Flash! Friday 2fer

by Michael Seese

The kids had Legos to put together today, so I only was able to write two Flash! Friday stories. This was the prompt photo:

So first is the serious "Should Old Acquaintance."



Why do people feel compelled to rejoice simply because the calendar has given up the ghost? Life moves on, moves away, even as we try to claw it back. How fitting it is that we wring out the old year with a funereal ditty often sung at wakes.
Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon
How can I forget her? She was my world.
In China, the new year is about looking forward. Families cleanse their homes in order to sweep away ill fortune and make way for good incoming luck.
I needed more than luck. I needed a miracle.
Stumbling through the strange metropolis, unable to read even the street signs, I felt the apathy in every stranger’s face. As the firecrackers and my life disintegrated around me, two question kept choking my mind.
How was I going to find her in a city of seven million people?
And why would she steal our daughter?

And the lighter "War."

I reached the trash can just in time. The contents of my stomach painted the inside of the already fetid receptacle.

“Savages,” I hissed. What kind of culture not just tolerates – but celebrates – such butchery?

We never wanted war. We wanted to live our way. It was they who brought bloodshed upon us.

As I reconnoitered the streets of their capital, I spied windows and doors adorned with red symbols, no doubt commemorating another death. Of my kind. Explosions sounded nearby. Fearing my comrades were being fired upon, I raced to join the battle.

That is where I came upon the gruesome sight.

I breathed fire onto the row of my murdered brothers’ severed heads. Cremation is our way. I snarled and took to the skies, bent on extracting revenge. Eating them alive would allow me to savor their screams as they slid into my stomach.

I was kind of in the mood for Chinese anyway. 

Please share your thoughts on either story.