Flash Fiction First Friday is an effort to publish something small on the First Friday of every month. The goal is simply to write more and to share more, and not get completely bogged down in huge projects. These pieces can spawn from writing exercises, prompts, or just freewriting. The point is that they're low-commitment and just for fun.
I'd love to see your flash fictions pieces if you participate, too! Either use the tag #flashfictionfirstfriday or comment below with a link to your blog.
Shadowy Temptations
“You are home,” the shadows whisper. “In the night, in the dark, alone, you are home. You are home among us.” The whispers had been coming from the closet, from beneath the bed, from that shadowy wedge behind the open bedroom door. I was not afraid. They were right.
“You are safe when you are alone. You are yourself in the darkness.”
And they were right. I nodded.
“Come with us into the nothing,” they said.
I stood. Wait, what was I doing? Was I talking to shadows in my bedroom? Had I been dreaming?
But there was movement there, in the deepest parts of the dark. Gold and green eyes, hints of teeth and claws. I wasn’t afraid of the dark.
The voices were silent as I approached the door. Nothing would be there but cobwebs and dust. I peeked into the gap between the open door and the wall and thousands of eyes stared back. Vertical pupils like cats and snakes, horizontal pupils like goats, and other shapes I had no name for.
I was still dreaming. But the wall was cool against my forehead and it seemed solid enough.
“Come into the night and be yourself,” they said.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“I have to work tomorrow,” I said.
The darkness laughed. “Behind the mask, another mask. Cast them aside in solitude.”
“But how will I pay my rent?”
“You won’t,” said the darkness. “You will be alone, like you always wanted.”
“Is there wifi?”
“No, only silence.”
I thought a moment. Silence and solitude had a great deal of appeal.
“Is there paper in the dark?”
“No,” replied the darkness. “Silence and—"
“Solitude, right I get it. Can I bring my cat though?”
The shadows sighed and the door swung shut, letting light from the streetlamp outside filter into that dark corner. The shadows were gone and I was left alone again in the darkness of my room.
Copyright KR Holton, 2024
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