The Seventeenth Sign
Heavy rainfall douses the wooden porch as rivulets of red drain in between the boards. Her eyes open to the feeling of rain hitting her exposed legs. Her long…
E. Williams
52 stories written on Ficly, 2009–2014, shared under CC BY-SA 3.0. Their page on ficly.com
Skunk Juice
She said, “I double dare you,” and I drank the skunk juice. That’s all I remember because when I came to, a nurse had implanted an IV into my arm, and I could…
The Sixteenth Sign
Jack’s boots crunch against the leftover stalks of his recently harvested field. Brittle corn stumps scratch against his boots as he places the axe on his…
Cyanide
What was that noise? “Charlie, was that you? Did you fall down again?” Wait. “Charlie, why are you on the floor?” You’re not breathing, oh God, he’s not…
Eustacia Roach
While no one was looking, Eustacia took the victim’s finger from her Coach purse. It was wrapped in Prada, the ring on it -- Louis Vuitton. The Tiffany Blue…
The Fifteenth Sign
The baby awakens and pulls herself up. Nap time was over a couple of hours ago, but the shrieking cries she howled earlier didn’t bring her parents to her…
The Fourteenth Sign
Martha lets her Great Pyrenees out, but regrets it and shouts for her dog to come back, but it’s too late; Kumquat has already found it. Lush overgrown green…
The Thirteenth Sign
Mark recalls having dinner with Sally, the night she started showing the signs. The flushed skin around her throat still glows in his mind. Had they not been…
The Twelfth Sign
Sally sits at her desk, as the news-ticker across the bottom of the TV reports of death, but there’s good news, too. That is on the screen now. Yellow suits…
The Eleventh Sign
Smells of pine and dead leaves fill Nathan’s nasal passages. The mold throughout this forest will be the death of him, he believes, if he can’t find his way…
The Tenth Sign
Groceries are all over the floor as her son walks into the kitchen. This wasn’t good. It usually takes his mom 2 minutes to put away groceries, especially…
The Ninth Sign
Sally saw the photograph in the newspaper that morning. She saw it and thought, “God, that’s an amazing photograph.” It was awful, but profound, and it…
The Eighth Sign
This was going to be Pulitzer material, he thought. The photographer can’t look away, and must always hit the shutter. To his dismay, he left the camera bag in…
The Seventh Sign
The first time Sally saw the footage, she drank an entire mug of hot tea, scalding her mouth. She didn’t realize her mouth was bleeding until later. The…
This is Why the Flu is So Bad This Year
47 states are red right now, not because of the GOP, but because of H3N2. “We unleashed this,” claimed the small being. “And we are happy.” The Swine Flu…
The Sixth Sign
She drinks a lot of water at dinner. The burning in her throat is merciless, and the tide she consumes, pitcher-full after pitcher-full, does nothing to…
The Simpleton
Behind the brush, the Simpleton watched as the Professor checked the Map, the Compass and the Sextant. Silly tools, the Simpleton thought. As the Professor…
Salliford Jimney
Salliford Jimney sat at the dining room table, surrounded by the likes and the like-nots. Such a dinner party, darling, such. She bent down a second, running…
The Abacus
In the tower, the abacus sat on the table. It balanced the scales between good and evil. As of now, the beads were scattered across the rods in, what looked…
And There It Was
Driving down 32, a country road with old people in Buicks driving the speed limit, the corn fields had been raped to the dirt and lay lifeless and covered in…