Friday, March 6, 2015

Introducing Flash Fiction Fridays!

Wow, 60+ Twitter followers now! I guess that's still pretty modest by Twitter standards, but it's big news for me! And 6 blog followers, too! Hard to believe that I actually have "fans" now, or at least an audience... thank you so much, everybody. I was afraid I was going to start losing followers this past week considering I haven't posted anything, for which I do apologize. You'd think that over spring break I'd be having, ya know, some kind of break where I have all the time in the world to read books and blog about them, but of course life can never be that simple. On the bright side, I'm one step closer to securing a great internship for the summer! Which probably will mean less time for blogging... oh joy...

Anyway, I promise that I will have a new book review posted very soon, but to celebrate my growing popularity I've decided to introduce a new feature to my blog: Flash Fiction Friday! Basically, in an effort to get my creative writing mojo back (I've been in somewhat of a slump for a while), I've committed myself from now on to write one flash fiction/microfiction/short-short story every week, and post it on Fridays because alliteration makes everything sound cooler. Read on, my friends...


Turncoat
“You mind explaining how the FUCK you’re handcuffed to a pipe and not a briefcase right now?” From her awkwardly-crouched position against the wall, Agent 23 glanced anxiously up at her partner as he strode towards her. Underneath the anger there was a clear note of panic in Agent 71’s normally controlled voice; they both knew full well what was at stake if she had lost that briefcase to the enemy.

Holstering his gun, he knelt beside her and produced a key from his pocket. “I knew you weren’t ready for field work,” he said as he swiftly unlocked the handcuff encircling the pipe. “But this? How did it even come unlocked in the first place?”

“Well, it was an… interesting fight. I don’t know what happened, I swear!” Agent 23 said, but the more experienced agent was tired of her excuses. Her gross incompetence was going to cost them all greatly this time if something wasn’t done immediately. As she stumbled over her high heels trying to get up off the floor, he grabbed her still-cuffed wrist, more forcefully than he should have. She fell to the ground again.

“Goddammit!” he snarled, “You were supposed to protect that! Don’t you even fucking realize what was in that briefca-”

“Look out!” Suddenly she was lunging toward him; 71 spun around to glimpse the enemy agent and immediately reached for his gun, but it wasn't there.

Bang! The shot echoed through the long corridor. Agent 71 stumbled and fell to his knees, but the shock registered before the pain. It wasn't the enemy who had fired. Clutching the pipe, he turned to find his gun in the hands of Agent 23.

With perfect grace she rose from the floor, her expression a mix of disgust and eerie calm he's never seen on her before. The man at the door glanced down at him impassively, the turned to the young woman. "Is it done?" he asked.

"You tell me, I did my part," she replied coolly. "The package is en route. I'll meet you at the rendezvous, I've got business to attend to first."

"Three minutes. Don't keep her waiting." And then the man was gone as quickly as he had appeared. 23 turned back to her fallen partner. Through blurring vision he looked at his betrayer. Why? He wanted to ask, but what good would that knowledge do him now? She raised the gun and he closed his eyes, attempting to find peace in his last moments. But the expected shot never came. He would bleed out here slowly.

The last sound Agent 71 heard was the echo of 23's heels as she walked away.

2 comments:

  1. Fun! It's also kind of funny, I started making Friday my "Fiction Friday" day, too. :-)
    - Kate

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! I saw your blog, it's pretty interesting! And you're right, what a strange coincidence...

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