Earlier this month, I started participating in a Twitter hashtag game called #vss365 – very short stories. Essentially, a prompt word is posted daily, and you write a tweet-sized story or poem using the prompt. It’s become quite addictive, both creating stories under a time/length constraint and seeing what other people come up with.
I figured I might as well repost my stories to this blog too. It gives me the opportunity to tidy them up a little, and maybe to add images or further thoughts. My plan is to do this a week at a time, interspersed with my usual monthly posts, but we’ll see how it goes. Images this week are all via Wikimedia.
Prompt: horse
“A wooden horse? They’ll never fall for it.”
The wily soldier smiled. “Just you see.”
The besieged city’s entire army surrounded the crude construction outside their walls. Laughing, they set it alight.
Until that day, they’d never heard of explosives.
Prompt: hair
She poured his tea, added a lump of sugar and stirred. “Some poisons can only be detected through hair analysis.”
“Really?” His eyes widened beneath his bald pate. “How do you know all this stuff?”
She smiled. “Drink up.”
Prompt: bridge
Her unexplained absences and cash withdrawals aroused suspicion, not to mention her sour-faced avoidance of his food.
The front door opened. He steeled himself to confront her.
Her smile revealed perfect even teeth. “The dentist finally gave me a bridge!”
Prompt: girl
“Don’t mind the girl.” The dealer sneered at his slave. “She won’t talk.”
She didn’t. Once she’d listened enough, she killed the dealer and took his place.
Prompt: sunny
Even on sunny days, the soil by the gravestone is cool and moist. Enjoying a respite from the sunbeams, I doze. One night, when I’m ready, I’ll dig my way out again.
Prompt: pink
“Hurry up!” An impatient foot stomped.
Shears in hand, Cin knelt by her sister. “I still need to pink—”
“That doesn’t matter, stupid! Just do up the zip. It’ll be your fault if I’m late.”
It was some small consolation when the dress fell apart at the ball.
Prompt: pool
It was a fine display of cooperation, to pool pocket money for ice cream. More problematic was agreeing on who got first lick. By the time the argument ended, the children’s treat had melted.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these. Back next week with more!
Speculative stories 