Posts Tagged ‘Hell’
Jul
The Knock
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
There’s a knocking on the spaceship door when there shouldn’t have been. For Chris-sake, I’m umpteen millions of miles from anywhere and here’s this knocking. It’s deliberate, and it’s the all too common knock of: knock, tiddly-knock-knock, knock knock. Is this a space hallucination? I’ve heard of them, but hell’s bells, I’ve only been up here for 50 days, surely it couldn’t happen as soon as this. Oh, mother, it’s peering in the port-hole now and looks just like me. I do feel a bit lonely now, maybe we could get along. I’ve just got to get this hatch open…
From Guest Contributor Len Mooring
Mar
Forever In Sunset
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Seamus liked this time of day for visiting Breige. It seemed fitting.
She’d enjoyed sitting outside in her Yorkshire Fiddleback, just under the scullery window, breathing in the satisfied air of a full day’s work done as the chickens clucked down the hours to twilight.
She’d watch the sun set across the farm.
“Hell of an old gal,” Seamus sighed, manoeuvring to stand in the spot, watching his shadow sweep along the cemetery path.
The sun dipped, sending the shade of her headstone growing alongside his until it was shoulder to shoulder.
He reached out, smiling as the shadows embraced.
From Guest Contributor Perry McDaid
Dec
Last-Minute Shoppers
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
“Wrapping paper! Ha, ha!”
Shoppers passed by clutching rolls of it.
“Fancy spending Christmas Eve wrapping presents!” Ian thought, reflecting on how he’d finished his yesterday.
“My God, they’re fighting over chocolates,” he sneered, observing a couple of housewives tugging the ends of a Milk Tray box in Howell’s Department Store.
He resolved to have a latte in Starbucks to fully savour the spectacle before the shops finally closed.
“Chocolates?!…Christ, I forgot the wife’s chocolates!”
Ian rushed out of the café.
“Where the hell can I find some now?” he thought, seeing the doors of Howell’s snap shut.
From Guest Contributor Ian Fletcher
Aug
Hell Is Paved In Pink Flamingos
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
He struggled—obsessed was the right word really—with finding just the right word to describe his surroundings. The decor might have been chosen by a meth-addicted toddler who also happened to be a fan of early 80’s Madonna. The word kitsch came to mind, but while the neon atmosphere did have a tacky garishness one would associate with lava lamps or chia pets, there was also an aggressiveness to the design that implied a malevolence to the circumstances. He wasn’t here by accident and whoever brought him here wanted him to suffer. The pink flamingos were proof of that.
Mar
Affinity
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
You talk in your sleep. At first I thought it was adorable. I’d lean my ear closer to your head on my chest and catch things like, “Silly penguin doesn’t even know!” or “Better take that milk back to Saturn tomorrow.” I’d laugh and go back to reading and hold you closer. Then things changed, starting with when you arched your back away from me and hissed like a demon cat from hell. I didn’t hold you closer after that, and it’s gotten weirder since. Now I lay awake on my side of the bed, wondering what you’ll do next.
From Guest Contributor Sarah Reddick
Sarah is a writer who spent ten years learning the hard way in Mississippi and she will always be grateful for that state’s ability to give a body the blues. She is currently enrolled in the MFA program at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO. Her work has previously been published in The Local Voice, Salt Zine, Cattywampus Magazine, and the Mid-Rivers Review.
Oct
Granny
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
He didn’t want anyone to take this wrong but granny was a bit of a pain! She just sat in that rocker like a dried up old prune. She just sat there not moving or saying anything. But those pension checks kept rolling in, and he kept cashing them. He had power of attorney for her. He hated her place. The air was dry and smelled stale but he went there every week, making sure no one disturbed her. He couldn’t have that of course. If they found out she died three years ago, there’d be holy hell to pay!
From Guest Contributor Derrick Fernie
Jul
Prescience
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Liam awoke from a phantasm where puppy-like pigs defecated down his back, their feigned embraces weighing him down so much that he was left behind by his peers as he strove to participate in some great undefined quest.
As sleep dispersed, he really hoped it was allegorical. He dragged himself to the bathroom for ablutions and a shower. Today’s staff outing should clear all that from his head.
The phone rang, interrupting the ‘bathing therapy.’ He answered, dripping.
“Hello.”
“Liam, Jeremy here.” Head zookeeper.
“Pete’s called in sick, would you relocate the vampire bats to their new enclosure?”
Hell.
From Guest Contributor Perry McDaid
Feb
The Conductor
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Sunil’s adolescent fantasy of being a bus conductor was now fulfilled. Nubile women pressed against him in strategic spots, he smirked.
At Valanchery, a horde of schoolgirls boarded. Sunil could barely squeeze through to sell tickets. This was heaven.
At Vattappara, thirteen aunties got on. Commuters. Other passengers were in hell. Sunil attained paradise. Though paradise was slightly suffocating.
At Kakkad, the tension eased slightly, but before Sunil could exhale, twenty quavering old biddies surged into the bus. A handbag knocked against Sunil’s temple.
When the bus pulled into Ramanattukara bus stand, Sunil was no longer in this world. Literally.
From Guest Contributor Aparna Nandakumar
Aparna lives in Calicut, India, and writes stories and poems. Her work has been published in Atticus Review and previously at 100 Words, and is forthcoming in Cafe Dissensus and Red River Review.
Jan
Mortal Sin
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Shawn ran from the confessional like the Devil might grab him by the collar and drag him back down to Hell.
“What’d you get?” I whispered.
“Nothing. He said it was just a minor sin.” I smiled. If stealing money from the donation box was considered minor, I was scot-free.
“Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I left a mess in the rectory.”
I didn’t know what excommunicated meant but I felt I’d been unjustly served until my Pop said that Father Flannery obeyed only one dictate: cleanliness was next to Godliness. Violations were treated as a mortal sin.
Sep
Tainted Dress
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
When I woke up this morning, no way in hell did I think I would wake up feeling like a wrecked ship on the shore. I was the girl that was found emotionally dead in the shallow part of the ocean but was never found in the deep part of her mind. I wanted the water to swallow me whole rather than people find me with my sanity slowly disappearing and my virtue stolen. My white dress was pure but now it has a layer of dirt. Who knew that a dress could express exactly how I feel right now.
From Guest Contributor, Kenzie Nicole