The 100 Word Stories Podcast

Welcome to the 100 Word Stories podcast at oneadayuntilthedayidie.com.

This is the Weekly Challenge, where I post a topic and then challenge you to come up with a 100 word story based on that topic.

Sorry that it’s a day late, but I was in a WiFi dead zone with no connection, and just got back to civilization.

We’ve got stories by:

• Lizzie
• Munsi
• Jeffrey
• Richard
• Tom
• Serendipity
• Norval Joe
• Tura
• Planet Z

LIZZIE

The light coming from the fragile paper lamp didn’t matter anymore.
As she stood, waiting, the crowd gathered to watch, whispering words.
She couldn’t hear them but she knew they spoke.
Then, unexpectedly, it was decided.
“Burn everything.”
And the torches were lit when she wasn’t looking, the blinding light killing a soft glow coming from the frail paper lamp.
The words were shushed. The crowd was silent.
“Let it commence.”
In a matter of an hour, everything was gone, the ashes thrown about randomly.
She didn’t mind.
She thought it had been a fitting end to a sad story.

MUNSI

The Lovers
By Christopher Munroe

They were star-crossed; but no matter what tragedy the world threw at them their love persevered.

When he asked for her hand she wept, when he saw her in her gown he did, for he knew in that moment that no force in heaven or earth could tear them asunder.

Then the sun went nova.

Both were slain, as was every other thing on the planet. The sterile, charred world hurtled through space, tomb and testament to a simple lesion that’s just as true today as it was back then.

Don’t cross the stars.

Stars, once crossed, will ruin you…

JEFFREY

Sharing
by Jeffrey Fischer

My ex-girlfriend had boundary issues. On our first date, she speared a scallop from my plate. “You don’t mind, I hope?” On our second date, she said she was cold and took my suit jacket from the back of my chair. “You don’t mind, right?” At the theater, she sneezed and grabbed my pocket square to wipe her nose. Finally, I asked why she would take things without asking.

She looked hurt. “We’re a team, right? What’s mine is your and what’s yours is mine.”

She seemed quite startled when she entered the bedroom and found her sister straddling me. I looked up at her. “What’s yours is mine, right? I’m sure you don’t mind.”

Turns out she did.

The Mind Reader
by Jeffrey Fischer

The three scientists looked at their colleague strapped to a chair. Electrodes ran from his head to a monitor. Frank had volunteered to be the first human to test the mind-reading machine.

“Ready?” Bob threw the switch. The machine hummed and pictures appeared, blurry at first, sharper as the software adjusted to Frank’s brain waves.

“Okay, let’s see what we have. Fear, that’s normal. Frank’s wife and kids. Beer, more images of beer. Well, *that’s* not Frank’s wife! Oh my, we’re going to have to think of some euphemisms when we write the report.”

The machine powered off. The scientists looked at one another. Finally, Bob said, “Gentlemen, this device is far too dangerous to allow anyone to use. We must destroy it before our wives see what’s inside our heads.”

RICHARD

Mind Altering

You could say that I’ve lived a sheltered existence: Apart from alcohol, I’ve managed to steer clear of most of the vices that seem to be considered pretty acceptable in modern society.

Other than the odd cigarette in school, whilst trying to impress a girl – unsuccessfully, I might add – I’ve never smoked; and a few ill-advised puffs on a spliff at a dinner party is my sum total when it comes to drug abuse.

So, when it comes to mind altering substances, I’ve a clean record.

Until now…

Big mistake.

My mind has been permanently altered…

To a cabbage!

TOM

Left Behind

Rudy could hold three dimensional structures in his mind. He could rotate,
spin and scale them across his inter vision. Layer upon layer inter
locking passages linking vast byzantine courts to Gothic crypts. When they
had abandoned the city they had left him for dead. If you have the mind to
ample a spoon to a key stone it’s only a wall away for the central storage
vaults. Rudy closed his eye and began the trek through the Citadel. He
trusted his mind in favor of his sight. Beating against the sub-Rosa of
his mental map was pure revenge.

SERENDIPITY

People are fascinated by the aberrant and macabre – that’s why we rubberneck at car accidents and feel compelled to hear the gory details of disasters and calamities.

We pretend our desire to know what goes on in the mind of a serial killer or psychopath is driven by a thirst for knowledge and understanding… The truth is, it gives us a thrill!

So why not pop round for tea next Thursday, and we’ll have a little chat? An ‘educational’ experience that will expand your mind and build your insight.

Although, I can’t guarantee you’ll leave with your sanity.

NORVAL JOE

Mickey blinked his monkey eyes to clear them. He raised his head and looked around the small room. A woman he didn’t recognize sat at a desk, typing on a computer. Her curly purple hair was pulled into an uncooperative ponytail. She chewed her lip, leaning close to the computer screen.
“Would you mind removing this duct tape so that I can change back into a human?” Mickey asked, but all that came out was “Ooo, ooo, ooo?”
The computer buzzed and the woman turned to him.
“Yes, of course,” she said, standing. “Let me get you something to wear…”

TURA

Mind
———
“Are you sure it’s ok to eat them?” my girlfriend asked. “I mean, they look almost human.”

“Two arms, two legs, and a head, the resemblance ends there,” I answered. “The question is, do they have a mind? They don’t think, they don’t move around, go places, do stuff. They just endlessly praise God, who doesn’t exist anyway. No more soul than a plant, and they’re sitting ducks for a bullet filled with unholy water.”

On aesthetic grounds, I don’t like to eat most of the humanoid body, but angel wings simmered in their own blood are to die for.

PLANET Z

I walk to the public library for the exercise and the free wifi.
And, it’s nice to get away from the house every now and then.
The chairs are comfortable, the air conditioning is great, and it’s nice and quiet.
Unless some knucklehead is drumming on a table as he’s watching rock videos on YouTube.
Sure, he’s got a headset on, but the drumming on the table is really annoying.
I pull off his headphones “Do you mind?” I ask him.
He goes back to listening. And drumming.
Thank goodness they’re corded headphones. You just can’t strangle someone with Bluetooth.

Welcome to the 100 Word Stories podcast at oneadayuntilthedayidie.com.

This is the Weekly Challenge, where I post a topic and then challenge you to come up with a 100 word story based on that topic.

We’ve got stories by:

• Tom
• Lizzie
• Munsi
• Charlie
• Jeffrey
• Richard
• Serendipity
• Tura
• Norval Joe
• Planet Z

TOM

When I was young I was enamored by lightening bugs. Being young and totally self-absorbed I thought it was my right to capture the lightening. So in a baby food jar ventilated with holes I filled it with flashing bugs. I wasn’t a total bastard, I put grass in the jar, but somehow that wasn’t enough. In the morning all the bugs were dead. Mom said they had a short life span. It’s funny how guilt will chase you through the years. My Mom keep that jar and repurposed it for spices. I toss the killing jar into the trash.

LIZZIE

To Old Jack, Jack Fenton Moore

Sometimes, there’s someone who believes in you.
Sometimes, that person calls you Dreamer and everything seems possible.
And you dream and you create.
Then, suddenly, you close your eyes and you can’t understand.
That hug was too short…
The echo is still there though, reverberating in your memory, pushing you forward.
A word of encouragement was enough for you not to give up back then.
So, you look up and smile. The old owl is somewhere, up there perhaps, reading your stories. He’s nodding, happy that one single word made you believe.
“Dreamer, write. Don’t stop. Write.”
One word.
Dreamer.

MUNSI

The Lovers
By Christopher Munroe

They were star-crossed; but no matter what tragedy the world threw at them their love persevered.

When he asked for her hand she wept, when he saw her in her gown he did, for he knew in that moment that no force in heaven or earth could tear them asunder.

Then the sun went nova.

Both were slain, as was every other thing on the planet. The sterile, charred world hurtled through space, tomb and testament to a simple lesion that’s just as true today as it was back then.

Don’t cross the stars.

Stars, once crossed, will ruin you…

CHARLIE

I saw stars when the meteorite hit me on the top of my head. Since the incident, I’ve been able to read minds and foretell events. I have seen the future, and it looks pretty good, excepting the results of the forthcoming election. I’ve made a few dollars for private consults, and was invited to appear on the Ellen show. I told Ellen that her wife was cheating on her, and if she snuck around and busted into the greenroom, she would catch her lover in flagrante delicto with three of the Spice Girls, who were booked for the show.

#2

I saw stars when I stepped off the curb, hoping to get entangled in a bicycle so my girlfriend would have pity on me and that the accident would be bizarre and surreal enough to make the weekly papers. Not having done this before, I misjudged everything, and was killed…along with the tandem cyclists and the driver that swerved and hit a wall avoiding the bike, the riders, and my dead body. The bike’s fancy, brass horn was embedded in my clacker. When they flipped my body to examine my wounds, I tooted a warning, but it was too late.

JEFFREY

Celluloid Heroes
by Jeffrey Fischer

The Kinks sang that you can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard, so that’s where I went. On one corner, Macauley Culkin sat slumped against a wall, nodding off in his heroin stupor. In the next block I saw Cher, face completely rigid from plastic surgery yet red with rage. She was screaming about George Bush. I hurried on, past Gwyneth Paltrow, hawking goop. I did have a nice chat with a guy named Bob Lankowski. Nice guy. When I asked him what movies I might have seen him in, he laughed. “I’m not an actor. I’m a CPA from Des Moines, here on vacation.”

I spent the rest of my stay in L.A. at the Getty Museum, where I was unlikely to run into anyone from the film industry.

Presidential Ticket
by Jeffrey Fischer

A friend said he was so disgusted with both major party candidates that he’d prefer a third party. “Gary Johnson?” I guessed. “The guy who thinks a Jewish baker should be forced to bake cakes with Nazi images? Not much of a Libertarian. Or that Green Party woman, who’s to the left of Bernie Sanders?” He shook his head. “Neither of them. Han Solo is my candidate. He’s a man of action with experience in defeating evil.”

I considered pointing out that the Star Wars universe was fictional, and that it took place in a “galaxy far, far away,” so neither Solo nor Chewbacca was likely to be a U.S. citizen. Rather than sound like a birther, though, I said, “Haven’t seen The Force Awakens yet, have you?”

RICHARD

Classic

When Kubrick sprang “2001: A Space Odyssey” upon an unsuspecting world, although a prolific and well respected director, his film was not a success amongst the critics.

Criticisms of impenetrable plot, lack of dialogue and slow pace may have sounded the death knell of a lesser movie, however, despite everything, it has become a classic, possibly one of the greatest movies of all time.

It was a triumph for Kubrick too – earning him his only personal Academy Award.

Rumour has it that on arrival at the Oscars ceremony, he took one look and exclaimed: “My God, it’s full of stars!”

SERENDIPITY

I once heard a story about a man whose mistake turned satellites into a thousand shooting stars… “Make a wish!” his daughter prompted him.

If I had a wish, it would be to legalise shooting stars – especially those third rate, C-lister, reality TV ‘stars’ with their enormous egos, undeserved fame and complete lack of talent.

Just line them up against a wall, and shoot the lot of them.

Twice – if necessary – just to make sure.

Coming to think of it, without all those crappy reality TV shows, we’re not going to be needing all those satellites either…

Make a wish!

TURA

Stars
———
It is called the Angler.

It begins when a young prince rides out in search of adventure. He comes to a tower, at the top of which stands a beautiful princess. She has stars in her hair and her face shines like the sun, and her voice is as the sweetest birdsong. She tells of being imprisoned by her wicked uncle, or her incestuous father, or a lecherous sorceror.

She lets down her long, impossibly long, impossibly thick hair to the ground, and the prince takes hold of it. The Angler reels in its tongue and swallows the prince whole.

NORVAL JOE

From the rapid pounding of the approaching boots, Mickey knew descending the stairs was useless. Before he could turn away and search for an alternate escape, a sharp pain split across the back of his monkey head, a flash of stars filled his vision, and then everything went black.
When he came to himself, his furry arms were strapped to his body with duct tape, his head throbbed, and his blurred vision hinted that he was in the back seat of a car. Which direction they headed, or if the car moved at all, he was too dizzy to tell.

PLANET Z

According to legend, the Olympian Gods would raise exceptional heroes into the heavens, and the stars formed pictures of them.
However, the truth is that constellations made up of stars in three-dimensional space are completely arbitrary, and from any other vantage point in the universe the sky you will see is completely different.
From Earth, you see The Big Dipper, The Little Dipper, and Orion’s Belt.
But from Rigel Seven, you see King Gadnaz, Bleen the Mighty, and Pogdar glittering at night.
Literally, mind you. The Rigelians have a tradition of gluing mirrors to heroes and launching them into space.