Hi all! Thanks to everyone who submitted. We had a total of 10 fabulous entries this week, although one was just for fun.

Please keep returning to Microcosms, and retweet / spread the word about this contest among your followers and friends.

Don’t forget that Microcosms exists primarily to provide a platform for the flash fiction community to hone their skills, and secondarily to give entrants a chance of receiving an accolade from that week’s judge. We also have the vote button for anyone – not just fellow entrants – to register their favourite/favorite(s) and thus establish a Community Pick.

Remember, you can reply with a comment to any and all of the entries AT ANY TIME: It’s always good to have feedback.

Many thanks to Stella Turner for judging MC 64. Here’s what she had to say:

Thanks everyone for your stories and making judging so difficult. It’s all subjective as Community picks often differ from the Judge’s pick but here are my choices after a lot of deliberation.

Stella

 

 Favourite / Favorite Lines

Alva Holland “Clooney – On Stage” – Now, skedaddle before I pull you in for something.
Firdaus Parvez “Mr. Reeder” –
“Your grammar is atrocious, punctuations everywhere except where they should be,”
Geoff Le Pard “Sergeant Sims and the Disappearing Elephant” – A bunch of prima donnas, and he’d not had his morning pastry yet.
Nicola Tapson “I dare you” – By the time she saw him, he was just dust.
Anne Chowdhury “Spirit of Me” – “Apologise else I’ll suck out your soul”
Angelique Pacheco “Abra-Kandula” – Erik was a star.
Steve Lodge “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Fun” – Madam? Engaged to a baboon? Noooo
Bill Engleson “From Underground Hollywood: The Stories Nobody Talks About: Tarzan Escapades” – This is far too political for me.
Caleb Echterling “Sufferin’ Suffragette” – “It’s a coffin with wings”
KM Zafari “City of Angels” – “Now she’ll be young forever”
Special Mention

Nicola Tapson “I dare you”

I love a graveyard tale, and this one had a surprising twist in the end which I didn’t see coming.

 

Runner-up

Geoff Le Pard “Sergeant Sims and the Disappearing Elephant”

This story was truly a mystery but also made me laugh. ‘Opposable thumbs’: I had to look that one up, so educational as well. The elephant in the room idiom at the end clinched it for me.

 

And now, without further ado, we present the winners of Microcosms 64.

 

(insert drumroll here)

 

Community Pick

Nicola Tapson “I dare you”

211 words
Aviator; Grave; Romance

Frances sat at the grave. Her tears drenching the stone. She had lost her beloved because of a silly phrase. “I dare you”. That is all she had to say to get him to go on adventures with her. Hiking up the Appalachians. Swimming in the Dead Sea. But she forgot that she was not the only one to dare him. His enemy had done it too. Had dared him to fly the trickiest flip in the book. Though he had done it once or twice he had never blindfolded. But those three little words led to his demise and her broken heart. She watched as the plane pummelled to the ground leaving a black line through the grass. By the time she saw him, he was just dust.

Now she lay by his grave watching the bird and the duck dance through the clouds. Wondering what to do next. Wondering if dying would be easier. Slipping the bottle out of her bag, the sun glinted off it and she looked up. There amongst the clouds was a trail. The words, “I dare you”. She slipped it back and walked away. She wasn’t one to be dared.

 

Judge’s Pick

Firdaus Parvez “Mr. Reeder”

What can I say about this apart from I wished I’d written it myself. Brilliant! Begins with horror, intestines adorning the window like fairy lights then ends in pure comedy. Self published! No editor! Written in one night! It’s still selling! Well done for making me laugh out loud.
Stella

300 words
Writer; Torture Chamber; Comedy

“It was just another night, as always, dark and lonely. And then the murders began…”

I paused and looked up at him. His lips were drawn into a disapproving line.

“…the first couple of murders were ‘neat’, put it down to my OCD. I hate making a mess. But then inspiration descended on me and I got more creative and gory. The last victim had his intestines adorning the window like fairy lights,” I stopped when I saw him scowl.

“I know, I read,” he growled.

I was strapped to an iron chair with a fire burning under it. It was getting uncomfortably warm. I looked around the dimly lit room, it stank of human waste, blood and piss. There were chains hanging from the ceiling, strange objects with spikes and blades littered the place, and I saw a few cattle prods leaning against the wall.

“Please unstrap me, Mr Reed,” I pleaded.

“Reeder,” he corrected.

“Yes Mr Reeder, please,” I whined, my butt was almost toast.

“Did you have any help at all,” he asked pacing the room.

“No, it was just me.”

“No wonder the sloppiness of it all,” he sounded furious.

He stood right in front of me, glaring down into my eyes.

“No sequel,” he stressed.

“None I swear,” I squealed. I was roasting.

He unstrapped me and I sprang to my feet rubbing my backside.

“Have you any idea what you’ve done?”

I shrugged.

“Your grammar is atrocious, punctuations everywhere except where they should be,” he flushed, mouth frothing, “plus you wrote it in one night, didn’t bother with an editor AND you self published!”

Wiping the spit with the cuff of his sleeve he groaned as if in great agony.

“My book is still selling,” I said smugly, then dashed out of the room.

 

 

Congratulations, Firdaus. As this week’s Judge’s Pick, you are invited to judge Microcosms 65! Please let us know whether or not you are interested ASAP!