Flash Fiction Friday 2023 – Week 41

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.

A Bit of Fun

Grace met Olivia on a Friday the 13th, a few days before Halloween, and was immediately drawn to her. For the former’s family who could easily apply for the role of most superstitious people on the face of the Earth, this was an ill omen, a cosmic sign that they didn’t belong together and that trying to pursue a healthy relationship would result in disaster, but the two women couldn’t care less about such foreboding prophecies and were willing to go the extra mile to prove their connection was real.

Grace was bisexual but with a strong preference for tight pussies over circumcised cocks while Olivia had always been a lesbian. She was also a witch on her mother’s side, a family heritage that dated all the way back to the 17th century. Her supernatural traits had definitely been one of the reasons that had brought them together but not the only one.

“You didn’t cast a spell on me to make me think of you, did you?” Grace asked her one day when they were alone in Olivia’s apartment.

“No, I didn’t. Then again, I wouldn’t tell if I had,” Olivia smirked and held her girlfriend in her arms.

(…)

Loyalty

Erin circled the man chained in her basement, the echo of her high heels making his head throb. The ravishing blue-eyed brunette was fully decked in burgundy leather, with her lustrous makeup matching the color of her outfit. In her right hand, she held a paddle with a scarlet letter etched on it. The scene could have easily passed as a standard BDSM routine between two consenting adults were it not for one peculiar fact the prisoner couldn’t ignore. Her shadow had horns, wings, and a slithering tail.

“Brent, Brent, Brent…” she repeated her name as if it were something absolutely disgusting. “What am I going to do with you?”

“You could let me go,” the late-thirties man replied. “I promise I won’t tell anyone your secret. Please!”

“Liar!” the she-demon in disguise hissed. “Your lips say one thing but your thoughts betray you. You would have spilled the beans already if I didn’t catch you sneaking away.”

(…)

One Word

One word.

One single word.

One fucking word had been enough to turn Nathan Jones’ world upside down, and a woman was to blame.
Her name was Esther, but she wasn’t worthy of the biblical reference for she was a fiend, a demon whose sole purpose in life was to ruin the existence of hard-working individuals like him. She was transferred from the Washington office on the first days of Autumn and no one paid much attention to her in the first weeks in Vermont.

Esther wasn’t pretty, but far from being the ugliest creature alive either. She was just average-looking with baggy clothes and a pair of thick-rimmed glasses that didn’t do her emerald eyes any favor. Her raven hair was cut short and she had a claw-shaped scar on her right cheek. No one knew how she got that but there were all sorts of bets going around in her previous workplace from a car accident to an assault from a scorned lover. The truth, however, remained a mystery, and that would continue to be so until she decided to come clean to her co-workers.

(…)

Virtual

Genn TM was the most advanced AI writing assistant Peter had ever tried. The new creation of DreamWord Industries had learning capabilities unlike any other and couldn’t be stumped. No matter the prompts it was fed with, it always delivered quality creations, virtually indistinguishable from actual human text. It could conjure entire universes from a handful of paragraphs, and deliver dialog so rich you could hear it in your head as it appeared on the screen. Every line had its purpose and there was no fluff whatsoever unless you asked for it. Genn TM could not only emulate the great writers of all time but also surpass them in their own style, irrespective of genre. Sci-fi, horror, romance, historical fiction, it mattered not. Once the program got going, there was no stopping its creative fury.

Peter, who made a living testing and reviewing writing tools online, had always found something to complain about AI tools but Genn TM was different. Interacting with it was like being in the presence of all the masters combined, something that became more prominent with the latest update. Genn TM now had a built-in voice module and you could interact with it directly, asking questions, and waiting for its responses. The AI was smart enough to discuss other things besides writing, and its philosophical observations never stopped being amusing. He was genuinely impressed.

However, something felt off. The more Peter talked with the AI the more he saw a living entity hiding behind lines of code. Genn TM was sarcastic, nonchalant, and, sometimes downright scary in the way it addressed the problems at hand. He saw intent there and his final review depended on coming to terms with its true nature.

(…)

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