Here's the prompt, as chosen by last week's winner, @BoomBoom_Jones:
Remember to check the rules.
Have your 100 - 200 words submitted by 12:00am Friday, June 21, 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
@shellisthimbles
ReplyDelete200 ineligble words
--------------------------
the air smelled of bonfire, seaspray and wet wool that August afternoon
people scattered across the beach in knots of twos and threes
sitting, standing, sprawled on the sand
smoke and the rolling sea mist muted colour from the scene
rimming eyes with red and turning voices raspy
Pearl Jam was playing on someone’s stereo
barely audible over the crash of waves and the
giggles and drunken shouts of our friends
someone’s soccer ball landed too close to the fire
angry orange sparks spitting their protest
scattering squealing girls then turning to ash on the wind
I sat between my girls, my smile loose and my laugh loud
a long-empty plastic cup by my feet
the taste of coconut rum still sweet on my tongue
when you stopped in front of me, I had to squint up at you
you asked me if I wanted to take a walk
and my cheeks burned as though I were sitting close to the fire
my girls giggled and teased and I almost said no
but you held out your hand, and I put let you pull me up
and we walked and talked and laughed
and never once stopped to looked back
@BedeliaJane
ReplyDelete199 words
---
The only traffic light in our town flashes red, courtesy of some kids who push the button for the crosswalk. Not even the joggers and speed-walking old ladies are out this early. Letting the truck roll to a stop, Edward glares at the giggling teenagers. They don’t cross.
“You’re really doing this,” he says.
“Yeah.”
Going to the beach with him one last time was a mistake. If I’m honest, I knew it at the time. His hands just made me forget for a while. When I kissed him like I meant it, I made him think I would stay.
I did mean it, though. With him, sometimes I mean it so hard it hurts. If I let him, I know he’d turn me into one of those people who never escapes this place.
As the sun climbs higher and the road carries us closer to the airport, the ocean winks at us between trees.
“I’ll come back. Someday. I just need to experience something bigger.”
He smiles, and oh, God. What could be bigger than us?
“I know. Go see your bright lights.”
One touch of his hand, and suddenly I know, too. This isn’t the end.
@megz0317
ReplyDelete197 words
-----
Had it really been four years?
The ferry seemed to cut through the foggy waves. Shaking thoughts of sandy feet and wet suits from her mind, Bella moved to the front of the boat. There was an indescribable pull towards what would always be her home. Standing at the edge of the gate, Bella was unable to push away her memories any longer.
Subtle glances from shining, green eyes. Timid brushes of heated lips. Gritty sand in copper locks that Bella loved to run her fingers through. The rocking of two souls wrapping around each other. Promises made. They would be the ones to make it. University would be a blink of their unfazed eyes.
The blaring horn sounded from above, alerting passengers to return to their cars.
As she drove off the ferry ramp, a rusty station wagon in the parking lot caught her eye, but it was the lean body propped against the car that caused her heart to race and her foot to slam on the brakes.
Shy eyes locked onto her. Four years of promises.
She raced from her truck and threw herself into waiting arms.
“I knew you’d come back to me.”
Pinkcookie at FF
ReplyDelete200 words
Bright red drops splattered onto my white tee shirt when I bit into the ripe cherry. Stupid, I thought; who bites into a cherry instead of just popping it whole into their mouth? Then again, that’s sort of who I am. Taking tiny bites of the world instead of embracing it with open arms. That’s why you said you wanted to “move on, experience new things.”
Well, tonight taking tiny bites ends for me. I’ve scored one ticket to the Pearl Jam concert and instead of giving it away; I plan to go by myself, loosen up, and have a helluva good time!
That night, swaying to the music with my eyes closed, I swear I can hear your voice. Opening my eyes I see you and startle a step back. Taking me in your arms you speak into my ear over the music: “Baby, you don’t know how much I’ve missed you; I was a total jackass. Is it too late for us?” Stepping back, I tilt my head to the side and my mind flashes to the red splatters on my tee shirt this morning. “Yeah, it’s way too late. I’m here to experience something and someone new.”
Word count: 200 words, on the nose
ReplyDeleteTwitter handle: @AnnaLund2011
~~~~~~~~~
In the dark of night, I stride down the alleys to the Port Vieux, an abandoned, sandy beach, all vessels long gone to history.
My feet take me on the path leading to the Rocher de la Vierge in the mighty Ocean.
I clash with the winds, in combat with the elements themselves. A fury of blond strands of my witch-hair whips around me. I am enraged; even the aether quivers as I roar.
The Atlantic Ocean spits in my face, as I pull myself into the position from whence I can spit right back.
My long, black coat beats like a living thing in the gale; a surge of joy bursts through me.
The Atlantic Ocean takes the brunt of MY anger, of MY temper, and he is cowering, troubled, his waves crying fearful tears of froth.
Right here beside me, a statue of the virgin, the symbol of the sacred feminine, more ancient than the crossèd god who usurped and supplanted her; she sees me, approves, as I let it all out; I scream, fight, roar, win against the storm.
I am truly ready.
The power of wild woman is upon me.
I am fury.
Heed my wrath.
~~~~~~~~~
(Note: Biarritz, France, the summer of Too-Long-Ago).
Twitter: @vampshavelaws
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 199
“I’ll be back for this.” He pulls off his hoodie and slides it over my head; keeps the hood up as he knots its strings beneath my chin.
This boy’s car is packed with everything but me, his dreams tangled with currents, like the ocean; like he’s the ocean, dragging me further and further out only to deposit me back on this beach with nothing but grainy words that make me crumble.
“I’ll miss you.”
Froth gathers like candyfloss along the shoreline, something sweet to battle the tears at the back of my throat.
“It’s okay if you don’t,” I lie, trying to make it easier.
He shoots me a smile that looks to be drowning—I swallow my own like pills.
After a moment, he places a hollowed out moon inside my palm, a burning band of silver pulled straight from the darkness.
“Just hold on to it,” he tells me when I go to question him, his eyes begging me to leave it alone, his breath smudging the words from my lips.
He kisses me, and I close my eyes, knowing I’ll feel his absence like thread around my throat; something there to unravel once he’s gone.
Sherbert20111 on FF
ReplyDeleteWordcount 200 (and continuing from last week)
For the first time in forever, nothing works seamlessly.
Everybody generates an electrical field.
The system relies on it, to function and to feed.
The displays flicker when he passes them by.
He doesn’t feed it, he drains it.
The gesture based inter-ware everyone else uses is useless.
It doesn’t see him.
He seems to have an uncanny ability to locate me, like he is reading the ship’s circuits without the need for an interface.
He goes where he chooses, nothing keeps him out.
Or in.
The dreamscape suite is no exception.
His presence is the crackle of static up my back, seeping under the hair on my scalp, making me breathless.
His voice is soft and laughing. “Am I disturbing you?”
“No.”
The suck of rolling surf and tickle of sand being teased from under my feet falters. Interference makes the images jump and bleed, eventually succumbing completely. Black tiles reappear around us.
“Liar.”
I can’t help the sigh that escapes, this is becoming a game I can’t afford to play.
“Do you miss the ocean?”
Closer.
He will touch me and I will drown in it.
“The water,” I reply. “Not the sand.”
“Not the sand,” he repeats.
@Twilightladies1
ReplyDeleteNote: I used some lyrics from this song for my prompt:
and we're all allowed to dream
Of the next time we touch....
Word Count: 199
I’m trapped in that moment between sleep and waking up.
My dream lingers, and I desperately hold onto it.
I’m not ready for you to leave me yet. Each night is different, but beautiful because you’re always there.
This time, you’re laughing at something I’ve said or done. Your smile is bright and your eyes are alive with wonder.
As sleep leaves my body, you fade away and I can only watch you go.
My hands reach out, desperate to keep you here—even if just for a little longer.
Waking up is the worst part of my day; It reminds me of everything I’ve lost.
My cheeks are wet with tears I didn’t notice I’d cried, and I know I have to do something—I need you back in my life.
I pick up my phone, my stomach doing flips as I wait.
You answer, whispering my name and more tears fall as you agree to meet me.
I won’t ruin this chance.
My dormant heart begins to flutter and I let myself hope that we might be okay.
With a smile on my face, I fall back into my bed and let sleep take me once again.
@bebeginja
ReplyDeleteWord count: 200
"Hello?"
"Hey, sis. Are you busy tonight?"
I get this call almost every Friday. She asks if I can watch her boys. She’s going out with a “friend.”
Friend my ass. "Of course. Bring them over."
She's all in. Again. I don't even want to know who he is or where she met him. She'll drop the kids off without overnight bags and they’ll end up staying the weekend. They'll be hungry because they haven't eaten. She'll be missing until Monday and won't answer her phone.
They'll worry, and I'll comfort. It's what I do.
I'm constant while she's constantly unreliable. I'm grounded, and she’s untethered. I'm on the shore watching the waves toss her repeatedly. Nothing I do or say can lure her from the deep. I’ve tried so many times. We all have. I’ve seen her spit out onto the rocks and pulled in again. She'll sink until she hits the bottom just to know how it feels.
She's been sinking for years.
"Thanks, sis." She avoids eye contact as she kisses my cheek. There’s already alcohol on her breath.
“Be safe.” I lock the door and hug my nephews.
Somehow I feel like the one being abandoned.
@GeekChic12FF
ReplyDeleteWord count: 200
My flashes are here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9367180/1/Tidbits
__________________________________________________________________
My heart races as the wave begins to break and you disappear from view.
Tube rides are hard to watch. You could be swallowed up so easily.
But they’re your favorite. You absolutely live for them.
I catch one last glimpse of your sapphire wetsuit before the crystalline blue wall of water is all I see.
And I wait.
I would cheer you on, but my breath is caught in my throat.
I close my eyes and say a little prayer that you’ll rocket out the side before the wave comes crashing down.
Hearing gasps all around me, I look up, frantically searching for you.
All I see is the ocean, roiling and spitting as the wind howls across it.
Time stops.
Lifeguards run full speed.
I fall to my knees.
Tears fall to the sand.
The next thing I know, I’m beside your body as you cough and splutter. Relief floods through me as I grasp your hand and bring it to my lips; then clutch it against my heart.
When your eyes finally flutter open, you offer a weak smile and rasp out, “What was my score?”
My shaky laugh precedes more tears. “8.5, Bella. You won.”
@sparrownotes24
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 200
Your eyes used to be filled with the never-ending curve of silver stars above the ocean. Your teenage heart stitched to mine.
Time moved with the tides until your eyes flared with the neon lights of the big city, luring you with promises of more. Secrets to discover. Dreams to live.
Evenings, tangled together on the cool sand as clouds blushed under the sun’s retreat, turned to nights alone, watching the shadows stretch and slowly slip into a lonely darkness.
Our thread, the one that held us effortlessly entwined, has started to unravel.
I’ve tried. So hard. Gripping on until my fingers ache and my heart bleeds. The line is taut with my rejection, your frustration. A tug of war between love and guilt.
I’m treading water, but your struggle to be free pulls my head under, choking me with memories of salty lips whispering love and touches of sun-kissed skin. The roaring waves deafen your feeble reassurances, flimsy excuses.
To let go will cast me adrift. But, I have to.
Drawing in a fresh breath of courage, I unpick the thread from my heart, letting you slip through my fingers, and I allow the ocean to carry me home.
TiramiSue84
ReplyDeleteWord count: 198
---------
I long for the slightest breeze to brush along my bare skin;
a cool down that would take the stickiness away.
I want to jump head-first into the ocean
and
dive and swim until the sun vanishes into the sea.
My sandals flip-flop over heated asphalt as we walk,
toward the allure of that diamond-covered
and
perpetually moving, seemingly endless blue depth.
Salt on my tongue, the buzz of voices and noises in my ears.
Seniors laughing, drinking, dancing, smoking
and
saying farewell, for school is done.
Their energy is contagious, makes me giddy to finally join them.
The golden sand so close, that's when I hear this
one song off that one album from that one band you insisted on hearing all the time
and
my head snaps around to find you nearby.
Surrounded by your friends, next to what's-her-name, laughing.
My eyes must have prickled and pierced, for your smile fades
and
we lock gazes for an eternity and longer.
You stare, plead, then touch your heart, telling me I'm still in there.
I long, ache, wish, then mimic your motion.
And it has to be like this, for it'd only hurt more come Summer's end.
@bigblueboat
ReplyDeleteword count: 199
************************
Like ants trying to cross a stream, they continue on their lives, thinking they will have the last laugh. Little do they know that we foretell all.
Lachesis hits my shoulder. “Look at those two. Make them desire; make them feel. I want to see things unfold.”
“Isn't that your job, sister?”
Time passes. The two notice each other: long walks, numerous caresses, vows spoken, new household created.
Lachesis never strays far from them, at least not for long. She watches with yearning, at times with breath abated. I bless them with another mouth to feed.
A family trip to the beach seems docile until Atropos walks up to our view and flicks her wrist. Lachesis cries out, even knowing what she previously wrote down.
A wave comes crashing over them; riptides reach, grasping at all three but only manage to drag two to sea, Poseidon claiming them as his own.
“Relax, sister. There is always the underworld for the remaining one to look forward to. They will be reunited there. Hades will claim the two taken by Poseidon and watch over them until we decide they shall meet again.”
Removed, yet always watching, us three hold the strings.
@QuinnSkylark
ReplyDeleteWords: 151
This is the place where I grew up. A sandy patch of beach on the Jersey coast, where little red-headed boys see little brunette princesses for the first time and wonder what this love thing is all about.
This is the spot where I became a man. A moment in space and time where the universe stood still and you touched your lips to mine before I pressed into you on that blanket on the sand at midnight.
This is where I promised you my life. The sunset was orange and your body was draped in ivory, but everything faded into the background like an old black and white video when you walked down that sandy aisle toward me.
These are the moments we'll remember forever. The children play and splash and swim, and here you are beside me. You're mine forever, flowing steady and smooth just like the ocean.
@megan_timms (sparklymeg)
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 193
Fluffy white clouds dot the horizon, seagulls flapping in the wind.
The breeze chills my skin, there are goosebumps rising there, but the heat of his embrace warms me to my very bones.
My stomach flutters, like a million butterflies dancing with joy.
His love is relentless, like the tide.
Just as each wave leaves a fresh sheen of sand in its retreat, so his kisses leave me whole. They wash away every flaw, every tiny grit of dirt that clings to me.
Until I am stripped bare, all my insecurities just a drop in the ocean.
Once, I was so far away, my mind so lost, like a piece of driftwood in the sea.
My thoughts dark and murky, like the deep blue.
My temper more lethal than the deadliest ocean creature.
He talked me off the ledge. He loved me through it all. He cried with me, held me.
He could have walked away - we were oceans apart.
But he stayed – through it all.
Brilliant red and amber lines fill the sky as the sun gradually hides behind the sea.
His lips are warm on my temple.
“Happy anniversary, baby.”
Twitter: @hummingbirdFF
ReplyDeleteWord count: 199
~~~
At night, when I laid down on my cramped cot and closed my eyes, I saw you. I saw your pretty brown eyes. I saw the tiny collection of freckles that covers your nose. I saw your smile, your top lip just slightly fuller than your bottom.
You kept me holding on.
My heart cracked whenever I remembered your red eyes and wet cheeks. My decision was one you didn’t want, but you still supported me. You stood by my side on the tarmac, your fingers curling into my fatigues as you kissed me goodbye.
I hope you’re holding on.
Letters, photos, care packages—I loved them all. But your Skype calls were what I craved. Your sweet voice telling me about our family and friends; it always made me smile. But I could never push down the guilt, knowing how unhappy this life made you.
But you waited for me, like you promised.
A little girl, with brown eyes like yours, came running. The daughter we always wanted flashed in front of my eyes, and I reacted without another thought.
I’m coming home to you, just like I promised.
I’m so sorry, my love, that it’s in a coffin.
~~~
What did you do!?!?!?!
DeleteI didn't ask for this.... you, you... ungh!
So not liking you right you right now *pouts*
“Mmm, your body is like the ocean, baby. All these waves,” my lover spoke reverently. His fingertip traced along my curvaceous physique. From my hips and bare abdomen, across my stomach, and up to my chest. I giggled as he drew circles around my breasts and then suckled each nipple. I couldn’t help but sigh when his lips left my skin. My wet nipples made me shiver and ache for him.
ReplyDelete“And your hair, Nessie,” he continued, grabbing a handful of my long, auburn, naturally curly hair. He breathed in the scent, and I could feel his erection forming. “God, it’s the best scent in the world, baby.”
His firm lips descended upon my soft skin once more. I squeezed my legs together, embarrassed at how wet I was from all his smooth talk and hot kisses. I had never felt so loved. I had been waiting for him, admiring him from the beach as he made love to the ocean all afternoon with his board. Now that the sun had set and the bonfire was in full swing, it was his turn to make love to me.
I’ll never forget that night.
Word count: 193
Twitter: @LouiseClark75
@crackedfic
ReplyDelete128 words
***
I am Jack's lack of empathy.
His cold steel.
Unwavering.
Solid.
I am his raging adrenaline.
His unrivaled apoplexy.
Unchecked.
True.
I slide a round in and I take aim on the kevlar dome and I close my right eye and I make sure the aim is true and I squeeze ever so slightly and then more and just a little bit more and soon I feel the soft click and then the hard pull and I see it explode, the head inside the helmet. Boom goes the man who stood between me and my future.
I am Jack's soldier of fortune.
His corrupt warrior.
Unprincipled.
Driven.
I always said I'd do anything to make sure I got back alive.
I have a girl to get home to.