Welcome back to the home of #ThursThreads for Week 709. Year Lucky 13! The last year of the cycle, the Moon Year. To those who keep coming back, I’m delighted to see you again!
Today is Thursday and that means it’s time to start flashing on #ThursThreads, the challenge that ties tales together. Want to keep up each week? Check out the #ThursThreads #flashfiction group on Discord and the Group on MeWe.
Need the rules? Read on.
Here’s how it works:
- The prompt is a line from the previous week’s winning tale.
- The prompt can appear ANYWHERE in your story and is included in your word count.
- The prompt must be used as is. It can be split, but no intervening words can be inserted or tenses changed.
Rules to the Game:
- This is a Flash Fiction challenge, which means your story must be a minimum of 100 words, maximum of 250.
- The story must be new writing, not a snippet from something published elsewhere with the prompt added.
- Incorporate the prompt anywhere into your story (included in your word count).
- Post your story in the comments section of this post
- Include your word count in the post (or be excluded from judging)
- Include your social media handle or email in the post (so we easily notify you)
- The challenge is open 7 AM to 8 PM Mountain Time US.
- The winner will be announced on Friday, depending on how early the judge gets up.
How it benefits you:
- You get a nifty cool badge to display on your blog or site (because we’re all about promotion – you know you are!)
- You get instant recognition of your writing prowess on this blog!
- Your writing colleagues shall announce and proclaim your greatness on Bluesky, MeWe, Discord, and Mastodon, etc.
Our Judge for Week 709:
Scientist, Dad, and flash fiction author, Eric Martell.
And now your #ThursThreads Challenge, tying tales together.
The Prompt:
“Could he say goodbye?”
All stories written herein are the property (both intellectual and physical) of the authors. Comments do not represent the views of the host and the host reserves the right to remove any content. Now, away with you, Flash Fiction Fanatics, and show us your #ThursThreads in the Moon Year. Good luck!
Urban Decay 101
It was a windy day. Swirls of trash and sorrow were stifling the air, keeping asthmatics and people who breath through their mouths indoors or deep in alleyways, away from the fury of Mother Natures little weather joke.
I was tailing Walter Wickwire, local alderman and retired high school history teacher. Someone in city hall was worried about Walt. The Mayor maybe. I didn’t know. Henry Small, fast-talking lawyer about town hired me to look into Walt, his comings and goings. The basic concern was that someone, and it could be any number of spurious interests, had bought Walt’s vote on a massive inner city land buying scheme.
If he had been bought off, the cash had been well disguised.
Henry had given me my marching orders. “He’s dirty. Pretty sure of that. But he’s squirrelly. And not stupid. Walter was the head of the Teachers Union for ten years. Knows his way around gavels and grovelling. Politics are a blood sport for him. We could be wrong but every vote along the way says otherwise.”
So I had been following him for three days. Saw him glad-handing the locals, playing with his grandkids, dining with his lovely wife, smiling more than a crooked man should. On the surface, Walter Wickwire had a great life. Healthy pension, the respect of the people, the love of his family. Could he say goodbye to all that. Was he that far down the corrupt rabbit hole?
I guess we’d see.
250 Words
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