So, I've renamed this series because it would appear that Bryan and Nav are pretty much regulars. Bryan emailed me loads of excellent drabbles and Nav is producing fine ones on a weekly basis. I will also try and secure some guest appearances from others. So enjoy this weeks selection and I hope you enjoy my 700 and odd word story, that was adapted from four 100 word drabbles. (Edit Note: Next week, we will have author Ken Magee joining our little team and Bryan has sent me a drabble titled Robots which is one of the best I've read, so you can look forward to that!)
Skin Deep by Nav Logan
They say that beauty is skin deep. I’ve spent my whole life being ugly. I shuffle around dreaming of becoming something more. The sun rises each day, and I do nothing but eat. I am a pathetic case of Bulimia Nervosa, wallowing in my own self-pity, and mourning my fat ugly body.
Finally, I can eat no more. Exhausted, I wrap myself up in my hammock and sleep.
Warm sunlight wakes me. Breaking free of my cocoon, I stretch languidly. Fluttering my wings, I bask in my new-found beauty. I was once an ugly green grub. Now, I’m a butterfly.
The Vulture by Bryan Thomas
Day One
He watched, and waited, and waited, and watched.
There were no carcasses in the valley.
Day Two
He flew, and soared, watched and waited.
But there were no carcasses in the valley.
Day Three
He watched, waited, flew, and soared. He imagined he was a military drone, although his big beak and feathers were a dead giveaway that he wasn't.
Not a carcass in sight.
Day Four
He flew, watched, soared, waited, shuffled, scratched, farted and pondered.
Not one carcass - zero, zilch, nada.
Day Five
There was a carcass in the valley! Unfortunately it was the vulture's.
Miss Murder by C.S. Bailey
I stand frozen besides the bed, gazing upon tonight’s lover’s face. Pale, with long curly red hair down to her shoulders.
I’m full of dread while I stand and stare. Such beauty captured by myself. Swayed easily into my bed by the putrid appeal of alcohol; If only she knew what I had stored inside, a demon yearning for release.
I can’t help myself any more, that urge! That Desire! I feel it building from within like a virus, meant to control my actions. It does not falter, nor does it tire, it just gradually builds slowly until I run red with rage.
I head to the bathroom and look in the mirror. Who is this man staring back at me? Why is he angered, so hurt and full of this unquenchable thirst. I want to be warm and kind, not battling the darkness within.
I look into his eyes, the eyes of a killer.
I get dressed in my clothes, my suit from the office… all rumpled from the rain as I made my way home drunk with the red haired angel.
My blood pumps increasingly fast warming my body as I seek my prey, I’m ready and waiting for little Miss May. I can usually cope with one a month, though the more prominent the urge, the more I have trouble waiting for so long.
I see her in the distance… Short skirt, pierced lip, scruffy hair… flirting with that troglodyte looming over there.
I wait until she’s done and a follow her quietly… she’s unaware. She heads down an alley; it’s as quiet as sin… how apt for my savagery to begin. On my tip-toes, I’m as stealthy as can be, perfect for my unsuspecting victim.
I creep up behind her, hair smelling of cinnamon and surrounded by an intoxicating fragrance of lavender. I grab her by the waist, hold her close and whisper the words “Goodnight Miss May.”
I held out for the month, just. The second to last day of May and I were already on the hunt for June. Scouring the corrupt Earth; for yet another helpless target. Constantly ready to erupt into a violent beast of the night.
I sit alone, confined in the corner of a rancid all night café. The walls stained yellow with nicotine June, the floors covered in shoe prints and the counters layered with grease. It is here, I found June. Stumbling in drunk with her black hair and pink fringe, my eyes lit up immediately. She was out of her mind hammered and ready to collapse. I’d seen her before, but never in such a fragile and vulnerable state.
Her olive skin, blue eyes and rounded lips filled her rounded face with beauty. Something I could only crave from afar. She usually walks the streets with promise and purpose. When sober at least.
June never pays attention to the likes of me, always surrounded by her best friends, or the weekly handsome and muscular boyfriend. Forever stopping traffic as the drivers howled at her peachy behind, confined tonight in a tight silver skirt.
As I hide in the background, nervous of life I wonder whether love from a woman will ever be enough for me.
Every time I see her… my confidence grows a little, like I am absorbing her positive aura. It’s been a few months since I first spotted her divine beauty and tonight, my time has finally come.
I approach her finally, June knocks me back before my tiny words have chance to leave my trembling lips. Even in her inebriated state, I am not good enough to be in her company!
I run back to my set and attempt to hide from my shame. Fear building. Anger rising and eventually the darkness rises.
As June lies on my table, a hollowed out piece of meat…
I bet I’ve got your attention now June!
July flew by, literally. I chucked her empty corpse out of a plane. As I found myself craving a little taste of the orient, it is time to uproot from my destructive past and move on from the gruesome memories occupying the town I once called home. I quit my job, collected my savings, achieved by my minimal life and purchased my plane ticket.
I arrive in Tokyo, seeking a fresh start. Far away from the horrors I had committed. Maybe things could be different now. I decide to sit at the airport bar and order a pint. Soon after, a small eastern woman sits next to me, I glance over and smile sincerely.
Much to my confusion she smiles back and slowly moves in closer “What’s your name? I ask.
“Mai”
If only I’d have got here earlier.
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