Category Archives: Flash Fiction Contests

Writers’ Week: Blaze of Violet

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Artwork by Lisa Shambrook (Please do not use without permission)


There was a loud bang, and then pain ripped through my soul. I landed on shingle, knees skimming gravel. Tears slipped down my face as I stared in disbelief at the vortex wavering before me, I would never reach it that was sure. He leapt inside just moments earlier, but my leap was interrupted, the consequences of which would rebound across the galaxies.

The portal shimmered and faltered, and as I desperately clambered to my feet it vanished within a fizzing burst of violet flames.
I stood bereft, my hand clutching at my chest, and while my soul writhed in agony, a stain of crimson bloomed beneath my shirt and my heart broke. He was gone and there was nothing I could do.
I turned and watched the sparks fly as the armoured Riders gained and my haemorrhaging heart paled.
The Riders slowed as I sank to the gritty soil, my legs no longer able to assist, and I stared back. My sweat-drenched hair whipped across my face and I moved my scarlet hand from my heart to my head. Words had disappeared from my dry riverbed throat and I had no weapon more than my eyes, so I stared and I stared at death as fiercely as I could.
They laughed and their horses stepped closer until they all stopped and waited. The silence tore me apart, but my eyes flashed and bore into their metal shells.
They raised mail-clad arms and huge, rifle-paired crossbows glared at me. I braced and placed both hands over my heart, ruby tears seeped through my fingers, bruising my robes and I prepared for death, for I knew they would never allow me to live.
I held their gaze, clumsily stood and waited.
The Riders flexed and loosed and I waited, waited for the cold steel to pierce my body…
I gasped as effervescent flames danced and sturdy arms snatched my trembling body backwards, and then I was in his arms and we were gone within a blaze of amethyst.

writers' week writing contest
This is my entry for the Writers’ Week 2012 Writing Contest: Choose one of 50 prompts and write…

UnZombie Tale

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Photo and make up by Bekah Shambrook (Please do not use without permission)

#unZombieTales Flash Fiction Contest by zombiemechanics My entry into J. Whitworth Hazzard’s contest sponsored by bigfishgames.com. Check out the other entries!

It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. Jake stood at the window armed with his air rifle. I crouched beneath the sill holding Scott close in one arm whilst struggling to cling on to Beth with the other. Scott released a piercing wail and I clamped my hand hard across his mouth. He began to cry and my own tears slipped down my cheeks wetting his head.
“Well, that’s done it, they know we’re in here now…” Jake’s rifle hit the floor as he dropped beside me.
“He’s only a baby…what did you expect!” I hissed. Beth squirmed out of my grip and crawled wildly across the floor. “Get back here sweetheart!”
The moaning behind the window had reached an insistent whine and Jake didn’t dare move. We both stared at Beth standing alone pointing at the window.
“Bethy…” began Jake, his voice an octave higher, “Chrissie, where did she get that cut on her arm…”
My tears streamed faster.  I couldn’t have left her there…outside, I couldn’t have done it. He’d let go when I’d pulled her hard enough.
Beth growled and Jake let out a moan. Her pale skin was now insipid and blue veins stood out on her white gangrenous arms.  Her sunken eyes gazed at us and spittle dribbled out of her loose mouth.
“Chrissie…” Jake murmured, “Out the back door…save our family.”
I ran with Scott and heard the shot that told me Bethy was no longer part of our family.

(250 Words)

Forbidden Love – Call of the Dark

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This is my entry into the Forbidden Love Blog Hop hosted by Lillie, Ruth and Janelle…
These are my star-crossed lovers…

Call of the Dark

She waited as he closed the door, his passion glinting in his eyes. She leaned against the wall, her heart pounding wildly and her soul yearning like she’d never before known.  Her ivory veil rippled in the breeze seeking entry through the open window and he was at her side tenderly cupping her face. Her eyelids fluttered and his breath caught as she bit her lip, not long and everything would be as it should…
Orange blossom and lonely birdsong wafted from below the balcony, sweet fragrance and refrain intoxicating the tower room, and she could barely wait. Leaves rustled from vines clothing the stone walls, and slender tendrils curled over the balustrade as she led him out into the balmy night.
Her tresses, pale as the midnight moon, cascaded and his fingers entwined as his lips finally touched hers.
Trembling she held him close but he pulled away. “You’re so beautiful…” he whispered. His breath rasped as he moved towards her and she caught him within her arms. This time his kiss was full and urgent, and she returned it with mad fervour and she drew him close.
As he buried himself within her embrace she threw back her head and let out a cry. He sprang away in astonishment as she vanished in a flurry of feathers.
“I needed your kiss,” birdsong echoed, “but only in marriage…”
And before his eyes she was gone. She fluttered her ivory wings and sang out, and the answering call came from the forest below. He stared in disbelief as his bride launched away from the balcony and out into the indigo sky…and she danced through the deepening night as her beau, the blackest of all ravens, met her and her enchantment was gone, vanquished beneath the glistening moonlight.
(297 Words)


Faerytaleish: Waiting…

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Just couldn’t help myself…my second entry to #Faerypin: (300 words)

Waiting…
He’d promised to return. He’d left his gun and blade and she’d waited.
Tears slipped down her cheeks, tears of salt and ocean sparkles.
He’d not returned.
She touched her face, tracing the briny trail to her lips with the cold steel of his firearm, and allowed her head to swim in the misery of defeat.
She’d waited a week, two then three…
The gun, heavy in her tightly clenched fist, weighed as much as her heart and a useless sigh escaped disappearing on the wisp of a zephyr.
Three months, three years…or was it more?
She wandered, placing one foot exactly in the recently vacated imprint of her foot on the soft sand and the other in its neighbour. She walked the beach from one end to the other and back again.
When she gave up her water-born inheritance and lost her tail, he said he’d return.
And she still waited, staring across the bay from one rocky outcrop to its twin on the opposite end.
Just one last quest and he’d be back; one more adventure and he’d be hers.
His sword brushed her skirts as it hung at her side, tangled with corded dead man’s bootlaces, and streamers of broad leaf weed slapped her legs as she paced and the ocean snatched at her toes.
Oh how she’d loved toes, squidging them in the sand, and legs, twining hers with his…but now they walked day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, but still he was gone.
But this day, today, the sea urged her on and withdrew further, and her walk took her around the headland usually buried in the deep.
The ship…barely a ship, his ship…lay in the cove, lost and abandoned and she knew he could never return. And she returned…to the sea.

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Fairytaleish: The Coat

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This is my story for a fairytaleish contest hosted by Anna over at Yearning for Wonderland so here’s my picture and story in 299 words:

Source: authenticfauxhemian.tumblr.com via Pinterest then tracked back to original photographer Loreta loretablog.blogspot.co.uk
The Coat

“Please…don’t hurt me!” she begged, her soft -grey eyes widening in fear.
Clutching her basket tightly in her red-gloved hands she pressed her spine into the tree, but the towering man still advanced.
“That’s my brother’s coat you’re wearing.” Bitterness coated his words.  “Where did you get it?”
She tensed, swallowing hard but not moving her eyes from his.
“I said, where’d you get it?” He repeated, venom spitting from his thin lips.
She shook her head.
“Answer me girl!” His voice rose booming through the silence of the wintry forest. “My brother’s gone…and you’ve got his coat! How did you get it?”
She licked her lips and spoke, almost inaudibly. “He…he gave it to me.”
“He what? He gave it to you! Foolish answer girl, he loved that coat!” He leered. “Spent many a night out with him and that coat…”
“It’s mine,” she began with defiance tinging her small voice.
“Yours? I don’t think so!” he barked at her.
She bent placing her basket on the floor and crossed her arms over the heavy, woollen coat, pulling its softness protectively around her tiny frame. A languid smile spread across his scarred face and he leaned in close. His breath, stinking of chewed tobacco, made her glare and he took a golden curl in his coarse fingers. “I think…I want that coat back.”
As he twirled her hair she met his lascivious gaze and smiled. “And I think I want yours.” Her voice was barely a whisper yet it chilled him and he tried to step back.
The altercation was skilled and quick, and not a moment later he lay dead and bloody, his brother’s grey, woollen coat his shroud. She pulled his leather jacket about her shoulders and replaced her scarlet gloves, deftly concealing her razor-sharp talons. 

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Once Upon a Time…

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Photograph by Lisa Shambrook

Once Upon a Time – Flash Fiction

The Wind, the Rain and the Ocean…
Clouds billowed across the heavens teasing the little sail boat rocking in the ocean’s arms below. The sailor glanced skyward and Rain offered a light-hearted shower, her watery robes glistening in the sunlight.
Wind whipped her skirts about her and hurled her sister a glare interrupting the sprinkle. “You won’t win like that!” she hissed sending her own provocative sigh into the little boat’s sails.
“Well you’re not doing any better!” said Rain resuming her shower, crystal raindrops shrouding the wooden mast.
Wind swept out her hands and blew her sister’s fluffy clouds away, scattering her sparkling drizzle across the sea. Wind smirked and pitched a gale. Her long hair fluttered in the remnants of the storm and Wind sent a swirling gust to envelope the sailor amid the violent squall.
Rain clapped her hands, darkened her clouds and her torrents engulfed the boat.
Wind whipped up a fury, “He’ll be mine, not yours!” she shrieked her temper flaring as rain poured.
The drenched, shivering man on the deck below cursed them both as the tempest arose.
 Wind, determined to beat her sister, stirred up a whirlwind and coiled her tendrils around the sailor, but Rain wasn’t to be outdone and let her roiling clouds release their cascade in a waterfall of tears. The valiant sailor fought as howling wind swept his boat awry, and torrential rain flooded the deck leaving him clinging to the rail of his boat.
The storm flourished as Wind and Rain battled conjuring up blazing lightning and ear-splitting thunder…and as they did waves swirled and churned beneath the tiny boat, booming against the bow and hurtling across its deck. Beneath the keel Ocean smothered a chuckle and allowed her sisters’ fight to escalate. Their ensuing wrath would assault her in vain but their prize was hers.
Ocean tossed her white hair as it danced on the waves and drew the little vessel beneath the spray. The sailor slipped into her grasp and quietly acquiesced within her embrace and kiss…after all, she knew what her sisters didn’t – a sailor always gives his life to the Ocean.
(350 words)

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