October in Haunted Dixie. Love And The Inner Beast
Happy Howl-oween From Dixie Drudge and Southern Nation News
Happy Howl-oween From Dixie Drudge and Southern Nation News
It’s hard to post short stories or even full articles on SNN. Most average around 3,000 words. That makes for a long column. This year I will make an exception to the rule. A friend of mine toys some with flash fiction. As a former copy writer I’m used to packing the most wallop into the shortest possible space. Rules dictated that the following tale is a mere 99 words, not counting the title. It won the Saturday Fiction Writers’ Award a few years back and MicroHorror subsequently published it and sent him a check. I hope you enjoy fiction done fast.
LOVE AND THE INNER BEAST
I never smelled a girl like her in Safeway. She pushed a buggy down the cereal aisle and turned her cheek to hide the striped claw mark that makeup couldn’t. I knew the lacy blouse hid more scars like the crescent on my cheek a pup gave me as a child.
As I sacked her groceries, my heart sank –-
Cat food.
Large brown eyes showed the felines were just a snack.
“Beautiful moon tonight,” I said, “Feel like a howl?”
Her pupils narrowed to slits. She smiled as her nostrils tasted me.
“Sure.”
Finally. My kind of girl.