#fff109

[enchanted-lightning-aes]

A Vital Job

A/N: just a tale of a thief, who’s only doing this for what’s necessary. I had been inspired by Leverage while writing this, so yeah. it’s not a fanfic of it, though, just to be clear. ^^

Word Count: 544

TW: None, I guess

***

Lights of a building in a small area turn off as people went out of them.

Upon pacing across a rooftop, she stood in alert. She examined the view from her telescope, zooming in to see if anyone else occupied the perimeter. In order for this to work, she needed this coast to be empty. To be unnoticed and not spotted.

How things got different so fast. One day, she had been an engineer and I.T support for this company. And another day, she had decided to quit in bad terms. Talk about a major dealbreaker.

It would only be vindication if she did this to them. They had done worse things on their part.

Good riddance! It had been a relief to get out with not much questions asked.

The thief glanced over at a building from where she stood on a rooftop. She dropped her telescope, beginning to fix a line to bring her there. She threw a rope forward, tying it on a small vent. It reached to the other side, dropping on a surface. She attached a hook over it, flinging herself towards, and it let her slide ahead.

There. It should do the trick.

Before she wouldn't dare to break a rule. And now? Well, she didn't give a damn and wouldn't follow any. She tried it and she wouldn't recommend it.

She had been an ordinary employee, working for a paycheck, and following instructions. It turned out it didn't get her anywhere. People who barely put any effort get noticed than her hard work. When she worked on printing papers for her boss, another employee had to impress them by just giving it to them.

The thief had been skilled in typing documents and she hadn't been rewarded for her damn efforts. It wasn't important if someone else would not mention her while handing to the boss. She had learned on how computers and codes work then ba'am! Nothing.

All her skills seemed to be good for other's advantages.

What was the point of working for a prestigious degree? Only to let it waste with a job like that? Thankfully, she had enough common sense to know that she deserved better. She could pick another company to work at, where they appreciated her. Where she didn't have to get low money for tons of work.

If she was good at something, why do it for free? Maybe a free-lance work might be just as better too. Anything better than working for nothing.

Even if it might not be an easy task, it might be worth it.

This wouldn't be such a bad thing to do.

Go in, steal, and give those items to those taken advantage of. Of a fortune to help bring them into a more stable condition. It shouldn't be a problem for the thief to gain access. She had memorized codes to access into their mainframe and unlock the door

So much littered souls, she thought, tsking.

Steal from them as revenge for people, who they had done a great wrong to. Take what they use more than they value. Expose their corrupt and their heinous deeds done in secret.

Proceeding onto a corridor, she brought her phone out. She had a job to do.

***

[theoriginalsapphic]

when souls leave

For @flashfictionfridayofficial

Title: when souls leave

Word count: 165

Wattpad

There is the eternal question of where we go after life

What lies ahead of us beyond the experienced and survived strife

Everything that has been said and done, all displeasure and delight

It is forgotten when the shapeless masses reunite in silent rife

Some say it is deep the dark waters, under the shawl of the of the twilight

There lies a place where scattered souls continue to suffer after the long fight

They are rooted to the seabed, and futilely struggle to escape through the cracks

Of the ocean waves, for one last chance for the small vestige of a buried daylight

I tend to incline for another option, one that is not scarred in shades of black

Where lonely souls look at each other across roads, acknowledging that perhaps

There is a bittersweet peace in the eternal rest under the watch of the timeless seer

And we can kneel on the wood, smile to the sky and accept the inevitable executor’s axe

[shaheenarnitipsyart]

The Sparklers

This is the 6th time I join @flashfictionfridayofficial​ ! Surprisingly I’m still keep writing thanks to the readers! This one is another episode of Noah and Seiran from FFF106 (Barbed Wire). 

Noah: he/him

Seiran: they/them

Word Count: 999

TW: ghost story 

It was an unbearably hot, humid summer day. Noah could have just stayed in his flat where he could enjoy the cool breeze from the air conditioner. Or he could hang around in the glass-roofed, fully airconditioned shopping malls.  But Noah had enough of the 'artificial air' from the machine. It's like living in a bubble, Noah thought. Most of the residents didn't dare to step out unless they needed to travel to other cities like theirs.  Yet, Noah was different. Something in him tried to break free from this superficial comfort.

Compared to the city, the Old Town on the other side of the river was like a wild jungle. It was a colourful mess. You could hear the buzz of the street markets and people bantering. Noah felt liberated whenever he crossed the old, ugly concrete bridge to visit his strange friend. Even the heat and humidity made him feel alive. Sweats were dripping from his face, but he didn't even bother to wipe them out and kept running through the narrow, dusty streets. Noah's friend's tattoo studio looked like a part of a massive tree. The ivies were creeping over from everywhere and almost swallowing up the entire old building. The thick leaves looked like metallic scales under the harsh sunlight, and it gave an impression to the visitor that the building armed up itself. Noah found his friend smoking outside of their tattoo studio. 'Hey! Seiran, it's me! What's up?' Noah shouted at Seiran as usual. But there was no reply from them.  Wondering, Noah walked up to them. Seiran leaned their back against the cracked wall, looking at the thin smoke rising from the slender pipe. There were dark circles under their indigo blue eyes. 'Hey, Seiran, what happened?' Finally, Seiran glanced at him and sighed. 'You shouldn't come here in such a weird time of the day, kiddo.' Noah ignored what they said and pulled their arm. 'You look exhausted! Are you sick? You shouldn't stay outside like this!'

They fell silent and looked at the shadow of the ramshackle houses grew longer and longer. The sun was slowly setting already. 'Twilight Time' - once Seiran taught Noah this word. Twilight time, when the other world and this world interwind. A person like Noah, who attracts other-worldly entities must be extra careful. A chilly breeze swiped the messy street. Too cold for a summer breeze. Seiran pointed out the shadows slowly rising from the corners of the streets. They all looked like shapeless smoke at first. But within a second, some of them turned into shapes of children. Other shadows became like bears. Some of them had hands and legs. Then all at once, all of them melt into the darkness again. 'Littered souls...they have gone astray, forgotten by everyone, and even they forgot about themselves...' Seiran murmured in their usual deep, calming voice, but their eyes could not hide their emotions. Noah gripped their arm harder and waited till they open their mouth again. Without a word, Seiran moved quietly like a shadow and led him to the studio. The studio was messier than usual. There were strips of thin paper scattered everywhere like petals. The sun gleamed through the ivy-framed window and dyed the room orange, casting ethereal shadows on the wall. Noah sat at the corner of the desk, still holding Seiran's arm. He felt that if he let it go, Seiran might have melted into the sunset. 'Silly, I won't disappear.' As if they read his mind, Seiran smiled subtly.  But Noah still clutched at their cold arm like a little kid. 'I used to be like one of them. No, I was one of them.  And I know some folks who melted into the shadow...lost their faces, lost their ways. Some of them turned into a mass of emotions and caught up in the web of old memories. Some of them are craving living souls to satisfy their void...' Suddenly Seiran shook their head and looked at Noah's face for the first time. 'Shit, even Twilight Time has passed! I'll walk you to that hideous-looking bridge. Hold this.' They picked up some thin shafts of twisted papers and handed them over. 'Don't be so down, kiddo.' They went out in the blue dusk. Noah could still felt the cold presence of souls around him. They were reaching out to him. Seiran lit one of the shafts with a match. A tiny bright gold ball appeared and suddenly burst into thousands of golden sparkles. With cracking and crinking, a small flower of flame flickered. ' A Sparkler!! I've only seen it in a book! You made it, right?' The rare sight of sparklers brightened Noah's heart. Noah carefully held the sparkler. It felt somewhat alive.

There was a brook on the way to the bridge leading to the city. It was too dark to see anything. The only sign of the stream was a gentle sound of water running between the overgrown reeds. They stopped at the wooden bridge. Seiran lit three more sparklers, and suddenly the brook was illuminated by the fierce yet elegant dance of lights. Hissing sound mixed with the whisper of water and reeds turned into gold. Gradually, like a withering flower, the light died down one by one. There were only small orange balls that remained, flickered in the breeze like fireflies. Eventually, they fell on the water. Strangely, they didn't fade into the water but floated away to the darkness. Seiran lit another one, then another. Noah realised the coldness he felt on his back slowly faded away. Only Noah's sparkler kept burning like the Evening Star. 'Those spirits of lights will lead the littered souls to somewhere slightly better. At least, we can show that they were not forgotten completely.'

[renee-writer]

For @flashfictionfridayofficial prompt #109 Littered Souls.

Trigger warning for the aftereffects of incest.

Soul Crushing (she was just a little girl)

She was just a little girl. The definition of innocence. Just a little girl when her soul was crushed by her daddy’s late night visits. Just a little girl who had to believe what her daddy was doing was right, was done out of love. After all, she was just a little girl.

 

It is wrong! Her soul scattered and haunted, cries out as she gets older. No longer the three year old who didn’t know. No, now she is almost a teenager, weeping at her mom’s breast. Telling her of her dad’s late night visits.  “You will never have to see him again.” A promise kept.

 

Just a teenager trying to fit in. Awkward, unable to make friends, she finds them in books, in the stories in her own head. Woke up to sexuality way to soon, she doesn’t know what to do with the feelings running through her body. “It is wrong!” her wounded soul cries out. “It is all wrong!”

 

An adult, no longer the naïve child, the scarred pre-teen, the confused teen. An adult, who discovers sex isn’t all bad. But, to wounded to see it doesn’t always mean love either. You see, when a child’s sexuality is awakened, it doesn’t go back to sleep. When a soul is torn and littered with distrust and fear instead of protection and love, when that happens, it isn’t completely fixable.

 

When the little girl needs her daddy to show her what a man is and instead he shows her a monster, an abuser, that little girl still exists in the adult. She comes out in every relationship, when the babies are born, when they are raised, with every lover, she blames her mom, even though she knows she was a victim too, she searches for the daddy she needed at three.

 

She may function in society. People that look at her won’t know. But that little girl still curls up in a ball, praying he won’t come in tonight. That little girl is part of ever decision she makes, every word she writes. She has to be

 

After all, she was just a little girl.

[onceuponanaromantic]

Lente currite, noctis equi

(Written for @flashfictionfridayofficial’s prompt: FFF109: Littered Souls. Set in the Queen of the Night universe. Enjoy!)

“What, did you think you were the first fae to be cast out of a Court?”

The spirit had a wry smile on her face even as she beckoned Kohari to sit down. Kohari copied the spirit, kneeling and then curling her body into the same position at the low shining table.

“How did you know?” Kohari asked, in the same language.

The spirit’s eyes glittered as she poured some dark, clear liquid into an elegantly carved cup and pushed it towards her. Kohari did not drink, but she did look at the spirit before her, reassessing. The two stared at each other for a while before Kohari pulled out a wrapped bun from her vest and pushed it towards the spirit. The spirit accepted it, but didn’t say anything in return.

“I accept your favour if you accept mine.” Kohari finally said the ritual agreement, the words tasting almost bittersweet on her tongue.

“I accept your favour. May the fates seal the window.” The spirit replied. 

“May the fates seal.” Kohari responded, taking a sip of the liquid. It was warm, almost viscously sweet but with a hint of saltiness beneath it. The spirit took a bite out of the bun.

“What shall I call you?”

“You may know me as Iiyana here.”

“You may know me as Kohari.”

They look at each other again, and Kohari sees the little hints that point to Iiyana’s fae. It’s not anything overt, but it’s the way she eats, the hint of coldness in her eyes and the way she pulls her hair back.

“I was from the Autumn Court.” Kohari finally says.

Iiyana nods. “Summer.”

“How did you end up here?” Kohari finally asks. Iiyana gives her another twisted smile and bites down hard, snapping the thin flakes within the bun audibly.

“I was cast out and had nowhere to go.” Iiyana says finally once she stops chewing. “Most of us wander the Pathways. You should ask the Queen of Souls if you want to know more about the precise details of how they do it.”

Kohari sits and sips. Iiyana picks up a flake and holds it up to the softness of the light before crushing it and placing it in her mouth.

“You?”

“I was found to not be fae.”

“None of us are.”

“I was not born fae.” Kohari clarifies. “It turned out that the Autumn Queen had hidden that from the Court.”

“You were a pawn and a sacrifice then.”

She loved me. She taught me who I was. I loved her.

Kohari swallows. “Yes.”

Iiyana does not show her pity. Thankfully. “So you ended up in Hell?”

“I had nowhere else to go.”

“And your relationship with the Queen of Night was before you came?” Iiyana’s tone is almost mocking.

“Yes.” Kohari says. “Though she wasn’t the Queen of Night when it happened.”

“Nonsense.” Iiyana says, finishing the bun. “Only a Queen can take in non-demonic spirits and have it be accepted.”

Iiyana’s smile is dark and cynical now as she pours a cup for herself. “The Queen of Souls does it as duty because that is how the Spirit houses work. I almost prefer the fae way of littering souls across the Earth because they have outlived their usefulness than to have to beg to be taken in by another power.”

Kohari cannot think of a possible response so she sips her tea.

Iiyana’s laugh is bitter. “You know what it is to be brilliant and to give everything only to have it not be good enough? To realise, too late, that it will never be good enough because they don’t value you for anything more than your skill?”

She pours the whole cup down her throat and speaks again, her voice hoarse. “The Courts love you for cleverness and skill. When I was cast down, when I was first brought down to Hell, it was because I had died for it. The demons picked me up out of the River against my will and brought me over here.”

“That is how I ended in Hell, Kohari.”

Kohari places her cup down, looking at the dregs. “Is this what happened to all the faerie in the Spirit Houses?”

Iiyana shrugs lightly, her eyes hard and glittering as she turns to look up at the arched roof of the room they are in. “No. But my story is not an uncommon one.”

Kohari unfolds her legs, standing as she hears rustling outside the room. “I did not know.”

Iiyana barks out a laugh. “Lucky child.”

She waves a hand at the door. “Go then. I release you from here. But do not forget that Hell is not the Court.”

And on that ominous note, she stands too, dragging a shining woven blanket over her.

Kohari closes her eyes and slides the shining grilles of the door open.

[zeroground]

★