Wednesday, July 20, 2011

As god is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again…. Flash Fiction


It was an ordinary day, one much like all my others, a day filled with small joys to be celebrated, smiles given freely to strangers, moments allotted just for the smelling of roses.

It was after five, so work was put away for the day, closed neatly in drawers and compartmentalized to wait for the morning. Moderation in all things; the watchword by which I lived my life.

Then I met him.

I was walking in the woods, glorying in the birdsong, delighting in the antics of squirrels and chipmunks; smiling at the memory of capturing and releasing a tiny toad once I'd convinced him I wasn't going to toss him down my terrible maw.

I rounded a bend and there he was. My brain lit up like I'd been struck by lightning. I actually felt dizzy for a moment. I leaned on a tree, my mouth tasting of copper, knees weak, ears ringing. He looked at me like he could see my soul. His eyes pinned me down, rummaged around inside and turned me inside out.

I felt rooted to the spot, filled to the brim with indecision. Did I stand or did I run? I'd been warned when I was seven that this could happen. But generations had come and gone without a single ripple in my world. I'd become complacent. Now fate had intervened.

He started for me, the air shimmering as he moved. I felt myself flood with juices. Hunger ravening, lust building, the needs I'd beaten back into submission for years bubbling to the surface.

When he got close enough to touch I knew there was no other option. Our auras meshed, the world stopped turning. I unhinged my jaw and swallowed him whole.







Three word Wednesday prompt : fate, indecision, option


 

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ummm... I'm pretty sure I won't be hungry for a while now - good thing it's nighttime over here ;-)

Karen from Mentor said...

What? No bedtime snack?

Anonymous said...

Not after reading this.
And on second thought... reading it before bed is starting to come off as the wrong decision :P
(but I loved it!)

Karen from Mentor said...

I'll put a disclaimer on anything even remotely related next time. Something like "this might be too icky to read right before a meal or bed"
What do you think? But in my defense? I did label it horror.

:0)

Karen from Mentor said...

um... although you could argue that I led the reader down a pretty primrose path to get there....

*grins at you*

Anonymous said...

You know the label horror is at the end, right? :P
That's funny though! (and no worries, I'll be able to sleep - which is why I'm typing this at 1:47AM) j/k

Anonymous said...

Even funnier how we both thought of the same thing *winks*

Thom Gabrukiewicz said...

Beautifully written. I bow to you (and you should get this published, ASAP.)

Karen from Mentor said...

Thanks Thom. It was fun working from your prompt. Haven't really been subbing anything for a while. Have some backlog flash though....so might start thinking about shopping things again.
Thanks for stopping in.
:0)

Marisa Birns said...

Now, you're not supposed to gulp your dinner down, but, oh well, you WERE hungry. What a reasonably cheap, eh. No need to look for the latest hip restaurant.

Very well done. You did lead us down a tra-la-la road, skipping along until... *da da dum* the horror.

I love how you foreshadowed it with the toad being afraid of your "terrible maw."

Karen from Mentor said...

That's so funny Marisa because that part actually happened last friday while I was walking with my friend patty in the park. The baby toad wouldn't let me pick it up until I promised not to toss it down my terrible maw.

This was fun to write and the end surprised me when I wrote it. It also made me laugh maniacally. So I think I may be suffering from paint fumes or something. [all the windows in here are shut against the fury of 100 degrees outside]

Thanks for stopping in sweetie.
*smooch*

Laura Eno said...

A great example of being in the wrong place at the right time...or is it the other way around? I am glad you let the frog get away, though. ;)

Karen from Mentor said...

hee. no toads or frogs are ever harmed in my stories.

I haven't decided whether the man she met was predator or prey..... it works either way for me. But something sure the heck set them both off. [those darn aura minglings-never know how that stuff will go]

thanks for stopping in m'dear.
BIG SMILE

said...

Holy Feces! You have me wife's first name, you use one of moi's favorite words (Yammering), you're in MenTOR
(I spent many a summer
[& one fall/winter @ Mentor High, too]
@ just about the very (western) end of Hawk Ave.), ain't the internet a hoot?

Stay on groovin' safari,
Tor (Know as Doug in Mentor) Hershman

John Wiswell said...

Now by "swallowed him whole," do you mean...?

Karen from Mentor said...

****laughing******

Karen from Mentor said...

@Tor Hershman... you forgot to say "Batman!"

but yeah, this internet thingy makes the world smaller and smaller...

Thanks for stopping in.
:0)

Sonia Lal said...

Great story. I was expecting romance and I get that ending. LOL

john - that's funny! LOL

Al with no Aura said...

Whoa! I was sucked in with all of the lovely images and prose...I didn't see the end coming (yeah, I'm such a guy!)

Cathy Olliffe-Webster said...

Well at least you didn't sacrifice the toad. The other guy probably deserved it.

J. M. Strother said...

I've come to expect the unexpected from you and you certainly did not let me down this time. If my vote counts for anything, I definitely thought the guy was predator, but he got out swallowed.
~jon

Karen from Mentor said...

Yup. Swallowed whole and completely changed a life. Have a feeling that the quiet little hamlet where the narrator lived got quite a shaking up from that day on.

thanks for stopping in.
:0)

Karen from Mentor said...

Coulda gone either way Cathy. She was just quicker on the draw.

*smooch*

Karen from Mentor said...

I didn't see the end coming either Alan until *poof* there it was in print. I laughed and laughed, then pushed "publish" ... thanks for coming out of hiding even without your aura as protection to comment.

*hugs you*

Karen from Mentor said...

@Sonia um...yeah...I kinda went over the top there with the "nothing to fear here folks, come on in and relax..." lead in.

*looks slightly sheepish*

Thanks for stopping in, nice to see a fresh face.
:0)

Cat Russell said...

I think it's the unhinged jaw at the end that really got me. Ouch. But great story!

Anonymous said...

Wow and smack. Was reading quite happily then and then you hit us - nicely done. Great work :)

Anonymous said...

And I thought it was a cat. It's not. Is it? The word 'maw' always makes me cringe. And I thought this was labled as 'humour' on fridayflash.org. Imagine my shock!

Karen from Mentor said...

*gets out her notebook and invites you to recline on her couch*
"...so tell me flyingscribbler, do you think perhaps in another life you were something small enough to be tossed down one and that's why the word 'maw' makes you cringe?"

----

It's VERY interesting to read the build up as if the other creature is a cat. But no it wasn't.

---
Thanks for popping in.
:0)

Karen from Mentor said...

@brainhaze. Thanks. And I tried to be gentle whilst smacking you. [hope it didn't leave a mark]

Karen from Mentor said...

@ganymeder ... me too truth be told cathy. The unhinging bit made it ever so much more icky for me. [which is of course why I added it]

*grins*

Thanks for taking the time to comment. MUCH appreciated.
:0)

Adam B said...

The dark shadows that inhabits the creases of our world sure have an appetite.
Adam B @revhappiness

Karen from Mentor said...

Yes, and you never know where they might be lurking....

*looks at you suspiciously*

W.G. Cambron said...

...There's a perverse joke in this, I just know it.
Very good writing. Went from one thing to another in a fluid motion. Loved it!