Fiction

#vss365 – August 2019 – #3

25th August 2019 — 2

main

Fiction

#vss365 – August 2019 – #3

25th August 2019 — 2

Week 3 of participating in the very popular #vss365 challenge on Twitter. The aim. To write a daily Very Short Story in less than 280 characters, a single tweet. Yes, that’s characters! Not words.

The prompts themselves are seemingly random single words, the whim of that month’s challenge setter. This months fun has been organised by @LadySabrielle. I’ve taken some liberties with formatting simply because WordPress is not Twitter and to make it easier to read.

The cover image this week was taken when taking shelter under a tree during a typical English summer day.


Sunday 18th August – Favourite

“You know you’re my #favourite!”
“Grandad! You just told Phoebe she’s your favourite” she said accusingly, arms crossed.
“I know, but you know what she’s like”. He held out his hand.
“She’s needy. Not like me”, she said softening.
“And that’s why you’re my favourite.”


Monday 19th August – Linger

“Come stand with me. Let us #linger just for a moment”
“Why?”
“Why? Because it intrigues me”
“You’ve seen it before”
“Still, I can’t fathom it”
“Why they fight?”
“Indeed, when all is lost and defeat inevitable, they persist”
“Hubris”
“Yes, but there’s still majesty in it“


Tuesday 20th August – Haven

He stood before a large pearly gate, dumbfounded.
“Welcome to #haven my son”
“You mean heaven?”
“I’m afraid not. Turns out the Buddhists were right. You’ll be rotating straight back out just as soon a new life becomes available. Enjoy this short respite from the world”.


Wednesday 21st August – Blindside

“Where the hell did that come from?”
“It must’ve been on our #blindside, sir”
“Our what? Son, this is the flagship of the fleet! We can track a tin can clear across the system, how did we miss a 10km long bright red ship …“
“Sir!”
“What!”
“I think they’re waving at us”


Thursday 22nd August – Wild

His thrust was #wild meeting nothing but air.
“Anger?” she mocked, calmly dancing out of reach.
He lunged again with feigned frustration.
It was obvious, so was her parry.
That was it, he finally had her.
She reacted to his emotion and that was something he could fake.


Friday 23rd August – Bright

To be oh so #bright, so very clever
Beacons in the night, working together
Timeless knights of endless endeavour
Titans each, remembered now and forever

Or maybe, the generation that simply tweets “whatever”
Unexploded super-nova, waiting for never


Saturday 24th August – Shatter

Stunned he watched the mirror crack, then #shatter, shards of glass exploding across the cell floor.
“Do you have any more questions?” she spat angrily.
“I don’t think so,” he said, grinning back at her. “You know that’s 7 years bad luck”
“For who?” she said threateningly.

2 comments

  • Sadje

    25th August 2019 at 1:13 am

    Interesting format! Love your stories.

    Reply

    • chris

      25th August 2019 at 1:55 am

      Thank you. The VSS format is a bit of fun, it’s the writing equivalent of sudoku. It seems to take me an inordinate amount of time to write less, but I guess that’s the point of the exercise, economy.

      Reply

Leave a Reply to chrisCancel reply

%d bloggers like this: