This week: a Santa you don’t cross, a war with no survivors, and a wardrobe that isn’t empty.
Three drabbles, exactly 100 words each, and this week they’re not messing about. A Christmas legend turns interrogator, a soldier narrates the unnarratable, and a child learns their wardrobe remembers where it’s been. Read all three in under two minutes, if you dare.
Toyshop Secrets
The plastic ties dug deep into Freddy’s hands and feet. The room was dark except for three bright lights shining in his face.
“Such a shame it should come to this Frederick,” said Santa.
“You, my chief Elf, selling our toyshop secrets to the opposition. Such a silly thing to do. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out? Belkins here has orders to inflict a little more pain, then hang you up outside the workshop where the other Elves can see what happens to people who cross me. I’d love to stay and watch but the reindeer need feeding.”
Progress
The stench of rotting flesh invades my nostrils as I carefully pick my way through the smouldering rubble. There are bound to be survivors, there always are. Must be God’s way of trying to fight back, despite the odds being stacked against him.
My men would deal with them, some more mercifully than others. There are to be no prisoners. My superiors had been adamant in wanting nobody left behind to tell any tales.
Come nightfall it will all be over. Then, time to move on. New orders. More burning. More cleansing. All of this in the name of progress.
The Visitor in the Wardrobe
Mum said wardrobes can’t open themselves. She said old wood warps, hinges slip, houses settle. But houses don’t whisper your name. Houses don’t breathe behind the coats. I shut the wardrobe last night and pushed the chair against it.
This morning the chair was across the room. When I looked inside, the clothes were parted neatly, like a curtain after a performance. Something had stood there. Something tall. Something patient. Footprints led out across the carpet, circling my bed before returning to the wardrobe.
The worst part is not that it came out. It is that it went back in.
That’s this week’s three, the darkest batch yet. Which one’s staying with you tonight? Let me know in the comments, and subscribe if you want next week’s landing in your inbox before you’ve had a chance to brace yourself.
Thanks for reading.
Mike
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