Eastside Electives
Flash Fiction 2021
30
by Daisy Mora
1.Gabriell walks into 1st period English and sits in the second row.
2.Gabriell takes out two pencils and places them on his desk as he takes his test
The bell rings
3.Gabriell puts his hoodie up and walks to his locker
4.Gabriell takes out his math book and shoves it in his bag
5.Gabriell pretends to be occupied until the bell rings
The hallway is empty
6.Gabriell’s hands begin to shake
7.Gabriell unwraps a gun he had snuck into school
8.Gabriell puts four out of the five bullets in
9.Gabriell puts the gun under his chin
He closes his eyes and pulls the trigger
He smiles and takes that as a sign
10. Gabriell walks in the direction of his math class
11.Gabriell runs into Sam Edwards in the hallway, his childhood bully
12.Sam freezes when he sees the gun
13.Sam raises his hands in surrender
Please don’t man. I’m sorry
14.Gabriell lifts his gun
I’m so sorry! I have a fam-
15.Sam falls
An alarm goes off
16. Gabriell continues walking
17.Gabriell runs into Sandy Layne, his science partner and in his eyes, his only friend
They’ve spoken four times all year
18.Sandy pleads
19.Gabriell lifts his gun
Then there’s shouting
Police put your hands up
20.Gabriell begins to cry
21.Gabriell pleads with Sandy
Please don’t let them hurt me! Please!
22.Sandy stands behind a police officer
She thinks he’s a freak
23.Gabriell feels betrayed
24.Sandy feels…
25.Gabriell lifts his gun and places it under his head
26.Sandy screams
27.The police screams
28.Gabriell blinks
…
29.Gabriell dies
Somewhere 30 miles north of where he died, Gabriell’s mom cries
Untitled
by Tolay-Jha Flowers
The cabinet door opened with a creak, the water started in the shower as she breathed very hard, slowly catching her breath. Before she could get in the shower, a cling sound from downstairs caused her to jump; she knew that something was up because she was home alone and her husband was on a trip, so Alice picked up the candle holder and opened the bathroom door. Alice slowly started to walk down the stairs but when she got towards the bottom, she saw this very bright light that looked as if someone was throwing a showcase but when she tried to get a closer look, the sound was made again but this time much louder. She was terrified but knew she had to do something so she hid behind the wall of the stairs to stop and think but she couldn’t think straight because her mind was going crazy. Instead of going to get her phone, she tried to make a run to the kitchen door which led to the forest in the back of their house but she didn’t make it out. The person that was inside grabbed her, dragged her away and started to choke her until they looked at her up and down. Alice remembered she took training so she started to attack but wasn’t strong enough so instead the person knocked her out. She woke up in her basement with her hands tied with rope to the chair and her mouth taped over as she tried to scream for help. The intruder took the tape off and laughed as she suffered. She started to beg for them to let her go but they said, “no, because I don’t want anything but you.” The person took off their mask and Alice knew exactly who it was at that point.
Untitled
by Chris Young
Paranoia coursing through my brain all the way down to the nerves of my fingers over what’s gonna happen next, I slowly limp over to the old beat down gas station seeking help. Head pounding to the speedy cadence of my heart, along with blood running down my leg and soaking up my socks and shoes. Thinking back on the trauma Desire has put me through puts all the more trauma onto my mind and makes my head throb even more. “Sir can you please help me? I’m in serious need of help? I’m in danger. Please give me some place to hide. Please help me,” I say, pleading to the store clerk. “You’re not welcome here. Leave before I call the police!” he responds. As soon as I turn around, I see Desire turn the corner. And I can feel, I can hear, her footsteps trailing behind me. I can see her shadowy figure in the environment. Slowly, but surely, she pursues me. Soon her shadow no longer exists and her raging, hypnotizing but somehow still beautiful face is presented by the bright lights of the gas station, along with her bloody, but somehow stunning and incredible figure. The crimson droplets falling off of the blade of her knife. Sweat, tears, Intensity and the sociopathic mentality all spewing from the psychotic smile that is protruding from her face. As I finally come to my senses and stop denying the inevitable, I open the door and surrender myself to her.
“I thought I told you not to run away from me? Why would you run away from me? Do you like to see me hurt? You like to see me in pain? Do you care about me? Do you love me?” Her questions seem to be gasoline covering her soul, ready to ignite the hellfire and brimstone sitting in her heart as she puts me down onto the cold concrete. Pebbles from the cement rip into my skin as she sits atop my beat up and tired body. She clasps onto the bloody knife in her hand all the more tighter as the smile fades away like my love, my love for her. “Why would you leave me? I love you. Don’t you know that?” I sit petrified, words filling my brain up to the brim, but none coming out.
“DON’T YOU?”
Untitled
by Isabel Mendez
She just sat there, with short brown hair, in her gray hoodie, just swaying back and forth in her chair like she always would. Calm and emotionless, tired and unstable. She just always amazed me, somehow her swaying was hypnotic. My room was placed right next to hers, so I would get to see her every day and just stare. She never questioned me. The walls were always loud and this place was always cold. I liked to sit with her in our matching socks which had rubber underneath our toes. Same hair length, same socks, same annoying white walls. Same television every day, but we learned to enjoy it. Same medication, which she hardly ever took. One day, I woke up, went to the room right beside me, and she wasn’t there anymore. I asked everyone, “Where’s Cloud? Where is she?” and nobody answered, nobody even knew who Cloud was, but I was certain she was just relocated. I asked around, even asked staff members, but one said that they thought I’d know by now. I didn’t realize what she meant at first, but soon it made sense, the medications, the building. Cloud wasn’t even there, she wasn’t even living, she was just my friend, she was all in my head, but I had to stop taking that medication, I had to see her again. She was my only comfort, my only friend, I couldn’t live without her. WHAT THE HECK! WHAT THE HECK! It’s only just hitting me, the fact that every memory I thought of, every emotion I felt was fake? I created a person? IN MY HEAD? AND I FELL IN LOVE WITH A FIGMENT OF MY IMAGINATION? Holy sh!t. This cannot be happening. In a way, it’s awesome that I created an alternate reality where someone actually cared about me, but all I could do was bawl my eyes out. It was like she died, no, it was like I died. Days passed, I only ever pretended to take the medication, but she never came back and neither did I. I accidentally made new friends, all by myself, but they were never as fun as Cloud. I just wished I could’ve said goodbye. I missed her so much and I still do. Sometimes I swear the chair she sat in still sways back and forth with nobody sitting in it. Even if I’m unable to see her, I just know she’s still there, so I promised her empty space that I’d get out of this place, for me, for her, for the both of us.