Browsing Category 1000 Stories

in 1000 Stories

a willing ear – 8/1000

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Everyone is thrilled she is coming, and they clamber to get tickets to her show before they sell out.

The excitement builds but people start falling. First the banker’s wife, found dead with her ears cut off.

“Her EARS?”

“Oh, yes.”

On opening night, the theatre has many empty seats, yet she sings so beautifully, no one notices she can’t pack a house.

By the last night of her show the theatre is only half full, yet she shines anyway.

It helps to know that even when she can’t pack a theatre, she always has a willing ear to listen.… Read the rest

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that guy – 7/1000

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I hardly recognize him.

This isn’t the pimply, pockmarked face under greasy hair I remember from high school.

This can’t be the guy who got spitballed and wedgie’d, who was tripped in halls, who had his lunch tray dumped on his lap.

This can’t be that guy, because this guy is glowing.

I see him in the grocery store, pushing a cart with two little kids, smiling brightly like the gold band on his finger.

I go home and look in the mirror and see myself as I am, and I can’t help but wonder how he got everything first.… Read the rest

in 1000 Stories

poison – 6/1000

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As they died with a soft smile, the only thing I could feel was triumph.

Then, the truth hit me like a bucket of cold water.

I’d forgotten to ask for the key.

I pulled at my chains, tugged at the huge lock, but couldn’t break free.

I was trapped with their bodies and the vial of poison that had rolled out of my reach.

I spent hours and bled rivers trying to reach it, that green liquid my only escape from a terrible death, but it was too far away.

I watched their bodies rot, and then I did.… Read the rest

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boom – 5/1000

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As the dust settled, she looked around the ruined room.

The staircase had fallen and lay in a wooden heap, trapping her inside the basement.

After all of the noise and chaos she could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Now, all she had to do was wait to be rescued.

She stared up at the little window near the basement ceiling, her only source of light for the last five years.

It had taken her that long to make it, but she knew how to get things to explode.

And the man who took her lay underneath the stairs.… Read the rest

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the game of life – 4/1000

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“What do you want from me? This is just the way it is! We both have jobs and can still barely afford anything. We work all the time and barely see each other. What do you want from me?”

“I miss you, I just wish you would come with us once in a while.”

“Why would I want to do errands with you on our one day off?”

“I just want to spend more time with you.”

“Well, I just want to relax.”

So she bundled up the kids in the back and left, … Read the rest

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have a slice – 3/1000

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She sat on the kitchen floor with her back to the counter, panting.

The flour was dancing around her like snowflakes. Her blood and cake batter was staining the cold tiles but she had no energy to get up.

The business end of her wooden spoon was stuck in her husband’s right ear, and she knew when she pulled it out the mess would only grow.

But she needed to finish her cake before the police came to take her away.

Then again, she thought, once they tasted some of her cake, they may just have a slice and leave.… Read the rest

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take me back – 2/1000

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It looks so small from up here, but I know if I were down in those streets it would feel endless. The maze of metal and glass, the spires and speeding cabs, the cacophony of it all bringing me to life.

But I don’t belong here anymore, I feel too old for the speed and chaos, too tired. Once I danced to pulsing music under flashing lights and felt invincible. Now I go to work and go home and feel invisible.

But, you will find there’s some life in me yet if you can … Read the rest

in 1000 Stories

the proposal – 1/1000

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He was down on one knee with the open box in his hand, looking at me, confused.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Bobby, it’s me. What do you mean?”

He looked at the shimmering ring in his hand and snapped the box closed as he stood.

“I don’t know what’s going on here, but I don’t know you.”

“Excuse me, dear, where am I?” a woman asked.

Everyone in the room looked scared and confused but me.

What magic is this, what evil?

I was inches away from everything I wanted, but he forgot … Read the rest