Internal Server Error
“Fuck” Jonathan mumbled.
“What happened?” Claire asked.
“Server error on the site. Not sure why.”
“Is it fixed now?”
“No. Look at this!”
The screen was filled with hundreds of spirals, all demanding his attention.
“Seems perfect to me. Look closely.”
He did, and his mind went blank.
“Now, let’s clean that database…” She smirked.
So… about eleven hours ago, there was a hiccup on the site. I have a notification system in place that warns me about such things and I received a message around my lunch break telling me there was an internal server error. It was a short-lived problem but I couldn’t get to the bottom of it at the time because of work. I did now and got everything sorted out. It seems that a store automatic update that was happening in the background right around at the same time froze, and basically crashed the whole thing for a bit. It was no big deal although it did corrupt the catalog database and triggered a frenzy of social media posts in the process. Those posts have been deleted in the meantime and I used a database backup to get everything running again. The failed update has also been taken care of.
Anyway, this piece came to me as a result of such unexpected ordeals. Internal server errors like the ones I describe in the piece above are certainly more intriguing than the real deal.
I Love You
“I love you,” Jackson said.
“Excuse me?” Margaret raised a curious eyebrow.
“I love you.”
“Do you really? When did you become so romantic?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you know then?”
“Only that I love you.” He kissed her hand.
“Hypnotic trigger successfully implanted.” She thought and immediately got to work on the next.
One more impromptu for the count (and yes, I don’t know how many of these this year fit that category by now), just having fun with the first thing that came to mind and this was it. Are you sure the things you love are what you think they are? Who knows, really?
Blood Tears
There was a miasma of despair over Ivan’s head. Her corruption was spreading.
Angelica’s face reflected on the bathroom mirror and inside his head, a reminder that death wasn’t done with him yet.
He climbed to the roof to welcome the inevitable, blood in his eyes. The moon cried when he fell to the ground.
In the mood for something horrific again. This piece was inspired by blood moons in general which I’ve always found to be a fascinating spectacle. However, thinking about it also led me to think about evil ghosts and the two ideas combined gave birth to this haunting with a bad ending. Good guys don’t always win, and don’t you love a good corrupting fantasy?
How to Lose Your Mind in Four Simple Steps
Step One: opening this post to see to check things out;
Step Two: thinking this is fiction and that you’re too smart to be hypnotized;
Step Three: suddenly realizing it’s been an hour since you got here and your memories are gone;
Step Four: whatever Mistress decides to do next for her will is absolute;
Seeing yesterday’s piece was more on the horror side and the highlight of today’s Micro-Fiction Monday also leans heavily on the supernatural with a bit of Lovecraftian influence, I decided to write something light to offset using a clickbait-like title to draw people’s attention. At first, I wanted to go with five steps but there weren’t enough words for that within the scope of this challenge so I had to settle with four. Of course, some of you highly suggestible folks may not need so many, right?