Category Archives: Fiction

Blogflash Halloween: Spooky

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Photograph by Lisa Shambrook Texture ‘Frankenstein’ by SkeletalMess
(Please do not use without permission)
Spooky Tale: Haunted Smile
His photograph slipped through her cold, shaking fingers and she slipped silently off the icy windowsill to reach for it, but her fingers refused to grasp. She crouched in the dark, his face still etched into her mind.
It was three days since the accident.
She swallowed her sobs, his face still smiled up at her from the floor, and she touched a silver chain at her neck, all she had left. She traced his smile and moved her finger to draw a heart across the image. “I love you,” she whispered, the sound barely leaving her lips.
She remembered the collision.
Screeching tyres, thunder, blue lights, sirens, shouting, banging, a limp body in the driver’s seat, pain, scarlet vision, panic, numbness and fear, but she’d escaped, no idea how, but she was out of the car and screaming amid crumpled metal.
Yellow-jacketed policemen, twisted lamppost protruding from the bonnet reminiscent of Salvador Dali, a paramedic leaning through the splintered windscreen, bloodied fingers working on the body, his body, more shouting and noise.  The medic shook his head and crimson hands dropped at his side.
Glass, memories evoked glass, shattered – like the shards that remained of her heart.
Now, the photo fluttered across the floor in the moonlight and landed upside-down and he was gone. She fell beside it, staring at the white square. 
The door opened. A man, tear-stained and greying, trod wearily into the darkened room and she hardly dared breathe. He straightened messed-up bedclothes, closed an open book on the table, his face cracked as he leafed through a notebook and fresh tears appeared. He stood and slipped his hands into his pockets.  She opened her mouth to speak as he looked right at her, but no words formed.
He was silent for an age then opened his mouth and spoke in a whisper, “My son.”
She nodded, his grief engulfing and matching her own, and she spoke, “I love him.”
He mutely sank beside her. She placed her hand on the overturned photograph, and his father laid his over hers. His fingers turned the picture so his son’s image smiled out once more and inconsolable tears streamed down his face.
Colour drained as she stared at her hand still flat on the floor, and the old man rocked in his grief. She placed her hand on his shoulder, felt nothing, and flinched as her fingers laced through the fibres of his cotton shirt. 
Startled, she fell back, her heart pounding, and she recalled the crash scene once more. There hadn’t been one paramedic, there’d been two and the anguish felt by one was shared as the other left the passenger side, bloody-handed but empty. 
A waft of air caught her and outside she saw the smile from the photograph, and this time she moved as he called, glass not barring her way as she moved out into the night to join her love. Her silver pendant chinked as it dropped from her neck to the floor.
(500 Words)
Written for #Blogflash Halloween hosted by Terri G Long and The Indie Exchange.

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Five Sentence Fiction: Potions

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

The bottle lay, unharmed, beside her on the pavement, its thick glass mocking her, and emerald viscous liquid seeping from its mouth mixing its heady perfume with the sickly sweet fragrance of her own blood.
Its promises spun crystalline webs in her mind even now as she lay, unmoving, on the concrete.
Nothing but snowy white noise filtered through the smog in her brain and she smiled as people began hurrying towards her.
She was still queen of the world, dark faery of the night, raven of midnight black…and her wings still flew in diaphanous shapes as she ignored her ebony hair stuck to her face in sanguine strands.
She couldn’t see her companions’ horrified eyes, or hear their distressed voices as they stared from the scaffolding in disbelief; she couldn’t see her shattered and broken body on the pavement and she was yet to realise that no potion in the world would fix this mess.

Written for Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction – Potions. Read more stories here!

Zombie Run: Something Strange

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Photograph and Prosthetic by Bekah Shamrbook (Please do not use without permission)
Getting really fed up with local kids now…running past the house and yelling, up the path, knocking on windows, throwing stones, eggs, knocking on the door…you name it, fed up now. 
It’s all the more annoying with Mum so poorly, literally on her last legs and had been for a while and it frightened her when these louts tried to be cool, daring each other to run up our path. 
Well, not tonight, I’d had enough! 
This time, when the lad knocked on the window, I was ready. Mum whimpered as the boy peered into the room, and I leapt to my feet, grabbed the door handle, flung the front door open, and gave chase. The lad saw me and his face drained. Scare him, just a bit, and he wouldn’t come roaming our neighbourhood anymore, not him or his mates. 
He turned and ran, but seized by adrenalin I was on my feet and after him. 
He stumbled, fell, I caught up and snatched him. His mates were hidden in the shadows and the boy mumbled, so I told him to shut up and put up as I grabbed his wrist. I wasn’t gonna hurt him, just scare him…
Running up the road came a woman, old enough to be his mother, her reaction proved that’s just who she actually was. 
She asked what was wrong with a face as pale as the lad’s, so I explained, whilst still gripping his wrist.
Mum’s ill and I just want her last few months to be carefree, worry free, just want to sit indoors on a Saturday night and watch rubbish on telly. We’re half way through X-Factor’s new series, Mum’s favourite show, just let us indulge her!
She stared at me, looking like she was trying to gather courage; I wasn’t trying to scare her, just the delinquent son, so I released the boy who ran, whimpering, to his mother. 
I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head, the youth these days… 
She took a deep breath and spoke, warily but calmly. “X-Factor finished years ago…and after Simon Cowell’s law suit, repeats are forbidden, all recordings were destroyed, so it’s not on TV anymore, not ever. So could you please leave my boy, and the others, alone…”
I shrugged again…if they leave me alone, fine.
I returned home to comfort mother. 
Simon Cowell was sharing his opinion, and I frowned. The screen flickered, we were losing the picture again, electricity was iffy, digital signal was iffy, everything was iffy. I turned to mum again, she smiled, a blank smile, with a mouth missing many teeth. I stroked her cheek, ignoring the blood that coursed down her face…something wasn’t right, but I — her eye slipped out of its socket, and I reached across to put it back in — couldn’t quite put my finger on it… 
(475 Words)
Written for Lisa McCourt Hollar’s Zombie Run over at Jezri’s Nightmares. Take a peek, if you’re brave enough, at the other entries!

The Cautionary Tale of the Accursed Looking Glass

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

The Cautionary Tale of the Accursed Looking Glass

It was the mirror that told her. “You’re gorgeous,” it said, “You’re beautiful, stunning, breath-taking…” and who was she to deny it?

At first she accepted its compliments with grace and a shy glance from beneath her luscious lashes and a remark about needing to wash her hair then, as the flattery continued, she smiled and flushed with pleasure and coyly brushed her hair from her face.
And the mirror was determined to boost her self-esteem and soon she was pouting and preening and mwah, mwah-ing at the mirror’s complimentary words.
Her fashion sense improved no end. Gone were the tomboy togs; rough-kneed jeans discarded for skirts too tight to be called pencil-thin, casual shirts lost amid myriad sparkly, sequinned tops, comfy cardies destined for charity replaced by slinky, tight knits and street-fighting, puddle-jumping trainers traded in for heels that would give sky-scrapers vertigo.
And all the while the looking glass reported gorgeousness and unrivalled beauty.
“You’re amazing,” it told her, “much prettier than a picture…” and yes, she knew it.
The party did not begin until she arrived, and her sisters…well, ugly just wasn’t the word.
Dark as night hair was now platinum and bouffant, ribbons vanquished, shy fringe now swept away to show off blushed, sharpened cheekbones, and her lips plump and juicy and red; red as a crisp, ripe apple.
And the mirror loved her. Everyone loved her. Except, maybe, her sisters…they weren’t quite so keen, and her mother, it had been her mirror after all… But to everyone else, she was their darling.

Praises rained down, even on the sunniest of days, and the sunniest day came to town.
“Absolutely delightful, striking and so alluring…” said the mirror and she purred appreciation. She couldn’t find her flirty skirt, and missing amongst another mountain of rejects was the top she wanted, the lace one with strategically placed rhinestones.
“No matter,” said the mirror, “no matter at all…you look good enough to eat, just a dusting of powder and a dash of scent, and truly, you’re scrumptious…” and well, there was nothing more to be said, except. “Don’t forget your shoes…”
That day she was the talk of the town, but there was nothing new in that, the town barely talked of anyone else.  Today, even her ugly sisters raised their badly-in-need-of-plucking eyebrows, and mother stepped out of her way.
All day long people echoed her mirror, salutations and accolades followed until the dwarf’s voice, grumpy it was not, rose above the tributes with a comment on her nakedness. And though people sniggered it was truly a compliment, after all her nakedness was pretty stunning…

Later that night, before the looking glass, she reflected. “Gorgeous,” said her mirrored image and smiled then the smile faded and her façade cracked, and the tear in the mirror slipped off the tip of her nose and landed on her shoe. The glass slipper which, in ten seconds precisely, would shatter the mirror forever…

(492 Words)

This is my entry for Costumed Curses Contest hosted by Emmie Mears and Kristin McFarland. Go read the other amazing entries!

Five Sentence Fiction: Flawed

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Photograph by Lisa Shambrook (Please do not use without permission)
We have an interesting relationship, my mum and I, it’s always been us against the world and Dad drifts by like a sailboat out there on the rough seas of the wide, wide ocean.
So it’s always been Mum and me, she so immaculately turned out and me a scruff-bag tomboy slouching at her side.
She’s perfect, my mum, in high-heeled boots as well-heeled as she, and long, flowing skirts wrapping around her bohemian ways, and long-sleeved tops that are always rustic like a warm autumn day.
She’s the best ever, the bee’s knees they say, and even though I know she cries, it’s fine because I’m there and she doesn’t need anyone else…I’ll see her through.
I watch her smile with my eyes and kiss the crooked lines beside hers; I run my hands through her silken hair and trace those thin spider’s webs decorating her arms with my fingers, we’re perfect you see, my mum and me.
See more great stories at Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction

Five Sentence Fiction: Detour

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Photo by Bekah Shambrook Texture by Lisa Shambrook (Please do not use without permission)

City lights twinkled like jewels on her tiara, just as her eyes did as she stared at the sights, and the car sped on through the streets.
Weeks and days, and hundreds of miles and finally all her Cinderella dreams were to come true…she clasped her hands tightly in her lap, embracing her mobile phone and his treasured text messages.
But London’s streets became crowded and the lights lost their lustre as time was swallowed within the city’s black hole.
Later and later, her fingers ached from small-screen typing and her message tone echoed her frustration, and finally he called; his image, as suave as she’d remembered, pixelated and jumped but his grin leaped out and her heart danced as he promised to wait.
Her smile widened as he blew a kiss goodbye and his hand flicked across the screen, but the call was not done and though he thought he was free, her smile slipped as the accusatory screen, discarded on the bar, showed his arm squeezing a buxom blonde’s waist and the kiss he planted on her cheek was drowned by Cinderella’s tear.

Written for Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction – Detour. See more great entries here!

Visual Dare: Eclipse

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Anonymous Legacy’s Visual Dare #26

Photo Source: darkmindbrightfuture.com
Eclipse
She stood in silence, watching. Watching was all she ever did now. 
Children tumbled and shouted, and squealed and leaped into flurries of snow, and Emilie wished she could join in. Laughter filled the frigid air, but no-one cared how cold it was and snowballs landed in soft thuds amid a volley of excited shrieks.
Emilie held her gloved hands to her face and breathed out. Memories rose as frozen, crystal vapour coiled before her like thick dragon smoke. She wanted to join in, but no one ever saw her, not since then…and her veiled hands shielded her dragon burns.
(100 Words)

Poem Walk: Mysterious Rhapsody

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Photograph by Lisa Shambrook (please do not use without permission)
Mysterious Rhapsody
Eyes flash green. Eventide drifts. The sun slips away to its bed. She stretches. Waits for dusk’s shroud to fall. Silver rays dance across her back. An elusive silhouette flirting beneath the moonlight.
Querulous squalls spit. Fear chills. Malevolent whispers murmur. She launches. Through the darkness. To lose the sudden repine. To escape the revenant incubus that breathes throughout the woods. 
Shadows loom. Menace exhales. Shivers ripple across her form. She dashes. La Luna beholds the black bullet. Chasing its rays. She escapes the gloom. An inquisitive curiosity cured.
Motionless trees.  Soft padding feet. Wood smoke fragrance filling the air. She hisses. Suddenly alert with feline beauty. Moonlight’s rays smouldering in lustful earnest. Grace dancing with every step.
Dewy fields.  River of jewels. Cast down beneath night’s glancing moon. She hurries. Through diamonds. Soft paws fly rhythmically. Writing twilight’s rhapsody. Scribing a masterpiece through the night. 
Iridescent. Wild chase done. She stands yet midnight’s carved statue. She stretches. Arches and yawns. She wanes. A wraith evanesce. An illusion. Silently moves to fade into indigo black.
(175 Words)

My entry into Bullishink and Dusty Journal’s Poem Walk contest.
I struggled more with this than I do for flash fiction. This is somewhere between prose and more formal poetry, and I love it, but found it harder to fight the metering which I use with poetry!

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Five Sentence Fiction: Sacrifice

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Photograph by Bekah Shambrook (please do not use without permission)
It was the startled cry from indoors that brought him to his feet and his trembling fingers dropped the plastic figure; the toy soldier lay consigned to death as he was carelessly trodden on and buried face-down in mud.
Chilled by the shrieks from his house the small boy ran, his grubby knees weak and scared, and he yanked open the back door and took a stand.
His mother cowered and bleeding glanced up in dread and tried to wave him away, but her son failed to see the knife shining in her hand, and with blinding terror of his own he swung his fists at his inebriated father. 
The man towered and hollered and bear hands grabbed at the skinny child, and even with a knife deep within his back and another aimed at his barren heart, his drunken hands gripped tighter and tighter.
And dirty hands, once angry pummelling fists, dropped and fell open, and the little soldier gave himself for another.
This was written for Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction one year Birthday celebration. We could choose any of the words used across the past year. So I chose one I missed early on when I first discovered Five Sentence Fiction: Sacrifice.

Behind the Curtain: Laid Bare

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Photo Source: Pinterest. (Unable to find image original source, if it’s yours, contact me and I will credit you)
Laid Bare
When they took her leading man they made a hollow of her heart, and left her soul an empty cavern. 
She danced, every night, as if her lover would return, as if he would appear from the wings and take her in his arms; she danced for him and for him only. 
Gauzy skirts caressed her legs as she traversed the stage, snowflakes shimmered on pale skin, and diamond-adorned tresses flowed down her spine as she teased the very air that tried to embrace her. 
Elegance and grace filled every step, and every gesture, and those who beheld her were enthralled, bewitched by the woman pirouetting and leaping across the stage. She seduced indifferently, smouldering beneath the spotlight’s halo, and the sparkling gems in her hair emulated tears that would never fall.
Music drove deep into her solitude, empowering her body to twist and turn, and rise and fall. Every plié drew sighs, pirouettes provoked awe and her arabesque inspired yearning, as the audience fell in love.
She danced in the wash of the moonlight on stage, the beam chasing her like an infatuated paramour as she stretched and rose to the orchestra’s crescendo. The theatre was rapt as the music surged and climaxed, and then she was on the floor, arms stretched over her head protecting her from the huge explosion of applause. She would rise, and pause like a doe caught in a stray shaft of light, her eyes opening wide to stare into the blackness, at the ocean of faces now standing in ovation. 
Every night her hand would move to shade her eyes and she would gaze out over the footlights, across the pit and stalls, she would scan the circle, the balcony and up into the gods, but every night was in vain. 
As the audience gave her their approval, her empty soul cried empty tears and when she was sure he wasn’t there she whirled and tiptoed off stage.
She stole hearts but nothing filled the void, and those purloined hearts, so freely given, were lost forever, adrift within the walls of her icy core. 
(351 Words)
My entry for Yearning For Wonderland’s Anna Meade’s new contest: Behind the Curtain.

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