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insomniac-dot-ink · 3 months

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The Sister's Waverly and the Tidepools

The thing showed up on the beach when Brin was only small. Globular and wet like a jellyfish, shining from the inside out like a star, broken up with a spine in too many places to count. Brin found it there and placed her hand in the tidepool, cradling the creature’s cheek like she’d seen her sister do to sick farm animals. It blinked and blinked, unable to rise, and she blinked back until someone tore Brin back all at once.

“What are you doing?” her eldest sister growled and shook her. “Do you know what time it is?” Brin let out a small wail and Lori held her close. “Hush. I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry. What is that thing?”

Brin only shook her head. The creature blinked and blinked and her sister gnawed on her lower lip, avoiding its eyes. Loir gently examined Brin’s small hand, turning it over and over in place. The tips of her fingers had turned blue and fingernails loosened.

“Nothing permanent. I think,” she muttered and furrowed her brow. The color returned to Brin’s hands and her eldest sister sighed, still not looking at it, “I suppose I’ll tell the others.”

Waverly, the second oldest, was still awake and standing near the beach. She offered to get a shovel. Del was in bed but not sleeping and Etta appeared like a mirage from the attic. Tidying, she said, or something of the like.

Del cried when she heard about a monster on the beach. Waverly held the shovel high, threatening to bury it. The eldest, Lori, marched them all out just before dawn and they all took note.

“Does it talk?” asked Del, whimpering.

“Will it die?” said Waverly.

And Lori grabbed fistfuls of her own hair and yanked. “No one else is around for miles. I have a bad feeling. Where is Etta?”

“Right here.” Etta bent down, though she didn't touch the creature. “I’ve heard of this sort of thing. But only in Sugar Tales. The Brother’s something . . .”

Del nearly fainted, “this can’t end well.”

Brin watched on in awe, tingling down her own unbroken spine and unblinking. It was nice to see them all together, somehow. Though they argued over who should run for help–they couldn’t agree on who was fastest or loudest. Was it Lori that could drive a car or Waverly? Del brought up how she had the loveliest voice and they all went to rolling their eyes.

It was, of course, the middling daughter Etta that pointed at the stony ground. “What is that in the other tidepools?”

Brin tripped over her own feet to peak into the nearest puddle and lit up. Ah. So it seemed even angels fell like everyone else, splattering about. Scattered in the pools were white chalky shapes and dark glinting bits. Brin placed them immediately. “It’s from the angel!” she piped up.

“It’s not an angel,” Lori snapped and then drew a deep breath.

“I don’t think it’s a demon either,” Waverly said, carefully, in almost-good-humor.

“Whatever it is,” Etta finished the thought, “it’ll probably need these back.”

They went, the daughters of the Crescent Moon farm, from pool to pool. Gathering chunks of chalky white and strands of silver-gray, seashells with strange pink insides and acid-green coral. Shining rainbow scales and bits of glassy black that reminded Brin of deadened teeth or volcanic glass.

The angel, the demon, the thing washed up on their beach seemed happy when the long hair and dark teeth and bits of light were poured into its resting place. The spines slowly unbent and it pushes itself up on arms made of black.

“Don’t look.” Lori covered Brin’s eyes, though everything that would be done already had. Brin pushed her sister’s hand aside at the last moment. The scaled wings spread from the creature’s back, scaly and webbed, and a smile spread across its face so wide Brin had to hold her breath.

It lifted off the ground in a burst of light and was gone in a heartbeat. The light of it shone past the horizon in a way that rivaled the sun. They all exhaled, the girls of the Crescent Moon Farm, and then frowned. Looking at our hands, examining our fingertips and wondering allowed.

“Where is Del?” Though, that wasn’t the right question. Del was right there. “Where is Brin?” That wasn’t quite right either. It was only once the delivery boy came, carrying their morning milk and eggs, did they see.

“Hello there little one, are you visiting your cousins?” he cooed to the small child, “you look so alike!”

“No, no, I am Brin. Brin.”

The delivery boy only arched a brow and then his expression fell as two more sisters exited the house and then three. Five of them lined up, hungry after a long night, and stared on. The delivery boy dropped his pail of milk and ran. For, of course, there were only two sisters of Crescent Moon Farm, a tiny place left by two dead parents to Brindle Waverly and her sister Loretta.

And maybe angel’s grant wishes, to be less alone, or demons grant horrors of never knowing who you are. If you were Brindle or Loretta or bits of both, scattered from the tidepools before dawn, split into someone entirely new in the wake of the broken god.

FIN

#flash fiction #spilled ink #I am doing a 100-day microfiction challenge #magical realism #fantasy story

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alexanicholsauthor · 5 years

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The Dark Jubilee Revealed

So a while ago I sent out a post (https://www.patreon.com/posts/dark-jubilee-is-24837836) with a creepy picture stating that the Dark Jubilee is coming. And that’s it. People apparently noticed, because shortly after I was flooded with questions, all of which I intentionally ignored. I wasn’t trying to be mean, of course, I just think that some things are more interesting when seasoned with mystery. I also wasn’t quite ready to release any information on it, and I figured when I was, I would post and reveal all.

I’m posting.

And I’m about to reveal all.

The Dark Jubilee is an experiment in creative writing, based on something interesting I found on the internet about flash fiction. See, for a while now I’ve been toying with the idea of posting something on Wattpad, but I wanted my first contribution to be something short and sweet. Something to basically get my feet wet and see how the platform works. Numerous people suggested I pursue flash fiction, but I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant. So I googled it. I found an interesting little breakdown with several different types, and my mind immediately went into overdrive:

Flash Fiction Types

Six-word story: Any story with a single-digit word count is a category unto itself.

Twitterature: Max 280 characters.

Dribble, or minisaga: Max 50 words.

Drabble, or microfiction: Max 100 words.

Sudden fiction: Max 750 words.

Flash fiction: Max 1500 words.

I thought to myself you know, it would be cool to make an entire book alternating through the various types, a different story for each. Tales that are dark, sexy, mysterious, and erotic. It would not only be creative and fun, but intellectually stimulating as well.

During my downtime from revising Nephilim: Prisoner I’ve been doing just that. But it’s been hard. And challenging. Short stories are hard, yo! To do them right, to tell a good short story, you have to cram a lot of information into a little space. You only have so much to work with, and you have to not only make the reader understand everything, but feel something too.

It’s exasperating, yes, but it’s also an inordinate amount of fun.

Unfortunately, I decided against putting it on Wattpad. Instead, I’ll be putting it on Patreon as a gift to everyone in my Voyeur Tier ($5/Month) and up, because they thoroughly deserve it. It will be an ongoing series containing a lot of stories about a plethora of topics, and one day in the far future I will end up compiling them all into one big book and selling it on Amazon. But that’s a long way in the future.

I think Anne’s more excited about this than I am – she’s drafting out story concepts left and right that she wants me to include in the collection. 😅 She’s priceless, and her creativity and exuberance for life in general is refreshing. Everyone needs an Anne in their life. But you can’t have mine, motherfuckers!

Anyway, so there you have it.

The Dark Jubilee.

Revealed.

I can’t wait to share it with you guys…

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