Flash Fiction Home
Archive VIII – Apr-Nov 2024
Archive VII – Jan-Apr 2024
Archive VI – Sept-Dec 2023
Archive V – Apr-Sept 2023
Archive IV – Jan-Apr 2023
Archive III – Oct-Dec 2022
Archive II – Aug-Oct 2022
Archive I – Jul-Aug 2022
For those feeling stuck in the #swamp of sadness this week, remember that Atreyu rode Artax again.
Good triumphs, eventually, as long as we keep our resolve and moral compass intact.
This is just one chapter in our story.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/AKhE9Cb3Nr
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) November 7, 2024
How can you live here, in the shadow of the volcano, with the constant threat of #ash and destruction?
Our community is supportive and deals with these dangers, and we prefer them to the unknown dangers of elsewhere.
This is our home.
Are there no dangers near yours?#vss365 pic.twitter.com/Xk5AfAwgAq
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) November 6, 2024
The dive bar was low on #ambience, but the old barkeep had an #affinity for white magic and believed anyone could achieve #arete, with a bit of help.
He didn’t worry that his regulars made their lives better and moved on. There would always be more people with problems.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) October 27, 2024
They were proof that possessor and possessed could live together in #amity.
He provided her a look into a bleak hellscape where the worst of humanity were allowed to run amok, she provided him a reprieve from such things.
To be clear, she was the demon.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) October 24, 2024
He loved to serve and approached each task with #avidity, as his caste was programmed.
At night, synapses and sub-routines merged, metallic dreams of a life rich with travel.
They’d find him in the streets in the morning, in a cybernetic fugue, looking for that life.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/wYWVRYiD0x
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) October 18, 2024
What does a kid in the fourth grade know about love? At that age you love everything… hamburgers, the colour blue, your new sneakers.
But on the day of the field trip out to the farm, drinking #apple cider and holding her hand because it was cold, the word took a leap.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) October 14, 2024
When she was six and at her first funeral, she called the cemetery a people #garden.
“And what grows in a people garden?” I asked, playing along with the idea, trying to find light on a dark day.
She thought for moment.
“Memories,” she said. “Memories and love.”#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) October 12, 2024
He hadn’t been here in years, now it was his job to clean the place out.
The old man’s #tsundoku was on full display and Ken was shocked to find his own work amongst the piles, most of his books dog-eared and well-read.
Late, but not too late, to learn he’d been loved.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) October 2, 2024
Charlie broke a branch off the Word Tree.
“Write any word in the air and it will appear,” the fox said.
“Be sensible,” Portia said, but it was too late. Charlie had visions of #cake, tarts and pie, though spelling was not his strong suit.
Sand fell from the treetops.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/9XYnLU1UnA
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) September 14, 2024
I know all the lights here. The dark of midnight, the milky mist as dawn is #breached, the lilac hue of twilight.
This small #attic window is my clock, the time passing but I cannot keep track of days. The city changes outside, the horses are gone.
But I am still here.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) September 4, 2024
I don’t remember who dared who as we laughed and jumped near the waterfall, the #misty air cool on our bodies before we hit the water.
When I surfaced, you weren’t there.
The lone pair of shoes on the rocks reminds me you never were.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) August 26, 2024
I can still feel her #lips on the back of my neck, her breath in my ear, her hand on my arm. It’s like the ghost of her is still here with me.
It is. It won’t leave.
It’s been 9 years and, yes, I miss her, but I’d like to date again and she keeps scaring everyone away.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) August 24, 2024
Maroon carpets, long faded, lead me down the dark hallway, the #air getting colder with each step.
I’m not supposed to be here.
I try to open a door but cannot grasp the handle. My hand goes right through it.
I am in a place beyond.
Is this house the ghost, or am I?#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) August 16, 2024
This time I managed to get a hand free, the chain ripped from the wall. The other is loose… another hour…
Three knocks on the door, I tell her to come in, my voice raspy, throat sore.
We’ve managed to get through another moon, another #change, but this one was close.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) August 12, 2024
He drops the needle perfectly into the #groove and our song starts to play.
He dances and pretends to hold me.
He misses me.
I try again, but he cannot hear my call.
The others have promised to teach me how to break through.
I can’t wait to tell him I miss him, too.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) August 4, 2024
That night we stayed out until the streetlights turned off, stumbling back to the party in the milky dawn, thoughts and feelings swirling, holding hands.
We got back and everyone was just waking up, no one #suspicious of how you got my jacket.
They knew before us.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) July 22, 2024
She crafted each tiny person and kept them on a board in the attic.
Each day she asked what they needed? What #motivated them?
Some days they were close, others far apart and, as she moved them, so moved society.
To her, it was a game.
She had no idea she was a god.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/S48gkoUb4O
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) July 18, 2024
The number of sightings was growing, as was our caravan. The news crawl read: “Alien lights over heartland America.”
How appropriate, that acronym.
When the lights beamed down on our faces for the first time, we weren’t sure if we were saying goodbye or hello.#vss365 #aloha pic.twitter.com/4K0b65Lycc
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) July 15, 2024
The technology #boon that followed the recovery of the alien ship changed everything.
Years later, it changed everything again.
When they attacked and were able to take control of our planetary defences, we realized the ship had been a Trojan horse the whole time.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/6xlqEU54Tv
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) July 14, 2024
The lady with the scissors in her head—he hadn’t even given her a name—led the proceedings. One by one, they spoke.
Runover guy.
Drowned lady.
Exploded uncle.All the side characters he had killed off came to him in dream court.
To #atone, he wrote their stories, too.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/vhar8qYKlC
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) July 13, 2024
He thought illustrations would #enliven his manuscript, but every time he went to edit he found words were missing.
His characters were eating them.
Larger and larger they grew until there was no story left to read, only 85 fat farm animals weighing 1000 words each.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/I116YB07ZG
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) July 12, 2024
#Embox my emotions and tuck them away on a shelf in the root cellar. Save them for when I’m gone and you need a piece of me.
Make sure it locks and won’t leak. The last thing you need are sad worms and jealous mice.
Don’t ration love.
There will be more than enough.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/jkEywtAiQQ
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) July 3, 2024
Wendy could make people #vanish. She used her powers sparingly and never gave much thought to where they went.
The cult leader never gave much thought to where his flock came from, stumbling out of the woods with no memory, but he said a small prayer of thanks for each.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/wcC8K7WNQM
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) June 30, 2024
After crossing over to the other side, but not all the way, Cam wanted to stay hidden. #Furtive movements in the shadows, noiseless tears at night, he was afraid of both heaven and hell.
Once he realized he was here to stay, in purgatory, his confidence came back.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/vYVWwPyXoe
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) June 28, 2024
My daughter doesn’t believe the legends, about a town with laws so #draconian they wouldn’t let their youth dance.
I tell her about the hero, Ren, who, with the help of a man named Kenny Loggins, restored happiness to the people.
Tonight we will watch the documentary.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/Px3z0zMTx9
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) June 26, 2024
The darkness #fractured only slightly, at meal times. They fed me while he slept, him while I slept; our chains not long enough to reach other, to touch, to know if the other was real.
We were just voices in the dark.
When the rescuers came, he was the only one there.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) June 18, 2024
Took the long way home and drove through the old neighbourhood last night.
Some of the houses are gone now, replaced by cheaply-built, #tacky townhouses that look like they came out of a box.
Kids played in the yards, streetlights hummed.
Same play, different stage.#vss365
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) June 12, 2024
The soul of every human who ever lived spends time in the Library of Souls.
As new bodies are born on Earth, it’s the job of the #librarian to check the soul out and monitor its use, repairing damaged returns and charging late fees for anyone who outlives their time.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/TiftcgNbBn
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) June 5, 2024
It wasn’t always a decoration; the stone #crow had once flown as far away as the sea, but the old witch wanted him to remain close to home.
Under the frozen stare, held aloft by chains, its mind still worked, the mind of the man she’d turned into the bird who flew away.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/ZXdlCYpTQm
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) June 2, 2024
Kept alive by tubes and beeps, unable to move, my consciousness goes for a #ramble, out the door and down the hall, looking for minds like mine.
I find a little girl, only her mind is not alone. She’s let in something dark.
We are all in danger and I can’t tell a soul.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/qo3pA657OU
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) May 28, 2024
I’ve been waiting for you here, in the #gloaming.
It’s too bright in the day to see me; I’m too frightened to come to you at night.
The other ghosts scare me, too.
But here, I can cry for you.
Do you see me? Do you sense me?
I cry your name.
Do you hear my lament?#vss365 pic.twitter.com/md6jg3B02Q
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) May 18, 2024
We threw the key to the #lock into the river while on holiday and took a picture.
We don’t know each other anymore.
I’ve been back since and it’s still there, a thing so small that simply says, once upon a time, we were here and we were in love.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/Y0eqLMZzgd
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) April 19, 2024
My eyes are barely slits as a green window appears in the ceiling of my hotel room.
My dream creatures are staring back at me through it; antlers, red eyes, #rat whiskers, asking permission to come through into our world.
I slowly nod as I drift back to sleep.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/Ji4LmErnnb
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) April 16, 2024
As I #chop the vegetables I accidentally take the end off my finger.
I’ve never felt so much pain.
I love it.
I set to work on the other nine.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/bbdtU0exZr
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) April 14, 2024
One fun house mirror showed him short and squat, another tall and #lithe.
One by one the reflections stepped out to join him, skin peeling from their faces as they broke the reflection line.
The last mirror showed him from behind.
He stepped inside and felt at home.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/wv2cDDEub5
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) April 7, 2024
At the hag’s house on the water, the beach is stony with the fingers of the dead. The waves don’t roll in, they #slither, teeming with eels hungry for any leftover souls.
Smoke rising from the chimney; a signal to vultures that soon they will feast.
So the stories go.#vss365 pic.twitter.com/EVHW0hSIiF
— Lee Zanello (@_LimaZulu) April 1, 2024