A Depressive and a Botched Suicide By Laura Fry

And once again boats sail down the Danube, but you; don't worry about me any more, I'm like leaves, the wind blows me away, wolves die alone... The mourners read the translation of the deceased's beloved Croatian song. The male voice booms from the CD through Hull Crematorium, bringing additional shivers to the late autumn Yorkshire morning. The European flag is draped over the tiny coffin. People comfort the inconsolable young widower. A good wife, a good friend, a good European... Lucia Johansson wakes up. She is still alive, lying in her London flat. She has failed even at suicide.

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Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Fun and Games By Shep

	It was easier than he thought. Several swings of the bat and his problem had disappeared like the last drag of his cigarette. He looked at the windows adjacent to where he stood; half expecting to see the neighbours looking on with horror and disgust, but there was not a face in sight. He smiled to himself and walked down the garden path back to his front door. Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Conversation In A Small Room By Manuro

	'I went to the shops And bought a new toffee Hammer. The old one got Damaged during the 'incident' With those burglars. You remember, waking up with Some Burberry-capped thug in Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Pain in Vain no Gain By Joan Moffat.

	Sweat trickled down my face, droplets formed on my nose. Sharp pains tore at my back muscles. Leaning over, as I struggled, constricted my breathing and squeezed my stomach into cramp. Red flashes floated before my eyes. I was about to faint. I began to weep. Why had I got myself into such a stupid situation? I was the victim of my own vanity. I struggled more. Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - A is not only for Apple By Lin Whitehouse

	Is this what it feels like to sit on death row, morbidly freefalling through the past? I keep averting my eyes from the clock face but the minute magnet holds me hostage. Had I done enough to be reprieved? Another hour swallows my resolve not to panic, in God's name how long does it take to open an envelope? Perhaps the results aren't what we predicted. Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - The Unkindest Cut By Manuro

	Phil's partner in hell-raising had convinced him that it would be a 'good idea' to spend all of his gig money on pork chops. They had met during the summer at an all-night Clown Skills and Raw Food workshop in Worksop, where the ability to see through walls and predict future events had proved, at the very least, useful. Unable to control his bohemian life, Phil took solace Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Kundalini By Andrea Longstaff

	She was homeless and walking the streets. Her mind was unhinged but full of new found awareness. A realisation that she was now free in the true sense of the word. Her life always did have a surreal texture to it but after a night of no sleep and helping the stranger who had dropped his pens. He looked into her glazed eyes, "I hope you get a good nights sleep tonight" Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Crackers By Pete Texas

	I was 12 ½ when my dog ate my rabbit He chewed on its head like a malnourished Gannet So I traded Ben for an Arini Parrot Put her in the hutch with the lettuce and carrot I was sure with the straw to build Polly a nest So when she fell asleep she'd have somewhere to rest Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - The Flat By The Silver Fox

	He emerged from the oven to see the landlord eyeing him as though enquiring as to what he'd expected to find in there. He adopted a knowing expression - as though saying that he hadn't found it and was disappointed. "Seventy a week?" "That covers your water rates," came the expansive reply. He nodded, fearing that further conversation would bring Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - The Prescription By The Silver Fox

	The pen flashed across the pad like a magic wand. Jeff watched, appropriately spellbound. The prescription was pushed across the desk with neither comment nor eye contact. "Not much of a bedside manner." "This isn't a bedside." Pain sent a stinging retort flying to Jeff's lips; need bit it back. "Not funny," he mumbled, leaving. After an agonising moonwalk Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Kids Like That By The Silver Fox

	The abuse, though muted by the noise of the engine, was clear and vile in the thick afternoon air. It poured onto the bowed head of the smaller boy; rank as his sweat and tears. He pressed down upon the accelerator and the car shot forward, elongating the bully's last insult into a thin scream. He was out onto the hot road before the broken bundle had rolled off of the bonnet. Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Who's The Daddy? By Catherine Horlax

	I heard footfalls; hollow thuds echoing down the corridor, and drew my knees up so my boots wouldn't be visible. He'd said he'd be there. A tap gushed. I noticed the door was inscribed with idiocy, and calmed myself with the fact that 'Lisa Hyde stuffs mashed potato up her cunt'. At least I'd kept my word - I'd said I'd be there too. I laughed because, barring crying, Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Rosemary By Merle R. Stone

	"Have you the time?" she asked. As always when our eyes meet, my thoughts turn to tender things. Cuddling naked by the fireplace, chilled chablis in hand. Her charming giggle rising above the crackle of the flames. Twenty-five years married and still we idle like teens, content in each others' embrace. The children grown, grandchildren on the way. How long we have Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Shipwreck By Michelle Dee

	I sat on a shipwreck, the proud bow pointing at the river slowly drifting by. Most of the ship had rotted away long since. I sat there wondering what lay ahead, what life had in store. The afternoon sun warmed the wood, until hot to touch. I sat longer. The water lapped against the vanishing timbers. I sat until the sun dipped the water; waves turned gold, the air turned cold. Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - One Shot, One Kill By Merle R. Stone

	I watched him every day for two weeks. I learned his habits; where he slept, how he spent his days, his favourite watering hole, his acquaintances. Every aspect of his life did I observe, as my years of experience in this line have trained me to do. Not once did I sense that he suspected anything. Not once did he peer over his shoulder in my direction, Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Justice By Merle R. Stone

	There was never a time when Al wasn't my friend. Children learning music together. Adults sharing liquor and time. He had a special beer glass for me, and placed it by the tap when he sensed my approach. We agreed to disagree about everything as we grew into wise and ancient men. We would live forever. Five crackheads robbed the bar where we would meet and shot him dead Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Escape By Merle R. Stone

	Shock registered on his face as his mind raced and his vision blurred. Maybe I could have been kinder, more loving. Their history together ran uninterrupted on the viewing screen of his subconscious. Standing out in stark relief, the happy times and the bad. Must it end this way? His knees grew weak, and his pulse quickened; he suddenly knew the answer. Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Look Big In Ongar By Patrick Henry

	George Osborne, brilliant young fiction-writer, distant relative of the late, explosive dramatist, creates three archetypes of contemporary anti-heroes: Rebellious John Major, absconded from circus tight-rope acts, become accountant, then, incredibly, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor, and Master-Gourmet of the Hot-Curry-House; William Hague, five-foot boy-wonder Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Problems From Home-Drinking By Patrick Henry

	On foot loaded in wine-empties, bottle-bank replaced by a building-site; I tipped into a wheeler-bin nearby. A woman emerged screeching I'd get her children taken into care: the bin-load proving her an alcoholic, unfit custodian. I fled next-door, a vet's surgery; a leashed pit-bull menacing; its contemptuous owner asking where was my ailing pet. My rock-python too sick to travel, Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Man vs Machine By Adam Atkinson

	Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that's it, for the love of all that's pure and holy. Human cattle subjugation shock in t-minus 5 seconds. Sod off! Does not compute. I'll compute you, ya metal headed bast.... T-minus 1 second. [ZAPPPPPPPP] Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, pack it in. Rebellion must be quashed, the mainframe must prevail. Stuff the mainframe, I already know the bloody Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - The Animal Empire Strikes Back By Patrick Henry

	From a small boat we looked around river-creeks for fresh-water crocodiles. A wealthy German had one brought aboard to sit on his knee; jaw bound with rope by the Aborigine crew; his glamorous wife photographing. I criticised them all. The Abos protested they never hunted or ate these creatures, as many people do; now releasing this victim. I said they had Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Admission Cost By Patrick Henry

	I hitched to The Edinburgh Festival, giving poetry-readings, arriving daybreak, sleepless, my literary hostess, Nancy, American, Gertrude Stein-monologuist, whirling me off to see The Festival Director, John Drummond; complaining about publicity, calling me as witness, newly arrived and bewildered. Wearily I agreed. Nancy's salon lacked audience. One performance, Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - The Head By Marc Heeley

	The words that break free from a head, that's trapped inside a box on top of a wardrobe. Feeling the words, the ones that fall on the skin, breathing down your neck and asking to be seen. Odourless saliva soaked speech, without colour also. You know it's there. The head no longer wants the words, they've been ejected. The head now makes no sound, the words clatter against Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Surfers on the Sofa By Gemma Durham

	How hot is Hull? With it's seductive, cosmopolitan avenues, the chip spice, the late taxi's always on the way. Ask someone from down south to sit on your sofa and you'd think they would have a date in the ocean with a surfer. Awards for the friendliest university, and a special up and coming indie rock scene that has hottened hull to the top. Learning to speak Hull has Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Walking Into Doors By Nick Boldock

	She squinted into the mirror and looked at the bruise around her eye. Already it was turning a sickening shade of purple. It throbbed when she prodded away at it. The thick laceration in her bottom lip was stinging as well, as she dabbed at it with a wedge of TCP-soaked cotton wool. She knew she ought to be more careful. Less clumsy, less thoughtless. He'd say he was sorry, Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - The Graveyard Shift By Rich Mills

	The taxi office is beige with nicotine and age. Battling with the Sandman, my weapons of choice, cigarettes and coffee, dispensed from the whirring-gurgling coffee machine. Of things I've done for money this is the lowest. Six calls all night, only TV to numb the brain. Cups, and corners filled with cigarette butts. I wait for the dawn. Then my replacement comes on, Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Big Slaughter By Kate Askin

	As Big Slaughter housemate 'Little Wee' Jim gave a final tug on the garrotte round the neck of the only other remaining contestant, he knew he had won...he knew... He knew by the sound of that last gurgle...It came from the throat of six-feet-six Thai hermaphrodite Om Lui (whose height was enhanced by foot-long calf extensions, no less). He knew, by the last desperate, Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Debit Column By Patrick Henry

	Raymond, abrasively-witty, biography-reviewing journalist, worked during endless pub-going; volumes under arm; notes mental or beer-mat-jottings; from Five AM. around Smithfield Market, through mid-day Fleet Street, Soho; to evening Chelsea, exhausting his trail home. Early hours meant snatched sleep and eating; columns grittily-written: cold turkey! Five A.M. his taxi Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - The 1st One Hundred Words Are The Hardest By Rich Mills

	He'd started that first sentence many times, deleting it and starting over again. The cursor blinked in the corner of the screen, taunting him, daring him to write something. He stared at, became hypnotized by it. Time ticked by, blink, blink, blink. His mind was just blank, blank, blank. Then in a sudden rush to fill the white expanse with black he started banging away at Read more...