Fiction Archives - Page 9 of 12

Wolf’s need

Posted on April 5, 2012 by jesterqueenFebruary 25, 2020

Three days after Mrs. Carmody brought us the silver bullets, a man missing his right hand came to the door. Daddy looked out for a long time, like he didn’t see the person right in front of his eyes. The man leaned in against the jamb and shook, though the weather was fair. Everything about him was mud brown except that arm. It was swollen and purple from the wrist to almost the elbow. He held it out to Daddy and said, “Please?”

Daddy didn’t move. “That your hand Annie Carmody found in her wolf trap?”

The man nodded, though it was at first hard to tell that apart from his quaking.… Read the rest

The brain is down

Posted on April 3, 2012 by jesterqueenFebruary 25, 2020

“What the hell is everybody doing in here?”

Mandy, the union representative, shifted comfortably in a break room chair. She studied her manager. There was an empty seat beside her. She gestured to it, inviting the manager to sit. He did not. “The brain is down,” she said. “Nobody can clock in.”

“So take a roll and we’ll clock everybody in manually when IT gets the brain back up.”

She shook her head. She articulated the ‘o’ in her, “No” with extra wide lips.

“What did you say to me?”

“The last time this happened, HR refused to validate the hand signed timesheets and it was an entire pay cycle before they got it straight.… Read the rest

A moment’s rest

Posted on March 30, 2012 by jesterqueenFebruary 25, 2020

“No time,” Charlie gasps. “I’m sorry.” and then the clawed arms shatter the window and plunge through his abdomen. Gore spraying from his wounds, he squeals, “Run baby!” and throws me his keys.

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Trifextra this week chose a challenge posed by community member MOV from Word Cut. She asks us to: “Write a horror story in 33 words, without the words blood, scream, died, death, knife, gun, or kill. Good luck.”

… Read the rest

Train Time

Posted on March 28, 2012 by jesterqueenFebruary 25, 2020

Back and forth the car swayed, and the couple in the sleeper argued on.

Ann said, “Amtrak never gets anyplace on time.”

“For the fourth time, I’m sorry,” said Karl.

“Sorry!” Ann’s voice rose. “We’re in the middle of Nebraska, and the wedding starts in an hour. This is the worst gift you could have given me.” Karl didn’t answer, and Ann didn’t stop. “You’re so cheap!”

“What do you mean, cheap?” he protested. “This cost us twice as much as plane tickets.”

“And it’s taking four days instead of four hours! What a waste of money.” Ann pounded on the window.… Read the rest

Wizard’s dilemma

Posted on March 23, 2012 by jesterqueenFebruary 25, 2020

Over at this week’s Trifextra writing challenge, we are to complete in our own 33 words (the second part of the story below for me) the story the editors have begun with their 33 words (the first part of the story below for me)

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“There’s nothing cute about it,” he said. The register of his voice indicated decision more so than discussion.

She disagreed heartily and privately, staring past his head and out the window behind him.

She exclaimed, “They’re tiny! The child wouldn’t come without her familiar; the cat wouldn’t leave its kits; and I had only the demon box to hold them.”… Read the rest

True Vision

Posted on March 21, 2012 by jesterqueenFebruary 25, 2020

“Why don’t you hunt?” asked Johnna.

“I See too well,” her father Aif answered. Between them, they held a wide, heavy board so two men could bang nails in from the roof. They were putting up a wall constructed of a series of such boards, each nearly as long and wide as the tree from which it was hewn, smoothed by machine, and chosen for this project with great care. Building an Auric hut was hard work.

“But I’ve seen hunting parties,” Johnna protested.

“Brace that!” said her father. Johnna squared her weight and the hammers commenced above. This addition to her father’s hut was going to be larger than the original building.… Read the rest

Fat Man In The Bathtub

Posted on March 20, 2012 by jesterqueenFebruary 25, 2020

James tried to sing part of “Dixie Chicken”, but he was too drunk to carry the tune, and in any case, the tidbit that slurred out of his mouth came from “Fat Man In the Bathtub”. Sherry slapped him. “You call this good clean fun?” she demanded as he reeled away from the blow. “You can barely stand up.”

James remembered another line and sang, “Juanita, my sweet torpedo…”

“Torpedo?” Sherry’s voice rose an octave. “Torpedo?” She collared James and forced him to sit down. “It’s chiquita” she hissed.

On James’ other side, a man said, “No, he’s right.… Read the rest

Lost

Posted on March 17, 2012 by jesterqueenNovember 17, 2019

You already akimbo, legs apart and arms askew, and I naked before the sun’s wide open eye. How hungry seems the sky, and empty, inviting me to embrace the deep earth with you .

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After a day of spiders Thursday, including a quarter sized one in the house, prevented me from finishing my weekly Trifecta entry for the first time since I started participating in the challenge, I was really bummed. So. I’m making sure to get this Trifextra entry done in spite of the moaning over homework from a school absence (kid, you miss three days, you got work to catch up) going on in the kitchen and the clinging preschooler who wants for playing with in the office. … Read the rest

Loma’ai

Posted on March 11, 2012 by jesterqueenFebruary 25, 2020

Sade shifted on her rug and ruffled her shoulder feathers. “Pass me that bowl,” she instructed, her blind eyes focused somewhere over Johnna’s shoulder.

“Which?” Johnna asked. There were three bowls in front of her.

Her grandmother said, “The one you were thinking of.”

“Oh.” Johnna picked up the right hand bowl and passed it across the low fire.

The old woman nodded and turned it over in her hands, tapping her fingers rapidly around the rim. “This is a good one,” Sade said. “Now tell it to me.”

“Excuse me?” Now, Johnna shifted. But where her grandmother had changed positions to get more comfortable, Johnna moved because there wasn’t any comfortable to be had in this hut.… Read the rest