Short Story Collection

Puzzles. Puzzles. Boom.

 Writing June-2-Flash Fiction

I wake up groggy and with the singular worst headache I've ever had, I sit up and my bed sways underneath me making me want to puke. I try to put a hand to my head but it doesn't budge causing me to finally open my eyes to realize, I'm not in my bed. Hell, I'm not even home.

I'm in a canoe in the middle of the ocean, I rack my brain trying to remember how the fuck I got here but nothing. I look down at my hands and realize they have been chained by my sides I also see that I'm sitting in a pool of blood. My heart starts pounding and my breathing becomes rapid. I look up scanning the horizon trying to tell where home even is. But there's nothing other than a wide expanse of blue water. I look down again at the boat and see a letter I roll my eyes and use my teeth to unfold the letter to show four words.

So the game begins

Game? What sicko thinks this is a game? Then out of nowhere a package drops from the sky into my lap I tear away the paper wrappings and I see a puzzle cube and another note.

You have 10 minutes to solve it, if not, you'll swim with the fish.

I look back at the puzzle cube, the sides are clear and I can see a whole bunch of metal pins on the inside, they're all twisted together, and they stick out of the sides of the cube.

"I have to get all the pins out," I mutter to myself and set to work, pulling at pins with my teeth sometimes stabbing my tongue or gums figuring out what pins next, sometimes pins slid half out but you had to free another before you could get it out.

I don't know how much time has passed but the bottom of the canoe is now covered in metal pins and the object in the middle was a key. It looks like it'll unlock the shackles I drop the key and with shaky hands flip it and finally get it into one of the key holes and twist it and with a satisfying pop, the left shackle drops letting me get the other one off with ease.

Very quickly after another package drops. I open it and see a crossword and yet another note.

One down, let's see how you do with this.

I look at it and hastily read the handwritten scrawl at the top of the paper.

The letters you put in the red boxes will spell out a code that you'll use to open the next box. Get it wrong it'll be your funeral...literally. Time is against you. 10 minutes starting...now!

I grab the pen and start working, the first few words are easy but the farther down the clues go the harder they get, I chew my lip thinking but I'm drawing blanks left and right.

Time's up.

That's the last thing I read before I hear the bang and the world fades black.