Woohoo!! Fun times are afoot today, because it's the start of the Spooktoberfest blogfest, hosted by Jackie Felger and Dani Bertrand. The aim of this game is to write a piece of flash fiction (300 words or less) that contains the following 5 words:
cobweb(s), cauldron(s), jack-o-latern(s), ghost(s), razor(s)
For more info, check out the link above! There is a really cool prize for the winner, too, and it's international!
Anyway, here is my entry, which according to Microsoft Word is 296 words long:
Ghosts of annoying lovers past assault me as I step out into the steamy cauldron of a spring day in Perth, head pounding with a nauseating hangover. Puffy white clouds leer at me like jack-o-lanterns from overhead and I glower to show the world just what I think.
Why is it always me who has to do the walk of shame? Why don’t these one night stands ever happen at my place? And why must I always be the ultimate cliché and lose a shoe somewhere along the way?
I hobble gingerly along a weedy garden path to the front gate and push through it, crying out in pain as a stray bit of wire digs its razor-blade sharpness into my right love handle. I take a moment, closing my eyes and drawing deep breaths to clear the cobwebs from my mind. And to try to unclench this damn jaw. ‘Cause this is no way to start off a day.
Suddenly a high-pitched voice calls out from a short distance away—a horribly familiar voice: “Martha? Is that you?!”
I open my eyes and no, I haven’t imagined it—that really is my mother across the street, squinting at me in confusion then disbelief. Frantically I look around for a street sign and find one. Dread flowers inside me as I realise why last night’s conquest looked so familiar. Mum’s best friend’s son really has grown into a hottie. But now I know he lives across the road from his mother—directly across the road—and if his bad morning breath wasn’t a deal breaker, this totally is.
“Martha! I don’t believe it.” Mum’s completely scandalised. “Why are you— How— Where is your shoe?”
Fitting, really, that today is October 31st. Halloween has never been scarier.
