#FireIceFlash, week 12/19

Prompt: https://flashfriday.wordpress.com/2020/10/30/fireice-sol-12-19/
Hot water hissed on the coils, and I leapt to get it. Billy had distracted me by drawing on the wall with red crayon and I’d been too busy beating his ass to catch the pasta before it boiled over. I’d told Molly that she shouldn’t have been playing in front of the stove, and now she knew why as a cascade of water scalded her from her scalp down to her stomach. “That’ll teach ya,” I laughed, and then I kicked her over for good measure.

I heard heavy footfalls on the floor above and raced over to pick up the ball and mitt I’d left on the floor. I was tossing the ball into the air when Dad tromped down the stairs. His voice was slurred, but I understood him well enough.

“You weren’t playing with your sister’s dolls, were ya boy?”

I shook my head as to indicate the thought had never crossed my mind.

“You know she made those, before the flu. I catch you playing with them, and you’re getting your ass beat.”

I nodded.

He swung a kick at me, more out of habit than any particular anger. “That’ll teach ya.”

And he laughed.

#FireIceFlash, week 10

Prompt: https://flashfriday.wordpress.com/2020/10/16/fireice-sol-10-19/

Her hands were steady as she wove the reeds together to make the future. Behind her were a million paths converging on this moment. In front of her, a billion realities not yet realized. With each weaving, her creation became What Is, and as that moment passed, it became What Was. She did not know where the roads would lead, only that it was her job to build them. We humans tread ever upon her roads each day lost in our own lives, her labor never-ending but never seen.

#FireIceFlash, week 9

Prompt: https://flashfriday.wordpress.com/2020/10/09/fireice-sol-9-19/

Out here, it felt like the world had an end. If I wandered away in the dark, I could disappear. It was warm enough that I didn’t need a campfire, so the only light was the Milky Way, slowly vanishing behind the edge of the world. Behind me I could hear the herd rustling  – they never completely shut down, even in the dead of night – but I wasn’t worried about them wandering away. There was water here, and as much green stuff as you’d find anywhere in the desert.

I missed when Molly would ride with me. Sometimes we’d talk. Sometimes we’d make love, our rough hands communicating our desire in the dark. But mostly she’d keep me from wondering what it would be like to wander off the edge of the world. There wasn’t much point to what I was doing, no stockyards left who wanted my herd.

I wanted so badly for the world to have an end.

#FireIceFlash, week 8

Prompt: https://flashfriday.wordpress.com/2020/10/02/fireice-sol-8-19/

The last thing I saw while I was alive was a storage chest that had come loose during the storm flying towards me. It crushed my ribcage and nearly tore my head off my body. Since the ship was in chaos, no one noticed my death at the time, and since all hands either drowned or died within days of the remnants running aground (there was no drinkable water to be found), no one was left to mourn me. What a hell of a time to discover that the immortality pendant I’d created worked, after a fashion. Damaged the way my body was, I couldn’t move, couldn’t find shelter or pray for rain, couldn’t take the pendant off.

I couldn’t escape the small animals that came to feed on me.

I couldn’t die, even after being consumed by half a hundred mouths. As long as that pendant remained around what was left of my skeleton, I would lie there.

As I lie there today.