100 Word Anonymous Writing Challenge #10 (December '15)

[ratsy]

**PLEASE DO NOT POST STORIES DIRECTLY TO THIS THREAD**
100-Word Anonymous Writing Challenge for December 2015.

The Writing

Theme: Return
Genre: Science Fiction or Fantasy

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

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Please PM (Private Message) all entries to @mosaix who will then post the entries into this thread. Entries can be sent from December 17th to January 7th 12:00PM GMT.

Once the challenge thread closes, a voting poll will be created where you can vote for your ONE favorite entry.

There will also be a guessing portion where you can try to match the Anonymous stories with their creators!

Have fun, and I am now disappearing behind the curtain like Polonius...please don't stab me

 

[mosaix]

Always keep the receipt

"I'd like to return this please."

"Refund or exchange, madam?" said the bored attendant.

"Err... refund."

"Do you have a receipt?"

"Yes, hold on." She dug in her handbag, picking through the usual detritus of tissues, fluff, loose change and sweets. "Ah, here it is."

"And the reason for the return?"

"I believe it is broken?"

"You believe? It either is or isn't."

"It is," she stated firmly. "Broken, that is."

"Thank you, madam. Please enter your card."

The machine beeped once in acknowledgment.

God slipped the card back into her purse, the weight of the world finally off her shoulders.

 

[mosaix]

Instinct

I made my way out of my coffin and back to my home without trouble. My husband slept fitfully, and I knew he fought nightmares. I never loved him as strongly as the first moment I tasted his blood. I drained him of all fear and sorrow, and he slept peacefully.

I moved silently to the crib. My infant daughter, who had killed me at the moment of her birth, watched me with dark eyes. "Mommy's home," I whispered. I picked her up, tore open my shroud, and suckled her with the warm red milk flowing from my dead breast.

 

[mosaix]

Internal Perspective

On his screen the aliens looked and sounded normal.

“What have you done, Earth fool?”

“It was an accident.”

“You ate our leader. Ffffkkn tinnnidik.”

“He’s a millimeter high. I didn’t know he’d fallen into my drink. So, ah, technically I drank him.”

“Idiot.”

“Sorry for your loss.”

“He’s not dead.”

“But I thought –”

“Don’t try to think monkey boy.”

“Can you extract him?”

“No. He will reappear soon?”

“Hard to say”.

“Grrrr, harddbutt girdlock. When?”

“It depends. Human physiology is kinda tricky.”

“Arrahh. Rukidin. Hairy biped fuussbut.”

“Tell you what, call back tomorrow, after 7.30. In the morning.

 

[mosaix]

Not with a bang, but....

“Alright!” said Michael. “I want to bring to order what seems like the 97 trillionth
meeting of the angelic steering committee.”
“We’ve seen a worrying lack of movement lately. Expansion has stopped and little
of note is going on at all.”
“You record it all, Gabby. What yer got?”

“Well it’s mainly the fault of Steve Jobs, Guv!”
“I always used endless scrolls for my recording angel work, but when he arrived, he
persuaded me to get a Mac.”
“ As you say, everything I write has happened, and I haven’t dared to hit the return key yet.”

 

[mosaix]

Not at the whim of a banker​

Odiers had been bankers as long as the profession had been written - and money-lenders had already started writing cuneiform.

When the Immigean Empire had conquered Earth, Priscilla Odier had left her native mountains - the Immigeans didn't really like Earth's atmosphere, and stayed at altitude to avoid most of it, while freedom fighters favoured islands, and submarine bases.

In them Odiers bankrolled the resistance.

It had taken six generations of human stubborn, and stink, for the overlords to pull out from a still primitive world.

"Fourteen percent compound interest over two hundred years - I believe you can give me Europe."

 

[mosaix]

Merry Christmas

“He’s back.”

“I'm ready.” She slid the pie into the oven, then smoothed her hair. It was ridiculous to feel that flutter still, after so many years.

Muddy boots clattered across her clean floor but, after one glance at sagging shoulders, she bit back reproof. He’d exhausted himself, again.

“See to the reindeer.” She shooed elves out the door. “Make sure you brush the mud from Rudolph’s fetlocks.” They scampered away, laughing, with apples for the reindeer.

“That should keep them busy.” She leant in for a hug and a whiskery kiss. God, I love my red-coated hero.

 

[mosaix]

<DESK NUMBER TWO, PLEASE>

“I’m returning this please. It’s broken.” He patted a large box on a low-loading trolley.

“Do you have the receipt? … I’m sorry, this isn’t one of ours.”

“I’m sure it is. See, it even has your name on the receipt: ‘Anne Ross, Manager’.”

“Uh, OK, and the card that you used?”

“Yes, here.”

“Your card isn’t valid until next year. Do you have another? … Thanks. We don’t stock this item, but I can see it’s ours. What’s the fault?”

“Time machine went backwards instead of forwards, then broke.”

<MANAGER TO DESK TWO, PLEASE>

 

[mosaix]

A Soldier’s Homecoming

There are ghosts in these ruins.

I walk the streets, trailing my fingers over burned brickwork. I remember names and faces: the child who played just here, the shop that stood there.

The ash sticks to my glove, like my sins to my past. No scrubbing will clean it away.

I see the troopers vomited from transport ships, energy blasts from their guns incinerating those who stand and those who flee. A whole city, obliterated for its rebellious defiance.

The wreckage has a gaunt beauty, though. And a message.

Even my own hometown, my own family, cannot stand against me.

 

[mosaix]

Father to Son

My son spills tears into my operation pod.

I squeeze his hand. "I'll be back. It'll still be me."

"But you won't remember the things we did together. I'm not ready, Dad."

The E.D. (enforcing doctor) says "Time's up. Goodbye Mr Grantham. "

The pod slides closed, and I slide to sleep.

#

Dad's been in the pod 3 hours. I watched him shrink. Now, he looks like me when I was a baby. His skin stretched and plumpened.

The pod opens. I sniff, wipe my tears. His baby grunts melt my heart. His tiny arms... so vulnerable... my son.

 

[mosaix]

The dead Sea

On the rocky shore sat a young man his eyes bloodshot, tears streaming down his face.

Soft whispers being carried through the autumn winds.

The young man’s body shivered violently from the cold momentarily

From out of the freezing water rose a girl, her body reflecting some unseen light.

Walking forward she fell to her knees before the young man kissing his cheeks.

A slight smile formed on his face.

“It’s time…” the wind whispered.

“No!!!” he screamed silently before everything went dark.

---

“I’ll be back next year my love,” she whispered before getting in her car and driving away.

 

[mosaix]

No Return

There is no coming back from this mission. I know it and yet it eats away at me.

I stare at her holo-image on my dash and know she is why I’m doing this.

Lights flash in the cockpit as I approach the hive; hordes of angry robots fly at me.

A button descends and I disappear only to reform behind them. I can almost taste their hatred as I speed toward the Queen. She floats helplessly in space; thousands of eyes seeing me approach.

Switches are flipped, and the countdown is on.

There is no return for me.

 

[mosaix]

Steel Echoes

The farship Millennium was coming home. Excitement filled Command Center. It had vanished beyond Pluto forty years ago.

They sent messages and waited for a response.

"Echoes, sir."

"Echoes?"

"No response. We're only getting our messages back."

They sent out a ship to intercept the farship. Several months later they approached it inside the orbit of Jupiter.

"No apparent damage. We're sending a shuttle."

The shuttle transmitted audio of their docking.

"Good so far. We're going inside."

The sound of steel clanging. A hiss of pressurization.

The next sound chilled them all.

A baby's cry. Echoing.

 

[mosaix]

Hair of the Dog​

"Chewy. Get the Falcon prepped. I'm going to pay our tab."

"Going somewhere Solo?"

"Greedo. You're...?"

"...still alive. It took a few decades for me to heal. DON'T, go for your blaster. Sit down."

#

Han entered the Millennium Falcon, chard, blackened, hair standing straight up, but alive. "I feel terrible."

"Waarg?"

"I met Greedo. We finally settled our debt."

"Waarg?"

"That jerk, shot me first!"

"Waarg?"

"Nah. I made sure he's dead."

"Waarg."

"Can't you say anything else?"

(PUNCH)

"OWW!! Chewy!!! My nose! You stupid, filthy, freak'n.."

(PUNCH POW SMASH CRASH)

(thud)

"Waarg."

 

[mosaix]

The challenge is now closed. Thanks to those that took part.

Here's the poll:

Poll - December 2015 100 Word Anonymous Story Challenge

Anyone can, and is encouraged to, vote.

Author list to follow shortly.

 

[mosaix]

For those that wish to participate in the guessing game here's a list of authors (including a red herring).

Ashleyne B. Watts
Cat's Cradle
Chrispenycate
Droflet
Farntfar
J5V
JohnnyJet
Juelz4sure
Luiglin
Ratsy
Robert Mackay
Starbeast
TitaniumTi
Victoria