November 12, 2021
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction, Horror
It was dark by the time he reached the abandoned factory. He found a dry patch of ground, set down his backpack and pulled out his lamp. The heavy-duty contractor’s lamp lit the space in a harsh LED glare. It was the lynchpin of his arsenal.
He took a quick look around, then launched the Shadowhuntr app on his phone. He was in the top five on the combination ARG and urban exploration toolkit. Tonight’s raid would take him over the top.
But he became so engrossed in checking his standings he never noticed the creature creeping up behind him.
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November 11, 2021
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction
The young witch sits down in her living room and sets to work. There is a candle-topped skull on an end table and a stack of tomes are piled on the floor. The space is otherwise modern and comfortable.
She is a thoroughly modern witch who crafts her spells in a text editor instead of a cauldron. The rules are the same. She just uses new tools.
She pauses when her laptop screen shuts itself, and an unseen yet fuzzy presence makes itself known in her lap.
Another immutable rule of witchcraft is that the cat will always cause trouble.
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November 10, 2021
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction, Literary
She leaned out the window and sighed.
She looked out through the cool darkness into the neon-soaked alleys of the city, searching for something that she couldn’t name.
She wouldn’t say she was unhappy. Her days were filled with light and joy. But at night, she sat up instead of sleeping. She was missing something in her soul, and the lack of it was the missing stair her mind tripped over in the dark.
She got dressed and headed out into the city. Somewhere in the night was a missing piece of her. She went to go and find it.
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November 9, 2021
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction, Sci-Fi
Translocation is an exact science. That’s the whole point. You get in the pod, you flip the switch, and here becomes there. The technology bends the laws of physics to shave years off of interstellar journeys.
But as the pod rematerializes, she realizes something is wrong. The process isn’t going as smoothly as usual.
She feels a lurch in her stomach, and the pod falls the last ten meters to land on the broken tiles of the trans-port floor. She emerges into ruins, stranded with the puzzle of what happened to the thriving space colony she was sent to inspect.
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November 8, 2021
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction
The little packet boat moved through the old canal at a slow and steady pace. Walls of cyclopean stone blocks hemmed in both sides, and leaning towers loomed above them, as though giants watching their progress.
The ruined waterway was still traversable, but it was filled with hidden dangers and old ghosts. The three-man crew kept their wits about them and eyes sharp for fallen blocks in the water and ambushes on the levee.
As they emerged back onto a wider stretch of river they muttered a prayer of thanks to the forgotten builders and set their sail for home.
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November 7, 2021
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction, Sci-Fi
We were retracting one of the pods from the ocean surface, and it was nearly at the top when it jammed.
Most people think that it’s the turbines that keep the city flying. But if they’re the city’s heart, the pods are the nose and mouth. They bring in water and air and expelling exhaust. We’d choke without them.
As I clipped on my harness to take a look, my buddy handed me something. “Just in case,” he said.
I looked from the orange life preserver to the water hundred s of meters below and had to admire his optimism.
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November 6, 2021
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction, Sci-Fi
“What’s a ‘domesticated cactus?’” The boy asked, looking curiously at the display.
The old woman behind the counter chuckled and pulled a little ball cactus from the shelf behind her.
“They’re genetically modified. See? No thorns.” She petted it like a cat. The boy reached out a tentative hand. The cactus was soft and cool to the touch.
“Cacti have thorns for protection, but sometimes we’re better off letting people in.” She handed him the pot. “ Here, it’s on the house.”
He kept the cactus on his desk for years, and it eventually became the symbol of the disarmament movement.
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November 5, 2021
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction
Something went wrong with the summoning. The dragon felt the call of magic pull it through dimensions, then the spell snapped, and it emerged into a gale.
The dragon struggled to stay aloft in the howling wind and freezing rain but fell towards a strange city.
Inside the bakery, Indigo heard a thump. They looked up to see a little dragon pressed against the window.
They brought the dragon inside to dry off. Unsure of what it ate, Indigo grabbed a handful of sultanas and offered them to the creature.
To the little dragon’s eyes, the fruit sparkled like gold.
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November 4, 2021
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction
The goddess of music sat on her throne and listened. To an uninformed observer, she might have seemed a prisoner, lashed to her chair with pegs and strings of all different materials and thicknesses. But nothing could be farther from the truth.
Each string led to the heart of a bard wandering the wider world, spreading her songs, and bringing her power.
She listened as each one reverberated in a different frequency, the whole array perfectly tuned and harmonious.
The goddess did not need to travel. Her mortal servants made music, but she was music. And they were her instruments.
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November 3, 2021
hughjodonnell
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction, Sci-Fi
From a distance, the stranger watched them excavate a temple.
Slaves brushed away dirt from the pointed tips of metal towers under their masters’ watchful eyes. The warlord would allow nothing to damage his prize.
Legend said that the Sky People created the temples in the ancient past, and tales of unstoppable armies and magical weapons set wheels spinning in every despot’s mind.
So far, they were children playing with forces they didn’t understand. Some temples had exploded. Others did nothing at all, their magic long spent.
That night he snuck into camp and disabled the half-buried rocket beyond repair.
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