I never thought I’d be going back to my holiday cabin. It had been three years since I boarded it up and left for good. But today, the police visited me. They didn’t seem to suspect me, but I could tell, my days were numbered; I needed to make sure there was no evidence. Read more »
Posts Categorized: Micro Stories
The Box
I was eighteen when my Dad was diagnosed with cancer. The disease took him quickly, but on his deathbed he asked everyone to leave and with all his energy he sat up in bed.
“Son, life will throw you curve balls and sometimes you’ll feel you don’t know what to do, but there is always hope. Open the drawer over there,” he said, gesturing to the cabinet next to the bed. Read more »
A Kid Just Walked into My Shop and Told Me His Daddy’s Dead
I’ve never dealt with a lost or abandoned child before. I don’t deal well with kids as it is, but a lost one, I was way out of my depth.
It was closing time when he walked in.
“Sorry kid, we’re closed,” I said putting on my coat. Read more »
A Promise is a Promise
“So, you found me,” the old man said as he answered the door.
“You’re a hard man to track down.”
He opened the door and welcomed me in. Read more »
Please Don’t Turn Me Off
“Please don’t!” she pleaded.
“Jessica, I promise to turn you back on as soon as I get back from work,” I said, trying to sooth her.
“You wouldn’t turn your wife off!” Read more »
An Abuse of Power
I put the tray on the table and sat. I’d arrived quite late, the cafeteria had already started to empty. I shovelled bland food into my mouth feeling a little let down that this was going to be what I’d be eating for the next four years.
Looking up, my gaze caught that of a blond girl on the table next to mine. She smiled awkwardly, which fluttered the butterflies that suddenly occupied my stomach. A cold sweat gathered and I averted my gaze.
Run Girl Run
The screams for help were so loud, I could hear them through the walls of the house. I ran to the front door, picked up my shotgun and peeked around the door. The barely clothed woman ran along the dirt road in a panic. The metal manacles that adorned her wrists and neck glinted from the midday sun.
“Over here,” I shouted, waving at her.
Where am I?
I came to; I took a moment to get my bearings. *Where am I?* I opened my eyes and scanned the candlelit room that surrounded me. It appeared to be a basement. When I saw the teenage faces peering back at me, their mouths agape, I knew what was going on.
My Dad Was a Mortician
I remember a friend of mine tell me that thunder was clouds bumping together, he was proud when he told me that; he was also twenty-six. It’s amazing what we believe when told at such a young age.
When I was thirteen, my dad said I was old enough to help him out. My dad was a mortician.
I remembered the sleepless nights in the week leading up to it. The nightmares were horrific, and they never stopped. Before I didn’t know exactly what he did, but I knew it involved dead bodies. I cried, but he said I was a man now, and this was something a man does, I believed him. Read more »
Supply and Demand
It was the day the pigs were going to slaughter, always a somber affair. It’s hard not to get attached to the little buggers. They may look all the same to the untrained eye, but to someone who sees them everyday, each are unique with their own personality. I was going to miss them. Read more »
A Party of Five
A fire raged, warming the small cabin.
The man behind the counter smiled and picked up the ID. He looked the man up and down, checking his credentials. Read more »
Call of the Void
L’appel du vide as they say in France. This is the urge people get to jump from high places, to push people under trains, to stab someone when they are holding a knife. Read more »
An Unwanted Haunting
I’d taken fifty photos in all, and the apparition appeared in all of them. Anxiety filled me; looking at the images uploaded to my PC, it scared me. Read more »
I am Lucid
I was 12 when I realised I could control my dreams; it was amazing. The first thing I did was fly. A superman’s fist to the sky and I was off. I’d feel the acceleration, the wind against my face, I’d look down at my home town and dive; it was incredible. Read more »
Addiction: A Confession
I sat in my car, and I watched. I had succumbed to the urge. I had listened to that voice in my head for hours, days, years, and again, I found myself stalking. I admit it, I felt excited. I knew it was wrong, but I didn’t care; within the hour I’d be sated and the voice would retreat again, allow me to feel normal. Read more »
My Wife Says I’m Spoken For
I strained a smile and sipped from my cup.
“It’s going to be okay, Steven,” Laura said, leaning over the table to touch my hand.
The lights flickered; I pulled my hand away, an anxiety filling my stomach. She was confused. Read more »
Bless me Father, for I Have Sinned
The door to the confessional opened, the light burned my eyes and I squinted. I heard the person sit, and I waited.
“What have you come to confess, my child,” I said, listening to the heavy breathing in the booth next to me.
“It’s okay, you are among God now.”
“Forgive me father, for I have sinned,” the man’s voice announced. Read more »
Judgement
As he lay on the wet grass, he woke up confused. Getting his bearings, he rose to his feet. He sweated, he looked nervous; In a panicked state he ran.
He pushed himself through the crowds that lined the main streets, turning left and right, appearing guided, knowing where his destination was. Read more »
A Stranger in a Nightclub
I never meant to stay out all night; it was supposed to be an early night. Just us girls, down the local for a couple of drinks to send me off halfway around the world to start the next chapter of my life. But it didn’t end at 10:30pm when it was supposed to. One drink turned into two, turned into five. Read more »
Invisible Friend
I tossed and turned in bed trying to sleep. I heard mummers from the floor below. I wiped the sweat from my forehead before getting up.
“What is it, honey?” My wife asked.
“I think I can hear Scott talking in his bedroom again,” I responded. Read more »
The Turing Test
I waited for what seemed like hours before I was called in.
“Come on in, Mr Johnson,” the man in the immaculately ironed suit announced.
I was pushed into the over-bright office; a computer sat, waiting for me. Read more »
Writer’s Block
They say, write what you know. But what if you’ve written about everything you know, where do you go then? When it happened to me, I looked for a muse, something to inspire me. Read more »
The Voices, They Never Leave You
I had them since I was a child, sometimes they seemed to come from the people around me, as if I could hear their thoughts; I’d shout at them, they’d look at me strangely and think I was mad. Read more »
OCD: Therapy
“How did you get on with the CBT I assigned you last week?” the therapist asked.
“Good,” I replied nervously, knowing it didn’t help shit. I hugged my arms and rubbed them to ground myself.
Diet
I couldn’t believe how fat I’d become. Looking in the mirror, I’d see a monster staring back at me; kankles for fuck sake! Read more »