FlashNano 2025: Day 9

/ Liz H-H / 6 Comments
Smashe Marlboro butt on pebbly ground

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 again, I just happened to have the right image!

Day 9: “Write a story where the ending comes first!”

“I prefer door number 2,” I stated tremulously. After all it had taken to get to this point, I hoped I hadn’t chosen wrong.

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I picked him up outside the Morningside apartments at 9 am. He stood leaning against the rusted black iron banister, arms crossed in front of him as he bent to take a final drag off his cigarette, before tossing it on the sidewalk. Tipping his head back once to indicate what? Greeting? Acknowledgement that I was there? Irritation that we were sharing the same air? Attraction?

He liked it that way. I suspected that I did too.

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FlashNano 2025: Day 2

/ Liz H-H / 2 Comments

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!

Crazed chihuahua

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?

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So Long, Farewell

/ Liz H-H / 15 Comments
© Ayr/Gray

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?

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Signs For a Crash

/ Liz H-H / 17 Comments
(Road signs indicating directions to various locations including the airport) © Ayr/Gray

Many thanks to Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr for their photo prompt, THE UNICORN CHALLENGE.  (06/20/2025). No more than 250 words in length.

Jenna cracked her forehead on the dashboard, and left it there for a count of ten. Side-eying the fool behind the wheel, she pounded her forehead on its sun-hot surface for a beat of five.

“Please just pull over, Gerry.” She raised her head. “We’ve driven around this circuit at least four times. We’ll run out of gas before we even leave the train station lot.”

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Heart of a Village

/ Liz H-H / 7 Comments

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.

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