Thank You, kindly. I could do better if I had a week to polish it up. Two hours goes by pretty quickly for a scant, five-minute read, y'know? Still satisfying, though! Like a cold glass of orange juice at breakfast.

This is awesome!

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Thanks!

Hey I made one! I am travelling for the next week so I will likely be writing a little more, although I make no assurances to the quality!! https://www.reddit.com/r/shortStoriesByChris/

I really like this concept. only thing I would say is that u say “it was like” a lot. use different similes, like “as though” “as if” “appeared to be” etc

Understandable but pls if you write more updated us, thank you a lot

Jump in. Worst that happens is it'll languish at 1 vote. I had some of those.

I'd forgotten about some of those early constrained writing prompts I'd done until I requested my data. I got a laugh out of them now. Now much traction then. Problem is that I can't do anything with them. Even if I made a book of prompts, people care about the story in the finish product, not "hey, look at this crazy story that doesn't repeat a word or use the word 'the'!"

"Who's luggage is on the ground?"

The security guard pauses momentarily and in a loud voice, "Room 308."

"Finally, that loon got kicked out," the elderly lady exhales a sigh of relief.

Apartment room number 308 is padlocked and chained like a psycho ward, and from time to time you can hear screams of agony like someone is summoning the 10th circle of demons from hell. Finally, the residents have kicked him out. He picked up the suitcase and dragged it across the road, wearing a ragged shirt and torn-up pants. As he walked, the whole road smelled like one year's worth of garbage piled up that hadn't been taken out. He opened the door to the cafe and sat down with a paper in his hand.

"One latte coffee, please?"

The barista took him for a hobo and gave him stinky eyes.

He pulled up the wallet and counted the dollars until his eyes met with the lady next to him. He looked down quickly and waited for the coffee. He glance at her time to time, or he glance at the side of her seat that is open.

"Your coffee, sir," she looks at the lady, affirming if she is in any danger from the creep that looks at her from time to time. but the lady smiles, affirming that she is all right.

"Tell me if you want anything else, ma'am," she says as she walks away from the table.

"She is recommending you her favorite, its called espresso policio, you can see it on the menu: a 911 call plus a coffee; it come as a package."

The lady next to him smiles. "Maybe she is being a good Samaritan."

"Anyone would be cautious if they saw me sitting next to them; I smell like shit, I dressed like a hobo overoll i look like I crawled out of a cave. But the point is how come you can look and smile like this when you have that thing next to you," he points out the seat next to her.

"what thing?" lady

He makes a fist as he leans close to her.

"I have taken a dozen pills so mine can disappear, but I only overdosed." No, I didn't die, but I lost everything else while this thing just stared at me from a corner, grinning with that twisted lip. "Now, out of nowhere, I see another person just like me at a coffee shop, and you say this thing that looks like a burned corpse that came out of hell-"

"Quiet down; everyone is looking here, If you keep raising your voice, everyone is going to order an espresso policio"

He backs down, breathing in and out, calming himself out.

"listen, iam-"

"No, you listen," the tension in the room slightly goes up as the lady's body shivers, but she kept on smiling.

From now onwards, up until that clock hanging on the wall, both hands are going to hit 12 in only 120 seconds. Listen to me until then; don't interrupt me or say anything else in the middle, or I will get up and go. Until you hear the clock's bell, stay silent and listen. "Nod if you agree."

He stared blankly as he nodded in awe.

"In 1967, there was a 15-year-old girl named Matilda who lived in with her grandma, she was brought up in a poor household with no parents, and with a lot of weight on her shoulders, she had to do manual labor the whole day until she went to sleep with only 2 meals a day if she was lucky. " "And while she's doing this, she also needs to take care of her grandmother; talk about irony."

Arthur blinks as he doesn't know where the hell this story came from, but as promised, he nods.

"One dark rainy day, when after all chores finished; walking up along the way, she saw a well, scribbled in the well, it says "wishing well".

she paused.

"The scribbling said, 'All of your wishes will come true with a penny as the price'"

He opened his mouth, but a gasp of air came out. she continues.

"With the last penny she got in her pocket, she took it out and wished for the obvious."

"The riches and wealth this little girl wants it all."

Later that day, she gets her wish granted; she gets adopted by two wealthy couples. They showered her with riches and affection. She hired a personal maid to take care of her grandma, and from time to time she visited her. one day as she visited her grandma and told her the truth. But her grandma wasn't happy to hear that. She dragged her granddaughter to the wishing well and begged her to withdraw the wish. She curses at the grandmother, and she leaves that place. After that, she never visited her grandmother, and every time she tries to come see her, she turns her back. She has not even visited her own grandmother's funeral."

"On her 26th birthday, something strange happened; she saw a strange creature appear before her. The worker notices unusual behavior from her: every time they talk with her, she kept on smiling and sometimes she just looks at them from a distance. On her next birthday, they saw her death on the bed in the most brutal way possible; her nails were drenched in blood; do you know why? she scratched the walls, doors, and carpet, all of them scratched in blood, saying "It's looking at me?" She even tried to claw her way out of her room until she clawed her eyes-."

He grabbed her hands, giving the signal to stop.

"The scribbling in the well, Matilda only read half the sentence; do you know what the full sentence says?"

He nodes frantically.

"All of your wishes will come to for the price of a penny, but now on from 12 years you and now on your family line every 12th baby-"

"^(will be mine.)"

As he opened his mouth, the clock rang at 12 o'clock.

I'm glad you kept track. I had to go through a few years of posts to find some stories when I found out that I could make my own subreddit for them. And it turned out that I missed a few, which I only found when someone told me how to request my data.

Seven years! Keep at it!

This mf is trying to compete with Ichigo

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It's a great thing when you see the prompt differently than everyone else. It might not have been the prompt they intended, but it's the one you saw, and that makes it stand out.

I think I remember that prompt, but I didn't know about that trend.

Greetings! This is u/xwhy, and many of my prompts appear in r/xwhy. I also have a book of flash fiction "In A Flash 2020" from eSpec Books under the name Christopher J. Burke available on Amazon. Twenty flash stories and a few of them started life as prompts from this board. I also have three flash pieces in their anthology "Devilish & Divine", two of which were inspired by prompts here.

(Note that at most one of those stories might even shown up here in some form or other. Most were written after the prompts fell into obscurity, so I didn't "waste" them.)

Favorite prompts are hard to pin down. I'm all over the map. Of my published stories, there are no Supers pieces, but if I have a followup, there will be a bunch because a bunch of them just clicked. I have written a few time travel pieces, but those start to get repetitive. And I seem to like fantasy or fantasy elements in a modern story just because I get to make the rules, and I might not know the science rules.

There are times that when I think I've clicked so well with a prompt but it goes nowhere (sometimes the prompt has no votes and sometimes the prompt and other responses take off but none languishes). But if I looked at my top 5 stories by votes, I'd wager at least 2 would be head-scratchers, meaning I didn't think them to be among my greatest work.

I do like the chance to be silly, so I can blow off a little steam, but I don't need the silliness spelled out in the prompt. I can find the silliness, whether it's three hobbits in a trenchcoat, or a guy finding a lamp on the beach and the three genies inside turn out to be a bit stooge-ish (that last-part was not part of the prompt).

One of my favorite stories in a soon-to-be (I hope, I hope) collection is about a demon hiding an angel in hell ... I totally misread the prompt, but I went with it anyway.

As I tell writers who reply to my prompts: a prompt takes you where a prompt takes you. It's a starting point.

Anyway, I'm rambling and this is turning into a short story of its own, so I'll point to r/xwhy again and mention that comments are always welcome. And, hopefully, updates will be coming soon, but my job has been keeping me busy, and blocking reddit. Sigh. Makes it difficult.

Catalog #32

Lux Orb

Appearance: a small sphere of perfect quartz crystal.

Function: (1) Tossed gently upward, the orb will ignite brilliant white light, hovering at the best position to provide the light desired by the user. (2) Hurled at an opponent, the orb will flash blind all who look at it when it is within three cubits of the foe.

Notes: In the latter use, if the foe manages to avoid blindness, the orb will circle them until either recalled by a thought or successfully blinding the target. We have not attempted its use against groups of opponents, but we fear this is not long from happening. Word of our fortune has spread far faster and broader than we would ever have wished.

Catalog #924

Miniature Ark of the Covenant

Appearance: As described, but of a size to fit within the palm of the average person's hand.

Function: We decline to experiment.

Note: Taking inspiration from an author, we have placed this item on a pedestal adjacent to the only door into the storeroom. A sufficiently aware individual there to seek things of power may be incautious enough to open it. What happens then is, at this time, anyone's guess.

Catalog #82

Ornate Silver Trumpet

Description: As a common trumpet, but made of silver, ornately engraved, inlaid, and begemmed in nature scenes in all the glory and majesty that nature can inspire.

Function: The music you play affects the natural world for good or ill. The trumpet reflects the last usage in the illustrations.

Notes: There is a classical piece of music that never fails to inspire the listener to conceive a beautiful dawn before a glorious day. I played that song to the benefit of a friend being married that day when the forecast was for foul weather.

The marriage and reception, both outdoors, went off without a hitch. I spent the subsequent week traveling in a constant soaking downpour to avoid flooding any one place. Thank the gods of your choice that trains are seldom disturbed by weather.

Finding myself drawn to the thought of what would happen if you played "Night on Bald Mountain," I have asked my husband to hide the trumpet from me.

Private Diary

My wife requested that I hide the trumpet from her, and I agree that it is for the best. I have cured my own curiosity in doing so by opening the Ark — with my eyes firmly closed — and placing the trumpet inside of it.

The interior is filled with items.

I shall not share this information with my wife. I only write it here against the failure of memory, or my untimely death.

These diaries are the most secure form of storage I can imagine. Only I can open it on my entries, just as my wife can only open it on hers. We know others have used it, because there is a list of authors that can be called up. I cannot see my wife's name, and she cannot see mine. Yet there are names we have verified the existence of who are deceased. The most terrifying is the first entry, which is a blur. We believe the first user is still alive—the second user dates to the early Egyptian period.

This reminds me of Geralt

A DnD style dungeon crawl could work.

Yeah that’s what I thought

My favorite prompt is anything I can have the idea of making multiple chapters. So if I can make an entire book on it. For example, the post on my profile about summoning an insanity god is my favorite series I've written. I have a couple of short stories from old prompts on here.

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This prompt feels like smile vibes… is it inspired by the movie?? (If so, love that movie)

Continuing my thoughts, one could imagine a spell book with key words left out, like names. When the occasion arises, you select an appropriate spell from the book, fill in the key words, and erase the portion you want to happen. A combined blessing and curse with the name omitted. Imagine a thief who steals the book and writes in the name of a hated enemy. They erase the blessing, thinking the curse will happen. Imagine the chagrin. Or the reverse and a loved one falls to a terrible curse—the horror at realizing what they have done.

My favorite prompts are either Simple or Constrained ones. I have a tendency to not post my writing to them though. Still warming up to that.

My favorite of prompts I replied to: Elevator

I enjoy when prompts give me ideas for dad quality jokes or puns.

Question for writers with their own subreddits: What made you start it and how do you go about your posts?

How about in regards to only one story or do you use different tags for different tales.

As an author — unpublished, as yet — the thought of a writing implement with a twist came to mind first. Many have written of pens or books with which the written word becomes true, but I don't think anyone has gone this way. What you write and erase becomes true; only what you leave on the paper remains unreal.