Flash fiction compilation #1: Spooky melancholy

In this post, I’m thrilled to share with you a flash fiction compilation with 5 of my latest works. Each story offers a glimpse into different worlds, from a town shrouded in a mysterious fog to a woman struggling with her own loneliness, and a couple facing the consequences of a deadly disease.

So, sit back, relax, and let’s dive into the world of flash fiction together.

The Great Fog

flash fiction stories
Petras Gagilas

A fog closed in on the town, wrapping the homes and the people in their beds in a gentle embrace. The air smelt like lilies as it carried drowned goodbyes down the main street outside her window, and sneaked into her apartment through the half-opened window in her bedroom. The cool breeze woke her up, but she was too scared to close the window. What if the fog isn’t too thick to cover the souls in their procession to the sea?

Shivering, she hid under her duvet. She didn’t want to see, to join them, to die two deaths in one night. “It’s alright,” a quiet, low voice whispered in her ear. “Go back to sleep.”

Burn

flash fiction compilation
Seattle Municipal Archives

The thick smoke made Alina cough. She was sorry she had to burn the farm, but once the blood rot set in, there was nothing else to do. Everything was contaminated.

As the roof collapsed in flames, she remembered how safe she had felt all those years under it. She thought of the clear summer mornings feeding the animals, the smell of the soil after a storm, the cool, prickly grass underfoot, and the cats that roamed the barns. The fire took with it the last remaining echoes of her grandmother’s singing in the kitchen and her grandfather’s war stories.

Sensing her melancholy, Arthur put an arm around her shoulder. “Should we get going?” She nodded, and they walked the short distance from the farm to the ravine. Behind the hills, the sun gave him a last incandescent goodbye.

“I’m not ready yet,” she whispered.

“Let’s stay a few minutes like this,” he replied and held her tightly.

She was sorry they had to burn, too, at the height of their happiness, but once the blood rot set in, there was nothing else to do. Everything, and everyone, was contaminated.

A shadow seeks the light 

She liked mornings too much for someone living in obscurity. Maybe the sun caressed her skin more tenderly than any lover ever did. Maybe the birds didn’t hide knives under their tongues. Maybe the ghosts didn’t haunt her in broad daylight.

It was not enough to enjoy it from the safety of her balcony, away from prying eyes and the stench of gossip in the smiles of her neighbours. There was more sky to see if she could only step out the door, and risk leaving a faint memory in someone’s mind.

Her keys were heavy on her hand as she stepped out of the lift on the ground floor. Greedy eyes followed her as she went out the door, but all she cared about was the soft whispering of the wind and the sunlight on her cheeks that reminded her she was alive, that it was too soon to vanish.

Unknown

Nobody knows me, and I don’t know anyone. It’s so comforting to be invisible, incorporeal; to be so light my presence passes by like a breeze, unnoticed and unmissed. Loneliness steals the voice of a prince to whisper sweet nothings in my ear, and I lay down on the sand to surrender to the fantasy of his hand caressing my cheek.

His eyes are a cool winter day that pierces my bones and yet his smile lights up my heart like a summer morning. I no longer hide from him behind the desert haze. I let him see me. In my dreams, he understands. He takes me to the promised land, where the sun lingers over the gentle waves, defying death, to admire the pyres where dreams are sacrificed and reborn.

Dialogue

fiction vignette compilation
Lespaul52

1

I knew you were chaos, but I had never seen how you reign it in. The chaos comes in waves of terror and hope, and I can’t help but watch in awe how you use the poison to mask your face, light your eyes, and make you taller.

There’s a tension in you pulling you at the seams. The way you hold the fork a little too forcefully. The way you laugh at your own jokes. The way you turn your blood into art. The way you revel in the applause from behind the stage curtains, in the shadows, when no one can steal your smile and pick it apart.

What do you want? Do you want to reach for the stars or hide under my sheets from the glare of peeping eyes? Do you want to hold my hand or do you want to fly? Behind your eyes as grey as the morning fog, I can never tell which way your heart is pointing.

All we can do for now is play. Let me sing to you. Let me turn your rage into songs. Let’s record the racoons crossing the deserted street outside our window. Let’s lay in bed and whisper secrets to each other in the early darkness of our east-facing windows, in the middle of this winter when nothing but our nightmares can reach us.

2

Stop asking me to explain myself. All I have is on the table, laid down for you to use.

Lock my heart inside of yours. Use my eyes to light your way. I’ll tear off my skin to make the tent that keeps you warm at night and keeps you safe from sharp stares and cold tongues.

Does it matter what I think? Half the time I speak in the language of dreams and paint half-truths like mirages in the desert. Your skin is as red as your crown. It’s not a poison — it’s an antidote.

Sometimes I venture into your depths and still can’t find you hiding behind those walls and far beyond your minefield. Show me your summer. Let me drown in your ocean. Let me drink from your lips to forget about the dreamers falling like flies around us. Let me hide from the wolves in your fortress.


Liked this flash fiction compilation? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Here are other flash fiction stories I think you’ll enjoy: The Box | A Short Story | The Rapture | Suspense short story

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