ragtag daily prompt Archives

What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs

Posted on January 18, 2020January 18, 2020 by Kelley Farrell

We came here on the backs of our ancestors greatest invention. The ability to cross among the paths of time has been an integral part of society but, as with any great discoveries, it was coveted.

Facing extinction we gathered our prized possessions, animals, science … and sent them across realms.

We would have returned for them sooner but …

George didn’t write down the coordinates of where he sent them.

Right, we would have returned sooner but … were unable to.

We believed our ideas, our species, our discoveries were safe. We believed there would be reprieve from a world too far gone. We’ve been driven nearly to extinction in the name of progress.

But this, this is not what our people left behind. Where are the animals? The science?

Maybe they ate it.

Perhaps they are far more advanced than we think? Did they somehow find the exact coordinates before we could recover them?

Hear me out. Maybe they are our science, our discoveries. We did save a number of cellular organisms. Perhaps they ‘evolved’. This proves their significance at least.

Significant? They are killing themselves. This is not what our ancestors wanted. A planet of intruders? No.

Theus, you’re getting a little worked up.

Millenia of progress has been bastardized.

It rarely goes any other way. Perhaps this is for the best. Remember, change is the very essence of everything we know.

I’m going to blow it up.

Theus …

The command has been activated. We can find another planet to maintain our civilization on.

RDP: Extinct
FOWC: rarely

Permit for Hope

Posted on January 11, 2020 by Kelley Farrell

Every full moon we’re given permits. On occasion they’ve felt like rocks, weighing down our souls. Sometimes they function as population control.

The abstract isn’t something we’re terribly familiar with but I remember what it’s like to feel. When I was first brought here sadness compounded fear. Anger settled in next. A long lost cousin staying despite what I insisted.

They dangle these permits, inspiring us with lust and greed.

What shall we receive?

The paper melts away in my hand but not before I can read. A permit for hope, emotion I no longer crave.

Ragtag Daily Prompt: Hope
Fandangos One Word Challenge: Permit

flash fiction

Tales of A Teenage Wasteland

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Kelley Farrell

When I was 18 I got so drunk that my friends thought I was going to die. I went limp, crumpled onto the floor like a discarded shirt.

As you do, in some realms of fantasy when your friend may be dying, they stripped my clothes and tossed me into the shower then set to planning.

How could they handle this? How could they keep from getting in trouble? After all, I was certainly not supposed to be drinking.

“I know!” I’m sure one of them said. “Let’s put her on the curb and call 911.”

Let it be known, my friends weren’t the most brilliant because it was January in a very north eastern state and the curb was a snow bank they could lose me in.

The rising water in the tub nearly choked me as my friends tried to wrangle my wet body. I tried to breathe but at first my lungs just wouldn’t expand.

“We thought you were dead!” Their gazes passed over my cold naked body. “We were going to leave you outside.”

“That the best idea you had?”

Drunk and nearly dead I managed to wonder if it was too late to look for new friends.

flash fiction

All The Rage

Posted on December 19, 2019December 19, 2019 by Kelley Farrell

Has anyone ever really thought about how Santa’s fat ass fits down the chimney?

He slaps on some spanx, squeezes his ass down there. The miracle of Christmas.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas. It feels like rush hour on Monday morning when you’re already late.

Stop. Go. In and out of traffic.

Did you just honk at me?! Motherfucker.

I slam the gas until I’m not sure it’ll unstick and ride up beside the only asshole my 20 mph over the speed limit wasn’t fast enough for.

It’s Christmas and I intend to bestow the gift of a great big F you.

I swerve in between the lanes. I can see the sweat running down this jerks neck and the veins in his eyes as they go wide.

Merry Christmas fucker.

My fingers are tingling, a sensation that dances up my arms.

I pay enough attention to know this is a bad sign. I have to dial in my frustrations.

Calm. Calm. Relax.

I take deep breaths, my therapist would be proud. My doctor probably would be too. The air moves in and out of my lungs, sponges absorbing this cursed city air.

That’s ok. Just breathe.

The tingling recedes only slightly as I focus on the point between breaths, just like the therapist taught me.

In … Out

RDP: Chimney
FOWC: Dial

flash fiction, Word Prompt

Every Day is the Same

Posted on December 15, 2019December 15, 2019 by Kelley Farrell

I’d heard of the yellow brick road. I saw The Wizard of Oz when it first came out. I never thought I’d find myself standing here. The bricks aren’t yellow, more of a grey, and the air hangs heavy and full of electricity.

Trees aren’t the same. They’re monstrous and dead. Orbs of fruitful memories drop to land. They scatter, running from the light, but I catch a few. And what delight! They’re flexible and sticky. They play back cherished memories.

But what of the ones that run? They roll from the path, away from the sun, into the trees, obscured by dead leaves.

I chase them down, determined to know.

What is it these scared orbs hold?

In the darkness they reveal things unknown. Small strings which take hold. They pull me farther, abandoning the path, as they trap me under a forest wrath.

These memories aren’t cherished. Forgotten and unloved, they demand immediate resolve. I find one after the other, a path none should take.

I abandon handfuls of the light and cling to the dark. They pull at my strings, they break my heart.

Then I jerk awake, just an old woman in a bed. Little memory of the dreams I’ve had. Nothing rushes back, nothing remains. It’s just me and a window and brick wall company.

Every day is the same.

RDP Prompt: Memory Lane – FOWC: Daily

stream of consciousness

Flourish

Posted on December 12, 2019December 12, 2019 by Kelley Farrell

I’m terrified
This is everything
Life was meant to be

Flourish

flash fiction, Word Prompt

Apparitions

Posted on December 9, 2019December 9, 2019 by Kelley Farrell

When I’m stressed I don’t really sleep. It’s not that I don’t want to but I just can’t, not when I’m coiled like a rocket. One slight trigger, a breeze that feels a little malicious, and I’m off towards the stars.

My dreams, in an effort to help, mill around my room.

Bernie, my oldest apparition, is the most sensible of them all. He peaks in through my door and offers milk and cookies. He pads along the halls in a robe errantly open. He pats my arm in efforts to talk me down.

Reasonable is seldom what I want.

Harry has a devilish grin and hair molded into flaming tufts. He’s the demon on my shoulder pushing me to indulge. He slips his fingers along my skin, careful not to scratch. He whispers in my ear, oh the things he says. But when I slip back to consciousness he’s never there.

Hilda is my warrior princess, my inner child gone sideways. She sits at the end of my bed, broad back and silken hair framed by her tri horned helmet. In a flagrant disregard for the boys, she tells me how she ransacked a town killing all the men and picking them apart piece by piece. It’s the same story every time but I wouldn’t dare remind her.

I’m going to write a story called “the great interrupted life”. It’s going to be a mom trying to say 1 sentence throughout and never finishing it.

flash fiction, Word Prompt

Green Milk

Posted on December 3, 2019December 3, 2019 by Kelley Farrell

That over there is Henry.

Henry is currently neck deep in a bowl of lucky charms. I’m not sure if he’s sleeping. I’m not sure he’s even alive.

I’m not sure I care either way.

I sweep back and forth, not really cleaning so much as biding my time. Any minute now these little monsters will rise with the bell, a fastidious cult. Once they’ve filed away into classrooms to be pumped full of information, whether it’s right or wrong, I can get on with my day.

“Get a job at a prestigious private school.” They said. “It’ll be great money.”

Have I got news for them.

“Think that spots clean enough Maude?”

The principal is this little round man. He covers his smattering of graying hair with weird hats and always wears a cartoon tie. Today’s tie is Marvin the Martian.

And now he’s shuffling me to another corner of the cafeteria.

“Jimmy spilled his milk.”

He puts me to task cleaning up Jimmy’s failed science experiment. I swear there’s something unearthly in this milk. It’s green and doing a little jive. I’m no scientist but I’m pretty sure that’s not right.

The bell rings summoning the demon spawn towards the halls.

I watch them go with not one bit of regret but notice Henry, still head down in his lucky charms. I suppose I have some obligation. I poke him with the end of my broom.

His head lolls over sending milk strangely tinted with green splattering over the floor.

Shit, is Henry dead? I think he might be the richest kid at this school. That’s no good.

As I’m sorting my alibi and evidence that I had no hand in this event, Henry opens his eyes. Jet black pupils take over leaving only thin edges of white. He throws his head back, emitting a punctuated screech.

Huh. Well Henry’s not dead. I’m not sure what he is but I’m not sure I care.

Word Count: 327
Words from FOWC (Fandango’s One Word Challenge) – task – and Ragtag Daily Prompt – fastidious

stream of consciousness