Last Call

As soon as she stepped in the door, we both knew this was the last time we'd see each other, and that the time would be limited, moments at best.

We could have immediately gone at it and made passionate love, but neither of us was good 'performing' on a deadline, and we were probably being watched.

We could have cried, holding each other close as we let the grief wash over us, but neither of us wanted that to be our last memories.

So we just stared at each other, smiling, until we ran for it.

Didn't make it.

Bubble Bubble

The potion began to bubble over the side of the cauldron, but she didn't notice, as she was too busy counting badger eyeballs.

When the fluid hit the fire beneath the cauldron, she didn't notice, as she was too busy measuring out snake blood.

When the fire began to burn a bright blue color, increasing the heat beneath the cauldron and causing it to bubble over more, she didn't notice, as she was chopping up eagle gizzards.

When the potion blew up, she didn't notice, as she was outside, fighting off several animals who were looking for revenge on her. 

Message In A Bottle

I was just sitting in the wet sand, letting the waves wash over me, when something hard hit my foot.

I resisted the urge to kick it and instead looked first, picking up a glass bottle, a letter rolled up inside it.

Beyond the shock of finding an actual message in a bottle, it looked like you saw in media, with barnacles and seaweed wrapped around it.

It took me a while, but I eventually managed to pull out the letter.

Before I could read it, an unexpectedly large wave hit me and disintegrated it.

Probably should have moved first.

Bullseye

She was on 32 points, the magic number, since it was the easiest to recover from as she tried to double out and win.

She missed the double 16, getting a single, then just missed the double 8, and then missed double 4 by a hair.

I got a few points on my turn, but was already ordering another drink, since I knew I was done.

She missed the double 2, and then the double 1 twice, leaving her on two points 

"You're just dragging this out."

She laughed, but then won the first time I got within winning range.

George

I asked for Suzi, and the Royal Room.

After a few moments, she walked in, smiling as she walked in.

"Hello, thank you for requesting me."

She stared at me for a second, I could see her mentally flicking through her files.

"I hope you'll tell me who recommended me, so I can thank them."

"George."

She looked confused.

"Your brother."

Mentioning her dead brother made her slap me across the face.

I waited for a moment.

"Or should I say, me."

That got me another slap.

I explained everything.

I got ten more slaps by the end of it.

Overreaction

As the starcraft left ultraspace and moved into orbit around the target planet, she turned to me as I did my calculations.

"So what is all this over, anyway?"

I sighed, and decided to tell her.

"He stole my breakfast."

She stared at me for a moment.

"That's it? All of this, for what, a protein bar? Talk about an overreaction!"

"You don't you understand. He knowingly stole a minor thing from a man of my power and position. A man who's willing to do that, is far too dangerous."

I finished my calculations and then blew up the planet.

Yesterday, Today

Today is the same as yesterday. But I can't get out of bed.

I still have the same loving partner who got out of bed an hour before now that I did yesterday. But I'm still unable to get up.

There isn't any difference in my finances, outside of the usual minor stock market changes. But my legs refuse to move.

Physically, I'm just as healthy as I was yesterday. But still...

Nothing has changed since yesterday.

But nothing had changed from yesterday's yesterday neither. Or from a thousand other yesterdays, it seems.

Hence I can't get out of bed.

Partners

The four people entered the room, one after each other, through four different doors.

The safecracker had the money. The driver had the keys. The heavy had the guns, and the boss had the tickets.

The boss tried to keep everyone focused on the plan, but far too quickly each of the others brought up their complaints, and soon words were flying.

But as soon as the heavy went for a gun, the others jumped him.

A complicated few moments happened, before three gunshots rang out, one, two, three.

A millionaire with no connection to any of the bodies left.

Gumshoe

I was used to all sorts of people coming through my door, most of them hoping I could work miracles. For every easy trailing to prove infidelity, there were.a dozen families looking for their long lost child that was almost certainly dead.

But the femme fatale, looking to seduce me into helping her kill someone and find some golden statue? That's only ever happened to me once, which seems one more than it should be, really.

And for the record, I didn't help her. Not because I was unwilling to kill, but because I was still on duty trailing her.

Consistency

The system could work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. As long as the upper feeder system had enough raw materials feeding into it, it would never stop producing product.

Which is not to say that it was all on, all the time. Parts would break, aspects would require changing, maintaining the device needed downtime.

So it was modular, parts could be turned off, removed, fixed, while the rest of the machine worked. There was always something off or removed.

But saying the machine was off 24 hours a day, that seems wrong, somehow.

Lifted

As far as elevation platforms went, this was a pretty long one, as it took people from the surface up to the space station above.

It was also quick, and yet slow. It took five minutes to get between the levels, but that was with it moving at sub-light speeds.

There were rumors that as the pods went through the upper levels of the atmosphere, they slowed down, which was just ridiculous. There was no reason for that to occur.

Especially considering there wasn't actually a shaft up, it was just a cover for the transporter system built into it.

Breathe

The first colony on Mars was going so well, up until the day when the first colonist to remove their environmental suit dropped dead.

Tests were run, data collected, theories theorised, and then the next person to remove their suit also died suddenly.

No-one else removed their suits, but they dropped dead soon after.

Robots were dispatched, and everything was fruitlessly analysed, until finally someone had an allergic reaction to a cat back at HQ.

Every human was allergic to Martian dust, and that ended colonisation.

Which makes sense, that's why humanity was sent off Mars in the first place.

Suspect

The policeman knocked on the door, and after a moment, it was opened by a blind man, heavy black glasses on his face, a white cane in his hand.

"Hello?"

"Yes, hello, I'm Officer Friedman, from the 8th Precinct. We're looking for a suspect who attacked a woman in the park a short while ago. The suspect was pepper sprayed. Do you have any information?"

The blind man shook his head.

"No, sorry. If I see anything, I'll report it."

The policeman went to walk away, before pausing.

"So, lucky you already had the cane, huh?"

The suspect ran, quickly.

The Greatest Sound

"Get ready to hear the greatest sound made by man, baby!"

He turned the key in the motorcycle's lock, and nothing happened.

"Well, I'll give you that a man shutting up is a good sound."

He grunted with annoyance as he tried a few more times to start the motorcycle up.

"Something is wrong, let me check the engine."

He got off the motorcycle and began to fiddle with the engine.

After a few moments, he sighed.

"I'll have to stay here and fiddle with this, why don't you go shopping, honey?"

"Ah, the greatest sound made by man, excellent!"

The Pointless Walker

No-one knew his name, but the merchants and travellers who frequented the Grand Road Number Seven knew him as The Pointless Walker.

He walked all the way from Rejuk to Holade City, then back, and then repeated. The stories say he used to do the round trip in a week, but now he took almost a full month to do one half.

People would occasionally offer him a lift, but he always refused, as he walked, hunched over and stepping along slowly.

I ended up helping him when I stepped on the key he was looking for, end point first.

No Touching

He always told me to 'Never touch the bait money'. The scam needed us to look like we could pull off the deal, we just needed to get to the meeting place, hence the need for a rube, sorry, partner.

And thus, in case they wanted to count it or something, it had to be legit. Hence, no touching.

After our last scam went bad, he got shot. And as he bled out, he told me, that he'd been touching the bait money, all this time.

He died before I could tell him I'd been touching his secret stash too.

Sped Up

The discussions around the tavern fire pit tended to revolve around the same things. Someone would start with talking about a war happening, or the newest magic device created. Then someone would make a joke, and that would lead to a few rounds of jokes, and then finally the drunkest sad sack would unload their problems on us. Then the tavern owner would call time, and kick us all out.

Tonight was different in a way, and yet not, thanks to the sad sack who called time on us and laughed as he used his new magic device on us.

Death Of The Revolution

I want you to understand my reasoning here.

We were screwed as a group. The troops were closing in, and there was no way we could fight off the entire army. We'd all be killed, and sure, martyrdom sounds like a good outcome for us. But they'd make sure no-one would ever hear of us.

The only way out that I could see, and still believe in, was that someone had to get out and spread the message. And the only way out was betrayal. So I killed them all, so I could restart the revolution.

One of these days.

Street Light

LlThe streetlight flickered every few seconds, causing the scene below to be alternately bathed in light and hidden from view.

The two figures stood several feet apart.

Darkness.

The two figures stood closer.

Darkness.

One reached out their hand.

Darkness.

The other nuzzled into the hand.

Darkness.

The first figure pleaded with the second.

Darkness.

The second figure looked away.

Darkness.

The second figure looked back.

Darkness.

The second figure looked sad, and shook their head.

Darkness.

The second figure slowly looked away.

Darkness.

They walked away, the first figure left alone.

Darkness.

A single tear fell.

Darkness.

More darkness.

Strictness

On the surface of Mars, the first Human colony has a strict hierarchy, with every member of the colony in an exact line of authority. It was decided that this would be important if and when conflicts arose.

And given the long time between deliveries from Earth and the loneliness, it was based on old sailing ships, where the Quartermaster had the ultimate authority, outside of combat or emergency situations.

The problem was, what constituted an emergency was vague, in order to allow for flexibility.

But then the Captain declared an emergency upon landing.

Been 10 years of emergency now.

Seafront

The blood red tide washed back and forth on the shoreline, keeping the wreckages that had washed up damp and stained.

I sat just far enough up on the sand that the tide didn't reach me, the blood staining the sand around me my own.

Out on the horizon, I could see the last two ships that were still afloat and not completely on fire moving towards each other.

There were thousands of people still in the sea, in need of rescue.

But no, clearly shooting at each other and blowing each other up was much more important to do.

Eating Contest

The timer was counting down, which is what counters did.

The commentators were writing me off, which is what expert opinion agreed with.

The pile of hot dogs was congealing before me, which is what cooling fast food did.

The opponent was already taking a victory lap of sorts as he played with his food, which was the sort of behaviour that his PR guy agreed with.

The rumbling from my stomach was getting louder, which is what upset stomachs did.

The victory was unexpected, but the referee's noticing of the false leg was something the rule book agreed with.

Humanity's Solo

The Symphony rang out across space and time, the peaks and valleys of the music reaching whatever body part detected sounds on billions of beings, in a universe of quadrillions.

A few of these beings were unable to answer the call, and went mad. But those that could, travelled across time and space, to the location of the Symphony, to find the truth that it promised. Those that got there found the purpose of everything, and were happy. And those that went mad were happy too, in their own way.

Only the human ear turned it into an advertising jingle.

Forge Ahead

Yes, I run a printing store, and yes, I also run a forgery business out of said store.

All the time, someone comes in and asks for something unusual. False IDs for kids wanting to get into titty bars, the occasional passport for someone wanting to smuggle prescription drugs over the border.

But the weird stuff, that's a double edged sword. Someone needs a prison guard reassignment form, they're in the middle of something complicated and messy. And thus, they're the ones most likely to get you into trouble.

But they're also the most fun.

I've learned to hate fun.

Expensive Free Drink

The drink was free, but it was also the most expensive drink I'd ever have.

I passed the club almost every day, and on almost every one of those days, the barker was out the front, talking about how hot the girls were inside, how cheap the drinks were, how good the food was, every tactic to try and get me inside. I never bit.

Eventually, he offered me a free drink, if I just came in, once. So I did, just to get him off my back.

I went in, had a free drink, then saw Her on stage.

The Responsible One

Every squad in the trenches had the weird one. Most of the time, it was the one who was trying to get out of the war. But we had Private Janeway.

He had a look in his eye that seemed to always be staring at a point two feet behind you, he got letters written in what I hoped was red pen from home, and he had a grenade from the enemy on his belt at all times. 'To take out the one responsible', he repeatedly claimed.

That turned out to be our squad leader when Janeway took a bullet.

Evil Machinations

The Evil One ruled for a century, using various deluded humans to reside in as it carried out its evil machinations. But eventually a group of humans managed to seal it away in a magic jar at the bottom a bottomless lake.

But then, centuries later, fracking activities disturbed the jar, and broke it enough to release The Evil One, which quickly sought out a powerful human to reside in, choosing a merchant who had more gold than all the kings left.

The Evil One needed a long time to work out why its machinations were apparently an obvious improvement.

Waking Up

Waking up in a hospital isn't the worst outcome, I grant you, given what I was attempting to do.

Waking up feeling like I'd fallen off a skyscraper and hot-glued back together, that's not ideal, sure, but not unexpected.

Waking up with no-one around, and the hospital looking deserted, that's very much in the ballpark of unlikely, but possible, and something to be concerned about.

Waking up at least two years after you last knew the date, according to the newspaper left on the table, that does fit in with all the above.

Waking up to the apocalypse, that's depressing.

Ring Ring

A customer walked into the shop, the bell ringing as they entered.

I emerged from the back.

"Hello, can I help you?"

They stood there, with their back to me, staring at the bell.

"Hello?"

They turned back around, pointing at the bell.

"Where did you get that bell?"

"Uh...

It was here when I bought the property, Miss."

"And when was that?"

"Ten years ago, in a week. That's why we have a special on-"

"That bell, I know that ring from my childhood. Does the name Janny mean anything to you?"

"It-"

"Don't say it!"

"... Sounds familiar, yes."

The Password

I sat down at the screen, my arms crossed as the technician ran through the patter, explaining how they'd mapped my brother's brain to the molecular level and recreated him in the cloud, so he could live forever.

"Hey Brobro, how are you?"

That was what he always called me, but that was easy enough.

"What's the password then?"

The virtual representation that proported to be my brother paused.

"For my laptop?"

"No, you know the one. You've passed on, technically. What's the password?"

The face froze, then after a moment spat out "Hellisantosjumbleluck".

Wasn't him. Our password was "Fellisontosjumpleduck".

The Key To Immortality

He studied the book for his entire life, looking for the key to immortality inside it. His master had told him it was the key right before he died, which was a point against thinking it held the key to immortality. But he would always tell me his master rejected immortality for some esoteric reason.

When he died, he gave me the book, telling me to find the key for him.

I just went to the end location of the map in the book, to say that I tried.

And found a book shaped indent as part of a lock.