Below are five selected excerpts from the 2024 anthology. E-book coming soon!
Day 4: Black Cat
She curls against his leg with a purr and rubs her cheek across his shin. She peers up at him—wrinkles crease his face, and thick veins slide beneath his papery skin.
A toothy smile brightens his face. He bends, fingers scratching her chin. "I had a kitty like you once," he muses.
She knows he had not one but eight like her. She always returns to him. Seeing him now—so much older than the boy of her first life—she's content to know she'll be here in his last moments, just as he's been for her.
Day 9: Haunted House
There is something wrong with the house across the street. Thirteen windows, three floors, one front door that never stays shut.
People in town cross on the other side of the road—even the mailman tosses newspapers over the fence from a distance. Four missing persons, six homicides, one arson.
There are rumors about who lives there now, though no cars ever pull in, and no people ever venture out. Five families, four years, one set of red eyes staring out from the bedroom window directly at me.
Day 16: Doll
The doll in Molly's room is her favorite so far. Daddy likes to bring dolls home, dress them nice, and let her have tea parties with them. The last two had dark hair, but this one has caramel curls that Molly adores. Its eyes are sewn over with large buttons—Daddy's best work yet. No swelling or blood.
Molly listens to the doll's shallow breaths and eyes its corset. As she lifts a teacup to the doll's lips, she hopes Daddy lets her keep this one. The others were pretty, but this one is perfect.
Day 20: Empty
The room is empty. The bed she once slept in is gone; the clothes that smelled of her and that perfume he loved—all gone. There are no photos on the walls and no nightstand.
The heavy bolts that held her chains in place, along with the chains themselves, are gone too. He didn't want it this way. He wanted to keep her forever—she was even beginning to like him, he thought. But when the police began closing in he knew that while he could replace her with another, he could not replace his freedom.
Day 27: Slasher
"Lock the door!" Dan shouts frantically as my fingers fumble with the latch. My breath is choppy—muscles screaming from the mad dash to the house. Outside, the masked man approaches. A cleaver, already drenched in the blood of our friends, glistens in his hand.
Dan rams his shoulder against the door and locks it for me—panting, eyes wide. We're the last two. Only one person ever survives this sort of thing, and by the way his quaking hands start toward my neck, I know he's thinking the same thing.
About the Freaky Flash Fiction Challenge
This yearly challenge, founded in 2023, challenges writers to create works of flash fiction under 500 characters in length. The anthology is comprised of the top stories received for each day's prompt, totaling 31 stories for the 31 days of October.
