A Story In
100 Words
Literature in Tiny Bursts.
You are invited to the wonderful world of microfiction. Whether you’re a reader, a writer, or one of our future robot overlords, welcome! A Story In 100 Words is a community of literature enthusiasts no matter the length, but we have a special predilection for narratives exactly 100 words in length.
Stop doomscrolling and start fiction browsing.
What Happened To Ben?
“So, uh, what happened to Ben?”
“Twitter. Once he discovered that, well, he just sort of fell into a black hole.”
“Do you talk to him on Twitter?”
“Oh yeah. All the time.”
“That’s funny. I can’t get him to return my calls. I even went to his house one day and he didn’t answer the door.”
“Just tweet him. He’ll respond.”
“That seems weird. Does he make sense? Talk in complete sentences?”
“He’s hilarious. Same old Ben.”
“Only he’s not really there. He’s just a digital ghost.”
“When you put it that way it just sounds sad.”
“I know.”
From Guest Contributor Dan Slaten
My Grandfather's Pocket Knife
When he asked me to guess what he had in his pocket, I had no idea he was carrying a star. An honest-to goodness star, not some chunk of comet or a bit of dust.
I didn't believe him. When he opened his pocket, all I could see was a determined blackness threatening to pull me into its bleakness and never let go. He said this was a black hole, and after he explained the physics of it all, it seemed he was telling the truth.
I realized just how woefully unprepared I was for show and tell.
Modern Exploration
For today's modern explorer, there are two questions that remain unanswered. The first is what lies on the other side of a black hole. The other is what is at the bottom of a pit of quicksand.
Francis LeMond knew that visiting a black hole was way beyond his budget so he determined that he would be the first to return from the bottom of a pit of quicksand.
Unfortunately for Francis LeMond, it turns out there is a simple answer to the question of what lies at the bottom of a pit of quicksand: death by suffocation.
The Great Beyond
Havlicek stared out the porthole.
"I think it's getting closer."
Captain Lim did not even glance in his direction.
"Unlikely," she replied. "It just appears that way. We are being dragged closer to it, rather than it following us. Black holes don't move."
Havlicek found this to be scant comfort.
"What do you think will happen to us?"
"We'll die," sighed Lim.
"Yeah, I know, everyone's going to die eventually. But what do you think happens in the black hole?"
Lim shook her head. She could not help feeling that with better officers, this whole situation could have been avoided.
Share Your Story
Want to see your story on our website? We’d love to share your work. Click the link below and follow the submission guidelines. Just make sure your story is exactly 100 words.