VAMPLIT BLOG » Flash Fiction http://vamplit.com FOR READERS AND WRITERS WHO LOVE THE NIGHT Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:00:57 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Issue 4: #fridayflash Horror You Should Read http://vamplit.com/2011/06/issue-4-fridayflash-you-should-read/ http://vamplit.com/2011/06/issue-4-fridayflash-you-should-read/#comments Thu, 09 Jun 2011 11:00:48 +0000 W. J. Howard, Contributor & Admin http://vamplit.com/?p=3948 [...]]]> Welcome to our showcase of #fridayflash out on Twitter.

Every Thursday, the Vamplit authors and blog contributors share our favorite #fridayflash horror stories and continue to add links throughout the weekend.

You get to recommend your favorites too by adding links to them in the comments. We’ll read as many of your recommendations as we can, time permitting, and retweet them through the weekend. Only rule, all recommendations must be in the horror genre but may cross over to other genres. Please include links to your own story.

Some weeks we also have a theme for our contributors if you’d like to join us:

  • This week: Nightmares
  • Next week: Mad Scientists (also our #humpday #horrorchat topic next week)

Note that Friday Flash is a separately run writer’s group. “Friday Flash is an Internet meme designed to increase your visibility as a fiction writer. The idea is simple enough. Write a piece of flash fiction, defined as 1000 words or less, post it to your blog, and then on Friday announce it to the world via Twitter or some other social network along with the link to your post. If you use Twitter be sure to include the hashtag, #fridayflash.” More guidelines…

Don’t miss The Challenge of Writing Flash Fiction by J. M. Strother, creator of #fridayflash on the #amwriting blog this week.

Here’s what we have so far this week:

Our Contributors

Our Horror Picks


If you missed it: New #vampire serialized #ShortStory on my #blog: The Elder-Part One http://wp.me/pKRjl-D4. #weblit #webfic #FridayFlash
June 10, 2011 4:57 PM via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@aheila_
Aheïla



For #fridayflash, I present “Rapture.” Darkness has a name: http://ow.ly/5eKkn
June 10, 2011 12:53 PM via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite
@tgabrukiewicz
Thom Gabrukiewicz


I love the smell of zombie in the morning. Smells like…#FridayFlash! Here’s Part 2 of “The Lust, The Flesh” http://wp.me/p1zKN6-N
June 10, 2011 1:20 PM via SocialOomphReplyRetweetFavorite
@mkelly317
Maria Kelly


This post is reposted on Forbidden Knowledge Magazine but featured tweets may be different on each website. Feel free to repost on your own blog but you will need the Blackbird Pie WordPress plugin.

]]> http://vamplit.com/2011/06/issue-4-fridayflash-you-should-read/feed/ 0 #fridayflash The Somnambalist Device by W. J. Howard http://vamplit.com/2011/06/fridayflash-the-somnambalist-device/ http://vamplit.com/2011/06/fridayflash-the-somnambalist-device/#comments Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:40:34 +0000 W. J. Howard, Contributor & Admin http://vamplit.com/?p=3873 [...]]]>

Sometime in the future

They sleep. In a deep unwakable hibernation, and nearing a third of our world’s population, they are everywhere.

For nearly twenty long years, the number of sleepers continue to increase with no sign of a cure. The only hope for humanity, a device. The Somnambulist Device to be exact. Invented ten years ago by the young engineering protégée, Robert Hatch, he’s now the richest man in the world.

Hatch was employed by Microsoft when he developed the first device, while in their artificial intelligence division for medical research. Only two years out of college, he’d tapped into the human brain and reanimate a small test group of sleepers to perform a limited number of tasks. Today our society’s sleepers are still unable to think for themselves, but are capable of working at jobs that require repetitive task, and some can even speak.

Hatch says his motivation comes from being the only member of his family not stricken by the Human Hibernation Virus (HHV). His lonely existence kept him hard at work in the lab, frantic to find a way to bring back his loved ones.

Some call him Dr. Frankenstein. Some believe him worse.

Julia reclined against the hard back of the motel room chair and sighed. Then she held up her iPad and read the rest of the draft for her Time Magazine article.

He sounded too impressive. If only I could paint the true picture of the bastard, she thought, but the young reporter knew her editor would kick it back in a second.

On the table sat a pad of paper with the Best Western logo printed across the top. She picked it up and turned around to face the bed where Mickey lay naked. His chiseled glutes tempted her to join him for one last roll between the sheets before they parted.

Instead, Julia flung the pad at Mickey. It landed on his back.

He twitched, then turned over to reveal a more enticing invitation to join him.

If only there were more hours in a day, she thought, then blurted out, “We’ve got to leave.”

Mickey propped himself up, rubbed his eyes and checked the alarm clock. “Hell, Julia, we’ve got the room for another hour.”

“No time.”

“You sure?” He raised one eyebrow, grinned and clutched his swelling offer.

But Julia didn’t even look up as she zipped the case around her iPad. “I’ve got to meet a guy in less than a half hour, and it’ll take at least twenty minutes to get there.”

“What guy?”

“Don’t get all jealous again. His wife’s missing.”

“She a sleeper?” His voice deep and unintelligent, like that of Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky films.

Julia approached the bed, aroused by Mickey’s masculine physique but repugnant to his inability to speak in complete sentences. “Yes,” she said and leaned over for a quick peck at Mickey’s lips.

Mickey wasn’t ready for her to leave though. He pulled her close to his chest, then slipped his other hand under her mini-skirt and between her legs.

She pulled back when he reached for her silk panties, then turned her back to him. “Will you be at Hatch’s press conference later?”

“Body guardin’ Hatch all night.”

She whipped her head around. “Another night of strip clubs?”

“Who’s jealous now?”

Julia rolled her eyes and thought Mickey clueless. Did he really believe she’d have a secret affair with Robert Hatch’s body guard in hopes he’d sweep her off to live a boring life in the suburbs. He knew she was a reporter for Time magazine. Besides the gushing orgasms, all she wanted from Mickey, were bits and pieces of information he’d overheard while escorting the rich scum bag around Manhattan.

“Just make sure you’re out of here before they charge my credit card for another hour.” She winked, kissed the air and headed out the door.

* * *

Julia started the car, turned on the radio and listened for the latest news.

“Five more sleepers have gone missing over night in New York state.”

She turned up the volume.

“The newly missing in the wake of last week’s alleged attack by a sleeper against her husband that resulted in his death. When asked about the missing sleepers, Hatch Research, the manufacturers of the Somnambulist Device once again declined comment.”

She shook her head and pulled out of the motel parking lot.

* * *

As Julia pulled up, she noticed a dark skinned man dressed in jeans and a New York Knicks jersey standing on the stairs of a concrete porch. The house number was the same as the address on the yellow sticky she held in her hand. She hurried to park, gathered her things and exited the car. The man skipped down the stairs holding up his palms, ready to block her approach. When they met half way up the walkway, she noticed he was no older than seventeen.

“Mr. George?” She held out her hand, but he ignored her greeting.

“My dad can’t talk to you. The company made him sign—”

Shit, she thought, but wasn’t surprised. Every time she found someone willing to talk, they’d change their mind at the last minute. She frowned and reached inside her iPad case for a business card. “If your dad changes his mind.”

“No. I mean, I don’t care what my dad signed.”

Julia froze. Her eyes widened.

“Someone’s gotta know they’ve got my mom.”

“Who has your mom?”

“Thomas,” called an elderly woman’s voice.

He backed away slowly. “She woke up, pissed and tried to kill my grandma.”

“Thomas!” This time the voice deep. The teen’s father ran down the steps after his son. He looked Julia square in the eye, at the same time he grabbed Thomas by the back of the shirt. “We have nothing to say!”

“Mr. George. Please. You could be helping other families.”

But it was too late. The man had already dragged his son back indoors.

Awake? she thought. After twenty years? Was it possible?

Author’s Notes: When we decided to write about somnambulists this week, I was excited. I love the word and the way it sounds, rolling off the tongue. Then I had to think of an idea, which wasn’t quite as easy as I’d expected. It came to me though, last Saturday morning. Shortly after I ate breakfast, I started up the laptop, wrote up the idea and loved it. Only one problem. It makes a better novel. So you’ve just read what seems to me a first chapter. You tell me. Continue on with it? It may be worth developing during the 3-Day Novel Contest.

W. J. Howard is a contributor and administrator here at the Vamplit blog. She is a yet to be published writer of The Courier series and the editor of the Forbidden Knowledge Magazine (Grand Opening August 1st). If you have any questions about content please contact her using one of the links below.

Where to Visit W. J.
Blog ~ Twitter ~ Facebook

]]> http://vamplit.com/2011/06/fridayflash-the-somnambalist-device/feed/ 13 Issue 3: #fridayflash You Should Read http://vamplit.com/2011/06/issue-3-fridayflash-you-should-read/ http://vamplit.com/2011/06/issue-3-fridayflash-you-should-read/#comments Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:27:56 +0000 W. J. Howard, Contributor & Admin http://vamplit.com/?p=3856 [...]]]> Welcome to our showcase of #fridayflash out on Twitter.

Every Thursday, the Vamplit authors and blog contributors share our favorite #fridayflash horror stories and continue to add links throughout the weekend.

You get to recommend your favorites too by adding links to them in the comments. We’ll read as many of your recommendations as we can, time permitting, and retweet them through the weekend. Only rule, all recommendations must be in the horror genre but may cross over to other genres. Please include links to your own story.

Some weeks we also have a theme for our contributors if you’d like to join us:

  • This week: Somnambulist (säm?namby??liz?m): noun sleepwalking.
  • Next week: Your choice.

Note that Friday Flash is a separately run writer’s group. “Friday Flash is an Internet meme designed to increase your visibility as a fiction writer. The idea is simple enough. Write a piece of flash fiction, defined as 1000 words or less, post it to your blog, and then on Friday announce it to the world via Twitter or some other social network along with the link to your post. If you use Twitter be sure to include the hashtag, #fridayflash.” More guidelines…

Here’s what we have so far this week:

Our Contributors

Our Horror Picks


Please check out my new website and my new horror #flash :) – The Caldron – http://bit.ly/jxYssL #fridayflash“
June 3, 2011 4:39 PM via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite
@CliveM
Clive Martyn



This post is reposted on Forbidden Knowledge Magazine but featured tweets may be different on each website. Feel free to repost on your own blog but you will need the Blackbird Pie WordPress plugin.

]]> http://vamplit.com/2011/06/issue-3-fridayflash-you-should-read/feed/ 0 #fridayflash Blush of the Undead by W. J. Howard http://vamplit.com/2011/05/fridayflash-blush-of-the-undead/ http://vamplit.com/2011/05/fridayflash-blush-of-the-undead/#comments Fri, 27 May 2011 21:20:45 +0000 W. J. Howard, Contributor & Admin http://vamplit.com/?p=3748 [...]]]> Fallen chairs and shattered wineglasses, scattered across the wine tasting room floor, told of a hasty retreat. No invited guest would dare re-enter after they witnessed the pouring of the first varietal. Still, the party had just begun for the undead, who once lay contorted and buried beneath the hearty vineyard that covered their mass grave.

* * *

Earlier that evening, the undead had been awoken by the uncorking of a blush white Merlot. The bottle was set to breathe as the head of the first corpse, Emil, escaped the mass grave site. He surveyed the surroundings, now covered with vines, where the very grapes had been harvested to produce the wine.

A slight mixture of cherry and rotting flesh called out to Emil, his brother and a hundred other men, as they smelled not the spirits of wine, but the fragrance of their own life blood that had nurtured the grapes. The still tears of their loved ones granted the men the strength to claw through dirt and decomposed limbs to meet the sun for the first time in fifteen years.

During their awakening, they remembered their fate. Lined up in front of a ditch and shot. A massacre by evil-doers, certain the existence of outspoken men was a threat to their own political agenda. These were the same power hungry followers who had kept the secret of their gendercide and entombment to this very day.

The undead continued to wrestle with vines and roots until they reached their freedom. While inside the tasting room, the guests gathered around the sommelier.

Tasters readied their glasses as he prepared to pour the blush Merlot. But when a rancid and thick crimson poured from the bottle and into the first glass, the guests were aghast. The woman holding the plasma-filled stemware recoiled as she dropped it. Her screams were heard throughout the room as shards of glass and blood united in splatters across the concrete floor.

The crowd turned against the sommelier.

“Is this a joke,” another woman said with a shriek.

Before he could defend himself, the doors to the tasting room burst open, announcing the arrival of an undead throng. Emil and his brother both limped and dragged their feet, while they headed toward the tables that displayed the wine. The others followed behind them at a sluggish pace.

Heads turned. Then a momentary silence, before a resounding uproar as the living scrambled for the exits.

While the room emptied, the owner of the vineyard picked up a bottle and swung it at an invader, hitting him in the skeletal cavity that once held his missing eye.

The undead man wavered, then stumbled and fell to his knees. But, to no avail, the corpse lifted his rotted flesh and bones, grinned at the man, and recommenced along with his comrades to the side of Emil.

The owner coughed and covered his nose with the back of his hand. The smell in the room putrid, he could no longer stand it and followed behind the remaining guests.

A quiet murmur was heard across the tasting room, while Emil and his brother passed bottles of wine to their mates. The undead corpses took their turns, filled their glasses and held up the fruit of their own blood in preparation for a toast.

Emil stood at the front and lifted his glass. “To all of us who have arisen from our shared place of unrest.”

The undead responded with cheers and their claps sedated.

“A toast to those who put us there. And to those who did nothing to stop them.”

A moan replaced the cheering.

“Be not weary, my friends, for their evil misjudgments will not go forgotten, or forgiven. They await punishment for their atrocities.”

Glasses lifted and clinked, and they drank to the toast, the blood that was once theirs.

Then Emil lifted his glass once more. “Follow me my friends. To our revenge.”

W. J. Howard is a contributor and administrator here at the Vamplit blog. She is a yet to be published writer of The Courier series and the editor of the Forbidden Knowledge Magazine (Grand Opening August 1st). If you have any questions about content please contact her using one of the links below.

Where to Visit W. J.
Blog ~ Twitter ~ Facebook

]]> http://vamplit.com/2011/05/fridayflash-blush-of-the-undead/feed/ 15 Issue 2: #fridayflash You Should Read http://vamplit.com/2011/05/issue-2-fridayflash-you-should-read/ http://vamplit.com/2011/05/issue-2-fridayflash-you-should-read/#comments Thu, 26 May 2011 18:00:20 +0000 W. J. Howard, Contributor & Admin http://vamplit.com/?p=3711 [...]]]> Welcome to our showcase of #fridayflash out on Twitter.

Every Thursday, the Vamplit authors and blog contributors start a post of all our favorite #fridayflash stories and add links to stories through Sunday.

You get to recommend your favorites too by adding links to them in the comments. We’ll read as many of your recommendations as we can, time permitting, and retweet them through the weekend. Only rule, all recommendations must be in the horror genre but may cross over to other genres. Yes you can include links to your own story.

Some weeks we also have a theme for our own contributions if you’d like to join us:

  • This week: zombies and/or voodoo.
  • Next week: Somnambulist (säm?namby??liz?m): noun sleepwalking.

Happy Birthday #fridayflash
Stop by their blog for some birthday cake

Here’s what we have so far this week:

Our Contributors

Our Picks



The boys are back in town! It only took them 400 years #fridayflash #amwriting http://su.pr/1hdphJ
May 27, 2011 7:07 PM via Su.prReplyRetweetFavorite
@thefourpartland
James Tallett



Feel like a little horror with your lunch? #FridayFlash ‘Trochildae’ (a story in the key of Lovecraft) http://bit.ly/iHR3gf
May 27, 2011 4:41 PM via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@AlBruno3
Al Bruno III


This post is reposted on Forbidden Knowledge Magazine but featured tweets may be different on each website. Feel free to repost on your own blog but you will need the Blackbird Pie WordPress plugin.

]]> http://vamplit.com/2011/05/issue-2-fridayflash-you-should-read/feed/ 3