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.

REM

He’s dead.

How do I know? It’s obvious.

The taut skin covering his face is ash gray, stands out against the whiteness of the pillow. His mouth is slightly open, but no breath comes from between his dry lips. His frail chest does not rise or fall.

If I pressed my fingers against his wrist, I wouldn’t feel a pulse. No fog would settle on the mirror held to his nostrils.

Despite all of this, under tightly closed eyelids, his eyes are making rapid movements.

As I straighten his sheets, I wonder if he ever dreams about me.

Jacek Wilkos is an engineer from Poland. He lives with his wife and two daughters in a beautiful city of Cracow. He is addicted to buying books, he loves black coffee, dark ambient music and anything that’s spooky. First he published his fiction in Polish online magazines, but in 2019 he started to translate his writing to English, and so far it was published in numerous anthologies by Black Hare Press, Black Ink Fiction, Alien Buddha Press, Eerie River Publishing, Insignia Stories, Reanimated Writers Press, Iron Faerie Publishing, KJK publishing, Wicked Shadow Press, CultureCult, Clarendon House Publications.

If you enjoyed this drabble you can find it and more in the Hawthorn & Ash 2023 anthology.

AVAILABLE HERE!

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.

Idore

Idore. He murmured her name as he dreamed.

She’d left four days ago, and he hadn’t heard from her. Had she taken her spell bag? He couldn’t find it in the cabin.

After a restless sleep, he went outside. The sun was rising; it looked like a nice day. He put on gloves and started digging in the garden.

He heard her voice on the wind–she was back! He looked up at the sky, but to his horror, she was walking.

“Where are your wings?!” he cried.

She shrugged off his concern.

“I don’t need magic to be happy.”

Kelly Matsuura writes diverse YA, fantasy, and literary fiction.

She is the Creator of ‘The Insignia Series’ anthologies (Asian fantasy themed) and has had stories published with Ink & Locket Press, A Murder of Storytellers, Visibility Fiction, and many more.

Kelly lives in Nagoya, Japan with her geeky husband. She loves traveling, knitting, cooking, and of course, reading.

Visit her at: http://www.blackwingsandwhitepaper.com https://www.facebook.com/writerkmatsuura/

If you enjoyed this drabble you can find it and more in the Hawthorn & Ash 2019 anthology.

AVAILABLE HERE!