100 Word Anonymous Writing Challenge #7 (June 2015)

[Dan Jones]

**PLEASE DO NOT POST STORIES DIRECTLY TO THIS THREAD**

100-Word Anonymous Writing Challenge for May 2015.

Please PM entries to me (@DGJones) and I will post them, once I’ve checked the word count.

@mosaix, the champion from last month's challenge, has come up with the following theme

Theme: Conviction
Genre: SciFi/Fantasy/Any Speculative Fiction

Entries must be PMed to me no later than 24:00 (GMT) on Sunday June 21st to be eligible.
A poll will then be created for voting, which will close at 24:00 (GMT) on Wednesday 24th June.

There is the now-well-established guessing element to this challenge, as well. Once the challenge is closed, I'll post a list of all the authors who've entered stories in the allotted time. And, just to spice things up, there will be the usual addition of a non-participating Chronner as red herring (as if the guessing wasn't hard enough already!).

Anyone who wishes is free to post a list of guesses matching up authors to stories. I will post a comprehensive list of who wrote what once we agree that guessing is completed. I will mention that guessing is completely optional; anyone can enter a story in the challenge with no obligation to guess later in the event, and vice versa.

I will do a word-count on receipt of all stories. Should any be over the 100-word limit, I will send a PM back to the story's author, and they will have an opportunity to trim a word here or there, and resubmit the story for posting. I will try to follow the same rules for counting as apply in the 75 and 300 worders. I'll consult the mods if there are any grey areas (such as hyphenations etc), but please read the rules for the 75 and 300 worders for the full lowdown.

We can offer no prize save that which any author cherishes most...the admiration, and envy, of those who have been bested in fair wordplay. And cake.

This is my first bash at hosting one of the challenges, so be gentle.

I should also add that I expect much japery, tomfoolery and general nincompoopery to accompany the challenge in the Discussion thread.

Have at ye!

A pedant pokes.
Doing the stick/unstick for the months I thought nobody would be too upset if I added some coments.

While untitled entries are acceptable for the seventy-five and three hundred word challenges (although who would waste the potential of a few words extra for free?) a title, and a unique title at that, is essential for anonymous submission recognition.

As you are sending to an intermediary rather than posting direct copy/pasting is (passive mode) being undergone. Anyone who's posted something in critiques knows that the site is not gentle with formatting - so don't post anything which requires sophisticated formatting (like Mouse's mouse:-https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/529527/#post-1444902) .

Umm. Family friendly. We are. Anything that isn't is likely to be jumped upon from a great height, even if it is within the word limit. Mods can be inquired from. It's a terrible waste to write something then get it rejected for a stupidity (not for stupidity - that is not excluded) Chrispyed

 

[Dan Jones]

Justice or the law?

The prosecution lawyer was certain of his position, and was right - I had used privileged information illegally, and the fact I had saved fourteen million lives didn't stop that from being a crime.

The judge, too, had to uphold the sanctity of the law over individual preferences - otherwise 'we open the door to all convinced vigilantes'.

And me, contract breaker, whistle blower? I had known before making my choice that I was breaking the letter of the law, but was incapable of letting all those people die to avoid prison.

Ultimately we are all united in my conviction.

 

[Dan Jones]

Mummy

The second I looked into its eyes, I knew there was something wrong. It wasn't my daughter. It was a demon: a thing.

On the ride home, I pulled the wheel to the side and crashed into a river. I lost my husband, my father.., unfortunately my 'daughter' came out unscathed.

I've waited in my hospital bed for weeks. They don't know what I did.

It lies silently in a cot next to my bed, mocking me. I can't do anything with the nurses watching, so I play 'Mummy'.

I can't wait to get it home, finish the job properly.

 

[Dan Jones]

Just a Taste

Every death has a flavour.

The teen prostitute crumpled beneath my blows, and I could taste saffron as it slipped across my tongue. Her baby, mint and cream.

The copper, wrong place, wrong time, shot in the back. A rush of chicory and bitter almonds.

It was always going come to this.

They put the noose around my neck and I open my mouth to savour the last delicious sensation of my own existence.

 

[Dan Jones]

So Pretty it Hurts

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Why what? Why this tattoo or why am I sure?"

"I don't get how this proves anything."

"It doesn't. Just shows my loyalties is all."

"Your loyalties to a faction of fiction that no one has ever heard of?"

"Will you just start the tattoo?"

The machine revs up.
---

"Do you think she'll get it?"

"Your girlfriend?"

"No, the Bishounen-Punk-Goddess."

"I've no idea dude. I just do the ink."

 

[Dan Jones]

A Lepordin Cannot Change Its Spots

When seeking guilty verdicts in intergalactic court, I was always successful.

I knew the Vorquine merchant hadn’t entered the exclusion zone.

Guilty.

I alone had secret evidence the Kelmuir banker didn’t swindle his opponents.

Guilty.

I even persuaded the moronic jury in Tripore vs Gungquay, the peace envoy’s true motivation was genocide.

Guilty.

One hundred percent, my record of conviction. I never thought I’d have to prove the opposite. Least of all, for myself.

It stands to reason, when asked for my plea, I would have to call my record to account.

That is my conviction after all.

“Guilty.”

 

[Dan Jones]

Dissect Ions

Detective Obsess Ion couldn’t let it go...he’d worked years to get that hood Convict Ion sentenced to jail. But these rats had benefactors--mob boss Protect Ion had a turncoat in Prosecut Ion’s office: District Attorney Pass Ion was on his payroll, and she was crazy for the defendant; she bribed Warden Mill Ion a small fortune to look the other way while Protect Ion’s henchman, Abduct Ion, broke Convict Ion out of prison.

Obsess Ion called the one person who could help him find the escapee--Private Eye Quest Ion would know where to make the right inquiries.

 

[Dan Jones]

None So Blind

The offer made by the Sceptics' Association -- $100,000 for proof of the supernatural -- attracted three applicants.

Applicant 1 tried to set the world on fire. He failed, but lit up the podium. Applicant 2 stirred up a storm in a teacup, until Applicant 3 stole his thunder. After they finished, it was raining cats and dogs, and the podium was a smouldering ruin.

The Association declared they'd seen no proof of the supernatural. Having stated their conviction, they faded away.

"Where did they go?" Applicant 1 asked.

"Don't have the ghost of an idea," replied Applicant 3.

 

[Dan Jones]

Alliteration killed a Nation

Chains chafe Charlie’s cramping calves.

With the touch of a button he sealed the fate of millions – and his own.

Death’s dread dove down deep.

They deserved it. Memories of his little girl’s limp form in his arms haunt him.

Faith forgotten. Freedom forgone. Feelings flounder…

He is led down a hallway, feet shuffling on the metal grates. He smiles.

Revenge’s rendezvous reluctantly returns.

The time is near. He feels the switch in his sweaty palm.

Senator Snake smiles slowly, simultaneously suspecting something shady.

Charlie taps the button. The ship rumbles; red lights flash…and then nothing.

 

[Dan Jones]

Reality Bites

“Oh, it probably was just a rotten log, Jeffrey. Or maybe a sturgeon.”

Scowling, Jeffrey waved off Teddy’s explanations. “I tell ya, it was the creature itself, clear as day. Rose up and stared me in the eye, it did. I know what I seen.”

The pub resounded with laughter as Jeffrey stormed out.

Stumbling to the lake’s edge, he cursed its calm surface. “Why do ya hide, Nessie? I know you’re real!”

Silently, a small head emerged, swaying on a long neck.

Entranced, Jeffrey never felt the cold waters close over him as he became one with the legend.

 

[Dan Jones]

The True Believer

Sader cradled the bomb in his hands and slipped into the crowd. Under twin suns the marketplace was a jungle of red and yellow shadows. Offworld tourists haggled with native traders for intricately carved pieces of rock and bone. The bomb looked like just another trinket, an ivory sphere encrusted with mint-colored gems.

“How much for this?” A woman grabbed the bomb before Sader could stop her. It was harmless without the genetic code in his skin to activate it. He ran off before the woman could discover that she had stolen his philosophy as well as his weapon.

 

[Dan Jones]

Beast of Friends

“Look, up in the sky. Is it bird? Is it a plane?”

“No, it’s more like a flying turtle?”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, turtle cannot fly.”

“Then what is it?”

“Don’t know, but Godzilla will save us from it.”

“Yes, Godzilla, always our savior. Ah, anyone seen him?”

Sure enough, Gamera, yes it had to be didn’t it, left the village in a smoking heap.

“Where was Godzilla? He always protect us before.”

“Godzilla,” someone howled, “where you at?”

Apparently Godzilla and Gamera had buried the hatchet, hooked up and settled down to raise, God only knows what.

 

[Dan Jones]

Eleven Down, One To Go

I hide in the wardrobe, all twitchy hands and nervous laughter. Some quality darkness in here. Almost can’t see the blood at all. Left leg’s jerking restlessly ‘cos I’m so excited.

Music comes on. Warren Zevon’s Prison Grove. Almost too perfect!

The sound of water gushing. Steam. Through the slats I see her disrobing. Lana Lindon, 32, dentist’s assistant.

When she’s in the bath I rush out and push her head underwater ‘til her eyes go all goggly! Come on, come on, push, push, more bubbles, more bubbles!

And it’s done.

That’ll teach them guttersnipes to convict me.

 

[Dan Jones]

Same Love

I turn my face up to the sky as the noose tightens. How distant the heavens; how remote, God.

The crowd bays for my death. My father stands aside, head bowed, weighed down by the guilt of betrayal.

My lover stands hidden in the shadows, but I know her shape, the gentle curve of rounded breast I kissed just hours ago.

Across the space, our eyes meet. Unspoken love passes. Run, I will her. Don't watch this, but she stays.

My love.

My life.

"Unnatural!" cries the mob. "Hang her high!"

No more breaths.

No more secrets.

No more.

 

[Dan Jones]

I'm sure it's not important but...

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Definitely the ruby?"

"Yes."

"I mean, I thought it was the emerald but you're the expert."

The monstrous carving leered at them, the facets in it's mismatched ruby and emerald eyes catching the torchlight to gleam malevolently. A shaking hand reached out and tentatively pushed the ruby. Deep within the bowls of the tomb long silent mechanisms awoke with rumbles and bangs.

"That's not the ruby."

"Wha..."

The blade appeared from nowhere and the neatly sliced halves of the thief who pressed fell to the floor with a horrible wet splat.

"Oh... damn colour blindness."

 

[Dan Jones]

Clap Your Hands

“They’re real.” Katie insisted. ““I met them in the woods, right where you’d expect. They told me I could join them.”

I rolled my eyes. I was the sensible one; she the dreamer. “Like when there were aliens in your Dad’s shed?”

“No. Different.”

“And do they die if I say-”

She clamped her hand over my mouth. “Don’t kill my friends!”

The last time I saw her, the tips of her ears were pointed, and gauzy wings fluttered from her back.

Every day I walk the woods alone, desperately protesting my belief. The only answer is an empty echo.

 

[Dan Jones]

We Are the Jury, the Jury Is Us

We move into the courtroom and settle into the jury pit.
The case is presented in media-appropriate bites.
The prosecutor, a slimy slug, leaves a sticky trail.
The defense attorney, a human, explains eloquently how the defendant could not possibly be guilty. See how she cowers! Such an innocent creature!
Is that their defense?
They close. We transfer to the cloud to deliberate. We assimilate a collective agreement.
We disembark from the cloud and stream our verdict like a bomb dropped into their laps: Guilty of course!
She is quickly dispatched into the plenum with all the rest.

 

[Dan Jones]

Once Upon A Rhyme

"Hear ye! Hear ye! All rise!"
"The Fairy-trial court is in session, Judge Grimmbrother presiding."
"The Defendant, M.Goose, is hereby accused of spellmancing and general witch-rhymery! How do you plead?"
"Innocent as Mary's lamb your Honor."
(Said lamb gamboled floating overhead, clearly bewitched.)
Three pigs jeered, "Our homes, yer Honor!"
A crisped wolf growled,"Her 'as set me up for demolitions and renovations without title to the property's involved!"
"Where's our recompense?"

"Order!" Judge Grimmbrother remonstrated.
"M.Goose, you will work off your debts by making pumpkin pies for the Community, within Peter Peter's Pumpkin-shell Gaol!"

 

[Dan Jones]

The Ballad of Parsimone

Of Parsimone in his organic cell,
It is said a life of living hell,
Guilty found by jury all,
From freedoms grace to ignominious fall.
For all the crimes of which accused,
Denied them all – justice abused?
To serve his time became his mission,
In the face of grim conviction.
Taken from this place,
To the void of deepest space,
Into a blister of pock-marked skin
Perfect prison for those of sin,
Through solar tides and galactic storms,
Ensnared with its whale like form,
Left to rot - freedom he cannot see,
By imaginations light his heart soars free.

 

[Dan Jones]

Wrong Turn of Events Made Right

"I'm a policeman. I'm allowed to make U-turns. I didn't expect a Spanish Inquisition."

(door bursts opens) "Nobody, expects the Spanish Inquisition. Your Honor, allow us to torture the accused."

"Hold on a minute! The Spanish Inquisition was abolished. I'm arresting you for heresy."

"But, you're the accused. Besides, Batman practices vigilantism."

"Batman's fictional. Take them away."

"Wait. I'm the Judge here. I sentence you all to..."

(window shatters) "Who are you?!!!"

"I'm Batman."

Hours later, the Judge was convicted, the Inquisition became a rock band and the policeman was set free in a forest.

Batman grinned, "Justice served."