Flash Fiction Friday: An Apocalypse of Alpacas

Where were you when the apocalypse came? When the alpacas descended in their thousands and lay claim to our cities, our homes, and our fields? Do you even remember the time before? My brother is too young. George was only three when our alpacan overlords arrived. He has known no other world but the mist...

Flash Fiction Friday: The Telephone and It’s Dog

"Operator," the dog barked. "I would like to make a long distance phone call." He was becoming quite indignant. The stupid human on the other end was being surprisingly unhelpful. Clearly, he had never been properly trained. Man might be a dog's best friend, but he was a stupid animal, barely able to function without canine...

Flash Fiction Friday: Concerning Gout of the Butterfly & Other Miscellaneous Maladies

II. …Monarch butterflies can, actually, suffer from gout. This is a scientifically proven fact, attested to by numerous highly regarded if more than usually eccentric scientists[1]. The first to successfully confront the pressing question of gout in butterflies was a German medical student, Hieronymus Hegelbert, in 17th Century Hamburg. Young Mr. Hegelbert was a promising...

Flash Fiction Friday: The Brief Journey of the Malcontent, Doctor H. H. Foster

Dr. Foster went to Gloucester in the pouring rain. He had not intended, when he woke that morning, to go to Gloucester or, indeed, anywhere at all, but circumstances of a pressing nature had unexpectedly arisen, and thus he found himself donning his hat and his coat and venturing forth into the downpour. It was...

Flash Fiction Friday: The Mouse and the Dragon

Long, long ago in a great cave high in the mountains a mouse and a dragon played poker. The mouse was quite a little mouse but brave, as mice count such things. He had traveled far and wide in his youth, from the country to the town and back again. He had gone on many...

Flash Fiction Friday: The Life & Loves of Mr. Albert P. Pennyfeather

Mr. Albert P. Pennyfeather was in love. For those who knew him well this was not, altogether, much of a surprise. Mr. Pennyfeather, after all, was infamous within certain circles for his particular talent for falling into and out of love at the drop of the proverbial hat; sometimes even before the hat had been...

Flash Fiction Friday: The Monster of Lake Cranberry

There was a monster fishing by the lake. His name was Gerald. He was small, round, and green, the color of all proper monsters. His teeth were long and sharp. His fur was prickly and spiked. But he was, all things considered, a rather pleasant fellow. His grin was roguish and infectious, even if there...

Flash Fiction: The Man of Spoons

It was three days before Curtis met the man of spoons, or as Curtis (and billions of other people) called it—today. This particular today was distinguished from all preceding ‘todays’ because it was not yet yesterday. It was, however, precisely three days, twelve hours and nineteen minutes before the encounter with the man of spoons....

Flash Fiction: The People vs. the Zombie Rights Foundation

It all started going wrong, when they let zombies work at the coroner's office. Everything went smoothly at first. Most funeral homes were already zombie-owned; becoming coroners wasn't all that different. Then the zombies started munching on the corpses. The Chief Examiner put up signs all over the morgue: Do Not Eat the Bodies! The...

Flash Fiction Friday: A Boating Accident

It was a pleasant day on the River Styx, when Beelzebub, Prince of Hell, accidently rammed his motorboat into a luxurious yacht belonging to Belphegor, also a Prince of Hell. He was understandably disgruntled. Charon was more than disgruntled. The Styx had always been his domain. Now the denizens of Hell were joyriding; the Transportation...