Irony Had a Gun

Here is my entry for this week’s 100-Word Challenge for Adults.  The prompt is:

….The flame flickered before….

A rock fell.  Was that a footstep?  My heart hammered like fists against my ribs.  The cave seemed my escape.  No way he saw me duck in here.  Right?

The fire was the mistake.  A dead giveaway.  Don’t bother excusing the pun.  I’m afraid of the dark.

No one messed with Dirty O’Neill and lived to tell about it.  I wouldn’t be breaking that trend either.  All for 50 grand.  Stupid.

The flame flickered before the shadow appeared.  It had a gun.  No time.  I threw myself on the flames.  Pitch black.  Fear’s the only hope and the irony burns.

 

To see my other 100-Word-Challenge entries go here.  To learn more about the 100-Word Challenge for Adults, and to see what this week’s prompt was, go here.

The Last Battle

This is my entry for this week’s 100-Word Challenge for Adults.  The challenge this week was to use the words:  “LIBERTY, EMPIRE, APPLE, YELLOW, and  ENORMOUS” to create a story of 100-words.

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Elijah Red and Portnoy Yellow stood gazing into the boughs of their creation.  Their efforts had come to fruition.  It was time.

The Kingdom of the Red Apple had forever been at odds with the Yellow Apple Empire.  The feud was threatening to explode again.  The younger generation needed antiquated-reminding there must be difference or both worlds would crumble.  War was imminent.

Elijah  grinned.  “This ought to set them on their ears.”

“Hope so,” Portnoy nodded.

Together the old men reached up and plucked another enormous half-yellow half-red apple from the tree.

“What shall we call them?”  Portnoy asked.

“Liberty.”

To see my other 100-Word-Challenge entries go here.  To learn more about the 100-Word Challenge for Adults, and to see what this week’s prompt was, go here.

If you enjoyed this, you may also enjoy Charlie Chaplin and The Great Dictator: The Speech that Resounds Across Time

They Know

This is my entry for this week’s 100-Word Challenge for Adults.

Elsie lay across her cot like a damp rag in the sweltering afternoon heat.  She was trying to digest what she’d seen.  She’d followed the elephant herd  for days, but today was a revelation.  Textbook words long ago had come to life like some ethereal dream in the velvety haze of morning.

The herd had discovered the carcass of another pachyderm.  They gathered around it solemnly, and one by one, each member had caressed the heap of parched old bones.  They fondled pieces of the deceased and carefully set them back, then stood quietly.

“They know they’re elephants,” she whispered.

To see my other 100-Word-Challenge entries go here.  To learn more about the 100-Word Challenge for Adults, and to see what this week’s prompt was, go here.

If you enjoyed this, you may also like Love without Language:  Elephants Pay their Respects to Lawrence Anthony After his Death

The Follies of Dainty-Dilly-Dalliness and Mysterious Eggs

The dwarves sat effort-knotted clenching the gnarled stump between them.  Derp hunched, tongue jammed up one toadstooly-nostril with effort.  He painted a wobbly line on the robin’s egg.

“Ack!  My fingers are too thickish for this dainty-dilly-dalliness,” he huffed.  “I don’t like painting eggs. I want to go home!”

Herp leapt to his feet, his bad eye spinning.

“I can help!” he cried.

With a grin as big as summer, he dug around in his pocket and produced a suspiciously large leathery egg.

“I found THIS one in the swamp!”

Derp grinned at the croc’s egg.

“I think you should just keep that prize in yer pocket awhile, Herpy boy.”

 

This is the latest entry in the 100-Word-Challenge for Adults.  This week’s challenge was the second part of two.  We were to take the last 10 words of another participant’s story and use it somewhere in our entry for this week.  You can see the original challenge here.

If you’d like to see the story I used the last 10 words from, visit How the Cookie Crumbles and read that story here.

To see my other 100-Word-Challenge entries, and more installments of this saga, go here.

The Frightening of Emily Bean: Attempt Number Two

Becoming a full-fledged demon was not an easy a task as one might imagine and Moribund the Shadow Thing was attempting demonhood. His target had unnerved him so utterly upon their first encounter he disappeared into the abyss entirely.

Now, it was time to try again.  He must frighten Emily Bean or risk losing his chance altogether.  He slithered from under her closet door and arched himself most sinisterly over her.

“Read me a story,” Emily smiled, flicking on her nightlight.

Moribund sagged.  Not again.  That cherub’s face…

Opening the book, he sighed, “‘What was the rabbit late for,’ wondered Alice.”

Maybe this demon-thing wasn’t in the cards.

The above is my entry for the 100-Word-Challenge. The prompt this week was writing a piece with ….‘What was the rabbit late for,’ wondered Alice….. in it.  Next week the last line of each entry will be taken by another writer and used as a prompt for that challenge.

To see other entries, and more installments of this saga, go here.

Don’t Open the Red One

The red box sat on the toadstool tempting as a strawberry.  Next to it was its twin, less noticeably brown.  Herp The-Not-So-Clever Dwarf pondered this boxy mystery as the woodsy-shadows grew longer.  Even his ever-wandering eye stopped wandering; mesmerized.

“What do you suppose is inside?”  he asked Derp, his twin brother.

Derp was rear-to-him and busy wrestling a salamander from under a log.

“Whatever you do, don’t open them,” he grunted.

Too late.  Herp had vanished into the woods, a flurry of scurrying feet wailing like a siren as the contents of the red box pondered Derp’s behind with glowing eyes.

The above is my entry for the 100-Word-Challenge. The prompt this week was “…the red box…”

To see other entries, and more installments of this saga, go here.

Clowns and Shadows…and Herp

Moribund The Shadow Thing made his way, slithering from shadow to shadow among the clowns in the little room.  Their bawdiness was quieted by moonlight to blues and blacks.  This was his realm.  He grinned.

Closer to the sleeping child he crept.  The foolish clowns held their breath, waiting for the scream to shatter the night.  He leaned closer…

Light exploded into the room.  Gaudy colors shrieked through his brain and then all went dark.  Blinded.

“Herp, for Pete’s sake!” he hissed at the clueless dwarf.

“But I turned it off!”

The clowns laughed harder and Herp ran.

The above is my entry for the 100-Word-Challenge. The prompt this week was “…but I turned it off…”

To see other entries, and more installments of this saga, go here.

 

The Wooden Horse-Beastie

Photo courtesy of Julia's Place

The dwarf twins, Derp and Herp, stood pondering the object.  It perplexed them both, which wasn’t necessarily a hard thing to do.  Derp absent-mindedly rubbed his toad-stool nose and Herp’s roving eye wandered in a different direction entirely.

Derp broke the silence first.

“A horse-beastie made out of wood is an odd thing to find.”

Herp blinked his good eye and tried to look at it harder.  His bad eye was too busy watching a butterfly.

“I wonder how fast it goes?”  Herp asked.

Derp resisted the urge to slap his forehead and rolled his eyes.

“Does stupid hurt, Herp?”

The above is my entry for the 100-Word-Challenge. The prompt this week was the photo posted above.

To see other entries, and more installments of this saga, go here.

Hope in a Sklortch

Moribund The Shadow Thing hovered in the dusty gloom of the attic licking his wounds.  They were still raw after the Valentine’s Day Disaster.  He draped himself over the rafters like a sullen cob web and swore off females for the 302^nd time.

“Love.  PAH!” he spat.

Something down in the darkness sklortched.

“Moribund?”

His heart flew into his throat and fluttered there like a moth.  It was Glenda Gloop.  She had come from the under the sink.  Up here.  Looking for him.  Conflicting emotions burned like a cinder.  What should he do?

Unexpected hope exploded.

“Glenda?”

Eyes closed, he leaped…

The above is my entry for the 100-Word-Challenge. The subject this week was “taking a leap of faith.”

Previous 100-word installments in the Moribund saga:

• Toad Slide
• Derp’s Dilemma
• Glenda Gloop’s Failed Surprise
• Love Dies an Ugly Death Under the Sink
• Moribund’s Demise

Toad Slide

The dwarves were under the wood pile again.  The Valentine’s Day disaster had passed but the tension had not.  The clammy moldiness was a comfort.

Herp poked a toad that stared at him blithely.

Derp sighed.  “I don’t think Moribund will ever forgive us, but if you look on the flip side…”

“A what slide?” Herp’s bad eye meandered toward Derp.

“Flip side.  Flip.  FLIP!”

Something warty wetly struck Derp in the side of the head.  It clung a moment before sliding down.

“What?  You said ‘flip!’”

“No, I said toad slide,” he spat shoving the toad down Herp’s pants.

The above is my entry for the 100-Word-Challenge. The prompt this week was “…the flip side…”

Previous 100-word installments in the Moribund saga:

• Hope in a Sklortch
• Toad Slide
• Derp’s Dilemma
• Glenda Gloop’s Failed Surprise
• Love Dies an Ugly Death Under the Sink
• Moribund’s Demise