Flashes of Sanity #130: Doomsday Interview

Welcome to Flashes of Sanity! Your daily dose of flash fiction on 500 words or less.

Today’s entry: Doomsday Interview

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The first time was scary. The other too. Now when Bjoern actually gave it a thought, it was always scary to put yourself in the line of fire. Even though the first bullet confirmed your suspicions.
But it brought in the scoops of a lifetime. Which gave connections in governments. Just because so few wanted to risk not being a saint.
He tapped the microphone in his shirt button. The camera was the button below it.
“It is go time.”
The door complained. A fresh breeze of a city at war pushed away the stale indoor air. He kicked the corpse crawling right outside his window.
“Not today, Glenn. Today I am after the bigger fish.”
The corpse fell over and tipped over the dock and into the sea.
“You son of a” Glenn said before the water took jis last words.
The bigger fish was the mysterious Gift box. A man quickly rising in the crime world after the war began. Named after his process of picking his opponents apart and putting them in neat boxes.
Apparently, he was considered quite a nice guy in the underworld.
Shadows wandered across the horizon. Bjoern directed his camera towards them and tapped it from above.
Hope those are your ships, Mr. President, he thought.
They were supposed to meet at a supermarket a mile into the city. Sunny Mart. Or the invite had said ‘where the sun shops’. And sunny Mart was the only shop in town fitting that criterion.
“Recording, September 21. Today I will interview Gift-box. Wish me luck.” He released the microphone and whistled while he walked the road to the city.
“Hey, shit face,” a man said in the distant. “When will you interview me?”
“I already got enough of failures on my tapes, Lars.”
“Fuck you, Bjoern.”
“Is that your official statement.” Bjoern continued to whistle.
The morning sun disappeared as he walked between the buildings. The supermarket was visible now. It was as empty as it always had been.
Broken windows and broken spirits, Bjorne thought.
The sun peaked in between the buildings again. Bjoern stopped his steps.
How come Sunny Mart was in the shadows today?
He looked back at the shadow casters. His hand reached for the camera. Tap.
He tapped again. And again. As the convoy passed above him. His eyes remained wide open, his mouth too.
“What the…”
He turned his fingers around the button to zoom.
“Is that Santa?”
The man in the red cape glared down at him. The face with too many holes to be considered a face grinned. He pointed his fingers in Bjoern’s direction. Two elves peaked over the sledge. They laughed and jumped down to the street.
Bjoern’s camera caught it all. Then he ran.
He stumbled and fell down a sewer. He hit his head. And all went dark.

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Flashes of Sanity #128: Indoor Protection

Welcome to Flashes of Sanity! Your daily dose of flash fiction on 500 words or less.

Today’s entry: Indoor Protection

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“There is dangerous world out there ma’am. For a lady like yourself our services can prove crucial.”
The three men outside her door smiled those crocked smiles she always saw on TV. It was the bad guy smile.
“And if I don’t want you protection?” She asked just as her heroes Marta McToomb would. She even got the accent right.
“We will make sure you learn how dangerous the world can be.”
With those words they pushed her away from the door and walked in.
“All we ask for is your sons and daughters for our army and our entertainment.”
“You can’t take my son!”
The men stopped her mouth by pressing a knife against her throat.
“It is our fee, okay? It is a fee you will want to pay.”
What would Marta McToomb do? She thought. How would she save the day?
She would give them what they want just to take them down with a genius plan she came up with on the way to her son.
“He is up stairs.”
“Thank you for your cooperation.” The knife disappeared from her throat. “Show us the way my lady.”
As she walked up the stairs, her brain searched every corner for an idea. She was not an idea-woman like Marta McToomb, she realized. She was a worry-herself-into-an-ulcer-woman.
They came to a bedroom door. Two voices moaned from the inside.
“Harder,” the female moans burst into explosions of ecstasy.
‘Yes,” the man panted.
“Looks like we got the jackpot, boys,” one of the men said and slammed the door open.
The smile on all the men’s faces went away. With mouths open they looked at the middle-aged man on the floor.
“Mom!” The man screamed. “I have told you to not disturb me when I am playing videogames!”
The two dolls in his hands were as naked as dolls can be. Their bodies were entangled.
“Is this a masturbation cave?” One of the three men asked.
“No! I am playing videogames.” The man on the floor looked up at his visitors and the teenage rage ran off his face.
“Really?”
”I mean.” He looked at the turned off computer and TV. Then he looked at his own bulging crotch and the two dolls in his hands. His face reddened.
“Yes,” he said. “This is a masturbation cave.”
One of the three men turned to the woman standing right behind them. Her face was red too.
“You will receive our protection,” he said. He glanced at the overgrown teen. “For free. If you need anything more, just tell us okay. Shit, this was just.”
“Sad,” his two companions filled in.
The three left the house with their mouths still open. They took the rest of the day off.

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Flashes of Sanity #120: Red Crown

Welcome to Flashes of Sanity! Your daily dose of flash fiction on 500 words or less.

Today’s entry: Red Crown

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’We are on our way’, the text said. It put a smile on Sam’s face. All his son’s texts did nowadays.
Who could have guessed the little rascal would stop rioting and grow up to become like his father. He even got SurgeRay for a little while. Impressive to say the least.
”Please,” the bearded man pleaded. “Let me go. I want no harm.”
“I know.” Sam tucked away the phone into his jacket. “That is why I am here. It is about time your people learned how harm others.”
“But Santa is the kindest there is. Santa and his elves can never do any harm.”
Sam raised his right eyebrow. He walked across the room, past a large door to the elf tied up on a chair. Behind the door songs were sang and machines were humming.
“You are partially right, you can’t do cause any harm. That is you nature. It is really a shame that one of the kindest people on earth found the red crown. Your elves on the other hand… Yes, they are the kindest of all our folks. But that is only because they obey the one wearing the hat. They abandoned free will a thousand years ago.”
Sam grabbed the elf’s chin and pushed the head up so they were eye to eye. The tears glistered in his eyes. He shook.
“These little rascals have been in so many wars throughout the years. Up until their leader got slaughtered on the battle field and their whole kind went into stasis. And then you found the hat, and the rest is something I told my son every year.”
“I don’t think I understand.” Santa tried to move his arms. The rope held him tight. “We are a peaceful people.”
“No.” Sam stretched into his jacket. He found the grip. He tied his fingers around it. He found the trigger. “You are peaceful. These bastards are close to mindless.”
“No… They are…”
The gun exploded inside Sam’s hand. Santa froze. As the trickle of blood travelled down Santa’s forehead, the sounds behind the large door stopped. The elf closed his eyes and became completely relaxed.
Sam smiled. A laugh tickled his throat. He let it out. He let it all out.
Once he gathered himself he took the red hat from Santa’s head. He watched the white tassel swing back and fourth.
“You are mine now,” he said and put the hat on.
The elf woke up. The tears in his eyes still glistered as he looked around.
“How are you feeling now my kind elf?”
The elf found Sam. Behind the tears a fire was ignited.
“I am angry,” the elf said. “I want blood.”
“I will give you blood.” Sam laughed again. The elf laughed with him.
And behind the door the song was of war, and the machines rebuilt the toys as weapons.

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Flashes of Sanity #117: Queen in the Rubble

Welcome to Flashes of Sanity! Your daily dose of flash fiction on 500 words or less.

Today’s entry: Queen in the Rubble

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The red monster flew across the sky. The dragon came flying after it engulfed in its own flames.
“Mom.” Dina tugged at Susanne’s arm. “I want to go home.”
“I know honey, mom just have to think so we don’t kill ourselves first.”
Susanne crossed a street full of demolished buildings and torn, living bodies.
“Do you really think you can die?” Marge said behind them. “I am pretty sure you should reevaluate yourself in that case.”
Susanne gave Marge a toxic look.
“Maybe I can’t, but I am pretty sure Dina can.”
That shut Marge up, for now. Susanne already regretted the choice of bringing her along. But certain people could make all the difference in a possible future.
Susanne knew Marge Umington was one of them.
The red monster threw itself at the flaming dragon. The dragon went for the throat.
“Mom, I am scared.”
“Me too honey. We just have to wait for Uncle Mart to pick us up.”
A screech left the monster’s mouth. The screech turned fiercer for every second it lasted.
“Damn you Xander!” Marge shouted
“Xander?” Susanne glanced at Marge. “Xander Bylix.”
“Yes! How do you know him.” Marge went silent. Her eyes wandered to Dina. “Oh.”
Susanne grabbed Marge’s once fancy dress and pulled her close. “If you tell a soul, I will make sure you suffer.”
The smile playing on Marge’s lips was enough to make her consider it anyway.
“You don’t have to worry Mrs. Queen. Your secret is safe with me.”
Susanne let go.
One more enemy knowing too much, she thought. I’ll need to keep her close.
A car roared. It ran through all the living corpses and stopped by Susanne’s feet.
“Finally.” Susanne threw the passenger door open.
“Get in!” Mart Adamson screamed from the driver’s seat. “We need to get away from here before they blow everything up.”
The car screeched through more corpses, and left the city.
“Are we going home?” Dina asked.
“No,” Mart said. “We are going somewhere better. We are meeting Santa!”

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Flashes of Sanity #111: The View from Up High

Welcome to Flashes of Sanity! Your daily dose of flash fiction on 500 words or less.

Today’s entry: The view from up high

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Donny saw his future go down in blood, bullets and tears.
So, so many tears.
Please Bella, rise, he thought. We have seen others do it. So please be one of them too.
The bullets turned a beautiful body in spandex into a red lump, and then the knives… Donny forced himself to look away.
I love you, he thought.
From below, one of the slaughterers screamed at him.
”Sinners never die!” He then burst out laughing. ”Saints bleed out on the streets.”
I love you.
”What the Fuck just happened?” It was Cat-scratch behind Donny. ”What are they doing?”
”Can’t you see it?” Brutal-Joe said. ”They are butchering her.”
”But why?”
I love you, Donny failed and looked down. One of them held up Bella’s head for all to see. Her beautiful eyes carved out of the skull.
”They are setting an example,” he said. ”To show anyone who ever threat their territory.”
”And they couldn’t have chosen someone else? We were only us three after the assholes popped up from their graves?”
”I don’t know why.” Donny’s tears fell down in a rain over the massacre. Some of the men below caught it on their tongue.
I hate them,” he said. ”I hate them.”
”We do too,” said Cat-Scratch. ”But what are we gonna do?”
”First to safety.” Joe pushed a button and his chair began moving. ”Then some planning, isn’t that right boss?”
”Yes,” Donny said. ”Yes, our plan will send them back to hell where they belong.”
He looked up at the horizon and a red cloud arising above the President’s Quarters. He pushed a button and steered in the opposite direction.
He looked down again.
I hate you all, he thought. You will pay.

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Flashes of Sanity #110: Faulty Criminals

Welcome to Flashes of Sanity! Your daily dose of flash fiction on 500 words or less.

Today’s entry: Faulty Criminals

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”Do you Donny take Bella as you…” The car took a sharp left turn and threw Brutal-Joe into the windshield.
”You have to do all our names!” Bella said.
“Do you want me to do this or not?” Joe scratched his head. “Or maybe you want me to join the idiots chasing us… I have one grenade left, and I rather use it on them than you.”
“I wanted this to be a cute thing,” Bella said with a hanging lip. She took another sharp turn followed by curse words from the back seat.
“Honey.” Donny stretched a caring hand towards her whitened knuckles. “This is a cute thing. You, me, a car, and the rest of our lives together. I could never have wished for… Is he just standing there?”
Bella’s jaws hardened as she saw the man in their way pull out shotgun with knives attached to the sides. The man laughed.
“Shit,” she said. “Shit. Shit. Shit.”
She scanned the road for any way around him. The man was soon joined by another one and another one. All of them laughing. All of them armed.
“We will have to go through them. Shit! Joe marry us. Now!”
“Just say I do, okay,” Joe said. He and Cat-scratch pulled themselves out through the window with a rifle each.
Bella turned to Donny. “Do you love me?”
“I do.”
“I do love you too.”
They kissed with her hands still in the steering wheel.
“I now pronounce you man and wife.” Joe emptied his magazine into the men in front of them. Cat-scratch did too. The men never fell. They only laughed. “Shit, our only hope is the grenade then.
“Thanks Joe, but the grenade won’t be enough this time.” Bella released Donny from the kiss, she pushed a button. The roof catapulted into the air, and her three companions were shot out of the car.
“I love you Donny!” She screamed.
Donny didn’t hear her. He was busy screaming. Bella stopped the car. She walked out with her eyes locked on the army. The tazers on her hands vibrated from the electric charge. She vibrated because she knew what was coming.
It was all clear in the laughter.
“I have only killed one man,” she said. “That was by accident.”
She fired her tazers at the men. They fired all their rifles at her.
She fell.
Bella never rose again.

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Flashes of Sanity #107: Urgent Matters

Welcome to Flashes of Sanity! Your daily dose of flash fiction on 500 words or less.

Today’s entry: Urgent Matters

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This was the president’s quarters. A very few were allowed to enter. Yet, here Marge stood. She balanced on her high heels.
The president was just elected a week ago, she thought. This is a disaster.
“Help.”
“Now be quite Mr. Narson. This is for your own good.”
The man sitting behind the desk the president usually welcomed his guests from peeled the nail of his finger with a knife. He didn’t even flinch.
“Please don’t kill me,” the president pleaded again.
“Kill you?” The man’s face became long as he looked at the president. “Do you really think I can kill you?”
One of the men holding the president in place leaned forward and jerked the nail holding the body up.
The president screamed.
“I have been to hell,” the man behind the desk said. “And I came back. Every one who ended up there has come back in one way or another. And none of us can return. You know the funny thing I have noticed. Hell was riddled with people like you Mr. Narson, and they are all stuck here nowadays.”
The chair suddenly got empty. And the man stood by his prisoner. “That makes me believe you too cannot die.”
He shoved the knife into the president’s chest. Then he pulled it out and stabbed the president in the gut.
The president screamed through it all.
But he never died.
“And you…”
Marge took a step back as all attention suddenly fell on her.
“I have heard so many things about you Marge Umington. The woman who pulls the levers. The queen of our entire nation. You are the one we really should pin to the wall. That should paralyze this country.”
“Why don’t you do it then?” Marge felt her heart run amok. It took all her willpower just to keep her breathing in place.
“That is quite simple actually.” The man let go of the bleeding president. “I want you to create chaos. And I know you will. I want you to start a war. After all, your country is in danger. Crooks have taken over. And we are not stepping back without a fight.”
The man’s breath hit Marge’s face. His knife tugged at her blouse. A button snapped under it.
“Run before I change my mind.”
Marge fell. The man laughed. With his peeled hand he grabbed her by the throat and threw her out of the office. It hurt like hell.
But she never died.
“Run my little queen,” he cried. “Your country demands it.”
Marge took to her feet with the man laughing in her tracks. She picked up her phone. A secret button on the back tapped three times and the phone rang a number.
“They don’t dare threaten me,” she said.

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Flashes of Sanity #106: Similar Desires

Welcome to Flashes of Sanity! Your daily dose of flash fiction on 500 words or less.

Today’s entry: Similar Desires

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“As I see it, you and I have a common interest.” Susanne resisted the urge to shiver in the cold wind. ”We both want Donald Diamond gone.”
The man in front of her remained silent in his chair. He scratched his chin.
“But if I am mistaken, I can always find someone else who shares my interests.”
The man opened his eyes. They had once been blue but now they were mold.
“You will have a hard time finding anyone who shares those interests as fiercely as I do. What concerns me, though, is if you are willing to go far enough.”
Susanne raised her right eyebrow. “He humiliated me in front of the whole world. I want him down. I want him in a place were even death feels like a reward.”
A smile played on the man’s face. The holes where teeth should be created blackness between all the white.
“Do you know how it feels to explode?”
“Can’t say I do.”
“It is painful.” The man leaned forward so the light caught all his hideousness. ”What comes next is worse. The fire burning you but you never char, the pitchforks stabbing you but you never bleed, the arms tearing you apart but you remain in one piece, all your failures screaming in your face. Donald knows about this too. And while I was in the darkness, I heard his voice screaming. Susanne, I know we can make him weep. Donald Diamond will wish he remained in hell’s eternal machine. I will make sure of it.”
Susanne scanned the smile on what remained of a face. The laugh jumped up and down in his exposed throat.
This would have scared Dina out of her mind, she thought.
“We have a deal, Mart Adamson,” she said.
“It gladdens me Susanne Queen.” Mart arose on his boney legs. “I will be in touch once my father has gathered my army.”
They shook hands. The slippery tissue on Mart would take hours to wash away.

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Flashes of Sanity #105: Bitter Conditions

Welcome to Flashes of Sanity! Your daily dose of flash fiction on 500 words or less.

Today’s entry: Bitter Conditions

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Success comes in different shapes for everyone. Some believed it came to those lucky. Others knew it was hard work.
Donna knew it comes from corpses. Uncountable corpses.
Step 1 had been to inform every crime lord about leaks of critical information that could end their reign.
Step 2 had been invite the reviewer. Give him his next Robin and gain an ally in the coming war.
Step 3 was to watch every crime lord turn on each other. Beginning a killing spree like no other.
The plan went perfectly
And then the mobsters began walking again, turning the criminal underworld into a blood fest without an end, and without casualties in their own lines.
They had been furious
”You hid well…”
“Clearly, not well enough,” Donna said and forced a smile.
The crime lord laughed. Oesten Gren. Drugs, murder and contacts in the political elite.
“Your little game killed most of my men, and me. Do you understand how glad I was when I seconds later opened my eyes again?”
“I think I can guess…”
“Then you maybe can guess how glad I was when we figured out it was you who began this war.” The smirk on Oesten’s face shone with all the intentions he had in mind. “A little girl.”
“This girl at least gets away with her murders.”
“Nothing has been proved yet.”
Donna shrugged. People knew anyway.
”Have you heard the word on the street?” Oesten opened a briefcase in front of Donna. ”Sinners never die.”
”Yes.”
”I may be an atheist, but dying has made me reevaluate some of the information. Sinners might be a harsh word for it, but certain people can’t die.”
Oesten turned the briefcase towards Donna. Needles lined up neatly on silk cushions.
”I think you are one of them, and I want to hear you scream.”
”You can always try,” Donna said but her heart was pounding so hard her mouth went numb.
Oesten threw his head back in a rumbling laughter.
”Cocky for someone who never felt pain.”
”I dated a guy with really bad aim once… I can handle a second one.”
”Shut it!” Oesten’s voice went strong in an instant. ”Let’s start with needle 5. Little pain with a hanging burn.”
The needle pierced through Donna’s thigh. She screamed, and Oesten laughed. Then the burn made her world fade.

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Flashes of Sanity #97: Bait

Welcome to Flashes of Sanity! Your weekly dose of flash fiction on 500 words or less.

This week’s entry: Bait

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”Could you do me a favor?” She had asked. Then a kiss on the cheek.
That was Mitch’s first kiss since… Ever.
He was ready to accept anything Donna said after that.
Luckily, it was just to take a box to an alley, and deliver the notes inside. At night.
”Hey!” A voice shouted from the darkness. Then Mitch saw the gun. ”Do you have a delivery for Figo?”
”For Figo?” Mitch stumbled on the words and searched through the box. ”Y-yes, here.”
The man fell down to the asphalt screaming. The blood flew from his hand onto Mitch’s only almost-clean white T-shirt.
“If you even think about taking that letter, I will shoot your head off.” A Long, muscular Woman showed herself in the darkness.
“Damn, you Vanessa!”
“Shut it, Claes, or I will shoot you anyway!”
“So you are the one messing with our business,” she continued and scanned Mitch. “Kind of disappointing. You have a letter to Gondacho, give it to me! And give me the letter to Figo too.”
“Damn you!”
“Claes, you idiot!” The woman screamed back.
Where is the letter, Mitch thought. He heard two gun shoots. He felt new warm liquid hit his body. And the one called Claes fell silent.
“Here it is.”
“Thanks!”
Mitch’s forehead turned cold. His legs turned warm.
“Please.”
“Don’t take it personally,” Vanessa said. “It is just business.”
She pressed the gun harder against his head. A loud bang echoed in the alley.
And Vanessa fell to the ground.
“What is this?” Mitch dropped the box and ran as fast as he could. New bangs echoed behind him. One bullet hit his legs. And he flew to the ground.
“Help!”
A car halted with screech.
“Look at that Miko. Seems like our dear note writer holds promises after all.”
“What do you mean?”
“That you should listen more and think less.”
Mitch felt a hand reaching down his pockets.
“Please, I don’t want to die.”
“Die?” the man asked. “The Reviewer doesn’t kill. I was picking up my letter.”
Letter? When did that end ll there.
“I see… Miko cover the back seat with something plastic. My gift has had an accident.”
“Gift?”
Gift? Mitch thought. A hand grabbed him by the neck.
“Yes. Gift. The little lady sent me an apprentice.”
“Please.” Mitch stumbled on his feet as the.
“Stop whining, it is not a good color on anyone. And lift your feet as you walk. Such laziness can get you shoot in this world.”
A hard push threw Mitch into the back seat.
“I am not an apprentice.” Mitch said. “I am just Mitch Sooly.”
“Your lady friend seems to think different.” Gun shots echoed through the alley. “And I believe her. Now Miko, how about activating those sprinklers of yours.”
Miko’s face split in a smile.
“With pleasure.”
The door slammed shut. Gas poured in through the roof.
“Please,” Mitch whispered. “Help.”
His view blurred, and everything became darkness.