Zombies!!!

Hehehehe! I've got a lot of flash fiction friends now, and most of them are much darker genre fiction than I am (horror, paranormal romance, post-apocalyptic and urban fantasy). Anyway, it must be rubbing off on my because I woke up this morning at 5am from a zombie nightmare! I've never once dreamed of zombies before. I've never even plotted a story for zombies before. They weren't all that interesting (although I really want to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but haven't yet). However, the zombies (which, I suppose, aren't really zombies because they're not dead - haven't yet decided if it's a plague of some sort or a parasitic alien) in my dream were terrifying. I couldn't go back to sleep.

But I wouldn't be much of a writer if I didn't take advantage of my horror, so I tweeted about it this morning and my good friend @postupak reminded me of the #55wordchallenge over at Jezri's Nighmares. Here's the picture I chose:



And here's my 55 word rendition of my nightmare...

I look at the picture of my daughter still safe on the surface. I’d never see her grow up. Will she ever know what happened here?

Please, no.

They’re scratching at the door. They somehow escaped quarantine. I won’t let them eat me alive, and I’m sure as hell not becoming one.

Push the button.

I was crying after I wrote this. I'm not sure 55 words does the horror of the dream justice, but I hope it at least got the essence... :)

Just for reference: It takes place on a space station and the button is the self-destruct (this is obviously the end of the dream...and not exactly how it happened in the dream, but 55 words wouldn't picture my dream exactly...plus I had to use the picture - which wasn't in the dream either)

It Begins

You're going to get a special treat this week. Or, maybe just an oddity. I'm not really sure how this will go over. Anyway, last week (yes, I know, it's been 10 days since I wrote this flash fiction...I've been busy - I'll get to that in another blog) I entered Cara Michael's Menage Monday challenge. This is the 200 flash fiction with three prompts. This week (or last week, really) it was the phrase "got a [ ] feeling" (where the [ ] could be filled with whatever word you like) the idea "it wasn't the first time I found one of those in there" and a black and white picture of the Korean War Memorial.



Eerily cool, huh?

The treat you'll get this week is first I will show you my final 200 word entry. THEN I will show you my 461 word free write that I started with. It will show you some of how I chopped it down and tried to keep the ideas, while cutting a lot of detail. Also, just a warning, the second story isn't done either, but I stopped writing so that I could hope to get 200 words out of it and I never got back to it. It's at a fine stopping point, but I was still going until I looked at the word count and figured I'd never get it finished if I didn't stop there. It's hard enough to cut from 450 to 200...imagine trying to cut 600 or 700 to 200...yeah, I didn't want to try it! :) 

First up, the entry:

“Stop! Do you see that?” The world just turned black and white.

“See what?” Okay, so it was just me, “It’s not, you know, that again, is it?” I nodded. “Celia, you haven’t Seen anything in years! I thought it was over.”

I sighed, “Me too. Now where’s the nearest statue?”

“We’re in DC, there are statues everywhere.” He had a huff in his voice.

“There.” I pointed at the Korean War Memorial and moved that direction. The statues which I just admired as beautiful and aching were now eerie and haunting in monochromatic starkness.

“I’ve got a horrible feeling about this.” Corbin was whining now and he started pulling on my sleeve.

“Then just stay here. I’m sure it’ll be quick. It always has been.”

It always unnerved me when a statue uncoiled and started talking. No matter how many times I’ve seen it, I think it will always send a shiver down my back and butterflies in my stomach. It just wasn’t right. It was worse that I was the only one who saw it. Was I seriously messed up in the brain, or was this real somehow? I wished I knew.

“Celia. It is time.” It began.

Okay. Nice. Oh, thank you! I liked it too! (C'mon! Be polite!) And here's what I started with:

“Wait! Stop! Do you see that?” The world just turned black and white.

“See what?” Okay, so it was just me.

“This is bad. I didn’t think this could happen on vacation.”

Corbin turned to me with concern written all over his face, “Celia, you haven’t Seen anything in years! I thought it was over.”

I sighed, “Me too. Now where’s the nearest statue?” I started turning.

“We’re in DC, there are statues everywhere.” He had a huff in his voice.

“There.” I pointed at the Korean War Memorial and moved that direction. The statues which I just admired as beautiful and aching were now eerie and haunting in monochromatic starkness.

“I’ve got a horrible feeling about this.” Corbin was whining now and he started pulling on my sleeve.

“Then just stay here. I’m sure it’ll be quick. I always has been.”

“But you don’t know that it’ll be okay. What if this time it’s different? You don’t even know who’s talking to you. What’ll happen if you don’t go?”

“Remember when I was 12 and it happened in school? I had a test last period, so I couldn’t go to the park on main street for several hours. At first it wasn’t too bad, but by the time my test came I had a headache so bad that I couldn’t concentrate. I think I’ll just go see what it wants.”

“Well, I’ll come with you.” He grabbed my hand and squeezed as we approached the first statue.

It always unnerved me when a statue, something I knew to be solid and immovable, uncoiled and started talking. No matter how many times I see it, I think it will always send a shiver down my back and butterflies in my stomach. It just wasn’t right. It was worse that I was the only one who saw it. Was I seriously messed up in the brain, or was this real somehow? I wished I knew.

“Celia. It is time. You are near. Go to the Washington Monument. Place you right hand, palm flat, on the north side and you left hand, palm flat, on the East side. Then let your forehead touch the corner. We will see you soon.” The statue returned to its lifeless shape.

The colors were bright and sharp, even in winter. I shook my head and felt Corbin squeeze my hand. “You okay?”

I turned to smile at him, “Yeah. I’m supposed to go to the Washington Monument. I’m going to meet them.”

“Meet them? At the Washington Monument? Just like that?”

“That’s what they said. Well, after I do some ritual-type thing.” I explained to him what the statue said. He looked incredulous.

“And you’re just going to do it?!?!”

“Corbin, I don’t really have a choice.”

Yeah. I liked that one too. Thanks... :P

Anyway, I hope you liked seeing the contrast of the two. Cutting is very hard, but I feel that doing these Flash Fiction challenges are going to be a big help when I finally finish that manuscript and have to start editing...I'll be used to all the chopping that goes on! :)

Thanks for reading!

Close Encounter

I kept the characters from the What's Your Specialy? post from this morning for the Tuesday Tales entry over at Stevie McCoy's blog Glitterword. Hers is a 100 word flash fiction contest with a picture prompt and a word that must be included. The secret word is Tonsorial (an adj meaning: of or relating to a barber or the work of a barber)...yeah, who knew? And here's the picture:




I hope you enjoy this short snapshot of what happened just before the events in the other one...

He entered the room unerringly. How could he tell where I was? No one could see me. The room was empty. I backed up and put my hand against a blue stained glass circle. He approached slowly. I held my breath. The minute I smelled him I would lose all sense of caution. His tonsorial creation kept falling into his eyes. I wanted to brush it back. He smiled and reached for my hand. Oops. The heat had left my handprint on the glass. I moved it away with a slight gasp. Bad idea. Desire. I reached toward him.

What's your Specialty?

This one I'm really excited about. I had a dream last night (or this morning, really, since I was dreaming it as I woke up)...the idea and characters and such came from the dream, but not this scene. I had to adjust the dream to fit with the prompt. :) Since it is for Motivation Monday over at Wakefield Mahon's blog, the prompt is the first sentence and I get 500 words! I used them all too! :) (I had to chop a bit, but not too much I hope) Anyway, I hope you like it!

She stumbled away from the fiery wreckage, and hoped once again that he had miraculously survived. She could still smell his cologne – deep and musky with a hint of spice. He always knew when she was around, he could sense her somehow. Was that his specialty? Could he negate the specialty of others, or just sense that someone was there? No. He definitely hadn’t seen her. He had been trying to get her to give herself away with sound or movement. It had almost worked – cornered in the room, intoxicated by his scent, and overwhelmed by his proximity – She had been so close to reaching out and touching him.

Then Raptor had entered the room, or Marcus as the man called him. It was odd to think of him having a real name – Raptor fit him so well. She wished Raptor had said the man’s name, but it would only add to her already overactive fantasies, so it was probably better she didn’t know. She had practically sprinted out of the room and then out of the building, pushing the button as she exited. Probably too soon – her  leg was starting to tell her that it had been injured now that the adrenaline was wearing off – but Raptor had escaped every other time she had blown him up. It was uncanny.

She finally fell to her hands and knees two blocks away. It was then that the agony in her leg overcame rational thought. Only reflexes kept her dragging herself away. She had to get to the pick-up point. She dared a look down at her leg and wished she hadn’t. It was bad. She whimpered. Definitely too soon.

She could smell him. Was she dreaming? She looked around and he was crouched in the shadow of the building to her right.

“I’m here to help. Please. You’re hurt. Let me help.”

How did he know she was here? She was still invisible. And, oh, she wanted his help. She didn’t know if she could go on.

“Please. I know you’re injured. I just want to help.”

He was just trying to get her to give up her position. He worked for the enemy. He wasn’t to be trusted.

“This isn’t some trick. I promise I won’t hurt you. You need help.”

How did he even know that?

“There’s a trail of blood! I don’t even know how you’re still conscious. Please! Drop your invisibility so I can help.”

He was right. Her brain was getting fuzzy from the loss of blood. He must’ve been able to sense her indecision because he crawled forward with his hand outstretched. Let herself die, or put herself in enemy hands? She looked up into his eyes and couldn’t think of him as her enemy anymore – Raptor, yes…this man? No.

She phased back in to the visible world.

His smile broke like sunshine over her. “You’re as beautiful as I imagined…and you’re going to have to trust me.”

“I don’t even know your name.”

Vegas, Baby!

I haven't written a lot of flash lately...The Olympics have been taking all my time. However, I wrote a piece for Menage Monday over at Cara Michaels blog yesterday. I didn't have a lot of time. It's due in at 9:00 my time and I had to wait until all the kids were asleep... My idea was a little too big this time because I couldn't shorten it enough to be eligible to win. It's supposed to be between 100-200 words, mine ended up at 295. And that's after some cutting. I just ran out of time. Ah well, I posted it anyway. The prompts were a picture of the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada", the phrase "it all started", and the quote "I can resist anything except temptation" by Oscar Wilde. Oh, if you look closely at the picture, on the bottom is a sign with the name George Wallace. I googled him and he's a comedy act in Vegas...so I put that in too! :) Anyway, I hope you enjoy my take on it!

“Baby, we should go to Vegas!” Charlie bounced through the door.

“What? No. I can resist anything except temptation.” God, he looked good. That half-smile of his made my heart pound.

“What are you talking about? You don’t even gamble.” He grabbed an apple out of the basket on the counter.

“So there’s no reason to go, is there?” I snatched the apple and took a bite.

“Sure there is! We could watch some shows, like George Wallace – my buddy said he’s hilarious and gives out free stuff.” He winked as he snatched the apple back and took a bite.

“Is he raunchy? Because I think that kind of humor is in bad taste.” I leaned toward him and opened my mouth. He let me take another bite of the apple.

“Nah, he’s just funny, I think. Please, go to Vegas with me, Baby!” He leaned in close to my face. Too close.

“I really should stay away from temptation.” My heart raced and I turned to get something out of the refrigerator. I didn’t know what, but I needed to cool down.

“What temptation? You couldn’t care less about casinos and the only other thing Vegas has is… Oh. Really? Temptation?” I turned to see a huge smile on his face – not one of those smoldering half-smiles, but a gleaming all-teeth smile that practically knocked me over.

“I don’t know…it all started bubbling up when you said Vegas. If we go, we might end up…” I bit my lip. I couldn’t actually say it.

“And that would be bad?” His eyebrows pinched together.

“We just haven’t planned anything. We haven’t thought it through, or even talked about it…” He moved toward me and placed his finger over my lips.

“Baby, will you marry me?”