August 29, 2009 at 11:43 am (Fiction Friday, Short Stories, Unedited, sci-fi/fantasy)
(written for the [Fiction] Friday >prompt on August 28, 2009: “A new Government research and development facility is built on a decomissioned prison site”.)
“Hey! Watch where you’re putting that picket sign, buddy. Some of us like our faces the way they are!”
James Madsen cursed under his breath as he walked down the sidewalk past the old Albercrombie Maximum Security Prison. It was no longer a prison, of course, having been closed for thirteen years now. In fact, the government had just reopened it as a brand new, state of the art research and development facility. Dubbed the CRAP Institute by the media, the Center for Realizing America’s Potential had been opened with much fanfare, including a visit from the President himself. After an interminable number of speeches which included the obligatory self-congratulatory statements of the co-sponsors of the Formation, Accumulation and Revitalization of the Country’s Ego Act (the FARCE Act), the Institute’s official purpose was announced: to find that which makes us human and enhance the bonds between the people of the country.
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August 21, 2009 at 9:04 pm (Fiction Friday, Short Stories, Unedited, sci-fi/fantasy)
“This is the perfect hiding spot, isn’t it?”
The teenage boy hiding behind the big oak tree along the edge of the park nearly jumped out of his skin as the man’s voice broke the silence of the wooded ravine. “Shhh!” he hissed as he peeked around the tree to try to see if any of the other kids who were playing Hide and Seek had heard the noise. “You’ll give me away!”
“I wouldn’t want to do that,” the man replied, joining the boy in peeking around the tree.
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July 18, 2009 at 9:56 am (Fiction Friday, Short Stories, Unedited, general fiction)
(written for the [Fiction] Friday >prompt on July 17, 2009: “Your character stops on the way home from work and buys an unusual musical instrument — why today?”.)
Jenny hummed quietly as she sat on the bus and looked out the window as it rumbled its way down the busy street. The rain had passed earlier and the dampness on the street was disappearing thanks to the bits of sunlight streaming through the rapidly waning cloud cover and the cars that were speeding on top of it. She looked around at her fellow passengers on the bus, wondering how many of them were staying on the bus for the long ride to its eventual Atlantic City destination and how many, like her, were just making their regularly scheduled trip from work back to their homes or, in her case, back to her father’s home for her weekly dinner with him. Another ten stops and then she would be off of the bus with a five minute walk to his house ahead of her.
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June 19, 2009 at 2:31 pm (Fiction Friday, Short Stories, Unedited, sci-fi/fantasy)
(written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on June 19, 2009, which was “(your character) closed his/her eyes, took a deep breath and jumped”.)
There was chaos.
It had started with an explosion – a loud, fiery explosion – that had violently rocked the floors and the walls, knocking items off of shelves and people from their chairs and off their feet before plunging everything into a dark, terrifying silence. The emergency power took a few moments to recover from being jarred suddenly into life when the main power went out and in the brief time between the main lights going dark and the sparsely distributed emergency backup spotlights beginning to cast long shadows across the floors, people went through all of the emotions ranging from surprise to concern to fear to terror, before their many years of training took over.
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April 10, 2009 at 11:29 pm (Fiction Friday, Short Stories, Unedited, humorous, sci-fi/fantasy)
(written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on April 10, 2009, which was “A dentist is stabbed while he waits in line at the movies”.)
Dr. Richard P. Hanning, III stood in line outside of his favorite MovieMax Theater on the dreary gray autumn day, watching as the crowd continued to swell in anticipation of the opening of the ticket window. Only thirteen minutes until opening, he thought, excitedly. He had been waiting for three years for this movie to come out and it was clear that he was not alone in his excitement. The crowd was growing more quickly now as the opening time approached, but the real hardcore fans had gotten to the theater’s parking lot several hours early with Richard arriving at 3:30 AM and finding that he was already the fiftieth person in line. But now, thirteen minutes ahead of the special 11:00 AM opening, the crowd had grown to nearly two thousand people waiting to see the movie on one of the twenty-four screens in the theater that were dedicated to showing it. Read the rest of this entry »
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March 21, 2009 at 10:41 am (Fiction Friday, Short Stories, Unedited, sci-fi/fantasy)
(written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on March 20, 2009.)
It had been a dark and stormy night. The rain had finally stopped but the wind still blew coldly against his face on the dark road as he stood there, staring at the opened hood of his car, the only light being the thin beam of his flashlight combined with the periodic flash of the car’s hazard lights. Occasionally there would be a brief glow from the full moon as it peaked through the thinning cloud cover only to be blanketed again as the winds pushed the clouds around like a bully. He had tried to call for help but his cell phone was out of battery and he had left the car charger at home after taking it out of the car for some reason that escaped him at this moment. It had been an hour since the last car had gone by, speeding past him and his blinking car as if they weren’t even there.
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March 14, 2009 at 10:04 am (Fiction Friday, Short Stories, Unedited, sci-fi/fantasy)
(written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on March 13, 2009, which was to write about a businessman who finds a voodoo doll in his hotel room on the third night of his stay.)
“May I help you, sir?” asked the young woman dressed in the neatly pressed hotel uniform and standing behind the desk.
“Uh, yeah,” said Stewart hesitantly. “I think someone delivered a, uh, package to my room today and it was not for me.”
“Oh, sir, I am very sorry for the inconvenience,” said the woman whose nametag implied that her name was Melody. “What is your room number? I’ll have someone come up and get the package and we’ll see if it can be delivered properly.”
“Oh, um, three thirteen,” said Stewart quietly. “But there’s no need to send anyone up, I brought it with me.”
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March 6, 2009 at 9:09 am (Fiction Friday, Short Stories, Unedited, sci-fi/fantasy)
(written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on March 6, 2009)
“You did… WHAT?” demanded Justin. He rubbed his hand across the thick hair on his head as he paced angrily to one side of the room and then to the other.
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January 2, 2009 at 11:20 pm (Fiction Friday, Short Stories, Unedited, general fiction, humorous)
(written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on January 2, 2009: write about a New Year’s resolution that’s broken in the first 24 hours)
“I am so disappointed in you,” she said in her most disappointed voice and with That Look on her face.
Oh no, not That Look, Fred thought. I hate That Look. He shuffled his feet and looked away, then he said, “Oh, not That Look, Sara. You know how much I hate That Look.”
“I’ll give you whatever look I feel like giving you Fred,” she said. “You blew it, dude, not me.”
“I told you,” Fred said with a touch of pleading in his voice. “It was totally not what you think and not what it looked like. It’s not my fault, either.”
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December 19, 2008 at 9:13 pm (Fiction Friday, Short Stories, Unedited, general fiction)
(written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on December 19, 2008: write a scene involving exactly two characters that involves a terrible holiday gift)
Tim stood there holding the package in his hands, unsure of what to do. He looked from the package to the crumpled up wrapping paper that was on the sidewalk, to the beaming, radiant smile on Debbie’s face and back again.
“I—” he started, then stopped. He cleared his throat and shifted on his feet. “I—I don’t know what to say.”
“Tell me you love it,” said Debbie, excitedly. “Tell me it is what you were hoping for. Tell me it is just what you always wanted.”
Tim opened his mouth to speak and then closed it when he found no words coming out of it. He held up the clear plastic bag that was the package and examined the items contained within it and licked his lips nervously despite the cold winter wind. He was truly at a loss for words. Read the rest of this entry »
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December 6, 2008 at 8:27 am (Edited, Fiction Friday, Short Stories, general fiction, humorous)
(written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on December 5, 2008: Invent a holiday for which your character is a big fan)
Sally walked down the sidewalk that lined the quiet street, chatting happily with the five fellow carolers she had come out with this year. They were talking about work, the kids and what they were going to do for the rest of the holiday.
“Did you watch the tree lighting on TV the other day?” she asked the man, Bill, walking next to her?
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October 17, 2008 at 6:06 pm (Fiction Friday, Short Stories, Unedited, general fiction)
(written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on October 17, 2008)
I drifted, weightlessly, twirling down and down and down, tumbling over and over. As I tumbled and fell, and screamed with fear and excitement and exhilaration, I thought back upon the days leading up to today.
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