Welcome back to the home of #ThursThreads for Week 722. 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 Facebook.
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 722:
Cat afficionado, Editor, and Mid Week Flash host, Miranda Kate.
Facebook | BlueSky | Goodreads |
And now your #ThursThreads Challenge, tying tales together.
The Prompt:
“Do you have a better idea?”
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!
The Conflicted Couples Case
It was high noon. I was thinking a grilled cheese down the block at the Café Lottie. Lottie serves up a classic scoff and I was feeling nostalgic for the old days.
There aren’t many of them left.
Just as I elevated myself up from my swivel chair, they strode in like they were expected and it didn’t matter if they weren’t.
My first thought was that they were from out of town. She was as slickly garbed as an Italian actress at Cannes with a flowery chiffon dress that almost fluttered in the breeze. Note, my office doesn’t even have air conditioning.
He was in a shiny black silk suit that pretty much blinded me.
Me, I was in shorts and a t-shirt.
It was a paper day.
Before I could explain my fascination with grilled cheese, she piped in with “We want to hire you.”
“Money is no object,” he added.
Well, right away the grilled cheese went on the backburner. “Okay, what’s the problem?”
They both started talking. It sounded like a song. “He/She is cheating on me and I want you to prove it.”
I cut through their noise with “maybe one at a time.”
They started their dueling badgers again.
“STOP!” I yelled. “ONE AT A TIME.”
“Okay, he declared. “I’LL START.”
“NO,” she yelled back.
“DO YOU HAVE A BETTER IDEA?” he bellowed.
Before she answered, I said. “I do.”
“WHAT?” they screamed at me.
“Grilled cheese,” I answered.
249 words
@billmelaterplea
@sterlings-son-2.bsky.social
I could say I don’t know how I got here, but I’d be lying. I should begin at the beginning. My phone rang that morning at five a.m.
“Mo..meee…”
“Delilah, quit crying and let me know what’s wrong.”
”Edgar’s dead!”
“Your boss?”
“I broke it off yesterday. He showed up at 3 a.m. forced his way in. They’ll never believe he attacked me.”
“Are you okay?”
“No. what can I do? I can’t call the cops. Do you have a better idea?”
Helping Deliah wrap the body in a rug, we took to my SUV through the garage. It should have been the perfect spot to hide a body, as construction was supposed to start the next morning with a layer of concrete, but of ancient remains had been found the day. It was now an excavation site. Of course, they found the body and if I hadn’t left the rug maybe they wouldn’t have come back at my daughter. I confessed said I had murdered Edgar, that Delilah knew nothing, a judge believed me. I was sentenced to twenty years, but I thought Delilah was safe.
I had a visitor this morning it was Delilah. She confessed she lied, she just wanted Edgar dead. I asked her why, she used me and she said I was millstone around her neck and she decided to get rid of two birds with one stone. Now I understood that quote From King Lear. I’d confessed no one would ever believe me now .
250 words @sweetsheil.bsky.social
Titania smirked until she caught a glimpse of Druic. With narrowed eyes, she pointed a long-nailed index finger at him. “Why did you not inform me?”
The young Fae’s gaze immediately dropped to his boots. “M-m-m’lady?”
“Ariel is not here. He is not at court. Why did you not inform me that he is missing?” Her voice cracked like a bullwhip and the boy winced.
“That’s enough, Titania.” Sade stepped between them. “Ariel has been very secretive of late.”
“Watch your tongue, human,” the queen snapped, her tone remaining sharp.
Sade leaned toward her and squared off almost nose-to-nose. “You forget yourself. You are in my realm now.”
The two women glowered at each other while the group as a whole maintained a tense silence. It was Titania who broke it. “You need to come with me. It is time to confront Oberon.”
Not wanting to admit that was her Plan B, Sade nodded. “Agreed. I suspect the old bastard’s hands are all over this mess.”
“Sade.” Sinjen drew out her name and his tone held warning.
She glanced at him and repeated the same question she’d asked Caleb. “Do you have a better idea?”
“Then I’m coming with you.”
“No!” Sade and Titania both denied that suggestion simultaneously.
“I can handle this,” Sade asserted.
After a moment’s hesitation, Titania muttered something under her breath.
Sade stared “What did you say?”
“You heard me.”
“I want everyone to hear you.”
“I said I would guarantee your safe return.”
“Let’s go.”
****
250 Penumbra Papers #6 WIP words
Silver James
https://silverjames.com
My boss, Horace, gives me the side eye; skeletons shouldn’t be able to give me the side eye, but he does. And it’s frankly a little creepy.
“What?” I ask, smoothing a hand down the mane of my horse, Destiny.
“I do not recommend this course of action. It is revenge, which is not allowed on the Dark Plane. Revenge ranks up there with reincarnation and ghosts; those are not allowed either.”
Floating next to him over a small town in Iowa, I look down as the streetlights pop on, the late summer sun sinking slowly under the horizon.
“Do you have a better idea?” I ask. “We’re doing this town a favor. A favor no one else will do. We can make it look natural.”
Horace sighs, skeletal hands gripping the reigns of his horse, Zarathustra. “You do not think this is revenge?”
“No. Let’s go.”
I gently nudge Destiny’s flanks and she lands gently on Main St. Our target glares at us from behind a trashcan. He’s not sick; he’s a menace. He chases kids, pillages trashcans, and fights with the neighborhood cats.
“He does not look nice. Go ahead.”
My hands reach toward the racoon, lifting his soul from his body. Horace, unaffected by any diseases he might carry, carefully poses him in the street, an unfortunate victim of running in front of a car. His soul floats away to the caretakers on the Dark Plane. Thankfully, he never bit anyone. And the trashcans are safe, too.
@Aightball
250 words
Uncle Phil’s occult shop felt extra crowded with six time-displaced heroes huddled at the checkout counter. Cara leaned against the back wall with her arms crossed, trying to keep it cool. Because her uncle obviously wasn’t going to.
“I knew it! I knew magic was real! I mean, terrifying that the thing that proved it was a diabolic invasion. But with you six here, I’m not worried!”
Uncle Phil rummaged through a drawer behind the counter. He’d probably forgotten what he was looking for. The grey-haired woman in the heaviest armor frowned even more deeply.
“Why would the reality of magic be in question?”
“Ah, well, you don’t see a lot of magic these days. And what we do have is subtle. A lot of people don’t believe it’s real.”
Cara’s uncle stopped rummaging and scratched his head. Commander Ermengarde looked to her companions.
“Did anyone notice a reduction in their power?”
Aalis, who seemed like the leader, shook her head.
“Mine seemed the same as when the phoenix chose me.”
Kit, the youngest, stepped forward.
“Yeah! Dana’s unicorn even changed their weapon to what those soldiers were using!”
Uncle Phil shut the drawer.
“Anyway, we should get you all clothes that blend in a little better.”
Aalis nodded.
“What do you have?”
“A better idea would be to take those credit cards the government gave you to the mall. Not depend on my uncle to blend in,” Cara pushed off the wall. “I can take you.”
247 words
@davidaludwig.bsky.social
“Girl, I think all the other skanks are gonna be jealous.” Lora nodded. “This is for a job, right? I mean, you have backup, right?”
I didn’t want to lie to her, but she’d try to accompany me if I didn’t. “Yeah, I got what I need.”
When Lora raised a dubious eyebrow, I asked, “What? Do you have a better idea about getting me in there? Without your company, I mean.”
She sighed. “No. Not a clue. But I hate the idea of you going back in there without someone having your back.”
“That’s the thing about being undercover. You often go in alone.” I rested my hand on her arm as I shouldered my purse. “Don’t worry. I’ve done this before and I’m a professional.”
“I just don’t understand why you have to go undercover in a motorcycle gang. Especially as one of their fuck bunnies. It’s demeaning as hell.” Lora scowled as she followed me out of my apartment and waited for me to lock the door.
“Yeah, it’s a risk, but the good news is, those fuck bunnies are ubiquitous and no one really pays them much attention when they’re ‘claimed’.” I headed down to my little nondescript car.
“Ugh! I’m so sick of men thinking they own us. I’d like to see a club that has the genders swapped in that regard.”
“Me too, although there are some tough women in that club. I wouldn’t fuck with their enforcer. She’s one bad-ass bitch, for sure.”
250 ineligible #ConcreteAngelsMC words
https://patreon.com/SiobhanMuir
“Do you have a better idea?” Danny was giving her that look that dared her to question him. She’d spent too long letting that look keep her quiet. Marcy was done with that shit.
“A better idea?”
He smirked at her.
“Well,” Marcy said, pretending to think. “Let’s see. A better idea than lying to my dad, stealing my mom’s car, using your hand-drawn fake ID to buy the cheapest wine they sell at the gas station, driving out to The Point, and letting you play with my boobs in the hopes of getting some aliens so horny that they beam us up for a – making sure I got your term right – UFOrgy, breeding a species of half-alien, half-human babies who are telepathic and aren’t allergic to water, invading the aquatic kingdoms, rescuing your cousin who got captured after trying to steal the Sea Queen’s crown, developing time travel, and then getting back before curfew so we don’t get grounded?”
Danny looked at her as if to say “Yeah?”
Marcy grinned. Danny loved that grin.
“Nope.”
176 words
@drmag00.bsky.social
#ThursThreads Week 722 is now CLOSED. Thanks to everyone who wrote this week and I hope to catch you next week.