Fantasy
FlashNano 2025: Day 2
It’s the final year of FlashNano, by Nancy Stohlman, where we write a flash a day in response to a prompt, or just because. This is a quick write, but it was kinda fun. And I just happened to have the right image!
Day 2: “Write a story in which something turns into something else.”
Evie woke up on the edge of the property, a sour taste in her mouth, muscles aching, and her bag of Halloween candy ripped apart, treats smashed and scattered just past where dirt meets curated lawn. Rubbing her face and neck, she came away with blood on her hands and a laceration in her shoulder that stabbed as she twisted to see what had happened to her. There was definitely a mark. Could be a knife slash, or— this thought rustled a shred of memory—a slice from a claw, or maybe even a bite from trying to escape whatever had attacked her.
What had attacked her?
Continue readingSo Long, Farewell
Many thanks to Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr for their photo prompt, THE UNICORN CHALLENGE. (07/18/2025). No more than 250 words in length.
The room is cool, a soothing respite from the blistering heat outside its door. Her bare feet shuffle across the smooth wood floor. She reviews each object of art: bucolic landscapes, highland towers, night streets, dawning oceans. Paintings stop in interesting places, to continue with other voices, other rooms. Perhaps a novel, or love-lost poem?
Continue readingMinute Minuet
His hand trembled, a bead of sweat
Rolled down his temple
Traced his jaw line
And yet
He had to try.
Lifting his head, he catches the scent
Of bergamot tea
Oranges, sun
Locked in
He cannot run.
Heart of a Village
Many thanks to Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr for their photo prompt, THE UNICORN CHALLENGE. (06/06/2025). No more than 250 words in length.
There is no clear memory of when the red chair first appeared. What was clear is that it’d been there for generations, even before the bustling village of Freiborgen was founded. Too tall for a human to mount without ropes, those who did manage the climb didn’t sit for long. They felt uncomfortable on both a physical and psychological level.
Continue readingWarrant
Sonja gazed around the property at the end of the peaceful neighborhood block: the perfect two-story house with its tiny back porch and wooden rocker, a colorful light shawl draped over an armrest; the tidy garden with its newly planted and wide-spaced blooms; black tuxedo cat half-napping under dense shrubbery hugging the side of the house; four sweetly curved granite steps leading up to a cheerful purple door.
“Purple,” she muttered, looking uneasily at the neighbors peeking out at her from behind lace curtains, noting “Definitely suspicious that the address in question in this sweet little neighborhood has a purple door.”
Continue readingFreedom
Many thanks to Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr for their photo prompt, THE UNICORN CHALLENGE. (04/25/2025). No more than 250 words in length.
Early morning footfalls changed from soft wet pad through dew labored grass, to sharp crunch of gravel still held by night’s razor sharp chill. A faint scent of black coffee hung in the silent air; no one was in the mood for chat. They had a wrong to right.
Continue reading
Valley 