Blog Posts

To Be Heard, by Robert P. Bishop

4/10/2024

I was ignored at the most recent political rally I attended. I sat with the people and raised my voice to be heard, but the shouts of the crowd were too loud and what I said was lost in the din surrounding me.

I got to my feet and headed for the stage where the candidate stood. Burly men in black suits prevented me from getting on the stage and wresting the microphone from the candidate’s hand. They promptly hustled me out of the rally.

But I’m stubborn. I will be back. I’m Truth, and the people shall know me.

5 Comments

God, by JP Lor

4/10/2024

1 Comment

The first time I came home with a black eye, I thought my dad would give me another one. Instead, he gently pressed his cold beer against my cheek. It stung, but I smiled. He didn’t care if I’d won or lost.

Fighting is the closest thing to God, he said. Here, drink.

Once the swelling and bruise disappeared, so did our talks.

Bringing them back was easy. A bloody nose, a chipped tooth. Sometimes, someone would punch me so hard I’d see a flash of light. It was never God, though, but who cares? I have a dad.

1 Comment

And Repeat, by Louise Arnott

4/10/2024

3 Comments

Walt scrutinized Ken and his pals as he placed their order of four cokes and a ginger ale on the table.

“Before you do it, consider the ramifications.”

Ken poured the contents of the salt shaker into the neck of the bottle of ginger ale. Six seconds of nothing. Then the ginger ale blew.

Eight frantic hands attempted to curb the geyser, spraying over the table, the benches and the floor.

Giving up, they bolted, made it half way across the cafe where Walt stood waiting, bucket, mops and cloths in hand. “Christ lad, your dad was just as dumb.”

3 Comments

At the Tracks, by Kirsty Nottage

4/10/2024

2 Comments

“Who’s there?” Richard swung around.
When nobody answered, he continued exploring the disused railway tracks, admiring the macabre scene of rusting carriages. A perfect site for his brand of creepy photography.
He heard footsteps again. Glimpsing a figure, weaving through the shadows, he shouted, “Hello, who are you?’
The figure stopped and turned, moonlight revealing a young woman in her twenties.
“What are you doing here?” Richard asked. “It’s a dangerous place for a woman.”
Richard didn’t see the flicker of silver until he felt a searing pain in his stomach.
“It’s dangerous for everyone,” the woman said, walking away.

2 Comments

Sacrifice, by Glenn Francis Faelnar

4/10/2024

1 Comment

In the creeping hours of midnight, a blue Hyundai Accord strayed off the main road and journeyed across the forest. Dust clouds formed as the car sped up through dirt road until it reached two trees twisted together.

Ronnie stopped the car. He exited the vehicle with his jacket and flashlight. He left it unlocked. He knelt down and uttered the words “Ay Ta Kishi Mo Urec”. A low growl echoed throughout the forest.

Ronnie walked away from the car as the screams of the passenger he left invaded his ears.

“One more year of fame for me.”

1 Comment

Investing in Futures, by Ian Willey

4/10/2024

2 Comments

Wanting to get rich quick, I bought a time machine and returned to 1994, intending to invest in Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks. That should make me a multi-millionaire, I figured.

But when the broker showed me the price of these shares, my eyes bulged. That could only mean…

“You thought you’re the only person to have this idea?” asked the broker.

“I was a barber in 2024,” he continued, “but when I realized how much I could make from you people I came back and stayed.”

“What about your life in the future?” I asked.

“It’s looking good,” he said.

2 Comments

Old Flame, by Tom Baldwin

4/10/2024

9 Comments

Harvey was sitting on the park bench, the sun warming his face, when the girl appeared. He couldn’t believe it was her, blinked and looked again. Yes, her face, hair, figure and walk were just as he remembered — his true love had found him again. He began to rise from the bench.

His wife saw the girl, understood at once, and put a gentle hand on Harvey’s arm. ‘Yes, she looks just like me when I was that age, doesn’t she, darling?’

Harvey sat down, confusion on his face as the girl walked away. ‘Who does?’ he said.

9 Comments

Catch, by Kingston Marsch

4/10/2024

2 Comments

This morning, a garden spider caught a human in her web. It was far too big for eating and it pulled the web clean off its moorings.
So, all she could do was jump away from the wreckage and start all over again.
Recovering, she recalled the last time she had caught a human: well, almost.
It had stopped at the last moment, made a troubled face, uttered a horrible scream, then turned and ran away.
Happily, her web escaped damage. But, for her, the experience had been terrifying!

2 Comments

A Vicarious Life, by Rebekah Lawrence

4/10/2024

3 Comments

Today, I am a young woman named Tonya. As far as I can tell, I am unemployed, bored, and lonely. Quite a change from yesterday when I flew jets across the skies as Percival.

Life can be exciting when you are discorporated and sample lives randomly. Every night I go to sleep knowing I will wake as someone else. It is a delicious feeling.

I get Tonya up and outside, meeting her elderly neighbour who invites us in for coffee. As they bond over shared loneliness, the day passes quickly.

Too soon, night comes. I wonder who I’ll be tomorrow.

3 Comments

The Beach, by Guy Fletcher

4/10/2024

3 Comments

Connor stood at the edge of the ocean which seemed to be full of jewels in the spring sunshine.

"Connor. How's it going?"

He turned swiftly around to be greeted by his former lover. They strolled along the shore and Connor felt he had stepped into the past but when he tried to hold her hand he was aware that he had not.

"I've got to get back to my husband and kids."

He watched her become smaller and smaller as she returned to her family. How Connor regretted his old selfish actions.

3 Comments

The Journey, by Pamela Kennedy

4/10/2024

6 Comments

Why have the birds stopped chirping and why are there no trees? There is silence everywhere except the sounds of sobbing from young and old alike. Why does something seem familiar yet appears so different?

The worst is over, at least, for now. I am afraid and yet remain calm. The journey through time and space is odd, so very odd. Forward...moving forward...always forward.

I glance back. The siren went off. The shrill, the shaking, being covered in debris...and then I was enveloped in darkness until I was set free from a world filled with agonizing misery.

6 Comments

For Whom the History Teaches, by Sankar Chatterjee

4/10/2024

3 Comments

He entered the ruins of Auschwitz through its iconic tower gate. Original rail-tracks were still snaking in and out of the yard. He followed the track that’d led the packed train carrying his family and dropping on a raised platform.

The Nazi general, by the motion of his thumb, dispatched his parents to the gas chambers, while ordering him to a labor camp. He survived the horror, subsequently becoming a successful world figure.

He reached the old platform area, looked at the overhead somber sky and imagined hearing a booming sound. Halfway around the world, a new annihilation just began.

3 Comments

Appreciation, by Sandra James

4/10/2024

10 Comments

‘Do you like my new dress?’ I twirled around in the fabulous pink velvet creation, its skirt flaring beneath the slim-fitting bodice accentuating my figure. My school reunion was coming up and I wanted to look my best.

He didn’t need to speak for his brown eyes told me all I needed to know.

‘I’ve really blown the budget. It was a bit more expensive than I planned and we’ll have to live on lighter rations for a couple of weeks. You don’t mind, do you sweetie?’

Jasper, my Mini-Dachshund, just wagged his tail.

10 Comments

The World’s Gone Nuts: Again, by Peggy Gerber

4/10/2024

11 Comments

When Melissa entered Costco, her mouth dropped open. Due to the longshoreman’s strike, people were running around like ants loading their carts with toilet paper and paper towels.

Though Melissa had come only for milk, she began to panic and raced to the toilet paper aisle only to discover the shelves were bare.

Discouraged, she got on the line to pay for her groceries, and noticed the woman ahead of her had purchased enough toilet paper to last for approximately 13,000 visits to the bathroom.

“The world’s gone nuts,” she thought, and pulled out her phone to order a bidet.

11 Comments

Sanctus in the City, by Scott C. Holstad

4/10/2024

1 Comment

At Sanctus with people in goth black nails and lipstick, capes, corsets and dancing, music spinning “The Vampire Song,” yet things seem wrong.

Thoughts of one old Planet Earth nightclub, of erupting passion, drugs and drunken matings, of swaying and slamming to old school Ministry, Bauhaus, Thrill Kill Kult, Sisters of Mercy and The Cure. Pretentious but always first about the music.

That’s it!

Sanctus is all show. A social club, fashion show, excuse to bare all. Filing teeth to claim “authentic” vampire fangs doesn’t make a vampire. Worst? They don’t even LIKE goth music! Dance floor’s empty all night.

1 Comment

Judgement Day, by Sue Clayton

4/10/2024

11 Comments

Soon my germinating seed will spring forth from fertile soil, to blossom in a garden awash with flora, burgeoning into a symbol of love and romance.

The earth opens, my bud shoots through. What colour will I be? Pink, red, yellow, white? Red, please, the colour of love.

I emerge to greet the sun and sky, opening my petals to embrace my glorified existence as a king amongst flowers.

“But you are not a king,” the field awash with green rye grass whispers on the breeze. “You are judged to be a weed.”

11 Comments

Pack Rat, by Nadia Djamila

4/10/2024

3 Comments

Luca threw away birthday cards the same day he received them. Grocery bags and paid bills and the flotsam of ordinary life stood no chance.
Ellie kept beloved moldering books and expired concert tickets and broken typewriters and a plastic tuberose lei from their first date at that garish bar.
“What if we need these?” she said. “What if we miss them?”
Luca started saving boxes. He moved out while Ellie was at work.
The new apartment had white walls and bare shelves and not a trace of nostalgia. He was completely alone.
“I love it,” he whispered. “It’s perfect.”

3 Comments

Rain Drop, by Cho Seonvin

4/10/2024

2 Comments

Rain poured down as I rushed out of the school without an umbrella. A guy appeared and offered to share his umbrella. As I was flustered, I hesitated, unsure of his intentions, but he gently insisted. Awkwardly, I stepped under his umbrella, and he asked, “We’re in the same class, right?” Realizing my mistake, I blushed. “Oh, yes, sorry!” He laughed and said, “No problem. Maybe next time we can share again?” I smiled shyly as the rain lightened, and suddenly, raindrops turned into heartbeats. Rainy days didn’t seem so bad anymore.

2 Comments

Holiday Blues, by Angela Carlton

4/10/2024

8 Comments

Uncle was a “Mama’s boy.” When he shared “news" over the Holiday about his nightclub dancer, Goldie, she showed up wearing ripped jeans, and didn’t look a bit like Easter Sunday! Uncle talked on-on-on, about life changing since they met. When he mentioned they were getting hitched, my strait-laced Nanna cried out, but it wasn’t a good cry, more like my pet parrot, Sambo, squawking.

My Uncle quickly squashed the issue by pulling out his harmonica and playing some southern Blues. Nanna’s sniffling now and clutching her tissues while his lady shakes-shakes-shakes her hips, platinum hair flying in figure-hugging jeans.

8 Comments

To Be So Wanted, by Krystyna Fedosejevs

4/10/2024

7 Comments

Stephen was in high demand.

His family wanted the financial security he managed to provide. Their cat lured him with purring in want of quality food. The dog wanted his company for outdoor walks regardless of the weather.

Neighbours wanted Stephen to do his part, reminding him to look after his lawn.

At work he overlooked the company operations, guiding fellow employees with the care they wanted until… the bookkeeping didn’t balance.

Fraud, embezzlement hit the airwaves. Stephen resigned.

No one had seen him since. He was reported as ‘missing’. Photos of him circulated.

Stephen was indeed a wanted man.

7 Comments

P.O.W., by Bill Cox

4/10/2024

4 Comments

His back was sore, his right knee was in pain, his belly rumbled, but onwards he walked, for the fourteenth day in a row.

When the enemy’s government had collapsed, the camp authorities had simply thrown open the gates and pointed west. The prisoners of war were left to make their own way back.

In the distance, he saw a road sign, riddled with bullet holes.

Closer still, he could read the town names on the sign. He realised that he’d crossed the border hours ago.

Suddenly, his aches, the hunger, were gone.

The war was over. He was home.

4 Comments

Simulacra, by Myram Huey

4/10/2024

3 Comments

It was a stranger came home. Just as tall and stoop-shouldered as Max; ears still prominent, eyes still green, and same peachy complexion as Max. Yet not quite Max. Strange feeling. The being before us performed actions, certainly, responded in ways apparently natural - in what passed for casual conversation. Yet when he smiled it was with his mouth only. And his voice registered as somehow 'mechanical'. The Simulacra rumoured to mingle among us was no longer a notion to be dismissed. We bound him up and called in the professionals. They in turn opened him up. It was Max.

3 Comments

Medalist, by John O’Keefe

4/10/2024

6 Comments

I haven’t seen him since high school. Back then just a scrawny guy, he is now a big brawny man who recently got Olympic bronze in Greco-Roman wrestling.

He tells me he trains five times a week, regularly attends yoga classes, and runs long-distance road races. All that to become a better wrestler.

Then he fills me in on a little secret. Before every bout he stops showering for several days, and much longer before major championships. He says that’s his way to level the playing field.

Frankly, it sounds like small-scale chemical warfare to me.

6 Comments

Oh, Icarus..., by Dawn Knox

27/9/2024

5 Comments

Editor's Choice

This time, Icarus had followed his dad’s instructions.

He’d taxied along the runway and was about to take off when his earbuds had fallen out and he’d lost contact with air traffic control. His legs were almost exhausted.

Then, a bit of luck. A jumbo jet had assisted his take-off, boosting him into the air. The pilot had gesticulated that Icarus should get off the nose cone but that was easier said than done, although finally, he’d freed himself and plummeted to earth.

Thankfully, his fall was broken by the softened wax and broken feathers.
Back to the drawing board.

5 Comments

The Busy Body, by Robert Martin

27/9/2024

4 Comments

No one takes care of their gardens. It was up to me to take the loriope from the Greenes’ yard and plant it in the common area. Didn’t they know their patch was overgrown? The Ferbers’ hostas were fading. I had to cut them back. The Woolfs’ yard—so dull! Marigolds from the Butlers made it so much prettier. The whole neighborhood looks better.

But plants can be unpredictable. No matter how often I take it out, that horrible smelling Crown Imperial keeps coming back, always at my doorstep. No wonder no one stops by to thank me.

4 Comments

<<Previous

Forward>>

"Classic"
100-Word
Stories

Friday Flash Fiction
Rules

Kinda obvious, really...

Fiction only
Stories of 90-100 words only
Don't be nasty or cheat
Include your name and a story title

EDITOR'S CHOICE
Each week, our editor selects a story or (occasionally) a poem as 'Editor's Choice'.

It's a personal favourite, no more. Do you agree?

Please feel free to comment (nicely!) on any stories – writers appreciate it.
Just at the moment, though, we're moderating some of them so there might be a slight delay before they appear.

Naturally, we reserve the reserve the right to remove comments we feel are inappropriate, or where there's a possibility they may come from a source associated with online spam or abuse. If you have one, please switch off your VPN and don't post from a public server.

Since Friday Flash Fiction began in September 2013, 100-word stories have remained its 'beating heart'.

Normally, 100-word stories are scheduled for 07.00 BST (GMT in the winter) on the following Friday. However, where a larger number of stories (more than 25) are due to be published on the same day, we publish the later ones EARLIER around 4.00 am. On the rare occasions where there are more than 50 stories, we'll post an even earlier set, probably around 2.00 am UK time.

We have a FACEBOOK PAGE where regular contributors can share ideas and discuss stories. Why not join in?

We occasionally send out little newsletters running competitions – and subscribers are also our voting panel. If you'd like to join us, please click the Subscribe to newsletter button below.

Subscribe to Newsletter

No spam, we promise!

"Classic"100-WordStories﻿

Archives

"Classic"
100-Word
Stories