Three Short Stories Inspired By One Image (Foxtales Entry)

in #foxtales5 years ago (edited)

Promise


She watched, transfixed in horror, as a skull began materialise beneath his hand. The thin, soft bone knitted together, stretching round to form the open mouth of a newborn’s soft spot. From the base of the skull, individual spinal discs popped down, like a string of candy from a dispenser. Out of the suspended spine, the branching arms of ribs emerged, embracing nothingness, collar bones formed as shoulder plates spread across the back like growing moss. Fingertips crawled out of the arm sockets, drawing bones behind them. The processing was snowballing, dragging her eyes from the jarring emergence of the arms, pushing out like limbs from a jumper, she noticed the hips. Forming like a flower coming into bloom, the petals spread, disembodied toe bones dragged legs out of the holes in the pelvis, and fighting nausea, she stared with macabre fascination at the form taking shape before her. Tendons crept over emerging bones, pink spools of candy flossed tissue engulfing the rosie white skeleton. Muscular flaps reached across the cheek bones, as the hand passed over the tiny skull, willing life forth. The delicate skin of lips began to grow over slimy gums, lungs expanded, filling the rib cage, as an assortment of organs pushed their way into existence around the snaking intestines. Fleshy threads strung limbs together, and like ice across a pool, skin spread, gradually covering the exposed tissue. She watched, as half-formed, it opened its mouth, gulping air, pushing down the still visible diaphragm. Skin advanced over the stomach, bubbling into a twisted belly button as the thing, still not quite complete, began to wail.
When he had promised her a baby of her own, this wasn't what she thought he meant.



Solution

"This planet is overpopulated, we are obliterating natural resources, polluting the air, the water, if we continue going like this, we will render earth uninhabitable in as little as five hundred years. Many possible solutions have been put forward, from prevention - which may be too little too late at this point, to Goliath technologies designed to preserve selective pockets of the human race. Some have even gone as far as to suggest population control, which, yes, I know, has been an equally unpopular notion. But then, if we cannot reduce our number, if we cannot change how we live our lives, if we cannot condemn the masses to death while only the chosen survive, is a dying world all we can pass on to future generations? I am here today, to tell you, there is another way to drastically reduce humanity's drain on the planet. A single injection, administered to every female, of every nation. A single choice, a single voice, united by all, for the sake of those to come. We may then live out our days as we always have, and our children, they will mark the start of a new branch of evolution. Their lives will be the same as ours, with just the smallest difference. Our numbers have exceeded our size, and together, we are too much for this world."

"This," Professor Zelkie lifted the miniature adult skull from the podium, "Is where we need to be."



Pilgrim

The thicket of the overgrown bracken dragged at his pack, tugging on his clothes, he'd been hiking the mountain for days. There was a comfort in the struggle. The path to the temple had been lost years ago, but vague memories guided him from one small stone marker to the next. Eventually he stumbled atop the summit, the sharp incline and dense bush giving way to a familiar flattened grove. The once manicured trees sprawled, shapeless, ivy invading up their trunks. The stone tile path had become small spots of grey in a ripping ocean of green, as grass had forced life between the cracks. The pergola topped entrance bowed under the wear of neglect, vines had broadened fissures with their growth, hanging in a curtain over the open doorway. Pushing them aside, he crossed the threshold. Nature had been to pay her respects, tracks marked the flooring, nests huddled between the timbers of the roof. Crunching his way across the wind-blown debris, he squatted in front of the small chest hidden behind the bare stone altar. The ancient brass clasp was fused shut, and as he attempted to pull it open, it pinged away, a clear note ringing out as it hit the floor. The rotting wood crumbled when he tried to lift the lid, collapsing into the chest. Brushing away the hued splinters, he exhaled, unaware he had been holding his breath. It was still there. Reaching into the chest, he touched it. The miniature skull. It felt smaller than when he had prayed here as a child, memories of the cold bone against his palm, the warmth of his mother's hand over his own rushed back. A sense of peace filled him, and closing his eyes, his lips moved, tracing the prayers of her passing.

Only just made it in time this round, I really wanted to try and go a different direction with this image, and wrestled with ways of telling happy tales, this was the best I could manage in the 300 words. It is such a great image to work with, and very much reminded me of Carrie's War. The first one was my first idea looking at the image, that of a person being materialised into existence. The second one is not a real entry, as the idea is inspired by a novel with this same solution for over population, however this part, presenting the idea to get funding etc, isn't in the book, and I really enjoying the idea of the dramatic skull reveal so included it anyway for fun. The last one is my favourite, another brilliant round

These are entries to @vermillionfox's #foxtales contest - the latest round can be found here - some amazing entries this round so make sure to check them out under the tag (or in the comments of this round).

Artwork by @vermillionfox - she makes gifts of her beautiful art with this regular contest, allowing us the honour of coming up with tales for them <3

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I love your writing, and this seems to be a wonderful exercise for improving style and having fun at the same time. You definitely nailed it with all three short stories! Thank you for sharing and congrats on the Curie upvote :)

This post was nominated by a @curie curator to be featured in an upcoming Author Showcase that will be posted in about 12 hours on the @curie blog.

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Oh wow thank you so much! Just, thank you! I appreciate this so very much <3 I would be thrilled to be included.

A bit about me, well, I'm from the UK, and I love fiction and stories. I spend plenty of time immersed on worlds of my own and very much enjoying trying to hone my skills enough to open windows into them and share them with other people. Please stop by and say hello, I love meeting new people and fellow authors <3

(if it is okay, could i mention the writing group I'm in -) I'm part of the @bananafish group, which holds regular contests to help practise and improve writing and poetry, and we always love having new people join us!

Is that okay? Oh thank you so very much!

Hi calluna,

This post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Have a great day :)

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Yey ❤️ thank you so so much <3

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From baby materialization to Malthus’s wet dream (albeit he was no exterminationist) to a religious surreal dream (post apocalypse). A metastory of three stories taking in three epochs. The first of avoiding infertility, the other that Malthus would think possible (if Global Warming pecks everything up) and the last of the Homo Novus. The first was done beautifully with the shock of not expecting but still getting what she asked for. The second reminding me of UN meetings and their NeoLib solutions to “solve population problems” when doing so to even implement it will create more suffering, more rebellions (might spark many a revolutions), to crash their economy as their reserve army of Labour (unemployed people) deplete rapidly which leads to Workers demanding for more and accidently increasing Global Warming. Of course the twist to the NeoLib/Classical-Liberal Solution is the Eugenics new Humanity solution which totally is their concern over... unfucking the Earth no matter how much Nature punishes them for reversing the Human destruction of Nature. The third after the fact with oure presumed Homo Novus and a psychedelic Religious-Surreal adventure.

Upvot’d-n-resteem’d!
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That first story was pure magic. I also really like the last one!

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