Flash Fiction Friday 2023 – Week 14

Flash Fiction Friday continues in 2023. New pieces appear every Friday on my Patreon throughout the year. The minimum pledge to read them before anyone else is $3 per month. and the number of pieces available is tied to the monthly pledge total so the more you support my efforts, the more you’ll get to read. Find out what they’re all about and check out some excerpts from this week’s update in this post.

Excerpts

Better than Blood

As she drew nearer to her target, she could feel the dark power within her rising, eager to be unleashed. Her eyes narrowed, her fangs growing long as her rage flared.

This would be her moment of justice, her moment of revenge.

The vampire prowled closer, her senses honed in on the group of thugs. She could smell the fear coming off of them, the sweat and the aftershave, the cigarettes and alcohol. Their heartbeats were quickening, voices trembling with anticipation.

And then she saw them, a group of young men huddled together in a side street, clutching weapons and talking nervously. It was her prey, the ones responsible for the pain she had been forced to endure.

(…)

Easter Eggs

Timothy stood in the garden, surrounded by lush greenery, feeling simultaneously suffocated and strangely liberated. His girlfriend Monica had asked him to search for Easter eggs – a task he had initially found ridiculous, yet now here he was, standing in the bright sunlight amongst the vibrant colors of flowers and foliage, the smell of freshly cut grass, and the freshness of the spring air curiously calming him.

He had been in such a rush that morning, so distracted by the thought of the task ahead, that he had forgotten to appreciate the beauty around him. He looked now in wonder, his eyes taking in the vivid colors of the petals, the intricate pattern of the stems, and the sprays of vegetation reaching out to the horizon. He felt a sense of relaxation, the kind that only comes when one takes a step back from the hectic world to enjoy the beauty of nature.

(…)

Guarded

Years passed and the stone remained there, unchecked and irradiating its evil power like a miasma that covered the land. The stories about it said it had the power to enter people’s minds and manipulate them at will if they got too close and while that was hard to believe, the truth was that every adventurer that had dared to set foot in the chamber where the object rested, had either perished or gone insane.

“And you want us to go there?” Jukka asked, his bearded face shrouded in disbelief. “Have you gone mad too?”

“Relax,” Tuomas said, smiling from cheek to cheek. “Where others failed, we shall succeed.”

“And how can you be so sure about that?”

(…)

Not for Long

Alessandra opened her eyes to a bright white light and stared at the two mid-thirties women looking back at her, one blonde wearing a horizontal-striped black and white dress, and the other a tanned brunette with long purple nails and a revealing see-through skirt. She vaguely remembered their faces but not their names. Everything was hazy in her mind. Had they drugged her?”

“She’s finally coming to, Olivia,” the blonde said.

“About time, Mary,” the brunette retorted. “You overdid it on the dose.”

“Sorry. I’m not as used to this as you. Is she okay?”

“She will be…” Olivia caressed Alessandra’s hair. “Hey love, please forgive us for the headache but you weren’t exactly making things easy.”

(…)

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