Flash Fiction Friday

A tiny story to read

Hi, welcome to my latest post featuring one of my flash fictions. Each Flash Fiction Friday post also includes the inspiration for the story and a prompt to get you writing too.

With love,

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Bare Soul

Photo by Michael Held on Unsplash

You’re barefoot on the grimy pavement. Sweat from the club, from the dancing, from all of those bodies that were pressed against yours, drying on your back. Your toes aren’t real. They’re being beamed in from another dimension. The voice in your head says: Scram. Scram. Scram.

Pull your phone from your bag. Swipe, tap, swipe, swipe, tap.

Watch the little Uber car creep towards you.

Six minutes away.

Office drones in city suits and black shiny shoes scowl at you. Wince at your dirty feet and your big staring eyes. You peer back with the high of the night still shining from you. Their glowering stings your new-born skin. You shy away from those snarly faces full of questions. Stare at your phone, will the little car to hurry.

Five minutes away.

Pretend you can’t hear what the sniggering teenagers walking past say. You’re not a mad filthy bitch. You kicked off your sandals to really feel the music, the energy, surging through you. You needed this night to cleanse your soul from the memories you just can’t keep anymore. So you could let that part of him go.

Four minutes away.

Now that it’s cleansed you can leave this city behind. You no longer belong here. You never really did. You can see that now.

Three minutes away.

Close your eyes and see his face, his eyes smiling into yours. Hear his laugh, feel his hands on your body. What he did, how he ended it, that’s all gone.

Two minutes away.

Shake your head to release the bass that’s still vibrating through your soul. You have to be in this world now.

One minute away.

You must create your own world now.

Driver has arrived.

You sink into the back seat.

The driver tries not to see your bare feet, your bare soul.

You smile, close your eyes, tell him your destination, then he drives for miles and miles and miles.

You’re barefoot on the windswept beach. Salt from the sea drying on your skin. Your toes are strong and solid and sensible. You dig them deep into the sand. The voice in your head says: Home. Home. Home.

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Inspiration

I wanted to capture that otherworldly feeling I remember from my hedonistic clubbing days when I would dance all night in the Astoria in Charing Cross Road, London, and then come out in the morning to a busy, bustly street of people going to work. I didn’t feel like I was on the same planet as everyone else. I had to find the way of being in the world again as the music and the ecstasy faded away. I wanted this character to feel like she could start anew as she came out of the club so had to give her something to leave behind.

After writing the first draft I worked through it over and over again so that the number of minutes away of the Uber car was followed by a paragraph with the same number of sentences. I wanted to get a feeling of the rhythm of music running through it with the repetition.

I’d love to know what you think!

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Writing Prompt

Write a story, or scene in a story you are already working on where the protagonist is somewhere that feels alien to them. How do they navigate their way through it? Or do they give in to the feeling and stay lost in a different world?

Happy writing!

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