Welcome back to the home of #ThursThreads. Wow. Year 11. Holy smokes! Y’all kept with me past a decade. I’m astounded. And Feliz Dia de Los Muertos!
Today is Thursday and that means it’s time to start flashing, like we have for the past 11 years. I had no idea when I started it would keep going! This is Week 584 of #ThursThreads, the challenge that ties tales together. Want to keep up each week? Check out the #ThursThreads #flashfiction group on Facebook 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
- 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 Facebook, Bluesky, MeWe, and Mastodon, etc.
Our Judge for Week 584:
When her eyes get tired from reading, she switches to audiobook, her ears don’t close, Mirra Allure.
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And now your #ThursThreads Challenge, tying tales together.
The Prompt:
“And there might have been a tail.”
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. Good luck!
Charlie’s Tale
You know how it is. You’re sitting in a tavern minding your own business, just passing through some hick town, wetting your whistle, and really, the last thing you want is some local with a load on getting in your face, buying you a round, telling you stories that you don’t want to hear…
“It was big. Like a house…”
You nod. Whatever it was, you have no doubt it was humongous.
“Leave the guy alone, Charlie,” the bartender intervenes. She’s carrying a tray of brew, balancing cash and fools, and Charlie gives her a cold stare like she is an alien invader and says, “My story…bugger off, Frannie…”
And he resumes, spittle flying in my eye and elsewhere, and all I want to do is escape.
“Bigger than a frigging skyscraper. Giant eyes and fur, crikee, thick black fur…”
So, I have two choices: Run or play.
I decide, five minutes. I’ll play for five minutes and then chugalug my ale and vamoose.
“Were they purple eyes?” I ask, semi-curious. “I like purple.”
Charlie pulls back, giving me a chance to breath my own air as opposed to his rather pungent environment.
“Yeah…they coulda been…”
Feeling successful, I continue with, “And a scraggy old tail…two feet long?”
“Yeah, purple eyes…and there might have been a tail. Long ugly tail…so you seen it?”
I let the moment pause. Quaff the dregs of my drink, get up slowly, say, “No. No I didn’t.”
Truth is though, I did.
249 words
@billmelaterplea
Eventually, he decided to look beyond the galaxies, stars, and planets, in more detail at the rocks. The rocks included solid bodies, and bodies made of loose conglomerations of smaller rocks. They also included rocks made of ices. Frozen water, frozen methane, and other materials.
He found the rocks mostly far out from the stars. Where everything was frozen, far from the heat the stars gave off.
After watching for a time he noted that sometimes something disturbed the rocks, and some rocks moved into new orbits that took the much closer to the star. As those rocks got closer to the star, the star heated them up, and the frozen parts began to thaw. This resulted in tails growing from the rocks. Then, when the rocks moved away from the star, the tails faded.
He looked at some of the rocks in the system, far from the sun. “And there might have been a tail on this one.” It looked like it moved close to the star, and then far from the star. He watched it. It did. And it did indeed grow a tail when it was closer to the star. The tail faded as it moved away from the star.
“Interesting rocks.”
With that, he continued to watch the stars, their planets, and their rocks.
218 words of NaNoWriMo 2023
@mysoulstears.bsky.social
“Eddie has always been one of them, but he seems harmless.”
Lisa grimaced as she glanced in the rearview mirror. “I’m not ready to put him down as harmless. He was too intent on me tonight. And this isn’t the first place I’ve seen him.”
Barrett nodded as they pulled into the parking lot for the Redolent Lion. “I think he lives in town. It’s not uncommon to see him here and there.”
“Might have been a tail on us. Give it a few seconds to see if someone is following.”
They settled into silence as Lisa watched the rearview and Barrett watched the side mirror, watching for familiar vehicles. But the traffic on Main Street was pretty minimal and neither of them recognized any of the cars.
After several moments, Lisa sighed and shrugged. “I guess we’re in the clear.”
Barrett blew out a breath they hadn’t realized they’d been holding. “Good. Can we eat now? I’m starving.”
Lisa laughed and nodded. They exited the SUV and headed into the café, but she took one more look around before stepping through the doors. Barrett was impressed with her vigilance and they vowed to up their situational awareness.
198 ineligible #Sirens words
@siobhanmuir.bsky.social
SPLASH…
“What do you really think it was?” Murdock asked, stressing the adverb. “Could it have been just a young woman – or a girl – wearing a wetsuit? The light was poor from where I was standing – it could have been almost anything; it could have been a dead seal or a large hunk of driftwood bobbing about as though it was alive.”
“No,” Alissa said. “I don’t think so. I’m certain I saw a face. A human one. And there might have been a tail. With a fluke on either side.”
Murdock shook his head. “I can’t tell you how improbable it is. You read so many fantasies that you forget what’s truly real. There’ll be an item on the local news tomorrow – another small ship sunk in the channel; dozens of immigrants washed ashore. It’s more likely than those yarns the boatmen share with you when you buy them another round. They’re just stringing you along, drowning the few wits they’ve still got left. There are good reasons for why they never leave the harbour now. But it’s not what you think.”
Alissa wished she’d never mentioned it now. She’d hoped to be able to suggest it as a whimsical notion that might make him smile. And then lead him into the confession she’d wanted to make.
About the swimming partner she’d almost been spotted with and her decision to return to her home with her after she’d had a chance to say her goodbyes.
250 words including title – twothirdzrasta.blogspot.com
Hallowe’en, a bust; there was a mountain of candy, I found myself eating. Opening up my door I found my best friend, Andreas.
“Today we honour your dead and mine on a offrenda. A 3 tiered altar which represents the three stages of the church; life on earth, souls in purgatory, and souls in heaven. ”
“That sounds solemn and depressing.”
“It’s not it’s a celebration to celebrate their lives. W tell stories of their lives and offer up things they loved, and there might have been a tail… er tall tales about loved ones to liven up the festivities.”
I followed Andreas’ instructions and honoured my loved ones. When I was done there was an odd shimmer of the candles, a figure appeared out of the ether.
She was skeleton but as her mouth moved, she said,” I have taken much from you this year and you have truly suffered, but you have honoured your dead, so, on this day I give something back. She took Andreas’ hand and placed it in mine and said “True love is yours, if you only grab it with both hands. Then she was gone as if she never was.
Andreas said, “I love you Katie I always have. Is she right is there a chance?”
I smiled at him and nodded. We were married that night. We’ve been together for ten years now and every Día de los Muertos, we honour our dead, never forgetting Katrina who brought us together, forever more.
250 words @SweetSheil
Tenko took a breath through her nose, adjusted her quiver, and dashed downhill toward the rendezvous point. Not a single movement could be wasted.
She calculated they had thirty-six seconds to give their enemies the slip. A precious six of those thanks to the arrival of the Wood Witch and her oni. The only thing in Tigers’ Forest more dangerous than the tigerlings themselves being allied with the half-animal people was a problem.
She was relieved seeing her companions already had the rescued priests organized to go.
“Hurry back to the shrine quickly and quietly,” the young scholar instructed. “Mana, Sora, Arashiko, and I will draw the enemy off.”
“Where do you want me?”
The tall monk that covered Arashiko’s retreat stepped seriously up to Tenko.
“With the others. They’ll need you.”
He nodded.
“My name is Shinrin. If I can ever be of service to you, you need only ask.”
Tenko’s party returned to her and Shinrin to the priests.
“I’ve placed ofuda along your path. They’ll mask your trail and transfer it and any noise you do make to us. Hopefully, that will be enough to fool the tigerlings.”
Tenko didn’t mention that there was little chance of her magic fooling the Wood Witch. As they split off from the priests, Tenko’s friend, Mana, fell into stride next to her.
“What aren’t you telling them?”
“There was a presence with me on the bluff. Gleaming eyes, a masked aura, and there might have been a tail.”
248 Tale of Tenko words
@DavidALudwig
“And there might have been a tail.”
The men froze. One by one, they slowly turned to look at the women.
“Well,” Sophie said. “That got their attention.”
Ronan zeroed in on Maura but Callum beat him to the punch. “What do you mean, Sophie?”
She put her hands on her hips and forced the smile hovering on her lips to stay hidden. She’d dealt with her father all her life. These alpha males didn’t scare her—especially since she knew Callum would never hurt her. Unlike dear old dad. “I mean that at various times, we all felt like we were being watched. After discussing it, we came to the conclusion that you overprotective alpha hotels were the likely culprits.”
The men exchanged looks. Callum’s face was set in hard lines when he said, “It wasn’t us.”
This time, the women looked at each other. Shannon turned troubled eyes to Mick. “You didn’t have Brendan or Aidan following us?”
“No.” He bit off the word.
Sophie reached behind her, found a bar stool, and sat on it. Troubled, she studied Callum. “You think it was my father.”
He shook his head. “No.” Unable to stop himself, he walked over to her. She widened her knees so he could stand between them and wrap his arms around her. “I’ll find out who it was, Sophie. I won’t let the old bastard hurt you. Not ever again.”
Her voice was muffled against his chest. “That sounds like a promise.”
“It is.”
****
250 Moonstruck Mafia: Boston WIP words
@SilverJames_
A Tail of Two Cities
Detective Nunez hated Mardi Gras. It wasn’t the idea of it, it wasn’t the sound or the color, it was the sheer number of people not celebrating history or art but using it as an excuse to get drunk, in a city that wasn’t theirs. The average resident of New Orleans was just trying to make a living.
There were always a few who were willing to roll a tourist, but for the most part, they weren’t the problem, it was the drunks, their friends, and the sheer volume of people. He had never been so happy when midnight rolled around with Fat Tuesday giving way to Ash Wednesday.
The mayhem was over for another year. All that was left was shepherding visitors off of Bourbon Street and, of course, doing the paperwork. Back at the station, he compared notes with his fellow detectives to make sure there were no follow-up calls needed before turning in for the night.
“Drunk and disorderly, drunk, indecent exposure– the usual calls, except for one where someone insisted they’d been cheated at Club Vulpes, Carl, did you handle this one?” he asked.
“Yeah, the guy insisted something just wasn’t right. He was drunk, and there might have been a tail.”
“There’s always a story,” Nunez agreed.
“Uh, no there was a tail,” Carl corrected him.
Nunez’s eyes narrowed as he realized Carl was trying to imply something, then nodded.
“Ah, one of those.”
Carl nodded.
“They aren’t paying me enough.”
“They never do.”
@mishmhem
250 words not including the title.
“You can’t be serious. You’re just spinning a tale!” Maddie tended to not believe in something unless she saw it.
Fairies. Santa. God.
“Prove it,” she declared on more than one occasion.
“Sometimes it’s more than ‘seeing is believing,’” Gracie argued against her older sister. In her heart, belief lay the groundwork for hope, and hope meant the potential for everything to be better than it was. “You gotta have faith.”
“What has faith brought me? Dinner on the table? Did it fold the laundry?” She held up her arm, gesturing toward the long sleeve of the faded flannel. “No. I had to wash the clothes, dry them and put them away. No one else is gonna do it.”
“I help.”
“Hush now,” Maddie wiped a tear off Gracie’s cheek. “That’s not what I meant. Now that Momma’s not here and Da’s off doing whatever he wants, we gotta get our heads out of the clouds. There’s chores to do. We can’t be off chasing mermaids.”
Gracie glanced toward the door. Only a few blocks down lay an inlet to the ocean and what she’d seen that afternoon imprinted on her mind. She rubbed her thumb over the sand dollar, the most perfect shell she’d found in the longest time.
It was a gift from her. She knew it.
The buzzer in the kitchen went off, and Maddie turned. “Gotta get the potatoes out.”
Gracie stuck the treasure into her pocket, “And there might have been a tail,” she whispered.
250 words
@LouisaBacio
#ThursThreads is now CLOSED. Thanks to everyone who wrote this week and I hope to catch you next week.