MARCH 2020 75-Word Writing Challenge—VICTORY TO DAYSMAN!

[Ian Fortytwo]

I challenge anyone to kill me.

I am waiting with baited breath, the next phase of my change is due soon.

As yet I haven't killed anyone yet, that may occur in my next phase.

I'm not a pretty sight to anyone, and many people avoid me unless protected.

Of course a change could be challenging to me, as I will become more prominent.

I'm metamorphosing.

Arrrgh! Someone is spraying pesticides.

The End.

 

[sule]

What Remains of Narcissus​

Wet grass dipped silently under her foot’s delicate touch. The hush that filled the meadow told her he was gone. The nymph tried to call for him; no sound came from her numb lips. A distant nightingale chirped, and she borrowed its song.

Echo knelt by the pool’s edge, ran ethereal fingers across the fresh white blossoms and wept, her sobs whispering like the cold wind blowing past. The water beneath held no reflection.

 

[Elckerlyc]

Magnum Opus

He held the glimmering piece of metal high in the slanting sunbeam and looked at it in awe. Its color matched the golden light. He had done it! He could buy the world!
But not immortality.
-
His wizened hand held a beaker aloft, filled with a liquid that twinkled with promise. He had spent his life and fortunes in search of the elusive formula. Trembling, he drank… and transmutated abruptly.
Turritopsis dohrnii???

 

[DannMcGrew]

Mariposa monarca


Gotta get there.
Hombre, you think it’s easy?

First you eat and eat.
Nothing but greens.
So stuffed need a new skin.
Glue down rear end, pull out of the old skin,
The whole time you can’t breathe.
Do that FIVE times!

Now the grand finale.
Hang upside down.
Unzip and bare chrysalis.

Dissolve.
Yeah, dissolve!
So scary.
But you can hear that mariachi band!

Recombine.
Reconfigure.
Break out.
Fill and harden wings.

¡Ándale!
Mexico.

 

[johnnyjet]

On a Whim or Stray Thought

"Mercurio, slow down!"

"Boys will be boys, dear."

"Yes, but I must continually rein him in. He's so reckless with his shape shifting."

"True."

"He changes shape on a whim or any random thought. Now look. He just turned into a stray cat and he's howling on the neighbor's fence. Whatever will we do with him?"

"Perhaps our neighbor will take him in."

She turned into a wolf and bit him.

"Ow! Just kidding."

 

[StilLearning]

Shanghaied ​

“Fine print! And that Space Force recruiter git. During the medical everything goes black. Suddenly I’m a brain in a life support pod, inside a missile satellite. My body’s warehouse got bombed, war ended… bills, civvy work, blah blah.”

Terry patted the ‘automated’ limo: “No Jeff; What put you inside - prison?”

Jeff’s speaker sighed: “Copper saw all this.” Threats and genitals covered his bodywork.

“Whose writing?”

“My wife’s. Recruiter hired me for his wedding.”

 

[Vaz]

A Life by the Sword


The man lay bleeding beneath her. He had taken her family with one fell swing of the sword Keyra now held.

Revenge had a thirst. First a drop would do, then a cup. It was never sated. What peace had the sword brought? How many tomorrow's had she severed with that sharp edge?

she dropped it. Left it and him in the dirt - where her family were. His blood wouldn't breathe new life into them.

 

[scarpelius]

Fields of butterflies under moonlight

"Dad... come to see the butterflies!"

Jack raised his head. A gust of wind broke into the lab, bringing in the smell of autumn.

"Get inside!" he yelled, rushing outside.

"But dad... they are so beautiful."

"Get inside kiddo." The tone was imperious. The little girl sighed and conformed.

Jack sealed the shelter entrance. Soon the colorful, magical fields will turn into a blood bath as the butterflies will change into hungry ferocious creatures.

 

[Celine_Brace]

Acceptance in Birkenau

“Elijah?”

“Eva,”

She coughed through a notch in the wood.

His tears fell at the grave sound of her illness.

“I’m dying here, a captive.” she rasped.

“Rest, darling. I’ll distract you.” His power of illusion couldn’t save her, but .... Dazzling galaxies appeared overhead at his will.

But still, “I’m afraid to die.”

“Rest, darling. I’ll ease your mind.” Heaven appeared, golden, smiling - them together.

“Oh, I see,” as she smiled from life into death.

 

[Ashleyne]

CAKED

"Did it work?" Gizmo shuddered.

"Generally," said Scriff, "you'd see through your eyelids if you'd turned invisible."

"I feel lighter."

"You look creamy." He pinched Gizmo's 'stache, licked it off his fingers.


Gizmo's eyelids crumbled. "That didn't hurt..."

"Does this?" He pulled Gizmo's hand away, nibbled the fingers.

"How dare you unhand me. Reverse this spell or I'll suspend your wizarding licence."

"Fair enough. Best cake I've ever eaten, though, gotta hand it to ya."

 

[Pyan]

Fortuna vitrea est; tum cum splendet frangitur...

"I thought you'd be ecstatic! People have been looking for the secret of the Philosophers Stone for centuries! So what's wrong?"

"Well, there's one small snag..."

"What's that, then? Can't be that bad. Surely you'll be rich!"

"The only thing it'll turn into gold is..."

"Yes? What?"

"Rhodium..."

"Oh."

 

[elvet]

Cured

The nanobot slides along a wall of endothelium and enters a convoluted vessel. It can taste the toxic soup of biomarkers flowing downstream from the anomaly. Following the trail, it finds the tumour and anchors there. Other tiny machines arrive, aggressively attacking the diseased flesh until nothing but healthy tissue remains. Job done, they will remain in situ, ever vigilant.

***********​

She wakes, stretches, and.........smiles. The pain she has endured all these months has disappeared.

 

[Hugh]

“Do Fish Swim?”​

He was just three years old when his chrysalis first began to crack. It was the light through the curtains that fascinated him.

Then at fifteen, for a millisecond, he glimpsed eternity in a sunbeam.

At twenty-seven, light incandescent briefly blinded him as he watched the stars.

Over the years these cracks became wider and wider, but it wasn’t until he was ninety-three that all restriction fell away completely and he walked into the light.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Kajar And The Wolf Lord

Kajar entered the moonlit clearing and froze. Morfesh, the fearsome wolf lord, stood staring at the full moon. Kajar, about to flee, stopped as Morfesh collapsed, howling and writhing in seeming agony, his body deforming: fur, tail, snout receding; limbs becoming more... more human-like?

The howling stopped. A man stood in place of Morfesh. He glared at Kajar. "Have you completed your year-end returns?"

It was Arthur the Were-Tax Collector.

Kajar fled.

 

[BigJ]

What choice is there, really?

“You are the seventh son, of a seventh son, of a seventh son.”

“So?”

“To share in the power of the ancients is your birthright.”

“What power? I would be a god?”

“Not in any sense you can comprehend.”

“Figures.”

“Ignorance does not alter the offer.”

“And if I decline?”

“None have declined.”

“But it's my decision?”

“Of course. Choice is a hallmark of the human condition.”

“And what would it cost me?”

“Your humanity.”

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Not All Super Powers Are Amazing

Pigeon Man,
Pigeon Man,
Does whatever a pigeon can,
Poops on this,
Poops on that,
Pooped all over my brand new hat,
$#!¢ off!
You poopy Pigeon Man.

Pigeon Man,
Pigeon Man,
Should be banned from the neighbourhood, Man,
Poops on statues, poops on more,
Coming at you, can't be ignored,
To him, life is a great big crapper,
So much for looking dapper,
You need hoarded toilet paper!

 

[LittleStar]

Starseeds

The airlock rush pulled Rynn into the void, yet left the plant undisturbed in his hands. Once golden petalled, now a tiny white lion’s mane, each seed was ready to root and birth life from their fire.

He drifted from the Nursery, gripping the stem as tightly and delicately as he dared.

The bitter cold chipped his skin. With his final breath he cast the seeds and watched as a hundred tiny stars were born.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Curse of Virus is Dazzling


"We dropped them all, Grandda," chorused the little fairies, jumping around excitedly. "Is it working? Are the humans nicer yet?"

The ancient fairy snorted amusement. "Oh, my little ones. Humans are humans. The spreading virus can only enhance their natures, good or bad. This is to make the world nicer."

"How, Grandda?"

"Have you seen the air clearing? The water? Look around!”

“Wow! But… lots of humans are dying.”

“Yes. Here, go deliver Part Two.”

 

[Shyrka]

As Red as Blood

“He won’t know me? After the spell?” asked the queen.

“You didn’t know me.” The prisoner’s eyes gleamed. Years had dulled her beauty but she was still a striking woman. “But why?”

The queen swallowed. “I… have to know...”

“...if you’re still his true love? Of course. You’re not as fair as you once were.” She smirked. “But if you really want the truth-” She held out a ruby-red apple. “-give him this.”

 

[Mad Alice]

Diplomatic Immunity

It looked odd for a sheep. Since the meltdown most things looked odd, though. Three legged sheep that kept coughing was better off sold at market, before his flock was seized.
The soup lady buying mutton wondered why her soup turned green.

Then they started getting ill.
Coughing like that sheep swept the country.

After the isolations we received the call.
For killing their ambassador our world was sentenced to ten months of pestilence.