Daily Flash Fiction Stories
By J. Rizer
At first, when doctors and scientists started to suggest that crying might be good for you, nobody paid that much attention. It was when articles finally started to show up in ladies’ magazines and Reader’s Digest that people started to believe it might be true.
Crying was good for you, they had found out. Every tear you cried, like every step you took during the day, contained immeasurable health benefits.
By T.J. Baer
He has a split second to decide—jump or stay—so he jumps. Air roars past his ears and he slams onto the back of the train with an impact that judders through his bones, and then he’s scrabbling to get a handhold while his lower half dangles madly off the edge. His fingernails scrape cold metal but finally find purchase, and he manages to haul himself fully onto the roof just as the train swerves onto a new track and then onto a bridge.
By Vance Voyles
Stepping out onto the starboard bow, Finley drops her purse and moves to the metal railing. Grabbing it with slick hands, she stares down at the water as waves crash against the hull. She cannot catch her breath. This was supposed to be the best night of her life, but now everything is ruined, unraveling, and shattered.
A light-mantled albatross casts odd shadows in the moonlight, drifting up and down on the sea breeze, and Finley pulls her shawl tight over her shoulders, shivering. Then, without a second thought, she climbs onto the railing and is immediately knocked back onto the deck by a fluttering of feathers. Next to her, scuttling on the ground, the lone albatross flaps its wings, spanning the width of the walkway, before righting itself and staring at Finley.
It’s my job to push Sam wherever he needs to go. SeaTac is a big airport, bigger every year. It will expand even more in the future, so pushing a client from Alaska Air to Kenmore or Kenmore Air to Alaska will be many miles. When the airport was small, it was no problem. I pushed with ease, made a small tip, and it was enough. I could survive in this city which has become more expensive since the tech giants arrived. Seattle will soon be nothing more than a monster computer, which won’t help me in pushing but might increase my clientele. That would be a plus.
By Mark Joseph Kevlock
I didn’t like to go down there, sometimes, because it was always so dark and damp. But usually it was a good adventure, so that made it okay.
First thing was I packed my flashlight and my rope. I took my Spider-Man lunchbox, too, in case I got lost. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in there and a thermos of chocolate milk. I also took a big piece of white chalk to mark the walls, so I wouldn’t go in circles.
Then I was ready.
By Ken O'Steen
Sometimes, I can only go to sleep at night if I imagine myself being decapitated, my brain on a high boil full of regret and shame for how often and how badly I’ve disappointed people. Blade comes down and whop, I’m oblivious. Otherwise, my head feels hot in the flames of the kind of coal furnace on an old steamship, melting with the futility of my many attempts and failures at the things most important to me. But I’m not on the spectrum or anything, it’s a perfectly normal and universal kind of despondency and self-loathing.
