July 2018 75-word Writing Challenge -- VICTORY TO THEDUSTYZEBRA!

[Parson]

A Twisted Escape​

Singing with her girls, Rochelle puts her foot on the floorboard. Her 4 banger is rolling flat out at 90 per. Topping the hill she discovers a lurking “Local Yokel.” His cherries flash and his V8 roars in pursuit.

Rochelle growls “I can’t outrun that Yokel. But I’m not paying any flicking fine either!” Six hundred yards ahead, she tops the viaduct, drills her brakes, and twists a 180.

The Yokel flies by doing 105.

 

[scarpelius]

The bigger the pain...

The cough started Friday and become worse over the weekend.
Monday, when the doctor visited our village, my back hurt like hell.
"Just a flu. Here, take these."
By Thursday I walked contorted with pain. It felt like something is growing in there.
Saturday, a bell rang.
Monday the doctor returned. I was fine.
"How are we today?"
"Fabulous."
"Really? Remove the cloak."
"Oh, that's not a cloak. I finally got my wings."

 

[Justin Swanton]

And then there were none...

Mohalal walked slowly, keeping a perfect distance from the other pedestrians. No-one spoke. There was no traffic. Only the odd bird broke the silence.

There. Cross the street, enter the office and begin another noiseless eight-hour day.

Before him an old lady stumbled. Instinctively he gripped her arm then froze. Sightless eyes turned his way. Hands reached out towards him. He had made the cardinal error.

Only a real human would help another.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Hard Hand

I'm shocked to find the cloak-wrapped skeleton waiting for me, but not altogether surprised.

“Here we are, then.” It draws out a pack of cards.

“Cards? I thought it was chess?”

“The game suits the person.”

We sit at a table and the cards are dealt.

“I wasn't a gambler.”

“Indeed,” says the skeleton. “You led a careful life.”

It picks up the cards; I raise mine.

“So...stick or twist?”

 

[althea]

Beginnings.

Freda Frankel was a tall, slim woman with hair as black as coal and skin as white as snow.

The moment Eddy Doody glimpsed her across the moonlit garden, he was smitten.

Well,maybe it happened that way.

Maybe Freda was short and fat.

Maybe Eddy bumped into her in a bar.

That's the trouble with writing fiction,you see, it's so easy to lie...........................

 

[Phyrebrat]

Landed Gentry

I walk the sweeping driveway of my family’s country seat under the lined groves of copper beech, running my warped knuckles over shapes in the bark, imagining there, knotty faces.

Like my forebears, the Twist has come upon me, too.

Arthritis, my inheritance, bunches my hands to claws, my hips squealing, till at last I reach the driveway’s end, and the plot that will be my grave, and womb.

I hope the winters are mild.

 

[mosaix]

A Twist in the Tale.

The house was on Green Street, near Seventh on the west side.

A neat little blonde opened the door.

“Marlowe. Philip Marlowe. You called me.”

“He’s out the back."

I followed.

He was dead alright.

“It was an accident. The gun just went off. Can you fix things?” She bit on a finger.

“Sure. Fifty dollars plus expenses.”

She nodded.

Taxidermy is a funny business sometimes. Poor mutt had a twist in his tail.

 

[Harpo]

Cheesy Twist

That's the way the cheese twist crumbles.
And yours too, but hey.
Perhaps I'm wasting my time.
And how many will read it both ways.
I wonder how this will begin.
And so on, up and up.
And then this one.
I wrote the bottom line first.

 

[-K2-]

Hot Dose:
by K2

Was it time, the world or simply her mind that had become swirling confusion; like the contents of a full ashtray, swept down into the whirlpool of a flushed toilet? Cashmere warmth enveloped her, slipping over her skin-- "no wait, it is my skin-- no dress..." wrapped around her like a python twisting her thoughts. Looking up at the ceiling, down on the floor, "I’m floating."

"What have I done... how wonderful."

 

[Stable]

Bloody Ella​

Her little knife made gentle cuts, so she wouldn’t mar the material.

Cut, cut, pull. A glove.

Cut, cut, cut, pull. A sleeve.

She giggled as the sowing machine hummed. Her sisters dangled, dripped, and gasped. Finally dressed, she laughed in their raw faces. Who were the ugly sisters now? She tried their old insults on her tongue and savoured the taste.

No fairy, no pumpkin, no slippers, but:

“I shall go to the ball!”

 

[Joshua Jones]

The Ball Couldn't Wait

Camille surveyed her princess dress collection with an intensity indigenous to girls aged five. Prince Charming’s auspicious ball necessitated perfection.

Finally, she found her Cinderella dress and twirled in the mirror. “Next, magical Mommysmakeup from the kingdom of Lavatory.”

Daddy and Mommy were asleep on their bed. She saw syringes about; "magical, adult medicine” that made them sleep. She wiped foam off their cold, gray faces and danced from the room. The ball couldn't wait.

 

[LittleStar]

Lessons Leanrt

They taught her that twisting hurt most; sharp enough, they won’t even feel the knife, until the twist.

But with love, the blade is always rusted dull.

Leyla held the sheets to her chest, unable to take her eyes from Tui.

He sank to the bed. “You said it was over, months ago.”

“It is.” Leyla swallowed; twisted the knife through her own heart. “I’m staying.”

It hurt... but maybe a little less this way.

 

[Bob Senior]

All's Well That Ends

A man is the sum of his parts, it's what's in his DNA, courage, strength, compassion, hate.

Right now only fear came forth. He was panicking, he tried to speak, "I", "I", but the words would not come out. His entire body trembled, he could not move.

Elsa couldn't take the tension any longer, she screamed and grabbed him !

Then it was all over, Frankenstein just got his first kiss.

 

[Shyrka]

Far From the Tree

It’s not easy sharing a name with a serial killer. Kowalski thought it was funny. He doesn’t now.

His death is on my hands – didn’t act when I had the chance. Too soft, they said. No longer.

I lift my revolver, nudging the apartment door open with its snub nose.

“Police! Freeze!”

She looks up from the body, a bloodied scalpel in her hand, and smiles brightly.

“Hello Mother.”

My trigger finger tightens. No longer.

 

[Mr Orange]

How Many Times?

Cogs grind, steam pirouettes.

“Scal- don’t throw it!” Hips and “arms” swing, avoid the metallic, whirling dervish. “My talocrural! Sprained!”

“Pffft..The jelly’s dead. And squishy. Sooo squishy…”

“You’re warped.”

“You’re distorting my words.”

“Whatever. Help me turn the cranium.”

“It’s dead.”

“We could wind the corticals together.”

“Dead.”

“Shave the base code into a curl?”

“Pointless garnish.”

A contorted grimace. Eyestalks snake to the porthole, peer at the blue planet.

“So, silicon’s out. Carbon?”

 

[Ursa major]

​

The Magician and the Merle Queen​

​

​

“It’s time.” A reedy voice, nothing like the one I’d expected, given all those impossibly delivered threats.​

​

“Who are you?”​

​

“Your nemesis, one you created.”​

​

“What?”​

​

A blackbird flew onto my desk. “You thought your first spell protected you from your own magic,” she said. “So no accidentally turning all your food into gold. But you were careless.”​

​

“Never!”​

​

“When you seized power, you said, ‘Democracy is for the birds.’ We’ve voted… for your death.”​

​

​

 

[The Judge]

Warped


He ran.

Past villages where houses spiralled and minarets twined about themselves.

Through fields of torsion wheat, orchards of pleached and plaited trees.

Over coiling rivers, meandering streams.

He ran. But in straight lines, ignoring curving lanes and corkscrew paths.

The valley people followed, pursuing, running backwards, keeping him in view; contorted arms spinning bolas to bring him down, braided ropes ready to wind around him.

In the Valley of the Twisted, difference isn’t allowed.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

*
*… .*
* ….Mine.... .*
*… …A match.. .….*
*.I found you, among the.*
*...seven billion people....*
*……..23andMe……..*
*….and you.....*
*………*
*
*………*
*……..You………*
*…..had a solid alibi…….*
*….when your mother died,….*
*….despite the DNA evidence.....*
*….When your father died,….*
*……..police looked……..*
*…….harder...…..*
*…………..*
*…..*
*
*……..*
*… ..Then… ..*
*… ..your brothers,… .*
*…… .killed one by one...…..*
*….You were sent to death row.....*
*………...Today I get to watch…………*
*.............your execution...……..…*
*…..…..Finally.....……*
*……..….*
*
*……..*
*……Oh...….*
*...…What’s this?......*
*….….You have a son?........*
*…I’ll take care of him later....*
*……..I’m reclaiming......….*
*……..our DNA...….*
*…..Mine.....*
*……..*
*
*…….*​

 

[The Judge]

​

IT'S THE LAST DAY OF VOTING ​

​

ONLY ABOUT 12 HOURS LEFT NOW​

​

​

IF YOU HAVEN'T VOTED, GO AND DO IT​

​

NO EXCUSES! ​

​

VOTE!​