too drunk to realise he was on the wrong side of the road. The accident took my limb and my independence, but worse was that it stole you.
You tried to pretend living with a man in a wheelchair was something you could handle, but you had changed from my pink-cheeked girlfriend into someone whose eyes only ever shone with tears. It had been so long since you smiled that I’d forgotten what happiness looked like on you, and that was when I knew I needed to let go.
My heart will forever belong to you, but yours will always be trapped with the man I used to be.
KekahJ
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 199
She turns the key in the lock.
"Hello?" Her call echoes through the deserted hallway.
Her heels click sharply on the tile as she moves into the kitchen. She tosses her keys onto the counter but doesn't see it at first. It isn't until she's pulled the half-empty bottle of wine from the fridge that she notices it.
Somehow she knows what it is before her fingers even touch it. Her hand trembles slightly as she reaches for it, and she wishes she'd had a chance to drink some wine before she reads it. But it's too late now.
The words are no more and no less than she expected. He's gone. There's many sentences devoted to convincing her it's for her own good, and that she deserves someone better, but it doesn't matter. He's gone.
She wonders why she doesn't feel more. She thought she'd feel something when her whole world came crashing down, but she’s just numb. Maybe she's been pretending for too long, making believe that she lives in a perfect world while everything crumbles around her.
She knows now it doesn't matter if she's fooled everyone else. He didn't buy it, and now he's gone.
@GeekChic12FF
ReplyDeleteWord count: 164 (words in italics are lyrics from the song)
He’s been gone for over five years, but in reality he’s still here with us.
You say his name in your sleep.
Every night.
When you smile, it never quite reaches your eyes. They don’t crinkle at the corners. Every tooth could be on display, but those deep brown eyes that I love so much remain sad, detached.
I try to be enough for you.
I try so fucking hard. But when he died, he took a piece of you with him. The most important piece, it seems.
You’re in love with a shadow that won’t come back.
I’m in love with you. I always will be. But I can’t compete with a ghost anymore.
So this letter is goodbye, my love. I can’t watch you not cry when I tell you in person. I can’t watch you not break down. Because I will. I’ll break down. I’ll cry.
If you ever let go of him, I’ll be waiting.
Forever yours and hoping,
Edward
@TiramiSue84
ReplyDeleteWord count: 200
-----------
My heart,
You reading this means I'm long gone.
You won't ever know how sorry I am for hurting you like this, but believe me when I say it's for the better.
I just can't go on like this, like we were. Taking advantage of your perfect soul and grace, exploiting the light you are basking in and soaking up your warmth... It's too much.
It has to end here, for your sake.
You should have the world at your feet; breathing and living every last aspect of it. Dragging me around and letting my bullshit burden you, holding you back, pulling you down and over to this dark place – it will leave you drained dry. Wasted. Ruined.
You deserve so much more... everything you wish for.
With me, you'll get nothing, for I'm not good for anything. You claim that it doesn't matter, that you don't care, but one day you will. You'd end up hating me for all the chances I robbed you off, and I can't let that happen.
Making you hate me will be the worst thing I've ever done.
So, I set you free.
Spread your wings, baby.
Remember that I love you.
Goodbye.
@bebeginja
ReplyDeleteWord count: 198
The candles have burned low.
His napkin still sits folded in the shape of a swan. I went for fancy tonight.
Every tick, tick, tick of the clock is like another flick of a razor making tiny slices at my heart.
He missed dinner. Again.
I refuse to cry.
He says he loves me. I still believe he does, but my mind’s made up. I was going to tell him face to face – give myself one last chance to make his eyes sparkle. But here I am alone. All dressed in hope and nowhere to go.
You’re supposed to take care of the ones you love, but he doesn’t even see me anymore.
He sees nothing but her. The subject of his investigation. She’s become more than just his job. She’s become the other woman in our home. He carries her picture everywhere and spends his days hunting her down.
I spend my nights waiting for his headlights to shine through the living room window. Listening for footsteps. Watching the door.
He’s obsessed with finding her and hasn’t noticed he’s losing me.
I left a lipstick note on the mirror.
I’ll wait forever but I won’t wait here.
@Twilightladies1
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 189
The car was found on its roof with the passenger side completely caved in.
Two passengers were pronounced dead at the scene. The driver, who was thrown from the car, was pronounced at the hospital. All three had alcohol in their system.
My only concern is you. You were supposed to be in that car.
I sit on our patio, numb, dressed in your favourite hoodie and wrapped in a blanket.
My eyes feel like lead, but little kicks from my stomach and sheer adrenalin keep me from falling asleep.
Hours later I hear a rustling, and you appear from the shadows.
You’re tired and look like you’ve been dragged through hell. But you’re alive.
I try to run to you, but my knees buckle before I hit the bottom step.
You take me in your arms and we fall to the ground together.
“You’re here,” I sob, clutching your shirt in my fists.
“I’m here,” you kiss my forehead and whisper soothing words.
“How?”
“They were drunk. I couldn’t risk it.” You rest your hand on my belly and the kicking stops—our bump knows you’re home safe.
@CrackedFic
ReplyDelete157 words
***
There once was a sad boy named Marcus
He tripped and fell, ruining his parka
He ran all the way home
and hid his spoiled clothes
Hoping this newest slight didn't spark her
His mom was a mean old lady
Who he thought was kinda crazy
He wished she would leave
If only for a reprieve
So he didn't do anything shady
But soon she found the clothing
And set about hurting and loathing
So the smart little boy
Did something very un-coy
Which set her corpse to bloating
He was finally, gloriously free
Only the smell made him say "shoo wee!"
So he packed his things
And with a prayer on wings
He bought a bus ticket, paying the fee
He would work hard to care for himself
Arrange all of his new food on a shelf
And wonder forever
About his endeavor
And why had had to do it without help
Twitter: @hummingbirdFF
ReplyDeleteWord count: 198
~~~
“You’re not living…”
“I’m trying. I just miss you so much.”
“I know, baby…” Your fingers trail down my cheek. “But I’m not coming back.”
I know this. I've known this for months, yet hearing your voice saying those words feels like a punch in the gut, and suddenly, I can’t breathe.
I wake with a gasp, forcing air into my lungs. My eyes search the room frantically, even though I know I won’t find you here.
I've been trying to move on, haven’t I? I've been getting out more, visiting family, running again...
As I turn to check the time, it suddenly hits me: the alarm is still on your side of the bed. Your favourite book and watch are still on your dresser.
And like another punch, I realise what I need to do.
It’s only 3 a.m., but I go grab a box from the garage.
Back in the bedroom, I open our closet.
No, my closet.
I take a shirt, bringing it to my face. With tears running down my cheeks, I notice it doesn't smell like you anymore.
I take a deep breath, and finally start packing up the reminders of you.
~~~
Twitter: @bigblueboat & @TiramiSue84
ReplyDeleteWord count: 199
***********************************************
A bottle of amber liquid in one hand, I rip the tie off my neck with the other. Flashes of tonight’s conversation pass in front of my eyes. Her gaze never holding mine; her touches—fleeting at best.
Watching her with him, seeing the smile, the lingering fingers against his arm: the pain rips through my chest.
I throw back another swallow, twisting the ring between my fingers, the one I intended to give her tonight.
Surely, it wasn't like that from the beginning. I remember when it felt like she wanted me as much as I wanted her. It was real—we were real. I refuse to believe anything else.
After he returned to this city, things changed. Seeing as we share the same circle of friends, for them to reunite was inevitable.
Had she been honest—not only with me, but herself—we might have made it work, or at least called it quits on even terms. Sure, it would've pained me back then, but it’s so much worse now.
After almost two years of this... this farce, I’m left bleeding.
One last gulp from the bottle; I throw both it and the diamond into the flames.
@ChocoMG2112
ReplyDeleteWord count: 199
“Bella!”
I watched my Isabella as she stared, transfixed at The Man standing in my home.
Even as our Keeshond, Archimedes, barked incessantly at him, she seemed disconnected from us.
I saw him, his fractured, stone gray face, like ancient parchment. Blood poured in rivulets from the cracks. He spoke to her, lured her to walk to him.
I cannot stop the bleeding. Would you help me suture my wounds, dear lady?
Her whispered “Yes” made my heart sink into the pit of my belly.
“No!” I screamed. “Bella, no! Listen to me, baby! Stay away from him!”
I tried to move toward her, but my body was frozen; an icy embrace enveloped me.
Archimedes barked and growled, running between me and Bella and The Man. He tried to bite The Man, but where he bit, The Man disintegrated as though he was made of air.
Bella’s hand reached out to The Man. She acted as though she would caress his cheek as she always did mine. Her voice was tremulous, but almost lyrical as she spoke. “Yes, I can help you. I am a nurse. I will treat your wounds and mend your broken soul.”
“Bella, love, NO!”
Pinkcookie (PM me at Fanfiction.net)
ReplyDelete200 words
Who knew I’d ever be the one sitting in this chair, making this decision. With my bad ticker we always thought I’d be the one in the hospital bed and you’d be singing the crying song. This is so fucking wrong! You’re the one always wheedling me to watch my diet, take my meds on time, exercise more, don’t work so hard.
You know all about our insurance policies and investments and where the will is and shit. You’re the one who always begs me not to leave you and say you’d die without me.
You dirty dog – now I’m the one that has to calmly say, “Oh if there’s no brain activity, go ahead and let him go.” We didn’t prepare for this. We both thought I’d go first, with my bad ticker and bad diet and forgetting to exercise and working too hard. Then, you go and do this shit.
Now, I’m going to live without you – only problem is, without you to love me, I don’t know how to do that. Why can’t this situation be opposite of what it is? I need to go, not you -- baby please, you stay, I want to go first.
@boomboom_jones
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 171
You left me, you son of a bitch. You left me here and I hate you for it. What am I supposed to do now? I can’t do this by myself. Why didn’t you fight harder?
I fought for you. The paramedics, the doctors? They fought.
You gave up. I hate you for letting go. Why did you do that?
You could have tried.
Was there any effort at all? Did you hear me when I begged and whispered and bartered? Could you feel my hands on your hands? Did you feel my kiss on your forehead?
And I know what you would have said if you had parting words.
I hate you so much.
You would’ve told me not to hang on. Live my life, find another.
How could I ever?
You made me love you.
You stole away my fears and kept them hidden.
You left me alone.
You made me love you.
Riptides and undertow.
You sliced me in half.
I can’t breathe.
I don’t want to mend.
Twitter: @bigblueboat
ReplyDeleteWord count: 199
***************************
You smiled the first time we crossed paths.
You smiled after I asked you on our first date.
You smiled into our first kiss that lasted until your brother turned on the light, scaring us apart.
You screamed after the third negative pregnancy test.
You screamed in the doctor’s office, scarcely waiting for his confirmation.
You screamed at the funeral, the tiny coffin being lowered into the ground.
You brushed me off.
You locked the pain inside.
You shut out the world, hoping to live in your dreams.
I lost my heart along with you.
I dragged us to the therapist.
I skidded along black ice and reached for your hand.
I see your chest rise and fall, your eyes fluttering.
I have a hard time breathing; something’s pressing down, squeezing tight.
I can tell there’s too much damage.
I can’t let go without knowing you’ll be okay.
I search out your eyes.
I try to express that I want you to find happiness again, that you should drop your walls, let someone else share the joy I've known loving you.
You smile.
You scream you love me.
You brush some blood from my face.
I close my eyes.
Twitter: @hummingbirdFF
ReplyDeleteWord count: 140
~~~
I smile and everyone smiles with me.
They are captivated by my presence and my confidence.
I charm the world with pretty words and pretty eyes.
Pretty lies.
I am invincible.
I reflect perfection—not a hair out of place or a wrinkle in sight.
But every day I see you.
Your face is dull, colourless, lifeless.
Your eyes look haunted; they speak of emotions far beyond your years.
The weight of your past hangs heavy on your shoulders, dragging you down.
And scars, not visible to any eye but mine, litter your soul.
You are the loneliest person that I’ve ever known.
I stretch out my hand to touch you—fingertip to fingertip. The cool glass against my skin always brings with it clarity.
I am you.
But this is the only place you and I will ever meet.
~~~
@femme_mal
ReplyDeleteword count: 100
_________
The laundry is folded and carefully put away, towels neatly stacked.
The pantry is full and organized, labels facing outward.
The doors are locked, the sashes tightly fastened.
The curtains are pulled, neat and tidy in appearance from the street.
The carpets are swept, clear oak floors gleam.
The photo frames are square, nothing unwanted remains.
The bed is made, sheet and blanket flat and straight.
The note is written, left in plain sight.
The door is open, the entry clear for flight.
The heart is broken, only departure will stem the pain.
The message left: Baby, I'm leaving here.