I’m always thankful for Priceless Joy who hosts Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers (75 – 175 words); and I also want to thank to TJ Paris for providing the inspiring photo prompt this week. If you haven’t heard of or joined this challenge, please do yourself a favor and check out PJ’s blog for more details and entertaining entries. You won’t regret it.
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Now to the story:
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He stops holding my hand as the butterfly lands on the jaded cactus beside me.
“I made my peace with it, Bonnie. Now you need to.”
We sit down, and I dig my heels into the burning ocean of yellow sand.
“I’m sorry, but I—”
“Don’t have a choice.” My throat tightens.
Sighing, he kisses my temple.
I cover my ears, but my hands fail to muffle the bang! His dead weight drops against my shoulder, and I just sit there, holding my breath, until his blood seeps into my shirt.
Gasping, I jerk away. His body falls to the dirt, face first.
I can’t stop. Not the crying. Not the rocking back and forth.
It takes so many heartbeats for me to get the fire going. And I do it. I eat him.
Of course after cleaning him, throwing up, and pounding my fists against my head a few times to beat in some kind of courage to live through this. To survive.
As I chew on his meat, I whisper . . .
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(173 words)
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Isabelle-grabs-life 
Very dark and very clever, just my kind of writing 🙂 nicely done!
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Lol thanks. Thrilled to know you loved it 😀
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I was so confused at the beginning. I mean, what made him to kill himself. By the end, I was like, oh my gosh, he gave his life so she could survive another day, or two. It felt gross yet sweet at the time and now, great, I can’t get the image of her eating him out of my head! A very nice and kind of romantic and scary story. 🙂
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Wow! Thanks for such a detailed reaction. It’s amazing to read the transition of your thoughts and feelings. This is more than what I even hoped to get. Are you still imagining her eating him? Lol
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Now that you’ve mentioned it, yeah. Thanks a lot! 😀
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A great contrast between the butterfly image and the violence. I thought she was some kind of zombie vampire.
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Aw, thanks for noting the contrast. And ha! The interpretation of a zombie vampire could fit
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Very intense. You capture her transformation after his sacrificial suicide well. 🙂
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Gasp! I can’t thank you enough for saying this. I free wrote, but I was kind of worried the transformation would feel contrived. I didn’t want that, so yay! *Hugs*
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Wow! I was not ready for the death… much less the second event! Well done? Is this how cannibals end it? Romantic and disgusting… my mind is garbled and confused! (I enjoyed it!)
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It’s freaky how you enjoyed it, huh? Lol. I really really (had to say it twice) love the way you expressed your jumbled and intrigued reaction. Cannibals, survivalists, zombie vampires … the list continues 😀 😀 😀
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All I could think of is, “Yikes! How did a picture of a butterfly create this story?” LOL! It isn’t funny at all because it is so dark but not dark if he killed himself as a sacrifice to save her. Great story Izzy!
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LOL! Thanks, PJ. I guess my mind is a scarier place than I thought. When I first saw this photo prompt, I heard Ron Weasley in my head asking in distress, “Why couldn’t it be ‘Follow the butterflies’?” Then I thought about survival and started free writing from there. This was the beautifully horrifying result.
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I was kidding more than anything Izzy. It was a great story! It just surprised me because it is so different.
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Oh, no, I knew you meant it from a good place (just surprised) 😀 lol
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LOL!
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This story is very dark, but very good as well! It’s disturbing, but at the same time rather touching that he killed himself so she could live.
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Yes, exactly! The duality of it being disturbing and touching is one of the top things I wanted readers to feel. That was my own reaction, so I’m very happy I can share it with you and my other fellow writers. ^_^
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Not a fate I would wish on anyone. Yikes!!
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Oh my! What did I just read! That end came out of no where, it’s bloody brilliant Izzy! You capture a lot in those 173 words. Great job!
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A wonderfully dark story, Izzy. Their situation must be incredibly bleak for him to make such a sacrifice! Really well done. 🙂
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Ok I have to be honest here, when I finished reading it I said Ewwww…and just sat here not knowing what to think. I know that’s certainly not what I was expecting…then I read everybody’s comments and yours back and then reread the story and I have come to the conclusion that I couldn’t do it. I’d die first, I could not eat someone, especially if it’s someone I love…but in a wonderfully twisted way this definitely makes one pause to think about it all! The more I write the more I’m loving what you did here…at first I did not but now I think it’s brilliant!! Oh ya, what did she whisper…”thank you”, “I love you”, what, what was it? 😉
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I don’t think I could eat him, but then I can’t even debone a chicken. I too thought, wow, how did that come from a butterfly. But it was a spring board to a great story.
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Brilliant writing and it sure had my emotions in a stir! I doubt I could even take one bite, but you never know what you are capable of until you are faced with it…especially in this kind of situation.
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