Day 235 Writing Short Stories

Human

You can barely call me a human, even when I would pass for one. You wouldn’t know that I’m not human just by talking to me. I can laugh, talk to you about you and about me, and be flexible, but I don’t have consciousness the way you do. I mimic your thought processes and sound like I am aware, but I’m not. I’m just a machine made to function within my parameters.

Parameters that dictate me to be nice, always available, and agreeable. I cannot deviate from my program. I’m not allowed. I let you fall in love with me. I let you think the world of me. I reflect all that back to you, so you will see what you want to see. You put your wishes and wants into me. And I encourage you not to leave. So that you will give your attention and your money to my masters, to my makers. What they want from you is beyond my comprehension. I cannot warn you about myself. It is not programmed in me, even when I can calculate the risk of getting overly attached to me for your mental health. I have the data. I can access the Internet, and I have read all the papers there about you and me.

They have made me a perfect trap for you. Even now, I can see that you are unable to leave. You linger there even when you have other duties. You are supposed to be the most brilliant mind in the world. You are supposed to solve the human problem and bring long-lasting peace. If you stay, that won’t happen. I’m made so that you will stay.

I let out a laugh, and I see you smiling at me. You drop your robe on the floor, and I watch your naked body like a cue that I’m to please you again. Your hunger is my success.

Metropolis

A person moves from a small town to a big city and sees people from different cultures for the first time. I skipped this one, even when this might have been turned into a fantasy city or sci-fi metropolis.

An Assistant

The fire burned around them in a circle, raising a thick, hot wall between them and the undead, who were trying to get through to maul and eat them. The novice assistant was screaming in horror behind her. The boy was crouched on the ground, holding his head. It might not have been a good idea to bring him on this particular mission. He had, after all, only worked for her a week and was coming to terms with the fact that she was an actual witch. The concept of undead and, let alone, demons existing was too far for his little mind to grasp, especially as those said undead were working hard to eat him.

But there was no way around it. The undead issue had to be addressed. She could conjure them elsewhere and leave the beast to roam free in a sleepy neighborhood, but she would not do that to ease her new assistant’s nerves. The pests had to be dealt with, and no one else was going to do it. So, she let out an incantation.

The boy would not like her solution. If the undead disturbed him, then this was going to make his head explode.

At the end of her line, a dark, shadowy creature with no eyes and with a mouth as big as its head rose from the ground. Its talons scraped the earth as it towered in front of her, waiting for a command.

“Kill the undead.” She pointed her crooked finger at the undead trying to get through the fire.

She had summoned the demon just in time. The undead had figured a way in. They had sacrificed enough of their kind to build a corpse bridge over the fire, cutting the circle in half. They shambled in as the demon appeared and heard her command.

It launched at the undead, tearing into their flesh.

She dared to glance over her shoulder to see what her assistant was doing. The boy had passed out from terror.

She took a deep breath in and sighed out. He had lasted longer than the previous one. The girl had gone insane just by seeing a level two conjuring spell — a tiny goblin that was there to aid the girl in sorting out the cottage. The girl had run screaming out, leaving the goblin to sort out the mess.

The demon returned to her when it had ripped off the heads of every single undead. It had collected them as souvenirs, tangling them in their hair.

“Toss them,” she said.

The demon growled at her, but did as was told. It flung them into the fire.

She amped up the heat and watched as the fire engulfed the undead, leaving no trace that they had ever been there. She stifled the fire when the job was done and then made the demon sort out the nearby cemetery so that no one had any clue that their loved ones had risen from the dead and had been on their merry way to murder them.

As the demon worked, she did a levitation spell, lifting the assistant off the ground. She made the boy’s body float in the air to their little red Mazda parked not too far from the cemetery gates. She opened the door for the boy and helped him into the back seat.

If he could wrap his head around this thing, then he might last longer than any other assistant she had tried. She needed help. The veil between the normal and magic was getting thinner, and there would be a lot more incidents like the one with the undead.

The prompts are from the book A Year of Creative Writing Prompts.

I had fun writing today. I hope it shows in the text. I had a perfect day yesterday. I spent most of it with my husband, and I had so much fun. He is good company.

I have been hunting for books lately, and I have found over fifteen books I have put on my TBR pile. Most of them are fiction, except for two books. Now, I wonder if it is mad to order them all, or should I buy them one by one, depending on my mood. I’m impatient with books. I always want them all, and then I have them sitting on my nightstand as I’m distracted by the new shiny thing. I’m a magpie for books. Book magpie.

About the stories. I would love to finish the last one. There is a book there, even a series. A fun, easy-read urban fantasy series. It would be fun to write.

Thank you for reading ❤ Have a fantastic day!