Some Writing News: I Won a Contest!

So I have some really cool news, I won the Weird Christmas Flash Fiction Contest this year with my story ‘Ice’!

I also got to read my own story for the Weird Christmas podcast (you can find the podcast here, my story begins at 61:00) which was both cool and scary as I’m not a native speaker, but I think I did my best.

But you can just also read ‘Ice’ here (scroll down a little) together with 2nd prize winner and all the honorable mentions (all such great quality!) so please check out my story and all the other stories and the podcast and the rest of the Weird Christmas site. If you like dark folklore and strange Christmas things, I promise you’ll enjoy the podcast and the rest of the blog (I know I do).

And if you enjoy the stories, I have more creepy Christmas flash pieces on my writing blog as well.

*insert me doing a happy dance because I’m so excited*

Merry Christmas,

Lotte

Short Story | A Shadow Followed Me

A Shadow Followed Me

(200 words)

Last night I dreamt a shadow followed me.

It was dark, unobtrusive, lethal. Barely visible in the night’s colors. It had taken me for weak, for easy prey. But inside I was raging, boiling, powerful. So I turned into a dead end alley, and swallowed myself. Letting my corporeal body turn into the absence of light.

Hiding, just like them.

Cowardly creatures. Hopping from lampposts to cardboard boxes to trash cans in the blink of an eye, hiding their essence, only attacking when your back is turned. So fast, so deadly, so gutless. You have to catch them unawares.

Beat them at their own game.

It slipped around the corner, moved to hide, as they do, but I wasn’t there. It hovered in confusion. Hesitated just a bit too long. My rage grew and grew, faster than I, and I was a red, hot, flaring anger before my body ever manifested. The shadow fled into a cardboard box but I broke it. Tore apart anything it could hide in, raging in the night, this dead end alley.

I woke up in my own bedroom, the remnants of a wastepaper basket under my foot, and a weight off my shoulders.

Cowards.

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Thanks for reading!

I hope you enjoyed it, if you did, please comment/like/share. If you want to read some of my thoughts on this piece, you can find them here.

And if you want to read more of my stories, you find them on my writer blog!

~

Short Story | Luck

Luck

(100 words)

There’s not much left of the carnival. Muddy bumper cars, faded signs, a few tall metal frames.

Short Story | Darlings

Darlings

(967 words)

The clicking of the woman’s heels echoes against the high walls. Beneath her, the polished marble floor mirrors her silhouette in vague grey as she moves through the hallway. She carries a tray with two tall glasses of iced tea. The house is quiet, full of empty space. Somewhere a hidden air conditioner hums, working hard to keep out the summer heat.

The woman’s footsteps are suddenly muffled by a richly embroidered rug when she reaches the sitting room. Her friend is waiting for her in one of the two leather armchairs by the window overlooking the front lawn. She is watching three little girls playing outside on the grass.