100 Themes 031 - Flowers

The last piece for Oxy. The real thing will be here someday, promise.

Robert turned the flower over in his hand. A lily, pale white, stamens heavy with pollen. He held it up to the light, catching the delicate tracery of veins in the glow from the phoslight.

“And you found this... where?” he asked.

The young man sitting on the other side of his cluttered desk gulped down air. He was one of the furthest patrols in the area and there was no telling how far or fast he had run to get this back to base.

short storySteve CookFebruary 29, 2012100 themes, mutants, oxy, vignetteComment

100 Themes 030 - Under The Rain

This one fitted the idea for Oxy really well; a world too polluted to live out in the open, unless you had filters which you kept refreshed with precious oxygen. The rain was acid and only mutants could survive in it for long.

This one flowed easily.

short storySteve CookFebruary 19, 2012100 themes, oxy, prejudice, vignetteComment

100 Themes 029 - Happiness

Grozchev was the antagonist for Oxy, my NaNo piece. He's a truly horrible person; I like making horrible people. They're so much fun to write about!

Definitely going to finish Oxy sometime.

He says.

short storySteve CookFebruary 10, 2012100 themes, fighting, oxy, vignetteComment

100 Themes 028 - Sorrow

Another piece for the failed NaNo entry. Meela, as a character, stayed in, as did Richard from the previous Theme.

Meela stared out the window. The rain spattered against the pane, droplets combining to form rivulets that dribbled down over the windowsill and fell the twenty storeys to the ground. Her forehead rested against the cold glass, breath misting up a small circle.

“Why do you have to go?” she had cried.

“If we want a healthy child, I have to go.” He had been so careful to keep his expression warm, loving, despite her outburst. Damn him, he had always been so good at that.

short storySteve CookFebruary 1, 2012100 themes, oxy, sci-fi, vignetteComment

100 Themes 027 - Foreign

This was originally designed to be a taster piece for my NaNoWriMo 2011 work. Ultimately, I didn't like that and never completed it. It will definitely come here as a short piece, though; it deserves to be finished.

The setting is somewhat more sci-fi than most of my stuff, too; perhaps I tried too much change all at once. Anyway, here it is! This and the next few of the 100 Themes were for NaNo, but obviously with different focuses.

short storySteve CookJanuary 27, 2012100 themes, nanowrimo, oxy, sci-fi, vignette Comment

Short Stories