Random Prompt 3: Mechanical Extraction
Brian trailed after Lucy as she scampered down to the cellar. He gagged on the cocktail of fumes wafting up from the cluttered chamber. Beakers and bottles…
Sphinx Without A Secret
85 stories written on Ficly, 2009–2014, shared under CC BY-SA 3.0. Their page on ficly.com
Random Prompt 2: Cryptic Instructions
Jeff hadn’t thought they built crypts any more, but his grandmother had managed to find one to be buried in. Her other demand was even stranger - that her…
Random Prompt 1: The Forgotten God
The sandstone columns seemed to glow a dusky red in the burning dusk light, marking them out from the sand and shadows which swallowed most of the ancient…
Bad Timing
Akiko descended back to the pavement on a swirl of sparkles, resplendent in her tight-fitting suit of solid glitter and armed with an opal-topped staff which…
Love Lost
The roof slid open and her weave tensed with a painful twist of hope. Six of her people tumbled in, layering upon the crowd already in residence. It took only…
Suited For Success
The fortune-teller idly shuffled her deck as she called out, “Who is next to seek the insights of Madam Akkaviri?” A small, grubby face poked through the tent…
Games Within Games
Paris France’s parents had a cruel taste in names. She’d never found an employer willing to put such an awful name on their payroll, leading her to the dingy…
The Easy Life
Kara had not passed a house in days when she came upon the little run-down shrine along the Great Wastes Road. Curious, she brushed open the torn curtain to…
World Forge Invocation
I stand before these gates, wrought by the drowned kingdom and twisted by the bound chaos, I bid these gates to open before me, for I am a Hekau of Egypt and…
Marginalia
The young illuminator lifted his quill from the parchment and watched his creation dry. He wasn’t entirely sure what it was that he had just doodled on the…
Any Point On The List
The cheap brown envelope crumpled beneath the door as I swung it open. I picked it up with a soggy glove as I slammed the door shut against the horizontal…
The Good Old Days
Cinder dashed up the garden path and reached up to tug on the front door’s handle. Her baby charmander waddled after her. “Grandad Ash! Where are you?” “In the…
State of Mind
“And what can I do for you, Miss?” he leaned over the vast mahogany desk, his bloated, oily face squashed into a smile. “A great deal,” the small, plain woman…
Debt Collection
“But Dad,” the boy peered through the dark windscreen, “you never take me out anywhere.” “Well, today is special,” I replied, parking the car in the forest…
Cosmic Leftovers
“So I’ve been thinking of moving out of my parents’ place,” said the six-limbed fawn-like being as it stirred an expresso in the pan-dimensional coffee shop…
The Amazing Accountival
“Roll up! Roll up!” cried the man in a dull grey suit. “Roll up and see the Amazing Accountival!” The crowd shuffled through the ticket booth in quiet…
Means of Production
“That... was not what I was expecting.” Jake stood in the doorway, flung open by Karen moments before. The basement stretched out before them, illuminated in…
The Same and Simple Answer
The smoke coiled about her, the shadows of shapes swirling in the corners of her vision. Two silver slits appeared above her and spread into a pair of shining…
Comforts
Mark settled down next to Dave and his stuffed backpack, huddling against the bitter wind. He felt the muck of the playing field give way like a cushion as he…
The Scent of Summer
My throat fought against the spore-clogged air, coughing up as much breath as it sucked down, as I slipped over the window sill. The glass was long gone and…