During the four years we’ve been running Flash Face Off, you lot have written somewhere in the region of 9,000 stories which, holy wow, is a lot of stories. So we decided to compile a list of our eight favourites from this year.
Now, 8 out of 9,000 is not even 1% of the total so OBVIOUSLY this list is non-exhaustive, non-hierarchical and non-competitive. These are just the stories we know about that followed our criteria (which are: published and written in 2024), so grab a cuppa, get stuck in, and let us know about your fave FFO stories on the discussion thread here.
A Palimpsest of Cheerleaders
By Mairead Robinson
Read on Bath Flash Fiction Award >>
“Mel’s in the bleachers, inspecting her shattered shin-bone, pantyhose around her ankles, thighs like a pair of suckling pigs. Sadie reckons Mel would’ve been crowned, but I think Sadie herself; even with her stomach bleeding out, she has that poise, that prom-queen pout. ‘Why d’you even care?’ I say, ‘We’re dead, remember?’”
Tommy Was Six Weeks Old When He Shed His First Skin
By Katie Holloway
“Turning to Tommy’s Moses basket at the 3am mewl, my mind’s eye flickered between reality and the dream he’d hauled me from. I slid my hand into his shoulder-poppered sleeping bag, the velour at the neck stiff with dried milk sick. As I pulled him out, that first skin stayed behind.”
When The Lights Go Out
By Zeina Abi Ghosn
“When the lights go out Farah’s family hides right beneath the building’s staircase. The same place she used to play hide and seek with her siblings. Her parents whisper their next move, but at the tender age of sixteen she’s old enough to know there’s no escape.”
A Single Beam
By Joyce Bingham
“From the monitors I watch the flakes fall in the yellow sodium light. The wind is down; outside looks almost normal, and the drifts are like snowfall.
I know it’s mid-day; the clock above me ticks on and on, but a deep cloud hides the sun from my view. My shift finishes in nine more hours. I’d like to think that some days go faster than others. George says they are all exactly the same. He works in the hydroponics dome and I track ash fall. Time works differently when you enjoy your work.”
Less Common Start-up Issues With The Asus Zenbook 15 UX534
by Terry Holland
“Good morning, you have reached Asus customer support, my name is Jacques, can you give an exact description of the issue you are having for me please?”
“Hi Jack…”
“Jacques.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s Jacques. With Q – U – E – S.”
“Jacques? What kind of name is that?”
“Well, it’s a name like Jack. But spelled the French way. Also, if you say it like you did, you could trigger a security protocol.”
Collective Nouns for Hares
By JP Relph
“I didn’t even want a baby. Nudging forty, I’m content to coddle two collies. Some women were trying for years, had given up. One girl was seventeen. It swept through our little town like strep had two summers’ back. Our paper broke out a red headline.
A Bumper Crop of Babies Coming to White Tamarack!”
It’s Either This Or The Call Centre
By Alison Wassell
Read on The Disappointed Housewife >>
“She stares across the desk at me in a way that makes me feel naked. I button my cardigan right up to the top.
“Look,” she says, “It’s either this or the call centre. You’ll be sanctioned if you turn down a job that’s offered to you.” I shiver, despite the buttoned-up cardi. I worked in a call centre once and lasted three days before they let me go. They said I had no people skills, and I couldn’t argue. I’ve always preferred cats. You know where you are with them.”
For sale, one womb, unused. Buyer collects
Jude Potts
Read on Does It Have Pockets >>
“A woman in a green kaftan wants to use my womb for an Etsy craft project. A light-fitting. It will “cast a diffuse pink glow and throw fascinating shadows”. She’s brought a Tupperware box. I place my womb inside, a soft click locks away unfulfilled dreams of unheld children.
She checks that the womb’s empty.
‘Never used,’ I remind her.”
