Diddums!

Kingspost

The sign said Pirate Parking Only. If you weren't a pirate, you'd be scuttled away at your own expenses. Diddums!

OK, fair enough, thought the Captain of the pirate ship.

But the truth was that he had to prove his pirate status.

He took the opportunity and started bragging.

Oh, we looted a Spanish galleon. Prove it. OK, we have these jewels of the Spanish Crown. Prove they're not forgeries. They're not forgeries! Prove it.

Infuriated, the Captain said "You, son of a biscuit eater!", but the result was only laughter. He would definitely have to work on his insults.

100 Word Stories

Basic

 

Hattuse City

There's nothing basic about a statue that is crumbling. There's actually an overwhelming feeling of panic when the darn thing starts disintegrating as soon as you pick it up.

Why did I have to be the one, he thought. So many people in this expedition and this thing had to fall apart in my hands. It's not fair. He wanted to be promoted and now he would be blamed for a catastrophic destruction of a national treasure. In his defense, this stupid statue had been buried for hundreds of years. It was time's fault.

Did he get fired? Basically, yes.

100 Word Stories

Mustard Yellow

 

Milk Wood

#FFDB58

That was it. A color reduced to a strange combination of letters and numbers.

The universe is made of numbers, his Math teacher told him, that's the universal language.

And he hated that because he wanted the universe to be made of words. He wanted the universe to be made of stories. He loved stories!

When a fellow student asked the teacher how we could communicate with aliens, the teacher said "With numbers".

He yelled and said "No, no! They'll want to know our stories!"

The Math teacher looked at him and said "But we already know your stories".

100 Word Stories

Mass

 

Island of Lost Dreams

He scribbled on a small piece of paper.

The church was dark and empty. But he didn't feel lonely. He never felt lonely. The automatic on his back was more than enough.

He scribbled some more on the paper.

Then he placed it in his pocket. They'll find it.

A few people started to arrive. He had 10 minutes to change his mind.

The church was dark and the voices became vaguely irritating.

One bullet was all he needed.

But the voices of joy... This annoying cheerfulness...

He did have more than one bullet.

That's when he changed his mind.

100 Word Stories

On a Loop

 

Milk Wood

Why should I worry about that?

Because it rhymes with grasp.

What?

Heinz 57 on a loop, unleashed.

What are you talking about?

I can't see. These glasses...

Why should I worry about that?

Because it rhymes with clasp and a clasp is always useful.

What?

Heinz 57 on a loop.

What are you talking about?

I can not hear. The voices are too loud.

Why should I worry about them?

Because they rhyme with gasp.

What?!

Heinz 57 on a...

Are we doing this 54 more times?

Silence.

They are gone.

Did I forget to take my pills again?

100 Word Stories

Overhead

BWC Village

"Who paid the rent?"

The studio was in full swing, over-booked even, and no one bothered to pay the rent for several months.

What could he do? He was just a sound technician.

One day, some goons wrecked the whole place. A fortune in high-end equipment smashed to pieces. Not to mention the broken arms and legs.

The studio was rebuilt soon after.

The mob was now managing it.

Things ran smoothly.

He was happy.

Good thing he had removed some of the expensive equipment ahead of time. The goons got there earlier. Something about a football game on TV.

100 Word Stories

Fine

 

Neverland

"No trains?"

The man sitting outside the station shrugged.

"Fine."

10am. What now?

She could walk, but her feet were killing her after 2 hours, walking from the nearest village.

A cab perhaps? Did they even have cabs here, in the middle of nowhere?

She could wait. What if there were no trains?

Then, she saw the policeman.

"No trains?"

He shrugged.

"Fine!"

Rude people.

"Lady, I saw you crossing the road over here."

"So?"

"The zebra crossing is over there."

"So? There are no cars."

"Well, here."

"What's this?"

"A fine, of course. You do love fines, don't you?"

100 Word Stories

It's a Dirty Job

 

Majesterium

He sat surrounded by orange and red and yellow pillows. All he could think of was to get rid of her. That's where he was in life. "Let's have a cocktail at the Sundown Lounge," she said. "It's so fancy!" Her voice shrilled throughout the fancy rooftop. And now, here he was, pondering whether he could break the glass he was holding, and stab her with it quickly enough. Well, he did try. But the damn lounge had some pretty sturdy glasses. "It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it," he later told his cellmate. "I trust you."

100 Word Stories

A Trying Endeavor

Octoberville

 It was a trying endeavor. A man sitting on a beam, working up high. No ropes, an emptiness below him. Just sitting there and hammering away. But she took that photograph, plus the one with the buildings. Her father had told her that those two represented the company's prestige. A man dangling, hammering away for a pittance, building the company's prestige. The pride of the family. When her father died, she took those photographs and burned them. Yes, she got rid of the company's prestige, and she got rid of her family. It was a trying endeavor. Freedom's never easy.

100 Word Stories

George was a Pirate

Then this happens...

100 Word Stories

.... and I smile.

Potato Eyes

 

Octoberville

Don't say that. Don't put it there. Don't look that way. Don't, don't. Didn't I tell you not to...

I am sick of it. And I want to move on.

But she grabbed my ankle and her hand was a shackle. She drags herself through the mud and she doesn't let go.

I knew I would... Yes, die, say it, say it, die.

She would never let go. Never.

Don't throw that away.

The potatoes? Potato eyes. The potatoes have eyes. The potatoes have...

And I throw it away, I throw everything away.

The eyes, the will, and the soul.

100 Word Stories

Split

 

Octoberville

The show is about to start.

And she laughed and laughed.

The stage was empty, but she laughed and laughed.

I just sat there, my mind filled with perplexity.

She waved her arms and laughed and laughed.

I sank in my chair. What could I do but wait for the show to start?

And I waited and waited.

That's when I realized that she had her own stage. In her mind. Everyone owed her attention, a lot of attention. She was the show. And she thought everyone knew that.

When no one clapped, she stopped laughing. Hate. She hated everyone.

100 Word Stories

Riot of Color

 

Octoberville

Out of the blue, he jumped from behind the giant canvas. Sword swallowing. A daring exhibition. He had to practice, right? "Almost caught red-handed," he mumbled. And when they asked him questions, he chuckled. "Oh, it wasn't me, officer." And they believe him, because he told them a harmless little white-lie. The officer grinned. But then he was given two days to leave the circus... Why?! Making a random passer-by swallow a sword hardly seemed a good enough reason to be fired. The said passer-by vanished into thin air, true. But still. Well, their loss. A daring exhibition no more.

100 Word Stories

Old Videos

 

Octoberville

"Come on. It's starting," I said. Old videos and popcorn!

But... I had forgotten. Our old videos don't go with popcorn. They go with sorrow.

"Say cheese for the camera," they would say cheerfully.

We never did, no.

"Don't be so grumpy all the time, you two."

We were kids. We weren't grumpy. We weren't stupid. We weren't shitheads. We were just kids.

Memory is such a trickster, isn't it? It erases everything.

And here I was, in front of the TV, a bowl full of popcorn on my lap.

I wanted to cry, but I had no tears left.

100 Word Stories

Rats

 

Octoberville

At the crack of dawn, the rats would come out to play.

He knew they would try to shine.

But he wouldn't let them. Oh, no.

At the crack of dawn, the rats would start to talk.

He knew they'd give him up.

But he wouldn't let them. Oh, no.

There was only one way to stop this madness.

He drove to them.

At the crack of dawn, he knocked on their door.

They opened, saw him and tried to run.

It was messy and they never got to shine.

He almost felt for them, at the crack of dawn.

100 Word Stories

Canyon

 

Ravenlake

Canyon was a crow.

Canyon hated his name.

Canyon abhorred the guy who had named him.

Canyon never replied when the guy called him.

The guy's greenhouse was his pride.

So, Canyon started with pebbles and slowly upgraded to stones.

The day one of the windows shattered, Canyon cawed in triumph.

That's when he stopped being Canyon and became a Jerk.

Canyon didn't like Jerk either.

The guy fixed the window and sneered.

A convoluted plan ensued. Canyon's buddies would help.

Well, the guy didn't live long enough to enjoy his greenhouse.

It was a murder, by God, a murder!

100 Word Stories

Stand

 

Kronbelt

They said "You can become filthy rich being a travel blogger". He believed them. One day, a guy said "You're a wuss." He was no wuss. He was a King. "Off with his head!" He'd always wanted to say that. His kingdom. An old mattress, a dusty rug, a lamp. He could walk a few feet to the left and a few feet to the right. Thirty years, till the parole board decided he could leave. He did have some incense burning. It made him look normal. The severed head in his backpack was sloppy. Oh, well, stand still, Zen...!

100 Word Stories

Fog a Mirror

Time Remains

 

"I've never felt so grounded," he said.

She could see through him.

"Some girl I met online," he said.

A whole lot of bravado, a cigarette hanging from his lips.

That snapshot she took of him... The ridiculous hat, the feather, the flower. Was it a rose?

Hopeless. Empty.

She still remembered the album crammed with photos of himself, only himself. Page after page, after page.

When she asked why, he grinned and mumbled some vague explanation filled with an under-layer of self-doubt he desperately tried to hide.

Grounded in his desperation, wanting to be seen for what he wasn't.

100 Word Stories

Frozen in Time

Home

 

Is this what we're supposed to see?

Is this the real face of...

Now is the time to be honest.

However, no one wants to tell the truth.

Everyone is hiding behind fake compliments.

Is this what we're supposed to do?

Is this the real...

And that flower was so fragile. As fragile as they were, staring at it, wondering.

The two of them. Alone.

They were real. Yes, they were, together in that frozen pain of what was not, together as they had always been, mourning what could've happened but never did.

The two of them. Together. Always together.

100 Word Stories

Collection

Milk Wood

 

He knew that the collection of plates with flowers on them was worthless.

However, his wife thought they were her ticket into a world of traveling and luxury.

When she died unexpectedly, one of her daughters lit two candles next to the plates, mentally claiming them as hers.

"No one wants these plates, right?"

Everyone said they did want them.

That's when a family crisis started. Years of arguments ensued. Marriages. Grandchildren. Divorces.

And the damn plates were still there, sitting on the shelf.

Good thing he had hidden the gold.

Traveling was nice and luxury hotels were even better.

100 Word Stories