Last year, I placed a story in Cruentus Libri Press’ 100 Horrors anthology, a piece called “One Day, Tomorrow”. The concept behind the collection is great, one hundred stories by one hundred writers, each story a total of one hundred words. At Terrible Minds, Chuck Wendig issued a similar one-hundred-word story challenge for his weekly writing exercise.
I like one-hundred-word stories, both for the challenge they present in trying to craft a complete story with such a strict limitation and for the freedom it presents. The economy one must work forces a subversion of the ideas of what a story is or must be, in the process liberating it. I love being able to able to play around with form and style.
Cruentus Libri Press has put out a submissions call for a follow up to 100 Horrors, so of course I’ve submitted another piece. Wrote several in fact before settling on one to send. Below is one I did not submit. Enjoy.
Esther and What She Brought Home
My cat Esther, a tortoise-shell, brought me a gift from the overgrown field behind the house. In her jaws, a tiny man of tree-bark skin, wings like dead leaves and iridescent, compound eyes.
The man shrieked in cricket chirps, his wings buzzed angry. Esther squeezed the creature’s neck until it died. Beth, my wife, screamed at the sight.
I buried the thing under her rose bushes.
Insect songs and droning, and Esther’s agonized howls, woke us that night. We found her in the morning, hung by the neck from the porch light. Dozens of miniature spears protruded from her.
I liked that Bruce.
I didn’t get around to submitting to the first 100 Horrors but I did send them something with their second go round.