challenge

Broken, you and I.

Something is terribly, terribly wrong. You hold in your hand a flower of blue, only to blink and find it a flower of red. You blink again and in your hand a bird lies dead and still. With trembling fingers you place the bird upon the granite altar here, in the quiet of your mind. When you step away, the old woman beside you wakes. When does the bus arrive? It should have been here, she says. Always comes by now. Down the road you see a man under a street lamp. Your eyes meet despite the distance. What is that in his hand? A blade of flawless obsidian. He brings it up to your neck, but you are yourself no longer, and you watch from under the streetlight as the man waiting for the bus cuts open his own throat. To each his own. You have tea to make. *** Write a story which does not make sense because it _can't_ make sense. It can't make sense because the place in which the story unfolds is broken. Or maybe the story is broken. Maybe both are fine and your eyes are bleeding. Let's find out.

From the Ficly archive

Challengers

15 entries
  1. Unnatural Distortion

    Author: Tad Winslow

    Morning fell from the night-- forcing the wind to fence itself with long shadows of grass blades. The sun welded them into form-- creating small, dark, sharp…

    Mar 30, 2011 · Ficly archive (4)

  2. Man that you fear

    Author: Job

    I’m watching a Marilyn Manson video, and i’m halfway inside a bottle of Jameson. The enter key is broken, or the return key, if you are known to use old…

    Mar 30, 2011 · Ficly archive

  3. From Greece with Haste

    Author: H.S. Wift

    Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns and the Sungod wiped from sight the day of their return. That year spun out by the gods when he should…

    Mar 29, 2011 · Ficly archive (2)

  4. Life Goals

    Author: Parker Sade

    Sweet suede Moses, there is nothing left for us in this rubble! The air has turned spicy and the grass is failing below our broken toes. Why on earth would ten…

    Mar 29, 2011 · Ficly archive

  5. Could I Have Stopped?

    Author: Jessica Cahill

    I like peaches. It’s true, I have always walked through the mountain to reach the Plains of Summer. Since they’re so sweet, especially when they’re…

    Mar 28, 2011 · Ficly archive (2)

  6. BiOs

    Author: Sir Bic

    In a luminous flash, the world turned blue. Then there was darkness. … … The unerasable came to life; operated the operators, controlled the controllers. The…

    Mar 25, 2011 · Ficly archive (2)

  7. Good Morning

    Author: ElshaHawk (LoA)

    The logical side of her brain sleeps longer, leaving control in the hands of her subconscious. The light is too bright. The man should have gone back. That’s…

    Mar 24, 2011 · Ficly archive (4)

  8. I Was The One Worth Leaving

    Author: Kihd

    smear the black ink across the expansive paper desert, granting your last demands. I stare down at the asphault and wonder what’s buried underneath. A tonic of…

    Mar 24, 2011 · Ficly archive (1)

  9. I Can Taste Her Blood

    Author: soup

    The two red lights down the far end of the road are shining like stars. I think of my girlfriend, her laugh and her eyes shining like red lights themselves. I…

    Mar 22, 2011 · Ficly archive (2)

  10. The Secret Exposé

    Author: Bill Pilgram

    Three persons filled a foursquare room; the conversation was wary and unrehearsed. Neither would say what the other was thinking. They sat in blazing-cold…

    Mar 22, 2011 · Ficly archive

  11. Mother

    Author: stargazer1960

    “There, there. It will be all right, again.” “There, there it will be right . . . there where you left it.” “Where did you leave it? It was my favorite. You…

    Mar 19, 2011 · Ficly archive (2)

  12. One Voice

    Author: Lighty

    The only thing that bothered her was the harsh stopper in her throat; the grating swell that wasn’t tears or hate but meant she couldn’t speak. Her voice was…

    Mar 19, 2011 · Ficly archive (1)

  13. Reality Tripping

    Author: zxvasdf

    ...you face a desperado whipping out good ol’ six-shooters hip squirting water onto laughing children tumbling onto grass burning lava blackening skin yelling…

    Mar 19, 2011 · Ficly archive (1)

  14. Struggle

    Author: World Forgot

    my eyes open and I see you in all your glory. Gorgeous hair, gorgeous smile, gorgeous everything. Stunning from head to toe. I reach out to stroke your cheek…

    Mar 17, 2011 · Ficly archive (2)

  15. Flashback

    Author: Bob Liddil

    A bright white light flashes. A jarring quake of thunder shakes the bed in which I awaken in the body of the boy I used to be, sweating profusely from fear or…

    Mar 16, 2011 · Ficly archive (4)