This week we were inspired by the national Flash Fiction competition which we didn't enter but at least it prompted us to write! We limited ourselves to 100 words and had four topics to choose from. Below are three using 'Night creature' and one for 'A letter in the wall'. The aim was to tell a dramatic short story in as few words as possible and to brush up on our editing skills as we often had to cut the story back to fit the required word length. We also focussed on ensuring our first and last lines were compelling as this is especially important when using so few words. Well done all!
Her eyes were lost in a cloud of darkness. She blindly felt for switches. Scrabbling silence like a muted thriller.
All she could hear was a creaking floor board. Her creaking?
She was alone surely. Torch, she’d found a torch. It flickered like a dying candle.
Creak!
She desperately pressed the button on and off.
A giant shadow moved torward her. She screamed as someone grabbed her around the body.
She pulled an arm free and shined her stuttering torch at a maniacal laughing face.
“How dare you,” she shouted in frustration as her husband hugged her tighter.
By Julia Godfrey
NIGHT CREATURE
He woke, afraid, black silence slicing dark holes in his mind. Intruders? Earthquake? Flood? Rain drummed heavily on the cast-iron roof, pulsed by incoming wind gusts, poured along the channels, cascading where the down-pipe wasn't.
Detected again; a scratchy snuffling, wheezing, below the overlaying rain and wind. He sat up, feet on the blanket, stretching for his shotgun. Blast! He flicked the bed lamp; only darkness. Bollocks! He leaped, and stamped his feet heavily, drumming the floor; books from the untidy shelf cascaded into a literary mound. Silence grew between the sounds of wind and rain.
- Kate Jenkins
NIGHT CREATURE
It was dark and the path was steep. The gradient climbing upwards, hugging the predator-free fence that wound around the eco-sanctuary - a ribbon draped on the rounded hills of Orokonui.
My breathing was becoming increasingly laboured. I needed a rest but was afraid of stopping. It was late and a warm hearth beckoned. Although the short-cut home had seemed like a good idea at the time, doubts were now creeping in.
From the quiet of dusk, night noises were beginning. A rustle here, a snuffle there. The crunching of gravel underneath my feet. The thumping of my own heart and then came that noise, the one that chilled my blood...
- Pauline
POSTE PAST
Chisel and crowbar worked around the chimney; mortar blew powdery onto face and arms; bricks crashed down. David wiped dust from his eyes. Among the bricks, a paper corner showed. He drew it to the light.
"My Dearest Joe,
I heard today of the passing of your dear Mother. A lovely lady; so kind to me, particularly at that dreadful time.
I do wish we might have stayed together.
My thoughts are with your family. Please convey my sympathy to dear cousin Elsie.
Yours faithfully,
Florence "
David slid the letter back into the envelope and, opening the wood burner, threw it in.
- Kate Jenkins
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