May 6, 2015 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT – © Madison Woods
Genre: Realistic Fiction; current matters
Word Count: 100 words
Quench
By Vijaya Sundaram
©May 6, 2015
Rupa was in shock. Rubble surrounded her. She was thirsty, but the taps were dry. Her dust-covered cheeks had two tear tracks, streams lost in a desert. People were frantic, looking for their own. A neighbor offered her chappatis. Rupa shook her head, returning to what she’d once called home. Then, she gasped.
A hand was clawing through the rubble. She screamed, “Kamala!” Racing over to the spot, she began digging with bare hands.
Others came with shovels.
An hour later, Rupa held her bruised six-year old daughter close.
“Ma?” whispered Kamala.
“What, my lotus?”
“Could I have some water?”
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Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting Friday Fictioneers every week, a much-needed kick in this writer’s (my) derriere! Thanks to Madison Woods for the photograph prompt.
Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Mother and Daughter, 100-word original short story based on a photo prompt, Flash Fiction, Nepal earthquake, Rescue
Jan 8, 2015 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT – © Copyright Jean L. Hays
Genre: Realistic Fiction (current events-inspired)
Word Count: 100 words
Unthink
©January 8th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
I found myself staring at the banner near the historic sign, and mouthed the letters to myself.
Unthink?
How had I gotten here?
Here, America’s Main Street, where songs arose from the dirt, and dreams were broken in the dust of racism?
Too much thinking, that’s what it was — too much reading and too many heartbreaking stories in the news.
I feared for my son — for his beautiful dark skin, his large-black-grape eyes, his woolly puff of hair, his idealistic spirit, his bursts of sadness.
I feared for him, for the safety of all our children.
How to unthink this?
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Sorry, folks! I’d been sick, then busy with schoolwork, and there was too much heartbreak in the news in the past five weeks. I’ve missed being here, and seeing everyone’s work. I will try and be more consistent, because I MISS this!
Thanks for Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting this beautiful site, and for her use of unusual and challenging photo-prompts (for which I thank Jean L. Hays!)
Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, 100-word original short story based on a photo prompt, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Route 66 photo prompt
Sep 25, 2014 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT Copyright – Marie Gail Stratford
Word Count: 100 words
Genre: Greek Mythology
The Twice-Born*
©September 26th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
I stand, ivy-covered thyrsus in hand. I induce madness, ecstasy or death. I, born of Semele of earth, and Zeus of the Lightning Bolt, stand, uncertain for the first time.
You ask, “Will you help me forget myself? For I am bereft.”
If I said, “Yes,” I would invite your death. I will not willingly take you there.
I kneel at your feet, Ariadne of the Labyrinth.
Come, sip on nectar and sup on ambrosia, while I throw your crown into the skies.
I am Dionysos, God of Joyous Oblivion. And this is the first time have I truly loved.
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* My second attempt at a story based on this photo-prompt. Thanks for reading!
Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, our Fairy Blog-Mother, for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and to Marie Gail Stratford for the lovely photograph!
Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Love, 100-word short story based on photo prompt, Ariadne, Dionysos, Dionysus, falling in love, Flash Fiction, Greek Mythology, thyrsus
Sep 25, 2014 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT Copyright – Marie Gail Stratford
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Word Count (not including the title, name, date): 100 words
Only Darkness at the End of the Day
©September 25th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
The wine-light spilled in gem-tones, red, gold and green, filled with promise, promising respite. He yearned for it.
He thought about what had happened that day — the morning quarrel, the slammed door, the long commute to work, work that sucked away his joy, unmade all he had become.
And when he’d come home, the note he’d found on the dresser, and the absence of his center, the lingering ghost of her perfume sealed it.
I’m sorry. I tried. It won’t work. You didn’t try hard enough.
Gazing deep into all that light, he reached for it.
Bitter oblivion tasted of grapes.
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Thanks, as always, to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for being such a warm and inspiring host of Friday Fictioneers. Thanks, also, to Marie Gail Stratford, for her beautiful photograph.
Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Heartbreak, #Original Short Story, 100-word short story based on photo prompt, breakup, Flash Fiction, in vino veritas, Oblivion, wine and marriage
Sep 17, 2014 Original Short Stories
Genre: Magic Realist Fiction
Word Count: 100 words
Wax-Blood
©September 17th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
Farewell, my friends.
Those I’ve loved have melted away, and all those whom I hated have made moulds out of them. They sit, grinning, like skull-candles upon a mantelpiece in the home of the enemy, wherein visitors enter, and say, “Oh, how … unusual!”
All whom I loved do not exist, except as pieces in someone’s dream, atop a mantel-mountain with trophies littered around, like sleeping cats who may, at any time, unprovoked, unsheathe their claws.
Yesterday, I took my hoe, and went to my little terrace-garden on the top of the mountain.
I met a jaguar.
Sunlight spilled on blood.
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Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story by Vijaya Sundaram, 100-word short story based on photo prompt, Flash Fiction
Sep 11, 2014 Awake in Dream Time - Journal Entries about the almost real, Original Short Stories, the surreal and the unreal
Genre: Fantasy/Supernatural Fiction
Word Count: 100 words
You Won’t See Me*
©September 11th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
I lived alone in the world behind the mirror. Those whom I saw, looked back at me, but didn’t see me – just themselves, endlessly repeated. They didn’t look, you see.
They didn’t see me, mouth open, beseeching… See me! Free me!
No, they smiled or pirouetted, smiled, frowned at fat, examined bruises, glared, and spoke to unseen enemies, stroked their hair, but missed me entirely.
Then, a child saw me, reaching out her hand. I stepped through.
Everyone vanished behind my mirror. I couldn’t see them, just a lonely, lace-curtained window reflected in the mirror.
And I didn’t see me.
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Thanks, as always, to our Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting, and to Janet Webb for the lovely photo-prompt!
*With a nod to The Beatles for the title!
Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story by Vijaya Sundaram, 100-word short story based on photo prompt, Flash Fiction
Sep 11, 2014 Original Short Stories
Photograph copyright: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Word Count: 100 words
Inferno
©September 11th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
She had come through the worst. She had been forged in fire, and had emerged tempered steel.
Nothing could reach her anymore:
Not the death of a loved one – she had lost all of her family in an fiery accident.
Not the loss of happiness– for she had none.
Not the worries of everyday life – hers had died with her family.
Still, afterwards, she awoke every morning, put on her firefighter’s uniform, went to work. Fire was her enemy. Yet, she knew that though it could destroy life, it could also renew it.
Unafraid, she walked into the four-alarm fire.
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Thanks, as always, to our Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting, and for the photo-prompt! I was too late to submit it for last week’s Friday Fictioneers, but thought I’d still write it. I hope some of you read this!
Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, 100-word short story based on photo prompt, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction
Aug 28, 2014 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT – Copyright – Madison Woods
Genre: Science Fiction/Horribleness
Word Count: Exactly 100 words
Dinner
©August 28th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
Wounded, far from home, crash-landed on this planet, I felt a chasm open up.
Flaring my optics into flame, I shut them down hurriedly. The light was too intense. My heart throbbed, flopping on the dirt, hanging by a thread.
Would I never see Ztruthnutzhehaasszz!%$^ again? “Nooo!” screamed my belly, wherein lay the shining gem my mother had implanted when I was born in her back-sack. I wept copiously, my springs watering the strange pointed blades that emitted oxygen, almost too rich to bear.
A four-pawed creature, horrible breath emanating from a long-snouted, fanged opening, noted me.
The fangs descended.
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Thank, as always, to Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting Friday Fictioneers! Thanks, also, to Madison Woods for this truly terrible picture!
P.S. I was away for the past two weeks prior to this one, so I missed the last two story prompts alas! I’m quite addicted to Friday Fictioneers.
Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, alien story, canine antagonist, Flash Fiction, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Aug 7, 2014 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT – Copyright-Björn Rudberg
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Genre: Semi-Horror Fiction
Word Count: 100 words
House (Me)
©August 7th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
I am fashioned from all your dreams and all your nightmares.
You return to me in sorrow, in joy, in darkness, in light. You fall into my arms, and I soothe your senses, your soul. You drown in loneliness, but I’m here, I’m here!
Yet, you see me not for who I am.
Someday, you will.
Cobwebs and horrors crawl through my dark spaces. I scream soundlessly. I wince and sigh, when I’m hurt. I creak and moan and sob through howling winds and storms.
Yet, you hear me not.
Today, you will.
And I’ll take you with me.
Come.
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I wasn’t entirely satisfied with my 100-word story from yesterday. This house called to me. Here’s my second attempt!
(Thanks, as always to our Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and to Björn Rudberg, for his excellent photo-prompt!)
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Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, Creepy House, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Semi-Horror Story
Aug 6, 2014 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT – Copyright-Björn Rudberg
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Word Count: 100 words
Fold-Unfold
©August 6th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
Call me superstitious, but I shouldn’t have bought that house after my marriage folded.
Perched on a precipice, surrounded by a tight mass of trees, it looked picturesque. A constantly folding-unfolding, susurrating ocean looked inviting at a hazy distance.
I had some money that I’d set aside, refusing his help. I had my job, my fiction-writing on the side, my goldfish, sunlight, good looks. Of course, my heart hurt, but I’d learned to ignore it.
I loved my new place. What could possibly go wrong?
At least I wasn’t home when it caved in.
I’d just met my new love.
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Thanks, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting “Friday Fictioneers,” and thanks to Bjorn Rudberg for the great photo-prompt.
Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, Flash Fiction, Marriage break-up and house cave-in, Micro-Fiction