Thanks to a prompt from Miranda Kate's 41st Mid-Week Flash Challenge, you're going to get some!
This is from Miranda's post: This picture was created by Ana Prazeres or Aegils, a Portugese artist. You can find her work on Deviant Art and also on 500px. She has some incredible creations. She calls this one 'The Craft' - which offers a story in itself.
You can see the prompt image on Miranda's site.
So, here is my entry for the Mid-Week Flash Challenge. This is real flash fiction with only 312 words. Since it's for a public writing challenge, it is available to everyone.
A PDF version is available for download (see bottom of page).
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Chain of Dreams
by K. R. Smith
Of course it was a dream. It had to have been. The ocean was hundreds of miles away. The house didn't even look like hers.
Miriam sat up in bed. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and waited for her heart to slow. She was certainly awake now—might as well get up and get ready for her appointment.
After showering and dressing, Miriam went to the kitchen. She wasn't hungry, only nibbling at a muffin. The images from the dream kept coming back: water, fire, and the woman in the strange house. These things had no meaning to her, yet were disturbing. She looked up at the clock, grateful it was time to leave.
As Miriam left the house, she made sure to lock the door, testing it repeatedly. She wasn't sure why. She sat in the car for a moment. Everything was as it should be. It was a beautiful day. The sun was out. The air was pleasantly warm. Birds sang in the trees. She started the car and began her drive across town.
Grasping at anything to take her mind off the previous night's experience, Miriam turned on the radio. Music seemed to irritate more than soothe, so she tuned the radio from one station to another in search of relief. She caught a bit of news while scanning through them. There had been flooding along the coast from a storm. Somehow, that seemed important. Miriam reached over to try to find the station again.
A loud noise startled her. As Miriam glanced toward the source of the sound, all she could see was the grill of a large truck.
~~~
Catherine bolted upright in her bed, her breathing fast and shallow. She looked around, recognizing her room. Everything appeared to be normal. It had to have been a dream, she thought. She didn't even own a car.
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The following is a blatant commercial ad. You're welcome.
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If you're interested in a pirate story with a few ghosts thrown in, you might want to check out Dead Men's Tales. I have a story in this anthology called Skarett's Treasure. Some folks say it's a little hard to swallow, but I'll let the readers be the judge.
From the back cover: They say that dead men tell no tales, but that's not strictly true. Why else would fifteen men need to sit on a dead man's chest? Beware these pirate tales told by the dead themselves. They will thrill you, chill you, scare you and spare you the need to sleep on a dark and stormy night. And remember, they might talk, but their grog-drinking days are done. Yo Ho Ho!