Welcome back to the home of #ThursThreads for Week 646. Year 12! What a fantastic testament to the writing community. Y’all rock!
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 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 Facebook, Bluesky, MeWe, and Mastodon, etc.
Our Judge for Week 646:
Desk Jockey by Day, Writer by Night, Pecking her way through life, M.L. Gammella.
And now your #ThursThreads Challenge, tying tales together.
The Prompt:
“I took the long way home.”
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!
It had been an awful day. I got chewed out by the boss for making one mistake. “We can’t afford to make mistakes!” Traffic getting to work had been pure hell, bad enough I was almost late though I always left home early to get to work. I’d seen three sets of emergency vehicle lights, and caught every light on the trip red. It turned a 15-minute drive into half an hour.
Then there was the news. Another plane crash, with more people dead, and our idiot of a president blaming it on DEI, and “non-white people”. I don’t know what else he and his minions did that day. It all just kind of blurred together and left me feeling numb.
I needed to breathe.
That night, I took the long way home from work. I went to one of the last bookstores anywhere and picked up and looked at a million books. I actually bought one. Then, I treated myself to dinner, if you can call fast food dinner. But at least I didn’t have to make it. And I didn’t have anything to clean up when I was done.
I drove. Sure, gas was expensive right then. But I needed out. I needed to breathe. I drove a big loop around the metro area. Managed to take two hours and burn 100 miles. It was late when I got home. But I felt better, and I didn’t care what our idiot did that day.
249 Words (Per Google Write)
@mysoulstears.bsky.social
Winter Night Blues
I’d been missing human companionship for about a week. Snow was so heavy that all the road machinery in town had been doing double and triple duty and still the snow kept falling like there was no end to it, like it would never end, and we’d all get buried and they wouldn’t find us for a millennium.
The family had made a trip over the mountain a few days earlier to visit the in-laws and had gotten held up by the suddenness of the storm.
Yup, I was bushed and finally decided to trudge into town even if it killed me. Haggerty’s Tavern was my usual watering hole, and I craved some of that escapism.
And I made it. Took a couple of hours of deep snow walking.
Can’t say Haggertys was doing a landslide business. Still, there was a dozen of us, mostly folks I knew and a singer, Buddy something or other and he was pounding out some mournful music that suited me just fine.
One song in particular choked me up. It went like this:
Darling. I’ve been missing you so much,
Your smile and just the way you look, your touch.
You went away without saying a word
flew skyward like the saddest ever bird.
Darling, I’ve been looking everywhere
city streets and country roads I’ve roamed
but winters settling in most everywhere,
snow deeper than my love could ever be.
I guess I took the long way home.
247 words
@billmelaterplea
I yanked my arm away. “Go find someone else.”
He got this glazed look on his face and his jaw grew slack before he nodded dumbly, spun around, and staggered off toward the Clubhouse.
I blinked. What the hell had just happened?
Motion back toward the cabins made me focus on them and I recognized Anubis coming for me. I quickly headed for the gate and made eye contact with the Asian woman. Her eyes opened wider in surprise before she inclined my head and opened the gate without a word. I nodded and sailed on through before Anubis could reach us. She closed the gate behind me and I couldn’t help the smirk curling my lips.
I quickly swallowed it as I passed through the group of people hanging around out front, either hoping to get in or engaged in nookie already. Some eyed me curiously, but my costume didn’t matter as long as I made it to my car.
Thank goodness I’d stashed the keys under the rear driver-side fender because it made it so easy to grab and unlock the door. I was in the driver’s seat with the ignition on by the time Anubis made it out the gates. I met his gaze with my own stoic stare and threw the vehicle in gear.
He didn’t bother to chase me, but the look on his face was one of pure frustration.
Back atcha, buddy.
I took the long way home to be sure no one followed.
250 ineligible #ConcreteAngelsMC words
@siobhanmuir.bsky.social