This sounds cool! I've never written flash ficton, but I'm sure I could. 300 words, you say? Hmm...

Topppppppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New prompt: Less than 150 words, a story about hamburgers. GO!

Just so you know, this story is 234 words long. 150 is kind of a low maximum, even for Flash Fiction. I was always taught that it needed a surprise ending, too...so here you go! ;)

Told You So

"...and because you never know what could be in them, that's why!"

I sigh. Emmy the staunch vegetarian. Thinks eating meat is unforgivably cruel. And not only that, she's also convinced that amusement park hamburgers are made from horse gristle or dog food or some such nasty thing.

"Whatever. You never know what could be in that salad, either."

The famous Emmy scowl. She stabs a cucumber slice with her fork, viciously.

************

Amusement parks are kinda creepy in the dark. For all I know, the roller coaster could be a dragon coiling in the star-strewn sky. 

"Remember the dare," Emmy whispers. "Go all the way in, steal one of the trash bags from the hamburger stand, get back out and show it to Jeff."

I take a bag from right beside the industrial-size grill. It's tough climbing back over the fence with one hand full of oily plastic, but I manage.

"Well? Whatcha got?"

I hand Jeff my spoils. "This is where they put the ground-meat packages and stuff. Whatever they couldn't use when they were making the burgers. I think."

Jeff opens the bag. Pokes his hand in. Grimaces. Slides something long and gray out. Holds it up to the sodium-orange streetlight.

It's a squirrel tail, caked at one end with dried blood.

The hamburger I ate this afternoon turns in my stomach.

Emmy grins evilly. "Told you so." 

That sounds cool.

It would be easier for us: because we can't write long stories. 

My story, titled The Sun

I stand at an impossible dilemma, one side no better than the other. I stand at a switch that will decide the world. You must see, I am a bad person. I have no moral besides "protect myself". 

The year is 20137. I am a Sun Watcher. My job is to watch the sun, and make sure when it supernovas, the energy is contained. But today is the day the supernova happens. Earth no longer needs the sun. After turning Venus into an artificial sun, infinitely more stable than our real sun, Earth became a paradise. Food was easier to grow, and water could be artificially made. Wars were only a device for the plot of movies. But the catch was the old Sun. So that is how we Sun Watchers came into being. 

So as I said before, the sun is going into supernova. The shield around the sun was designed to absorb the energy. I was, according to the protocol, to go into the escape pod and flip a switch up to activate the shields. I look at the computer screen. No, no. It shows a red X. I can't eject in time. I have two options: stay here and burn, or kill every other human. Well, not the humans on colonies, but without Earth, they will slowly die as well. I am not valiant, but when you have 5 minutes to either commit suicide or destroy Earth, you tend to feel selfless. 

My eyes glued to the screen, my hands shaking, I think, panic stricken, about my options. There are exactly 8 deep-space colonies, 2 of which are self sustaining. Ah, yes. The asteroid colony. I can get there in a few hours. But the sun. I steady myself, taking the risk of a lifetime. 

I flip the force field switch, at the same time hitting the eject button. I grab the throttle, sending the escape pod well past five times the speed of light. I fall into the escape pod seat, hoping not to hit a black hole or a star. 

I slowly stop the escape pod. I turn slowly towards the sun. It smolders against the shield, but Earth looks fine. I lean forward to look at the sun in more detail, pushing up the throttle accidentally. It takes me a minute to figure out what happened, but by then, I was helpless. 

"Oh, well", I think as I hurtle towards the sun at light speed, I knew my options from the start: kill myself and save Earth, or destroy Earth and save myself

New prompt: The smiley face of doom. It has to be 100 words long. Yes, 100 words. Challange yourself. Work on staying on topic and cutting out extra words. Remember, it can be something like

I ran away from the yellow orb hovering just above me. It’s creepy black eyes and fixed smile glares back as I turn in horror. I dodge down an ally, and through a park. Why did I try to use magic to make everyone happy? I should have listened to the Grand Enchanter. He told me this would happen. I trip over a tree root, and roll over onto my back. Glaring from overhead, blotting out the sun, is the Happy Face of Doom.

Ohmygosh I don't think I'll ever eat a burger again...

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Ok, this is Gared. I would like to do a short story/flash fiction contest. Here are the rules:

One entry

Less than 450 words

Medius Res (It has to start in the action)

I am the judge

There will be two winners: Most original plot & best storytelling. The first place winners of both will be the MCs of a new thread I will create, with the winner's input.

Have fun!

Ok, here is the prompt: music is powerful. Do something that involves music being powerful. The due-date is July 30, 2016. No late entries. And your work can be any genre. Ok, ready to go?