Fiction

Passage

This weeks flash fiction is a short 100-worder. Though I wrote it fast, I like it. It feels to me like there’s a lot more to the story, and that’s a nice feeling in something so short.

That may mean I come back to it one day, and it may not. One of my completed novels started in a similar way. Just 100 words. But I’ve written plenty of flash fiction that I haven’t revisited. We’ll see.

The prompt is courtesy of The Prediction:

100 words maximum, excluding the title, of flash fiction or poetry using all of the three words above (‘lamp’,  ‘pair’ and ‘thumb’) in the genres of horror, fantasy or science fiction.

passage

He snubs out the lamp, burning his thumb. He mews like a kitten, this hulk of a man.

Ellette hides the sneer. She hates cowardice, almost as much as she hates cruelty. Or stupidity. He’s the trifecta.

What a pair, she thinks.

When Fareeshah sent him to fetch her, she no doubt thought she had the upper hand. The brut was too easily manipulated, though. He would fail, returning empty handed, and then she would cut off his hands. Or his feet. Or his balls.

Truly, Ellette doesn’t care. He’s simply a means to an end. The way home.