Flashes of Darkness Year 1: Flashes of Darkness, #1

Flashes of Darkness

Year 1

Bite size stories of the strange and horrific

Edmund de Wight

Published by Ionosphere Press

Copyright © 2017 Edmund de Wight

All rights reserved.

FOR ALL THOSE READERS who have followed my #picturefiction online.

You kept me inspired to continue.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Deep One Rising

Micro-Fiction Interlude 1

The Fate of the Barnacle

Micro-Fiction Interlude 2

Drifting to Jupiter

Micro-Fiction Interlude 3

Trapped in the Dark

Micro-Fiction Interlude 4

Giants in the Earth

Micro-Fiction Interlude 5

At the Door

Micro-Fiction Interlude 6

Hunting for a Mate

Micro-Fiction Interlude 7

The March to War

Micro-Fiction Interlude 8

Bath Time

Micro-Fiction Interlude 9

Free Puppies Inside

Micro-Fiction Interlude 10

Cthulhu's Bane

Micro-Fiction Interlude 11

The Artifact

Micro-Fiction Interlude 12

Voices in the Fog

Micro-Fiction Interlude 13

Empty Tomb

Micro-Fiction Interlude 14

Thanksgiving Hell

Micro-Fiction Interlude 15

Late Night on Lover's Lane

Micro-Fiction Interlude 16

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Micro-Fiction Interlude 17

Santa Claus is Coming to Town – Again

Micro-Fiction Interlude 18

New Year, Last Year

Micro-Fiction Interlude 19

This is NOT a Zombie Story

Micro-Fiction Interlude 20

One Final Portrait

Micro-Fiction Interlude 21

The Adventures of Air Captain Sir Miles Scissorbill

Micro-Fiction Interlude 22

That's Not a Bear

Micro-Fiction Interlude 23

The Uncharted Island

Micro-Fiction Interlude 24

The Hellmouth

Micro-Fiction Interlude 25

Starflight

Micro-Fiction Interlude 26

The Nest

Micro-Fiction Interlude 27

Social Visit

Daycare

The Summoning

Charlie McCarthy's Baby

The Upstairs Room

The Moving Shell

A Fast Drive to Hell

TEOTWAWKI

Alien Abduction

I, Shoggoth

#Summoning

The Arrival

Twins

I Was On Fire

Time Machine

The Egg

My Pet

Ghost Cloak

The Dark Cloud

Critter Cuties

Dead Under a Dark Sun

Night of the Crab

The Striped Worm

The 10 Most Popular Destinations for First Time Time Travelers

A Child of Innsmouth

About the author

Introduction

This is a collection of fiction written over the span of a year for my web page and shared on social networks with my readers. I refer to this as flash fiction but also as picture fiction. One of the hashtags used for this collection online was #picturefiction. Each piece in this volume was inspired by an image that was either found online or taken by myself or someone I know. The pictures have not been included in this volume as some of their provenances are unknown and I do not wish to steal someone’s intellectual property.

Flash Fiction

What is flash fiction? Flash fiction is extremely short fiction. It stands out for its brevity, often as little as a few words to as many as 1,000 words or so. Some of the stories contained herein surpass 1,000 words but for the most part remain near that target.

Flash fiction, although extremely brief should still provide setting, character and a story. No one knows how long flash fiction has actually existed as it has its roots in prehistory. The oral tradition is rife with very short stories. Aesop’s Fables is a perfect example of flash fiction. During the early part of the twentieth century it was referred to as the ‘short short story’.

There are many brands of flash fiction from stories limited to specific word counts such as 50 or 100 words, and tales like those contained in this volume which tend to come in between 500 and 2,000 words in length.

The advent of the internet has caused a renaissance of sorts for flash fiction. Blogs are the perfect vehicle for the format.

What began as a writing exercise for me became a weekly event for my readers. I’ve collected the first year of my flash fiction into one convenient tome for readers who have not discovered my site yet or want to have bite size reading easily at hand.

Micro-fiction

If you thought flash fiction was short, boy are you in for a quick read now. It's a subset of flash fiction—those super short stories typically told in 1,000 words or less. Definitions vary, but for the most part, micro-fiction is any story told in 300 words or less, and could even be as short as a few words. Often it’s nothing more than a scene or a moment in time of a longer story. Under the category of micro-fiction you get products like 6 word stories and Twitter stories told in 140 characters. The micro-fiction which I have included was originally created as captions for pictures shared between the normal flash fiction stories.

If  you’re in a rush, waiting in the doctor’s office, ten minutes from the next train station; this is the collection for you. Each story was written to be read in a matter of minutes, the perfect bite size stories for our hectic, always moving world. I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Deep One Rising

The surf pounded in the distance as Jenna and Bill crested the hill. A low mist obscured the boundary between sky and earth. The day was chilly but that would ensure they were alone for a romantic walk on the beach.

A shape, indistinct in the mist and spray, surfaced and began to move onto the rocky shore.

Surely a surfer or swimmer; but who would be out on such a cold autumn morning in surf so cold and with visibility near zero?

The form moved ashore and a swirl of mist revealed its misshapen limbs. Hands like paddles and legs bent like those of a hoofed beast. The creature's head was spongy with yellow-white nodules that roved across its entire surface. The nodules appeared like soft pustules. They roamed as if attempting to spread their corruption across the mass of the head.

Jenna gasped. The nodules stopped their roving and shifted to the front of the beast to face the gape mouthed humans. Bill shuddered, the milky, egg shaped nodules were the thing's eyes.

A slit formed in the thing's head beneath the clustered eyes. The gash opened to reveal a slime filled maw from which a trumpeting note emerged.

A thousand other spongy heads surfaced in the ocean and Jenna began to scream.

Micro-Fiction Interlude 1

The guide said that the bones of thousands of men were used to create the catacomb. Stephen thought it would make a great live feed event when he sneaked into the subterranean world and hid until after the guards had gone home.

As the lights dimmed he could hear subtle sounds, a grinding, like pieces of chalk rubbing. The light failed and he could see thousands of pairs of glowing orbs, the eyes of the myriad skulls mounted in the walls, watching from every side.

The Fate of the Barnacle

The Barnacle had been at sea for a long time — too long. The men were worn and beaten by the unending labors against the hungry deep which would pull them down without a care.

The island wasn't on any chart and Henderson, the navigator, swore that he had sailed this course not three years ago and there was no island; but there it was, jagged shores and lush greenery visible in the center.

The captain ordered the men ashore to rest and provision. As the longboats neared the rocky shore the captain spotted dozens of seals; food for the crew.

As they drew near the seals rolled over and waved. Their hair shone like silk and the skin of their breasts, full human breasts, was as white as milk.

Look, women, one of the men shouted.

The captain then saw the scales of their lower bodies, mermaids. The tales told of women with the bodies of fish who dragged men to their doom.

He opened his mouth to shout a warning.

Beware-

The mermaids began to sing, so sweet, so alluring. He felt himself stir in a way he had not stirred since his wedding night. He must go to these angelic creatures.

Pull for shore me hardies, he shouted.

The mermaids grinned their needle toothed grins and beckoned.

Micro-Fiction Interlude 2

The creature came to the shore to drink each night.

The need for water, warm blood, and raw meat freshly killed encompassed its life.

It had clawed and fought its way to the top of the food chain near this lake.

Mother would be so proud if she knew how well little Timmy had fared after running away all those years ago.

Drifting to Jupiter

Marta felt the pod buck as it separated from the mothership. A short burst of acceleration caused her already painful abdomen to clench, eliciting a small yelp of discomfort. The pod coasted around the keel of the mothership and vectored toward Ganymede.

The computer clucked to itself as it calculated the best approach. In less than an hour the pod whipped around the largest of the Jovian moons and, using the slingshot effect of its gravity, punched into an orbit around Jupiter's southern hemisphere. The Great Red Spot swung into view and Marta tapped the attitude jets to swing the capsule around. Her view was unobstructed. The largest storm in the solar system was hers alone to view.

She had spent the remainder of her not inconsiderable fortune to ensure that her pod alone would be in orbit for the next 24 hours. It had been her dream to travel the outer system but somehow business had always been more important.

A spasm caused her to thrash against the restraining web. Even after using all that modern science could provide and the vast wealth she had been able to leverage, some cancers were still incurable.

Ah my beauty, she whispered. Just thee and me.

She tapped the attitude jets again and felt the pod change course. The Red Spot grew imperceptibly as the ship began moving toward it.

Warning, the ship's voice said. Current course will result in Jupiter impact in nineteen hours, seven minutes.

Marta silenced the warning and dimmed the lights to better enjoy the view. So beautiful. Soon she would be a blazing star adding her beauty to its own.

Micro-Fiction Interlude 3

Darkness fell.

A mist rose from the fecund soil of the cemetery. The witching hour had arrived. A spirit cloaked itself in the bones which once formed its body.

Bursting from the earth, a new birth, he danced the joy of his resurrection among the headstones. Soon he would journey forth to find supple flesh with which to cloak himself.

Trapped in the Dark

Darkness surrounded him like a heavy shroud. He could feel it  pressing close about him. It was palpable, like a fog. It seemed as if it were composed of layers. Each time he strained his eyes to see through the Stygian dark another layer pressed in closer robbing the hints of vision from him once again.

He took a step to the left, then the right; forward then back again. Each way was as blindly pointless as the last.

What do you want from me? He screamed.

Flickering like an epileptic having a fit, dim lights sprang into existence leading away from him.

After the darkness, the firefly brightness of the path seemed like the sun.

A tunnel led away into the distance. At least he had a path to travel now, even if it was a path provided by his enemies.

He looked behind into the darkness, then ahead to the beckoning tunnel. He nodded, resigned, and stepped forward. Better to see his fate than await it cowering in the darkness.

Micro-Fiction Interlude 4

The beast rose from the pit. Its roar  caused the brave knight to doubt the wisdom of his quest. He steeled himself and lifted his shield preparing for the attack. Suddenly the entire beast’s body erupted in blue flame and orange light surged up the monster’s throat. The knight consigned his soul to his God and awaited the flame.

Giants in the Earth

Professor Mills giggled like a schoolgirl