Fractal – A 100 Word Story

storytime.pngYup, it’s flash fiction time again!

As always, this is based around Laurence Simon’s weekly challenge for the 100 word-stories podcast. It’s a great exercise for writers – writing a good drabble is a lot harder than it appears, but is still a "small" task so you can get around that idea of it being too much work. And then you get a random (and often bizarre) writing prompt to shoehorn you out of writer’s block! Go read the rules for the Weekly Challenge and participate! Heck, Chris the Nuclear Kid does when he remembers to (and I can drag him away from video games)!

The player below should have the audio for this week; if it doesn’t, you can find the audio here to download. You can also read and hear the rest of the entries (and vote for your favorites) at the 100 Word Stories podcast site!

Musical credits are: "Sawmill" by Gurdonark and "Window like" by echoed.

As I note in the audio, this is another drabble that takes place in the universe (multiverse?) of the Crimson Pact anthology. You can find out more about the Crimson Pact and pick up the novel-length anthology at https://theCrimsonPact.com.

fractal 2"They dumped the demon’s body in the river," Professor Heath told the class. "They’d forgotten that demons are fractally iterative."

He continued, gesturing at Mandelbrot’s set. "As you zoom in, the fractal shape repeats, over and over again."

The brighter students started to get it.

"Exactly. As the demon decomposed, each cell was its own, fractal, demon. Across every branch and tributary of the Mighty Mississippi."

Sue raised her hand. "Is that why we lost the United States?"

Professor Heath raised his hand to his forehead. He nodded, slow and tired.

"Yes. That’s how I lost us the United States."