Five Sentence Fiction: Abandon

© Lisa Shambrook

Sabrina clasped Adam’s hand as they dashed into the split of rock at the foot of the towering cliff, and they tumbled to the floor in a giggling tangle of limbs and sodden clothes. Their hearts pounded and adrenalin surged, and the thin cotton t-shirts plastered to their skin held no further secrets.

Sabrina stared up into Adam’s dark eyes and let her fingers drag across his thigh, across his drenched jeans, her breath rasping with both exhaustion and desire. She forgot their picnic down in the meadow, now drowned beneath heaven’s cascade, and decided not to forsake her hunger…

The storm growled through the cave, like a rumbling belly, and behind the amorous couple a silent tail whipped patiently back and forth as the amused dragon’s main course and dessert quickly removed their packaging…

This prompt spoke to me in many ways…abandon…and this story idea made me smile, so I hope it tickled you too!

Fly over to Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction to see more!

Five Sentence Fiction: Offering

© Lisa Shambrook

Thanis sighed as the punishing wind swept billowing clouds of dust through the bare limbs of the grey elm forest. The vast apocalyptic landscape spread beyond her cracked windows and she hugged her child close as she glanced at the limp crop of leaves in her dusty yard.

A prayer slipped from her lips, a yearning petition to the gods, amid quiet words of desperation…

She turned from the grimy window and a gust howled across the basin, echoing her lamentation, and as she turned back a smile spread across her weary face. High above the valley, above the regimented elms on the mountainside, the wind blew the clouds aside and a shaft of light lit a glittering spray of rain – a true gift.

Dipping back into Five Sentence Fiction over at Lillie McFerrin…take a look at the other stories for the prompt word: Offering.

Five Sentence Fiction: Envy

© Lisa Shambrook

Kate’s eye twitched, and the corner of her pinched mouth began to rise, almost imperceptibly, but it did, curling into a sneer that even Kate wasn’t aware of. Slugs, not butterflies, churned in the pit of her stomach, writhing in the green acid of resentment as Kate sat across from her cheerful sister.

Emma chatted with purposefully casual words, and Kate gazed distractedly at the halo caused by the shaft of sunlight behind her sister’s bouncing ponytail.

Kate ignored the prickles that danced across her own skin and hurriedly retracted her hand as Emma tentatively reached across the table, squinting as both time and the sun moved slowly across the hall. Kate’s chest tightened as the warden called out and she caught Emma’s swallow and barely concealed smile, and her sister left with a spring in her step that her own stiff, burdened pace hadn’t seen in over two long years.

A visceral piece for Lillie McFerrin’s renowned Five Sentence Fiction…have a go yourself, with the prompt word Envy…

Five Sentence Fiction: Falling

Autumn’s Shroud – © Lisa Shambrook

He gently gripped the damp park bench, his gnarled fingers slipping against the lichen, soft and wet, on the underside of the silvered wood. Shivers scrambled up his knotted spine, cold and sharp like a spider with frozen legs, and he clutched at the collar of his worn jacket, his trembling fingers attempting to fasten the topmost button. Giving up, he sighed, and pulled his arthritic legs up tight; for a moment his teeth chattered and his legs shook uncontrollably and then his frail body stilled.

Frost glistened on the ground and a crinkled brown leaf, reminiscent of his wrinkled weathered face, slipped from the tree rooted beside his bench, and silently fell.

As the early hours dawned, autumn’s confetti floated down, finally draping humanity’s loss with nature’s shroud.

My Five Sentence Fiction for the week, based on the prompt word Falling…

Five Sentence Fiction: Hunger

Rain © Lisa Shambrook

The rain fell, heavy and abrupt, and before Lily had a chance to move she was soaked, the sky’s tears drenching her t-shirt and darkening her mud-splattered jeans. Shaking, dirt-ridden hands hung at her sides and she stared up into the roiling clouds as the heavens wept with her.

Lily bit her lip as her fingers trembled through her straggly tresses then she flung out her arms in defiance as she twirled; starved vengeance served as she whirled. Her hair spun out in heavy, water-laden rat-tails as she ravenously kicked up earth, and the rain danced on her skin and drummed upon the fresh mound under her feet.

Her laugh echoed as she buried far more than a corpse beneath the hammering of dawn’s heavy downpour.

Another Five Sentence Fiction for the word prompt Hunger…make of it what you will in its ambiguity!

Five Sentence Fiction: Grief

© Lisa Shambrook

“Pillarbox red…you know, red like that sexy scarlet lipstick I could never quite pull off…” Aggie’s laugh tinkled in the crisp morning air and she squeezed Harold’s arm. “Orange, well that speaks for itself, then there’s yellow, the kind that we all wore in the sixties or that they make those rubber ducks out of. Green…” she sighed, “the kind of green that spreads across the English countryside…fields and trees and hedges, that kind of green. Summer sky blue, and indigo, like a summer storm, a storm bearing down, broiling and threatening…and violet,” Aggie’s voice broke,  just for a moment, “like the stone in my ring, amethyst, like my engagement ring…that’s what it looks like…remember?”

Harold’s foggy eyes crinkled at the edges as he smiled and clasped Aggie’s hands tight within his own; he couldn’t see the tears, that rested like dewdrops on her wrinkled cheeks, any more than he could see the rainbow arcing across the sky, but he didn’t need his sight as long as he still had her.

My Five Sentence Fiction for the prompt word ‘grief’ over at Lillie McFerrin’s.

Five Sentence Fiction: Conflict

Conflict © Lisa Shambrook

It’s the weight, heavy and constant, which tightens my determination.

Gunfire rattles across the barbed wire and I run, my legs aching and my shoulders on fire. Nerves tingle as the metal within my grip bites into my fingers welding the weapon to my hands. Cold sweat forms, dripping from my brow, and I shift my hefty backpack, but the weight sits firm.

Guilt and desire battle in equal measure and my heart resounds and ricochets like a cannon locked within my ribcage, as I lift my gun…and kill.

 

This week’s prompt over at Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction is conflict…go and read the other tales!

Five Sentence Fiction: Fenced

Please do not use without permission © Lisa Shambrook

She stared at the metal chain link, just as she did every day, sitting cross-legged, chin cupped in hands, elbows on knees.

There was nothing beyond, truly nothing, but sky…and clouds. The sandy, dirt scrub, ten feet from the high, barbed wire fence, dropped away, away into nothing, a void, and everyone knew there was nothing below, nothing at all. Though the world, the whole rest of the world stretched for hundreds, nay thousands, of miles behind her, she preferred to stare at the precipice beyond the fence; it both calmed and excited her at the same time.

So when hands, scrabbling, dirty and grazed hands, appeared clawing over the top of the cliff, at the very edge of the world – her mouth dropped and she grabbed the chain link, and she knew life was about to change!

Just five sentences…go read the other great entries for the prompt: Fenced over at Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction.

Five Sentence Fiction: Fairywings and Marriage

Fairywings © Lisa Shambrook

Stars twinkled in the indigo sky and the tiny chain of fairies made their way down through the purple aubrietia, just inches from Tally’s dirty knees. A small crowd had already gathered beneath the hawthorn, but Tally’s beady eyes remained fixed upon the tiny fairy that sashayed at the head of the procession.

Diminutive drops of diamond dew glistened upon the pink London pride that weaved through the imp’s hair, and wood anemone petals draped her body, tied with a delicate belt of gossamer silk. She carried pale speedwell and tiny alpine blooms, and trailed dandelion wishes and baby’s breath as she fluttered her gauzy wings, and elegantly walked down the nodding forget-me-not aisle to her princely suitor.

Six-year-old Tally blinked incredulously, shrugging off the chill as she wriggled beneath the rhubarb, ignoring the shrill call from her mother; she wasn’t going to miss this for anything, and certainly not for bedtime!

Another Five Sentence Fiction…this time dedicated to Lillie McFerrin and her forthcoming nuptials…this is for you Lillie… x

 

Five Sentence Fiction: Innocence

Iced Wings © Lisa Shambrook

The air was still, the aluminium table, cold, and the professor watched transfixed as the butterfly fluttered before his nose. Its fragile wings whispered against his unshaven cheek as he gently unscrewed the Petri dish lid and squeezed a silver drop from his pipette, watching it spread like tiny veins across the honeyed glaze.

Enticed by the sweet aroma the butterfly floated to the dish to imbibe and as it did, crystals swept across the creature’s entire body in frosted feathers of rime.

The professor stared in wonder at the intricate lattice of silver coating the butterfly’s wings in a work of exquisite art, his own hand imitating Jack Frost, and he leaned in close. Warmth from his breath gilded the frozen creature and filigree lace glistened, and regret shaded his features as one delicate touch shattered the butterfly into a million sparkles, like a burst bubble.

What’s your take on innocence?
Write your own Five Sentence Fiction and take a look at the other contributions!