The Illusion

They had been in the space for almost ten Sirrah years (about ten thousand years by our reckoning) and not even once had they faced a technical glitch.

But one day the unimaginable happened; the power failed. They had a backup and a series of backups to that backup. But these were insufficient to run all the systems; the journey to home was ruled out.

“Scan for some alternate source,” barked the commander of the spacecraft.

 “Commander, I see a possibility on a small planet. They call it the earth.”   

“Seems improbable, the aliens out there are too primitive.”

“Should we go and check?”

“Go ahead.”

Two weird looking persons entered the Illusion, the most elegant restaurant in the town.

“I was right; they have it. But none of them is aware of it,” whispered one.

“We would need many of them, in fact every one of them on the planet,” replied the other.

“Does it matter? They are likely to parish sooner than they expect; they have brutally ravaged the planet.”

“The commander has to take the call.”

“And we know what we would say; ‘we are being kind to these foolish creatures.’”

The power on the spacecraft was restored and it commenced its journey back to Sirrah.

The two who had come to the earth felt sorry for the aliens that had inhabited the earth.

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A post for Flash Fictionfor Aspiring Writers on a picture prompt

Word count 227

The Letter

She was stunned.

She could not believe that her husband was a murderer, that he had killed her first wife.

The letter said that his first wife was a rich widow and he had married her only to grab her wealth. She had not died of sickness, as the man claimed. He had brutally killed her.

‘It’s a lie. But then this person knows everything about my husband. Every other thing that he has written is true. So perhaps…...’

She was unnerved. But she soon regained her composure.

‘Now I can go ahead with my plan without any regret or compunction. He will get what he deserves…..it would rather be justice, no?’

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A post for Flash Fictionfor Aspiring Writers on a picture prompt

Word count 112

A Mercy Plea

The sky was ablaze. Everyone thought that it was just an unusually magnificent sunset.

But people were in for a shock. Weird flying objects emerged from the flaming sky and began hovering over the city. It was a terrifying scene.

Rongen was not scared. He had all along believed that there were hundreds of alien civilizations out in the universe. He had secretly invented a radio telescope and had been communicating with some aliens. But the poor man did not know that his messages were sometimes getting distorted and garbled versions were reaching the aliens.

Suddenly the sky turned black and the lights went out; it was the beginning of a long, scary night.

The sun rose. But the day was no less terrifying. Dinosaurs were roaming freely everywhere in the city.

Rongen woke up as if from a nightmare. He rushed to his radio telescope; he had got an alien mail, ‘Please do not attack us. We accept your demand. We are sending these creatures back. Please have mercy on us.’

Rongen stood paralyzed; the nightmare had in fact just begun.

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A post for Flash Fictionfor Aspiring Writers on a picture prompt

Word count 179

Free Ride

‘I can’t believe it? You don’t feel insulted? She rebuffed you and you are acting as if she told you a joke,’ Dan tried to provoke Pipi.

‘Perhaps she is not my type of girl.’

‘Now you are acting stupid. You need to teach her a lesson.’

‘But………’

‘No girl can dare to humiliate you and get away with it,’ he said arrogantly.

Pipi got overwhelmed by Dan’s outburst.

‘What do you suggest?’

‘You see that new car outside her house; we will take it out for a ride and leave it in New Town,’

‘That would be criminal.’

‘We aren’t stealing it.’

‘But how do we get the key?’

‘Someone blundered; the key is in the car; I saw it when we passed by it,’ Dan smiled mischievously.

They took out the car for a free ride but they could not reach New Town.

They crashed the car into a stationary truck just outside New Town.

Later in the evening Dan learnt that her sister had gone visiting a friend in her new car. She left the key in the car. The car got stolen and was found crashed in a truck near New Town.

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A post for Flash Fictionfor Aspiring Writers on a picture prompt

Word count 196

Departure

She had been with us for more than five years. But for last few days the grandfather was extremely angry with her.

‘Next Sunday we get rid of her,’ he thundered.

‘How would we do that?’ I had never liked her; she had always mistreated me.

‘Take her to river front and just leave her there,’

‘Can I use the car?’

‘No, she will never leave the car. Go by the public transport.’

We went by a local bus. At the river front I kept moving around aimlessly. She had become suspicious of me and stuck to me like glue.

Suddenly I jumped into a bus when it was about to leave. She tried but could not enter the bus.

Back home the grandfather was a bit disappointed when he saw me coming back, alone.

Early morning, five days later, she was found sleeping at the doorstep; she was badly bruised and tired. 

The grandfather saw her and laughed; it was a hollow laugh. He was perhaps ashamed of himself.

Three years later she vanished the day the grandfather passed away.

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A post for Flash Fictionfor Aspiring Writers on a picture prompt

Word count 181