Welcome back to the home of #ThursThreads for Week 726. 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 726:
Slightly past-it Canuck and word chucker, Bill Engleson.
And now your #ThursThreads Challenge, tying tales together.
The Prompt:
“Was it still there?”
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!
Sade was determined to get facts. “What did you see?”
“Nothing. It was…” Staring down at the clasped hands she pressed into her lap, Aisling paused. Thought. Remembered. “There was nothing there. No light. No dark. No sound. No silence.” She looked up, sure her face showed the haunting emptiness inside her. “It was nothing. It was something more.” She continued staring off into space at something only she could see. Breathing deeply several times, she turned her gaze on the two others in the room. In a voice she didn’t recognize, she added, “And then I was back.”
After a string of expletives, Sade admitted, “Ariel’s right. You weren’t in the between.” She glanced at the Fae and mouthed, “A human shoved into Faerie? Alone?”
Ariel glared and lifted one shoulder. The same sense of horror had slashed through him. In a voice he forced to sound gentle, he asked, “How did you get out?”
“A voice I didn’t hear. A hand I couldn’t feel. He showed me the door and here I am.”
Sade turned to Ariel. “The door. Was it still there? When you found her?”
He shook his head immediately, then considered for a moment before shaking it again. “No. I found her in a tunnel. The walls were solid.”
“You keep saying he? Who, Aisling? Who shoved you through the door and who brought you back?”
“You won’t believe me.”
“Try us.”
“He was made of shadows. They both were.”
Ariel spat. “Ravens.”
“Well, crap.”
****
250 Penumbra Papers #6 WIP words
Silver James
https:silverjames.com
He settled his weight onto the bench and swung his backpack around so he could dig out his binocs. He also pulled out a bird book just in case someone noticed him and wondered what he was doing.
Always be prepared and ready to improvise.
He couldn’t remember where he learned it, and suspected it was from his SEAL training, but it was good advice in any case. He took a deep breath and fit the binocs to this eyes, training them on the B&B parking lot.
He methodically checked each vehicle for color, shape, model, and manufacturer. He found three sedans, two mini vans, a passenger van, and five pickup trucks parked in the lot. All the pickups were dust-covered and may have been either white, gray, or silver, but it was hard to tell. But two of the pickups were duallys and another one had a smashed taillight, which Martin doubted Max would tolerate.
Which might be why it’s parked near the hardware store.
Of course, Martin didn’t know if the hardware store carried auto parts, but it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility given this was the nearest town to a lot of farms and ranches.
So, which truck was Max Aberdeen’s, and was it still there in the lot?
While Martin was watching, a guy came out of the hardware store and headed across the parking lot toward the B&B.
236 ineligible #StainlessSteelSEALs words
@siobhanmuir.bsky.social
I first heard the sound a distinct, wailing followed by guttural talking. The sounds continued echoed through the night as I crouched behind a bush. All I wanted to do was go back to my tent but would I be safe there? Men? Maybe, it was bear, or more than one, lumbering through the forest and now I’d be fresh meat? Was it still there?
My keys in my hand I ran hearing rustling sounds. It was coming, whatever it was.
All of sudden I felt something brush my legs I looked down at brown, almond-shaped eyes, and a hand full of fur brushed my hand. It was a dog a Alaskan Malamute. It licked my hand. I took it back to my tent and went to sleep.
I became fully awake as furry hands gripped me tight and then threw me over furry shoulders. The creature seemed to run across a great distance with me bouncing all the way and the dog running after us.
I peered into deep brown eyes of what looked like a furry man. Either I was dinner, or he was keeping me as a companion. I hoped it was the latter, but vowed to escape as soon as he was asleep.
He closed his eyes and I ran but he caught me and carried me to a new place, where another woman captive told me I was home. This is my life now so if you see meandering through the woods save me, please?
250 words @sweetsheil.bsky.social
Aalis last joined with Red Phoenix to slay the Empty Devil and end the war. It felt like a lifetime ago. Though, including the millennia spent in stasis, she supposed it had actually been even longer. And it was the only way she saw to fight this greater devil at its new size.
“Spirit of the Red Phoenix, lend me your form!”
Aalis called loudly, left hand raised to the sky. Once she saw the fireball hurtling toward the earth, the champion leapt into the air. The Phoenix’s wings drew Aalis into her heart. Champion and Guardian Animal became one and spread her crimson wings over the battlefield across from the hundred-and-sixty-foot-tall devil.
The coils around the diabolic machine’s fists and head charged electrically. Aalis-Phoenix prepared to dodge but, instead of attacking, the devil electrified its own body and disappeared! Was it still there?
The fiend reappeared when its shocking fist impacted Aalis-Phoenix’s chest, knocking her from the air! Ermengarde joined with the Blue Turtle in time for Aalis-Phoenix to land on their back without crushing the others, who had never joined with their Guardian Animals before.
Having now seen it twice, the other champions quickly called their Guardians as well. With six titanic animals against the single greater devil, the fight suddenly looked easy.
“Indeed,” Phoenix-Aalis informed herself and the others. “Now that we are all here, there is an additional option available to us that we have never used before.”
242 Great Guardian words
@davidaludwig.bsky.social
The snow followed me in, swirling eddies of white and then wet as I closed the door and the heat from the fire took hold once more. Conversation stopped as it always did when someone came in, all the more so when it was someone like me, someone who’d traveled a fair distance for a pint and a bowl. Thirty-eight pairs of eyes on me (thirty-eight where there once were twice that number) all asking the same question. The one we asked before going out, whether to the outhouse or the woodshop or the general store or the taproom.
Was it still there?
I gave the usual nod and got the usual reactions back. It’s why we came out to this place, after all, risking the chance we might not make it. Life wasn’t meant to be spent away from other people.
Melly poured me a pint of brown ale and scooped up a bowl of browner stew. I took it to my usual table, setting it next to the mugs and bowls and axes and pistols that filled the surface.
We talked of the things that people talk about when they don’t want to talk about the big topic and watched the fires burn as long as we could, but eventually it was time to head back to the places we slept.
There was every chance there wouldn’t be 38 pairs of eyes to greet me next time. Or that there’d be a next time.
It was still there.
250 words
@drmag00.bsky.social
#ThursThreads Week 726 is now CLOSED. Thanks to everyone who wrote this week and I hope to catch you next week.