Short stories, fun and inspiration… Welcome to my playground

Here you will find my short stories all of which were written to a very specific brief… 3 Little Words must be randomly generated and used somewhere in the story. See how well I did (or didn’t) meet the brief each time, below.

Words to include: orgy, specimen, food. “Just have an orgy already!” The whole cinema went dead silent and shifted their attention from the screen to the random person who seemed to quite clearly be in the wrong film, or have very strange expectations for a rom-com. Sarah, who was sitting right next to the strange man was so shocked she threw almost all of her food into the air, most of it landing on the

Words to include: hammer, protest, stab. The look on his face said it all. Danny loved to smash things, but for some reason he was very conflicted about smashing this particular object. It was an ornate box with small mementos and knick knacks inside. He held the hammer over his head ready to swing it down, but something kept stopping him. He was slowly bringing the hammer down when the door right next to him

Words to include: shave, helmet, birthday. With a huff he blew the chin length hair out of his face. It was clearly going to be one of those days. Gabe had just realised something very important, he loved a girl. Not just any girl, no this girl was the one, he was sure of it! They’d been talking all year in Biology class and over time everything that wasn’t biology class felt less and less

Words to include: speed, piracy, sustain. Breath, just breath. Try to sustain this life for just a little longer. I keep trying and trying but he won’t respond, no matter how fast I pump my hands against his chest. I didn’t want this, I never did. All I ever wanted was to see the stars and now I’m stuck floating through space trying to stop the collateral damage from growing even further. That’s what happens

Words to include: major, frighten, crowd The major was nervous. He couldn’t understand why, he’d never been nervous before in fact he wasn’t sure he’d ever really felt any emotion. At least not as intense as this. So why start feeling now after so many great years of being as dull as a brick? It was just a simple speech after all, not even a full one more like relaying a message to a large

Words to include: clash, screen, knife You look in the mirror, you’re a beautiful young woman with cascading brown hair that ripples in waves down from your head. You look good and well put together, amazing considering you were just cooking the whole day, but you finally feel ready to surprise her. You pick up the cake you’ve just finished baking and take a big whiff. She’ll surely love this, all that chocolatey goodness. And

Words to include: twitch, guilt, bow. It’s always the same dream. It’s the end of my performance, I stand up from the piano stool and bow as they cheer for me, but as I raise myself out of the bow, I find myself doing it all over again, making my way to the edge of stage, bowing perfectly, getting the applause. It happens over and over and over, until finally I’m just standing there, bent

Words to include: deliver, gate, reject “Arm the battlements! Close the gate!” “Wait, what? Sir, please I need to deliver this letter, it’s urgent!” “Your problem, not ours.” “But it’s a direct message to the king, from her royal highness the Duchess of Cornwall! You know, his daughter?” “Oh well, in that case…” the two guards finally looked him in the eye and simply sniggered and laughed in his face. Today was not a good

Words to include: cheque, death, climb Floating above everything, yet standing still. Clouds, normally voluminous and misshapen, create a flat, welcoming bed to walk on, jump on and bounce. The sun splits the horizon, slowly rising above the clouds to join them. This is what every day on Everest is like. Why would he ever want to leave? Jay had started the climb only last week, but already he felt at home staring out at

Words to include: Compromise, Hardship, Hole There’s a hole, deep down in the back of his garden. After all, with a garden that’s acres and acres, there’s bound to be a few holes. But to Tommy, this one was different. It was big enough to go somewhere. Tommy was the adventurous member of the family, and spent most of his days staring at that hole, contemplating what could be down there. His mother would always

Words to include: Move, Mirror, Lock I can’t move, and yet, I am moving. The girl on the other side of the mirror stares at me, making me move to her whims. She twitches her eye and I feel an involuntary twinge. The muscle moving without me telling it to. I feel locked in, trapped in this girl’s body. She stares back at me, daring me to make a move, but we just sit, caught