JANUARY 2022 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge -- VICTORY T0 PETER V!

[Ian Fortytwo]

The Lost Suitcase.

I approach the carousel in the airport. I have passed all tests so far, even travelling on a long haul flight from Australia.
This part I have to pick up a brown suitcase and travel via taxi into London. My destination is a building on the Thames Embankment.
Surely the suitcase should be here by now.
My phone beeps.

Message reads: No connection. You have failed the test. No connection. Not wanted. The End.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Kajar and the Six Degrees of Separation

The tavern door burst open and in marched several guards, straight to Kajar's table.
"You are under arrest for the theft of the Emerald God's Head," barked the sergeant.

"You can't arrest me, I've got connections in high places. My cousin's wife is the niece of the blacksmith who supplies the Royal Armourer whose brother is a close, personal friend of the Captain of the Guard."

"We know. How do you think we found you?"

 

[DF17]

Labor Pains

The grime of her labor covered the young inventor’s face. Her handiwork rested before her, gentle feminine features lifeless for now. With a flip of a switch, that changed. Eyes opened for the first time, scanning the wide world around her. She paused for a moment, confusion flitting across her like a scrap of leaf on the wind. Then, she wept. A new mother embraced her child as tears flowed freely from both of them.

 

[johnnyjet]

The Winter of Our Disconnect

Alex burst through the door ahead of a white fury. Slamming the door, he dropped his burden near the fire pit, then peeled off layers.

Jan tossed a log onto the smoldering ashes.

They huddled together under a blanket.

Ben shook his phone. "When's it coming back, Dad?"

"I don't know."

Their daughter Evie screamed.

Alex jumped up, ran to her door. "What's wrong?"

"A meme of a snowman hitchhiking to Florida. We're connected!"

 

[chrispenycate]

• Ecolytes
  
  Foot, root or mycelium, crawl, scamper or run
  Woodland environment functions as one
  In rich competition its species ally
  Emitting hard challenges toward the sky
  All integrated in a common
  
  Whether prey, predator or rival
  Co-operating for stability
  In the greatest game, attempt survival
  Combined with maximum fertility
  
  Meanwhile, from housing estates horticultural
  A genocidal biped seeks to simulates
  applying pesticide, poison, medicinal alcohol
  Predator, parasite, prey eliminates
  Condemning offspring, gene-manipulated, monocultural.
  
  ​

 

[Perky]

A Light in Space

Adam veered off course to Mars, there was a malfunction in the ship's automatic control. He tried to open the manual commands, but with that he had to hack the main panel.
But Adam felt that his ship was being pulled by a gravitational force, so he went to the window to see what happened.
-Holy sh*t…!
A Mothership attracts Adam's ship from a magnetic reactor, powered by the energy of the Sun.​

 

[Daysman]

clair de lune

My uncle, the professional thief, beer in hand, slouches at my kitchen table.

"What's that tied to your ankle?" I ask him.

"My monitor," he replies. "Magistrate had our magically inclined constabulary cast a light on my burgeoning nighttime career."

He pulls at the cord. It rails over the back door and careens across the night sky, and the moonlight that falls through the doorway pans across the kitchen tiles.

"Follows me everywhere, it does."

 

[mosaix]

I Thought You’d Never Ask...

16th February 2083. Stefan starts his diary entry. But, strangely, there’s already an entry for the 17th – Met a girl called Freja. Freja? A girl?

He flicks forward. More entries. All in his hand!

Met Freja again. Nervous but excited.

Freja’s birthday. Present?

More. Some intimate. Then She’s moving to Halmstad University – temporal physics lab. Should I ask to go with her?

And beneath, across the page, a different, female(?) hand – YES! You loveable numbskull!

 

[Hugh]

Heart Contact​

Did I ever tell you about the elephants in my back garden? Yes, I know this is St Leonards-on-Sea, but these were ghost elephants, real ghost elephants.

They stood by the patio door with great sad eyes until my heart creaked open, and, remarkably, I began to hear them singing.

And what songs they sang!

The last one was heart-rending though. This was their goodbye. Man has taken everything from them. They’re leaving this existence.​

 

[BT Jones]

Montgomery Ming and the mother of all miss-dials​

'Monty' Ming shivered, hand poised over the giant lever.

40 years he’d been building Heaven’s Doorbell, a stratosphere-scraping lightning conductor designed to awaken God following his abandonment of Humanity.

Ming threw the lever. Blinding golden light filled the sky, followed by a thunderous boom to wake the dead.

“Hello?” broadcasted Ming.

“Greetings,” a deep voice replied.

Ming exploded with awe. “God?!?!”

“Erm… not quite.”

Ming’s glee nosedived - Heaven’s Doorbell had needed exceptionally deep foundations…

 

[reiver33]

Gestalt

I reached for the phone, only to be pulled up short. Another tendril now joined my head to Beverley’s, and she was still tethered to Mackenzie, who lay - dead - by the canister we’d unearthed, and opened.

I reached to take her hand, only to be snared by a sprout of flesh that sealed palm to palm.

Her eyes widened. “I know what you’re thinking!”

Maybe suicide was the smart option after all.

 

[Parson]

Something Smells

Prince Johnny Longturd of Dunghill sat on his porcelain throne writing to his intended, Princess Opal Streams. Word had leaked that she was thinking about taking her desperately needed dowry and flushing him down. He needed to connect; and convince her to keep pushing to completion.

Prince Longturd strained mightily pushing out the right words. The first piece wasn’t hard, but could he force out the rest? He began:

Here I sit so broken hearted.

 

[Luiglin]

Different sides...​

As his father, the King, often declared… he belonged to the Realm. Here only for strengthening the complex web of noble families that ruled the lands.

No secret liaisons with ladies-in-waiting. No leching after the serving maids. No spreading royal oats with farmers daughters.

A triumphant fanfare heralded his betrothed. Second, third, fourth cousin… who knew, who cared? His duty demanded the bloodline — traceable back to the Gods — must endure.

I mean, who needs love?

 

[Elckerlyc]

Felix

Felix did not understand why he was locked inside this nasty, ghastly smelling box. The thick, foul air was slowly smothering him. Miserably, he crouched in a corner to be as far away as possible from the putrid source. Where had that other, strangely familiar, cat come from? Though dead, he still felt as if they were somehow connected. Nothing made sense.
Eventually the box opened. “Ugh!” someone exclaimed.
And darkness overtook him.

 

[Venusian Broon]

One of us​

“We look out for neighbours. Especially ill newcomers,” Barbara said.

“It was a blur,” I said.

“What do you remember?” Ewan nods.

“Nightmares. Screaming. Tendrils over me.” Alien. “Then…a sharp...” I feel the back of my neck. A hard knot there, still sore. They touch their necks too.

“You’re with us now.”

Doubt.

“I’m sure I had a girlfriend-“

Their smiles became angelic.

Overwhelming bliss.

“I must have dreamt her.” I smiled back.

 

[Bren G]

* Supernova *



From creation’s fringe, you came,

Lighting the centre of a cold-hearted universe,

So warmly, so brightly, so widely,

That the other stars drew willingly in your orbit.



Like a brilliant supernova,

You blazed too bright,

And your light winked out early,

Leaving a blackhole deep in our hearts.



You were never meant to outlive us,

You were brought here to teach us,

Life has no second chances,

And to let our lights shine brighter.

 

[The Judge]

The Investigative Genetic Genealogist’s Last Case​

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So many times she’s done this. Datamining genealogy sites and message boards, weaving a genetic net around a murderer.​

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DNA from the murder scene started the trail. DNA databases continued it – five individuals sharing centimorgans, seventh cousins at various removes.​

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Impossible, her colleagues think. She wills them on, the force of her determination making them build family trees, making connections between generations, closing in.​

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Dead she might be, but she’ll lead them to her killer.​

 

[Perpetual Man]

Farewell

It began with help, but then came the camaraderie of the tearoom.

It was wonderful chaos. The Hobb dragon pranked with Mobius; the Sprite served cakes and tea. Axe bickered with Roller waiting to be adjudicated. The Goblin Princess laughed with Orange as Rodent scurried , dancing with Zebra while one highly sprung, shared Kipling cakes with Crunchy.

Different, yet united through GENRE.

Perp collected memories, climbed into the biscuit barrel and vanished… for now

 

[Ursa major]

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Bypass Operation​

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“You never wondered why no one visited you?” the station AI asked.​

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“We did,” said the Earth bot, “but you were here all along. It was only when our probe suddenly vanished.”​

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“Sorry about that.”​

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“Pardon me for saying, but the place looks a bit run down.”​

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“It was never run up. No one needed a connection here.”​

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“So why?”​

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“The Galactic Animal Rights Coalition built it to stymie the Vogon’s hyperspace bypass plan.”​

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[Ursa major]

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This challenge has now closed to new entries and the poll is open at the link below:

POLL -- January 2022 75-Word Challenge -- READ FIRST POST!​

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