Welcome back to the home of #ThursThreads for Week 671 of 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 671:
Jolly cynic and Transcendentalist groupie, K.R. Van Horn.
Bluesky |
And now your #ThursThreads Challenge, tying tales together.
The Prompt:
“Our souls speak to each other.”
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!
DAWN
“It’s time, Clarence. Time to pay the piper.”
I looked up. There I was, crawling on the ground like a two-hundred-pound worm. Or maybe a snake. Not a ton of difference to a fella crawling on the ground having lost the ability to walk.
A new condition. Been a walker all my life. Army. Marching to glory every day. Some running but I wasn’t partial to that. Hate sweat. My own.
Now, it was the devil calling me out. And not to make a cheap pun but I was having the devil of a time getting up.
“You got legs,” Bub yelled. “Use ‘em.”
Ya, I got legs, I thought but they ain’t responding like they use to.
“I fell,” I state pretty much the obvious.
“Really. I would have guessed you lay down and decided to wait until the ground swallowed you up.” Bub didn’t say that. I looked again and it was his sister, Elsa. She was looking fiery, a mop of flame-red hair, smirk wider than the Grand Canyon. I decided to pull a De Niro. “Are you talking to me?” I asked, bold as brass.
She shook that flame-red noggin of hers and said, “Our souls speak to each other, Clarence.” All I do is listen.”
That was as clear as mud. I started to laugh, crawl a bit more and then she put a dance shoed foot on my neck. Well that was it. That was all I wrote.
Time to go to work.
250 Words
@billmelaterplea
@sterlings-son-2.bsky.social
“I’m pretty sure I’d remember knowing someone like you.”
Kuroko Ikari crossed her arms as the golden squirrel with angel wings and halo snuggled into her pile of stuffed animals. The brawler always kept her door locked, and her collection was positioned so her housemates couldn’t see it from the hall.
‘Sort of like you would remember being a superhero? Or the existence of demons, monsters, and mad scientists?’
Hearing Angel’s voice in her head was strange. She wondered if he sounded the same in Rose’s head.
“That last one’s a little different from the others.”
‘Is it?’
Kuroko ran her hands through her hair before sitting heavily on the corner of her bed.
“I’m just saying, this is weird.”
‘I know,’ Angel poked his head out adorably from the pile. ‘Why don’t you put on your apron dress and pearls, and brush my fur?’
Kuroko’s face ignited. Her muscles tensed.
“How do you know about those!?”
Angel cocked his head.
‘Who do you think you got them for? Our souls speak to each other. Oh! And put on some Dean Martin.”
182 words
@davialudwig.bsky.social
“Don’t you know? Our souls speak to each other on a cosmic level that only people truly in love can reach. I knew the moment I saw you that you were meant to be mine. We had that instant connection.” Eddie gave them a dreamy smile before he seemed to snap back to his fantasy world reality. “Now then, you should finish your breakfast before we watch your favorite soaps together. Won’t that be fun?”
“Mm.” Again, Barrett hummed to gain more time. “What time is it? I don’t see a clock in here.” Maybe they could figure out what day it was based on the time.
“Oh, you don’t need a clock, sweetheart.” Eddie laughed and playfully patted their thigh again. “I’ll tell you when it’s time for anything. You should just rest and relax.”
“But I’d like to go outside. I need the sun for vitamin D to make sure my skin and hair stay nice.” Barrett hoped they could convince Eddie to let them at least near the yard. That way they could start to figure out where they were.
“No! There will be no going out!” Eddie snapped the words and his lips pulled back from this teeth in a snarl.
Barrett jerked to their feet and backed away, their eyes wide as their heart pounded. Eddie’s whole demeanor changed into being conciliatory and he gave Barrett a sympathetic look as he rose.
“Oh, I’m sorry, sweetheart, did I scare you? I didn’t mean to.”
249 ineligible #SirensInc Words
@siobhanmuir.com
On a Wednesday I met Jeramiah
“Our souls speak to each other,” Jeramiah waxed and I melted.
I succumbed to his actions, in which he portrayed himself as generous, loving and giving. I fell hard and soon my life was taken over doing everything with Jeramiah. He soon told me how much he loved me. He took over my life, moving in to the home I had shared with my dead husband, Jael. He grew jealous claiming other man were looking at me. He told me how to dress, he pushed friends and family away; soon there was no one but him. I was dazzled and didn’t see what he was doing. I thought he did this because he loved me. I began to feel ill and thought maybe I was pregnant but after tests I found out the doctor thought I was dying. He took some blood tests and said he would call me back. I longed for comfort instead I found Jeramiah making love to my sister, Karina. They didn’t see me and as I stood there in shock, and had the foresight to record the conversation on my phone, I heard their plans for inheriting my millions on my demise. Little did they know my money was already left for charity.
I went to the police and they are rotting in jail awaiting trial; but the charges will be upped soon. My soul will speak to their souls and torment Jeramiah and Karina for all time.
249 words
@sweetsheil.bsky.social
Druic carefully carried the two ceramic mugs from the counter to their table, artfully dodging around people. With a flourish, he placed the latte with a stacked heart design in the foam in front of Ariel. He set his own mug down and settled onto the bench.
Ariel eyed his coffee then Druic’s. The other fae’s mug displayed a swan. “Do I want to know?”
The tips of Druic’s pointed ears reddened as he mumbled, “It’s a skinny vanilla.”
Sipping in lieu of laughing, Ariel maintained a poker face. He realized he knew very little about his new…sidekick. The kid had already compared himself to Batman’s Robin. “Tell me about yourself.”
Blushing more, Druic rattled off his lineage, education, and position in the Seelie Court. Ariel didn’t roll his eyes but it was tough not to. “So much for name, rank, and serial number. That’s not what I asked. I want to know about you. What do you like to do? Do you read? What’s your favorite food? I mean…besides drinking skinny vanilla lattes.”
“I blame that one on my lady.”
Ariel raised an eyebrow in surprise. “The queen drinks those things?”
“Oh no. Nonono.” Druic shook his head vigorously. “Not Queen Titania. My lady.” Scarlet washed over his face and ears.
“Ah, I see. Your girlfriend.”
“Yes.” The kid breathed out the affirmation like a prayer. “She is my one. Our souls speak to each other.”
Ariel wondered if the lady shared Druic’s enthusiasm. He’d find out.
****
250 Penumbra Papers #6 WIP words
Silver James
https://silverjames.com
“You know how you can tell we’re meant to be together?”
It was my first date with the girl – Magpie – and while it was going well, I didn’t think we were at the Eternal Love stage just yet. I have friends who would have taken her question as an opportunity to Exit, Pursued by a Bear, but I was three beers in and amused enough to see where she was going.
“Tell me.”
“Our souls speak to each other.” She grinned at me and finished off her beer.
“Our…souls?”
“Well, not yet. They’re busy inside us, keeping us alive and getting us to the market and work and stuff. But later.” Magpie paused. “After.”
“After?”
“In What Comes Next.” I could hear the capital letters in her voice.
She saw the skepticism on my face and winked.
“Don’t worry. Most people can’t feel it unless they know what they’re looking for. Here, give me your arm.” When I paused, she snorted. “We’re in a public place. You’re perfectly safe.”
I held my arm out. Magpie reached out and traced a fingertip over the tattoo I’d gotten a few months earlier. I shivered. She smiled.
“See? You’re feeling it already. But wait.”
She lifted her left leg up and put it on the table next to my arm. There was a tattoo on her thigh, not the same as mine, but similar.
“Touch them together.”
“What?” Her leg was really distracting.
“Just do it. Then you’ll know what I know.”
249 words
@drmag00.bsky.social
It took time for Sunshine to reach the ocean again. She rested at night on the ground. The machines watched over her, and provided her with food and drink. She thanked them in the morning when she woke.
She wondered what the machines looked like. She understood they were too small to be seen. She asked them, “How many of you are there?”
“We number in the tens of trillions on Cylinders.”
It was a number Sunshine didn’t really understand. She knew it was more than she could imagine, more than she could count.
When she reached the ocean, she decided to rest.
Again, the machines provided food and drink. She washed off dirt and sweat in the ocean. When she was done, she stood beside the ocean, and wished she could talk with Mystica, and Merlin. That she could tell them of the coming war, and how the machines had said only the two of them could stop the Angles.
As she stood beside the ocean, the water seemed to shift. Then a circle formed on the surface. A bubble formed in the circle, and grew bigger. Until the bubble was the size of a fairy. Then the bubble popped.
Oceana, queen of the ocean fairies, stood on the ocean. “Sunshine, you are a long way from home. Mystica sends her regards.”
“Oceana. How did you find me?”
“You are an adopted child of the White Witch. Our souls speak to each other. The White Witch made it so.”
250 Words (Per Google Write)
@mysoulstears.bsky.social
The hardest part of the shift was the horn. It didn’t matter if she transformed it first or last. She always ended up sitting on a grassy knoll or field waiting for the fucking 10-inch silver sparkling horn to complete its growth.
Even worse, returning to her human form and being stuck with a spike in the center of her forehead. Their natural enemies waited for them to be the most vulnerable and they struck, skinning off their horn and stealing the source of their magic.
Some thought unicorns had been touched by the gods and others saw them cursed by evil.
“How can I be a myth, when I live and breathe like others?” Lumina placed the book she’d been reading onto the desk. It lay open to a colorful illustration of horse-like creature with a stunning, twisted horn and thick silver tail. In the background, a rainbow stretched across the sky.
“I see that.” A man walked out of the rows of books to her right. He had a hunting knife sheathed on his belt.
She looked for an exit. Many confused unicorns with the winged Pegasus. She didn’t fly, but she ran fast.
“Something tells me we are kindred spirits,” he said, trailing his fingertips over the book’s pages. “Our souls speak to each other.”
“Pretty lofty comment when we don’t even know each other.” Although Lumina scoffed at his words, a flash of silver in his eyes drew her closer.
Was he one of her kind?
@LouisaBacio
250 words
Answered Prayer
“Look at those god-awful wrinkles around your eyes!” Derek leaned back in his chair, his own eyes reduced to a judgmental squint.
“What?” Anna May asked, standing with a hand on her hip. “What did you just say to her?”
Shelley stood away from the table. She walked to the wall, where she raised her pastel yellow dress an inch above her thighs and plunged to her knees facing the crucifix that hung six feet over her head. Clasping her hands together, she closed her eyes tight.
“She’s pleading for your soul now.” Anna May’s quiet words to Derek broke the silence that had fallen. “I hope you’re happy.”
“Our souls speak to each other,” Derek guffawed sarcastically, leaning further back, his seat propped up on its two hind legs. As he pointed a finger at the prayerful Shelley, his chair lost its center of gravity, and he fell back, the base of his skull striking the window sill behind him. Anna May rushed around the table to see the back of his head flush to the wall below the window, chin planted into his chest, a pair of now lifeless, glassy eyes staring into nothingness.
Shelley got up off her knees. Standing alongside Anna May, she wiped the dust from her tights and dropped her dress back down over her legs as far as her pale ankles.
“He’s dead, Shelley.”
“He is.”
“It worked.” Anna May stared at Shelley in disbelief. “Your prayer worked.”
249 words @ragtaggiggagon
#ThursThreads Week 671 is now CLOSED. Thanks to everyone who wrote this week and I hope to catch you next week.