October 16, 2015

Flash! Friday: Prompt #3-45

Rare but not impossible to spot: a Flash! Friday story by your truly!

This week's inspirational novel was Moby Dick, in a 100-word story (+/- 25) with two required story elements from among:
  • Conflict: man v self, man v nature (not gender specific)
  • Character (choose at least one): a wooden-legged sea captain, a pacifist forced to help with someone else’s revenge, an easygoing storyteller oblivious to danger, a chief’s son/prince working on a ship, a mighty whale.
  • Theme (choose one): revenge, fate v free will, the power of Nature, friendship, the cost of obsession
  • Setting (choose one): a whaling ship, a sea port, an island, the middle of the ocean
Added inspiration is offered in the form of this photo (though its use is not required):
Naufragos/Shipwrecked. CC2.0 photo by Luis Marina.

My story is below, but you also have time to write your own! Check out all the guidelines here, and let me know what you think!



At Any Cost

They left me.

Dozens of years of research brought my team here. The sound of the ocean, the sandy beaches and devastating cliff faces, the squawks of local avifauna… None of that matters.

They followed me, yes, but they couldn’t see that.

The Fibonacci sequence, Occam’s razor, Knot theory—it’s all about the numbers. They did it for credit, for research…for resumes, or a trip to the island.

Blind, oh so blind.

Vines bend to my fingers’ will, and I etch my numbers into the sand, surrounded by the stench of flesh.

I’m always there—almost there. I’ll find it.

They didn’t believe.


(103 words)

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