Just Believe: A 100 Word Story

Photo by Lisa Ruokis
CC license

Just Believe

A 100 word story by Scott Hughey

Belief is reality, or so the Extreminators teach.  I can’t take the risk.  In five minutes, every Extreme member will believe humanity never existed.  My job is to stop them.

No, I’m not joking.  They’ve already used group belief to wipe Monthia off the map.  Never heard of it?  They claim that proves their point.  I don’t know, a continent or something.  Check their website.

I have one team believing humans exist.  Another thinks the Extremes are nuts.  A third believes in objective truth.  Let’s hope its enough.  Me?  No, I don’t think it’ll work.  

It’s time.  Let’s see if

100 Word Story: Dearly Departed

Another 100 word story.  I wrote this back in 2009, when I was equally fascinated with micro fiction and zombies.  This was originally published at http://www.microhorror.com/microhorror/author/scott-d-hughey/dearly-departed/

There's a better story than the one here, I think.  Maybe one day I'll take my time and explore what happens next.

Dearly Departed

By Scott D. Hughey

My wife moaned as she tried to bite me. Handcuffs held her fast to the bed.

I still loved her, and couldn’t bear to kill her. She’d begged me to when she was bitten. We had almost made it. I’d dropped the keys when the dead attacked. We retreated. Too late.

“Jake,” she’d said, her arm bleeding. “Don’t let me become one.” I promised– the first lie I ever told her. I loved her too much to let go.

“Till death do we part.” Was this death? Maybe sickness?

“I’ll protect you. I’m going to find you someone to eat.”

Double Date: A 100 Word Story

Here's another drabble from 2011.  This originally appeared at http://www.weirdyear.com/2011/02/21511.html

I hesitate sharing my older published works here, because I'm egotistical enough to believe my writing has drastically improved since then.  Still, they're fun and they provide a quick blog post.

There's a much better story here then the one I wrote.  At the time, I felt beholden to fitting everything into 100 words.  (I love 100 word stories.)  Maybe someday I'll revisit this concept, and look for the actual story instead of looking just for the joke.

Double Date
By Scott D. Hughey

I share bodies with my disembodied twin brother. Usually I’m in control, except when my pulse races. We shouldn’t date, but Julie Valentine was worth trying.

Things went well until we kissed. “I had a great time Trevor,” she said, leaning across the couch. I tried to kiss her but he finished the deed.

“Call me Nate.”

Julie giggled, thinking it a game. Now we’re all going steady. She thinks of Nate as my wild side. Maybe he is. All I know is I’ve never been kissed. Without practice, I’d probably stink at it. Better Nate than Trevor, I suppose.

100 Word Story: Alienated

This story, along with another by me, appeared on weirdyear.com back in 2011.  I'm glad to see they're still around.



Alienated
By Scott D. Hughey
A matter transporter could revolutionize life as we know it on the planet. Or, it could be used to play immature pranks, such as transporting me to work. Convenient? Yes, except I was drying off after a shower at the time.

"Honest boss, an alien did this to me." The conversation got awkward after that. When I got home, the alien was still laughing.

I always assumed if aliens visited here, they’d either take the planet over or save us from ourselves. It never occurred to me they’d be such jerks.

The sooner he goes back to Earth, the better.


http://www.weirdyear.com/search/label/Scott%20D.%20Hughey

Santa and Other Truths: 100 Word Story

Just in time for Christmas, here is another 100 word story I write a few years back.  I’m just egotistical enough to continue implying that the writing has improved since then.  This one still makes me smile though. I hope you enjoy.

Santa and other Truths

Dear Santa,

I didn’t do it.  Okay, I did but let me explain.  You’ll understand.

I pulled my sister’s hair and she cried.  That’s bad, even if she had it coming to her (which she did.)  She said the Tooth Fairy’s fake and that’s a lie.  I know Santa, cause I lost a tooth and she gave me a quarter.

Sister says you’re not real either, that Mommy and Daddy just trick us.  That’s when I punched her.  They wouldn’t lie.  I believe and I’ve been good.

Sincerely,

Billy

P.S.

I’ve got your back, even if you did kiss mommy.

100 word story: FUNeral

A few years ago when I thought I was a writer and hadn't yet figured out that one must write to hold that title, I became fascinated with what was termed flash fiction.  Or micro fiction.  Or any number of other terms.

Today flash fiction typically means a story of 0-100 or 0-500 or 0-1000 words depending on who you ask.  I believe the 1000 word threshold is the more common definition.  And it's far too long.

I had the great pleasure and disadvantage of reading an excellent 100 word story by someone.  I decided, "This is my niche."  By which I meant, "This is my shortcut."  I would write 100 word stories.  I wrote somewhere around 50 of them, which was 50 short of my goal.

I still love them, and when an author makes them work they marvel and astound.

The problem back then is, Of those 50 or so stories I wrote most of them weren't stories.  They may have been nice story ideas, but not a lot more.  Not saying they all stink, but they're not all great and you would have had a hard time convincing me of that back then.

All that to say this, I read through them mining for story ideas.  And I've decided to post some of them here.  Hope you like them.  Bear in mind, this is the writer of about 3 or 4 years ago.  Hopefully I've grown.

This was one of my favorites:

Nathan caused an uproar when he got out of the coffin in the middle of his funeral.  Specifically, he caused three screams and at least one emptied bladder.  We should have known better than to bury him on April Fools Day.

Nathan bowed and politely thanked us all for coming. We were so shocked that we listened as he gave his own eulogy.  Well, everyone listened except the Baptist minister who was still groggy from fainting.  

Nathan cracked himself up so much he started choking and essentially laughed himself to death.  We finished the ceremony closed casket.  Just in case.