Stories tagged “ficly nirvana”
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Eternity Services
“What was that guy’s name again?” Edward asked, hastily jotting down every detail of the encounter that he could remember. “Robert, I think,” said Pauline, glancing back over her shoulder as if she could see where the tech...
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Author's Foreword
Dear Reader, I’ve never really gone about writing a book before, but I figure that the stars are in the right place and the substantial difference between the two ends of the time-and-space wormhole separating us should now be crossed. I hope I d...
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Death's Memoir: Details About the Job
The first thing you need to understand is that Death changes. I mean, the occupation of Death—the Grim Reaper, if you want—shifts every Earth century. Otherwise, Death might cling to the past and not account for population growth, new techn...
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The Sorting Line (A Touch of Madness Challenge)
The overseer double-checked identification numbers against the list on his electronic pad as the excited throngs of people slowly pushed forward through the queue lines. Most of them pressed masks against their mouths, all the better to filter out the ...
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Six Word Challenges
A Touch of Madness: I think. Therefore I am hunted. Space Western Lollapalooza: John Wayne dismounts horse onto Mars. Stranger Than Fiction: She writes my love into existence. I Knew I Should Have Turned Left at Albuquerque: I should have called a cab....
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Careful What You Ask For
His wrists bound tightly behind the chair, he struggled helplessly to free himself from the ropes. (“Hey, dude.”) He knew his time was running out and that Guerro’s men (“C’mon man, I know you hear me.”) would be back any mi...
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0 for 1
Cassandra gazed dispassionately down at him with flickering eyes. “Jack, you know I can’t run a search on Kinetico without raising every birdie they’ve got.” Jack inserted a flavor-stick into his cigarette and flicked the igniti...
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Pandemic
Blame the Sony XN-2100 Digitizers, commonly called Replicators. Some say they were like something out of Star Trek. I don’t know. I was never one for the so-called “classics.” Besides, who can watch any of the old two-dees? They give ...
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Aurora, Awakened
“She roams the forest at night as though sleepwalking, our nightmarish Princess. That infernal owl clings to Her wrist and whispers the Witch’s orders in Her ear. Have not you noticed the absence of the Good Faeries? They stay locked in a l...
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Closer To God
Just because it’s my fault doesn’t mean I’m the only one who has to, or should, pay. We’re all prone to occasional bouts of imperfection; of sin. As the man once said, “let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.” All of us are burdene...
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This Time Trip Can't End Soon Enough
It really doesn’t help that the time trips are short and that I return quickly to the present. The whole thing is disconcerting as all hell. And the falling helplessly to the floor? That really sucks. Explaining the bruises at work isn’t fu...
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Escape
I’ve been trapped in this tiny prison for months, with no memory of how I got here, or why. I simply awoke to find myself trapped, alone, unable to remember my name or my past. The last few weeks I’ve been exercising almost constantly, building my ...
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Preacher Teacher
Her screams, muffled by the hand wrapped around her face, were useless. Even if someone could hear her, she knew no one would rush to help. Eyes closed, throat sore, she continued to scream. His right hand, large and immensely powerful, gripped tightly...
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Slim Shady
“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” “Dude, I saw that movie. You are not Inigo Montoya. You’re just some asshole who broke into my house and tied me to this chair for no good reason.” “Yeah, but it sound...
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Penultimate
“So this is it?” Harold Jamison walked over to his ex-wife, extending his hand to caress the back of her head. “This is how our story ends?” “Yes Jamie.” “But what if I don’t want it to end? I think we deserve a sequel.” Jamison moved...
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Desk #9: Juan de Silva
Juan de Silva sat in the back of the classroom, mercifully forgotten. After the label of the foreigner had lost its luster in the eyes of his less tactful peers, Juan found solace in sinking into the woodwork. It was nice there; the echoes of “Jo...
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Showdown
Naught but dust moved as the two stared at one another, their hands held rigidly by their sides. Curious eyes peered out of windows and doorways. Two children stared in rapt attention from behind a wooden, half-filled trough. A raspy, earthen call echo...
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Planetary Tryst
They slid silently through space together, accumulating decades of time-debt while they slumbered dreamlessly in each others’ arms. Awakened at arrival, they shuttled to the surface and found a flowery meadow aside an isolated mountain lake to sp...
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The Last Explorer
He waited until all of the students had left the classroom, most of them still laughing. All but one. Darius still sat at his desk, head slumped. His scrawled report was clenched in a small fist. After closing the door, he moved to sit on a desk beside...
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The Closet Poet, Commissioned
“I was more reckless then, see. My days were saturated with cigarette smoke and my girlfriends’ perfume.” Trisha Macintosh, therapist extraordinaire, leaned back against her seat, smiling wryly as she tapped her lip with a pen. “...
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Memory is the first thing...
Have you ever been in a store where the cashier asks you for your zip code? Have you ever forgotten your zip code? I have. I do. All of the time. I steadied myself against the lamp post. Once when I was filling out a form at the doctor’s office, ...
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An Alien Point of View
“I can’t believe you call yourself a doctor!” I yelled across the room, not caring who I offended in the process. She looked up from her plate of cold yek, recently dredged from the planet’s saline lakebeds. Of course I was talk...
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Son of Bonaccio
“…” “Aldo!” “What?” “Come here!” “Right now? Why?” “You need to meet someone.” “I am rather busy right now. Maybe later.” “I really think you should make th...
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A Conversation
Seriously? This is your excuse? Yeah. Why didn’t you tell anyone? I mean, this changes everything! Why didn’t I tell anyone? Let’s play a game. Pretend that one day you stumble upon a particularly intelligent ant colony. They can talk...