SFF Chronicles News
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27th February 2013 02:59 AM
Teresa Edgerton
The winner of our quarterly writing challenge for January is writer E.J. Tett, known on these forums as Mouse. Each quarter, the Challenge is to write a story of 300 words or less, inspired by an image chosen by our moderators. The prize is a £10 voucher to be spent at Amazon. The photograph above served as our inspiration for January, and the winning story appears below.
Live Forever, Die Alone
I go into the chippy and watch the young lad plunge the basket into the boiling fat. My stomach rumbles as the potatoes crisp and, if I imagine hard enough, I can even smell it.
It’s empty now though. There is no lad. No chips. Everything’s covered in dust. Nothing to eat here.
I wander back outside and walk along the promenade. The wind blows papers and bits of rubbish across the street. It’s the only noise I hear.
Sometimes I wonder if I’ve forgotten how to speak. I don’t bother trying. What if I have forgotten? Not that it matters. There’s nobody to speak to but myself and I’ve never been a very good conversationalist.
I wish there were zombies. Or vampires. Or some sort of monster you used to see in films. Something I could hunt, or play with or, I don’t know. Shag. Eat.
I’m so hungry I want to cry. There’s nothing left anywhere. Nothing.
God, I wish the sun would blow up. Or an asteroid would strike. I wish aliens would come and take me away.
Please come and take me away.
I clamber over a wall, stumble across the pebbled beach and keep going until I’m waist deep in the sea. The sea is stagnant now, like a pond. The tides have gone. Everything’s gone. Sometimes I remember that it’s weird.
I take a breath and disappear beneath the water, breathing out, watching bubbles rise, and then I breathe in until my lungs fill with water.
I’ve done this before.
I didn’t die then either.
________
Photograph by Charles Knowles
Teresa Edgerton
The winner of our quarterly writing challenge for January is writer E.J. Tett, known on these forums as Mouse. Each quarter, the Challenge is to write a story of 300 words or less, inspired by an image chosen by our moderators. The prize is a £10 voucher to be spent at Amazon. The photograph above served as our inspiration for January, and the winning story appears below.
Live Forever, Die Alone
I go into the chippy and watch the young lad plunge the basket into the boiling fat. My stomach rumbles as the potatoes crisp and, if I imagine hard enough, I can even smell it.
It’s empty now though. There is no lad. No chips. Everything’s covered in dust. Nothing to eat here.
I wander back outside and walk along the promenade. The wind blows papers and bits of rubbish across the street. It’s the only noise I hear.
Sometimes I wonder if I’ve forgotten how to speak. I don’t bother trying. What if I have forgotten? Not that it matters. There’s nobody to speak to but myself and I’ve never been a very good conversationalist.
I wish there were zombies. Or vampires. Or some sort of monster you used to see in films. Something I could hunt, or play with or, I don’t know. Shag. Eat.
I’m so hungry I want to cry. There’s nothing left anywhere. Nothing.
God, I wish the sun would blow up. Or an asteroid would strike. I wish aliens would come and take me away.
Please come and take me away.
I clamber over a wall, stumble across the pebbled beach and keep going until I’m waist deep in the sea. The sea is stagnant now, like a pond. The tides have gone. Everything’s gone. Sometimes I remember that it’s weird.
I take a breath and disappear beneath the water, breathing out, watching bubbles rise, and then I breathe in until my lungs fill with water.
I’ve done this before.
I didn’t die then either.
________
Photograph by Charles Knowles
