Miniature Fiction

Eight of them perched like grotesque leaves on the gnarled tree by the side of the road, and as Amy approached she began to regret the curiosity that had drawn her into the woods. Cradled in the skeletal roots of the tree lay the thing responsible for the congregation of flesh-eating birds: a bloated and rotting human corpse that was missing its face.

- MarielQ

Cheryl hadn’t completely ruled out renting the room in the huge boarding house, set back on a winding driveway in the center of two acres of rolling green lawn and weeping cherry trees, until she saw the contents of the closet at the top stairs.  There, in the pink and white wallpapered walk-in closet, hung a navy blue jumpsuit stained with something that looked like chocolate syrup but definitely wasn’t.  He could have been a mechanic, she thought later as she sped away, but it was much more likely that he was a deranged homicidal maniac who lusted for the blood of teenagers on specific holidays and/or days of the week.

- MarielQ, find this guest author on the twitter machine @MarielQ

“What happened to the construction workers?” she asked. “They were decapitated by the barber’s scissors,” he replied.

- MarielQ

Danny thought it was hilarious to joke that his cat Michael Myers had not eaten for a week. He found it less funny when Michael Myers ate most of his forehead later that day.

- MarielQ

Follow this guest on twitter at @MarielQ

“I’ll never be married,” mused the middle-aged woman as she sipped on free champagne and watched with shameful bitterness as a toddler in a tuxedo chased a group of newborn ducks. “I’m going to become one of those angry spinsters who’s mean to children and gives her cats people names.”

- MarielQ

Follow this frequent guest on the twitter machine @MarielQ

“Come on out to the fire pit guys, it’s a beautiful night!” Danny called to his two grumpy friends. Matt, unable to tolerate the idea of another evening full of fresh air and camaraderie, picked up a hatchet and lodged it firmly in Danny’s skull. Hungry for marshmallows and murder, Albert pushed Matt into the fire and toasted a full skewer of the pillowy white confections over his charred flesh.

- Mariel Q Follow Mariel on the twitter machine @MarielQ

Her mother’s skepticism, her coworkers’ derision and even that commercial she’d seen just the other day for a free background check service designed specifically for the Match.com crowd hadn’t deterred Cara from the prospect of fishing Mr. Right out of the internet dating pool. She’d even chuckled a little at the absurdly morbid thought that maybe ending up a serial killer’s latest victim would be preferable to eternal spinsterhood.  It wasn’t until he started pulling out her fingernails with a rusty pair of pliers that she reconsidered. 

- Mariel

“Last week the yellow and the orange bell peppers were the same price as the green ones! Do you have any idea how excited I was?!” Margot exclaimed to a half-listening coworker. It was at this exact moment she realized she would die alone.

- Mariel Q

Follow this guest on the twitter machine @MarielQ  

I tried to shake the dread, groping in my mind for relief that it was over, but as I walked toward the light a gaping hole opened in the earth and I fell into its blackness, my stomach in my throat. When I opened my eyes I saw his face, lit by a flame. It was a shredded tangle of skin dripping blood over exposed bones, its mouth was open in a scream and it moved toward me.

- Mariel

Follow this guest on the twitter device @MarielQ

I turned and swung the bag with all the force my arms could create, catching him squarely on the left ear and sending him flying face-first onto the tracks. He crumbled there and I was sure he was dead, until just before the train came and I saw him stir. A wave of blood covered the platform, and all the bystanders, and me. 

- Mariel

Follow this guest writer on the twitter machine @MarielQ