Here's the prompts chosen by last week's winner, and this week's judge, @lellabeth:
You may use one of both to inspire your writing.
(For those playing on their phones - the video is Gregory and the Hawk's Boats and Birds.)
Remember to check the rules.
Have your 100 - 200 words submitted by 12:01am Friday, August 9, 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.
Also, I've had a few questions lately regarding the submission of more than one entry. Yes, you may submit more than one flashfic. I'm going to say a maximum of two (2) entries though. Furthermore, they're not to be continuations, or related to each other in any way -- they need to be completely separate, stand alone entries.
P.S. Don't forget to follow @fanficflashfic on twitter.
@shellisthimbles
ReplyDelete196 ineligible words
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The saltwater chokes me, burning my throat. I gasp for air. That burns, too.
Another wall of grey surges toward the shore. For a moment it towers over me. I almost believe it will stay there, suspended twenty feet above me, as immovable as the sheared rock of the cliffs to the west.
My limbs are weary, barely keeping me afloat. Cold has seeped into my bones, stiffening my muscles and constricting my lungs.
The wave sneers, foam curling on its lip, and as it starts to break, I consider giving in. I want to let it drag me under, squeeze the last of the oxygen from my lungs, and toss and tumble me against the hidden reefs. I can’t do this anymore.
I close my eyes as the wave starts to collapse. I’m sucked under, forced down by the mass of water churning above me. This is it, I think.
But my body is a traitor. Instinct overrules and my limbs flail, pushing me upward, seeking the surface. My mouth opens, my lungs fill.
And then I see it. A flash of red, bright against the surrounding grey.
Energy surges. Hope lifts.
I breathe again.
I like red.
ReplyDeleteRed is for passion and power.
I’m trying to channel those for today. The anniversary of the day that everything changed.
I remember it like yesterday. You were all excited to go on the “big boat” and spend time with your father. I was excited to get a day at the spa.
But I wish with everything that I have, that I was on that boat instead of you that day.
I wasn’t.
When the two most important people in my life got lost at sea, I was picking out pink lemonade nail polish to wear on my toes.
When I got the news, I couldn’t leave the house for weeks. Everyday is still a struggle.
But I wear red.
I wear it for you and the way your cheeks would turn red after being in the sun all day. And I wear red for the memory of my husband’s red tie on the night we met.
I wear red to show my passion and the power I have to make it through each day.
I wear red for you. For both of you.
I like red.
@TinsleyWarren
Words: 190
This gutted me.
DeleteWord count: 200 words, on the nose
ReplyDeleteTwitter handle: @AnnaLund2011
~~~~~~~~~
Floating away.
Leaving that place, that summer place, where memories are counted by decades, I could never leave without shedding tears. Who can? Who could possibly?
That time was worse than ever.
Grey above and grey below, wet or misty the only difference.
That year I was leaving you behind.
There had never been never anyone quite like you in my corner before. Never had anyone’s whole being lit up as I entered a room.
I had never had anyone hanging on my every word, listening to my very soul’s confessions.
But summer was over.
Delightful, happy joy had turned into the deep agony of separation.
As my boat crashed into wave after recalcitrant wave, I was overcome by a sense of wrong, of terror, and of deep and intense loss.
A need to fix it. To jump into the water, and swim back.
The agony of loss, which had mutated into loneliness. Loneliness, that petty, pretty mistress, the basis of all my most well formulated desperate thoughts and creations.
My innermost feelings were grey; I was drowning in that ocean.
I did.
I jumped.
I swam.
I ran.
You caught me.
As you have caught me every day since.
~~~~~~~~~
My Heartbeat,
ReplyDeleteYou have always loved me freely, expectationless and without reserve. I hope you don't think me ungrateful. My comprehension of your love is not skewed. I know it's deep and endless. Don't ever think I didn't know.
I love you as much as one human can love another. More, sometimes, I think. Too much for this frail, fragile frame to hold. You have been for so long now my reason for existing. Your love has always been the unsurpassed, undeserved, happy surprise of my life.
Try to understand my choices, and please, please don't carry any guilt. Control is a carefully crafted illusion that we comfort ourselves with; please know you couldn't control this.
I am sick again, darling heart. You know better than anyone that I cannot survive another battle, even with your strength to carry me.
Forgive me for my inability, my unwillingness to watch you give more of yourself only to have it torn away slowly, without recourse.
Keep bits of me near you, but let me go, love.
I am not afraid of anything except your suffering.
I'll be waiting for you past the horizon, where the beaches are wide.
Always, always yours,
Bella
@sulliedsoles
Words: 200
http://m.fanfiction.net/u/4889580/sulliedsoles
@everydaybella89
ReplyDeleteWords: 162
The stars over our head were uncountable. A hundred thousand points of light arrayed in a sparkling tapestry. I couldn’t look away. I had never seen anything so beautiful.
I felt him squeeze my fingers. Somehow I managed to tear my eyes away from the world above my head to see him. He wasn’t looking at the world he had wanted to show me, but at my face. The heaviness in his green eyes was unavoidable and I felt my heart stutter.
“I’m gonna miss you.” He murmured.
“What? I’m not going anywhere.”
“Yeah you are. You belong out there. You’re too bright to be stuck in this podunk town. You’re going to be amazing, love.”
I curled myself tighter around him. He was right of course—I had no intention of staying here. No matter how much I loved him, I wanted to be out in the world. “We can make it work.”
“Just leave me some stardust when you go.”
Sherbert20111 on FF
ReplyDeleteWordcount: 200
“Did you find your shirt? You have a ham and cheese for lunch, but we ran out of mustard.”
“Where are you? The line sounds funny.”
Fabric rustles over the drone of an AC unit, not the expected construction site noises. I don’t hate her for telling me, she’s just looking for a safe harbour.
“We caught nineteen glass shrimp and kept them in a bucket once, do you remember?”
A seagull wheels and calls overhead. The wind is getting up, pushing my hair into my face. I think my feet are numb. We did those things here. The tide caught us out then too.
“They went mental in the net didn’t they? Then, when we tipped them in, it was like, ‘hey we’re in a bucket, shrimp party!’”
“Are you ok? Do you need me for something?”
“Not really. I just wanted to say hi, and you know, bye.” I let the water take my cell.
I bet he’s pinching the bridge of his nose, screwing up his eyes. Trying to reconnect and getting nothing back.
It’s another five minutes until I reach the refuge on the causeway, but I do. We are all ships. There are better berths.
Pinkcookie (PM me at fanfiction.net/Pinkcookie)
ReplyDelete200 words
I had been writing about the foundering of the cruise ship, the Concordia. Photos showed the ship a stone’s throw from shore, a lighthouse framing many of the pictures of the listing ship. Thirty-two people had died.
I was now on one of the Nordic-based cruise ships interviewing travelers about any lingering cruise fears. One of them, Edward, particularly interested me. He had not only been on the Concordia, but also several smaller cruise ships that had sunk entirely and even a capsized ferry!
Edward, it seemed, was fascinated by the cause of these disasters and was trying to find the connection between all the incidents. At first, I suspected Edward himself might be the connection. But, then he showed me the pictures.
All the photos were taken with a long lens from the rail of the doomed vessels. Each showed a woman in a red dress, wading in the water close to a lighthouse, swirling her hands in the water.
On deck, I looked though Edward’s camera, focused it, then gasped. I saw a woman in a red dress wading near the lighthouse, dreamily stirring the water as she smiled right at me. The ship’s claxon began wailing simultaneously.
Like this :) Sherbs
DeleteWord count 193 per GDocs
ReplyDelete@sandyquill
= = =
It washed over her unexpectedly.
One moment, she was studying her chemistry; the next moment, all the feelings attendant with their break-up washed over her like a heavy ocean wave.
She immediately stiffened before slumping over her class notes, her mind far, far away.
It was easy to stay there, in the water left behind by her depression-wave. Easy to wade through the salty morass, but too hard to wade out of it. The pressure comforted her so that she was content to stay within it, not truly trying to escape.
All around her, the world moved on. She merely pretended. It was an insidious comfort, Depression. Giving her security and freeing her from expectations. She was lost in the endless heaviness.
Seasons changed.
“Sweetheart,” her mother said carefully, “it’s time to resurface. It’s been a long time.”
All at once, another wave broke within her—a huge sob came from her chest, up her throat, and out into the world. “He left me!”
“I know, sweetheart. I know.”
She blinked, and from the morass that surrounded her, a pillar rose. Step by slow step, she was able to navigate her way out of the water.
She was free.
Beautiful description of post-split depression, and then that specific strength in the awakening after months or years of agony. Uprising. Phoenix. Well done.
Delete@ChocoMG2112
ReplyDeleteWord count: 197
I waded into the dark, murky seawater, slowly removing layers of my gown with each step. By the time I reached the Island of the Stone Tower, I must be bare. My existence would be bared to Her, so I must arrive unclad.
We came from Seraphina, the demon goddess of flame. It was She who sent us forth to burn. During my life, I tempted fate thousands of times as I wandered the earth, drinking my fill of souls, pleasuring myself. Would the next man I met be the one to expose me before I incinerated him?
The day I walked the market in Florence, my life changed. I was inexplicably drawn to his presence. But, this man? Of all the souls, this priest had taken hold of my heart and I loved him beyond measure.
Was I selfish to take his mortality? He claimed my immortal soul and I needed his, but that meant taking his life as well.
Only Seraphina could grant me what I craved, for my love and I to be together until the end of time.
I needed faith.
My heart flamed with cautious excitement as I ascended the stone steps.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@femme_mal
ReplyDelete141 words
_________
I hear your voice, ebbing and flowing. Sometimes your words are clear like the starlit sky. Sometimes they are inky-dark like the autumn ocean at high tide.
I dreamt of you, swimming with the current. Your smile beckoned whitely, your flesh gleaming wondrous as my name wet your lips.
I am powerless to resist as you call to me. No more than the sea can fend off the moon’s perigee can I muster the strength to pull away.
I cannot help myself, wading into the waves which held you aloft one time too few. Every joy I ever had was in your arms, and to that happy place I long to return.
I float beneath indifferent clouds, waiting for the moment when the heavens will part. Water then will wash away the susurrus veil that separates us, once and for all.
@GeekChic12FF
ReplyDeleteWord count: 200
No one expected a talent scout to be in the audience that night. But there he was, right in the second row.
He saw the raw talent in you.
I’ve always known it was there. Even when you doubted it because all you could get were low-paying parts in minor plays.
But now, everyone will see.
_________________________________________________________________
You have to chase your dream.
I have to stay behind because my father is ill, and I’m all he has.
“Please come with me, baby,” you plead. “I can’t do this without you. Sue said she’d look in on your dad. Please.”
“Edward, I can’t just leave him. I’ll come visit. L.A. isn’t that far. We’ll make it work.”
“You promise?”
“Promise.”
Kissing you never gets old. Little sparks go off in my body, like tiny stars lighting up and then fizzling out, only to be coaxed back to life by your touch.
When you leave, the stars go dark and feel as though they’ll never be bright again.
_________________________________________________________________
I still see you.
On magazine covers and movie posters.
A cologne ad.
You skyrocketed away from me, leaving only stardust behind.
Pictures.
Love notes.
Fading memories.
They keep me afloat.
For now.
Tonight my parents have sold me, signed their name on a contract promising my hand to their desire.
ReplyDeleteThere are times I wonder which age I’m living in. The calendars say 2013, yet my parents act like it’s still 1513. All I’m good for is marrying off, producing heirs. My desires are swept to sea.
I walk along the shore tonight, like all nights—the only time of day when I control all aspects of my life. Most evenings you’re there. Some days you wave, others you shout over the roar of the sea.
It was the scruff on your cheeks that first intrigued me. The only others I’ve seen with such are the old men who waste away their last days fishing, telling stories of their glory days. Yet, you smile more than they do. The light in their eyes have dimmed, yet your eyes are as bright as the light behind you.
They aren’t going to have the final say.
I run straight toward you, right through the waves. Your lighthouse guiding my desires.
twitter: @bigblueboat
word count: 176
@Alesoflyy
ReplyDeleteWords: 200
“Baby, come back here,” I call out to her.
She ignores me, lost in her mind.
I merely watch her from the shore.
She closes her eyes and tilts her head to the sky. Her fingers skim lightly along the still surface of the water as she walks further into the lake. Fully clothed.
She’s crazy... nuts... completely insane.
But I love her.
“You’re going to get sick!”
Again, no answer.
I sigh and unzip my coat to shrug it from my shoulders. It falls to the ground and, after remove everything from my jean pockets and toe off my shoes, I make my way toward her. Fully clothed.
The water is ice cold and I have to force myself to follow through to indulge her crazy mind. But who am I kidding, I’d follow this girl anywhere.
Finally I reach her, snaking my arms around her waist. “I love you,” I whisper, and kiss her shoulder.
She smiles, leaning back into my embrace.
As we stand there, waist deep in the lake, basking in the silence and each other, I begin humming.
Her hands tighten over mine as she sings to the tune. “I live to let you shine...”
@Shneezles
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 193
_____________
Sometimes, on a quiet undisturbed day you reflect in the serenity.
On yourself, your relationships, your wins and losses
On life.
The fragility and finality of it all.
And when your precious 86,400 seconds of the day run out, you can grapple with the sands of the past or move on. It’s like a drop of water in the ocean. Gone. Never to be reclaimed.
***
Standing here, feeling the seaweed tangle around my ankles and the cold sea breeze fight against my coat, I think of the water I’m submerged in.
A droplet runs off my jacket, falling into the sea where it belongs.
I think of this drop of water, one of an innumerable amount.
The freedom it has. Not tied down to an object or place. It just exists.
Freezing, melting, evaporating, flowing,
It follows a pattern, just like I once did.
It’s part of a cycle.
Unlike me, it will never fade away or disappear. It will continue perpetually.
But human life.
It just ends.
Like a ship on the horizon, getting smaller and smaller, disappearing in to the mist.
As if it was never there to begin with.
@Shneezles
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 135
_____
Water, we need it to survive. It allows plants to flourish and humans to live.
But murky waters don’t provide life or sustenance.
They conceal the truth.
You can’t see what is lurking beneath the grey, brown and black.
Will it bite, sting, scratch or scar?
In the storm of sand, mud and litter, what is drifting along, beyond what our eyes can see?
It was like her.
The expensive dresses, the perfectly made up face, giving away such little emotion.
But remove it all and you're left with a destroyed soul. An angry, bitter shell of a woman.
Beneath the exterior of glitz, glamour and wealth, was something dark prowling. Waiting. Calm until she found her prey.
And then she would drain you of your purity.
Your values.
Your emotions
Your principles.
Your love.
Of You.
@jacndaniel
ReplyDeleteword count: 102
I wonder if thinks of me.
Thinks of who we once were; who he once was.
I see him sometimes, when he doesn’t know I’m watching.
It’s hard to forget, probably even harder to forgive.
“I’ll love you forever. You have to know that.”
I did know it; I could feel it in his kiss. I was his everything.
I left without goodbye, just a picture on his pillow and a wound in my soul.
I hear his voice on the line, and it feels like drowning in regret.
He promised “forever”, and he kept that promise.
Never here, yet never gone