Use the photograph above as the inspiration for your flash fiction story. Write whatever comes to mind (no sexual, political, or religious stories, jokes, or commentary, please) and after you PROOFREAD it, submit it as your entry in the comments section below.
Welcome to the Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge. In 250 words or less, write a story incorporating the elements in the picture at left. The 250 word limit will be strictly enforced.
Please keep language and subject matter to a PG-13 level.
Use the comment section below to submit your entry. Entries will be accepted until Tuesday at 5:00 PM Pacific Time. No political or religious entries, please. Need help getting started? Read this article on how to write flash fiction.
On Wednesday, we will open voting to the public with an online poll so they may choose the winner. Voting will be open until 5:00 PM Thursday. On Saturday morning, the winner will be recognized as we post the winning entry along with the picture as a feature.
Once a month, the admins will announce the Editors’ Choice winners. Those stories will be featured in an anthology like this one. Best of luck to you all in your writing!
Entries only in the comment section. Other comments will be deleted. See HERE for additional information and terms. Please note the rule changes for 2018.
It Came From the Sea
As the sun began to set over the seashore, the sky transformed into a canvas of pink and orange hues. The waves glistened like diamonds in the fading light, and the salty air was filled with the sweet scent of beach roses.
But as the sun dipped lower, the atmosphere began to shift. The once-peaceful seashore was now filled with an eerie, otherworldly energy. The waves grew higher, crashing against the shore with a menacing roar. And the beach roses, once so sweet and delicate, now had a sinister scent.
As the sun sank lower, Marie realized she was not alone. A strange, glowing figure emerged from the waves, its eyes fixed on the horizon.
The creature began to speak, its voice like a thousand whispers in the wind. It told her of the ancient power that lay beneath the sea, a power that had been dormant for millennia but was now stirring once again. The creature warned her that the sun was setting for the last time, and that the world she knew was about to change forever.
As the last rays of the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, the creature vanished into the darkness. The waves soon returned to their natural rhythm, and the beach roses to their sweet, delicate scent.
Marie stood alone, staring into the darkness. The memory of the creature and its ominous message lingered, leaving her a haunting reminder that the world was full of secrets and mysteries beyond her understanding.
ELIGIBLE FOR EDITOR’S CHOICE ONLY
After The Dark
Danny occasionally had nightmares. Not many and most had their genesis from the war.
Liberating Bergen-Belsen.
The unimaginable horrors that had become suddenly real lingered forever.
Those, he understood.
Those, he sweated and squirmed about throughout the night.
Those left him always awaiting the dependable dawn.
Convinced the dawn would offer reprieve.
Aware that they would always return.
Mindful that they were his lot and were nothing compared to the nightmares of the few who lived that horror and survived, or the remaining family members trapped forever in their grotesque grief, they had become his companion fears.
But other less understood nightmares visited him on occasion. They held limited context for him. Yes now, he lived by the ocean but that was relatively new. Yet, occasionally, in his sleep, late at night, after the dark had descended, he found himself haunted by apparition in a lagoon. Giant obelisks rose from the coal-like sea, flashes of sickly yellow wisps hung in the sky like they were death’s hanging tree.
One night, he had mentioned that spectre to Anne and she had nervously laughed and questioned him.
“Death’s hanging tree? That doesn’t make any sense, Danny.”
He felt chastened but the image remained with him, and he tried to describe it more fully to her. “It’s like a tree of light in the heavens. Or maybe its hell?”
She held him tight, a comforting gesture they both hoped would alleviate the dread.
But it would not stop plaguing him.
ELIGIBLE FOR EDITOR’S CHOICE ONLY
Creepy Coast
I wandered around pondering. Thinking what it was best to do next after calming the female down.
Without television or radio, our main form of entertainment was storytelling. Night had fast closed in and it was one of those dark starless nights with a hint of mist. Mystical.
Friedle had just begun talking in a hushed voice full of dread, “Creepy! So creepy, that it made my blood freeze, it halted my feet and almost stopped my breathing. The sand against my bare feet suddenly felt deadly cold and a frigid wind started as though it had swept through a graveyard. Staring out to sea the clouds looked macabre with a hint of pink. Far from cosy. The rosy glow was like blood seeping through an autistic unquiet sky. The giant jagged rocks clawed out from the sea in a threatening way. They were as dark and evil as Satan. The trees on them so bright and cheerful during the day were menacing like hooked fingers scrabbling to scratch, slash and scrape. Every rock and pebble along the shoreline seemed to menace with their inky blackness as though they were small beasts intent on harm. A scream started in my throat as debris swept fiercely towards me. The word, ‘Leave!’ chaotically repeated in my mind. With blood finally pummelling through my head, I ran screaming, ‘I am not afraid!’ A huge lie, but it gave my feet speed!”
There was a collective sigh of relief.
Lisa Fox looked across the bay at the two rocky islands that thrust out of the water like hulking monsters out of a fairy tale. They creeped her out like nothing since her winter in St. Petersburg, when she and some classmates had gone out to the Gulf of Finland to see an island that had been used as a prison back in the days of the Romanovs.
That place was a long way from here, both physically and temporally. But telling herself did nothing to dispel the unease that knotted her guts.
It would be easier if there had been reason for a formal stakeout. But the locals’ suspicions were so vague and poorly articulated that it was easier to dismiss them, let Spartan’s Own send someone up here to watch
And Spartan picked you because you’re a telepath. Lisa gave the thought a wry smile, since the man really didn’t understand the limits of her talent — or just how little training she’d received.
She had just enough to tell that yes, something uncanny was going on here. However, it wasn’t enough to tell what, or whether it had anything to do with the Federal government’s current quasi-war with a significant part of its own population.
Which means it’s time to bring in the person with the psi to actually tell.
The Hound’s Teeth had been hungry recently. They’d snagged three holidaymakers foolish enough to drift away from the shore, savaging an inflatable dingy and a pair of airbeds. The small boat had sunk quickly, its outboard motor pulling it down, whilst the shredded remains of the airbeds had floated for several hours after they’d dispatched their users, leaving them to swim back, hoping to find shallower waters.
There were no survivors. The Hound’s hunger was notorious.
The local tourism department was at war with the ignorant. Its officers posted signs at all the beaches, warning of the dangerous tides. There was no way of knowing how many lives they saved, a good week being one without casualties, a month rarely passing without loss.
Hayley Harris was one of the many. She’d thrived on the adrenaline the largest waves brought. Her shortboard had washed ashore two days ago, its owner not at all, her name joining a list that had grown by more than a dozen this year. But Lianne refused to give up hope of ever seeing her again without her body being found.
Maybe the Hound had taken a bite from Hayley, too. It was hard to be sure, the rock pinnacles seeming to collect most of the local flotsam, the currents driving it into the crevices between the two tallest spires, eventually smashing it into fragments.
A body would take three to four days to rise from the depths. Hayley might reappear any day now.
I never expected this.
He left me blindfolded and it must be hundreds of miles from our home, based on the hours it took to drive here.
Where is here?
Thank God, they let me go to the bathroom on the drive, but I have to go again.
The only sounds are the waves crashing on rocks and making my urge even more painful.
Finally!
I got my hands untied and removed the blindfold.
I should have left it in place. It’s now dark and creepy. I was standing alone on a deserted shoreline, with weird lights in the distance.
He said we were all going on a scavenger hunt. Unfortunately, I was the odd girl out since I was his sister. I think he wanted to do some things with the other three girls, and I would be a witness.
I knew he would get even for my sharing some private things, but I never expected him to go this far.
I screamed bloody murder…something was biting my foot. It was a large crab, and others were moving sideways to get to me. I shook it off and stood crying into the abyss.
The crab was on its back and its legs moving like hell. I picked up a large rock and was about to crush it to death.
“WAIT! ‘A Live Crab’ That’s the last thing we need for our list.”
“Bobby, I’m going to kill you. Is the lipstick on your face part of the list too?”
LATE ENTRY
The night was dark and scary. Mike came back from fishing and was scared of the dark. “I am scared of the dark” he said to Bobby.
Bobby said “Me too”
“What’s that sound”? asked Mike with his voice. It was only the wind but Mike didn’t know that.
“That’s the witch of the rock” said Bobby.
The witch came closer and closer.
“Wait” said Bobby. “That’s not the witch. That’s my mother” They laughed.
Bobby’s mother said “I’ve been looking for you”
Mike said “Are you going to eat us”?
Bobby’s mother said “No, but we are having ice cream tonight. Let’s go.”
They all went back to Bobby’s house and ate ice cream and watched a movie on Netflix about a real witch. It was a lot of fun.