Flash Fiction Friday: The Case of the People vs. Pandora

I. Long, long ago in the first years of the Thirty-First Century, the great, the good, the wicked, and the terrible, all gathered from across the Seven Galaxies for the Trial. They came in their rockets and solar sails, their hyperdrives and trans-dimensional cannons, their teleporters and astral projectors. The Judicial Station show court could...

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: The Lady Tiger

Julian Fiennes woke up next to a tiger, a Siberian tiger to be exact. Mr. Fiennes was known to be very fond of tigers. Ever since he had first stumbled upon a breathtaking watercolor illustration in one of his father’s great leather-bound books, he had devoted his life to learning all there was to know...

Flash Fiction Friday: Concerning Cancer of the Shark & Other Miscellaneous Maladies

I. Sharks can, in fact, suffer from cancer. This fact is of some importance considering that a large number of people have, apparently, come under the impression that sharks cannot get cancer. The impression that sharks do not get cancer came, oddly enough, from a book entitled “Sharks Don’t Get Cancer,” which would seem to...

Flash Fiction Friday: Proof of Life

The combined research team stared down at the object in question with varying degrees of shock. The initial excitement, and in the case of one junior technician a full-blown panic attack, had finally subsided. The first garbled message had been sent Home, but it would be weeks before they received a reply. In the meantime,...