Flash Jab Challenge #5

Suspects

Due to a glitch in the newsletter, I've had to post the topic image for Flash Jab Challenge #5 here.

Here are the protocols:

1) Use above photo

2) 750 words or less

3) Please don't plagiarize

4) Get it back to me within the next two weeks or sooner

5) With the authors' permission, stories get posted at Flash Jab Fiction

6) This is a writer's exercise done for fun; no fees, no pay, just a byline and you keep the all rights. (Please notify me if you sell it so I can yank it from the blog.)

7) Embed the story in an email and shoot it to me at jacktheauthor@gmail.com




(Bloody Knuckles reserves the right to post or not to post a story.)

House Fire by Katt Dunsmore

Tonya "Katt" Dunsmore is an American short story writer and illustrator. Her stories and essays have appeared in Crime and Suspense Magazine, Flashing in the Gutters, Flashshots, Mouth Full of Bullets, Associated Content, Silver Moon Magazine, and Bewildering Stories, and in the anthologies, The EX-Factor: Justified Endings to Bad Exes (Koboca Publishing, 2006) and Daily Bites of Flesh 2011 (Pill Hill Press, 2011). Her illustrations and graphics have appeared in several publications and the internet. For more information about her art work, you can contact Katt at hawkzkatt@aol.com.

Katt is married to her beloved husband, Dinny, and they have three children: Kitra, John, and Thomas. They make their home in northern South Carolina with their Rottweiler/German Shepherd mix, Briscoe, and their feline companion, Sixx.

House Fire

By Katt Dunsmore

Jerry watched from a distance as the black bloom of smoke rose against the overcast sky. He could almost see the firemen in their bright yellow gear rushing around with hoses and axes, trying to put out the fire and save whoever might be within the blazing inferno. He could hear sirens screaming as ambulances came rushing to render aid to those who might need it. He could imagine the police officers holding back the neighbors as they came out to watch the house burn. News crews would be on the way to catch the drama for the 6 o’clock news.

Mr. and Mrs. Thompson would rush home from work to find their home in flames, gutted by fire, all of their belongings ruined by smoke and water. Some lucky photographer from the newspaper would catch Mrs. Thompson sobbing and would have an award winning front page photo. Mr. Thompson would catch her as she collapsed against him in grief. He might even cry himself.

Arson investigators would crawl through the wreckage of the Thompson house while they tried to find out what had caused the fatal fire. Ultimately they would decide that Bobby, the Thompsons’ 12 year old son, had been playing with matches in the garage when the fire got away from him. Sadly, Bobby wouldn’t have been able to get out in time to save himself.

Bobby would never steal his army men again.

© Copyright 2011 Tonya D Dunsmore. All rights reserved.

Distant Fire

Flash Jab #4