January 14, 2020
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction
“Cassandra, tell me the weather,” He demanded of the device perched on his desk. It sat like a round white ball on the nearly black wood, spoiling the effect with trailing wires. He hated the thing, but his wife had insisted upon keeping it. ‘I’m gone half the time, and you need a woman around to tell you what to do,’ she’d joked.
The thing chimed, and a pair of tiny blue lights flared in recognition.
“In Tartarus, it is cloudy. Again. As ever.”
Hades glared at the oracle’s skull. The modern makeover hadn’t done anything to fix her sass.
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January 13, 2020
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction
The forest was haunted. That was an indisputable fact. The foliage grew into monstrous shapes. Paths seemed to bend in upon themselves unnaturally, and howling wind could be heard even on calm days.
The ghosts were those of trees and the small animals that lived there, and they did not understand how to frighten humans.
Indeed, tourists flocked to the ‘spooky forest,’ to take pictures of trees shaped likes skulls and record the sound of the mysterious wind in the branches.
It wasn’t until a hiker slipped and broke his neck that the ghosts learned what humans really found terrifying.
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January 12, 2020
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Podcast, Uncategorized
audio fiction, Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction
Today’s story is “Dragon Friend.”
Written, read, and produced by Hugh J. O’Donnell.
Musical track is “Deep Lands (Part 2)” by Dark Fantasy Studio, composed and produced by Nicolas Jeudy.
Thanks for listening!
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January 5, 2020
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabble, Fiction, Flash Fiction
During the inspector’s last visit, the plant had been a disaster area. He gave the owner an ultimatum: Get the plant up to code, or be shut down.
Now, it was like walking through a different building. It was clean, well light, and gleaming with new machinery. But none of it worked. Everything was top of the line, but nothing fit together.
“What does that pipe carry?” he asked, pointing.
“Nothing, it exists for its own sake,” the plant owner said, beaming.
“What? We asked you to modernize. How is this possible?”
“Well, I did you one better. I Postmodernized!”
January 4, 2020
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Flash Fiction
The rope hung before him, suspended in the air in defiance of logic and gravity. It stretched as far up as he could see, into the blue haze.
He gave it a few experimental tugs, gently at first, then harder. It held.
Overcome by curiosity, he climbed up the rope. He climbed for hours, until, exhausted, he reached the end of his rope and found himself back where he’d started.
He eased himself off the rope and onto solid ground. He was home. Or was he? He took a few minutes to rest, then set out to explore once again.
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January 2, 2020
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction
“You’re leaving tomorrow,” he whispered in her ear, as they waltzed across the cavernous dance floor. His breath was warm, and sweet. She craned her neck away.
“I have to go back to work,” she said, not unkindly. It was an old argument.
“But, for six months. I miss you.”
“You could come with me,” she offered, not for the first time.
“I have my job, too. Can you imagine if I abandoned it?”
“Then we have tonight,” she said.
“We always have tonight,” he agreed.
And Hades and Persephone waltzed through their palace once again for one last time.
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December 31, 2019
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabble, Flash Fiction, Sci-Fi
When she began studying engineering, the mean girls started joking that she was going to build herself a boyfriend. At first, she ignored them, but the more she learned, and the more she worked, the less implausible the idea seemed.
She built the prototype, and installed a contained artificial intelligence she got inline. It was important that he be able to make his own decisions, to be able to surprise her.
The whole school was shocked when she showed up to prom on the arm of the perfect hunk. It was awesome.
Until he dumped her for that skank, Becky.
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December 30, 2019
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Flash Fiction
When the first snows fell on the high mountains, the villagers living in the valley prepared for the Snowball Festival. They built ramps and barriers along the lower slopes of the mountain, and moved vulnerable people to second and third-story shelters.
Then they held their collective breath and waited.
In the towns at the top of the high mountains, when the first snows fell, the people frolicked in the wintry weather. They threw snowballs and built snowmen and never spared a thought for the snowballs that rolled down the mountain, growing and growing until they hit the village below.
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December 29, 2019
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction
The soldiers camped in her barn that winter. She sat in the dark house, not lighting a fire, hoping they would forget she was there.
That spring, she made scarecrows. She bent wire frames into human shapes, and wrapped them with dried rosebush branches. She took what she had to hand, old boots, discarded jackets and pants, and dressed them, topping them with discarded helmets.
When they were done, she propped them up in her fields.
She left a pair outside her barn as well, carefully turned so you couldn’t see the bullet holes in their uniforms from the road.
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December 26, 2019
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Flash Fiction, Free Ficiton, Star Wars
The jury forebeing read out the verdict. “We find the defendant guilty on all counts.” The courtroom was filled with gasps of shock.
The presiding judge of Coruscant Youngling Court banged his gavel for silence.
“I have no choice but to sentence this defendant to ten years hard labor in the Spice Mines of Kessel.”
“Objection I have,” The Defense attorney said. “Merely shoplifting the crime is. A promising future this young one has. Overly harsh this penalty is.”
The judge sneered down at the defense team. “Galactic Republic law increases the penalty for crimes involving the Use of Force.”
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