Welcome to this week’s installment of many micro stories, ranging in length from 100 words to 500 words.
With each story we hope to deliver a little whimsy into the lives of our readers.
THE GRAVEYARD
The graveyard was choked with weeds, glitching Greg’s camera with bursts of static. Something scurried in the underbrush, but nothing was visible.
“It’s a mess,” he said. “Shoulda brought a weed whacker.”
Melody shook her head. “Buncha cowards.” She crouched, sighting across the weeds for the few tombstones poking above them, until she picked out the tallest. “There.”
And then she was gone, whisked into the weeds by the scurrying things, whatever they were.
The rest didn’t stick around to find out.
They just found bones deposited on their porches until all of Melody’s skeleton was reunited with her erstwhile friends.
Dawn Vogel has written for children, teens, and adults, spanning genres, places, and time periods. More than 100 of her stories and poems have been published by small and large presses. Her specialties include young protagonists, siblings who bicker but love each other in the end, and things in the water that want you dead. She is a member of SFWA and Codex Writers. She lives in Seattle with her awesome husband (and fellow author), Jeremy Zimmerman, and their cats. Visit her at historythatneverwas.com, on BlueSky @historyneverwas, and on Instagram @scarywhitegirl12.
If you enjoyed this story you can find it and more in the Hawthorn & Ash 2023 anthology.
Iron Faerie Publishing 