Flash Fiction Friday

Flash Fiction Friday: For the Love of a Viking

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“What kinds of things do you dream about, Samara?”

“I don’t dream.  Dreams are a waste of time for people like us.”

“I dream.  I dream of a man falling in love with me and taking me away from this place some day.  A man in whose arms I will feel safe.  A man whose kisses will send electrical currents pulsing through me.”

“You are crazy.  The only men that would ever love you or me wouldn’t have the ability to take us from this place.  They would be of this place too.  No one from outside notices the likes of us, Maisy, and the sooner you accept that the better off you’ll be.”

“But what of Gunnar?  I’ve seen the way he looks at you, Samara.  I think he would like to take you away from here.”

“Gunnar is a Viking.  The only thing he wants with me is to take me to his bed.  Vikings use women like us.  They do not love women like us.”

Maisy hung her head and grew quiet.

Samara looked at Maisy.  When Maisy raised her head again, Samara could see tears glistening in her eyes.

“What is it, Maisy?  Has something happened?”

“I have been in Eskil’s bed.  He told me he loves me.  I am with child.  Do you really think Eskil will leave me behind when his ship sails again?”

“Oh Maisy, I’m so sorry.  Forget about my pessimistic rantings.  I am a bitter woman, but you, you are like a soft flower.  I’m sure that if Eskil said he loves you,  tis true.  Surely he will not leave you when he knows you carry his child.”

Samara hoped she was right as she saw relief wash over Maisy’s face, but Samara didn’t trust any man, least of all a Viking.

Flash Fiction Friday: Enough

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Dina lay in her bed.  She held her ears shut to keep out the shouting.

When she heard the slap followed by her mom’s sobbing, she ran to lock her bedroom door.  She tipped a chair under the knob and climbed into the deepest corner of her closet.  She sat trembling, tears streaming down her face.

As Dina heard his footsteps approaching, an idea sprouted.  Courage swelled within her.  She grabbed a pair of jeans, jumped into them, put on a sweater, slipped her bare feet into a pair of sneakers.  She had just opened the window, when he knocked upon her door.

“Dina, it’s Daddy.”

She hastened down the tree, jumping the last three feet.  Dina headed across the yard.  She’d had enough.  Never again.

Flash Fiction Friday: Heartache

/ kellyfbarr / 4 Comments

Cal walked into the bar.  He sat at a small table in a dark corner.

The piano man sat down.  He started playing just a few feet away from Cal.

The waitress came to take Cal’s order.  He ordered four shots of whiskey.  He hoped that would kill the pain, at least temporarily.  Then the piano man started playing that song; their song; her song.

“Play something else,” Cal demanded.

The piano man switched songs without pause.  Cal sat back.  He downed his shots.  He put his head in his hands.

The whiskey quickly went to his head.  He wasn’t a drinker.  He just couldn’t stand the pain but even the whiskey wasn’t deadening it.

He put money on the table, rose, stumbled.

“You okay, honey?” The waitress asked.

“I’ll never be okay again,” he said as he weaved toward the door.

 

Flash Fiction Friday: Fairy Tale

/ kellyfbarr / 1 Comment

Ametrine followed the sound of the voice.  Someone was singing in a voice so sweet, so musical it was almost mesmerizing.  She walked through the woods to a small clearing.

There Ametrine saw a beautiful girl with flowing waves of brown hair.  The girl had flawless sun gold skin.  She was dressed in a regal red gown.  She sat upon a rock by a small waterfall in a clear stream.  Birds flitted around her head.  Squirrels and rabbits sat by her feet.

Ametrine looked down at her own mottled skin.  She fingered the mole on her cheek, the bump on her nose.  A jealous rage filled her.  She ran back to her cottage.

A few minutes later Ametrine returned to find the girl still singing in the clearing.  Ametrine pulled the hood of her cloak over her head.  It helped to conceal her ugliness.  She approached the beautiful girl.

The girl looked up.  Her eyes met Ametrine’s.  She stopped singing.  She gasped.  She rose to her feet.

“Don’t be afraid,”  Ametrine cooed, looking into the girl’s emerald green eyes.  “I’ve come with a special treat for you.  I heard you singing like music to my ears.”

The young girl smiled.  Her cheeks turned pink.

“What is your name, child?”  Ametrine said.

“Isadora Calliwell.  I’m afraid I wandered too deep into the woods.  I’m not sure which way to go to get home.”

Ametrine had sucked in a breath at the girl’s name.  Surely she couldn’t be the Princess Calliwell of Lockridge Kingdom.  What on earth was she doing alone in the woods?  

A smile passed quickly over Ametrine’s lips.

“My dear, won’t you accept a bit of this chocolate cake?”

Isadora took the cake.  Chocolate was her favorite.  She began to eat.

When there was but a bit of cake left Isadora said, “I’m feeling quite sleepy.  I really should get back.”

Isadora started as Ametrine began to cackle and thrust off her cloak.  “You will not return, for now I shall steal your beauty.  I will return to Lockridge Kingdom to take your place.  You shall remain asleep in these woods forever.  The only way the spell can be broken is if a lonely old woodsman finds you and places a kiss upon your lips before ten years have passed.  There haven’t been any woodsmen around her for thirty years.”  She cackled once more.

Isadora fell asleep.  Ametrine placed the palm of her right hand against the palm of Isadora’s left hand.  She closed her eyes as the changes took place.  When she felt the change was complete, she opened her eyes.

Lying before her, Isadora now had the mottled skin, the mole on her cheek and the bump on her nose.

Ametrine stretched out her arm and saw the flawless sun gold skin.  She reached up and ran her hand through her new wavy, brown tresses.  She laughed.  It was not a cackle.  She sang a line and goosebumps appeared on her arms at the sound of her now musical voice.

She ran out of the woods toward Lockridge Kingdom.

Flash Fiction Friday: Stranded

/ kellyfbarr / 2 Comments

The car stalled, then shut off.  I drifted to the shoulder.  I whispered a prayer as I turned the key.  The engine whined but wouldn’t turn over.

A car pulled up in front of me.  A tall man climbed out.  He began to approach.  I hit the door locks.  My heart pounded.  The sun was setting but he still wore sunglasses.  I couldn’t see his eyes.

I could almost hear the gravel crunching under his feet.  His upper body was well defined in his black t-shirt.  Should I crack my window a bit?

Then he was there, right outside my car door.  He looked at me through the window.  I held up my cell phone.  “I’ll be okay.  I’ve called someone,” I said.

“Well, if you pop the hood, I’d be happy to take a look.”  He smiled, exposing deep dimples.  He took off his sunglasses.  I looked into the bluest eyes I’d ever seen.

Why do I have to live in a world where I have to be so vigilant?

I smiled, tore my eyes from his and popped the hood.

Flash Fiction Friday: Fairy Princess

/ kellyfbarr / 3 Comments

She captured my attention in an instant.  She was unlike anyone I had ever met before.

She flitted about on tiptoe.  She greeted complete strangers with hugs.  Sweetness, kindness and gentleness radiated from her.  Innocence surrounded her.  In a matter of moments she was gone from sight.

She still haunts my thoughts.  I believe I met a Fairy Princess today.

Flash Fiction

/ kellyfbarr / 5 Comments

I heard and read a lot about flash fiction and it fascinates me.  Therefore, I decided to attempt to write a piece of Flash Fiction here on my blog:

She heard a wolf howl somewhere in the distance.  Her horse snorted and began to swivel his ears rapidly.  She leaned forward, rubbed his neck and spoke soothingly to him.      She heard some low growls and her horse darted forward.  A pack of wolves ran past them in the snow.                                                                                                                                                               That’s odd.  They didn’t try to attack us.                                                                                           She urged her horse forward cautiously.  They rounded a bend and her horse stopped.  The wolves were about fifty feet in front of them, circling something in the snow, growling and gnashing their teeth.                                                                                                              She knew she wouldn’t get her horse any closer to those wolves, but she had to see what it was they were after.  She climbed down, attached a longer rope to her horse’s reins and grabbed her rifle.                                                                                                                              She approached the pack quietly.  The pack was so intent on their prey, they didn’t notice her.  When she was about twenty feet from them she fired her rifle in the air.  The wolves ran a couple of yards in the opposite direction, then stopped and looked back.  She had reloaded and she stared the pack down.  She fired a shot in their direction but above their heads.  They took off and didn’t look back again.                                She approached something lying on the ground.  Her senses were heightened as she remained wary of her surroundings.  Her horse nickered, snorted, and pawed the ground where he waited.                                                                                                                                   She gasped and fell to her knees in the snow.  It was a man!  He was unconscious but his pulse was strong.  She tugged on the rope attached to her horse.  The horse came to her and she tied one end of the rope around the man’s waist.  Then she threw the other end over her horse’s saddle, looped it around the saddle horn and went to the other side of the horse.  She tied the loose end of the rope around her own waist, sat on the ground and began pulling the rope with all of her might.  She pulled and pulled having to pause now and then.  Her arm muscles burned but she kept pulling until the man was over her horse’s back.  She held the rope taught, approached her horse and made sure the gentleman was placed so that his middle was across the saddle with head hanging on one side and legs and feet hanging on the other side of the horse.  She secured him so that he wouldn’t fall.                                                                                                                                       She headed back to town leading her horse, relieved that she had found him.

 

Some of you may think it’s a bit long for flash fiction.  It’s 414 words.  I’ve read that flash fiction can vary in length but that it is always less than 1,500 words.  I know most flash fiction writers challenge themselves to write less than 300 words, some even less than that.

I am satisfied with 414 words on my first attempt.  I enjoyed writing this and I like it.  I hope you will enjoy it as well.  By the way, I know I overused the word “she” and probably “horse” as well, but that was deliberate on my part.  I have a reason for doing so.   Maybe I’ll make a regular post out of flash fiction, like my blogger friend Melanie Noell Bernard.  You can visit her blog and check out her “Flash Fiction Friday” posts by clicking her link on the sidebar — she’s #6.

What about you?  Have you ever tried to write flash fiction?  Do you enjoy it?  What do you think of my first attempt?