flash fiction

A Long Story

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This is a long story I have to tell you. It could take years, decades, a lifetime.

People won’t listen when you have a story this long. They start talking over you. They leave in the middle of it.

They don’t understand; this story’s important. It has to be told.

I have to make sure you won’t interrupt. I have to make sure you won’t leave. I have to tell this story. It’s eating away at my insides and wants out.

So sit there, no sounds, get as comfortable as you can with those bindings.

This is a long story.

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Angler

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Yes, my eyes are wide.

Yes, my teeth are long.

Yes, my scales are dull and coarse.

But my light is the brightest down here, down in the deeps. See how it bobs, weaves, and lights up the dark. Does it not entice you? Does it not make you want to look closer? To come closer? To come see me and my eyes and teeth and dull coarse scales?

I may not be as beautiful as my sisters, but I can still attract a human.

I may not be as beautiful as my sisters, but I am still a mermaid.

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Das Gift

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Drabble

In German this is called Gift. So this is a gift I give to you. I would never be able to hold you so closely, wrap my arms around your heart so entirely. I would never be able to mesh with you in every muscle and vein.

Can you feel it embrace your heart tighter with every beat? Can you feel it grasp your lungs so strongly you can’t take a breath? Can you feel it overtake you?

This is how much I love you.

This is how deeply I feel you.

This is the only way to show you.

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Division

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Inktober prompt 2 “Divided.”

Drabble

The blast of the gun tears through my ears, as the bullet tears through my heart. Even as I fall the assailant is running away – an accidental murderer. He doesn’t see me die. He doesn’t see me divide.

I breathe again, and sit up. My division is sitting up too. We look at each other, gazing into each others’ eyes, and we both feel that loss of a part of ourselves. But nothing can be done. We are forever separated.

He stands and walks away from me, and I from him. This has happened before. It will happen again.

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Hunted

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I like Inktober’s prompt list, so I’m using it for drabbles.

Drabble

Something chases me, as it chases all of us. I haven’t seen it, but I know it is just behind me, concealed in clouds, darting from star to star. The sun doesn’t frighten it. The moon doesn’t lull it. As my mother did, as her mother did, and far back into history as we have all done, I must eat, drink, sleep in flight.

Should I stop, it will capture me in its claws and rend my bones. Should I stop, its teeth will tear my neck.

I cannot fight it.

I cannot face it.

I am only a swift.