Source: http://www.fridayflashfiction.

com/100-word-
stories
A Little Slice of Heaven, by Russell Conover
25/8/2018

1 Comment

Alan smiled, taking in the sights around him. The sun was shining on the
Hawaii beach. A cold drink was in his hands, beside his many books. Birds
cawed in the distance, and children laughed as they ran into the waves. His
wife sat beside him, and his kids were building a sand castle.

This was heaven. An escape from life. He never wanted to leave.

“Jones! Snap out of it! Report's due in an hour!” The boss frowned.

Alan jolted awake in his office chair, sighing. Only a week till his big
vacation.

Vseslav, Prince Werewolf, by Ceinwen E Cariad

Haydon
26/8/2018

0 Comments

The damp, underground bar was near the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom in
Polotsk. I’d entered to escape the downpour that lashed the streets. I smelt
his musk before I saw him; I felt aroused, compelled and revolted. He
barked, ‘Come.’ My secret lips moistened. His hairy arm circled my hips; he
led me through dusty tapestry curtains to a secluded chamber, furnished
with a cushioned couch. His eyes glinted; his sharp, selenite teeth beguiled
me. I lay down and he reclined alongside me. I arched my back as he girdled
me with a wolfskin belt. Appropriated and metamorphosed, I surrendered.
0 Comments

A Little Slice of Heaven, by Russell Conover

25/8/2018
1 Comment

Alan smiled, taking in the sights around him. The sun was shining on the
Hawaii beach. A cold drink was in his hands, beside his many books. Birds
cawed in the distance, and children laughed as they ran into the waves. His
wife sat beside him, and his kids were building a sand castle.

This was heaven. An escape from life. He never wanted to leave.

“Jones! Snap out of it! Report's due in an hour!” The boss frowned.

Alan jolted awake in his office chair, sighing. Only a week till his big
vacation.
1 Comment

Peace, by Marjan Sierhuis

25/8/2018

0 Comments

I float over my body. A bright light suddenly appears in the distance. It

beckons me to come closer. I wonder if my mind is playing tricks so I
hesitate.

The emergency room stretcher, the floors, the walls and body is covered
with my blood.

The medical responders push on my chest and yell at me to wake up.

“Please leave me alone,” “I can no longer live with this pain,” I shout as I
float down, pull at their arms, and try to move them off me.

But no one seems to listen.

The light glows brighter and embraces me. Immediately I feel a sense of joy
and peace as I let go. No longer held captive by my disease.
0 Comments

Transported, by Paritosh Chandra Dugar

24/8/2018
2 Comments

It was a rejuvenation, a revival! A miracle! As I met the grand old man, I

was transported to the bright world where beauty was truth, where the tide
of temptations was always high, where love seemed imperishable and
romance greener than the Edenic verdure, where even the paper flowers
smelt fragrant, where challenges thrilled and adventures enthralled, where
the road to attainments appeared clean and clear, where there were no
regrets for the past and no worries for the future, where the present was
omnipotent and omniscient, and where he was my teacher forty years ago!
2 Comments

Billionaire Problems, by Fliss Zakaszewska

24/8/2018

0 Comments

Billionaire industrialist Jo Pacer sighed. Her 100-meter yacht was too small,
but she couldn’t sell it. There were no takers, even for £500,000. She
placed an advert in The Telegraph: ‘Raffling million-pound luxury
yacht. £25.00 per ticket’.

Within weeks she’d sold all the tickets, making more than three times the
asking price. The lucky winner featured in the exclusive news-
story. Everyone was happy.

Six months later ‘the lucky winner’ couldn’t afford the up-keep, so he sold it
for £250,000 – a fraction of its value. Jo’s agent bought it back. Jo kept it
for another year, then contacted The Telegraph again…
0 Comments

Time Bomb, by Eric Neher

24/8/2018

0 Comments

I should feel guilty, I know this. Isn't that what they say? And in the end, a
callus is nothing more than repeated hardened proof of misery gone numb.

It is from there that we must choose. Do we hide in the shadows?

Or do we display it and let it shine, like a medal from some forgotten war?

This world thrives within growing darkness, clawing blindly until something
solid is grabbed, squeezed until its final breath is released.

For this, I'm sorry.

0 Comments

The Test, by Gordon Lawrie

24/8/2018

2 Comments

Each evening she took out the same album, containing around 130 family
photographs. Some dated back decades, others were less than twelve
months old. Each evening she tested herself, counting the pictures where
she could still identify all of the faces, using a small handheld click-counter
bought online.

107. It had been only 103 the previous evening when she'd been tired, but
her scores had been dropping generally in recent months.

She knew what was wrong, but wasn't yet ready to tell anyone, not even a
doctor. Because when she did so, she knew her life would change forever.
This croco-dolphin has it
all
The 180 million-year-old fossil points to a missing link.
By Neel V. Patel May 16, 2018
https://www.popsci.com/crocodile-fossil-dolphin-tail
An artist's impression of Magyarosuchus fitosi.
Márton Szabó

Most people associate the Jurassic Period with depictions of feathered monstersgallivanting
across the surface of Earth, establishing their claim as the dominant creatures of the planet. (And
perhaps also Jeff Goldblum’s finest, most shirtless onscreen performance.) But we ought not to
forget that the marine world was teeming with its own gargantuan beasts at the time. A 180
million-year-old fossil has led scientists to identify a new species of a marine crocodile
possessing a tail fin not unlike modern-day dolphins. The discovery, reported Thursday in the
journal PeerJ, ostensibly fills a missing link in the crocodile family’s evolutionary tree,
reconciling a gap where they branched out and either continued to evolve into bony-armored
creatures with limbs made for walking, or returned to the water to develop flippers and tail fins.
A Hungarian collector named Attila Fitos first found the fossil in question in the Gerecse
Mountains in 1996, and it’s sat in the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest ever
since. The research team decided to name the new species preserved in that
fossil Magyarosuchus fitosi, in Fitos’s honor. That animal turns out to be an almost 16-foot long
behemoth with an incredibly large, pointed snout made for snatching prey, a tail fin to help it
swim, and body armor more closely associated with terrestrial reptiles. It’s thought to have been
one of the biggest coastal predators of its time.
The specimen, explains Mark Young, a paleontologist with the University of Edinburgh and a
coauthor of the new study, was previously classified as a teleosauridin the genus Steneosaurus.
The group spearheading the new study decided to conduct a more thorough examination of each
bone combined with a detailed phylogenetic analysis, where scientists infer evolutionary links
between related creatures based on similarities in their physical form. This close read of the bits
of bone led to the discovery of a peculiar vertebra that forms part of the tail fin—one that hadn’t
been identified before.
It was this vertebra that led to a reclassification of the specimen as metriorhynchoid: Jurassic to
Early Cretaceous-era crocs that eventually ditched their bony skins and evolved into dolphin-
and killer whale-like animals with flippers, tail fins, and huge salt glands in the skull.
“Only metriorhynchoids evolved a tail fin,” says Young. “No other group of crocodilians
did. Magyarosuchus fitosi is the oldest species in this lineage known to have had a tail fin.
What's interesting is that it had a fully developed set of bony armor along its back and on its
underside, which the later forms lost. It also has different dimensions of limb bones, so it's
unlikely to have had flippers. This suggests that the tail fin evolved before flippers appeared, and
before the bony armor was lost.”
According to Andrea Cau, a vertebrate paleontologist and blogger based at the Giovanni
Capellini Geological Museum in Italy who was not involved with the study, the discovery
 of fitosi doesn’t just help researchers reconstruct how these types of reptiles adapted to a fully-
marine lifestyle. It also provides a better illustration of the geological history of
metriorhynchoids. “The fossil record from the Eastern Europe is much less well-known than it is
in other areas, like Western Europe, which is the best documented region for this extinct kind of
crocodiles,” Cau says. The new findings help illustrate how much the diversity of crocodyliforms
in this era fanned out.
Whether on the ground or in the water, Magyarosuchus fitosi looks like a it made for a
intimidating predator to stumble upon.

77

 LetterPile»
 Creative Writing

My Flash Fiction Stories: 300

Words Max.
Updated on February 21, 2018

Annie McMahon
more

Very Short Stories for Everyone

I wrote the following stories for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge contest on writing.com.
My stories are suitable for all ages, although some are geared toward a younger audience and
some are more for adults. I hope you will enjoy reading them as much as I did writing them.
Each story has a maximum of 300 words and is based on a daily prompt, which I've included in
the introduction for each story. If you like writing, see what you can come up with, using the
same prompts! Or visit Daily Flash Fiction Challenge for more prompts and contest entries.

Source: https://letterpile.com/creative-
writing/flashfictionforeveryone

Magic Touch
Prompt: Write a story that includes the words motel, billboard, and map.
From my hotel room window, I see an oversized billboard with his face on it: Jason, the Great
Magician.
I absent-mindedly turn the pages of the phone book and come across a city map. Sipping my iced
latté, I run my fingers along the streets from the hotel to the opera hall. Not more than a half-
hour walk.
I glance at the clock. The show starts in one hour. Plenty of time! I gulp the last three sips of my
latté and hop in the shower. Soon I’m on my way to the show, carrying a fancy black handbag
and a genuine smile.
The billboard looks even more impressive from outside. The Great Jason's eyes seem to be
glancing through me. I shiver and walk faster. I feel like a child about to open her birthday
presents.
The hall is dark when I come in; the show is about to begin. I make my way backstage just as the
great magician puts on his top hat.
"Daddy, I'm so glad to see you," I say in a half-whisper. "I'm in town for the writer's workshop,
but I just couldn't miss your show." I give him a quick hug and go back into the seating area,
leaving him with a startled smile. I settle down in the darkness, and the curtains open.
Magically, that show remains the Great Jason's best performance to this day.
(233 words)

Mysterious Stranger
Prompt: Write a story that includes the words sunscreen, camera, and tourist.
He really did look like a tourist, with a camera around his neck and a bottle of sunscreen sticking
out of his tote bag.
The portly man sat on the terrace, sipping lemonade and pretending to look at a glossy cruise
brochure. His sunglasses masked his eyes, but I knew he wasn't looking at the brochure: he
hadn't turned a page for the last ten minutes.
As I brought him his clam chowder, he coughed up a "thank you" and looked at me briefly. I
tried not to stare at the tiny scar across his left eyebrow.
I walked back inside with my empty tray, shaking my head. He looked familiar, but I couldn't
quite place him.
Then it hit me. The car accident. The mysterious stranger who helped me out of my smashed car,
just before it exploded. I rushed back to his table.
He was gone.
I moved his saucer and found his tip, along with a card:
I am deeply indebted to you. The night of your car accident, I was on my way to rob a jewelry
store. Saving your life brought things back in perspective. I now live an honest life, thanks to
you. God bless you! Mr. D.
I shivered. The night of my car accident, I was heading for an interview in a shady dance club.
Seeing human kindness through his heroic gesture turned my life around and brought faith back
into my life.
I unfolded the tip he left. Among the singles was a grand with a pen mark underlining "In God
We Trust."
I said a silent prayer for him and got back to work, smiling.
(275 words)

Spiritual Thunderstorm
Prompt: Write a story that includes the words thunderstorm, rainbow, and flower.
I stepped outside into a gorgeous summer day. The sun made everything look bright and
cheerful. It would have been an ideal day for a picnic—if I still had a special someone to picnic
with.
Nobody would have suspected the thunderstorm going on inside my heart. Lightnings
illuminated hidden emotions briefly, followed by a clasp of crushed hopes. Droplets of internal
tears poured down, washing off what remained of my romantic dreams.
I sat at the bus stop with a book, reading the same paragraph for the fifth time and trying to look
indifferent to my internal weather patterns. Sunglasses masked my puffy eyes and returned the
reflection of a nearby flower. I will never love again. Love is just an illusion leading nowhere.
I was so absorbed in my thoughts, I didn't notice the man taking a seat beside me.
"Excuse me, Miss, but I couldn't help noticing that you're reading O. Henry. He's my favorite
author."
His deep voice startled me. His friendly smile warmed up my damp heart and blew away some of
the storm clouds.
"He's my favorite as well." I tried to return his smile.
We spent the next fifteen minutes talking about literature and its influence in today's culture. The
bus came and went. We pretended not to notice.
"By the way, my name is Mark." As his warm hand shook mine, an electric current coursed
through me.
"Do you care to join me for lunch?" he added, ignoring my blushing cheeks. "Let's start all over
again, shall we? I'm sorry about this morning."
A rainbow appeared, leading the way to a heart of gold. I followed it.
(275 words)

County Fair Refreshments

Prompt: Write a story that includes the words county fair, lemonade, and prize.
Isabella loved the county fair, with all the flashy colors, the sounds of music and laughter, and
the cotton candy smell. After trying a few rides and earning prizes at the ring toss, she noticed a
small crowd near the ferris wheel. People were gathered so tightly she couldn’t see what was
happening.
Isabella and her elder brother Michael made their way as close as possible and stretched their
necks. People were gasping and laughing, whispering and yelping.
Mr. Murphy, the school principal, burst out of the crowd, dripping wet. He was laughing too,
wringing his soaked baseball cap and putting his glasses back on.
"How's the water, Mr. Murphy?" Mayor Johnson asked, holding a lemonade.
"Just fine, just fine!" the wet principal answered cheerfully. "You'll find out soon enough!"
Mayor Johnson's smile faded, and he looked worriedly around him, provoking another round of
laughter. "I can't be next, I'm in charge of the tank. Now we need a new volunteer! Any
volunteer?"
As people moved away from the dunk tank to mingle and talk, Isabella wondered who would be
next. She secretly hoped it would be her second grade teacher.
"Michael, look!" she said, louder than she intended. A raccoon had climbed in and stood on the
chair.
"We have a volunteer!" The mayor’s loud voice overpowered the crowd's. "Three tickets give
you five balls!"
Several people lined up to try their luck.
"How did it get in there?" Isabella whispered to Michael.
Before she could wonder any longer, she heard a big splash. A soaking wet raccoon dashed
between her and Michael, holding Mr. Murphy's leftover candied apple in its mouth.
(273 words)

Ah, The Beach!

Prompt: Write a story that contains the words vacation, sweltering, and sandal.
Marilou took off her pink sandals and ran on the sweltering sand. She tiptoed into the water,
giggling as a wave washed her legs.
She looked back at the big red and white umbrella and waved at her mother, who was getting a
much needed suntan.
Her mother smiled and waved with two fingers, holding a peach in one hand and a bottle of ice
cold lemonade in the other.
A big wave came and swept Marilou's feet, making her fall into the water.
She tried to scream but swallowed a gulp of salty water instead. She didn't know which way was
up and which was down. Her sweeping hand touched something with a tiny claw in the sand. She
screamed bubbles and tried hard to swim.
The wave receded, dumping the startled girl upon the soft, wet beach.
Marilou coughed and rubbed her eyes, struggling to get back up. Grains of sand in her blue
swimsuit scratched her skin.
She looked back toward her mother, who was standing up with a worried frown partly covered
by sunglasses.
Marilou ran back to the big umbrella, tiptoeing through the hot sand. She smelled of salt and
seaweeds. She took her mother's big, warm hand with her cold, wet one.
"Come play with me in the waves, Mommy! This is the bestest vacation ever!"
(221 words)

Secret Mission
Prompt: Write a story that includes the line, "Are you sure you weren't followed?"
"Are you sure you weren't followed?"
"Positive."
"Were you able to secure the equipment?"
Zeth glanced around and pulled a black bandanna off a shiny red metal box. He opened it
ceremoniously.
"With this under our power," Mauricio declared, "we will be able to annihilate the enemy before
complete invasion."
Zeth carefully picked one of the silver elements from the box and examined it thoughtfully.
Just as he laid the piece back in place, the ground shook, the room darkened, and a voice boomed
from above:
"What are you two doing under the table with my toolbox?"
(97 words)

The Purple Balloon

Prompt: Write a story that includes a duck, a telephone pole, and a map.
Martha handed Jason a purple balloon. "Get well soon!"
She was his third visitor. That's because she was the teacher's daughter, and her mother made
her. The other two, John and Eric, weren't really his friends, although they often ganged up with
him against other kids to get their lunch money.
Jason knew he wouldn't have long to live. He could feel it, deep inside. Seeing his grandmother
cry after talking with the doctor confirmed it. His time had come. He didn't tell his visitors,
though. They would either pity him or be happy to get rid of him.
Once Martha left, he ripped a page off his notebook and wrote:
"Dear God, I know I messed up and nobody likes me. Please give me a second chance. I can
show you what a good friend I can be."
He drew a map showing the way from the church to the hospital, walked shakily to the window,
and let the balloon fly away, carrying his message toward God.
The balloon headed straight to a telephone pole, but a gentle breeze blew it away just in time. It
crossed path with a duck family and disappeared out of view.
The next day, a girl he had never met before came to visit him. "I find balloon," she said. "You
are lonely?"
He just nodded, too startled to talk.
"I lonely too. My family come from Afghanistan and I no speak English good." She smiled. "I
bring gift to you." She handed him a box of chocolates. "I pray for friend, and God give me
friend."
Normally, he would have made fun of her broken English and her long brown robe, but he knew
better. He smiled and offered her the first chocolate.
(291 words)

Paradoxical Neighbor
Prompt: Write a story that includes a wristwatch, a beehive, and a hammer.
I was in the middle of a sweet dream when a noise startled me. Bam! Bam! It sounded like a
hammer pounding on a tough nail. Bam! Bam! BAM!
Who could be hammering at three in the morning? It must be Charlie again, making another
invention.
Just as I was putting on my slippers and bathrobe, the noise changed. I sat at the edge of my bed
and listened. Tick! Tick! Tick! It reminded me of my first wristwatch. Its regular tempo had
always helped me fall asleep.
I started dozing off, dangerously leaning to the left, when the ticking stopped. It was now
replaced by a buzz, similar to the noise coming from a beehive in midsummer, only louder. I
shivered. I'm allergic to bees! Even just thinking about it or hearing a bee-like sound makes me
swell.
"That's it!" I shouted, now wide awake. "I can't take it anymore!" I marched to the next
apartment and knocked.
My neighbor immediately opened the door. His curly brown hair was sticking up every which
way. He wore puffy lilac striped pants and a loose raspberry shirt.
"Hi, there, Lucy!" he chimed. "What's up?"
I pointed at my noiseless watch. "Do you know what time it is?"
He grabbed my arm and glanced at my timepiece. "Oh, my! I didn't realize it was that late. I'm
busy working on a machine that can cure insomnia. It's almost finished. You wanna see it?"
I should have known. His last invention was supposed to annihilate bad smells, only it was
powered by rotten eggs.
(261 words)

Marina's Essay
Prompt: The story can be about anything, as long as it has 300 words or less.
Okay, I have to write something. My essay is due in an hour and I have no idea where to start.
I hear the ticking of Mark's pencil, Josie's constant throat-clearing, and a bird. I look out the
classroom window. The sky is heavy with clouds. What's a bird doing out in this weather? The
sycamore's branches bend as if pulled down by invisible strings.
Still, the mockingbird is out on a limb—no, literally!—singing with his surprisingly loud voice.
If I were him, I would be quieter, as to not draw attention to myself. I mean, his feathers are a
dull-brown color, his beak doesn't look like anything, and he can't even come up with his own
tune. If he were a human being, he would probably go to jail for plagiarism. Yet, he sings at the
top of his tiny lungs, which are probably the size of a corn kernel when full of air. How can he be
so loud?
I try to look away from the window, but my gaze keeps coming back. I will be in so much
trouble when the teacher collects the sheets and reads all this nonsense!
My thoughts wander. What makes this bird special is that he's not. You cannot find a plainer,
less interesting, more unattractive bird than that. But boy, he can sing, and he knows what he's
capable of. He invests all his heart in it, despite of what others may say.
Something just clicked. I know what my essay will be about. I crumple my paper and start a new
sheet.
I write nonstop for a half hour and hand it in. I hope I get an A+ on my essay about Susan Boyle!
(288 words)

Crayon Frenzy
Prompt: Write a story that includes a flag, a spoon, and a box of crayons.
Our yard doesn't have trees, so Robert and I made our clubhouse under the butterfly bush.
"First we need a flag," Robert said.
I ran to the house and came back with a poster board and a box of crayons. I crawled under the
lower branches and laid the material on our worm-proof tarp floor.
"Hand me Raspberry Red," I said.
Robert scanned through the sixty crayons, pulling red ones. "Cherry Pie ... Bloody Nose ...
Raspberry Red!" He handed me a stub no longer than my pinky. "Wow, you used it a lot!"
"It's my favorite." I traced two crossed spoons, our secret signal. "Now I need Garbage Green."
"Whacky Khaki ... Squished Toad ... Baby Caterpillar ... Garbage Green!"
I ripped the whole paper from it and used its whole length to color the flag's background.
I held the flag. "There! How does it look?"
"Looks great! Now where will we find red spoons? You know, for the signal."
"They don't really have to be red. My dog chewed up my silver crayon. He looked like he had
fillings."
Robert laughed. "Lucky he didn't chew on your Bloody Nose one. That would have been
disgusting."
My little sister Nancy peeked in our club house. "Why are you hiding under the bush? Eating
cookies in secret?"
"Am not! Go play with your dolls and leave us alone."
She crawled right in, covering half the tarp with her fluffy skirt and breaking one of my crayons
in the process.
"Hey, watch it! You're sitting on my Tarantula Bl..."
I didn't have time to say "Black." Nancy scampered to the house, screeching and brushing her
skirt frantically with both hands.
I winked at Robert. "I think I'll keep my crayon box here to protect against intruders."