The Fall Of The Roman Empire

Frank stumbles down the street in broad daylight. The crisp air helps dull the pain in his wounds. Lightheaded and off balance, he is reminded of late nights in college, wandering drunkenly back to his dorm room. His vision now has the same tunnel focus that causes him to lose sight of his surroundings.

He'd never finished that final essay for History of Rome, but Professor Dutton had allowed him to pass anyway. She'd always liked him. Maybe it was her fault that he'd never learned any discipline.

What a weird thing to remember as he is about to die.

Passing Time

Quibble was lost in the reality of glass days. Each day was formed and spun and left to cool, and once it cooled, Quibble and the world lived it. Ended days stood around the world like satellites. While the focus of reality was each newly cooled day, the older days could be tapped for hints and clues and prophecies that could step forward into the design of the current day. An industry of gnomes sprang up, ready to point out which past days most likely would help in navigating this day. Quibble accepted their advice, held his tiny hammer hidden.

From Guest Contributor Ken Poyner

Everything Will Be Perfect

She exclaims into the camera with twice as much enthusiasm. Smiling at herself, she admires her smoky eyeliner, sleek black cat frames, and her hair’s feathered highlights, with its slight curl held in place with a butterfly barrette. Hard to believe she’s afraid of losing her upper hand— her grip that keeps the focus on her. Even though, she knows she has run out of excuses to stay home. She's just worried sick about everyone. So, she must make do with sharp sound bites, while her inner voice bounces like a loose tin can, tumbling down another dark side street.From Guest Contributor M.J. Iuppa

M.J.’s 100-word stories have appeared most recently in 100 Word Story, Eunoia Review, Milk Candy Review, Otoliths, PIF Magazine, The Drabble Review, The Dribble Drabble Review, A Story in 100 Words, and others. For the past 33 years, she has lived on a small farm near the shores of Lake Ontario. Check out her blog: mjiuppa.blogspot.com for her musings on writing, sustainability & life’s stew.

Abracadabra Universe

I got to tell you, what a computer thinks a man looks like, adversarially evolved hallucinations, is the kind of shit that wears me out. But, apparently, it isn’t the kind of shit that wears most other people out. Their focus is just too taken up with acquiring the essentials – liquor, guns, toilet paper, travel bottles of hand sanitizer – for them to ever notice the heart lying in rags at their feet, or the African monkeys rafting across the Atlantic, or the shrill, jangly sound in the background that can be variously translated as “hello” or “goodbye” or even “peace.”

From Guest Contributor Howie Good

Howie is the author most recently of Stick Figure Opera: 99 100-word Prose Poems from Cajun Mutt Press. He co-edits the online journals Unbroken and UnLost.

Keeping Up Appearances

Several seats were open at the bar and I sat next to an elderly lady. "Don’t forget Michelle’s dinner," I thought.

“How do you do?” the lady asked.

“Pretty well. Just getting home from work. How are you?”

“I’m well, thanks. Where do you work?”

“I work as a counselor,” I said. I was a peer counselor but I didn’t want to disclose my diagnosis.

“What’s your focus?”

“Psychotic disorders.”

“I feel so bad for those poor people,” she said as she looked at her glass.

“Oh, I dunno, you’d be surprised. Some of them do better than you think.”

From Guest Contributor Steve Colori

Venus Valve

Mars and beyond seem to be the focus of unmanned space exploration. Venus on the other hand has been largely ignored. Of course the conditions on Venus are much different. The surface pressure's an effective deterrent to probe the orb.

Prior unmanned vehicles that have landed on Venus: all crushed by the pressure.

As far as the aliens are concerned, this is a positive. The cold-blooded creatures did not want earthlings around and made prior adjustments.

Another alien spaceship treks the familiar voyage to Venus. Once near the surface they release the pressure valve, then go skiing on Maxwell Montes.

From Guest Contributor Denny E. Marshall

Better Off

Crash.

Pain.

Nothing.

Light.

Nicole wakes up in what feels like a cocoon. Everything is soft, including her focus.

A familiar voice cascades in. Nicole turns. A stranger is smiling at her. She recognizes nothing about him but the voice coming from his mouth.

"The doctors say you'll be okay. You just need rest."

Nicole tries moving, but no response. She fears paralysis, until she notices the restraints. She looks back at the stranger.

"You really gave us a fright."

She remembers. Not everything, not who this person is or the accident, but she remembers enough.

Better she were dead.

Winner

I enjoy winning. I am competitive by nature.

The trouble starts when winning becomes the focus.

To be honest, for me the trouble starts when winning becomes everything. Winning for the sake of winning, I describe as the ultimate step.

Especially when I am in a room full of other people who are winners, or think they are winners.

Damage happens. I know the masochistic irony of what it is like to win, and lose, simultaneously. In private, as I tally the losses, my self-loathing grows.

Yes, in my case it is a sickness. My doctor has diagnosed ‘Auction Fever.’

From Guest Contributor Barry O'Farrell

Barry is an actor living in Brisbane, Australia. Barry's other stories may be found at Cyclamens & Swords, 50 Word Stories, 101 Words, and of course here at A Story In 100 Words.