Welcome to the sixtieth in this daily series that is ‘5pm Fiction’.
Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.
I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born. I put a load of prompts on the 5PM Fiction page and today’s was to write a story starting with ‘the scream woke up the household…’, so here is my 221-worder.
A good deal really
The scream woke up the household as it reverberated around the kitchen.
Matt was first to reach the bottom of the stairs, armed with the fire extinguisher kept by the bed. “Rachel!”
“In here!”
“Where?”
“Kitchen!”
“You’re in the dark.”
“I switched off the light.”
“Why?”
“So I can’t see it.”
“What?”
“It!”
Matt turned on the kitchen light.
“Turn it off!”
He turned it off.
A bleary-eyed seven-year-old Jake padded through the hall. “Mum? Dad?”
“It’s OK,” Matt said, not knowing whether it actually was or not. “Go back to bed, we’ll be up in a minute.”
Jake padded back through the hall as seventeen-year-old Chloë stomped past, exchanging evil stares as they crossed. Jake stuck out his tongue, Chloë did likewise, wiggling a silver stud in the process.
She watched Jake head back upstairs, half-asleep, and smiled. Then smile gone, she stomped through to the kitchen. “Mum? Dad?”
“We’re both here,” Matt whispered.
“Why are you in the dark?” Chloë replied, not whispering.
“Don’t know.”
“Something black and horrible’s just gone under the washing machine.” Rachel whined.
Chloë switched on the light. “How black and horrible?”
“Lots of legs and hairy,” Rachel quivered.
“Oh, that’ll be Ernie.”
“Ernie?” Matt asked.
“My tarantula.”
“Your…”
“Yeah, Freddie swapped me it for my old mobile. Think I got a good deal really.”
***
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Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) 
on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Yvonne Hertzberger
July 30, 2012 at 10:47 pm
This one made me laugh. I can just picture it.
morgenbailey
July 31, 2012 at 8:59 am
and my work is done.
Thank you, Yvonne. x