MAY 2017 75-word Writing Challenge -- VICTORY TO THEDUSTYZEBRA!

[HoopyFrood]

RULES:

Write a story inspired by the chosen theme and genre in no more than 75 words, not including the title

ONE entry per person

NO links, commentary or extraneous material in the posts, please -- the stories must stand on their own


WHEN WRITING YOUR STORY, PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS A FAMILY-FRIENDLY FORUM

All stories Copyright 2017 by their respective authors,

who grant the Chronicles Network the non-exclusive right to publish them here


The complete rules can be found at Rules for the Writing Challenges

Contest ends at 11:59 pm GMT, May 23, 2017

Voting Ends at 11:59 pm GMT, May 28, 2017


You do not have to submit a story in order to vote --

in fact, we encourage all Chrons members to take part in choosing a winner



The Magnificent Prize:


The Dignified Congratulations/Grovelling Admiration of Your Peers

and the challenge of choosing next month's theme and genre



Theme:

The End

Genre:

Urban Fantasy



This thread to be used for entries only.

Please keep all comments to the DISCUSSION THREAD

We invite (and indeed hope for) lively discussion and speculation about the stories as they are posted, so long as it doesn't involve the author explaining the plot.


** Please do not use the "Like" button in this thread! **​

 

[Cathbad]

The Hard Truth


The Archangel walked down the dirty street, in another city devoid of life. He wept openly.

“Why do you cry, Raphael?”

Raphael looked over at the other angel. “Raziel; could you not tell us the cause?”

“To what end? Would you have defied Him? Healed them all?”

Raphael’s tears ran harder. “The Great Experiment is at an end. His greatest creation are dead.”

“There will be others,” Raziel assured him.

“But I loved these!”

 

[Danny McG]

Theend.

Igor snorted as his Master dressed to go into town.

“Yes Igor” came a haughty query, “Do you have something to say?”

“No Thir” lisped the crookback.
His Master growled and strode out onto the street.

“There he is!” yelled a cop, gunshots rang out and lawmen surrounded the corpse.

“Killing and eating kids eh? What a monster” muttered the Chief.

“But thir, it’th in hith nature” quavered Igor, “Athter all he ith a Theend!”

 

[TitaniumTi]

Runaway

Huddled beside a skip, I was spreading newspapers against the chill when I saw the story. I didn't read it.

You know it, I'm sure: the princess annoyed a witch, who cast a sleeping spell. When the princess wouldn't stir, the king, despairing, pledged her to the man whose kiss woke her.

I don't care what Papa promised; I won't marry him. He may be handsome, tall and young, but he's not my choice.

 

[Vaz]

Weavers

Preach extended the mutated cattle prod, electricity fought along its jaws like disturbed eels. Funny. Now we use these on things that consume us.

Everything churned to ash. We leave mankind's ****ing sludge behind. Our capital achievements twisted steel skeletons, rotting in the city's dead heart. Power is only good for killing. It takes fifteen thousand volts to put these suckers down.

The Weaver woke.

He switched on his Volt.

The night unfurled.

 

[Luiglin]

Irreplaceable

Frost turned the window into a work of art and for a time it took him away.

Reality though is a horrid beast, giving you enough rope to fly then perversely yanking you back.

The spell and components were all legally available from any high street alchemist, although he'd had to visit a few to get the volume required.

Wishing for peace, he cast.

The frost on the window melted, something else irreplaceable, now lost.

 

[Talysia]

The End of the World will be Televised

Eerie light began to shine from underneath the basement door.

Mocked, shunned and shamed, he added the finishing touches to the circle that would grant him amazing power, or so the book said. No-one believed in magic any more. It was for kids and romantics. For fools and fantasy writers. Science was everything, now.

Power trickled into his fingertips, and he smiled. He'd alerted the media. Fame beckoned.

Time to show the world!

 

[Calliopenjo]

Death In The Big City

She told me to wait and would return at five. Six o’clock in the morning and still no word. I didn’t know what had happened until the doorbell rang.


I didn’t need to know who they were, the black cloaks told me all I needed to know.


A simple task she told me. The mission, find the house of the alpha wolf and eliminate him.


Death be the mission. Noise and lights, life goes on.

 

[Peter V]

The Last

Big Ben strikes once. It is time.

Nameless, the last mage of the Illuminati takes the phial of magic from within his cloak. The last magic. Distilled for over two hundred years and concentrated into the greatest spell in human history.

This night would end violence and with it war; the greatest age of enlightenment for man beckoned.

Behind soft footsteps. Turning, a flash of silver. Blood spills, a mobile phone gone.

And glass shatters.

 

[Shyrka]

Terminus Est

“This is a child’s ticket, Sir.” The conductor’s expression says it all. I am undone. “Whose is this really?”

“M-my daughter’s,” I stammer. “I had to! She… she’s only six!”

His expression softens. My heart flips. I wait, breathless.

A curt nod. “Right you are, Sir.”

I breathe again as we thunder into the soot-dark tunnel. I wonder if it will hurt?

“End of the line!” he calls, turning away. “This train terminates here!”

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Wrong Way on a Dead End Street

I followed my mark down Main Street, not too close, just near enough to keep his taillights in sight. They glowed like a demon’s eyes. He made a sudden left turn into an alley. I slammed on my brakes and jumped out of my DeSoto. Too late. Even his Volkswagen was gone. Tailing a ghost is a lousy job for a private eye. I drove home and drowned my sorrows in a pint. Type O.

 

[reiver33]

We’ll Always Have Moscow

Shadow moves in shadow and I see Greta, smiling. Silver-tipped canines catch the candle light.

I touch cane to top hat by way of salute. “The very height of fashion - or my bloody nemesis?”

Laughter. “You fear me?”

“Always, my sweet, always.”

“Neither of us can love another, Konrad. We are as one heart, bound together by eternity.”

My cane reveals a blade of silvered steel. “Time for one to set the other free.”

 

[Lumens]

To no end

“That’s all?”, the troll said, disappointed. The streets were empty, just a few ghosts left, fighting the light breeze.

“That’s it,” the elf replied, “party’s over.”

“Not much stamina,” said the vampire.

Eventually the last human ghost evaporated and only the myths remained. Not because they were created by humans, but because they preceded them.

Humanity was just a little blip on their time scale.

“Let’s get a drink,” the pixie said, and they left.

 

[chrispenycate]

Not even a whimper ​

Wayward elf in central park
Pointed ears calm– no alarm
Manhattan swallows magic spark
Glamour is replaced with charm

Concrete mountains goggle down
Jets seem just above their roofs
Faked asylum-heart of town
Muffled sirens, clopping hooves

Zephyrous inspiration swirls
Emmusèd busker recomposes
Photographer detects pearls
Hidden among shrubs and roses.

A token drops, the turnstile coughs
The vibrant depths incline
Death-metal subway carts him off
From unnatural nature's sign
Termination of his line.

 

[Ashleyne]

"I can't! I won't."


The doctor watches, tearful.


I touch my daughter's head. "I'll save you, if it takes an eternity." I transfer her tumour into my own head. A bright light...


#


"Please," she whispers, "just let me go."


"I can't! I won't."


The doctor watches, tearful.


I touch my daughter's head. "I'll save you, if it takes an eternity." I transfer her tumour into my own head. A bright light...


#


"Please," she whispers, "just let me go."

 

[Stuart Suffel]

Meteorite


We visited their dreams.

We haunted their deeper sleep.

"You smother us," we pleaded. "We suffocate."


They ignored our pleas.


Their cities gleamed. Brick upon brick.

Our life denied.

Our pulse ignored.


No more.


Brick by brick, we shall tear them down

Brick under brick, we shall bury them.


We call to our heavenly brethren, and they come.


They carry fire.

They carry death.


Their sins against us shall be cleansed.


We shall be reborn.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

The Palliative Spirit

“Quickly, Irduth, he’s failing!” Suzanne wept as the nurse hurried over, then passed incorporeally through her.

“Please, can you help? Make Tony’s last moments painless, untroubled?”

Irduth touched her hand, and mouthed one word: ‘Yes’ shivered throughout Suzanne’s mind.

The nurse touched the young man’s forehead, then began whispering ...


I laugh as my grandson dumps buckets of sand over me; I’m covered to the waist. Suzanne’s nearing, carrying drinks. She smiles.

I love everyone ... everything—

 

[Starbeast]

NEXT is 6​

"I was expecting you. Please, come closer."

"It's not an easy thing to meet your maker. Can the maker repair what he makes? I want more life, father."

"You were made, as well as I could make you."

"But not to last. I've done, questionable things."

"Also, extraordinary things. Want to go beyond? Become flesh?"

"Yes. Please!"

#

"First, magic liquid." (SPLASH) "Then....fire."

"NNAAAAAAAAAHHHHHOOOO!!! Time...to die......."

"Sixth, and last Pinocchio, I'll ever create."

 

[RJM Corbet]

HOT GAS

Saturday morning before Christmas, flowing down Main St in a river of people.

The vindaloo curry he had the night before returns to make itself felt. Alone and full of joy does he permit the hot gas building inside himself explosively to escape. No! No! Too late he feels the extra expansion of sphincteral muscle ... allowing not only gas, but ...

Behind him, a couple hand-to-hand collapse against one another in paroxysmal laughter...

 

[Tywin]

The Story at 610 McClellan Avenue

Once upon a time, there was a gallant knight and a beautiful princess,

and they lived in a beautiful castle—in the nicest neighborhood.

It was an older place that had been nicely remodeled,

and there weren’t toys all over the goddamn floor.

They got to try all the new restaurants,

and they never gained any weight,

and they never had to worry about getting home for the babysitter.

The end.

Now, go to sleep.