OCTOBER 2023 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge -- VICTORY TO GENELEWIS!

[johnnyjet]

Look Through Any Window

No one goes near Boötes Void. 350 million light years of nothingness. Ships disappeared. They stopped sending rescue missions.

Since I'm half-mad anyway, I take a detour through it to evade some people.

Look! Floating windows. It's not empty after all. I'll fly through one. Ha! It breaks into colorful bright fragments.

They have teeth. They smile. Ha! I'll break those smiling windows. Again and again.

Ha ha! I could do this forever.

 

[emrosenagel]

A Single Feather to Hold Up the Universe

How calm the marsh seemed before the egret came.

It stepped from the sawgrass, snowy beside one scarlet feather. One bright, flawless feather.

I'm the Cosmic mind. The whole mind. It pecked my thoughts. You're frightened because I am; you kill me, and our mind fractures. Splits.

Palms sweating, I groped for something. Anything.

Organic thoughts, unattended. Impulsive, chaotic.

Felled by stone, it burst into tattered, bloodied feathers.

How dangerous the marsh became just then.

 

[Provincial]

Old Earth, New Birth


The Earth had become so crowded and noisy it finally nudged the Universe into consciousness.

It’s first sensation was amazement, both at the planet and at its own existence. In the next nanosecond it took stock of itself. Curiosity then focussed all it’s attention on the source of the exciting electromagnetic vibrations - life.

Ooh look, it‘s moving. What happens if I pull a bit off? Vibrations increased! That feels AMAZING! What shall I do next?

 

[Mon0Zer0]

Red State​

Indeterminable aeons have passed since those ancient things last walked upon this accursed land. Yet, at the waning of the gibbous moon, when the dark things of the earth slither from their burrows and offer up praises to elder gods, their phantoms rise from the mist and formulate plans for their return. In the backwoods, incestuous tribes of gill-necked hillbillies lay foul smelling wreaths at the foot of bat-winged idols. Election season is here again.

 

[Lacedaemonian]

The Thessalonian

Jones slumped in the chair and studied the airlock he’d spent the last hour fixing squeal close.
“Unlucky to suffer barotrauma in your line of work.” The barman laughed passing him a chunk of ice to suck on. “How you want paying?”
“Jus clear my tab, Thess.”
“Told ya before, a soul ledger ain't a tab."
“Half my soul though… you said I wouldn't feel a thing."
"Do you?"
"Nothing at all. That's the problem."

 

[mosaix]

By The Light of The Moon…

Headlights! Blue flashing lights! Thank God!

She stumbled out of hiding and ran over to the car.

“Officer! Let me in! They’re close behind!”

“Who?”

“Let me in! Please! Blood! Oh, the blood… the graveyard… stumbled across some kind of sacrifice… I only just escaped!”

She scrambled inside, slammed the door and locked it behind her.

“And their hands! Horrible, broken, deformed fingers…”

Moonlight briefly illuminated the interior.

“You mean like mine?” said the policeman.

 

[JS Wiig]

The God That Failed

You come to me in all your insignificance, seeking vengeance for perceived wrongs and expect me to intervene on your behalf? Who do you think you are?

An icy blast of rage emanates from the deity’s alter and pummels my body, like the boots of that bully who fractured my skull and laughed about it.

Be glad I am in a good mood today.

It transforms me into what I loathe most: my tormentor.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

At The Mouth Of Despair

The moonlight bounced off the rain-soaked gambrel roofs in the town, opening curtains on the tenebrous night, revealing the cyclopean structure assembled from marmoreal blocks of such magnitude as no human could have endeavoured to create.

I stood before that stygian edifice, the foetid stench emanating from its cavernous doorway almost overpowering my will, but I remained.
As hoped, the mucilaginous flesh slowly snaked out, enveloping me, dragging me into that gaping, drooling maw.

 

[Pyan]

Shreve, Lamb and Harmon were aliens...

They'd been here since the early 'thirties. Watching, recording, analysing. Sending their results, suggestions and recommendations back to the Home Planet in disguised tachyon bursts undetectable by the humans.

Now the message had come back, three words. "Hopeless. Unsavable. Return".

The facade of the Empire State Building fractured, sending fragmented bricks and melted aluminium down into the canyons of midtown Manhattan. The starship at its core rose on brilliant plasma and lanced into the sky.

 

[Hugh]

Starbucks 0958am Monday 23rd

It was happening again. People were staring, their faces dissolving, sliding inexorably into chasms in the walls, tentacles emerging. Streams of energy cascaded through his skull, opening unused ancestral portals, fragmenting all sense of self into a billion shards.

His screams choked inaudibly as waves of bliss suddenly poured through him, permeating every cell of his being. He knew no past, no future, only the ecstatic present.

.....and he’d still barely tasted his flat white.

 

[Perky]

The Earthworm
The afternoon sky was pink as I drove home, and my breathing was labored.
I could smell my partner's perfume and hear her dozing as I opened the doors to my house.
As I climbed the stairs, my steps were heavy and worm-infested.
Soon, I was lying down on the bed, holding her, and my odd arms crushed her frail body.

 

[Bren G]

Dancing Among the Stars

Max burnished the smooth, jagged shard with a thumb as he pondered the number that was etched in its anthracite surface. “13.” One of a series of shards that bestowed great wisdom.

Desperation led Max to a six-eyed, tentacled thing, with rows of jagged teeth. It held the second shard. Etched on it was "13.2."

Max levelled his blaster. "What's the .2?"

The alien growled, "The sequel edition, now with a holographic dance instructor!"

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

The Limitations of AI When Applied to Religious Rituals

The robot starred at the Cardinal.

"So, what happened to your human exorcist?" he asked.

"Unfortunately he mistimed his leap from the window. Two fractured legs and we still have a spirit to deal with. An ancient and malevolent entity!"

"Like an old virus? I can help with that," said the robot, rummaging in his bag.

"Take mine!" said the Cardinal, offering his crucifix.

"No...found it!" replied the robot, holding up an RS232 cable.

 

[Parson]

Tāwhirimātea, the Storm God, and his Lesson

Kaimana had feared this black day. He knew Tāwhirimātea would come and separate from their island home all who hadn’t sacrificed well.

Fearfully, Kaimana pondered his sacrifice. It hadn’t been paltry. It had been the best he could do. All he could do now was pray.

Tāwhirimātea crashed Kaimana’s island in furious vengeance. Kaimana disappeared forever.

Tāwhirimātea taught Kaimana and everyone else that sacrifices are no guarantee. A god is a god. Man is not.

 

[The Big Peat]

Blood Curse

Brandon’s bike flew over the church wall and out of Hunter’s shot. Brandon bounced back, leg bent impossibly.
“****!”
“Don’t look.”
Brandon disobeyed, blanched.
“I’m bleeding. Hunter-”
Hunter didn’t believe the ghost stories, but Brandon did, and the mist was thickening ominously-
“Got it.” Hunter blotted the ground with his plaid sleeve.

On the world of Akala, the sky turned red, lined with blue and white, and an implacable force swept killing over the land…

 

[Ursa major]

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A Cosmic Horror Story​

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You live in one universe; I’m divided across all of them. How many there are – how many bits of me there are – I couldn’t say.​

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Communication between my separate parts is limited, making thinking straight difficult… hence why I’m often thought to be “dreaming”. As if.​

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But when the galaxies are aligned in a universe, so a lot of me’s there, I can act like the god I am.​

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Then Heaven help you... as if….​

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[Ursa major]

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This Challenge is now closed, and the poll is now open at the link below:

POLL -- October 2023 75-Word Challenge -- READ FIRST POST!​

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