Category Archives: Flash Fiction

I was on my way home from school and it spooked me when he ducked behind a hedge as I turned to cross the road. Then, when I stopped to read the text from Mum – Can you get milk, please? –  he walked past and turned into Parsley Close, so I relaxed and shookContinueContinue reading “THE DAY A STRANGER FOLLOWED ME HOME by Angela Fitzpatrick (1st place, Flash, Nov23)”

The Hat Woman (as she became known) chose the counter in the far corner of the bank where the squinting CCTV could only produce a distorted picture of the tall, or possibly average height, figure in an orange coat that might have been yellow or maybe a greenish brown with gold buttons. As she pulledContinueContinue reading “THE ONE THING THEY COULD ALL AGREE ON WAS THE HAT by Mandy Wheeler (2nd place, Flash, Nov23)”

“Remember the Amber Room?” “Sorry?” He looked up from his phone, in equal measure disoriented and disgruntled. “The Amber Room.” She wondered how long it had been since she hadn’t needed to repeat something she had asked him. She pulled her knees in for comfort. “I took you when we last went to St Petersburg.ContinueContinue reading “THE AMBER ROOM by Marina Merryweather (1st place, Flash, Nov22)”

At five, he tumbled into the box. It smelled of possibility. The floor was thick with things to dress up in, people to become. He lifted a fireman’s helmet, pressed a doctor’s stethoscope to his chest. There was so much choice. In the corner, he spied a cowboy hat with a broad, curled brim. TheContinueContinue reading “BOX by Mark Stocker (2nd place, Flash, Nov22)”

It was the morning of our Moon Landing Party and Mum was in orbit herself. She’d loaded the icebox with Zoom lollies and beeswaxed the rosewood sliding doors of the black-and-white television we rented from Rediffusion in Reigate High Street. ‘Just us and next door,’ she said, spraying enough Pledge over my Thunderbird 3 toContinueContinue reading “THE MOON AND MAGDALENA by Chris Cottom (3rd place, Flash, Nov22)”

Snow everywhere.  Smooth, crisp snow covers the garden like freshly laundered Egyptian cotton on a huge bed, and I watch from the window – this window where I have sat for so long now, watching, just watching – as the harsh wind whips up the soft surface flakes and whirls them around with blizzard-like ferocity.ContinueContinue reading “THE BIRDS AND THE BEES by James Harvey (1st place, Flash, Aug22)”

It is five years, two months and one day ago, and I am meeting her for the first time. We are talking and she is getting closer, closer, closer… We are in her bedroom. I am watching her unravel beneath me and trying to hold her in one piece, but she is shattered glass. SheContinueContinue reading “PARASITE by Sarah Byard (2nd place, Flash Aug22)”

Another letter from school. I handed it over to Mum and looked at the stains on the kitchen floor. When she had finished reading she said I had to control my anger.  ‘Where are your listening ears?’ I’m ten not five. I didn’t say this I just mumbled ‘sorry,’ before hurrying to my bedroom. ThenContinueContinue reading “COLOURING ROSES by Anita Goodfellow (3rd place, Flash Aug22)”