Seventy Third Friday Flash: Antopia

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“Come on, or we are going to be late!”

Manny clicked his mandibles in frustration. “I don't want to.”

“Do you want to learn about your past or not?”

“Okay, okay,” said Manny dragging himself away from his computer.

It was a five minute tunnel ride to the event. It was decidedly low key considering how much his big sister had been harping on about it. About a hundred other sectoids at most.

“You have me here, now what?”

His big sister shook her oval head, her compound eyes showing disappoint in him. “Such little respect. You see his gray hair and the languid way he moves?”

Manny was thinking about getting back to his game. The thing before was so fleshy and hairy, it made him cringe. “Yeah.”

“They say he's old, not much time to live, lost his appetite for food and life when his partner died.”

“And, doesn't it have a Queen, isn't there millions more of them?”

“That's the fascinating thing, there were millions of them, billions of them in fact, until a disease wiped most of them out a long time ago. Scientists found remnants of a colony underground. Breeding programs were tried. None worked. I suspect maybe they were too old and most of them had the same sexual equipment.”

Manny shrugged. “A bummer for them.”

“I don't know why I even bother.”

“Okay,” Manny went up to the glass tank. The old shriveled creature seemed to regard him with open fear. “I'm sorry you guys were wiped out and stuff. Better luck next time.” Manny whipped around. “See, are you happy now?”

“I should slap you,” said his sister raising two of her left limbs up in the air.

“Try it and I will tell mom.”

His sister shook her head. “I wonder if our species will fair any better than this poor soul and his people in the long run.”

“With annoying sisters like you around I doubt it.”

:”You know what I think this guy is the lucky one, let's go home so you can get back to your precious game.”

“Yay!”  

Seventy Second Friday Flash: Love Beyond Death

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“You're doing it wrong,” said his girlfriend.

“Woman!” said Hamill with a mouth full of foamy toothpaste. “Will you leave me in peace!”

“Ha! If it wasn't for me your teeth would have fallen out by now.”

“And for that I thank you, my dear,” said Hamill, his voice softening.

Hamill spat out the toothpaste and gargled water before turning around and walking straight though his girlfriend. For you see his girlfriend Angie was dead. She had been for over a year now, but it hadn't meant that she had stopped telling him what to do.

oOo

“Slow down,” she said. “Your work isn't going anywhere.”

She sat next to him like she always had. Her mother was an English teacher and her father a concert pianist. Prim and proper described her to the bone. Her eyes watching his every move. It had been different when she was alive. Then he could keep her quiet with a kiss on her beautiful lips.

At first he thought it was madness of the grief he was going through that produced the manifestation. Over time it became all real, even some of his friends and family swore they saw glimpses of her.

oOo

“Sit up straight!” she said from over his shoulder at work.

“Yes dear,” he mumbled.

“Talking to yourself again?” asked a coworker.

“Yup,” said Hamill with a sigh. He had given up trying to fight the reputation that he spoke to himself.

oOo

Hamill snapped when he was eating food with his hands.

“How many times have I told you to use utensils!”

“Why couldn't you have stayed dead!” he growled.

Hamill instantly felt guilty and his heart sank when he saw the shock and hurt look on her ethereal face. He approached her to try comfort her, but she disappeared before he could. With a heavy heart he carried on with the rest of the day's duties. The incident playing over and over in his mind, wishing he had reacted differently.

Expecting to see Angie waiting in the car, he was sad she wasn't there. He leaned against the door and cried. Maybe her soul was finally in a happy place.

Driving along slowly back home he was taken by surprise when an unseen force slammed his foot into the accelerator. The only thing he saw before the truck hit him was Angie's lips mouthing the words “I love you.”

Seventy First Friday Flash: The Great Eggscape

Rimotar had never been so scared in his life before. A biting beak of death was only feet away from him, ready to snatch him away even if he relaxed for a second. To make things worse the egg he had stolen was definitely hatching.

Another part of the egg shell fell away. Rimotar inched forward with one eye on the mother griffin that appeared to be resting just outside his rock overhang. He peered within, a small front paw shot out and scratched his face quite badly.

“Ah!” he shouted. He was bleeding from three places now.

The tiny griffin busted out of the rest of the shell. It snapped its jaw and scratched at the ground, squealing as it did so.

“Shh!” hissed Rimotar with his finger on his lips. It was of little use, the mother was shifting her weight to have a look.

Scrambling, Rimotar had only one option, he covered himself in the gooey remnants of the egg. The mother looked in with her big head, the baby griffin crawled out. Rimotar followed suit. Hoping the covering would disguise him as one of her own.

The mother griffin sniffed the baby griffin, satisfied it nuzzled its head against it, crooning as she did so. Next she went up to the slowly moving away Rimotar. Rimotar paused. She sniffed him and then looked at him with its big eyes. This was it, Rimotar's mother would discover his mutilated body later and that will be end of him. The griffin moved in closer and rubbed her head against him. Rimotar found it oddly comforting.

Rimotar wondered if she didn't see him as a threat anymore or that she wanted him as a snack for her young ones. The thought made Rimotar shiver in dread. The baby griffin came over and yapped at her feet. Squawking she grabbed them both and took them up to the nest, just in time to see that the other eggs were hatching too.

Rimotar edged away, trying to escape, but she was a sharp one and pulled him back. For almost a day Rimotar suffered many more scratches and bites and having to eat raw meat because the mother griffin was expecting him too was not something he wanted to relive.

Then the next morning one of the babies leaped for freedom, and the mother went after it. Seeing his chance Rimotar went for it. The other two squawked in protest, but their mother was too far away to hear.

Exhausted from the climb up the cliff face Rimotar collapsed under a bush for shelter. For the next couple of hours Rimotar caught bits of sleep as the mother griffin came searching for him minutes at a time. She didn't want to leave her young ones alone for too long.

After an hour of stumbling and resting Rimotar eventually crashed through the kitchen door of his family home.

“Rimotar! My baby!”

“I love you mum.”

She hugged him tight. “You are never leaving the house again!”

“I don't plan to.”

“And mom, it's true, I can use magic.”

“Your father won't be pleased.”

“I know.”