Fiction

Pretty, Pretty

Yesterday was busy for me. I’ve not missed a weekly fiction post in years, though I have missed the occasional Friday. This week I’m late, and that’s only half the bad news. The second half is that this is not an episode of The Dark Calling.

But, to make it up to you, something brief and grim from a while back. A side story. A snapshot.

This is also ‘proper flash fiction’. Though late, I used this week’s prompt from The Prediction:

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

Enjoy.

pretty, pretty

He works in increments, like he had with the ant colony. No swift kicks. He went insect by insect, savoring each.

The cat mews.

His fingers reach for his face. It did scratch him. He feels the ridge of the wound, puckered flesh crusting at the edges like a pastry made of skin.

But this isn’t justice. This isn’t payback. This isn’t revenge.

This is a young man on a journey. This is a monster finding himself. This is fun, pure and simple.

He clips off the tail. Jessica watches.

James, only 11, grins. “Pretty, huh?”

“So pretty,” she says.