Five Sentence Fiction - Sacred

Jasmine moved slowly through the dark corridor, her back and shoulders sliding silently against the cold stone wall. She knew if she were caught she would pay with her life but she would risk anything to keep her mother’s secret safe. She felt the weight of the gold pendant in the palm of her hand, wrapped carefully in silk and clutched close to her heart. Its immortal power gave her strength and a certain confidence that she would safely escape the brutal castle walls and stay alive long enough to cross Sisal Mountian and bury the entrusted treausure in her ancestor’s sacred forest on the other side. Peeking out from around the corner at the gaurds and the ruthless weapons hanging from their belts, it was the first time in her life she was thankful for the heavy burqa concealing all but her eyes.

Five Sentence Fiction: Shiver

I usually dread the fifteen minute walk from my parking spot to work at this time of year; what with the inevibility of a frozen face, cold, red nose, and the gradual spread of numbness throughout my hands and feet, a feeling so infiltrating that it often lasts well into the morning. Looking around today at the bright sunlight bouncing off windshields and as I take a deep breath of unseasonably warm air, I am almost nostalgic for snow piled high on either side of the road and glistening patches of ice along my route. Almost. Unzipping my spring jacket with my free hand, intent on the squishy sound my rubber boots make as they slide through ever-melting slush, I nearly step on a squirrel bounding giddily across the sidewalk right in front of me. February, in Winnipeg, Canada and I'm outside without winter clothing and there goes a squirrel, neither one of us feeling so much as a shiver.