“Plucked From The Pages Of History” is the prior week’s challenge, and I ask — nay, demand! — you go check it out. Right now. No, no, I’ll wait.
Revenge. Powerful topic, innit? To strike back. To give what they got comin’.
To pay a debt that burns deep in the heart like a smoldering coal.
So, that’s what I want you to write about.
Revenge.
Here’s the trick, though — it is such a potent subject, and yet I want you to increase its potency by compressing the story’s density like the aforementioned coal until a sharp and deadly diamond is formed.
You do not have 1000 words.
You only have 100.
And again, we’re talking a complete story in 100 words, not a poetic exercise, not a vignette captured in time, not the beginning of a story or just its ending. The whole kaboodle. An entire tale.
Doesn’t matter what genre. Crime is an easy one, but don’t feel married to that. Fantasy? Sci-fi? Erotica? Whatever you want, throw it at the wall, see what sticks.
From that bunch I’ll pick a favorite and that winner will get a copy of my newest writing-related e-book in PDF format. REVENGE OF THE PENMONKEY. Chock full of inkslinging goodness.
I still prefer you post the 100 words at your own site, but if you don’t have one, you can deposit the tale in the comments below. Make sure to link to your story if posted elsewhere.
You’ve got the usual week. September 9th, by noon EST.
Now, get to sinning. It’s time to enact your vengeance.
EDIT:
AHEM.
I have chosen.
Not one, but five favorites. As always,a hard choice, but that’s life in the big city.
The five (all of whom need to contact me to procure a free copy of ROTPM):
Bob Bois
Samantha Mathis
Jess Hartley
CY Reid
Amber (she of “Raising The Stakes”)
Hit me at terribleminds [at] gmail [dot] com or use the Contact form above.
Thanks, peeps!
Samantha J. Mathis says:
Here’s mine! http://samanthajmathis.tumblr.com/post/9904800811/revenge-100
September 6, 2011 — 10:53 PM
Katy says:
I loved having a go at this challenge! My entry is here:
http://storytellingnomad.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/100-words-of-revenge/
September 7, 2011 — 12:19 AM
Chris Mackey says:
I WENT THE HELL BACK THERE
As I waited in line with my crippled brother, the traveling preacher waved his hand and thirty cripples hit the floor. “Jesus is in this place,” he explained.
The ride home was convincing my brother in his wheelchair that Jesus has perfect timing.
Jesus, knowing everything, should know that I have a fucking time machine. I set the dial to JESUS.
I landed somewhere, started walking and found a crowd listening to a guy talk.
“Hey, Jesus!”
Everyone turned and stared. I walked straight up to him, smacked the cup out of his hand, pointed at his face and said, “Not cool, man.”
September 7, 2011 — 2:51 AM
Fran says:
okay FOURTH attempt to post here:
Opening the door she set to work, spreading open the toolbox like a utilitarian flower, taking the cold, wet packet of prawns, the scissors, thread and needle. She counted them carefully, six of the flabby crustaceans per cushion. It was neat, precise, just like her. But it wasn’t complete.
She spread the maggots over the rug with her fingertips, they wriggled into dark. It wasn’t enough. Emptiness grew where the anger had been.
As she carefully closed the door for the final time she realised her task was thankless, without satisfaction. But a job worth doing is worth doing well.
September 7, 2011 — 10:33 AM
Fran says:
5th time lucky, thanks Chuck 🙂
Opening the door she set to work, spreading open the toolbox like a utilitarian flower, taking the cold, wet packet of prawns, the scissors, thread and needle. She counted them carefully, six of the flabby crustaceans per cushion. It was neat, precise, just like her. But it wasn’t complete.
She spread the maggots over the rug with her fingertips, they wriggled into dark. It wasn’t enough. Emptiness grew where the anger had been.
As she carefully closed the door for the final time she realised her task was thankless, without satisfaction. But a job worth doing is worth doing well.
September 7, 2011 — 11:02 AM
Michael Trimmer (@MichaelSTrimmer) says:
http://www.michaelstuarttrimmer.co.uk/payback_bounced.html
Enjoy!
September 7, 2011 — 2:42 PM
Kevin Regan says:
http://kpreganwriting.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/flash-fiction-entry/ Comments appreciated
September 7, 2011 — 3:15 PM
Ben says:
I enjoyed writing this and enjoyed editing it down even more. Does my sickness know no bounds? http://www.b3n3llis.com/2011/09/histrionics/
September 7, 2011 — 3:51 PM
Jim Burke says:
A reaction to Irene’s wrath in Vermont.
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1d2tYXIFdyL0uDFxDv7UYE2fp5DZprYmUJQybBURtxoA
September 7, 2011 — 9:56 PM
Amy Tupper says:
Revenge in the 2nd Grade: The Spelling Test
http://amytupper.net/2011/09/08/the-spelling-test/
September 8, 2011 — 6:17 AM
Chris White says:
So couldn’t get in last week, five days no internet make Chris go…
Anyway here we go, 100 words. Revenge…
http://chriswhitewrites.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/retribution/
September 8, 2011 — 9:31 AM
Cyndi says:
All yours, Mr. Wendig, sir!
http://cpatlarge.blogspot.com/2011/09/extra-post-this-week-with-my-entry-in.html
September 8, 2011 — 10:37 AM
Amber says:
RAISING THE STAKES
She’d scattered my baseball cards in the mud. Payback for ignoring her at recess. But I had been so mad. She barely ever met me at our fort anymore. And she always stood apart, like she couldn’t stand to be near me. So now my cards were soggy and bent.
Even then, I understood the concept of raising the stakes. I unearthed her diary from the tree house and showed it to our teacher. I figured it’d be embarrassing. I didn’t expect the police cars that came to her house and took her away.
September 8, 2011 — 11:08 AM
Karen Davies says:
My offering at: http://kdavies.net/
September 8, 2011 — 12:07 PM
Elizabeth Good says:
Here is my entry into this weeks challenge.
http://gamefem.tumblr.com/post/9959313597/ink-black
September 8, 2011 — 12:17 PM
Damien Kelly says:
Personally, I like Amber’s Raising the Stakes above. My own entry is up at:
http://christmasmacabre.com/journal/?p=114
Thanks.
September 8, 2011 — 2:24 PM
Brandon Scott Fox says:
Here’s mine 🙂
http://brandonscottfox.blogspot.com/2011/09/100-word-contest-entry.html
September 8, 2011 — 2:33 PM
Joe Carron says:
My entry is below. I had a lot of fun putting this together, thanks Chuck!
Fuck cold, I serve up my revenge burning hot.
Marcus thought he had won. He stole my ring, my source of power. He used it to destroy everyone I loved, everything I held dear. He believed me broken. Fool. I had one card yet to play.
The ritual was easy. The payment, well let’s just say Satan is a fan of ”two for one” deals.
The ring is bound to my soul, intertwining our fates. How will I endure Eternity in the fiery pits of Hell? I am refreshed by the icy screams of Marcus at my side.
September 8, 2011 — 3:09 PM
Joe Carron says:
There are a lot of good entries. I just finished mine, thank you for running this!
September 8, 2011 — 3:22 PM
Jamie Wyman says:
Here’s my submission: Dry Ice. http://jamiewyman.blogspot.com/2011/09/so-chuck-wendig-is-at-it-again.html
September 8, 2011 — 4:34 PM
Adam Short says:
I’ve put mine on G+, here: https://plus.google.com/105057524543813593701/posts/6XixHived1v#105057524543813593701/posts/6XixHived1v
September 8, 2011 — 5:37 PM
Allyson says:
Here’s my offering: http://allysonmwhipple.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/100-words-on-revenge/
September 8, 2011 — 11:11 PM
Robyn says:
Interesting: I can’t seem to write 100 words any faster than 1000. Here it is.
http://robynettely.blogspot.com/2011/09/flash-fiction-challenge-revenge-served.html
September 9, 2011 — 12:07 AM
Charlie E/N says:
I’m a little late to the party, but I had to pare it down from 177 for a while. Luckily, I’m a fan of a good drabble.
“The Last Flatmate”
http://tinyurl.com/3uoq9ql
September 9, 2011 — 1:50 AM
Hayes says:
I almost wasn’t going to do it but…
http://causticunderground.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/flash-fiction-revenge-against-the-model-100-words/
September 9, 2011 — 3:07 AM
Cindy Cox says:
“Oh. My. God. It can’t be!”
The very rare mushroom sat in an equally rare spot of damp fertile earth mostly protected from the sun… in this part of the country at least.
The guide had said it was “best eaten raw”. He decided to eat it right there.
The first bite tasted like everything he’d ever dreamt of.
He got in his car and found himself mindlessly driving to a place teaming with damp fertile earth, mostly sheltered from the sun. As the fungus moved into the last of his frontal lobe he lay down in the damp earth.
September 9, 2011 — 9:11 AM
Lisa Hart-Collins says:
‘Meeting Anne’
Her eyes were panicked. She reached me and screamed ‘Run!’, and something about her compelled me to comply. Heart pounding, legs wobbling, I ran next to her, down one alley, into another and round.
‘Why are we running?’ I gasped, through gritted teeth, lungs burning.
‘Windah cleenah! Gunna… kill… me!’ My poor eight-year-old heart nearly failed. We were not just running now, but running for our very lives! I tried to speak, each word punctuated with gasp after gasp of laboured breathing, a stitch starting in my side.
‘Why… is… he… gunna… kill… yer?’
‘I shat in his bucket.’
(p.s. – this is a creative recreation of how my mother met her childhood best friend,)
September 9, 2011 — 9:14 AM
Giulia I. Sandelewski says:
Here’s mine: http://shyscholarangstyacademic.blogspot.com/p/extracts-short-fiction.html
September 9, 2011 — 9:23 AM
Alyn Day says:
Fingers cramped from gripping his throat in a vicious death lock, she stood up, stepping over his cooling corpse. She fought to normalize her breathing. She looked down at him, smirking. “That’ll teach you to eat the last of my peanut butter cups!” She glared, hand on hip, “The least you could’ve done was to buy more. You know how I get when I’m under a deadline…” She tripped over something as she turned and looked down to see a plastic bag full of peanut butter cups. “Oh, well.” She shrugged, unwrapping one and popping it into her pretty mouth.
September 9, 2011 — 9:29 AM
Bob Bois says:
Revenge…yeah…
The things you hear living in a carnival camp.
Little Bianca, the dwarf whore who could swallow razor blades, and Antoine The Cuke, so named due to his enormous dick, were inseparable. Each night, we’d cover our ears as Little Bianca moaned in pleasure. Bianca beamed, even during performances as she ate razor blades.
Then The Cuke broke her heart when she caught him with The Yak Woman.
So one night Little Bianca dragged him behind the Tilt-A-Whirl, got on her knees and gave him the blowjob of his life – fresh from her razor-swallowing performance.
The screams we heard!
September 9, 2011 — 9:40 AM
Joshua Alan Doetsch says:
And here’s my slice of revenge (and my first time travel story), called “The Five Hundred Days”: https://joshuadoetsch.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/revenge-best-served-in-100-words/
September 9, 2011 — 11:12 AM
franny666 says:
A much-shorted, to the meat of it, story I wrote years ago. http://wp.me/p155af-2f
September 9, 2011 — 11:42 AM
terribleminds says:
AND SUBMISSIONS ARE OFFICIALLY CLOSED.
Pant, pant, pant.
September 9, 2011 — 12:11 PM
Paul Tevis says:
Late and unofficial, but I’m posting it anyway. Don’t smite me, Chuck.
http://paultevis.com/blog/2011/9/9/a-late-submission.html
September 9, 2011 — 4:49 PM
John says:
Hey Chuck when/how do you post the winner?
September 9, 2011 — 6:49 PM
Edward Hotspur says:
I can’t put this on my blog, so I’ll just put it here:
John showered to get ‘her’ smell off him and went home. Taking the bartender’s advice, he crawled under the covers, slowly moving up his wife’s leg, using his mouth to pleasure her. Her moans of satisfaction were all he needed. He was safe! He got hungry and headed for the kitchen. His wife was waiting there, fully clothed with packed bags.
“Honey, what’s going on?”
“I’m leaving you, John. I know about your affair. I told the bartender what to say to you. By the way, your mother is here. She’s asleep in our room.” And she was gone.
September 10, 2011 — 6:04 PM
oldestgenxer says:
@Bob Bois–
You are sick, sick bastard. I fuckin love that story. (Hey you might like mine called “Happiness is a Warm (Yes it is!) Gun” Go to my blog and look. It was for a different challenge recently.)
I’m working my way up and reading them, and commenting…
September 11, 2011 — 1:00 PM
oldestgenxer says:
@Alyn Day–
Christ, that could have been my ex!
September 11, 2011 — 1:02 PM
terribleminds says:
AHEM.
I have chosen.
Not one, but five favorites. As always,a hard choice, but that’s life in the big city.
The five (all of whom need to contact me to procure a free copy of ROTPM):
Bob Bois
Samantha Mathis
Jess Hartley
CY Reid
Amber (she of “Raising The Stakes”)
Hit me at terribleminds [at] gmail [dot] com or use the Contact form above.
Thanks, peeps!
September 11, 2011 — 4:46 PM
CY says:
This is awesome. Thanks so much, sir. I tell you one thing, though – winning something is the icing on the cake, to be honest – I’ll keep on writing them because it’s always enjoyable.
September 11, 2011 — 6:16 PM