A Change in Direction :: 50 Word Short Story
A day early am I. @jayna's Fifty Word Story Challenge typically awaits me at the end of my Friday workday. This time around, however, I will be out of town Friday and Saturday, and must plan ahead.
The prompt this week: change
I wrote a couple days ago about winds of change in my life, my not unexpected yearly migration north for the summer. I do hope the events in this short story do not come to fruition, but I admit I thought about it as I face the long 1500 mile trek ahead. As such, that is the basis for my story.
Our car spun on black ice, a blur of changing directions. My wife screamed, our daughter in back flung against her seatbelt.
We hit the guardrail with a crunch of metal and a spray of glass.
Life changed forever for two of us that day, and ended for the third.
Title image by @negativer using Canva
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There you are in prime form, @negativer!
Okay, I know what you're up to, young man! Yes, that's right, I'm onto you. If I'm not mistaken, your personal challenge is to write a dark story where it's not possible for me (or anyone) to suggest an alternative ending in which the apparently dire circumstances aren't dire at all! It's all a misunderstanding... nobody dies... the princess meets the prince... everyone lives happily ever after. Am I right?
I'm sorry! You got me. That is indeed my goal.
I just got back from a trip to Disneyworld, though, and my head is full of princesses and flute music and fairy dust.
It's entirely possible my next story will have an ending where everything turns out...not so bad.
Aww, you been swept away on a cloud of fairy dust at last! Welcome to my world. 😊
So you're my type? all endings must be happy or (at least) ambiguous?
Yes. @negativer and I have a long-standing hilarious tete-a-tete on this issue. I will never convert him to an optimist and he will never get me to kill off my characters, but it’s fun to debate it endlessly.😊
Endlessly...until it ends.
:(
50 words can say so much dude!
They say about 50 words, but you're right; all the rest of the context is from your own head. Thanks for reading!
The screen sprung showing "Game Over" and I put the VR device down in dejection.
Ahhh...nice try! :) Too bad there weren't enough words left to make it a happy ending.
Everyone dies
You seem to have summed up my niche...a little too accurately.
No!! someone must be alive... r- right?
I like the implied horror in this post: we don’t know who died and who lives to tell the tale, yet someone died.
Thanks! If nothing else, it makes you think a bit afterwards, and that's the goal of any writer (along with making huge sacks of money)
Haha, that's true. (Especially the last part.)
So impressive... Respect! The amount of emotion and meaning you condensed into such a small amount of words... Worthy to win ant contest. Bravo! :-)
Thanks!
Love your avatar. I was a huge fan of Bleach during its run.
It was the narrators life and they are explaining events from beyond the grave 👻
What a twist
Actually, that would be a decent angle. Probably been done a zillion times before, so you'd need another twist after it.
Then turns he's just in a coma for 20 years and he as ghost thought he was dead, the grave he was (supposedly) narrating from, is actually a grave of someone with similar name who have died in the same day.
And after he wakes up he won't believe it until he checks that grave and discover how the name is different, everyone have a good laugh until someone says "But how did you know about this grave when you were in the coma?"
And the narrator freaks out about his whole ghost thing!!
How about above for a twist?
And he's Neg has officially returned to us with his tragic stories.
But....SERIOUSLY????
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming
I wonder who died of the three,
The cover image reminds me of GTA's "Wasted" for some reason.
Aha...I know what you're describing from GTA.
But yea, the question is who of the three. Probably not the narrator, but @cizzo suggested a way that could still be the case. Thx for reading!
Well, damn. Excellent hanger there and lovely dark story.
Thanks Anike!