I started a group on Facebook called Flash Fiction Fridays.
This is for Authors to play around with their craft and readers and fans to see what words they devise. Prompts will be given out in the middle of the month, and the Flash Fiction stories (less than 1000 words) will be posted on the First Friday of the month on Facebook and then spotlighted here on my blog throughout the month.
These flash fiction prompts challenge you to create short and gripping narratives that are under 1000 words. All writing remains the intellectual property of the contributing author and should not be shared without permission.
The prompt for April is: (authors must use this as the first sentence…the rest is up to them)
“No matter how many times I deactivated it, or changed the time, or the volume level in the settings menu, my phone chirped every day at 21:55.”
Cage
by Ellie Masters (copyright April 2017)
No matter how many times I deactivated it, or changed the time, or the volume level in the settings menu, my phone chirped every day at 21:55. There was nothing I could do about it. I was cursed and tied to the end of his leash.
I had worked out a pretty solid routine. My way of beating his system, even if I was cutting it a little too close tonight. Technically, it wasn’t my fault. It had been hard to leave the club when that man-meat buffet swaggered in. I licked my tongue over my upper teeth, then swept up the drool threatening to dribble out the corner of my mouth. Damn, Danny Trent was the hottest senior boy in school.
He and his posse made their grand entrance five minutes before I had to leave. Curly, black hair and dark smoldering eyes entranced me from across the room. I had no choice but to stop, stare, and drool. Yeah, me and all the other girls: you know the ones, short skirts, perky tits, and perfect hair. Of course, I only had two of those three attributes, and not the pair Danny’s hands most preferred. My flat chest made me invisible to the Wolverine’s star quarterback.
His panty-melting gaze glided right past me and settled on Dana Dwight and her devastating double-D’s. She stood five desperate girls to my left, twirling her chestnut locks around her finger. His blind dismissal of me was probably the only thing that saved his life.
I huffed, jumping off the barstool and grabbed my keys. My nails scraped long divots into the wood of the bar. I gave a furtive glance, but no one noticed, so I scuttled my ass right out of the club. The neon bar clock flashed the time, a flickering devil-red glow, ten-minutes behind schedule.
Screwed didn’t even begin to describe the trouble that would come of this.
I missed the light at Broad and Main. Five more minutes lost. My hands cramped gripping the wheel and my teeth ached from grinding my jaw. A throbbing nuisance settled at the base of my skull. Booze didn’t sit well with me, but I was a rebellious shit. I sped a little, trying to make up time, and for a moment I thought that cop was going to pull me over. I definitely didn’t have time to spare chatting up our friends in blue. My nails clicked with impatience, tapping an urgent tune.
But, I made it by the hairs of my chinny-chin-chin. Don’t judge my metaphors. The doors to the garage slid closed with the screech of metal on metal. Getting out of the car was a bit tricky. Cramped from gripping the wheel, my fingers didn’t want to straighten. My long nails caught on the door latch, costing extra seconds I didn’t have. Kicking off my heels—how I hated wearing those things—my feet contacted the cool concrete.
I raced the ten steps to the cage, opened, then lunged inside. I slammed the door and bolted it shut with a full thirty-seconds to spare. My hands barely worked the lock, but I snapped it shut.
That had been close. Too fucking close.
With a loud beep, the alarm on my phone sounded, 21:55.
An annoying text popped in from my dad. ‘I hope you made curfew, my little wolf.’
And if I hadn’t made it back? Bastard was playing with fire. I could have killed someone when I turned.
Pure torture is what this curse was. My social life was taking a beating. Seriously, in this day and age who had a ten o’clock curfew? And prom was coming up. Although, daddy assured me the wolf curse would be lifted before then. I needed my nights back. How else would I be able to seduce Danny Trent? I was already looking into a set of double-D enhancements and my love potion wouldn’t miss if I had those to assist.
Danny didn’t know it yet, but he was going to be mine. Or, he would be if I didn’t accidentally eat him before then.
An itching rippled down my spine. The change was upon me. I howled my frustration into the night and cursed one very overprotective father.
