Oren Shafir's Blog, page 7

Mask (an 800-word Halloween flash fiction horror story) by Oren Shafir

There were no mirrors, but Frank could feel that the cut in his cheek was both wet and deep.

Lou’s words were running around his head: 'There is no right and wrong, just winners and losers.  When you understand that, you'll be free.'


“I dunno.”

“Well what day is it?”

“I dunno.”

“Well, look at your phone, for fuck sake.”

All Bojo had on was a pair of Fruit of the Loom underwear, but his cell phone was perched between his hip and the elas...

The Pretender (a 100-word flash fiction horror story ) by Oren Shafir

How could I prove that I wasn't crazy when I was the only one who could see it -- the only one who could see that it was something alien: a parasite, an imposter, a pretender. And I had to get rid of it.

I went through it all in my head again as I hiked to the remote spot where I would abandon it. They had tried to tell me that something was wrong with her, but I knew it wasn't her at all. Something had taken her place. Still, as I left it there underneath the cypress tree I had to look away b...

Love letter (a 500-word flash fiction suspense story) by Oren Shafir

Celia my love,
If you’re reading this now, then I am dead. Since you were blocking my calls and emails, I had to
figure out a way to get through. You see that whenever I put my mind to something, I can make it happen.
I built an Aston Martin DB4 engine using my computer and my father’s 3D printer. I solved the world’s hardest Rubik’s Cube, which has 975 individual parts, not including the one thousand twelve hundred and twelve stickers that had to be attached by hand.  And I seduced my Dad...

Learning to count (a 700-word) flash fiction suspense story by Oren Shafir

Miss Chandler hears herself counting and the numbers dance before her own eyes.The bed begins to spin. She wants to steady herself, but she is not in control. The IV in her arm pulls her back.
“Good honey. This is just something to help you relax before the anesthesiologist gets here,” the nurse says.
Miss Chandler must regain control. She closes her eyes and sees herself: young again, in charge, in her classroom, helping one of her young students learn to count.“Stop, stop, stop. Now Jemma hon...

3 depressions and a suicide (a 350-word flash fiction story) by Oren Shafir

I can just see it: a 17-year-old boy going into the pharmacy and asking for tampons, and then asking some woman to explain how to use them so you would know what to say to me. Goddamn. But I’m not going to go through all the millions of things you did for me over the years. Even though we live on opposite sides of the country now, I know you know what you mean to me. And the other way around too - that’s actually what this is about - what I've done for you.Only once growing up did you call on...

The Geek (a 700-word flash fiction story) by Oren Shafir

They knew I didn’t do it because I was in Phoenix with my Dad that week and didn’t get back till the day after vacation ended. In other words, the day after the locker bomb went off, and Schuler and Davis were killed. But they think I’m the next geek who might get inspired and decide to blow up some jocks, or even worse, some cheerleaders. They knew what the jocks almost did to me, and after what I said at the assembly, they were all over me.
Before the assembly I had been invisible; after it,...

The Closed Door (a 400-word freaky flash fiction story) by Oren Shafir

A cloud covered the moon, and the room darkened. I’d been so busy trying to clean up before Mom got home that I hadn’t had time to reflect. But the adrenaline rush was completely gone now, and it seemed like it was someone else earlier and not me. Part of me wished Bob were still alive, and we could all be a family together. Part of me knew that was right, the way it was supposed to be. But I had an image of myself with my feet hanging over the edge of my bed listening to Mom and Bob behind h...

Murder for Breakfast (a 300 word flash fiction story) by Oren Shafir

Originally published in Dead by Dawn Vol 3, Edited by Adele Hartley

Ed crashes into his chair – waves of body fat jiggling from the jowls of his neck and arms down to his belly, thighs and calves – and demands coffee; Janet thumps a mug of the scolding liquid next to his plate.
Ed opens the Herald with great fanfare, Janet discretely opens the cabinet drawer behind her.
Ed slurps loudly into his coffee mug as if making rapacious love; Janet moans murmurs of affection to the Smith and Wesson i...

Nickie (a 500-word freaky flash fiction story)

”We have to eat the dog.”

Danny just stared at Hans like he wanted to kill him.

Finally he said, “I hate your fucking mustache.”

“What?”“It makes you look like a gay German lumberjack.”

“Okay.”“That’s what me and Stevie call you, ‘The gay lumberjack.’”

Hans didn’t react.“My Mom hates it too.”“No she doesn’t,” Hans said calmly.

“We never liked you. Your jokes. are stupid And your breath smells like shit from that stupid pipe. Who smokes a pipe? I only took this retarded macho trip with you for...

Dina's Smile (a 450-word freaky flash fiction story) by Oren Shafir

Later, after she was raped by Shechem, I was the one Dina sought out for comfort.
That first time I comforted her, though,  she was around four, and I was around 12. Simeon had accidently hit her with a rock above her left eye. The women stopped the bleeding with some shepherds-purse. Then they passed her around like a loaf of bread, each one trying her own trick to soothe her: something sweet, a rocking motion, a rattling noise, even a breast. But still she wailed her heartbreakin...