Day 6 Writing Short Stories

Rich

They set the limits to be rich.

I wasn’t one of them. Or I didn’t use to be. But you can do wondrous things with creativity. Intelligence isn’t a must. AI handles that. But with genuine, surprising, out-of-the-box thinking and you can do a ton.

I was good at that. Thinking. Understanding. Creating. What I created was a persona. An avatar. Someone who belonged with the one percent. I was a novelty, and they let me in, thinking their guards, their shackles would keep me in check, knowing my origin. Performing. Amusing.

That was never my plan. They thought I wanted to belong. Why would I? They were bores. Stupid. Naïve, trusting their system. I was beyond the system.

So, I stole. All of it. Not their money. Money is a concept. Not a reality. I stole their system. The one they thought to be impenetrable.

Now, there is more. More and more. I have them by the throat. They beg me. They threaten me. They say I don’t belong. The same old story. The same lines. History. Attempts on my life. But they are not creative. They took that out of them in their arrogance, in their trust in the machines and their intelligence. They are soft. And I endure. I’m no Robin Hood. I just wanted to have a say. Control. Beyond the channel. Clothes. The cars.

—

Darn, this was a hard one. I realized that I have never written a tale including a rags-to-riches narrative. I don’t think I managed that here either. It needs more: a downfall, a lesson. I fear I didn’t get the sci-fi aspect in as I wanted. The story needs more polishing, but I’m not sure where it should go. The experimental writing hindered me somewhat. I couldn’t fall into my usual mannerisms. Okay, I exaggerated some of my style, but it still left me cornered with the style and where to go from here. The idea is there once again, but the execution needs work. Though today’s prompt was painful, it was fun to try to make it work.

Thank you for reading! Have a creative day ❤