It has been nearly three months since you left. Now that the dust of legal formalities and formal goodbyes has startled to settle, I am forced to feel the full power of my grief. I thought that maybe I was ready to start to heal. I'm not.

I miss you, Dad. Fuck cancer.

#vss365 #microfiction #elegy

Every used bookstore I've been to has been dead silent, and it is nerve-wracking to know that every movement is obvious thanks to the somehow always creaky floors. I'm used to blending into the background. I'm not used to wondering if it's OK to be noticed at all.

#vss365 #microfiction #vellichor

The apple began to warp. The edges rippled as if they were a pond that was disturbed by a stone, and they only settled when the new shape became an almost perfectly circular one.

"I've converted your apple into an orange. Now you'll be able to win that argument!"

#vss365 #microfiction #conversion

"You know what, I think I'm good actually," he said as his boss' sword came to a stop just short of his neck.

"Oh, I'm not asking. You're going to take my job, and I'm going to walk out that door for the last time with a big smile on my face. Everyone wins."

#vss365 #microfiction #promotion

"Most people will say they want something new a thousand times before they try something new," the witch said.

"That's dumb."

The witch let out an uncharacteristic chuckle. "Perhaps. Eventually you'll see how the prettiest words can come out of the maws of cowards."

#vss365 #microfiction #fresh

I offer a service in which I pretend to solve problems that are already solved. It is baffling, but some humans are embarrassed by their own talents and wish to hide them for reasons I prefer to keep confidential. What do I call this service?

The Re-Solution.

#vss365 #microfiction #resolution

If he knew he was about to die, would he rather have more time even if it meant he would have to suffer before it all finally ended? It was a question he never thought he would have to consider.

Though really, the blade of the guillotine was about to decide for--

#vss365 #microfiction #prompt

"Why didn't you help put the fire out?"

"I thought someone else would do it! I didn't want to get my hands dirty! The bucket has a hole in it!"

She stared for a moment before taking the imperfect but still usable water bucket and walking away as the fire raged.

#vss365 #microfiction #pervasive

The alligator bit her ankle.

"What was that for, you asshole?" she yelled.

"Everyone is so anti-alligator! You forced me to bite you because land-dwellers like you are so mean. Be nicer to me, or else!" he cried.

She shot the alligator and shoved him into the swamp.

#vss365 #microfiction #swamp

It was not just or moral, but she still let out a roar of laughter as the house burned. She didn't hear any screams. She did hear the desperate scrabbling on blocked doors and windows as The Bigot and The Apathetic Bystander choked on smoke.

The lighter was in her hand.

#vss365 #microfiction #ash

She wet her fingers and traced a line through the air, the water stretching away from her fingers and thinning out into a thread that shimmered when the sun hit it just right.

"Magic doesn't have to be destructive. It can be something you can toy with too, see? Try it."

#vss365 #microfiction #wet

"I'm tired."

"I know."

She sat up and shook the blades of grass and discarded flower petals out of her hair. There was a great deal of difference in meaning between a response that ended there and a response that at least acknowledged how hard she was trying.

#microfiction #vss365 #busy

People always looked at her differently when they realized she didn't feel all that strongly about saving others or always thinking of others before herself. It wasn't like she didn't care about others, but when would it be time for others to care about her too?

#microfiction #vss365 #disapprove

Hearing a voice and seeing an ethereal glow from her mother's antique pistol hadn't been something she wanted in this life or the next. Unfortunately, the spirit in that pistol had decided to drag yet another member of her family into a life of heroism and nothing else.

#microfiction #whistpr #glow

"It feels strange to say so, but I owe you one," she said to an empty room. The weathered pistol on her nightstand glowed in response.

"I only did what your mother and grandmother would have done if they had the chance."

Even now she was bound by her storied lineage.

#microfiction #vss365 #proud

They should have felt something at being the thing to put a bullet though her husband's heart. There had been too many days of the legendary hero being left to rot in her room however, and they knew that this was a burden they were willing to bear if it was for her.

#microfiction #vss365 #remorse