Story 1
Joe had only been awake for a couple of minutes when he wandered into the bathroom.His wife and daughters had already left for work and school. A clump of long, dark hair lay in the shower tray. He reached down to clear it.
It moved. A spider crawled free. Joe froze. It was bigger than his hand. Then it grew. Every minute it seemed larger than before. Its legs reached across the shower tray. He grabbed the small bathroom rug and threw it over the creature. Standing on it, he stamped with all his weight. The rug began to rise beneath his feet. The legs pushed against the fabric. Joe stumbled backwards. There was nowhere to go. His family would never get out. He dropped to the floor and covered his face.
“Joe?” His wife was standing in the doorway. He was curled up in the shower, clutching the bathroom rug. She looked at him for a long moment.
“I’ve spoken to the doctor.”
Story 2
The barber had cut Daniel’s hair on the first Saturday of every month for almost thirty years.
They rarely spoke.
“Same again?”
“Please.”
That was usually enough.
When Daniel arrived one Saturday morning, the shop was empty.
A young woman he’d never seen before looked up from the chair.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Dad passed away last week.”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
She nodded.
“I didn’t want people finding the shop shut.”
Daniel sat in the chair.
She fastened the gown around his neck, picked up the scissors and stopped.
“How did he cut it?”
Daniel looked at her in the mirror.
“I’ve no idea.”
Story 3
Thomas burst into the editor’s office.
“I’ve got it. Jack Harland is having an affair with his new co-star.”
The editor looked up from his desk.
“Can you prove it?”
“It’s all over the film lot.”
“Witnesses?”
“No.”
“Photographs?”
“No.”
“So what have you actually got?”
Thomas smiled.
“A front page.”
The editor sighed.
“Thomas… Jack Harland can’t be having an affair with his co-star.”
“Why not?”
“Because his co-star’s a horse.”
Story 4
The man said that one pill would take him back in time, to a place and time of his choosing, the other would bring him back.
Incredulous! He thought. ‘How much’
£100,000, he said. Josh couldn’t afford it; however, the man said, if I was clever, I could make it in the past and collect when I returned.
Where to go, he pondered. I don’t just want to waste it on gambling. A quick check on his phone and he knew where to go.
They agreed to meet back where they were in a day from now, and he would pay
The man said, just be careful who you interact with, DO NOT go near your family, he insisted.
Josh swallowed the pill
He felt nothing but a landing sensation, as if he had jumped.
April 21st 1889
He looked at the screenshot on his phone; it still had the picture, obviously no signal
The address was still there; why wouldn’t it be, Salzburger Vorstadt 15?
He waited until evening; he had stayed out of sight all day, then he set the house alight.
He took the return pill; his idea was to get another pill and then make his fortune and pay the man double.
When he landed back, Josh was immediately arrested, not for what he had done, nobody would or could ever know, but now times had changed; he had landed in England, all right, at the same spot, but now England was a concentration camp, and Germany and the Nazis had won the war
Story 5
“He’s saying my words,” John thought.
Standing in the aisle of the DIY shop, he listened to two men talking.
He knew every sentence before they spoke it.
John had written those very words in his notebook the previous afternoon.
His writer’s block had finally broken after months. Since then, he’d barely slept.
One of the men laughed.
John stepped towards them.
“Stop talking.”
The men looked at him.
“Sorry?”
“Just… stop talking.”
“What are you on about?”
John shook his head.
“Those are my words.”
One of the men took a step towards him.
“Mate, I think you’d better leave.”
John turned and walked away.
He needed sleep.
The book was getting into his head.
The following morning he sat at his desk with a coffee. The Yardbirds were on the radio, part of the same routine he’d followed for years.
The song ended.
The newsreader began.
Police were investigating the murders of a husband and wife in John’s village.
His coffee cup hit the floor.
Press to find out the ai
Story 2 was the AI. Thanks for playing
https://ko-fi.com/flashfictions
If you’d rather swap a coffee for something you can actually keep, the FlashFictions book is there for you.
Same weird ideas, just bound together.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G34YZ9B2
Flash Fiction 