Reality Check ~ Flash Fiction Friday

Johnny walked out of his building right behind the gangly teenager that lives on the floor below him. The kids pants were hanging down so far he was afraid that the boys pants were about to fall completely off the boys skinny hips.

‘Sometimes I worry about the degeneration of society as a whole when such things are acceptable in public.’ He thought shaking his head in disgust.

“Oh my god!” The boy screamed

“What?” Johnny had been lost in his thoughts and had not been paying much attention to what was going on around him

“Oh my god! He’s dead!” The boy was visibly shaking and was point to the body of the doorman of their building.

“I can see that quite clearly.” Johnny said standing over the body.

“Well aren’t you going to do something?” the boy asked his face pale.

“What do you want me to do?” Clearly the boy was not thinking straight if he thought that he could do something about the dead man laying on the ground with a knife sticking out of his chest.

“Well cant you bring him back?”

“Where in the hell did you get the impression that I can perform some sort of miracle and save people from death?”

“Well didn’t you do that for what’s his face?”

“What are you talking about?” his thoughts were racing about trying to figure out what the boy was talking about.

“Are you not the great Jack Sparrow? Are you not the one who was brought back from Davy Jones' Locker to stop the evil Davy Jones and save the world?” The boy looked at Johnny clearly confused. “You cut out that other guys heart and saved him from dying. Surely you can do that again now. All you need is a knife and that chest thing to keep his heart in.”

Johnny just stood there starring at the boy for a moment before pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.

“Yes,” He said when someone picked up, “I have an emergency. There is a dead doorman laying on the sidewalk out front of my building and there is a delusional fellow standing over his body.”

Cupid Trouble ~ Flash Fiction Fridays

When I looked up and saw Cupid with his bow, I knew we were in trouble. I was not the sort of person who got the whole falling suddenly head over heels in love thing. It was not that I didn’t believe in love but I certainly didn’t believe in Cupid and his magical bow and arrow.

“Well it’s your turn.” He said as he floated there just above my head as I sat in my cubical at the office.

“Shhh!” I whispered and quickly peeked over the dividers to see if anyone had noticed my strange visitor.

“I come to give you the one that you want, and in time for Valentines Day no less and the first thing you tell me is to shhh! Well I never!” He said folding his arms across his chest and pouting at me.

Yes you heard me, he was clearly pouting.

“Well can you at least keep your voice down? I don’t want the rest of the office to think I am a sucker for these sorts of things, or worse that I have gone completely crazy.” I hissed at him.

“Oh! Now you are going to insult me on top of telling me to shut up.”

“No! No! It’s not that, I just … um, well… You know don’t really… Oh never mind.” I said rubbing my face with my hands; clearly this was not going well at all.

“You don’t believe do you? That’s what this is all about!” His eyes grew wide as he stared at me in disbelief.

“Alright you got me. Now what do you want?” I sighed and leaned back in my chair.

“Why to change your mind of course! You seem to have become bitter in your years.” He said shaking his head and settling down on the edge of my computer screen.

“My what? Did you say My Years? Now who is being insulting?” I raised an eyebrow and stared at him suspiciously as I wondered if someone had snuck something into my coffee when I wasn’t looking.

“Look, calm down. I am just here to help. And help I will.” He said smiling at me.

“But I don’t need any help and I certainly don’t want any.”

“But you do! You do need help! And I am just the person to help you!” He said smiling a big toothy grin as he waved his bow at me.

“You aren’t real!” I hissed, “You are a figment of my imagination!”

“Oh! You poor, poor thing!” He moaned, “To live in such a state of disbelief! How do you ever get through a day the way you are?”

“I get through it just perfectly fine, thank you very much.” I said.

I was starting to get just a little bit angry with my tiny visitor and wished he would just fly away as fast as he came.

“Oh but you don’t! You just don’t know it!” He was almost in a panic waving his arms around like a mad woman.

“Oh but I do!” I said mimicking his tone, “And speaking of which I would like to get back to my day now. Thank you very much for stopping by, but I wont be needing your services.” I said grabbing my empty coffee mug and turning away to leave my cubicle.

“STOP!” He cried in his tiny voice as he flew into my path in an effort to prevent me from leaving him.

I shooed him out of the way and headed for the small kitchenette at the far end of the room.

“Please would you just listen to me?” He said flying along beside me.

I ignored him and kept going.

“Please let me have one chance to prove to you that I am for real before you completely write me off as a hallucination.”

I got to the coffee maker and put my cup on the counter, before looking at him.

“If I let you do your thing, and prove to me that you are real will you go away and leave me alone?” I said eyeing him.

“Yes, yes. Of course, if that is what you truly want.” He said heaving a huge sigh and let his shoulders slump.

“Alright then, but remember you said you would leave me alone.” I said waggling my finger in front of him.

“Fine, fine. Just watch this ok?” He said pulling a fist full of arrows out of his quiver and loading them all at once into his bow.

“Wait a second. What are you doing?” I asked, feeling a sudden sense of panic and dread rising up from the pit of my stomach.

“I am doing exactly what I told you that I would, proving to you that I am real and not just a figment of your imagination.” He shrugged as he took aim at the office full of unsuspecting people.

“Wait a second. Just wait.” I said holding up my hand to stop him.

“Why? You seem to think that I am only a figment of your imagination. So if that is the case then what is it going to hurt if I shoot all of these arrows out randomly?”

I stood there for a moment chewing my bottom lip. He did have a point. He was just a figment of my imagination right? So if that was the case why did I have this feeling of impending doom in the pit of my stomach.

“So?” He said as he drew back the bow full of arrows.

“No wait! I believe. I believe!” I wasn’t sure if I really believed at that moment or if I was just not wanting to end up being wrong about this whole Cupid thing.

“Now what?” He said, the arrows once again returned to his quiver.

“Just one arrow. At him.” I said pointing to the new account manager from down the hall.

What the heck, he was single and he was cute. No harm done.

Obsession ~Flash Fiction Friday

John Walker was your average police officer. He had been working on the force for the last twenty years and he had come to be known as a one of the rock steady and dependable ones on the force. The senior officers looked at him with pride and the younger ones looked at him with respect.

But he was ashamed of himself. He knew he shouldn’t be doing what he was doing but it was like an obsession with him. He lived the normal life with all the respect and glory. He preached about the difference between right and wrong in his day to day life. About taking care of yourself, and eating right.

He was however, leading a double life. And he felt ashamed. He knew he was a human and that it was human to sometimes fall from grace. But he still knew that if anyone found out about his double life and the things that he did in it they would never let him live it down.

It was not illegal the double life he lead, but he knew that it was immoral and he had learned over the years how to hide it. How to cover up for it if anyone got close enough to his secret, but every time he did he felt the guilt and shame wash over him like waves.

Why did he have this double life you ask? What was so bad that he had to hide it from his family and friends, but it wasn’t so bad that it was illegal?

Well he didn’t want to face the ridicule of being just another member of the force who had succumbed to this level. He didn’t want to be the cliché.

But he couldn’t help it. He had to do it. He had to have one. They called to him, some days to the point where he could hear nothing else until he fulfilled his needs.

They were deliciously sweet. The more he thought about them the more they called to him. He was feeling a need once again.

He got in his car and drove a mile and a half to the coffee shop and bought himself a Boston Crème donut.