Category Archives: five minute fiction

Finally, the digging was over. Thirty-three graves in one night. It was a new record.

“What’s the haul for this evening, gentlemen?” Cigar embers gave Mason’s face a demonic red glow.

“Twenty-seven wedding rings, thirty fillings, two gold teeth, five watches, twenty-two slightly used tuxedos in various sizes . . .” Giraldo monotonously rattled off the list.

Mason grinned, chewing slightly on his almost nonexistent cigar. “Excellent.”

“Sure doesn’t seem like it’s worth all the effort of digging up graves,” Malarkey, one of the new guys, grumbled as he wiped the sweat off his brow.

A large meaty hand latched onto Malarkey’s throat. Mason’s eyes twitched, “Do you know how much they get you on tuxedo rentals nowadays? It’s highway robbery!”

“Okay, okay,” Malarkey gasped, “Sorry I said anything.”

“I detest robbery,” Mason continued, “It’s disgusting what people will do nowadays for just a few more bucks.”

“You point it at a group of people and it’ll obliterate everything in its path.” A gleam of jubilant self-satisfaction shone across Doctor Bradbury’s dark brown eyes and a crooked smile formed as if it were his first such attempt. That’s what he had been hiding behind his cold stoic demeanor all these years. It made me sick.

I considered the ramifications of this- this device. I gulped for air. “And how many of these did you say you made?”

“Forty thousand thus far,” Bradbury said, “Fifty thousand by the end of the week, and after that a production capability of twenty thousand more each week thereafter.”

“With a capability of destroying-” the words caught in my throat. I was getting dizzy.

“Thousands,” the gleam came back to Bradbury’s eyes, “Hundreds of thousands in the right hands.”

“The right hands,” I said turning the device around in my hands. “The right hands.”

“Aren’t you pleased?” Bradbury said. “This will end the war.”

“No, Doctor,” I said pointing the device at his crooked smile. “I will end the war. Right. Now.”

“Ouch!”

“Don’t worry. You won’t feel a thing,” the doctor said.

“I already said ‘ouch.’ You can’t tell me I won’t feel a thing after I’ve already felt something.”

“I meant from here on out,” the doctor said distractedly.

“Oh. I guess that makes sens– Ouch!! I thought you said I wouldn’t feel anything from here on out!”

“Up until just then,” the doctor said matter-of-factly.

“What?”

“I just stuck a needle in you. Of course you’d feel something then.”

“Well then why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

“That I’d feel someth– OUCH!!”

“Sorry. That was my fault that time.”

“It’s all been your fault as far as I can tell!”

“Look,” the doctor stood up and looked me in the eye, “You can’t get better without a little pain. It’s just the way it is. I know these things. I’m a doctor.”

I stared deep into those confident reassuring eyes of his. “I don’t know why, but I think I trust what you– YEEEOWCH!”

“My bad.”

I could see her face through the ice, distorted and blue. No matter how hard I slammed my fist against it, it would not break. It was too thick. Her eyes were wide. Complete fear had overtaken her. Her movements were like molasses.

Time slowed down to an imperceptible crawl. Each moment was like an eternity. An eternity of eternities was still not enough time.

My thoughts turned to the time I no longer would have with her. It was too late now for rescue. No one could survive much longer.

The cold water filled my lungs and set them on fire, dying for a breath.

Beautiful. That’s the word that comes to mind as I watch the twisting threads of the drill. It’s thrilling. Hypnotic.

I find myself lost in its endless circling. I almost forget what I am doing, why I am even holding this drill in the first place.

Down it goes. It makes contact with a high pitched squeal. It’s music to my ears. As it goes deeper, so does the pitch. The harmony of machine and nature at its finest.

Smoke rises and fills my nostrils. This is why I bought the heavy duty drill with back up battery attachment. The drill gets stuck, but only for a moment as I pull down harder on the trigger. That’s why I chose the one with extra torque. It’s always better to pay more for better quality.

The blood splatters across my paper bib, but I don’t care, I relish it. The gurgled screams of a patient choking on his own saliva mixed with blood is exhilarating. His eyes look up at me as to question my intentions. Briefly he wonders if there was ever a God. Then he gives out.

Unlike my drill. It has a lifetime money back guarantee.

All things attract all other things.

It’s called gravity.

It’s the law.

So you might as well give me a smooch.

“I had plans for you,” he said with tears streaming down his clenched face as if in pain, “I had it all planned out for you. You would have had it made.”

Paltry snowflakes, almost imperceptible, fell lightly to the ground and vanished before they even settled in an unusual late spring snowfall. Nathan felt like one of those snowflakes; invisible for a short while only to vanish the next moment without a word, without anyone ever knowing. He sighed at his father nearly weeping before him. Nathan felt cold like the snow as well. His father would not guilt trip him anymore.

“Did you ever consider that I might have plans for myself?” Nathan said trying to keep his voice from faltering. His voice sounded to him like an autotuned pop song with unnecessary and pretentious changes in inflection.

“I thought it was best for you—” his father began.

“Best for me? Best for me!?” Nathan could not help but scream. “It was never about me. It was always about you, your insatiable greed. Your only plan was how you could exploit me!”

“It’s not like that—”

“It’s over, dad. You’re fired.” The words hung in the air with the mist of his breath. “I have to go follow MY plans. Security will show you out.”

Nathan’s father stood there weeping in the April snow.