Five Sentence Fiction: Pirates by Jeff Tsuruoka

I am hosting Jeff Tsuruoka (@jtsuruoka on Twitter) again for Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction. This week’s theme is Pirates. There’s still time if you’d like to join in! Arrr!

 The Rules of Ascension
            We left the town in flames but the captain died of his wounds less than half an hour after we put out from the burning harbor.
            Shrike, an savage old hand with one eye and six teeth who drooled when he spoke, and his cadre of backers confronted me in the dim corridor outside the captain’s quarters to challenge my ascension to the captaincy.
            “Fenwick, you son-of-a-whore,” slurred Shrike as he pulled his cutlass out of his belt and followed me up to the main deck, “one of us’ll be dead and the other captain ‘fore this day’s through.”
            My first order as captain of the Pogue Mahone was to have Shrike’s most ardent backers throw his corpse and then themselves overboard.
            Sharks need to eat, same as us.

Five Sentence Fiction: The Library’s Whispers

I almost missed this week’s Five Sentence Fiction by Lillie McFerrin. That would have been a real loss, as she chose this week’s theme – my favorite, Faeries – and mentioned me and my Faerytaleish board most graciously.

The Library’s Whispers

All she’d said was “I never want to leave this place.” – a simple, childish wish, but someone had heard her.

Years passed and her beloved books crumbled to dust from the rain that pattered through the sunken skylight. She splintered every piece of furniture in her rage but one, though she never sat.

The wind rattling through the eaves sounded like a whisper, sounded like a giggle.

She pressed her face against the chill glass of the window and watched as yet another twilight faded from the sky.

Five Sentence Fiction Entry: Jeff Tsuruoka

This flash fiction entry is by Jeff Tsuruoka for Five Sentence Fiction, which is hosted over at the blog of the lovely Lillie McFerrin. The theme this week is Faeries, which is a rather favorite topic of mine.

Brother’s Keeper
Rogen slipped out of his shirt to reveal an intricate tattoo which glowed bright red in the candlelight. 

Daragh stood in the doorway and did not watch as Cait laid her lovely hands on Rogen’s chest and then disappeared into his body in a wisp of bright red smoke.

“Do not be sad, dear brother,” sneered Rogen, “for she was lost to you the moment she set eyes upon me.”


Daragh walked out of the house without a word and did not look back when his brother began to scream.


He found a comfortable-looking stump and sat down to wait for Cait to return to him from his dead brother’s house.