Tag Archive for: microfiction

Trophic Dynamics

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by Gabrielle Bleu

 

Sixteen dogs used to roam the back streets in a howling, violent mass. Until one day when their numbers began to dwindle; thirteen, seven, four. Until all that remained were two mangy survivors, tails between their legs. People were happy that the back alleys were safer, not questioning the disappearances. Only one girl wondered, and only after she saw the footprints, large and clawed and numerous.

Only she saw, as the thing with too many legs grew bolder, emerging from the shadows. Only she watched from her window late at night, as it ate the dog pack down to one.

 

Gabrielle Bleu

Gabrielle Bleu’s deepest fears are dogs and the ocean. During the daylight hours, she catalogs long dead things. Her work has appeared in the Story Seed Vault and the Arcanist. Follow her on twitter @BeteMonstrueuse for occasional thoughts about monsters, and read more of her work at gabriellebleu.com.

 

After Glow

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by Liam Hogan

 

Huh. Zombies.

Of course it was zombies. The apocalypse scenario that never dies. The dead reborn through the years. Fast zombies, slow zombies, space zombies. Explained away by genetically engineered viruses, or airborne fungal spores, or alien parasites. All of them after your flesh, if not your brains.

A numbers game; the dead quickly overpowering the living and, after a bite or two, converting hunted to hunter.

There shouldn’t be enough nourishment to keep them all going. Didn’t make sense.

But, as Malcolm smashed through the rotten skull with his Louisville slugger, at least these zombies glow in the dark.

 

Liam Hogan

Liam Hogan is a London based short story writer, the host of Liars’ League, and a Ministry of Stories mentor. His story “Ana”, appears in Best of British Science Fiction 2016 (NewCon Press) and his twisted fantasy collection, “Happy Ending Not Guaranteed”, is published by Arachne Press. Http://happyendingnotguaranteed.blogspot.co.uk or tweet @LiamJHogan.

 

Where Her Heart Was

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by Adam Breckenridge

 

My girlfriend opened the door in her chest and grabbed a fistful of air.

“I’m giving this to you,” she said, dropping it in my hand.  It was the heaviest air I had ever held.  I looked into her dead eyes as I tried to lift it, dribbles of her life slipping through my fingers.

“Now I want something in return,” she said and dug her fingers into my chest, reaching through the blood and flesh to grab ahold of my tin can soul, so fragile in her grip as she crunched it into a ball and swallowed it whole.

 

Adam Breckenridge

Adam Breckenridge, is a Collegiate Traveling Faculty member of the University of Maryland University College where he travels the world teaching American military stationed overseas and he’s currently based in Japan. His fiction has previously appeared in Independent Ink, Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens, the WTF?! Anthology, Strangelet Press and elsewhere, and most recently he was accepted into the Final Summons Anthology from NESW Press, Visions Magazine out of the UK and New Reader Magazine.

 

Reflections

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by Lynne Lumsden Green

 

My friend Ben and I loved jumping in puddles; our mothers despaired of our damp and muddy clothes. One day, Ben jumped into a puddle on the footpath and sank up to his armpits.

“Help me,” he screamed. “Something is pulling me down.”

I grabbed at his hand, but I was too late. He disappeared into its depths. I ran for help, but no one believed me. Later that day, when the puddle dried up, it revealed no pit. Just ordinary footpath.

Now days, I don’t jump into puddles. I gaze into them, looking for Ben. I haven’t found him.

 

Lynne Lumsden Green

Lynne Lumsden Green has twin bachelor degrees in both Science and the Arts, giving her the balance between rationality and creativity. She spent fifteen years as the Science Queen for HarperCollins Voyager Online and has written science articles for other online magazines. Currently, she captains the Writing Race for the Australian Writers Marketplace on Facebook. She has had speculative fiction flash fiction and short stories published in anthologies and websites. You can find her blog at: https://cogpunksteamscribe.wordpress.com/ Twitter.

 

AA

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by Shane Sinjun

 

“Welcome to AA,” the convenor says. “Please, share.”

I suck in a breath, shut my eyes, and shrug off my coat. Air teases my insectile left arm, folded against me like a mantis. I wait for gasps that don’t come. I open my eyes, expecting looks of horror, but everyone is smiling.

A woman across from me removes her sunglasses, blinking her amphibian third eyelids. Another woman pulls off her mittens and stretches her claws. A man doffs his hat and unfurls his antennae.

For the first time, I’m not alone.

The convenor nods. “You’re safe here at Anthropomorphs Anonymous.”

 

Shane Sinjun

Shane Sinjun writes dark quirky fiction from Melbourne, Australia. He has a heart of gold. The rest is mainly base metals. Follow him on Twitter.

 

We’ll Always Have Venus

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by Shawn M. Klimek

 

To humanity’s great relief, the aliens who had arrived by warp-gate were not conquerors, but law-abiding capitalists who had come hoping to develop our system’s underutilized real estate. In exchange for forfeiting Earth claims to Mars, they proposed to make Venus habitable for human expansion—a price too good to refuse. As more aliens colonized the red planet, and cities grew on Venus, trade between all three flourished.

When Earthlings eventually noticed the New Martians had begun mining Jupiter and terraforming Titan, they demanded compensation.

“Oh, we already own Jupiter by law,” the aliens responded. “Our planet is the nearest.”

 

Shawn M. Klimek

Shawn M. Klimek’s stories and poems have been published in scores of e-zines and anthologies, including “Grumpy Old Gods, Volume 1”, Zombie Pirate Publishing’s “World War Four”, and “Gold: The Best of Clarendon House Anthologies, Volume One, 2017/2018. Find more, including links to all his published works at A Jot In The Dark

 

It’s So Dark

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by Stephen Herczeg

 

I wake. It’s dark. So dark.

My bed is tight. Snug on both sides. I reach up. There’s something a few inches above me. It’s hard, but covered in soft fabric. It’s like I’m in a box, with soft silk sheets all around. I’m wearing a suit, not pyjamas. Where are my shoes?

I’m falling. Slowly. Very slowly. I land with a thump. My bed is jostled, but I can’t fall out.

Something lands on top of the box, thud. Then even more thuds. I scream but I have no voice.

Then there’s only silence. I’m alone.

It’s so dark.

 

Stephen Herczeg

Stephen is an IT Geek based in Canberra Australia. He has been writing for over twenty years and has completed a couple of dodgy novels, sixteen feature length screenplays and numerous short stories and scripts.

His horror work has featured in Sproutlings; Hells Bells; Below the Stairs; Trickster’s Treats #1 and #2; Shades of Santa; Behind the Mask; Beyond the Infinite; The Body Horror Book; Anemone Enemy; Petrified Punks; Beginnings and Beside the Seaside.
Find him on Amazon

The Rich, The Poor And When Earth’s Time Is Up

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by Aditya Deshmukh

 

An ashamed sun drags itself up the smoky horizon.

Humongous spaceships, built only for the rich, are leaving. The rich ones, the bright ones, the so-called pillars of the society, are leaving.

Their companies, their negligence, their money is what turned Earth into this foul breath, this disease, this nauseating smell of my father’s diarrhoeic stools. The air is black, the rain is acid, my neighbourhood is a graveyard because of them.

And yet they get to leave!

No, I cannot let this happen. I’ll unite my people. I’ll burn their spaceships. They’ll know the power of the working class!

 

Aditya Deshmukh

Aditya Deshmukh is a mechanical engineering student who likes exploring the mechanics of writing as much as he likes tinkering with machines. He writes dark fiction and poetry. He is published in over three dozen anthologies, and has a poetry book “Opium Hearts” coming out soon. He likes chatting with others who share similar interests, so feel free to check him out here:
Facebook : AdityaDeshmukhWrites
Instagram : DeepCrazyShit

 

The Hot Bunk

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by Shawn M. Klimek

 

Lieutenant Kent ached. His leaden eyelids fluttered as he struggled to focus on the faces above him.

“How are you feeling, Lieutenant?” asked Doctor Horn.

“Dying,” Kent croaked.

“The symbiote is weakening, too,” said Horn. “Both of you are dangerously sleep deprived.”

“The symbiote has been communicating with us every night!” enthused Major Owens. “It has finally agreed to share Vancian technology!”

“They can’t both continue sharing the same body,” the doctor clarified.

“But this is a great opportunity for mankind!” pleaded Owens.

“Please,” said Kent, fading. “End this!”

“You heard him, Doctor,” said the major. “We have his consent.”

 

Shawn M. Klimek

Shawn M. Klimek’s stories and poems have been published in scores of e-zines and anthologies, including “Grumpy Old Gods, Volume 1”, Zombie Pirate Publishing’s “World War Four”, and “Gold: The Best of Clarendon House Anthologies, Volume One, 2017/2018. Find more, including links to all his published works at A Jot In The Dark

 

Quick Salvage

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by Eddie D. Moore

 

I found the derelict in a degrading orbit around the fourth planet. With more time, I might’ve salvaged the experimental craft, but the computer gave me a forty-five minute window before it plunged into the atmosphere.

Smears of blood decorated the walls, and I tried not to look directly at the disfigured piles of flesh I stepped over to reach the bridge. I uploaded the memory core and grabbed what tech I could on the way out, while mentally tallying up the payout.

Safely aboard my own ship, I was watching the security video when something moved under my skin.

 

Eddie D. Moore

Eddie D. Moore travels extensively for work, and he spends much of that time listening to audio books. His stories have been published by Jouth Webzine, Kzine, Alien Dimensions, Theme of Absence, Devolution Z, and Fantasia Divinity Magazine. eddiedmoore.wordpress.com