Week 5 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 this month’s challenge setter. This months fun has been organised by @Tianna. 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 is a pilgrim beautifully carved into a tree stump on the pilgrim’s way. I’m afraid this poor chap won’t be making it to Canterbury.
Sunday 1st September – Gloaming
“#gloaming?”, he repeated, scratching his chin. Time travelling was rapidly losing its appeal.
Half an hour to order a drink and he was no nearer to finding out when the town’s blacksmith would be back.
He’d just have to sit and wait.
“Cheers!” he said raising his mead.
What can I say of #love?
What poetry or prose can I offer up?
What words? What phrase?
Should I softly echo the epitomes of literary titans?
Dull echoes themselves drowned plumbing its depths.
There are no words, no clever prose.
No vocabulary that can cage my Love.
Tuesday 3rd September – Mystery
Suicide or murder? Time would tell.
The more pressing #mystery was how the victim’s eyes still continued to follow me about the room.
Not figuratively but literally!
I paced back and forth perplexed.
His dull eyes never blinked or looked away once.
Strange times indeed.
Wednesday 4th September – Horizon
Hands held tightly, they trembled as the fiery titan tore asunder the heavens.
Deafening thunder, it arched far out of sight.
For a moment they basked in that glorious second dawn.
Its aching majesty had taken their breath away.
The advancing #horizon would take the rest.
Thursday 5th September – Crystallize
The grain of sand fell through thick white clouds.
Around it, ice-cold water coalesced into infinitely intricate fractal fronds.
Each frond a complex molecular circuit.
An exactly unique snowflake it was the seed of our destruction,
destined to #crystallize the world.
Slightly longer (535 word) version
Friday 6th September – Daybreak
There’d be no #daybreak, not this far north.
It’d be months before they’d feel the sun’s warm touch again.
Icy impenetrable darkness enveloped the town once more.
Not that it’d bother the locals, they always got good mileage from their Christmas lights.
Saturday 7th September – Serendipity
He was not the first scientist to win a Noble prize thanks to #serendipity.
It seemed at times like scientific progress had lurched from one happy accident to the next.
His award-winning mishap had been the day he’d distilled raw serendipity.
Now anything was possible.
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