The Kiss

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They were the perfect couple, I swear they were.
They’ll be together until the end of their days, I had thought.
He said “I love you” to another woman, and that earned him a knife in his throat.
She was going to cut out his eyes when the bartender hit her with the bottle.
Now he doesn’t say anything to anyone, just whispers to himself every now and then.
And she just sits by the window, staring at things nobody else can see.
Wrecked and lost, no longer perfect, but they’ll still be together until they end of their days.

Paradise Packed

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All of the scientists agree: our species has passed the tipping point.
The ecosystems could no longer sustain our presence. Either our species went, or all species.
So, we took samples of everything, extracted the DNA, and packed them all into stasis pods.
Some of them we’ll launch into space as permanent memorials to our world.
Others will stay in orbit, ready to return when our planet had recovered from our mistakes.
We released the retrovirals at dawn, watching the horror spread across the planet from our bunker.
Then, we opened the champagne, toasted Eden, and swallowed the black pills.

Scarface

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Al Capone claimed that his facial scars were a war wound, and his bodyguard would chuckle at the comment.
“What are you laughing at?” said Al, and his bodyguard went silent.
The bodyguard was the one who had slashed Al for insulting his sister.
Years later, after Al died in prison, the bodyguard went out in the streets and found a kid in a gang.
“C’mere,” he said, and he slashed the kid’s face three times.
The kid’s mouth hung open, and then a familiar sneer came over his face.
“Nice knifework,” said Al. “Got a cigar and a light?”

I can’t complain

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How are things going?
I can’t complain.
No. Really. I can’t complain.
My doctor got fed up with my constant complaining, so he suggested an experimental treatment.
I now have a microchip in my head that will stop me when I complain.
I absolutely love this thing. I don’t complain about anything anymore.
Life is good when you have no complaints.
Oh, sure, I have problems, mind you. Life’s not perfect, but instead of complaining about them, I try to resolve them.
Usually, I do.
But when I don’t, I get out my chainsaw and fire it up.

Weekly Challenge #231 – Stand

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Welcome to the Weekly Challenge Number Two Hundred and Thirty-One, where I post a topic and then challenge you to come up with a 100 word story based on that topic.
The topic this week was… was…. um…
It’s Stand!
VOTING

Which were the best stories this week?
Tom
Katwood92
Zackmann
Stephen
TJ
Jeffrey
Planet Z
  
Free polls from Pollhost.com


Go ahead and listen to them and then vote for your favorites (multiple selections are allowed):


Tom

The carriage pulled to an abrupt stop at the apex of ford’s passage.
In leather and lace stood Amanda Wainwright two pistols drawn
At the coachmen head.
“Stand and Deliver” she bellowed.
Out of the coach tumbled Percy Lambton followed cautiously by
Bishop Denton Fallow and gracefully Lady Gordon
“Pray what is the meaning of this assault on mother church” churled the bishop
“To lighten your purse and bring you close to our savior.”
Amanda led a shot lose and bishop toppled into Percy’s lap
Quickly Lady Gordon scoped up the bishop’s purse and swung
behind the highway woman. Off they road.

Katwood92

People are greedy, especially for food. If it’s unguarded for even a moment, someone takes it. This happened to me. So I took a stand. Now, I leave food out intentionally. But this food has poison in it. Not enough to make them immediately sick, but enough to kill. If they make it to the emergency room, the doctors can’t trace it. Who admits to stealing? I watch sometimes, follow them for a bit, mentally laughing as they sicken. If I keep up for long enough, there will be no more greedy people left, here anyway. Wouldn’t that be great?

Zackmann

Is this the end of the line? Do you have Internet? And you are still here? Do you like
standing in line? No, I have been banking on line for several years myself. I pay everything
online even charities and my children’s allowances. I even do most of my shopping online.
You may go ahead of me. I actually do not really have any banking to do. I am here because the
lines are really long on a Friday that falls near the first or fifteenth and now that the children are
back in school, I am really lonely.

Steven

His fist thwacks into me, a sharp crack echoing off the restroom’s
metal walls. A sharp sunburst of pain as bones snap, a wet thud from
tile meeting my flesh.
His boot slams into my ribs. I am airborne in a spinning sprawling
shallow arc back to the ground. My blood spatters an abstract
painting on the porcelain.
This would be cool in a movie.
I lay there for a moment. He turns to leave.
My hand grabs his ankle, draws him crashing to the ground. I rise
over his half-conscious body.
“Brains,” I say.
And then I feast.

TJ

The sentry post is staffed, not manned,
Grimly there three sentries stand
Exchaging glances, no one moves
Distantly a horse’s hooves
And night bird’s shrieking breaks the night
A steady dripping adding fright
A fourth sentry clutches his neck and yelps
Wild eyes entreat his friends for help
They dare not move, lest raptor’s claws
Close suddenly beneath their jaws
The darkened lab, the crummy pay,
Their wish their lives not end that way
It seemed to object to light and sound
It’s somewhere on the ceiling now
They dare not move, their post unmanned
Where three remaining sentries stand.

Norval Joe

The rest of the kids on the block had typical stands. Jamahl sold lemonade. Shaniqua sold koolade. Baldacero thought he was outside the box selling necklaces made from soda can pull tabs.
Marty was different, he sold monkeys.
All the other kids lost interest and closed up.
Marty saved and waited. When the economy went bad he bought out the kid around the corner that sold chimpanzees. Eventually, he took over the lemurs and the great apes on 42nd street.
“I deal in primates,” he’d say if asked what he did.
He thought being in the monkey business sounded silly.

Planet Z

Every Sunday, I stop by a fruit stand on the way to church and pick up some oranges.
Last week, there was no fruit stand along the road.
So, I went to the grocery store.
They weren’t as good, and they cost twice as much.
This week, still no sign of the fruit stand.
Maybe he got driven off by the food inspectors, or maybe immigration?
After church, when I got home, I threw the oranges in the pool and watched them float around.
“Much better,” I said. “But not as good as the ones from the fruit stand.”

The Pipes

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No matter where you dig, you’ll eventually reach The Pipes.
We’re miles from where the City Of Steel used to be.
Before civilization collapsed.
And yet, out here, there are pipes.
There are no markings on them to identify what flowed through them.
Nobody can break them open, either.
Some are warm, and others sweat water when the rains don’t come.
Maybe they were part of an irrigation project?
As long as crops grow here and they don’t come up toxic, we are safe.
Sow the seeds, curse the ancestors for their wickedness, and wait for harvest.
We will survive.

Batsignal

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I think we need to talk about the Batsignal again, Gordon.
There’s the issue with what merits a Batsignal.
Two Face threatening to blow up a building is a Yes.
Goons robbing a bank is a No. You have SWAT for that, right?
Your crazy daughter Barbara wanting me to read a bedtime story is a Hell No.
And I can’t see it during the day. The Joker and Penguin have changed their capering schedules.
Can’t you just SMS my BatPhone, dude?
Now nod your head like you understand what I said or I’m throwing you off the fucking roof.

Codex

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We came across The Codex during our excavation.
It is a stone obelisk with three sides, a different language on each side.
Unlike the Rosetta Stone, we have no idea what these languages are.
We post photographs to JonesNet and wait for answers, but none of the wired archaeologists and researchers in the world have any clue, either.
The shapes and lines and dots resemble no other written language ever encountered.
So, we keep digging, but find no other writing resembling it.
We come to the conclusion that it was a prank by the ancients on future generations of researchers.

Promises

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The Promises Van: a steel hulk raised up on massive wheels.
It rolls from neighborhood to neighborhood, collecting promises between citizens.
Nobody knows what Central Authority does with the promises.
Some say they keep a file on everyone making promises and what they’re promising.
Others say they’re planning a celebration soon, and the Promises Van will delivering on the promises.
But the Promises Van never goes to Central Authority. It just goes in a circuit, over and over.
It never opens. It never stops.
It just rolls.
That’s when I realized: it’s just a huge robot that runs on paper.

Gray Hair

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I remember when I discovered my first gray hair.
I was looking in the mirror and I saw a flash of something.
So, I stopped and looked around for a minute, and I found it.
A gray hair, tempting me to remove it.
I plucked it out.
Pretty soon, there were too many to pluck out.
Eventually, the gray hairs outnumbered the black hairs.
Now, I search and search, and only find gray hairs.
Except for one.
I look at it, and it tempts me to remove it.
So, I get the tweezers, and pluck it out of my nose.