Welcome back to the home of #ThursThreads for Week 623.
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 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 623:
Real world adventurer, kitty enthusiast, urban fantasy and romance author, Thia Mackin.
And now your #ThursThreads Challenge, tying tales together.
The Prompt:
“We didn’t have to wait for the end of the world.”
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!
What Would It look Like?
We all had wondered of course. What would it look like? I mean, in our nightmares. Not that our nightmares were all the same. Still, the cumulative effect of watching end of the earth movies wore many of us down, facilitated a massive loss of sleep.
Hollywood had helped over the years. We loved those films that saw the earth erupting, giant planets rocketing towards us, heroes and heroines putting their lives on the line to save out collective butts.
Now, we didn’t have to wait for the end of the world. Apparently Hollywood had it right all the time. Except we were a little short of saviors. Saviors and spaceships.
World Leaders took to the airwaves. Leaders and former leaders. One kept yelling, “My God, if I was in power, this would never have happened.”
He may have been right. We’d never know but still he reminded us that space was just real estate and you needed to manage it properly. By that he meant keep out the riffraff. That was a euphemism for space junk, out of control border careening planets, asteroids, creatures, and such.
He’d even pursued the possibility of space golf. “Green it all up. Space golf tourism will give us a great foothold in the…you know…all that land up there.”
Some tried to argue the point that it would be difficult to breath in deep space and play golf.
He replied, “I’ll demolish the Deep Space”
If only, we thought.
250 Words
@billmelaterplea
The flames burned hot enough that they were white with blue centers. Everything was melting like a candle in a sauna.
Kayla was tired. The sword felt five times it’s weight as she held it in her left hand, right hand wrapped around her side, the bandage wrapped around her stained in soot and blood.
The fighting was supposed to be over. But it had only begun. The horde that pushed forward towards it, ahead of the dark master that rode the pitch-black horse with the steel hooves. She couldn’t see the features, if they were monstrous or angelic. The only detail that stuck out was the bright red hair that flowed behind him like a flag of war. The end of humanity happened when he woke from his deep slumber.
It was supposed to have ended. Having the holy relic the church wanted so badly returned was supposed to keep this from happening. But the one thing they wanted, had been the only item holding this back.
“We didn’t have to wait for the end of the world.”
She looked over at her companion who looked as tired as she did.
Aya gave her a smile as she stood at the edge of the hill they stood on. “I’m so tired. I can’t go on. I can feel it crawling in my mind. The whispers.”
“Wait… Aya.” She held out her hand.
“I’m sorry.” The woman dropped her sword as she fell back into the empty space.
“AYA!”
250 words
@solimond
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be here. I’ll go.” She once thought the world would come to an end before she’d willingly come to this man.
“You could stay.”
Maura’s head jerked, an unconscious reaction. She stared at Ronan. He was such a…man. What did the romance novels call a male like him? Alpha. Yes. He was totally that. In control of his world. But the timbre of his voice, the fleeting plea in his eyes rocked her to her core. He sounded almost…unsure, a first since their initial encounter.
“I could.”
It wasn’t a question, but not an answer either. Ronan fought his wolf. The damn thing wanted this woman with a ferocity that almost doubled him over. He was well and truly moonstruck. And totally screwed.
“Will you? I’m guessing you haven’t eaten. I’ll order in some dinner. We’ll eat. Talk.”
“That’s all?”
She sounded so wistful and her scent troubled him. White lilies and damp earth. Graveyard smells. His fiery prosecutor was feeling melancholy tonight…and vulnerable. He would be patient.
“That’s all.”
She offered a tentative smile. Was she relieved or… disappointed? He tasted the air—and still didn’t know as her personal scent of cherry blossoms and autumn bonfires settled on his tongue making him hungry to taste her.
“At least we didn’t have to wait for the end of the world,” she murmured.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing. Just a though about you and me. Here. Like this.”
“Ah. Beginnings rather than endings.” Ronan smiled.
****
250 Moonstruck Mafia WIP words
Silver James
FB: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSilverJames/
We didn’t have to wait for the end of the world. The end of the world came to us. Although it was a bit of a let down. No big bang or fireworks or anything; just one day the sun didn’t come up, the stars didn’t shine, and the moon was late that night. The next day, it was all back to normal. No one died. No one went missing. I’m still not sure what happened.
“I did what you humans call a soft reset,” Horace says, leaning back in his massive wooden throne. “Sometimes, a reset is needed when humans get out of hand.”
Putting my tea cup down, I lean back and raise an eyebrow. “Would anyone have noticed outside of your circle?”
He shrugs, skeletal fingers gripping his own tea cup. “Doubtful. I can manipulate their perception and they perceive that the sun rose, albeit behind a bank of dark clouds. No stars? Clouds.”
I try to process the idea that no one on Earth knows there’s been a reset. “You say no one notices but surely they will notice when they feel different.”
He shakes his head, jaw dropping into a grin. “That is the beauty of the soft reset. I simply set Earth back on track, as it were.”
“Can I do this to my brothers?” I ask.
Horace laughs. “No, you cannot reset your brothers. Be thankful they live away from you and you can minimize their royal pain status.”
It was worth asking.
@Aightball
250 Words
“I wish we didn’t have to wait for the end of the world to use our super moves.”
“Eh, it’s not like we really need them.”
“Yeah, but they’re so cool! Taking humans and devils out ten at a time is fine, but leveling armies and cities with a single move is awesome. Also, I just like the way it feels with all that lightning in my sword.”
“You’ve got a ranged super move. Me, I physically move through all of my targets. It’s exhausting.”
“You look really badass doing it, though.”
“Thanks. So do you. When is the next end of the world, anyway?”
“The way things are going down there? Gotta be soon.”
115 words
@davidaludwig.bsky.social
“Tell me, Machines. Will I learn the same things Merlin learned?”
“No. You have already learned things Merlin didn’t learn.”
“Such as?”
“You left survivors. Merlin never left anyone alive.”
Sunshine continued her journey along the shore of the ocean. “Tell me. How big is the ocean?”
“It covers roughly half of Cylinders.”
“Half of the planet?”
“It varies some, as the tectonic plates slide past each other.”
“Oh?”
“Sometimes it forms more than one ocean. Depending on where the plates are located.”
“Could I fly across the ocean?”
“No. It’s far too big for you to cross.”
“But I can travel around it?”
“Yes. Although it will take time.”
“How long did Merlin take to study the world?”
“Decades. Merlin wasn’t in a hurry.”
“How long will it take me?”
“We don’t know.”
It was the first time the machines had declared to her that they didn’t know something. It showed her they were not omnipotent. “So, you have limits after all.”
“Yes. We have limits. Everything has limits.”
As she flew along the shore, she watched the waves and wondered if she’d find any more humans. “There are other villages on this ocean, aren’t there?”
“Yes. And with time you will find some of them.”
She smiled at that thought. It would give her a chance to observe other people. To learn more about the world. “We didn’t have to wait for the end of the world to change things did we?”
“Change them now,” the machines answered.
250 Words
@mysoulstears.bsky.social
Well, as it turned out, even though he’d said it in front of God and Mrs. Warren and the entire sophomore class of West Monroe High, we didn’t have to wait for the end of the world for Kyle Packer to ask me on a date.
Technically.
I mean, yes, the world was *going* to end in less than six weeks, if the big green aliens who’d landed everywhere were able to follow through on their promises. And no, Kyle Packer and me going on a nightime reconnaissance mission out behind the hog rendering plant wasn’t a date per se, even if the moon was lovely and the plant hadn’t been operational in long enough that you could actually smell the honeysuckle and the two of us were only going because he and I were the only ones who’d managed to get our invisibility spells to work before the alien invasion had shut down all the magic schools.
The point is, he’d asked me if I’d go out with him tonight, even though he’d also said other words like “to scout their defenses” and “make sure we keep a minimum of twenty feet between us so that if they detect one of us, the other might be able to get away” and “the shadows of the moon are just lovely in your eyes tonight, Alex.”
Okay, I made that last one up. But he did say something about the moon and shadows and staying safe, so I’m counting it.
249 words
@drmag00.bsky.social
“It’s the end of the world as we know it.”
R.E.M.’s classic alt-rock played in the background as Marc chugged his wine cooler. He stopped for a breather and held the cool glass against his forehead.
Gold remnants from the peeling label stuck to his palm and he switched hands and splayed his fingers across the leg of his jeans.
Her last words haunted him: “We didn’t have to wait for the end of the world to spend time together.”
Might as well had. She left not long after that. Left him alone to cope and wonder why.
End of the world, as in zombie apocalypse, WWIII, another pop-culture presidency with ripple effects even the most optimistic predicted.
He didn’t like to think of that shit, just like he didn’t like to think about losing her. That heart-ripped-out-of-his-body feeling when the knock rattled his door past when she should have been home, when her cell rang straight to voicemail.
The alcohol didn’t make him forget. The sweet blackberry flavor was her favorite and he stretched out finishing the case. The taste a reminder of her kiss after she’d been drinking. The way her green eyes crinkled with a smile.
He’d do anything to hear her laugh again. To complain that they didn’t spend enough time together. That he worked too much. That he should have gone to the bar with her for ‘80s night after work. Instead, he sat alone, drinking the last of her stash.
“And I feel fine.”
250 words
@LouisaBacio
Flint flashed me some signs. “Got the gate. Need backup?”
I was tempted to shake my head, but I’d been alone for long enough, and everyone was stronger with a team. I nodded and pulled through, but stopped, waiting, even though my heart thundered with anxiety for Anna.
Flint didn’t screw around. He was on his Harley faster than I expected, and the two of us headed down the hill toward Fort Collins. I relayed to him what Anna had told me and he flashed a thumbs-up to let me know he understood. My mind went over all the things that could go wrong in the time it took us to get to Anna, but I shoved them aside. They wouldn’t help her if we weren’t there and I couldn’t make time go faster.
When we pulled into the Walmart parking lot, we didn’t have to wait. For the end of the world seemed to be ahead of me until I spied Anna striding with purpose through the parked vehicles in the late summer sunshine. All my tension fled and my world righted itself.
Flint waved and flashed a sign. “Is that her?”
I nodded. “Yes, but keep an eye out for tails. She said someone was following her.”
The gargoyle nodded and let his gaze slide over the parking lot with sharp awareness as Anna made it to my bike.
“Are you well, Little Bird?”
Relief turned her expression soft and she nodded. “Now that you’re here.”
248 ineligible #ConcreteAngelsMC words
@siobhanmuir.bsky.social
#ThursThreads is now CLOSED. Thanks to everyone who wrote this week and I hope to catch you next week for our TWELFTH ANNIVERSARY!