Flash-Fiction Challenge

The first challenge for Rach’s Writers’ Platform-Building Campaign is something I’ve never done before: flash fiction! I never thought I could write such a short short story, but I surprised myself today. Maybe I got a little cliched with the theme, but it was the first thing that popped into my head.

The rules:

• The story begins with the words The door swung open.
• It has to be 200 words or less.
• Bonus challenges: The story is exactly 200 words, and ends with the door swung shut.

So not only did I write flash-fiction for the first time ever, I also accepted the bonus challenges! Wowee-wow!

After you read my story, pop over to Rach’s blog to read a few of the other entries. Or all, if you want, except there’s a crapload of ’em! Yay for my fellow campaigners!

The door swung open to reveal the dark shapes of toppled boxes, crushed and strewn about, their insides scattered. Lacy gasped, flicking the light switch next to the closet door. She stepped over a pile of broken dishes, then slowly turned to take in the scene. All her careful stacking of the moving boxes, an entire day’s worth, destroyed in one night. Her muscles ached.

“Racoons, maybe?” This must have been the reason for all the bumps and crashes that had drifted through the upper floor and made their way into her dreams the previous night. She stalked to the window set into the opposite wall, rubbing the goosebumps on her arms. The tiny room was as cold as a walk-in fridge, even in the middle of summer. She’d have to ask the landlord about that. She braced her hands on the wood and strained upward, before noticing the nails that were driven in along the seams to keep the window closed.

A soft sound made Lacy whirl. She just had time to see the deep gouges cut into the inside wall of the closet before a shadow shifted there, and the light clicked off.

The door swung shut.