A collection of flash fiction works.
Each story is a stand-alone, unrelated to the next and always less than 1000 words.
A mixture of genres, but most works contain speculative elements.
Some stories may contain swearing or mentions of blood/viole...
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My mother had told me that the shadow creatures never came out of the darkness, because they didn't have to. They always found a way to lure you in.
Rae's mother had never told her anything like that, so when the floodlights at the end of our street stopped working and the surrounding homes were evacuated, she wanted to check it out.
"Missy!" Rae called, leaning on a traffic bollard that supported a road closure sign. "Damn dog, where'd she go?"
I leaned on the bollard next to Rae's and peered over the sign. I'd lived my whole life under the safe glow of lamps and my eyes weren't accustomed to cutting through darkness. Which made it hard to make out anything past the curtain of shadow that met our artificially lit end of the street. "You shouldn't have let her off the leash," I said, trying to scan the poorly lit driveways and lawns of the furthest houses.
"I know that now, don't I?" Rae gave me a shove in the shoulder and pressed her lips into a hard line. She was taller than me and I had to hold the sign to stop from falling over.
"There!" My gaze snagged on a yapping knee-high figure in the darkness. Missy was two houses down, on Ms Hudson's abandoned front lawn.
"Come back girl!" Rae's desperate voice echoed down the street. Missy's ears pricked up as the broken floodlight flickered to life above her, bathing the evacuated end of the cul-de-sac in safe, sterile, bright white.
"How—?" I squinted into the lit bulbs. The specialised repair crew wasn't expected for another day.
"Here." Rae shoved the leash at me, not waiting to see if I caught it before she hoisted herself over the blockade.
"What are you doing?" I clutched the leash to my chest and tried to grab the back of her shirt in the same motion.
Her sneakers hit the road on the other side of the barrier with a slap. "Getting her while the lights are on."
"But—"
She didn't wait for me to finish, taking off down the path, her pony tail swinging behind her. Missy looked up from the patch of grass she was sniffing and gave an excited bark. I watched, my heart drumming in my ears as Rae scooped her up and rounded swiftly, sprinting back toward me with the fluffy bundle wriggling in her arms.
There was a flicker and my breath caught as the floodlight dimmed, dousing Rae in shadows for a moment. A scream stuck in the back of my throat, strangling me while my stomach tipped upside down. Then there was another flicker, and the lights were back. I let out a thin breath. Rae was still running, her face stricken as she closed in on me. Missy fought harder in her arms—tiny legs frantically kicking the air.
"Take her!" Rae held Missy at arm's length out in front. She was still running, full speed, on a collision course with the barrier.
I reached as far as I could over the road block. Missy's weight filled my hands just as the light went out again. Rae was plunged into darkness. Her silhouette barely visible in a churn of moving shadows. She let out a scream and something tugged sharply on the dog in my grasp. I tightened my grip and Missy howled. A freezing swirl of air clasped my outstretched arms. It pulled my stomach into the sign, winding me. I let out a panicked wheeze and wrenched backwards. Icy claws tore down my arms and I fell back. Missy was still in my hands, landing on top of me with a whimper.
Rae's scream from the darkness was cut off and I scrambled to my feet, straining my eyes and seeing nothing. No sign of Rae, or the swirling mass of shadows that had smothered her in the dark. It was as though they hadn't been there at all.
There was a flicker, and the broken floodlight blinked back on.
