April 2018 75-word Writing Challenge -- VICTORY TO HOOPYFROOD!

[johnnyjet]

The Mirror of Space

James looked out the portal, observing his reflection in the sea of stars. And remembered.

When he turned and walked away, he immediately forgot what he looked like and who he was.

All of them had been programmed to forget. This voyage was meant to be a new beginning, removing all traces of their former lives.

But somehow, every time James looked at his reflection, he remembered.

His only solace came from walking away.

 

[Luiglin]

Haunted

She’s dead. As am I, for I found her card and never handed it in.

It wouldn’t have made any difference to her anyway. The law is absolute. Lose your card, lose your life.

I cradle it in my hand, turning it this way and that, a hologram ghost lighting up my mind. She’s the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.

They’ll be here soon. For now though she remains alive in my dreams.

 

[kythe]

I am trapped between them in the car. They laugh, they drink. They celebrate my impending doom. I try to protest. My words are drowned out by their loud music and jeering. I struggle against my bonds.

We get to the lake. They aren't even considerate enough to be solemn. I fight as they throw me in. For a moment I think have escaped, then I realize I am rising without my body.

A past life?

 

[Graymalkin]

The Stranger

He sent the last horse back at the timber line where the trail dusted out.

The next day he spied another yellow idol where the old tales had described.

"Maybe this one," he prayed to The Witness, "is mine. Maybe I have found myself."

But as always, someone had been there before, leaving the same taunt over and over.

"Follow up stranger! Up ahead! Just a little further yet!"

 

[Calliopenjo]

Who's That?

A condition or character as to who a person or what a thing is. My problem? I didn’t recognize whoever stared at me in the mirror.

A scar down my right cheek. I wondered how it got there. Other than that nothing amazing.

I had blue eyes and straight, shoulder length black hair. Everything else on my body pointed to the fact, I’m a woman.

Who though?

 

[Peter V]

Argentina 62


“Murderer!”

“Let go, you mistake me for another.” He escapes the woman’s grasp, frantically searching for an exit.

“Stop him.”

People are taking notice, scrutinising. Sweat breaks out on his brow.

“Can it be?” A man with a French accent stares.

Heart pounding, he pushes through a door marked Staff Only and slams it shut. Muffled shouts follow.

How is it they recognise me, even after Mengele’s surgery?

“I’m not him. He died in Berlin.”

 

[CTRandall]

Biometrics

“Welcome, Mr. Gundersen, to your fully-automated Complete Health System.”

“I’m not Mr. Gundersen.”

“Please proceed to operating theatre eleven.”

“But I’m Mrs. Hatfield. I’m only here for a scan.”

“The nursing droid will assist you, Mr. Gundersen.”

“No, let go of me! What are you doing?”

“A vasectomy, of course. As you requested. Please, do not resist.”

“You’ve got the wrong person!”

“The odds of an error are negligible, Mr. Gundersen. Now, please relax.”

 

[HoopyFrood]

Thumbs up

There was a knock on the door. I answered and found myself on the doorstep.

“I'm your digital self,” he simply said.

Friends immediately liked him. He told the best anecdotes, ate good food, shared the funniest jokes. Always smiling, always out on some new adventure.

“But he's not the real me!” I tried to tell them.

“He is to us,” they replied, and liked him more.

 

[s.d. Ervin]

THE BLUEBIRD

I sit all afluff on a budding limb.

“Look,” says a plump mother to her plumper toddler, “it’s a bluebird. Isn’t it beautiful?”

The child points a jelly-stained finger and squeals with glee. It quickly loses interest and waddles away. But the lady lingers.

I get a lot of that.

But....see that juicy grub yonder?


To it? I’m the chirping blue death angel.

 

[Parson]

Company Man​

Joe took his Ex-Cell-Co jacket and smashed it into the mud screaming, “Twenty-eight years!”

For twenty-eight years he’d been more than a dependable employee. He’d sacrificed family time for more company time. (It was likely the main reason his wife had left him.) After fighting the neighborhood lawsuit against Ex-Cell-Co, none of his neighbors spoke to him. His life was over! He’d been fired.

Sighing, Joe looked at the pink slip, “Now who am I?”

 

[Starbeast]

Remembering Edgar​

At my chamber door, came a tapping,
not unlike finger snapping.

A raven fluttered in, as my door became ajar,
a note attached to it's leg, a message, obviously from afar.

The annotation, I discovered, is written music, with wonderful lyric,
a haunting 1976 song, by Alan Parsons Project.

I questioned, this dark, feathered creature, "Who sent this?"
It blinked, then spoke, "Lenore."

"Oh", I exclaimed. "You want, Vincent Price. He lives, next door."

 

[Bob Senior]

NO PLACE TO HIDE

On a dusty road outside of Phoenix, Sheriff Gordon stops to help an old man sitting in the dirt..
Someone had worked him over pretty good.
" There was two of ' em, I had seventy six bucks, they left me a buck."
"They tipped me upside-down and shook out my Swiss Army Knife and harmonica, took them and my dog too! "
" Could you identify them?," Gordon asked.
" Sure can, they wore badges", " Internal Revenue Service "

 

[SPoots]

Fit the Job​

“You’re finding me a new job. Would you like some help?”

Frank sighed. “Clippy, you’re a digital paper clip. That’s what you are!”

“But I want to try something more exciting.”

“Fine.” Frank slid over a piece of paper. “Here’s a job in a fantasy game. It’s all I’ve got.”

Next week, Frank walked into his office to find Clippy waiting.

“Er,” Frank said. “How’d it go?”

“You didn’t say I’d be a ****ing lockpick!”

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Skin Deep


“What are you doing here? We need Carl for these negotiations.” Mr. Danvers glares at me.

I take a deep breath, reach for my belt. In full view of the assembly, I pop the Michelle identicube out and insert the Carl cube. The nanobots begin the transformation. My body ripples, turns white. And male.

Mr. Danvers turns red. “That’s not how—”

I switch cubes back, transform again. “Your negotiator is here, sir. Shall we begin?”

 

[Moonbat]

On-line Identity​

It’s a digitally signed, cryptographically sealed, decentralised distributed ledger. Using a security token to facilitate the one time creation of an immutable online identity. Once set up you need never type any of your personal information again, ever.

Ah

What?

I clicked the wrong button. I clicked female, but I’m a man,

Hmm. Are you sure you identify as male?

Yes. All man.

Probably easier to get gender reassignment surgery now to be honest.

 

[unbusy thing]

Them and Us.

It’s who we are, we agreed, but the subtleties are intriguing… Gadzooks, challenge accepted!

Welcome to the 2018 Schadenfreude Society vs. Anhedonics Anonymous face off.

Their turn: A pregnant cat farting on YouTube. Not a flicker from us.

Our turn: The Climate Change Conference. Strap on your man-sized diapers, Mr President – here comes science.

We take no pleasure in activating the sphincter nanites.

They’re laughing so hard they can’t breathe.

Them, 2; Us, 276.

 

[LittleStar]

Skin Deep

There wasn't any pull, Helena's hair just let go. Same bottled-wine black as when she won her pageants... just not strong enough anymore. Doctors said it would happen though.

She coughed away tears, catching Allie's eyes in the mirror.

"I want to be just like you when I grow up, mummy." Head titled, smiling.

"Sweetie, you're already prettier than I ever was."

Allie hugged Helena's arm. Stronger breaths fluttered inside. "I didn't mean that."

 

[Shyrka]

And there shall come a king among men...

Princess Ariana had always hated the prophecy but when Garieth arrived at the castle, tall, handsome and muscular in a way that made her tingle, crown-shaped birthmark and all, she decided arranged marriage might not be so bad after all.

---

She gasped, reaching for his glistening form. Garieth started, wide-eyed, clutching at his birthmark. Ariana pulled her hand back, purple smeared across her palm.

“Don’t stop,” she purred. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

 

[The Judge]

Fall from Grace


Holmes has been a different man since his near death. So when news reaches me of foul crimes bearing the unmistakeable stamp of Moriarty, I say nothing, and search for the Professor alone.

Clue after clue I follow, at murder after murder, until finally we meet at the Reichenbach Falls.

Holmes smiles. “Congratulations, Watson. I wondered when you would discover my secret.”

A trial is unthinkable. I raise my revolver. This time he won’t return.

 

[Ursa major]

The Superhuman in All of Us​

“I’ve worked out that the junk in our genome isn’t junk,” said the professor. “It’s us.”

“Well, it is in our genes.”

“Yes and no.” He frowned. “You know how your body can start doing something before you think you’ve decided to do it?”

“Yes…?”

“What makes that decision?”

“My subconscious.”

“No, your host. The junk in the genome is our DNA.”

“We’re genetic symbionts?”

“Or parasites.”

“I knew my smile was infectious.”

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