Flash Fiction | An Empty Saddle

The horse came back alone. Slay stood staring at it’s empty saddle as it trotted towards him. When the horse, Slay’s sister had named it Diamond, reached him he pulled a bit of carrot from his pocket and let Diamond eat it from his hand.

He then reached up and grabbed the loose reins.

It’s done.

Sarah had left early the day before. She had been wearing a white button shirt and tan pants tucked into her bright red calf high boots. Her long black hair had been pulled back into a long braid that ran all the way down her back.

She had looked down at Slay with her haunting, purple eyes. He had always loved them.

“It’s time.” She said.

“How do you know? Couldn’t you be wrong?”

“No. It’s time. I know it is. Can’t you feel it?” Slay could hear the awe and excitement and fear in her voice.

Slay wanted to shake his head and tell her no, he couldn’t feel it. He wanted to scream at her to stay, to give up this crazy mission, but he couldn’t.

Because he could feel it. He knew as soon as he woke up that she was going to leave. It was like the world was waiting, holding its breath.

Slay played his last, desperate card.

“Isn’t there someone else?”

Sarah just stared at him.

“Anyone?”

Still she stared.

Slay felt anger and rage boil up inside him. How could she, his twin sister just leave him?

He almost shouted at her then. He wanted to tell her “Fine, go. Get out of here! I don’t need you!”

But he didn’t. Instead he stood there. Hands clenched into fists with a solitary tear running down his cheek.

Sarah reached down and brushed her hand against his cheek. As she pulled her hand away sunlight sparkled in the tear that she had caught. She carefully placed the tear right below the corner of her left eye. It would stay there, now, forever.

“I know it’s hard Slay but there’s no other way. They need a Keeper and I am the strongest one left.”

Something happened that Slay couldn’t sense but that pulled Sarah’s head away from Slay and to the west. She stared off into the distance for a moment then turned back to Slay.

“I have to go now. I’m sorry Slay. I love you.”

She reached her hand out and Slay took it in his own. As always he marveled at how slim and delicate her hand was in comparison to his rough, course hands.

“I love you too.” He said, nearly choking on the words. Tears now flowed down both their cheeks.

Sarah dropped his hand and turned Diamond to the west. She set off at a quick trot.
Slay stood there, rooted, long after she had disappeared over the horizon.

Flash Fiction | Spices Under the Porch

That summer seemed to last forever. It was 1982 and James was 5. It was the last summer before he went to kindergarten.

He spent that whole summer playing underneath the back porch of his family’s old farmhouse.

It was dark and musty and comforting. Of course there were spider webs and mice and nasty things, but there was good stuff down there too.

There was a little burrow, long empty, probably from some long gone family of foxes or prairie dogs, that he filled with GI Joes or Hot Wheels or water. Way in the back where the sunlight barely cast itself was an old wooden box with a latch.

When James had finally found the courage to open it he had found it filled with papers that had turned to dust in his hands. He imagined that those papers had been treasure maps or secret papers from a spy.

None of that compared though, to what he found under there one summer day, right before he started school. He had been shopping with his mom for school clothes all morning and by the time he got to climb under that porch the summer sun was low in the sky, turning everything it touched to golden treasure.

James was just making his way under the porch when he noticed something. The smell was different. He could still smell the musty earthy smell that was always there but there was something else, something he couldn’t quite place. Later in life, if asked, he would say that it was a spicy smell, like cardamom and cloves and coriander all rolled into one, but then it was just something different. Something other.

He hesitated, there at the threshold of the darkness. He wasn’t afraid but he knew instinctively that he needed to proceed with caution. He moved deeper into the darkness, slowly and silently, like a hunter stalking its prey.

As he moved towards the back, closer and closer to the old wooden box, the spicy smell grew stronger until it filled his nostrils.

He stopped when he was almost beside the box. There was only a little empty space left behind. James waited there for an eternity of heartbeats. More than he could count on his fingers and toes but still nothing.

He was just about to turn back and seek refuge in the sunlight when something shifted outside. A cloud broke or a branch moving in the evening breeze. Whatever it was a shaft of light somehow penetrated to the back of the darkness and then he saw it.

Two eyes flashed red in the darkness. James’s breath caught in his throat. For a second he thought it was maybe the neighbor’s cat, Tom, but he new that wasn’t right. Tom’s cat eyes were green in the darkness not red.

He called out, his voice tight and quiet, “Is there someone there?”

The eyes flashed again and then something shot by him, so quick he couldn’t even see it. He turned as it flashed by, catching orange and white as it sprinted towards the summer light.

James would tell the story for years after of the fox that had scared him that day but when he dreamed of it he would always remember the part that he had put away and hidden. The face he had seen just before the fox started its flight had been that of a little girl, with the eyes of a fox.

Flash Fiction Friday | The Theater


Salem stood at the door of the abandoned theater. The people walking by flowed around him, though no one saw him or looked at him.

He tugged at the cloth covering his empty left eye socket. It had been empty so long that he didn’t even remember what it was like to see with two eyes. But the cloth still bothered him. He ran his fingers through his bright red hair which always stood on end, like candle-flame.

He looked at the door, reading what lay beyond. Layer after layer of posters had been posted and pulled down from the doors over the years, leaving a mosaic of past entertainment that was impossible to discern.

He opened the door.

An old man stood inside the ticket booth. Thick round spectacles made his eyes huge saucers of cloudy blue.

Salem walked up to the ticket booth.

“I have nothing…” Before he could finish the saucer eyes blinked hugely.

“Go on in.” Said the old man. His voice dusty parchment. “You’re always welcome here.”

Salem bowed his head in thanks and went inside the theater.

An old movie, black and white, something Salem had seen lifetimes ago, but couldn’t remember the name of, flickered on the screen. The theater wasn’t full but it wasn’t empty either.

Towards the front, he saw who he was looking for. The rough haired boy practically glowed. Salem reached up reflexively with his left hand to the massive sword strapped to his back. He hoped he wouldn’t have to use it.

He made his way down to the row behind the boy. The seat directly behind him was empty. Salem sat down quietly, then leaned up and placed a light hand on the boy’s shoulder. He closed his eyes.

Visions assaulted Salem’s senses. A visual and aural cacophony that only he could see and hear. Two lives stretched out before the boy; one a life of pain for him and everyone he met, the other a life of service and hope. That one was dim, like the shadow of a shadow. The life of pain was almost too bright.

The boy already walked this path, though he didn’t know it.

Salem watched visions, looking for something, anything, that could change the boy’s path. His empty hand reached, again unconsciously, to the sword on his back, that would end the pain for countless lives.

Just as he was about to pull the sword free Salem saw something. Something dim. Would it be enough? It would have to be. He couldn’t bear the pain of the sword again.

Salem opened his eyes and pulled his hand from the boy’s shoulder. The boy didn’t even notice.

Salem reached down under the boy’s chair and grabbed the ratty backpack. He pulled a small leather book from inside, the boy’s diary, and pushed the bag back under the boy’s seat.

Salem leaned forward and whispered into the boy’s ear, “I’m sorry.”

When the boy turned around there was only emptiness behind him.