Jeff Coleman's Blog: Jeff Coleman Writes, page 5
January 29, 2020
Hero
breakermaximus/Shutterstock.com This story is dedicated to my newest patron, Taunya. If you’d like to become a character in my next piece of flash fiction and get other cool rewards, become a patron!
A sword, glowing in the dark. The demon advances and Taunya strikes. Sparks fly when enchanted metal meets thick gray scales, and the demon, cursing in an unknown tongue, is shoved into the concrete wall of an abandoned building. Sweat rolls down Taunya’s neck and shoulders, and she struggles to...
January 22, 2020
Starting Over
Mia Stendal/Shutterstock.com “I can’t do it.”
The Sacred Library had been silent save for the quiet whisking of a thousand pens in a thousand notebooks, each lying open before an acolyte in training, and the words bounced around the cathedral-style building before fleeing down the halls and out of earshot.
Wendy had her own pen, but unlike the others, hers wasn’t moving. Instead, she was looking down, watching the world inside her notebook tear itself apart.
“I can’t do it,” she said again,...
January 8, 2020
Fire and Stone
lassedesignen/Shutterstock.com Adam had been walking through the tunnel for some time. He could not remember entering, nor could he remember why. Nevertheless, lost in both space and time, he continued walking, searching for the answer to a question long forgotten.
The tunnel was hot, uncomfortably so, and the longer he went on, the hotter it got. Making matters worse, the walls were drawing closer. At first, he’d thought it was his imagination. Now, however, he had to squeeze through to...
January 1, 2020
End of a Cycle
JoFr/Shutterstock.com It was almost 11:30 when Samantha turned off the TV. She’d been watching NBC’s New Year’s Eve 2020, and just before the screen went dark, Carson Daly had asked someone in the audience about their New Year’s resolutions. Until then, the impending reality of 2020 felt as distant as it had in January of 2019. Then the audience member spoke, a young man in his early twenties—”In 2020,” he said, “I’m going to eat right and lose weight”—and Samantha’s entire world turned...
December 25, 2019
Good Cat
Foxytail/Shutterstock.com Chester is a good cat, or so his humans say whenever they scratch behind his ears or run their fingers through his soft ebony fur. Chester does not dispute the honorific. He keeps the basement free of rats. He suffers the destructive affections of their two young children. He keeps an ear out for when his humans are sad, and when comfort is required, he lies in their laps while they stroke his head and keeps them company until the shared warmth lulls one or both of...
December 18, 2019
No Story This Week
Hey guys,
I’m traveling this week and wasn’t able to schedule a piece of flash fiction in time. I’ll be back next week with something new for you to read
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December 11, 2019
Reaper
Nataliya Turpitko/Shutterstock.com Once I see the motes of light flash across her cobalt eyes, I know my Earthly journey is complete. I have no regrets. I enjoyed my time as a human and will carry the experience with me into the life beyond.
“Are you ready?” the reaper asks.
I can already feel an invisible energy mounting inside of her. Like static electricity, it makes the hairs on my arms stand on end.
“Does it matter?”
“No,” she says, “not really.”
I shrug and nod my head, saying nothing.
...December 4, 2019
The Fog
m-agention/Shutterstock.com Fog curls around my ankles like creeping vines, and all I can think as I stand there in the dark, surrounded by death, and stare up at a cold and lifeless sky, is how the world wasn’t always like this—how it was once bright, how it was once young and new, pristine and undefiled, a shining luminescent jewel that inspired wonder rather than fear and hope rather than despair.
But those days are gone, dead and buried along with most of the population. I watch dark and...
November 27, 2019
Oracle
ju_see/Shutterstock.com I apologize for making you uncomfortable. I know many find the way I stare unsettling, and like you, they always look away, hoping I won’t notice their awkward shoulder shrugs or the way they turn their heads.
I don’t do it on purpose. It’s just the way I am. It makes me uncomfortable, too, and while you might have to contend with a stranger’s awkward stare, what I have to deal with is far worse.
They found me in a crack house when I was an infant, unwanted and...
November 20, 2019
Into the Dark
Barandash Karandashich/Shutterstock.com I should have known there’d be a price. There always is. But I was a struggling independent writer. I’d plunked most of my life’s savings into a creative business that was pulling in less than a hundred dollars per month and I was desperate. When you’re drowning and someone throws you a life preserver, you take it. You don’t ask how and you don’t ask why. I wish to God that I had, but hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.
“Hurts, doesn’t it?”
It was almost three in the morning when I heard his v...
